Bogota, Barranquilla, Boston, Bremen

It was great going on a work trip to Bogota and being accompanied by my friend Rebi. She had spent two months with a family in Barranquilla, so we went to see them and they showed me as much as possible within barely two days - the beach, the city, Cartagena, agua de coco, arroz de coco, croquetas de lentejas... it was like two weeks condensed into a few hours and a really good language training for me as well. Rebi was lucky that she could stay with Susa´s family who even created fantastic home made food for us vegetarians!
After the exciting adventure tour to Colombia, my next work trip took me to Boston. Just very lucky that hurricane Sandy had already passed and the snow storm had not yet arrived. It was chilly, but going with my ex flatmate Mark for a run through the park down to the river and then exploring Cambridge with him by bike warmed me up.
These days you find rental bike stations every few km in Boston, and you can rent a bike for 5$ a day. A great value if you want to see as much as possible in a limited time! And there are so many new bike trails marked everywhere on the roads, I think Boston is the cyclist-friendliest and -safest city in the US! Not quite up to my home town Bremen yet, but definitely much better than Munich for example!
Mark is working at the MIT at the moment, and it was great to have the chance to see some of the many labs in the huge main building, with Mark explaining some wall decorations to me. So many famous scientists had been or are teaching at the MIT, I like the sparkling creativity of that place! Also we made a tour through Harvard - who else has a canteen that looks like a large, old church?
Even after all these great trips, it is nice to come back home and see the grand town hall of Bremen again. And sometimes, on very rare occasions, you can be lucky and even experience a ray of sun or two in northern Germany!