Pete's Log: Christmas Break

Entry #1675, (Life in General)
(posted when I was 31 years old.)

Diana spent her Christmas break in Munich. She trained over here from Tübingen on the 18th and returned yesterday. So she was here almost three weeks. I think that is the most time I've spent with her in probably 10 years or more.

Having run out of vacation days (2009 was the first year I managed to use my full six weeks of vacation), I had to work during that time, but because of the holidays, they were short weeks.

Since it was her first Christmas away from home (to my knowledge), I tried to be a good host. Tony was also in town for the holidays, and we'd bought a little tree. Diana took over decorating duties and the apartment turned pretty festive.

We did manage to get to a few Christmas markets, but for the most part we just hung out at home or at Hüttnwirt. We rang in the New Year on one of the pedestrian bridges across the Isar. In typical German style, we had brought our own fireworks, and launched them along with the hundreds of others around us who were doing the same.

For the sake of my mother, I will not go into greater detail on our fireworks antics.

Diana also celebrated her 21st birthday in Munich. To celebrate we went and saw Avatar in 3D. We found one theater in Munich that was showing it in both 3D and English. Luckily, we reserved in advance, since it sold out.

I was impressed by the film. Definitely worth seeing in 3D. The plot was pretty obvious and the characters not terribly interesting. But that didn't matter, because it was so visually stunning. It sort of reminds me of when I first saw the Final Fantasy movie. I remember being unimpressed by the plot, but that not mattering because it was so visually appealing. But with the Final Fantasy movie I remember constantly thinking about the effects. With Avatar, the world they created was so visually appealing that I didn't find myself even thinking about the effects used to create it. That I find impressive.

After the movie, we visited Hüttnwirt, where Antje gave Diana a drink in celebration of her birthday.

Next week will be my first full five day work week since Dec 14-18. I guess I better get used to things returning to normal again...