31 October - 6 November

This week kicked off with me moving into my apartment (finally). It is good to be settled into a place to call "home." The picture above is my living room. The staircase leads up to my bedroom. From the bedroom, there is another staircase that leads up to a study. I also have my own garage and storage room in the basement. The place is big and nice and I'm really excited about it. The view off my back porch is amazing...green fields, hills, and forests. I have plenty of pictures, so if you're interested, email me at matthew.marcum@gmail.com and I can send you the link.

Tuesday was a day off, so that was the big day to explore my new 'hood and see what there is around. Three things stood out to me: there are a bunch of Chinese restaurants (good cashew chicken), the water is very cheap (8 bottles of water, 1.5 liters each, for 4 euros), and the wine is even cheaper (1 euro, 25 cents for a bottle of red wine). Also, there are a ton of fitness trails, forest trails, and overall good running and biking areas. There is also a nice pool and gym really close that I am probably going to join here soon.

All of my stuff arrived from the U.S. on Thursday. So after two months, I've finally been reunited with all of my things! I celebrated by fishing out my DVDs, drinking a couple of beers and watching Old School. It was a nice way to christen the new pad. I also got the internet all hooked up on Thursday, so I should be on Skype a lot here.

This weekend was decent...spent time on Saturday with a couple of my co-workers checking out some of the local establishments (i.e. bar hopping). Left the bars around midnight only to realize that the bus back to my apartment had stopped running for the night. Hoofed it home (about 3 miles), so I even got a semi-work out in too! (FYI: You can't hail cabs here from the street. You have to call ahead to order one. Also, all the cabs here are Mercedes and the cabbies don't smell...big difference from Chicago)

So this week should be pretty low-key. Will probably work pretty hard Monday through Wednesday. Then on Thursday, I am flying to London to rendevous with Agnes. I'm very pumped about that. We are staying with a friend of mine and his wife. Should be very fun and I'm looking forward to hearing a lot of English spoken!!!

Check back for more updates next week.