Berlin

Some of my photos from Berlin...more to come. Or for those of you on Facebook (I love the ever-growing Poppink connection!), I have half the album up there. The rest to come when I get them from Wickus' camera. We had an amazing, Christmas market-filled weekend, that went by way too fast.

I've been bored silly today as I've been home with a sinus infection (the result of my head cold from last week), so I've been entertaining myself online-- last minute Christmas shopping, Berlin pictures, etc

Salz-dillgurken

My first decent dill pickle since moving to the UK

My favorite photo I think

Hee hee. I think that's an "I'm frickin cold" face, despite the outdoor heat lamp in the upper right corner of the picture. I say that's what he gets for drinking cold beer instead of steaming hot gluhwein like me! And boy, did I drink gluhwein on Saturday ;-)

A tired, but happy clubber, in the wee hours of Saturday/Sunday at Maxims!

A preserved piece of the infamous wall

Checkpoint Charlie

Our tour guide on Sunday was an American named Steve from Montclair, NJ, who has lived in Berlin for the past 30 years, so from before the wall came down. He used to use this American checkpoint at the wall to come and go from the two parts of the city.

Entrance to one of the many Christmas markets all over the city

A bit of history

Behind the seasonal ice skating rink is a memorial to the infamous Hitler book burning in Berlin...through a glass covering, you can see some books in a hole in the ground where the book burning took place.

Siegessaule

A Victory Column to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, Austro-Prussian War, and Franco-Prussian War. I love the way the surrounding sky looks...

Reichstag

Where the Bundestag, or Parliament for a reunited Germany, is located.

Chriskindlmarkt

A church just down the street from our hotel. It was bombed during WWII, which certainly gives it a lot of character! You can see the tops of some of the Christmas market stalls around it.

Everybody's waitin' for the man with the bag...

So it's only 19 days till Christmas now, and it's a mixed bag of things I have to report. I've come down with a cold--lovely--we take off for Berlin tomorrow and I've got a cold. I can't win, I wasn't well when we went to Amsterdam either!! And no rest for the weary, I have a friend I have to go out and meet in Wimbledon tonight (more than an hour's travel just to get over to that side of the city, and then again to get back) because she is leaving the country for good while I am gone this weekend.

But I'm still excited anyway. I've never been to Berlin before, although my family has done quite a bit of traveling in Bavaria. I can't wait to check out the Chriskindlmarkts, and we plan to check out the nightlife as well (read clubs!). And hopefully for my sake, a little history as well, maybe a walking tour.

For the upcoming Johnson Family Christmas, I think I've finished booking and confirming things. These include a Panto, a West End show, a lovely traditional turkey roast dinner for Christmas Eve, and something else I can't write here because it's a surprise for my parents and they do stop by and read this from time to time. Oh yes, and a big dinner with my family plus friends and housemates and significant others, so that my family can finally meet all the people I've been talking about. Then we'll spend New Years week in Italy at Jenn's parents' farmhouse--sounds like it will be a big family thing for New Years Eve, I can't wait! Last time I was there when Rita gathered all her family together it was as Italian as it gets. Good food, great wine and prosecco and grappa and limoncello, and lots of loud conversation with people talking all over each other. Love it. Tressa has apparently been promised to help out with the sausage making, so hopefully we'll do that too.

Happy Black Friday!

For my international friends, it's called Black Friday because this is the day when most retailers make it into the black (profitable) for the year, with huge pre-Christmas promotions.

I am missing it terribly, and cannot believe I have now missed it for 2 years in a row!! This will not happen again, I will be home for Thanksgiving and Black Friday next year! (Jinny be forewarned :-) In past years, I have been proud to say I have finished my Christmas shopping on Black Friday. People think we are nuts, but I think shopping during the latter half of December is worse. Besides, it's not as much about the shopping itself, but the challenge, and most importantly, memories and tradition. So Mom, Chris and Jinny, power up the walkie talkies beginning of November next year!

For us, normally, Thanksgiving always includes the following:
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Philadelphia Parade
cooking
lots of appetizers and wine
a huge feast with lots of friends and loved ones
the thankfulness tree
Sunday best outfits
football game
tons of dessert options
a food coma nap
and at night, we are allowed to watch the first Christmas movie of the season, and to look over the Black Friday ads, to make our plan of attack for the following morning, usually beginning at 4:30-5am.

This year, Sheena, Nicole and I had a small feast, and had some friends over. We had turkey, a vegetarian roast option, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, corn, garlicky broccoli, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, lots of wine and for dessert...homemade pumpkin pie and whipped cream. Highlights included a rather wild and competitive Texas Hold'Em tournament, and Nicole going crazy over the whipped cream because she didn't know you could make it fresh from liquid cream (she thought you bought it in a can already whipped, or else CoolWhip). Hee hee.

