White Christmas & greetings from the visitors

Hi all,

I have probably overrun the window for blog posts, but I thought you might like to see some photos I took of the snow over Christmas. Temperatures of -16 deg C were recorded (Google tells me thats 3 deg F), which is uncharacteristically cold for Ireland (we usually get, at most, a week or two of frost per year). These photos were taken on Christmas morning. I live in the country so there were plenty of photographic opportunities. Hopefully they give you some idea of how beautiful it was (well, for short periods. It didn't take too much walking around in the cold for the fireplace to look very beautiful!).

Finally, just before everyone left Berkeley for the Christmas break, the visiting students went for a meal at a Chinese Restaurant. Photographs were obligatory of course, some of which involved creative use of the revolving table. The video below will explain what I mean!

I hope everyone is keeping well.

Wedding toast

So our good friends got married last weekend here in the Philippines. I gave the toast in a mixture of tagalog and english, which was entertaining to the guests. More interestingly, we drank lambanog, which is best described as local moonshine that was soaked in jackfruit and raisins for 6 months before drinking. My outfit in the photo is a customary shirt that is called barong. It is commonly worn here at weddings. It is made of fibers from pineapple leaf.

Russia Photos

Hi all! I just got back to Berkeley after spending the New Year holidays with friends in Russia. The first photo is near the train station in Moscow. Kazan is about a 14 hour train ride eastwards. The weather was not too cold, about -10 C (15 F), with plenty of fresh snow. On New Years' night, my friend and I went to the city center to take pictures.
It is not a Christmas tree, but a New Year's tree in the background. Across the former Soviet Union on December 31, families decorate trees and prepare special salads to celebrate the Communist-approved New Year holiday, while Grandfather Frost, dressed suspiciously similar to Santa Claus, brings presents for the children.

The days are short in winter, so the holiday lights are especially welcome.
In Kazan, the Kul Sharif mosque is also lit up brightly at night.
Later in the week, we invited some of their relatives for dinner and homemade bread and steamed meat dumplings.

Brazilians at the beach

The first post about what I didn't do during the break. The next one is coming later today.

Brazilian dudes dont wear speedos and girls dont have belly buttons

Manuel

Suministros por la casa del pueblo

Hi guys!
Back to Cali, I managed to smuggle some good things from Brazil! The caipirinhas for the spring semester inauguration are guaranteed!




















Cheers!

a few holiday pics

Hey dudes-

Hope everybody is having a good break! Here are a couple of photos from a little road/climbing trip I took with the old lady through Joshua Tree and Death Valley. You Euros might have stuff that looks like Yosemite, but I guarantee you don't have crap as weird as Death Valley and Joshua Tree.

See everybody soon,

Marshall

Greetings to all from Manila

I apologize for not posting something earlier. It was my intention to provide daily updates of my activities here in Philippines. Here is a shot of me making faces with one of Em's nieces.

And here is a photo of our hike into the depths of the Philippine jungle. We crossed paths with large pythons and monkeys swinging from tree to tree. Well not really, but it was fun nonetheless.

Merry Christmas from animal farm

Hi everyone,

I hope you're doing well, wherever you are! I made it back to the Netherlands, where it’s the first 'white Christmas' of my life. Pretty exciting, but also pretty cold. I don’t have pictures of any special travels so instead, I’d like to introduce you to our family pets, which are all a bit confused by the snow.

I wish you all a merry Christmas!

Marieke

This is ‘Piepertje’, our new little cat who suffers from ADHD. He has chosen our car engine as his main sleeping place, and stays there even when we’re driving.

This is ‘Sammie’, our little tiger, who gets annoyed by Piepertje’s ADHD:

Here is the boss, Child Goose, who is almost as old as I am:

These are brownie and Annemarie, who is named after my sister-in-law:

This is Sheep and his own little house on the background: mind the windows at sheep height :)

And this is our duck who's pretty cold:

Christmas Lights

This year my sister and I decided to put up Christmas lights on my parents house so I got to climb around a bit. It was surprisingly enjoyable. Plus, when I get up on the highest point of the roof I could see the ocean in the distance which is pretty awesome.

Packing for the winter break

Checklist:
Speedos (✔)
Sunblock (✔)
Sunglasses (✔)
Havaianas Sandals (✔)
















Did I miss anything? I don't think so. :)