Sticks and Stones may break my bones...

But a surfboard, coming at your face with the full force of a 6 foot wave definitely will.

So... yes, I went surfing today. With my little brother, we go about once a summer together usually. And today was great, waves were awesome... it wasn't sunny, but it was warm, and the rain on the ocean is just a cool thing to be sitting in the middle of. My brother did query whether or not a raindrop that falls back in the ocean feels that it has been cheated out of the water cycle.

Anyway, my last wave was amazing, the biggest one I'd sen all day, but I hadn't surfed on that big before, and my board started down the face of the wave WAY too fast, and then the nose of the board went under the water.... if you've ever surfed before, you know that that is a horrible thing. So I was flipped off my board, the board went under, I went under, and I knew right then it was going to be pretty bad. I stayed underwater as long as I could, let myself be tossed around a little, so that my board would have time to get to the front side of the wave I was in.

Unfortunately, when I stood up finally, the surfboard was NOT on the front side of the wave, it was on the front side of the following wave, and as I stood up to get air, it bashed me full in the face....

So, broken nose, broken teeth, and whiplash...

But at least I didn't get eaten by a shark!

Maren

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

I have spent the last week in Paderborn Germany. Home of the world's largest computer museum, the ruins of Charlemagne's castle, a cathedral which boasts a stained glass window in which there are three rabbits and three ears, yet each rabbit has two ears...(how do they do it?) Most of all however, this town hosts my sister, whom I have had a lovely week visiting. I have met her friends, seen what it's like to live here, including what food to eat, and what foods they just don't have here. We've visited interesting things all over the countryside around Paderborn, and done our share of shopping and window shopping. We canoed down a river with our respective boyfriends, and Laurel and Fabian got a passenger in their boat, who weirdly, was named Maren but wasn't me. My boat just saw it's share of being clotheslined by the low hanging trees (no, I wasn't steering, and yes, we did get better.) There are a million other stories, and it has been great to see Laurel, but I can't spend forever here at the Paderborn University library, signed in as my sister.
I have decided that while this is a nice place to visit, it is not somewhere I could live... mostly for the reason that they just don't have vegetarian food here. The few things they do have just don't look all that appetizing to me. But the people are wonderful, even when they don't really speak with you and you just have to pantomime. I am ready to come home though, sleep in my bed, cook my own food, speak my own language, and find books in English.
For those of you who read this and live in my neck of the woods, I am looking for an apartment and a job, needing both soon, so if you know of anything, give me a heads up.
One last exciting bit of news... Thomas is moving to Portland, as soon as he can, and I am so happy! So... if you hear of any web marketing jobs, let me know.

Tchuss
Maren

Gotta Love Germanz

Where the z and the y are switched on the kezboard... so if I want to type correctly, I have to really think about which letters are in the words I intend to use.

But, what one really has to admire about Germanz, or as Thomas says, Chermanz, after two weeks of UK, and DK... is the prices. We went from spending a dollar and a half for every little juice box, to 50 cents for a huge glass of orange juice. Last night we had a full on (proper) Thai feast, for about 12 dollars, a nice change from the 25 we´d been paying in UK-DK.

The weather however has been our pennance. We have had rain and clouds for most of the trip, sad but true... luckily I bought a really sweet rain jacket before I left, and I love wearing it... even though it is full on neon green. I just say its so I cant be lost in a crowd.

We are staying in the Heart of Gold Hostel in Berlin... 10 points to those of you who know what that means. Its a super cool place... love the decor... love the breakfast...

Today I am off to see how Berlin has reconstructed itself, and what a fashion capital in Europe looks like...

Biss Dann!
Maren

Here's what he looks like... this is on top of Salisbury Hill... Peter Gabriel anyone? 

Annelise and me at the Viking Graveyard,  

The friendly goat/sheep employed to eat the grass off the viking graves in Aalborg 

I admit it...

What has not been mentioned here before... that although I have told part of the truth, I have left a big part out. The reason I went to England... which is a lovely beautiful country... was to see my boyfriend and meet his family. Seeing Thomas again has been wonderful. It turns out that I the things I had hoped about him are true... He's sweet and smart and funny and interesting and I haven't been bored with him a second... and, every free second we have here, he grabs a book to read, Nick Hornby, Arthur Conan Doyle, Aristotle. Which means he's well spoken as well. His family is great! So hospitable and kind. We had a sunday roast with his whole family, and it was very cozy and warm. Curious about him? See his website: http://www.humantail.com

So far, in England I saw Virginia Woolfe's house and garden, the English Countryside, Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, the Magna Carta, the Brighton Pier, the Pavilion in Brighton (where the Prince Regent had party after party, until Queen Victoria got it, decided she hated it, and sold it to the town council), the towns of Lewes, Rodmell, Kingston, Iford, all in East Sussex... Just up the road from Paul McCartney (Honest). Oh, and Hever castle, where Anne Boleyn lived. We saw some Jousting, walked through a water maze, and saw the gorgeous gardens.

Now we are in Denmark. We started in Aarhus, where I got my bearings, Thomas learned a touch of Danish, and we visited some of my old hangouts. Then we rented a car, and drove north to Aalborg, where Annelise lives... see her blog link. On the way we stopped to see my old apartment/kollegium. Looks much better now than it did before.

Next we are on to Esbjerg/Oksbol, Legoland, Roskilde, and Copenhagen.

Hilsen
Maren