Well it's been an age since my last post so I've a lot of catching up to do, but I'll make it brief. Michelle's brother Peter was here from mid-December to mid-January and for Christmas we went to Germany together (Michelle, Peter and I). We stayed with the Butz family in Krefeld - friends of Michelle's from old times - and then took the train to Freiburg for New Years'. There we stayed in the basement of my old residence and visited all our old haunts. New Years' itself was spent on Schlossberg overlooking the city and the crazy spontaneous fireworks display to the sound of a talented group of buskers.
During Peter's stay we also made a couple of day-trips together to Bruges and Oostende in Belgium and the Canadian WWI memorial at Vimy.
My language course finished at the end of January with an exam which I blitzed. My new course started at the end of February and I skipped a level - I'm now in a much more appropriate level for my French.
At the beginning of February Michelle and I met Thomas and Clotilde, the daughter of one of Michelle's teacher-colleagues. They are around our age and since meeting them we've been on a number of day-trips together, each of which has been wonderful and brightened up a dull coastal European winter.
Mid-February saw Michelle and I making use of our remaining Eurail Pass trips that we bought for the Christmas holidays and going to the Netherlands. It was a five day action-packed trip in which we visited the Hague, Amsterdam, Delft, Rotterdam and the region of Zeeland. It was a really nice trip - although we did so much it wasn't stressful - and I now share Michelle's love of the Land where the people talk funny.
When we returned John came up from Lyon to visit. I was looking after the kids most of the time since it was school holidays, but when I had free time it was really nice to catch up with him again and talk about wedding/future plans among other things.
Just yesterday Michelle and I came back from another trip to Germany, this time for Easter. We took the bus (5 hours) to Cologne then the train to Krefeld to visit the Blankenbergs. It was a really nice weekend from which we both came back feeling really refreshed albeit sad to leave them (they won't be able to make it to the wedding)in.
Check out my Facebook pictures for more details of these stories...
Wedding plans are coming along really well and prayers are being answered in many different ways - what could so easily be a logistical and emotional nightmare, despite some disappointments, is overall going to plan and working out well.
I'm also considering doing a JD (Juris Doctorate) law degree and am looking into ways, places and times to do that.
