This week has been hot.  Our highs have been in the 80’s (Fahrenheit) everyday since Tuesday, and we broke into a new decade of Celsius degrees on Friday, when the high was 86°F (30° C).  I don’t remember 80’s feeling this hot in Minnesota, and part of that might be because we don’t have air conditioning in our apartment.  Which is the norm for Europe, and even Melissa’s lab/office is not air conditioned.  This caused a strange occurrence on Thursday, when Melissa had to chase pigeons out of the lab that had snuck in over night through a window left open to cool off the space.  It might be a long hot summer.

Pigeons waiting to come in

One positive with the rising temperature however, is that there is a giant lake nearby.  We went walking along the shore twice this week, and both times people were out swimming.  We waded in, but it still feels a little cold for us.

Sports were big news this week, there was the Champions League final on Saturday, and the French Open Men’s final today.  The Champions League final is like the Superbowl of European Soccer. It’s a tournament where all best teams compete at the end of their season.  I got to watch it with some of Melissa’s groupmates, at one of their apartments.  It was fun, the only confusing part for me was that one of the teams was wearing referee jerseys.

Watching European football

In other sports news we found out that Stan Wawrinka, of Switzerland, and who’s hometown is a suburb of Lausanne, won the French open today.  We learned of this without even having to watch the match.  We were sitting by our open window when all of a sudden we heard a bunch of people yelling from different directions in the city, and then car horns honking from different directions.  We thought this was really weird and couldn’t put it together until Melissa checked her phone and saw some messages on WhatsApp from her group about the French open.  Maybe there will be a ticker tape parade?  I’ll have to pay closer attention to the news now.

And of course the biggest news of the week is that today is Melissa’s and my first wedding anniversary.  We spent the day first with brunch, then walking along the lake, then drinking wine looking out the window.  It’s been quite the exciting year of marriage.  We both push each other to do new things, and achieve things together we never could alone.  I can’t wait to see what adventures the next years of marriage bring!