Happy holidays!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry that it has been a while since we uploaded our last blog entry. A lot has happened in the past weeks, and not only at work. We celebrated two major national holidays here in the States – Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Let’s start with Halloween. As you know this holiday is a big deal over here. Weeks before the 31st of October people started decorating their houses, carving pumpkins and getting their costumes ready. It was fun to experience all those activities and attend some real American Halloween parties. On the evening of the 31st a few kids would come by for trick-or-treating in both cute and scary costumes.

We have also done a trip to Washington D.C. on the weekend right after Election Day (November 8). It was very interesting to follow the debates and to feel the atmosphere prior to the election and after the votes had been made. The capital of the U.S. is a truly beautiful city. We did a lot of sightseeing as the weather was incredibly nice. We visited the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the Air and Space Museum just to name a few. Of course, we also saw the White House, although it was at a far distance.

On the Thanksgiving holiday weekend we went to Chicago after having a typical Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and lots of different delicious side dishes like sweet potatoes and pumpkin. Being in Chicago we understood why it got its nickname “the windy city”. It was super cold and windy in comparison to our previous trip to Washington D.C.

Besides the weather, Chicago is quite different than the capital in regards its architecture and neighborhoods. Despite the cold temperatures we have done lots of touristy activities like sitting on an architecture boat tour, going to the top of the Hancock and Willis Towers to get awesome views on the city, taking photos at the famous Cloud Gate in the Millennium Park and walking along the Navy Pier. We also ran into a very German Christmas Market. In addition, we went midnight shopping on Black Friday - the crowd in the mall was insane.

Furthermore, we went to two Detroit Piston games. In our opinion, basketball is more interesting than football or baseball to follow since the rules are much easier to understand and the show program during the breaks is extremely entertaining.

Thanksgiving was barely over when the Christmas season started. Similar to Halloween a couple of months ago, this holiday is celebrated big and fancy. In downtown Royal Oak, where we live, there was a huge Santa Pub Crawl event in mid-December which we joined with friends. It was fun to see so many people wearing Santa hats and “ugly” Christmas sweaters all at once.

In this sense we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!