What a beautiful day!

This morning, I went for my first run since my marathon. I was pretty psyched out by the whole idea and didn't know if I'd be able to get back into running; I just don't enjoy it the same as I used to. Maybe the marathon training took a little joy out of it, I'm not sure. In any case, I finally decided to go for a short route, and as I was running up by the hospital, I realized it's exactly two months to the day since my marathon. Ha! Just found that amusing.

At one point, I was waiting at a crosswalk, and as I pushed the button for the pedestrian crossing, I noticed a small piece of paper on the post, near the torn advertisements. It read "You are beautiful."

Can you believe that? At a time when I don't feel beautiful, it's like God reached out and tapped me on the shoulder. The truth is, it doesn't matter what I feel about it, God loves me just the way I am and isn't impatiently waiting for me to get it together.

I wonder who put it there and what it is for. I hope it gets used to brighten the day of someone else.

My sister is visiting our family for the weekend, so it's just me at home. I really treasure the quiet moments in a day, to refresh and get my perspective back a little.

I hope you are all able to get some time to yourselves this weekend, and enjoy the outdoors, wherever that may be:) Here it is uncommonly sunny and I love it.

Bye for now.

Advent is nearly upon us!

The wayside aster splashes its bright blue
Along the dusty road, the Queen Anne's lace
Foams colt-high in the pasture, frosty white
Late summer strolls with slow and leisured pace
And in quiet woods where it's cool and damp
Delphinium lifts up its pale blue lamp.

The shorn wheat-fields now lie like gold-bronze rugs
In rustling taffeta, green glows the corn
The meadowlark, with silver-fluted throat
Sings sweetly still, though misty now the morn
And when the grackle gleams, then fills the sky
Brown thrasher, thrush and (---) soon say goodbye.

(most of a poem that I memorized in grade 7/8 for class, which I've always loved- from a book of Canadian poems called A Slice of Moon)

If I remember the rest, I'll put it in- I can't find it online to reference it properly. It's really not related to winter at all, but I just like it:)

Yesterday, I attended a performance of the UWOSO, the University of Western Ontario Symphony Orchestra, with my sister and some friends. I hadn't been since last year, and it was so refreshing to go back! Watching them, and hearing the unbelievable sounds produced by those instruments, was really inspiring to me, almost energizing. I wish you could have heard those many dizzying violins just barely making a sound all together, and the wooing notes of the oboe, and the haunting bassoon, and the capricious flutes.

Liz and I hope to go to Handel's Messiah in December- I haven't been in years, and it's such a great work, especially hearing it at Christmas.

So far, November is flying by and I am waiting in anticipation for the Advent season. My dad's side of the family is getting together next Sunday to celebrate the first day of Advent, and I don't think I can go, but I do enjoy this season before Christmas. It's very German to celebrate Advent, and I love this part of my heritage.

At church yesterday, they gave us journals for Advent, so that we can reflect on the verses and on Christ's birth. I'm looking forward to this, because in high school we always had to do Advent journals and I miss not doing that; I find that journalling during Advent is really beneficial to me, to prepare me for Christmas and to give me the right perspective during the madness of the season.

Do any of you celebrate Advent? Or have any Christmas traditions you're looking forward to?

Meine liebe Deutschland!

I'm not too strong in German, so I don't know if that's right, but it's my attempt:)

From Aix, I took a night train to Hamburg to visit the hometown of my father. It was with mixed feelings that I approached the city, not knowing what to expect. At first, I didn't think much of it; a grey, cold, damp city by the water, with lots of factories. But this was just the view from the train station (Hauptbanhof), on a rainy day.

I climbed the tower of St. Michaelis church (all of 300+ steps) and saw a wonderful view, even on a foggy day. It really has a certain charm that I can't explain; maybe if I were there longer I would have words for it.

St. Michael conquering the devil

In the basement of this church is a crypt, where Johann Sebastian Bach's son, Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, is buried. For me, that was cool to have a tangible piece of music history right there in the church.

Martin Luther

Besides this expedition, I also checked out the Rathaus, the old town hall, with the Hamburg crest- very sharp.










While I was in Hamburg, I got a tip from my dad to check out the family business, knife stores, which is run by his cousins. I was pretty excited to find it, and took the train way out of the city to find this store, which turned out just to be a warehouse, and not a store at all! I never did find the store, because the guy at the desk didn't speak much English, and I didn't have time to cross the entire city to the other side, where the store actually is. That was a pity, but I did get to speak to my ...second cousin, I think? ...on the phone, very randomly, and we very nearly met up, but I had to catch my train back to Paris. Hopefully on the next trip, whenever that may be...

On the way to Ralstedt

Then, back to Paris for one last night. It was surprisingly sunny and warm when I arrived. To pass the time and browse through some more little boutiques, I headed back to Montmartre and caught the sunset view of the Eiffel Tower.

