Sometimes life doesn't seem real

My Studio apartment for the week

I really am never leaving

View from my door

The garden

The house

More of the yard

I am in St. Tropez for the week working!  I am going to ride a bike to the beach and spend the day between the sand and sea! 

8 Months - The Countdown to Home

I have decided to leave the family and come home. I mean that in every sense of the word. I am moving into my house with my parents. After months of conversations with friends, the family, my family etc. I made the decision that it was time for me to head home.  The family doesn't know anything about Paris and as far as I can tell it has fallen completely out of the conversation in the last two weeks. 

So now my count down has begun. I have a lot to accomplish before I leave but I have also a great year to look back on and it isn't even over yet! I am going to miss so much about this lifestyle (aka. little work and a lot of play). I have also started to understand how hard it is going to be to leave the family. I have my fair share of complaints but at the end of the day these kids have stolen my heart ten times over! To make it worse, G has begun to make it clear how sad she is that I am leaving and that "I should stay for forever with her."  

This begins the countdown. Summer is around the corner and I have several more trips to be planned before I head back to San Diego at the end of August. I am heading to Spain and Amsterdam this week, Paris (for real this time) in June, a few more places in Switzerland (including paragliding!), and possibly Scandinavia in August before heading home. My schedule is packed and I love it! I am hoping a weekend trip in May to Rome if I can make it work.  I will also be going to the South of France twice with the family not to mention actually enjoying Zurich for the summer! 

A Sunny Ski Week

Skiing is a huge thing in Switzerland. With the Alps all around us, most people learn to ski when they are 3 years old.  Skiing is so big that they get a ski break (1-2 weeks) off from school to take advantage of the slopes all around them.  So off to the mountains I went with Mama C and the kids.  We stayed with a family friend in Falera, Switzerland. It is absolutely beautiful and a perfect week in the mountains by my standards.  It was about nearly 50 degrees every day and there were few clouds in the sky.  This meant that I was able to go some amazing hikes and runs (yes you read that right). I got some sun on my face and attempted to reintroduce the sun to my legs as well.  It can be described at nothing other than glorious!

Mama C was extremely generous and offered to pay for me to have a private ski lesson.  So made the reservations and was asked what level I was at.  I promptly responded with "beginner."  She looked at me confused and clarified that I meant beginner (remember how everyone learns to ski when they are 3?).  I confirmed.  The nice lady told me to meet my instructor at the Pony Slope. "You know where the kids ski?"  I laughed to myself and said yes.

I was off to the lesson on Wednesday morning.  I walked out of the rental place with my skis and within 15 seconds fell backwards. Skis and poles flew and the man from the rental shop looked at me trying not to laugh and asked if I was ok.  I quickly gathered myself, nodded, and moved quickly away from the scene.  I was off to a great start.

I headed to the PonySlope to start my lesson with a bruised hiney and, in all honesty, not feeling very confident.  I was having flashbacks to screaming and tumbling down the mountain a few weeks prior.

I met my instructor.  She decided to clarify that I was a beginning and once I confirmed we started.  We had the slope to ourselves for the first hour, and then the kids came with their parents.  I could do nothing other than laugh at the current situation.  I was learning out to snowplow surrounded by kids with the average age of 5.  Parents stared confused and I smiled as my instructor held my poles up the t-bar.

The lesson ended and I was feeling good.  I didn't fall and I was turning like it was second nature.  I spent some time alone on the slope and then headed back to the house for lunch.  I wish my story ended there, but because I was feel like so good they gave me their lift pass and I headed to a blue slope (blue is the easiest here).  P (the 9 year old boy) came up with me. 

The blue slope was not so easy and I was not so confident once I left the kids' slope.  No matter how much I knew what I was supposed to do, without the confidence the idea of gaining speed was too much for me to handle.  I told P to snowboard down without me. I gave it a try but ended up walking down holding my skis.  While I now know the technique to turn and stop, I can't say that I will picking up the sport any time soon.

**I have run into some computer problems and have limited access to a computer at the moment so I am a bit late on any updates/pictures and will be for a couple weeks probably.

Berlin: A City of Caution; A City of Hope

Berlin a fantastic city! I thought it was so full of life and history. It has a personality that is screaming at you but is undefinable.  We went on two walking tours during out Berlin trip. Both were extremely interesting and taught me so much about the history of Berlin. 

It was so interesting to hear about how Berlin was just 20 years ago and to see it now. You would never guess that most of the city was destroyed 60 years ago and that until 20 years ago was divided into small pieces and their people living under a variety of circumstances.  

The first tour we went on was a four hour walking tour of the city.  Did I mention it was 11 degrees out? Regardless, it was worth it. I had layered up enough to get through it.  We were given a 600 year run down of the city's history, which is immensely interesting.  Obviously, it was brief but so interesting. The city has experienced so many wars, takeovers, and atrocities and you would never guess that based on the city that I just visited.  We saw one of the few Nazi buildings still standing, Social Realist art, museums, and so many buildings that look hundreds of years old but are replicas rebuilt after the war ended. 

