Pajc Thank you for sharing your awesome photos with us. We are wondering which of these gorgeous spts we would be visiting first if we ever got to NZ. Even I myself, who is crazy about the sea, am just as impressed with the beautiful (Shire-like) landscapes. - Have a lot of fun in Rotorua playing an (hopefully) interesting tournament and perhaps swimming in one of those attractive lakes we read about.

Pajc We hope your nice car will be as faithful a companion as Samwise was to Frodo and will be your loyal servant on all your (hopefully exciting) trips. We're all torn between being proud of you having been the first in the family to have bought a car and pure envy. :) – Do enjoy the summer with all its goodies: ice cream, beaches and yes, even mosquitoes!

Marie It's actually very interesting to think about just how much in life happens just so randomly. Sometimes the smallest things you do or decisions you make have just such outstanding impacts on your life - and sometimes you spend so much time thinking something over and it turns out to be not that important after all. It's scary and kind of cool at the same time. I am trying to get used to rely more on the random things right now. Just some random thinking about life.

Pajc Hasn't life turned out rather satisfyingly? You started out going to the club just to have some fun playing cards and now you're on the other side of the world, meeting nice people and enjoying bridge evenings (not just with old ladies ;) ). Have some wonderful days in Auckland - discover the city and find lots of great cars! :)

Claudia Eggeling Viel Glück und liebe, kompetente Helfer beim Autokauf! :-) <3

Claudia Eggeling Oberschön, dieses Foto. Dort zu sitzen muss ja ein tolles Gefühl sein! Ganz liebe Grüße von Claudia

Elke NIce, pls say hello to Anna :)

Pajc Hey adventurer! Do we envy you? - Yes, we do! For being able to get sunburnt and for being among easygoing people. Right now, we feel very boring and earthbound. Yet we are so happy for you and relish every spontaneous and courageous act of yours (like buying a car :) ). We're all hoping that you get some WiFi access soon, as we are longing to see more beautiful shots like the one from Wellington. Sea, sun, summer, landscape... - you get the picture. :) Lots of love from all of us!

Thomas Fein, dass alles fast perfekt geklappt hat. Eine schöne Zeit und ganz liebe Grüße von Deinem Papa - in trostlosen WOB kurz vor einem Meeting

Claudia Eggeling Wie schön zu lesen, dass Du gut angekommen bist und es Dir gut gefallt. Ich freue mich schon auf die vielen Fotos, die Du machen wirst... ;-) Ganz liebe Grüße von Claudia, bereits bei der Arbeit im Klinikum.

birgit lb marie,ich freue mich mit dir auf e spannende zeit.glg u umarmung.birgit

Pajc What a disastrous beginning for your stay in Sanya! We hope you changed your hotel by now - and actually did improve your situation. Did you get more Yuan? We read that lots of people on Hainan speak English, did you meet some them? Smiling and giggling is not meant to be rude, in China it is a common way of dealing with uncomfortable/embarassing situations or conflicts. People try to create a relaxed atmosphere by doing that. Many "Westerners" misunderstand that and feel laughed at. - That's what we read, anyway. We will be watching your results on the WBF website - so you better play well! :)

Pajc What a lucky idea to write some nice postcards. :) How open-minded this teacher is and how courageous his students to go about and just talk to strange people in a foreign language! Don't pity them too much, perhaps they're better off living in a country like Vietnam than being (relatively) rich, travel a lot and have lots of opportunities. By the way, your Hamburg grandmother reads your blog too, relishes every bit of it and sends best wishes! We wish you a safe trip to Sanya and success with the cards!

marieli Cool, your english reply sounds much better than my english entry ;-) The boadtrip took about four hours (including lunch, cajaking, caves). Late afternoon we were back and spend some time at the beach (unfortunatly rather dirty).Afterwards I went for dinner and some cocktails to an italian restaurant with Melanie. Yeah, we wew told by many locals that normally the rainy period would have already started but that we are lucky as it will probably begin later thid year.In the first days we sometimes had about one hour of hard rain in the evening but really sunny days. The day before yesterday it was raining all morning, than stopped for some hours and than started again really hard - you probably never saw anything like this before, Raffael you remember Acores? Like that, only for much longer.Now I am going to have some breakfast!