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| Hello from my desk- my home at home these days....
As you can imagine, there aren't hugely exciting things happening here that I can report. However..... I did have a short vacation from "my paper" (and maybe from my problems, too?) last weekend and met in Frankfurt with Mark (who had just spent three weeks in Indonesia) and Alex. We had a great time together. Mark and Alex (both the "thinking type") had somewhat intellectual conversations and I was able to do what I'm best at.... observe... and throw in comments every once in a while.
So, here's a picture of two of my favorite guys!!!
It might be a while before I have any excitement to report again:(
Hang in there till then!!
Kristin | | |
| Guess what? I got to go to my first professional tennis tournament!!!
Alex and I left for our four hour train trip to Osnabrück a week ago Wednesday and traveled to his aunt and uncle's house via Hannover. It was funny having a 45-minute layover in Hannover and feeling "at home" there in a way, but only being in the very familiar train station.
on the way to Halle
His aunt and uncle picked us up from the train station and took us out to a very nice dinner on Wednesday night. I had a Cucumber-garlic soup with dill as an appetizer and it was the first time I've ever had cold soup. Delicious!
We had tickets to the Gerry Weber Open tennis tournament for Thursday through Sunday, the last four days of the week-long tennis tournament. It's actually the third biggest tennis event in Europe after Wimbledon and the French Open. We got to borrow Alex' aunt and uncles' very fun new little red car to make the approximately 45 minute drive to the stadium each day.
Alex in the big parking lot that all of those cars somehow have to get out of....
Tennis started at noon and lasted until about six o'clock every day. We got to see all of the mens' quarter-finals, the semi-finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday afternoon as well as a doules semi-final and the dou bles final. On the day of our arrival we had our picture taken by a local press photographer after getting James Blakes' (No. 7 in the world) autograph. He was kind enough to email us the picture...
The weather was less than what you might expect it to be on average in mid-June. The stadium had a kind of sliding roof that closed in 70 seconds whenever there was another rain shower. I was kind of glad for rain on some days, actually, because the stadium was pretty breezy otherwise and I was pretty cold. It was different to go from being outside to the feeling of being inside without moving that quickly. We had decent seats behind the official chair umpire, so we got the real headturning-pingpong-feeling;)
tennis in overcast weather and...
...the court in the sunshine.
Why I have an obsession about watching tennis despite the fact that I've only tried hitting a ball across the net once is a mystery that has yet to be satisfactorily solved. Why I am a fan of Roger Federer and am of the opinion that he is the greatest tennis player of all times is probably more obvious. So, it was a treat to get see him play four times and win the tournament.
...the King of Grass;)
So, as you can tell, we had a good time together and Alex was inspired to play tennis with a friend this week, while I'm looking forward to watching tennis again when it's time for Wimbledon.
on a happy vacation!!!!
Here's one more picture of Alex and his Aunt Yoshi in front of the Osnabrück city hall. She gave us an interesting evening tour around the (very nice) city that I had never been to despite it being fairly close to Hannover.
All there's left to say is that vacation is great and hopefully Federer can win Wimbledon again, even though Nadal is getting better!!!
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| Here's back from an exciting, fun, enjoyable, entertaining, warm, sociable, relaxing weekend in London! Alex and I were graciously hosted by Stefan and Daniela, Alex' cousin and his wife that live in London.
It was good for us both to get away from everything for four days, spend some time together, some time with Stefan and Daniela and to get an impression of the city! We had Friday and Monday to scout out the city on our own and Saturday and Sunday to spend with Daniela and Stefan which made for a nice combination.
The question that remains after our extended weekend is why people are always complaining about the weather in England. It could by no means have been more perfect!
Special events spread throughout our trip were seeing sights like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace (which we both didn't find all that impressing, actually), the Millennium Bridge and the Globe. I thought the Globe was neat actually, having studied Shakespearean times, it's interesting to have an actual image to go along with that.
We got to enjoy being outside, taking a boat down the river, visiting the botanic Kew Gardens and walking around at least part of them, having a real English breakfast and a real pub lunch, going on Sir Captain Francis Drake's pirate ship as a special for 'the boys' and walking through and napping in several of the awesome parks in London.
There was a surprise waiting for us on Friday night, too, that was an invitation to an impressive and entertaining concert of movie soundtracks played by a live orchestra. I recognized some of the soundtracks, but hadn't seen some of the movies that included Lord of the Rings, the new Harrison Ford Indiana Jones (I guess no one's seen that;) or Star Trek at the Royal Albert Hall, which is a very special building in itself.
Here are a couple of pictures; I didn't have all of the equipment I needed to recharge the battery on my camera, so the ones we have are special!!!!
Alex and Kristin leaving for London very very early Friday morning.....
The National Science Museum, which the weather was too nice to go in, but hey, it would have been free, if we'd decided to go! The museum is right around the corner from Stefan's office. We decided they should have made Buckingham Palace look more like it!
On the Millennium Bridge heading towards St. Paul's Cathedral
Looks like the perfect place to take a nap to me!!!
Besides the weather, the other question that remains is why I had the idea that British food isn't anything worth writing on your blog about. We were impressed!
Now I'm hoping that Ellen has a similarly great experience in London this week!!!
I'll sign off as a now better qualified person to teach future students units on London,
Kristin
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