We did a second tour (today it was 33 out...it was like summer!).  This one was called the Underground tour. We saw all different parts of the city and heard about the less history book history of Berlin but more about the culture and the people.  Berlin is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world.  There are artists popping up everywhere and the street art is alive and well throughout the city.  It a highly respected aspect of Berlin.  We saw some old street art and some new art.  We were able to go to Kuntshaus Tacheles. It was formerly a Department Store in the Jewish Quarter and has long history of different uses.  The cellar was used to house much of the Third Reich's documents but was flooded by the Nazis at the end of the war.  It is now used as an art studio.  The art is amazing.  The walls are covered it in art project after art project.  It was quite a sight to see! 

One of the other buildings that I thought was great was a house in West Berlin that had been used by a terrorist organization during the Cold War.  There are paintings on all four sides of the house, which depicts the evils of capitalism.  It was used by a group that was fighting for the East in the West, which we don't hear about too often.  In the same neighborhood there was a serious of brightly colored faces of people of all ages and ethnicities throughout some formerly bad areas of Berlin.  It was a project to lift some areas out of poverty and crime by giving them something to be proud of in their neighborhood.  It worked quite well, along with some other projects, and was described as extremely successful by our guide. 

I found Berlin to be such an inspiring city.  It has such a dark history and one they aren't very proud of but they have overcome these horrendous events and created an extremely diverse and open-minded city.  I highly recommend a visit to Berlin and hope to return there as well. There are countless museums and more street art to explore! 

As for pictures these are pretty much all I have. By this point, I was tired of taking pictures and pretty much just too cold to do it. My friends took many pictures of the street art and other things so I knew I would have access to those! I will probably add a few once we all exchange pictures. So here are the few that I have. 

It is a little hard to tell but it is a 

woman holding a child. It is a 

memorial to all those who have 

suffered from injustice. 

Check Point Charlie was the largest check-

point between the East and the West. 

The French Cathedral; The German one 

is across they way and is a meter taller.

A Very European Christmas

We spent Christmas in Budapest.  I had anticipated it being a lot harder to be away from home than it was.  (Although, I don't plan on making it a habit to be away for the holidays.) I was so lucky to be with one of my good friends from home and a couple of new friends I have made in Switzerland.

We arrived in Budapest on the 23rd.  After dinner and a little walking around, we headed to bed for an early morning at the thermal baths! It was the perfect Christmas Eve. We got to the baths and it was sunny and 50 degrees out (this is a good thing). A few hours in a warm pool followed by a massage and some more pool time, all for the low cost of $30! It was absolutely fabulous!

Our Castle filled with piles of water!

After exploring the city some more we discovered another highlight of Budapest. This delicious treat caught our attention when there was an extremely long line at the stand. We couldn't not try it! 

Now in case you can't tell what that is let me try to explain. It is this absolutely delicious piece of hot doughy heaven covered in cinnamon and sugar.  Sound amazing right? It was! 

Then we headed back for a short and very unplanned nap. We then headed to check out the church and see the cityscape at night.  Then we headed back to our apartment to make our impromtu Christmas Eve dinner. Since none of us are competent in Hungarian, we bought cream cheese instead of ricotta cheese.  We were also left with very few pans! We are creative people though so we made a successful lasagna-esq dinner followed by several bottles of wine 

and night of playing cards! 

Christmas day was relaxing as well. We ventured out for a walk around the city. It didn't last too long because it was hailing and windy...and all around unpleasant to be outside. We did get a chance to check out the Parliament building (the third largest). We then made another dinner and spent the evening relaxing, watching Love Actually, and Skyping with our families. It was sooo great to be able to see my family on Christmas! Technology saved the day again! Stephen (my little brother) set a place for me at the table on Christmas Eve which meant the world to me! I am glad that I was with some great friends for the holidays, but nothing beats having an amazing family around you! 

On our way out we went to Memento Park, which is an accumulation of old Communist statues. We took it upon ourselves to pose as each statue was posing.  

Shelly reenacting the statue

I am falling in love..

I am falling in love with Baby Gaga.  She is my buddy. She listens. I know how to calm her down. She is simple. She is starting to smile and copy you facial expressions. (Disclaimer: Most of the time when she is smiling she is actually just trying to fart...but it is just adorable!)  She is responsive.  She is slowly stealing my heart.

I wasn't supposed to spend a whole lot of time with her but because of issues with the nursery she was going to go to when Mama C goes back to work, we might get (ya, that's right..I GET to spend more time with her..I don't know who I am anymore!) to spend more time together.  

I think it is a combination of often wanting to strangle the other two for not listening and turning me into the world's biggest nag and the fact that she is starting to have a bit more of a personality.  Whatever it is, it scares me a little that she is stealing is winning me over with her adorableness!

On a completely unrelated note, Andrew comes tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! I am soooo excited to see him since it has actually been a year and half!!! Only 7 more days until I get to go on an amazing holiday!!!! 

One-Third Done

There is a time period after you move somewhere that it is new an exciting.  You are exploring a new place (and by exploring..I mean constantly getting lost).  When I arrived in Zurich, it was surreal and extremely overwhelming.  I was actually left to fend for myself and was living with a stranger for the first week.  I was jet-lagged and disoriented.  I actually remember thinking that I would never get a grip on this city, between the buses, trams, trains, and walking.

