Icehockey

Dear friends on and off the ice,

I hope my lines find you well and satisfied with what you are currently doing :-), i.e. reading my blog. I did not have much to report lately, apart from reports that I have to write myself and they are boring enough for one person, so absolutely not a fit for a bigger audience.
But today (yes, I am really current again) I went to a Hockey match (the ice is just a given) and saw our University's team win 5:1 against Guelph. We saw quite a bit of action while the game was paused, up until 8 players (out of 12) had to leave the ice and cool off in a separate ice-cube. Sadly, whenever an equal number of players gets a 2 minute penalty, the teams are allowed to replenish until full capacity is reached, otherwise, we would have seen a nice two against two for two minutes. Just three minutes before the end, we had to duck collectively as the puck came flying over the glass walls directly into the ranks. We found it first and now Micheal's little boy has a trophy to brag about at school on Monday. Life could be much worse. Apart from that, life is pretty full of literature these days. I still enjoy it.

All the best until soon,

good night,

Mat

Canadian Thanksgiving

Dear friends near and far,

I hope my lines may find you smiling. I certainly was when we received the wonderful invitation by Sonja, Marion's housemate, to join her and her dad for their Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. So we headed out to a wonderful farm in the countryside of Ontario, where we not only had the pleasure of eating an authentic, delicious, long-lasting, conversation-rich, home-made multi-course Thanksginving dinner, but also enjoyed the great farmlands via an extensive walk. This was the best impression of the wonderful colors of the Indian Summer I had yet seen.
And of course, we were not alone... but the cold winds made this little field snake hardly more active than the surrounding grass. So we parted in peace until our next encounter...

So do I now with my best wishes,

Mat

Halloween preparation

Liebe Freunde,

ich hoffe es geht euch allen wunderbar und ihr geniesst den goldenen Oktober wo auch immer ihr gerade seid. Nach unserem Bootsausflug zu den 1000 Inseln im See Ontario haben meine Kollegin Marion und ich am folgenden Tag frische Kürbissuppe gekocht. Hat auch geschmeckt. Viel interessanter war allerdings meine Beschäftigung während die Suppe vor sich hinköchelte... denn ich habe mir Mühe gegeben dem Kürbis ein verschmitztes Lächeln zu geben. Aber wahrscheinlich bleibt das menschliche Lachen dem Kürbis doch weit überlegen.

Alles Liebe und bis bald,

Matthias

1000 Island Boat Tour

Dear friends and family,

I mentioned in my last post that we were about to head out to our Kayaking trip on Sunday morning, when the pictures of Kingston were taken. So I continue my story there, where Marion and I met the team for the day, consisting of one Italian, one Dutch and what else did I expect, two Germans.
As the Germans (what a coincidence) had offered to organize this "kayaking trip", we went first to the rental place, where we learnt that the season was already over. Inquiries at a nearby Hotel came to the conclusion that the wakes were a little too choppy and thus we ended up doing the 1000 Island Boat Tour instead. Luckily I did not need my passport, even though we crossed into the United States to admire Boldt's Castle, a billionaire's project with quite a bit of history.
If it had been a little less windy, we might have enjoyed the trip even more. I was certainly glad that we did not go out in Kayaks.

All the best and warm wishes through the wild winds,

Mat

Kingston, ON

Liebe Leser,

ich hoffe der goldene Oktober beschehrt auch Euch ein paar Sonnenstrahlen. Die Queen's Universität in Kingston präsentierte ihre Sandsteingebäude jedenfalls sehr angenehm kurz vor Aufbruch zu unserer vermeintlichen Kayaktour auf dem Lake Ontario. Neben der Aussenfassade einer der Gebäude seht ihr auch den "Harry Potter Room", einen großen Lesesaal in der Library. Leider kommen die schönen Fenster auf dem Bild kaum zur Geltung.
Dafür könnt ihr euch diesen Saal bei Kerzenlicht sicherlich sehr schön denken.

Liebe Grüße,

Euer Matti

London, Ontario

Dear friends and family,

I hope my lines find you well. On my Canadian Thanksgiving tour, I visited my friend Marion in Kingston.
Before mounting the bus that would take me to Toronto, I took those nice pictures of my study town: London, ON. In the meantime the color of the sky has changed back and forth, so it is sunny and cold right now. More on my Kingston trip in a little bit...

Cheers,

Mat

Football match: Mustangs vs. Laurier

Liebe Familie und Freunde,

die Zeit der herbstlichen Sonnenstrahlen neigt sich dem Ende und der Statistikprofessor verlangt wieder meine Aufmerksamkeit. Daher teile ich nur kurz mit Euch dieses sonnige I-phone-Photo aus dem Stadium. Von links nach rechts seht ihr meine Studienkollegen Pouya und Ryan und noch so einen komischen Typen.

Liebe Grüße aus der Kälte,

Matti

Creating a pictureframe

Dear friends and family,

I hope my lines find you well. Since I bought this most wonderful oil painting a couple of month ago in Cambodia's Ankor Wat, I have been wanting to enjoy it as well. Now I finally got to terms with the framing and will hopefully soon have it up hanging on the wall, making my room more liveable... all for the visitors...

Have a nice day,

Mat

Human Development Index

Liebe Leser,

um Euch bei der Plannung Eures nächsten Urlaubs behilflich zu sein, teile ich die gestern präsentierte Studie des UN-Entwicklungsprogramms mit euch. Zwar liegt Norwegen noch etwas näher für die meisten Mitteleuropäer, aber als Wohlfahrtsstaat mit Mehrwerststeuern von 25% und unverschämt teuren flüssigen Rauschmitteln, hat es zuletzt nicht nur positiv von sich reden gemacht. Da Australien und Island auch nur bedingt gut erreichbar sind, rückt der Direktflug der Lufthansa von Düsseldorf nach Toronto wieder in ein helleres Licht. Ab und an gibt es diesen sogar mit 40% Rabatt :-)
Ich freute mich sehr über Euren Besuch!

Alles Liebe,

Euer Matti

Hans is coming! Yippi!!

Dear friends and family,

as it made my day today, I would like to share my great happiness with you that my friend Hans will come to visit me in London, ON in the first week of January. As many of you know my point of view, there are many people that talk, but too few that actually do! I am so happy Hans belongs to group number two!
I might as well look as genuinely happy as he does in that picture :-)

With that thought and a big smile,

Your Matti