According to wikipedia "Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. (..) There are many reasons why people might choose to emigrate. Some are for reasons of religious, political or economic freedom or escape. Others have personal reasons such as marriage. Some people living in rich nations with cold climates choose to move to warmer climates when they retire."
Well, neither of these reasons apply to me, but nevertheless I decided to move from Germany to England where it always rains and the men are not really classified as the most attractive ones in the whole wide world. When you have lived in a foreign country before, you might know how different, awkward, funny and difficult your daily life can become.
Here are some highlights of my life in London Town.

September 9, 2012

Olympic and Paralympic Games

At first I was not excited at all about London 2012. I'm not really interested in watching sports, Transport for London spread panic about how the public transport system would collapse, tickets were too expensive anyway etc.

But then the Olympic Games arrived and surprisingly became personal and interesting. One of my friends participated in the opening ceremony, a guy from my hometown competed in the wheelchair table tennis competition, and all of a sudden, the olympic fire had even caught me:


I decided to get a ticket for the Paralympics and chose my favourite sport: dressage.
It was an early morning session, but the volunteers who guided us to the venue were all in such a great mood and danced and sang while leading the way. I really have to say all these volunteers impressed me so much. I heard that they had a course on American friendliness. I don't know if that's true, but they definitely transformed London for a couple of weeks to a friendlier place.
But what impressed me the most were the athletes participating in the Paralympic Games. Most of the equestrians had their disability from a horse-riding accident. How brave and strong must you be to get back on a horse? One guy from Ireland had only one leg and still had his horse perfectly under control:


But I think you really start caring when you actually know somebody participating in the games. I have no interest in table tennis whatsoever, but I watched all games of the German paralympic team, because a guy from my hometown was playing for the German team. In the end they won silver and I was so proud.

I have to say London 2012 was a once in a lifetime event. I'm glad I could take part in it and I'm looking forward to Rio in 2016: http://rio2016.com/en
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