The trip was over far too soon, but I'm so glad I got to experience these places and people!

Thanks for reading:)

~La grande aventure, pt. 2~

Next up, Nice! We had a couple of days to play with and decided, although it would be a long trip, to spend some time in the south of France. It was lovely, although we definitely stood out by wearing flip flops since it was fall weather for the locals! We made a trip to a medieval village, and to Monaco which is very close, and got to see the famous Montecarlo casino, as well as an aquarium. It was a good time to relax and enjoy being in a hostel with others our age. One girl joined us for the day when we went touring about.

Fruit and flower market

A Ferrari in front of the Monte Carlo:)

From here, we headed to Lyon where I knew of some people that were letting us stay with them, some friends of friends. They were so hospitable to us and showed us around, and Lyon is quite pretty, especially the old city. We went to church there, which was pretty great for me, since it's been a while since I went to a French-speaking church. Heather and Grace were kind to put up with me since I wanted to go so badly. I thoroughly enjoyed our time there!

A fresco of a lion

Then, the long-awaited city, famous for cheese, wine and chocolat, the city of love...Paris!!! I was so excited to see Paris in the fall, and it was indeed beautiful. There weren't really any red maples but seeing the trees all yellow and orange was lovely, and the Eiffel Tower definitely surpassed our expectations! We got to see it both at night and during the day, and at night, it sparkles with lights all over it, every hour on the hour. Of course, we had to make the trip to the very top, and, needless to say, the view is spectactular. If you ever get the chance, you should definitely go.








Besides the Eiffel Tower, we checked out the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and Sacré Coeur/ Montmartre. I got to briefly see a friend I haven't seen in three years which was wonderful.
From Paris, we split up- the girls to Britain, and me to Aix-en-Provence to visit my friend Lynn from college. I was reluctant to leave them since it was so much fun all together, but I was excited to see Lynn. It was a great visit, very chill (it rained the whole time) and we got to see the new James Bond (in English) before it came out in North America. It's known as "little Paris" ans is a very sought-after place to live, apparently, for the wealthy. It's rumoured that Angelina Jolie is buying a house nearby. I hope I can visit longer next time:) So good to reconnect with Lynn.

I'm posting too much, so I shall put Germany on the next one! Meine liebe Deutschland!

I bumped my head on the Eiffel Tower

It's true- my friends and I were going to the top platform of the Eiffel Tower, and somehow I (the shortest of the three) bumped my head on the steel of the tower. Turns out it is pretty solid stuff, actually:)

So! I'm back from my trip to Europe (sigh) ...not really ready to be back, either. Already, it doesn't seem real that I even went, and I only came back last night. I was sure I would have time to blog while I was there but I wasn't able to post any photos, so I'll have to inundate you with photos now that I've returned!

I'll try to sum it up briefly, but you probably all know I'm not that good at it :) ...

~La grande aventure, pt. 1~

I landed in Munich to begin with, and met up with my two friends who had been there already two weeks. From there, we toured about Munich before catching the night train to Rome. I love architecture, even though I don't really know the names or the styles, and it was great to see all the historical buildings in Munich, and go on a free tour as well led by a funny Australian man.

Once in Rome, we trekked to our (overpriced) hostel where we began our theme of staying on the top floor of wherever we were:) I thought it was a good deal but it turned out not to be; at least some other places were much better. Grace and I both loved the movie Roman Holiday, and the next day, when we took a tour on those double-decker buses -we were on the top level, in the rain- we got to go to several sites which are in the movie, like the Fontana di Trevi, and la Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth), plus the Colosseum, of course! We got some sweet pics which I am now adding.

From Rome, we headed to beautiful Firenze (Florence), where, after some escapades with no one answering the door at the hostel, we ended up getting in and the guy who runs it was extremely helpful. He and his sister made our stay really great because they were so welcoming. Personally, I loved Florence- it was so beautiful and a different feel from Rome. Of course we checked out Michaelangelo's David while we were there, and took in a panoramic view of the city. I should also mention that I taught Grace to bargain in the touristy alleys, where she then proceeded to get a better price than me for the same things:)

We took a short trip to Pisa to snap some photos of the tower, but we've decided it's pretty over-rated and actually spent more time watching the kids running around. Children sound much bossier when they're yelling in Italian at each other, I've decided :)

I didn't get to ride it but it made for a sweet pic!

Another night train later, and we were in Zurich. Although we were there for less than a day, it was beautiful by the river running through the city, and filled with posh shops I probably would be too nervous to go into:) A funny thing was, we saw two Buddhist monks taking their picture in front of a Louis Vuitton store. While we were there, we shopped a bit at a chocolate store named Sprüngli which was amazing! I tried their specialty, mini macarons called Luxemburgerli, which I will post photos of, naturally.

Mmmm...

I will save the rest for a future post:)