Good Morning Columbus

As opposed to what many of you may think or say: Columbus is cool. Seriously. Nice and laid-back city of a manageable size with some really cute neighborhoods. Norman lives in one of them, the Italian Village in the Short North, which is pretty much downtown. In one of the coolest houses ever! If I had to give an award for the best house to one of my friends it would definitely go to Norman.

Everything has been fun since I arrived. Dinner at a nice Italian restaurant on Thursday night, sleeping in and hanging out on Norman's fabulous sofa on Friday morning (actually only I got to enjoy that as Norman had to work in the morning but it was still fabulous), a stroll through the Short North and a very happy hour on one of the terraces in the afternoon. Too bad I don't have any pictures. Later that night, I got to meet Norman's friends and we all headed to Columbus' Jazz & Rib Festival. Although the name could have easily been reduced to just Rib Festival since that seemed to be the primary focus of most people...

Saturday started rather late but continued in an exciting way - I got a personal guided tour through the very headquarters of Abercrombie & Fitch! Stylish buildings amidst lush greenery and sexy offices with hip music playing - basically the same look and feel as Abercrombie's stores. Unfortunately I seem to have missed the attractive male receptionists that welcome visitors during office hours... Either way, looked like a very cool place to work at.

After a rather stressful excursion to the mall on our way back (trying to tick off shopping lists for friends and relatives) we went to relax over sushi dinner with Norman's friends. Invigorated, we then headed to one of the bar areas to sample Columbus' nightlife. Which was wild. Haven't seen as many mini-dresses, drunk college girls and bachelorette parties in a while. Fun night. And long.

Against all odds I got up early this morning to test my new running shoes and went for a nice run through Columbus' Victorian Village and along Goodale Park - good start into the day! Now that everyone is awake we will have breakfast and venture out to Columbus' German Village - am excited to see zos dschörmäns in Amerika.