Four months later, it is no longer this exciting new place, but it has become my everyday life. I actually live in Switzerland.  I have a pretty regular schedule.  I have made a great group of friends who I adore (awww...).  I have explored a few countries and most importantly, I have figured out the city.  I know how to get places and can occasionally even give people directions.  I have cafes and bars that I love and I am still constantly discovering new places to go.

While I feel like I understand Zurich, I have isolated myself in an international bubble.  I am still trying to find the culture.  My family isn't Swiss and I don't have any Swiss friends. I am a little embarrassed to say that I have barely spoken to any Swiss people.  This was the opposite of what I thought would happen.  This isn't just my experience either, nearly all of my friends or people I have met seem to interact with the seemingly mysterious (or indifferent) Swiss people.  Maybe this will change in the next 8 months, but it doesn't seem likely.

(insert your own transitional sentence here...)

We are in the middle of the holiday season. The lights are up around the city, the Christmas Markets have arrived, and we even have a tree decorated in crystals!

It is glorious!

However, this is also bitter sweet.  I am so incredibly lucky and grateful for everything I have done and will get to do while I am here, but it doesn't make being away from family and friends for the holidays any easier.

The sweet part is what I am doing over Christmas and New Year's Eve.  I am so lucky to have a great group to travel to Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Germany with! It is going to be a holiday break for the books! I am sooo lucky to have a friend from college coming to visit and spend the next 3 weeks with me, in addition to a couple of other aupairs!

So while it is going to be a different kind of Christmas, I am so excited for it! I am amazed that I have reached my four month mark! Time is flying by and there is still so much to do before August rolls around.

Good-bye Thanksgiving, Hello Christmas

My Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful.  While it was more like a massive dinner party, it had a 27 pound turkey, mashed potatoes, greens beans, and apple pie so I couldn't have asked for anything more being 9,000 miles away from home.  It was a fun experience because, in addition to the Americans, there were people from all over the world.  I know we had Brazil, Italy, India, Iran, Denmark, South Africa, and several other countries represented.

Our turkey chef!

Our turkey carver!

It was great to share our traditions with people from all over the world! Someone had never had gravy before and another had never had an apple pie! I think everyone had a really great time! It was a unique Thanksgiving! I was able to talk to the family in San Diego for awhile when I got back to my dungeon which made it a successful day of giving thanks!

My apple pie was a success =) 

When I left the apartment where dinner was, I walked outside and it was snowing. As I made my way to Bahnhofstrasse (the main street in Zurich) where they had their Christmas lighting ceremony earlier that night. So I really did walk out of Thanksgiving into Christmas. It was such a crazy experience to see such an obvious visual of the holidays changing.

(Sorry about those pictures, they don't capture how pretty the street actually looked but I will work on getting something better)

Then I woke up in the next morning to this in our backyard... 

So winter is here and Christmas is just around the corner! It is time to embrace winter and what it has to offer!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So this is the second Thanksgiving I am not in San Diego for. However, last year I shot up to Boston and spent it with my Aunts and Uncles and of course my "little" brother Stephen! It was a great substitute but of course spending Thanksgiving in San Diego with football, turkey, pie, and our annual game of  Battle of the Sexes Trivia Pursuit is irreplaceable.

This year is much different. I am abroad. This translates into Thanksgiving being a non-existent holiday.  My American friends and I have been talking about what do today for a couple of weeks and we are having a traditional Thanksgiving. However, I will not be any family, there will be no football, and I spent the morning looking after a 7 week old baby.  Needless to say, it just doesn't quite feel like Thanksgiving.

I am super excited that we will be having turkey today, which is a feat in itself because the Swiss don't eat turkey! I also spent the morning baking an apple pie and peeling 3 kg of potatoes to make into some (hopefully) delicious mashed potatoes. The dinner I am going to will have people from all over the world (potentially 6 of the 7 continents) and many Americans. I am excited to enjoy a massive feast with my new friends!

In keeping with tradition here's a list of things that I am unbelievable grateful for (in no specific order):

1. I am so thankful for having an amazing and supportive family! I decide to do and say ridiculous things all the time knowing that they will be behind me in the end. I love you all sooo much and wish that I could be with you today!
2. All of my friends from high school, college, life in DC, and everything in between! I am so lucky to have each of you in my life! I miss you so much and am so excited every time I get talk to you all the way in Switzerland!
3.  Video Chat, facebook, phones, online television..etc. Without this technology I am not sure that I would EVER be able to live over 6,000 miles away from everything and everyone I know! 
4. My mother - She gets an individual shout out for countless reasons! I am learning so much about what it takes to raise a family and make a Thanksgiving dinner! I am shocked everyday that you were able to do it all! I love you and thank you times a million! 
5. Living in Europe! This is such a great opportunity and it has been so much fun already! The new friends I have made are fantastic! I have been able to travel and my month of December is going to absolutely jammed with exciting adventures!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And a Happy Thursday to those of you who won't be celebrating Thanksgiving! Much love and safe travels!