Christmas time

Deck the halls with boughs of holly,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

 'Tis the season to be jolly,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Don we now our gay apparel,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Troll the ancient Yuletide carol,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

See the blazing Yule before us,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Strike the harp and join the chorus,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Follow me in merry measure,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

While I tell of Yuletide treasure,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Fast away the old year passes,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Hail the new, ye lads and lasses,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Sing we joyous, all together,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Heedless of the wind and weather,

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

This is one of my favourite Christmas carols and I wanted to share it with you, in case you - as I did - don't know the full lyrics. I tended to get stuck after the fourth Fa la la la, la la la la and didn't know how it continued. Anyway, it makes me happy to sing it and to write it down.

Christmas is coming and  I won't be here. We are leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow and are going to spend nearly three weeks there backpacking and getting to know the country. This will be my first time in Subsaharan Africa and I am quite excited and curious. As a result, we are not celebrating Christmas with good company, a 10-course dinner and oodles of alcohol as usual, which is a rather strange realisation. In fact, as most Ethiopians are Coptic Christians, they celebrate Christmas on 7th January and we are coming back on the 5th. Which means we won't have any kind of Christmas this year. Nor a New Year's Eve party, because Ethiopian New Year is actually (ironically enough) on 11th September.

It is a good thing we get to leave Berlin for a while though, because it has been freezing here and I am about to give up on life. Ethiopia won't be hot, but an enjoyable 20-22 degrees C in the daytime, which will be enough to get my mind off snow & ice, slippery roads, freezing toes, backaches and a continuous desire to sleep.

To give you an idea of what Berlin has been looking like these past couple of weeks, here are some pictures I took of Schlosspark Charlottenburg when Femke and Ruud were visiting us a couple of weeks ago:

I hope you are all well and I wish you all the best for 2011. May it be the year all your dreams come true - and if they already have - may you dream some more!

Merry X-mas and a happy New Year!!

Roma, la città eterna

In early November, I went to visit Marike in Rome, where she was doing research for her PhD thesis. I love Rome. I have always loved. I want to live in Rome. I also love Marike and really enjoy spending time with her. We ate delicious Roman food, drank a little too much wine, definitely smoked too many cigarettes, enjoyed the sights - I had the privilege of being shown around by an expert after all - and spent a lot of time debating the monuments before us, planning our respective futures in Rome and went househunting. And all that, while it was 25 degrees and sunny in November. How can one not love Rome? Here are some pictures:

For more pictures go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/FedorvanRijn/Rome58Nov10?authkey=Gv1sRgCNbaotPxquntMg#

And now we're back in cold Berlin. It has started freezing and has already snowed once. Fortunately, the Christmas markets are open - although I must say I am scared of the prospect of another three months of cycling through the freezing cold, icy roads that do not get cleaned and a numbness in my toes that will not leave until mid March. It's a good thing we are going to Ethiopia soon, in just 16 more days!!!

Halloween pictures

It has been far too long and I have a lot of pictures to show you. Here are some of the pictures from our Halloween party (30th October), which are long overdue:

Olaf was very proud at having carved his own pumpkin monster faces

 The house was well-decorated, we even had a dead body lying in the bath tub!

 There were cobwebs everywhere...

 Can you guess who I am supposed to be? I'll give you a hint, it has something to do with the day after Halloween...

 Odin the wanderer

 Interesting couple we make, huh?

 A little CELTA reunion

 Kerstin actually came dressed up AS a pumpkin

 So which one is Myra's real face?

 John had to handle more than he had expected

 Being very social people, we had also invited some people from the lower Berliner social classes: Cindy und Günther aus Marzahn

 Oles seemed to like his wife's new look, but then again, don't all Ukrainian men really want a babushka deep down inside?

 She goes crazy sometimes. We all go a bit crazy sometimes...

 A Berlin School of English mug, a little nostalgia for Lisa

 Alexander's Ghostbuster costume was awesome!

 Ah look, the zombies have come to join the fray

 ...As has Athena the War Goddess, who looked surprisingly like Cleopatra

 We quickly realised we had made a huge mistake in inviting the lowlives

 Although I may have lost some sainthood as well that night...

 They simply did not know how to behave!

 But then again, neither did I...

The zombie nurse and hanged man sure did know how to party for dead people!