I grew up in Halle/S., a city in former East Germany. I moved to North America in 2003, first for 2 1/2 years to Vancouver, B.C., and then in 2005 to Bellingham, WA.

My family and I enjoy the outdoors, going hiking and biking. We LOVE the beach, so every other vacation is a beach vacation: Maui, San Diego, Paestum/Italy, Siesta Key, Warnemünde/Germany, Hawaii – Big Island (you get the picture: warm water is definitively preferred by all of us).

I like to run, mostly half marathons but I survived one full marathon as well. Since this year, I’m interested in triathlons. My first one was the local Lake Padden Tri, let’s see if I will enter some more in the future.