Lots of stuff happening this weekend, so no posts till next week, AND I can't believe it's only 2 weeks until Berlin and the Christmas markets!!!

Evidence-Based Practice

So I have been crazy-busy this week, mainly because I somehow agreed to give two presentations on Wednesday, on two different topics! And then also said I would do a presentation this coming Monday, mainly because I have a soft spot for Cecilia (see my picture to the right of my "former supervisor..."). She managed to pull together a last minute holiday to the Maldives, and is not back at work until Tuesday, but was scheduled to do a presentation on Monday. So I volunteered to take her place. I swear, sometimes I am my own worst enemy.

Anyway, the presentations on Wednesday went well. I was a bit nervous for the first one, because for the first couple of minutes, it was just Claire (my supervisor) and myself staring at each other. The physios had already said they weren't going to be able to make it, and as I found out later, the speech therapist had forgotten. But then, bless them, the entire stroke rehab team came in, including my friend Laura who doesn't normally attend these teachings, but when she heard it was me decided she had to come along too. That talk was on Social Cognition, which I've discovered is an absolutely fascinating subject, and very much a hot topic too...a lot of papers and research around social cognition are being done right now and within the past few years. So not quite unbelievably given my track record (see above), I actually heard myself volunteering to compile a resource folder/binder on Social Cognition by the end of this rotation. As if I don't have enough to be working on around my objectives, I have actually given myself a rotation's worth of work! But then again today, I only had one patient I could actually work with (the rest were too ill or waiting for a nursing home bed), so I embarked upon my literature search, and turned up a fair number of articles. And was enjoying reading them. I know, I'm such a nerd. I think I would make being a student my profession if only they'd pay me good money to do it...

Rehearsal Dinner...

Beantown, Baby!

Let's see, how did it go again? Oh yeah, Jenn followed me up to Boston, then Heather followed Jenn. I'm a leader!

Father-Daughter Dance

The choice: Sunrise, Sunset. Everybody with me now, awwwww! "Is this the little girl I carried?...When did she get to be a beauty?"

Be nice, Jenn!

Viva Italia!

Well, it's the Italian flag in reverse anyway. There is one of us in the correct order, but this is the one where all three of us look best.

Me and my Jenn

The Italian connection

There were a fair few of us at this wedding who had all lived in Milano Tre (just outside Milano, Italy). The Duncansons, me, my parents, Jenn's mom...somehow we missed out Morris, Jenn and her sister Erica for the photo, though. They must have been boogying out on the dance floor.

Jenn and her dad; her husband Chris and her mom

Awwww. And as Jenn's sister has pointed out to me, those are her arms thrown up into the air behind Chris' back. Is it just me, or do people seem to be dancing to different music in this picture?! :-)

Jet Lag, Shmet Lag

Too tired to do a lot of pics and posting tonight, so here are just a couple from Sunday. I got to hang out with the Gables for a few hours...for those of you who don't know, I went to college with Brian, and Carla was his girlfriend/high school sweetheart at that time. Long story short, I became very close with Carla and was maid of honor for their wedding in 2002. And now I'm an Auntie for their first baby, a Lil' Slugger, as Brian calls him. I've seen pics of Brett in his little Eagles outfit, although Brian is not currently dressing him up for Sundays because he thinks it's been bringing bad luck (pffff! silly boy). Anyway, it was a ton of fun, meeting Brett, seeing Cleo (a kitten I rescued and they adopted), and trying out the Nintendo Wii with Brian. Hopefully I'll get pics from Carla of me and Brian squaring off at tennis. And now I have a teeny obsession with the Wii. Shhhh.

My "nephew" Brett Frederick Gable

Approximately 3 months old, in his snuggly musical baby chair. Awwww!

Here I am world!

"Look Who's Talking"

Ok, maybe not talking, but interacting. "I'm the baby, gotta love me!"

Auntie Allison! :)

Shout out to Viv!

I've made it back, safe and sound, from my whirlwind weekend, if a little homesick and a lot tired...partly due to forgetting to set my alarm back with the time change in the States this weekend (we had that over here a week before you guys), so that I got up at 4:30 instead of 5:30 this morning. Ouch! I can hear some Guy Fawkes Night fireworks going strong in different parts of East London through my window.

