Mum went home this afternoon, having arrived here on Saturday evening. I met her at the airport, and was delighted to see her 
She immediately started looking after me, with a trolley full of shopping, and was apparently amused by two guys who were, quote “seriously checking out [my] ass”
She cooked me a lovely spaghetti bolognese dinner, including a bottle of bubbly (only half of which ended up on my carpet 
) and enough leftovers for a few days, before we unpacked the chocolate cake she’d brought – very minorly squished, but nonetheless seriously yummy! We had a nice quiet night in, generally relaxed and enjoyed the company.
Sunday was Christmas market day – we toured Marienplatz, Munchner Freiheit, the medieval market at Odeonsplatz, the crib market at the Rindermarkt and so on. We sampled Gluhwein and Bauerwurst (just a giant bratwurst, as far as I can tell), and mum even tried some Sauerkraut – anything for warmth! We also got two gorgeous mugs – mum, if you’re reading, you forgot to bring them home!
Dinner was at the Hard Rock Cafe – I’ve sampled a few of these around the world, and never been much impressed. But I really like the one in Munich – went with Colm last week, and even mum enjoyed it!
In the evening, we hung around Marienplatz for a bit, to listen to the carols, but weren’t overly impressed, so headed off to Tollwood – it was amazing! We found the crafty tent, and had a lovely time wandering around, checking out the stalls. Not really very Christmassy, but a fantastic visit.
Monday I had a few lectures etc, and we did some more shopping – I was royally spoilt all weekend, really I came out with two polo-necks, a wooly jumper, a few pairs of socks, thermal underwear, and yet more food Thanks mum! I did a final practise of my NTP lecture before another lovely bolognese dinner, and we retired nice and early.
This morning, I was up with the larks, had a brilliant ‘Fachtext’ class (we’re working on writing a linguistic paper – and today was relatively easy-going, learning how to cite stuff properly, and some banter with the lecturer over Irish names, and English title-caps ), and met mum for coffee. By this stage, I was dying of nerves!
We went over to Oettingenstr for my presentation, and how I didn’t throw up, I don’t know. Set up my laptop, waited, waited, waited – finally, people were there, and after a brief false start (I was JUST starting, when someone walked in), I did my presentation. Two more people arrived during it, but that was grand. The class seemed rather underwhelmed, and the lecturer even dozed off at one point, but then again, they never seem especially enthusiastic – and Matthias, my friend in that class, was at least awake enough to laugh at my jokes
They said afterwards that it had been at a pretty good technical level, so I was happy enough. Most amazingly, despite me losing a slide (it was there when I ran through them in the classroom before the presentation, but just never materialised in the slideshow when I was actually giving it – the joys of PowerPoint) it managed to last a full 45 minutes – in practise runs, it had been between 20 and 30 mins. The full presentation is at www.nerdchic.net/zeit/, including the phantom slide (defining a second).
We wandered round the Christmas market at the Chinesische Turm before coming home, so I could walk off some of the adrenalin, and mum could see all the pretty things (ok, ok, I wanted to see them too . Mum made garlic-toasty-lunch, with eggs, and we went for a quick visit to the church, and to see where the Israeli team had stayed during the Olympics. Far too soon, it was time for me to go to uni, and mum to go to the airport 
We went to the U-Bahn station for the uni, and got off together to say a proper goodbye. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a quick enough one, because mum didn’t quite manage to catch the next train (she shoved her bag in the door, but didn’t make it in herself, so had to pull back sharpish!). She got onto the next one, and I was waving her off (not wanting to leave before she’d gone), when Bari came up and asked who I was waving at. Mouthed “Bari” at mum, pointing to Bari (I’m pretty sure I’d already told her that Bari was one of the Canadian girls), and then went off with Bari, leaving mum on the train. ALMOST cried as we were leaving the station, but Bari started talking about her experiences that day getting her visa all sorted, so I was ok.
Linguistics was also a good class, got a text from mum, texted her back afterwards, all’s well really. Emer invited me to go down to her if I wanted some company tonight, so I wouldn’t be lonely, but I got stuck into some DRI stuff when I got home, so by the time I thought of it, it was already 10pm, and I wasn’t really that lonely anyway. Hanging around for a skype from home – I’ve nothing on tomorrow morning, so I don’t need an early bedtime – just to say g’night. Looking forward to seeing Colm real soon, and the rest of the family at Christmas