Jaa matta! See you later!

After a busy few weeks of work, moving, travels, and wedding preparations, Austin's last "bachelor" weekend in Gainesville arrived rather quickly. Then amidst getting Austin moved and packed the weekend went by so fast! We took a trip to IKEA last weekend to get all of the furniture our new place needed, and after getting Austin's desk and other items moved in it finally feels like a little home (pictures to come after I clean it up a bit!). Thankfully we still had some time to relax, enjoy the cool and rainy weather, eat one last hamburger and steak before heading to Japan, and talk about how life's going to look in the whirlwind week and a half between Austin getting home and us getting married.

The first day apart is always the hardest, but soon after life settles down again and you get into a new routine. I'm excited for the many opportunities for work and play this summer: my first manuscript is almost done, I'm 2 weeks away from field work and 3 weeks from another experiment, I joined the church band and will continue to brush up on my piano skills with a new keyboard, and am looking forward to spending the summer in GNV hanging out with old friends and making some new ones as well. Austin definitely has a great chance to meet lots of new people and colleagues and I'm sure he'll come home with lots of great stories and adventures to share (and will hopefully share some on here as well! hint hint hint...).

Here's to summer 2012 and all the joys and challenges it brings us!

Adventures in Europe!

Life continues to be filled with many blessings and opportunities for adventures. As Austin begins to prepare for his summer research fellowship in Japan, I was fortunate to have had the chance to spent a week and half in Europe for a professional conference (see my other blog for more details on why I went to Europe). At the beginning and end of the trip I had some time to travel and explore and was also lucky to have met lots of new colleagues and acquaintances at the meeting. 

My trip started off with a Thursday night arrival to Berlin after a decent flight (i.e. I slept through most of it) from the US to Amsterdam. As luck would have it, two guys from church were traveling through Berlin on an epic European post-graduation adventure just before I arrived and they were staying at the same hostel as me. We found a nice outdoor restaurant and shared a pizza, some beer, and I got to hear about the places they had been to already. I spent Friday sightseeing around Berlin. The highlights for me were Tiergarten (a really big and beautiful park near the Parliament building), Mitte (the area with a lot of old historic buildings), and sitting along the river while enjoying a beer and people watching (see below for the view from my seat!). After a late lunch/early dinner of döner kebab I took the subway across town to see Die Entführung aus dem Serail, an opera by Mozart that I bought tickets to see in April. This was my first trip to the opera and I really enjoyed it! I had been listening to this particular one a few timesand knew enough of the story to keep up with what was going on even though it was all in German.

Friday afternoon in Berlin with a view of Mitte :)

On Saturday morning I went early to the main train station to catch an express train to Wittenberg, also known as "Lutherstadt" since this is where Martin Luther essentially started the Reformation. The town was very photogenic and walkable (my favorite part about small towns in Europe!) and I enjoyed strolling around. The main sights are the two churches and the Luther museum. My first stop was at Stadtkirche, the church where Luther did a lot of his first protestant sermons and got the movement really moving. I also went to the Schloßkirche, the church that Luther nailed his 95 theses onto. Unfortunately the original church burnt down so this one was rebuilt essentially as a memorial for Luther and he was also buried at this church. Schloßkirche was much more decorated and fancy but I think I liked Stadtkirche because it felt more like a Lutheran church, less decorated and simpler and you could feel like at any moment Luther himself could start doing a sermon. After checking out the churches I had a really awesome German lunch and went to the Luther museum. I had to go quickly since I had to get to Berlin by 5pm but I thought the museum was really nice. All in all it was a great day trip!

Quote from inside the Luther museum

From Saturday night through Thursday I was really busy with the conference since I was a student volunteer and had a poster to present. I really enjoyed the meeting and was happy to have met some really great scientists and students. There was also a really great student party on Tuesday and lots of chatting over beers after a full day of volunteering. Can't wait to go back to the Europe SETAC meeting again next summer!

On Thursday evening I took a flight to Stockholm for a weekend holiday with one of my old friends who is currently at school in Munich. I saw him last year in Germany so I posed the idea of meeting somewhere that neither of us had been. We both agreed on Stockholm since neither of us had been to Sweden and had heard lots of great things about the city. We had 3 full days of sightseeing and overall my impression of the city is very positive! It's quite a beautiful scene since the city is basically comprised of a lot of small islands. It's often referred to as the Venice of the north and even though I haven't been to Venice I can see why they say that! Highlights of this trip were walking through the old city, the smell of the sea during a boating tour through the canals, watching the sun set over the city from a roller coaster at 10:30 pm, and having a beer with Scott and two of his friends at a neat outdoor floating bar.