So I have lots of pictures--rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, meeting baby Brett Gable, and some others I'd forgotten I had on my camera, such as from the Rugby World Cup Final when I was in Oxford with my friend Tracey. Lots of photos to come, then! But what I don't have are photos from my night out in NYC with Viv and her boyfriend Eric :(

Viv, we obviously have a LOT to catch up on, will give you a ring later this week or weekend. Although I was operating through my jet lag fog, I must tell you I was impressed. I look forward to getting to know Eric better...so I guess that means you guys had better get those European trip plans going soon!

Boo!

Although I am prepared this year, so far no trick-or-treaters tonight. Halloween has indeed become much much bigger over here, but a lot of people seem to resent it, and see no point to the holiday...I heard a number of my colleagues saying they were going to keep the lights off, or stay upstairs all night and not answer the door. Several people described as a night for little beggars who run around demanding candy for free and egg your house if you say no or don't have any candy. I felt a bit sad because it makes me think that although the trappings of the holiday have made it over here, the meaning and the traditions behind it have not.

I am busily packing at the moment, because I leave for NJ tomorrow night-- Jenn's wedding is this weekend!!! I'm sure I'll pay for the whirlwind trip when I'm back at work on Tuesday morning, but it will be completely worth it!

Happy Halloween, everyone! And that means Thanksgiving is just around the corner... :)

A funny thing happened on the way to Barcelona...

We didn't go. Hahaha. So funny my stomach hurts. Yes, through a series of unfortunate events which I won't detail here, we missed our flight. So there will be pictures and stories forthcoming after we re-schedule and have actually made it to Barcelona.

Meanwhile, we've been steadily dealing with a mouse in the house problem here. With various types of traps we have dispatched of four mice. The letting agent for our landlord has been less than useless, having come over four times now to replenish the rat poison that just seemed to continuously disappear without any effect, as if the mice were eating the poison and laughing at us from behind walls and under appliances. We know we still have at least one left, because Sheena and I heard it in the lounge tonight. Several friends are of the opinion that we should just move out, and don't understand why I just laugh about it, but I suppose if they had lived in Boston, they wouldn't think so much of it either.

It's a week from tonight that I fly home for Jenn's wedding!!! I can't believe it! It doesn't matter how many good friends get married, it remains a surreal experience every time. And as Jenn is one of my best friends, even more so this time. I am so incredibly happy for her and Chris though, and cannot wait to help her celebrate.

Otherwise, I'm trying very hard to line up things for my parents and sister who will be in town for Christmas. Who knew it would be so hard to find a restaurant for Christmas, and figure out what to do with them on Christmas Day and Boxing Day...argggghhhh.

Here goes nothing

Ok, let's see if my internet connection holds out long enough for me to publish a few more photos. It's been offline all day today until just now, not to mention yesterday as well. Otherwise I'll have way too much to catch up on, since Barcelona is this coming weekend!

The "Heineken Experience"

The entrance fee included three free drinks, this was at the first "watering hole" along the way.

I think this photo speaks for itself...

Cool green beds where you could watch Heineken TV ads dating from 1955

Self-Portrait

Except it took so long for the camera to take the picture that I apparently looked up right at the moment it finally went off.

Amsterdam

I've been trying to publish photos from Amsterdam this past weekend, but unfortunately I seem to have run into a publishing glitch with Blogger, quel surprise. I will try to post the rest later when Blogger is in a cooperative mood again.

Canal cruise!!!

Looking toward the front of our boat

"Mine, mine, mine!!"

"I love it when we're cruisin' together..."

A square near Dam

We wandered through to check out the street performers.

Canals and bikes everywhere

Sunday was a nice day, thankfully. On Saturday with all the rain it was almost as if we'd never left London...

Canal houses with stepped gables

You are looking at three houses in the middle there believe it or not, the ones with black and red shutters.

Promises, promises

I know, I know, I've said I was going to do better with the blogging and I think I've actually done worse! But a lot has been happening. I've been having health issues, I have an OT student with me at work for 7 weeks which means I'm constantly on the go, whether it's my own work or supervising her or bringing extra work home at night, and I was able to make it to Michigan this past weekend for my grandfather's memorial service. Although we all knew my grandfather was a great and special man, he was never one to toot his own horn, and we didn't realize just how great and special he truly was until we started to hear all the stories from people in Sault Ste Marie over the weekend. He was larger than life, and made a difference in who knows how many hundreds of lives over the years. I only hope I can make an ounce of the difference that he made, and try to live with "service above self" as he did. I think my cousin Casey put it best when he said that "If actions speak louder than words, then Grandpa was screaming good deeds..."

