About Sylvia:

Sylvia and James when we went to the beach for the afternoon. So cold.

I met Sylvia at The River House as a unexpected guest; James apparently picked up to hitchhikers a french girl and Sylvia and invited them to do woofing at his house. It was a more than welcome surprise since being trapped in the house all day and only having James to talk to at night was a bit wearing. Sylvia has come for Germany to do her one year post graduation country tour. Apparently it is common in Europe to spend one year after graduation backpacking a country or two and it seems especially common for Germans to come to NZ since I have seen so many of them at every hostel. She will be spending a few months on the north island, a few months on the south and then a few weeks in australia before heading home. Sylvia has an older sister (by 10 years) and lives with her parents which are sending her money every month to help fund the trip although she did save a lot before coming. She also has a boyfriend of two years named Tobias and they work together as lifeguards at the local pool. They love to surf together in the Baltic but he'll go out when it's freezing and she'll just make sandcastles on the beach. Her English is not very strong (i'm impressed by how much she understands!) so she is working on that while she is here as well as figuring out what she would like to study at Uni (university) back home.Yesterday I taught her a new word: drown. That combined with the crazy look on her face was hilarious. It's great to travel with her since I get to learn about Germany and share things with her that we see for the first time together. It's more fun to travel with someone if only for a while. Always nice to have someone to share things with.