A beautiful view of the old city and the palace that Scott took

All in all I had a really excellent time! Europe is such a great place and I look forward to returning (hopefully sometime soon!), especially to Germany. Until then, time to get back to work and to get ready to sweat this summer here in Florida :)

May Travels

Erica has made it home from Sweden and Germany. We are so lucky to be able to have these travel experiences, but it was great to see her in this rainy Florida night. Yesterday, I had returned from my trip to Nebraska and Minnesota one day inclusive so I could drop her off and pick her up. I even stopped by a little store in Eustis that sells German sausage and IKEA in Minnesota to pick up my own souvenir to rival her authentic ones from the continent. Hopefully, I will hear more about the stories.

Lots of updates

April appears to have disappeared! Lots of traveling and events going on this past month so I've been slacking on the blog update.

I was so glad to have the opportunity to travel northwards a couple of weekends ago to see my niece and nephew's baptism. The twins are so cute and growing so fast! And of course Miss Sophia is as fun and adorable as always :) And even with the busy weekend my sister and mom and I had a chance to chat about wedding stuff. We now have a shower date set and have shifted into party planning mode. It was such a nice time and I'm so happy that I got to celebrate such a blessed day with my family.

The Mendens (AJ, Meredith, Sophia, Leo, and Juliet)

Me and grandma Perry :)

The weekend after the baptism trip (April 28) was Austin's 26th birthday! The weather is starting to get warmer and warmer, perfect for a trip to the springs where the water is 72 degrees all year long. We went to Blue Springs (about 45 minutes from GNV) with some of Austin's lab to do some swimming, jumping off a 15-foot diving platform, and snacking in the sunshine! Glad to have spent the nice day with some great friends :D

AND on top of all of that, and normal work/life stuff, I moved yesterday! Austin was a great helper and even set up the whole kitchen for us; it took a little while because he was feeling out the "zen" of the space but now that it's done it looks great! We still have to hang art and then make an IKEA trip, so no photos yet...

More updates to come. Austin and I both have some travels at the end of the month, so stay tuned for more tales of our adventures!

Happy Easter!

Austin and I had a wonderful day celebrating life, God's love, and the beauty of nature yesterday. We got dressed up and went to to our church for a great service and message. We both enjoy the people there and our pastor and are looking forward to continuing our faith journey together at Gator Wesley! After church we had a lovely dinner of cornish game hens, sweet potatoes, green beans and rice, and mushrooms in a red wine reduction. Plus some delicious Belgian beers and robin's eggs candy for an appetizer. Absolutely fantastic!

Once we completed our delicious meal, we changed out of dress clothes and went to the Kanapaha botanical gardens. There is a really nice variety of landscapes here, with a bamboo forest, herb garden, roses and lillies, and a koi pond. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot, and we spent the entire afternoon and early evening exploring the entire gardens :)

Yesterday evening we took it easy (after I went swimming...only 5 more days until the triathlon!), ate popcorn for dinner, and then enjoyed the new Sherlock Holmes series from the BBC.

Off to another work week here in the GNV but both of us feel very refreshed by this lovely weekend!

Celebrating a wonderful life

Last weekend, we received the sad news that my grandpa Perry passed away. Austin and I traveled home for the funeral last week and it was an emotional time for all of us. While we all will miss grandpa very much, we were able to reminisce about the great times and happy memories with the rest of our family. After coming home on Wednesday I wrote down a few of my favorites:

-seeing grandpa and Austin sitting on the couch sharing stories at each and every holiday we saw him :)
-driving a van full of grandkids to the cabin in Minnesota
-taking my cousin Whitney and I to the rodeo
-cheering for the bad guys in all the movies and musicals we watched, much to my dismay!
-interviewing him for an article I wrote about the zoo for my high school newspaper
-seeing him at all of my concerts, musicals, and my high school graduation
-crows at Christmas time...
-numerous cook-outs and hay rack rides in the backyard during October (and often times with a cake for my birthday!)
-running out to the barn to let him know coffee was ready, to see what he was building, or just to say hi

We miss you, grandpa, and we are thinking about all the ways to honor your life as we continue our own life's journey!


Grandpa and Grandma at honors night back in high school

Spring into spring

We got back home from Salt Lake City on Wednesday night after a great trip out west! Austin really enjoyed the conference and we both had a nice time skiing. The second day we had over 8 inches of fresh powder, which is the most that either of us had ever skied on! I'd be lying if I didn't say it was hard, especially after a full day on the slopes, but we had an awesome time despite our tired legs :)

It's spring here in Florida now, lots of flowers blooming and warmer, humid weather on the way. It will also be a busy season for the two of us as Austin tries to complete his proposal defense and gets ready for a summer in Japan while I try to get some experiments and lab work done. We've both been working together to get our wedding planning stuff done, we're making good progress and I don't think there will be much to do this summer while Austin is away.

More news and updates to come in the next couple of weeks, stay tuned!