Back at the beginning of September I was in the Peak District for a beautiful, action-packed weekend. I have lots of photos and I will post some I promise. Those of you on Facebook have probably seen them already. However, I'm off for a whirlwind weekend in Amsterdam tomorrow, so I won't be doing a proper update here until next week, and will hopefully have Amsterdam pictures to add also. Love to all, Allison :)

"Hello, my friend, hello"

I called the lakehouse last night, because I knew my family (including my sister, home from Africa for a bit) would be there with the Heilalas, helping to close Wissahickon for the season. I was mildly chastised for not keeping up with the blogging.

A lot has been happening around here. This past weekend there was a leaving do for a physio on Friday at Floriditas, my favourite Cuban club in Soho. Both times I've been there, I've had a fantastic time. Last night we had a get-together at a lovely pub in the next town over, to celebrate Dave and Nicole's engagement. Nicole's ring had been at the jeweler for the past two weeks, being re-sized, so Dave picked it up Saturday morning, and showed up at our house with a single red rose and re-proposed to Nicole. Fittingly, the initial proposal was in a park across the road from the pub where the engagement party was held.

This coming weekend, my housemates and a bunch of other people (Dave's friends and family) will be in the Peaks District. We rented a big cottage, and several of us have signed up to go caving. Or spelunking as it's more commonly called in the US. We'll also do a fair bit of hiking and check out the country pubs. Several people are planning to go to Alton Towers on Monday (it's a big theme/adventure park), but I'm thinking I may have to be back at work for Monday. I have a student starting with me tomorrow (my first one!) and she'll be with me for seven weeks. So I probably shouldn't take the day off for a week from tomorrow. Other trips include one already booked for Amsterdam at the end of this month and one in the planning stages for Barcelona in October.

I'm also thinking I'd like to fit Prague and Iceland in there somewhere, and my family is apparently thinking of Italy for Christmas....if only!!! Stop thinking people, and book it!

Hysterical!

Okay, you need to watch the two YouTube thingies below in order, because the second one is a response to the first. East Coast vs West Coast...

Tea Partay

Green Tea Partay

Culture

Yesterday I went to the Gormley exhibition at SouthBank Art Centre. The artist is a London-born sculptor, who has specialised in self-portrait through sculpture, as well as the exploration of the human condition in general. The two best parts of the exhibit were the "Light Box" and I can't remember the official name of the other part, but it was a series of probably 20-some cast iron replicas of the artist on top of lots of different buildings in the SouthBank area, on both sides of the river. All the statues sort of looked down and toward the gallery, and it was an eerie sort of feeling of being watched...sort of Matrix-esque. Or even better, City of Angels, where you saw all the angels watching everyone from rooftops. We wondered whether the Metropolitan police got a number of phone calls about jumpers the first couple of days that the statues went up...

The Light Box was a glass enclosure filled with vapor and bright light...sort of like a steam room without the heat. You could only see about a foot in front of your face once you stepped inside, so it was very disorienting. You took sort of small, halting steps to avoid crashing into someone else or the glass walls. We did actually see a lady's head bounce off of one of the glass walls from the outside-- ouch! It was interesting from that perspective as well, to see people materialize out of nowhere, right next to the glass. It made me think about patients I've had who are registered blind and can only see light and dark.

Me and Jules...

and Charlie! Jules is a good friend whom I met on the yoga/hiking trip in February in Wales. Very soon I'll have more pics to put up of me and Jules from last night (we went to Carwash! a 60s/70s themed club).

Soho bar

A group of us out for Jo's (not pictured) birthday two weekends ago. The other two girls in the picture are my other two housemates, Sheena and Nicole. Nicole is next to her now fiance Dave, and the other guy is Matt.

Sunday on the Common

OK, so I have lots to catch up on...probably too much, I'm not sure I remember everything from the past two weeks or so since I last posted. And that's part of the problem, I've been so busy I haven't been posting! Anyway, I'm starting with a few photos from the Ben and Jerry's Sunday on the Common festival, where there was plenty of sunshine, all the free ice cream you could eat, great music, and stuff like Toe Wrestling and Air Guitar Heroes! I'll try to update Flickr soon as well, I guess I've been posting photos mainly on Facebook and neglecting Flickr.

