Done!

I am done with everything basically. On Wednesday I had my thesis presentation and passed it with a good grade. This means that I am now not a student anymore and really have to look for work. I am unemployed now and that's something I dont want to be!

Anyways, now is weekend first. (Started this post on Friday last week!). I am back in Hamburg and am trying to fix A's bike, which is more difficult than expected. It's really getting christmassy here and we have more and more candles and lights everywhere. Also my mum gave us already an early Christmas present by making us a very nice Christmas calender.

In the time I again did not write - I wanted to but didn't find the time when I had the motivation and vice versa - we went to a concert of the Cat Empire here in Hamburg, which was nice.

 

Directly the next morning we took the plane to Cologne, where we were picked up by my brother. Together we went for the funeral of my grandma. She died in the age of 96, while I was on the Camino.

After that we went to Aachen. We were visiting my parents, the Christmas market and did already some Christmas shopping.

The next week was pretty eventless, but then on the weekend we had a full program. On Friday J. A's friend from Finland came to stay with us for the weekend. We did some tourist program with him and were walking around the city on Saturday. 

The funny thing was that also A's cousin T. from Canada was in Europe; he had some kind of conference in Amsterdam and had some days before and after to travel around Europe. As it goes they quickly changed their plans and instead of staying in Amsterdam the whole time they came to Hamburg to meet up with us.

J., A., and I wearing funny hats!

Even better, G. a girl from Canada I had met on the Camino, who was also traveling around Europe happened to be in Hamburg that exact same weekend as well. So we invited her over to our place for the evening. After some wine and beer we all went out together and had a good night-out in Hamburg.

After that weekend I went back to Aachen. I still had my mum's car and had to bring it back. Also I finally had gotten an appointment for my colloquium for that Wednesday that I didn't wanted to miss. I stayed in Aachen from Tuesday until Thursday and then came back to Hamburg.

The weekend was relaxed again. A. signed up for the Hamburg Marathon in April and on Sunday we went to L&A's place to have some Glühwein and play some board games. I really enjoyed that afternoon and it for sure would have been a long evening if A. would not have gotten sick exactly that day.

Now she is in bed already for four days, had a fever still yesterday and I am trying not to catch the cold. It sounds so bad, but at the moment I am sleeping on the couch, the bedroom is a quarantine zone and I am staying as far as possible from A. However at least Saint Nicholas came to her and brought her flowers instead of twig (here in Germany Santa's helper, Knecht Ruprecht, brings a twig to children who misbehaved during the year); I reckon that's how he treats sick people.

 

Anyways, I eventually fixed A's bike, made some really nice goulash and yesterday I used the time to bake an apple pie and make some roasted almonds. I will never get bored in the time before Christmas!

~M~