Thanksgiving with the newly extended Jones Family

Dear readers,

I hope my lines find you well. My apologies for not posting lately, I guess my life needed some travels again :-) So for the Thanksgiving weekend I enjoyed the company of the Jones and their unmatched hospitality once more. The house was full of food and babies, good times and laughter. I really enjoyed every minute of our Thanksgiving get together.

Thank you so much,

Matti

Where we study and work out

Dear friends and family,

I hope my lines find you smiling and you are doing very well. I have not shared many pictures about our office-life on campus I was lately told. So maybe I should. On the left side you can see where I usually go on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The ground level of this side is our office area. On the right side you can see the Thompson Recreational Center, our gym. It is there, where you could have found me on average every second day since I received my free membership. Today, though, I had to kindly ask for a change in the TV channels, because out of 7 different ones, 3 were on the same boring old sports review from the 1960s (two in mute), one was in Chinese, one was WWF Wrestling, one was showing an old Portuguese soap opera and the last one was featuring some "we remodel you backyard for you" show. Not quite my usual comedy intake that not only keeps me happily smiling on the cross trainer but also the minutes flying by.

I hope you are enjoying some recreation as well,

Cheers,

Mat

Duncle Mat

Liebe Freunde und Verwandte,

die Familie hat zuwachs bekommen! Ich bin seit Donnerstag zweifacher Onkel (double uncle=duncle) und freue mich sehr, dass der kleine Grayson (9. Nov) von Jessie und die kleine Scarlet (12. Nov) von Tim und Rachel in Missouri gesund und munter das Licht der Welt erblickt haben. Das gemeinsame Geburtstagsfeiern bietet sich an. Ich freue mich darauf an Thanksgiving die beiden neuen Gesichter persönlich zu sehen.

Freut euch mit mir und meiner Gastfamilie in den USA!

Liebe Grüße,

Euer Matti

Fog over Ivey

Dear friends,

I wish my lines may find you very well. My apologies for not posting a lot lately. I believe my life is going a much more regular path with lots of reading and quite a bit of structure due to classes and gym schedules.
However, when I was coming home walking on campus towards my little place I took these two pictures about 2 minutes apart from each other. Its getting dark earlier and quicker, maybe I have not spend Winter in the Northern hemisphere for a while. What you see hardly does the thick fog we had that day any justice.
I hope to some of you soon walk through it together with me!

Have a nice day,

Mat

pictureframe II

Dear readers,

I hope my lines find you well and healthy and you already got your flu-shot. Luckily I did not need a refresher for my tetanus shot just yet, because despite the highest probability, my fingers remain in tact and my Cambodia photo still made it up the wall. It was quite a hassle until I finally found some nails and put them into the right places, so the pictureframe would at least look square from a distance. Whenever I looked at the first of many attempts from the front, I was heavily disappointed to see my efforts slope strongly to the downward right corner. Only after measuring the angles of my frame again, was I sure that the artist did not paint his picture very symmetrically. Well, I could have checked as well, before putting in all the nail, I know now. In the end, some rearrangement and a heavy dose of back tape around the corners made the effort worthwhile to adorn my sparsely decorated walls. Let's hope that tomorrow the sun shines as nicely as it does in the picture and its wonderful memories.

Have a nice day,

Mat

Dinner at Home

Dear friends and family,

I hope my lines find you well and Halloween has been enjoyable for you.
Tonight I report with an everyday picture from our regular dinner table, for which Ekrem and I jointly prepared some drumsticks, rice and salad. Could have been worse, I guess.
If you are nearby and hungry, do not hesitate to be our guest.

All the best until soon,

Mat

What kids get for Halloween

Liebe Freunde,

ich nehme an, es geht euch allen gut, denn ich habe ja nichts gegenteiliges gehört :-) Happy Halloween an dieser Stelle.
Wenn ihr heute bei mir geklingelt hättet, hättet ihr nicht viel erreicht, denn die Klingel ist kaputt. Hättet ihr aber geklopft und währt ihr nicht so gruselig verkleidet gewesen, dass ich sofort reissaus genommen hätte, so könntet ihr euch jetzt über einen Früchtebeutel in eurer "Trick-or-Treat" Tasche freuen. Es gibt immerhin genug Kariesbomben bei den Nachbarn zu holen.

Also, Obst ist gesund und hilft auch gegen Schweinegrippe!

Gesunde Grüße,

Euer Matti