A great band called the Holloways

The 10,000 strong mass of humanity

Jo and James taking the festival totem pole stance

Jo, in front of the Sunday on the Common stage

Me and Tracey relaxing in the sun

Paper folding

Not much to report on tonight-- today was the first day of a 3-day course for Practice Educators. It's a pre-requisite to being a supervisor, and since I'm scheduled to have a student for September and October, it's a good thing I got a place on the course. However, today I was very much wishing I was at work instead. It was pretty much worthless, and they basically just touched on stuff that I already did at Tufts, when I was learning about this situation from the other side: being the student on placement. The highlight was the practical small group session where we were supposed to teach each other a skill, and figure out how the person teaching was imparting their knowledge (i.e. giving verbal directions, demonstrating, using visual aids, getting their group members to learn by doing, etc). In our small group, someone taught paper airplanes, someone else taught fortune tellers (remember those?! you wrote numbers and colors and stuff on the outside), and then we moved on to tackle an origami bird. Yup, that was the best part. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Quick update

Sorry, I lost the plot there for a little while as far as Blogger goes! And it won't be a very comprehensive entry tonight either, I'm pretty tired. I've been on a high all day energy-wise, I think because a friend and I did our first pool workout this morning before work. We swam laps steadily for half an hour, and although I was cursing myself out at 6:30am when the alarm went off, I was feeling really good about it by the time I got to the pool. We've agreed to swim together for two mornings a week, plus we've both now signed up for kickboxing classes after work on Tuesday evenings. Between that, yoga, and the gym, I think I've got the weekly workouts covered and am keeping it interesting with the mix of activities ;)

This past weekend we had some sunshine on Sunday, praise the Lord, and luckily enough it happened to be the day I was at the Lovebox music festival. We saw some fantastic sets from Hot Chip, The Rapture, B-52s, and Groove Armada...it was the first time I'd seen Groove Armada live, and I do love the group, but seeing them live just blew me away!! And I had no idea Andy Cato plays trombone, very cool! (I know, oblivious, but I guess I'd never paid too much attention before, I just knew I loved their music.) So on Monday, I went about my workday with "I See You Baby(Shakin'That Ass)" in my head all day long.

For the rest of the week, I'm on a course learning how to be a good supervisor (wheee), and will have my first student in the beginning of September. I'm actually wishing I didn't have to do the course though, because I've heard it's not very good, but unfortunately it's a requirement before I can be a supervisor.

Then this weekend there's a birthday night out for my friend Jo on Saturday, and a Ben and Jerry's festival on Sunday (will get to see The Proclaimers among other bands, and you get free ice cream all day with the price of admission, 12 pounds- bargain!- and it is appropriately called the Sundae in the Park festival)...I'm meeting up with my friend Tracey and my other friend Jo for that festival! It will be the first time seeing Jo and James actually, since we were together in Vermont a few weeks ago. Can't wait!

Double-Skiiers (bit bumpy at the end, sorry!)

Good times, good times

I am back in the UK, yes, and have put off blogging the past few days due to some major jet-lag. OK, ok, probably more in the minor-ish category, given I have yet to deal with coming back from someplace half way around the world. Still, it knocked me for a loop, and for my half day at work on Monday and yesterday, I was pretty much a zombie. Today I was half human and actually got some real work done ;)

Some of my favourite things from last week at Wissahickon...driving the new boat, woohoo! Sam took a skeptical look at my VT boat license, but made a leap of faith and let me take over the wheel, even encouraging me to open it up to high speeds (which I happily complied with)...and I have now been designated as the old fogey driver, and can claim 4 skiers and 2 tubers to my driving record. And you can plug your Ipod into the boat stereo, as well as bring on your drinks (there are a ton of cupholders plus intergrated cooler). Other boat related things-- I tried and successfully pulled off a dock start when waterskiing behind the new powerful boat, video to follow, and double-skiied with Chris, another first for Wissahickon. We talked about double slalom-skiing, but I still need to work on my slalom take-off before we try that one. We went to the 4th of July parade in Poultney, which I had not seen before, and the rodeo in Castleton, which we hadn't been to in years, all the kids went tubing with various adults, including Owen who is not yet 4 for his first tube ride ever with his mom, and we introduced ice cream cake to Jo and James for Jo's birthday. Oh yes, and the water balloon launcher made a re-appearance, and who was able to hit the neighbour who was taunting us on his jetski? Me, that's who!!

Anyway, here are some pics...I was given strict instructions to only choose flattering ones.

Flattering pic of Emma...

6 months old, awwww.

"Take me home country roads..."

WISSAHICKON

Jo's first ice cream cake

Happy Birthday!!

"Double your pleasure, double your fun!"

Me and Chris behind the boat, with Don H as driver and Dale as rope tender :)

James and the Giant Fish

Me, Jo and the Burk kids...

Owen (3.5), Sammy (6), and Lexi (8). We were at the Poultney 4th of July parade.

James and the Water-Balloon Launcher

With the right angle and tension, you can really make those babies fly long distances!