Old Friends

As most of you know, back in 2004-05 I lived in Umeå in northern Sweden for seven months as part of my undergraduate degree programme. I had a fantastic time.

Anyone who's done a stay at a foreign university will know that you end up meeting heaps of interesting people from all over the world, but that it's hard to stay in touch with all of them. Fortunately, I've managed to keep in close contact with a few of the Umeaners, and it's been great that some of them have even visited in the past few weeks.

First came Jóhanna from Iceland with her boyfriend, Arnar. They only had a day in London, but as both of them had been before, we could have a relaxing day strolling around, looking at shops, eating, and walking for forty minutes through heavy rain because they'd shut the flippin' underground (see Project 365).

So here are a couple of photos (Arnar was evidently very happy to be in England!)
A quick Merry Christmas to Jóhanna and Arnar, because I believe the first Icelandic Santa Claus comes tonight (they have thirteen - how unfair's that?)

Then Grit, Philipp and Christoph (who brought me 24 Mars bars) came over from Germany and spent the weekend here (you'll be happy to know that the English weather excelled itself here too).
We went down Southend Pier one evening (how dramatic does the sky look?!)

We missed the train back, so, rather than walk back up the pier, we decided to take photos of ourselves... (In the second one we were supposed to look like H&M models... I think I managed it the best).
Until the wind broke Christoph's camera and we had to stop...

The way we were (a few photos from 2004):
Christoph and Philipp balancing ON the Arctic Circle: