Mirko Sledding a Scary Hill

Christmas in Hamburg

Mirko and me sledding!

Mirko bowling.

Oh Christmas tree (and Mirko)

I spent Christmas with Mirko's family in Hamburg. It was a relaxing time.

Glühwein nach Oma's Rezept/ Mulled Wine after Grandma's Recipe

Ralf (Trixi's partner), Mirko, and Trixi

This is the mulled wine stand which Mirko's sister Trixi has at the Cottbus Christmas Market. Trixi has had the stand for 15 years. She sells Christmas drinks like mulled wine, lumumba (hot chocolate and amaretto), hot chocolate, and grog (hot water and rum). Mirko works in the booth preparing and selling drinks. I have been helping this year with cleaning up tables (removing empty cups and wiping up spilled drinks). It's cold outside, but it is fun spending time among Germans during this special cultural event.

Christmas Market with the Ultimate Frisbee Team

Laurie's Lumumba with whipped cream on top and Mirko's Mulled Wine with an almond

Mirko, Laurie, and Maik

Members of the Ultimate Frisbee team went to Mirko's family's mulled wine booth to enjoy some delicious Christmas drinks (mulled wine and lumumba).

Christmas Cookies

Josi and I made sugar cookies for the Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. After making the prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (the smileys), I decorated a few cookies for my own fun.

I also made cookies specially "Für Mirko" (for Mirko, my boyfriend) and "Für Trixi" (for Trixi, Mirko's sister).

England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, and Ireland

Back in August/September my mother and I took a trip together through England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, and Ireland. I know that it is bad of me to only finally now in November be posting something about the trip, but since my entrance into Facebook life, I have been neglecting the blog. But I will not quit this blog because I want Michelle to remain proud of me for maintaining a blog for a long time!
I was very excited to see chalk cliffs in England. I had learned about them in my geology courses and was dying to see such cool rocks with my own eyes.

Since Blogspot has changed it's blog creation settings to a level which only experts can figure out, I have to comment here on the photo below (instead of below the photo). That is Scotland, and of all the regions we saw, I have to say that I loooove Scotland. It's gorgeous.

So, if you'd like to see more photos from our trip, then please visit my Flickr page and enjoy!

Climbing with Mirko

Mirko is belaying me while I climb a cement rock in Guben. I enjoy climbing with Mirko.

Mirko climbs up the wall first and puts the rope at the top of the wall so that the rest of us can climb "top rope" style. He hooks himself to the wall along the way while I stand at the bottom belaying him. Mirko is a bit heavier than me, so belaying him is a mental game of me trying to be as heavy as I can (we also use another rope to hook me to the bottom of the wall!).

Mirko Mirko Bo Birko, My Mirko

Mirko playing with Bardo, a dog we dogsat for an evening. Bardo was such a wonderful jetty.



Mirko tending the grill at an Ultimate Frisbee party.



Mirko smiling at Laurie because he's so happy to have her as his girlfriend : )

Mirko is a native of Cottbus and studies something similar to me: soil and water management. He's working on a "Diplom Degree" which is the German equivalent of doing a bachelor and master all at once.

Dresden (finally)

I have been looking forward to visiting Dresden for as long as I've known that I was going to be living in Cottbus. So, for about a year. I never got around to it due to the weather, canceled school field trip, being busy, and being lazy. When Lili asked me last week if I wanted to go on Saturday when the weather was supposed to be nice, I said "yes!" The weather turned out to only be nice in the first half of the day, but we hid under an umbrella at a cafe drinking hot coffee when it decided to rain in the late afternoon.

The city reminded me of Prag, Czech. The facades of buildings in the old part of town all look so well cared for and are painted in light colors, like in Prag. I think that the inside of the renovated Kreuzkirche looks creepy and ugly. The broken sculptures resulting from WWII bombings have been left broken while the rest of the once ornate interior is now covered in a rough stucco. I recommend you click over to my Flickr page to see all of my photos from Dresden (don't worry, there's only about 10 photos) and their accompanying commentary.

Der Spreewald/The Spree Forest

People around here love to talk about the Spreewald and how fantastic it is. They say you can bicycle or stroll there, but that the best way to explore is with a canoe. So, I'd been dying to get my butt in a canoe! Thankfully, Lili came up with the genius idea of gathering her friends together for canoeing in the Spreewald as a way of celebrating her birthday! Wonderful idea!!







We had a great time. We had 3 kayaks and 1 canoe with 3 people in each. I found the kayak interesting because when I was in the rear position I had peddles with which to steer.

It was nice to be out in nature, especially on a weekend when I was writing a paper for Freshwater Restoration Ecology. It's one thing to read and write about waterbodies, but another thing to get to touch algae and look at big, leafy plants growing on the river bottom (these two are important characters in my paper, also known as cyanobacteria and submerged macrophytes, for those of you who want to learn big words).

Now, to give my honest opinion of the infamous Spreewald: it is nice, but no wild territory. The hand of man is written on every inch of the place, which gave me more of a feel of wandering through an amusement park than a forest. It's experiences like this that make me miss the United States. The more western parts of the United States, that is. I once had a professor at Au Sable Institute in Michigan tell this joke while we were taking a nature hike:

Prof. Bouma, "How do you figure out which way is north if you can't see the sun?"

Students' responses, "Look at the moss on the trees."

Prof. Bouma, "No, look for which direction a satellite on someone's roof is facing...because in Michigan there's always bound to be a house relatively nearby to where you think you are lost."

I actually did use the sun to help us navigate when we got a little lost canoeing. I want to thank my mother for teaching me how to read the sun. It's been a very helpful skill to possess, whether I'm in a foreign city or a forest.