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~

Wrap up!

For a long long time I did not post here. In the last five weeks this was mostly due to the fact that I was walking the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, in northern Spain. Before that there were some few things that I would like to wrap up in this post. About the experiences of and on the Camino I will write in a separate post later on.

Now to start with: I handed in my thesis one day before deadline and during my walk I received the message that my thesis was accepted and that I am invited to do my colloquium. This basically means that I am graduated if no tremendous discrepancies between my thesis and my knowledge become apparent during my oral exam. Furthermore the Finnish University has prepared my maturity test, which means, they also accepted my thesis. (Short note for better understanding: I was doing a double-degree program, my thesis is accepted as Diploma thesis in Germany and Bachelor thesis in Finland. With this I am going to receive - yes, I am pretty sure, that I will pass the last two tests - a German Diploma and a Finnish Bachelor).

Anyways, in the time before the Camino my parents visited A. and me here in Hamburg. My dad had also some work related meeting here in the city and so they extended their stay over the weekend and we were spending time together, which was very nice.

Then later also my brother came to visit. We were doing some tourist stuff, were going around the city by tour-bus and were also visiting the Miniature Wonderland, the world's biggest model railway system. It was quite impressive and also funny to see what ideas the makers had and how many details the put in. In between we were sitting by the Alster enjoying our beer and the last days of summer in the city.

Soon after that A. had her birthday and we were celebrating it here at home. A. had taken the day off and so we were enjoying the day. In the evening we had some people over and later headed out to the city.

Shortly before leaving to southern France, my starting point of the Camino, our "pet" Garfield, a cat that is living here in the neighborhood paid a visit and for the first time since we are living here came into our flat to explore it. Now it already is a habit and he regularly checks out the whole apartment.

 

For now this is all that happened before my walk. I then went to Aachen to buy the rest of the gear needed and eventually left Germany by train via Paris to the South of France to a small village called Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. From there I started my walk to Santiago de Compostella. About the walk I will post later on, maybe today, maybe tomorrow or later this week, depending on how I feel!

~M~