Looking back

Hi friends - happy holidays!  I'm in the midst of packing up for my trip home, and I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming new year, as well as looking back at the the past 12 months.  I did a Year in Review post when I hit my one-year anniversary in Switzerland, and obviously most of that is relevant to 2015, but I wanted to do something similar to what I did in 2012 and recap the ups and downs of the calendar year.  So here we go:

Favorite memories of 2015
Visiting Russia alone in winter
All the visitors (especially Nancy Lin!)
Finishing the Geneva Half Marathon feeling great
Prague food tour (that whole weekend, really)
San Francisco
A Saturday afternoon in Old Town

Not so favorite memories of 2015
A stressful last week of March
A stressful April 1 and 2
Some unexpected work projects in May
Feeling exhausted by the end of summer
Feeling homesick

The highs definitely outweighed the lows this past year, so I can't really complain.  Life has been good lately, and I'm hoping that trend continues into the next twelve months!

Season two

Hello all.  It is my last week of work before the holidays, and I am really feeling ready for a break!  I fly home to Tampa a week from today (yay), and I can't wait.  I'll be spending the week of Christmas in Florida.  I'm looking forward to hot pot at home with Nancy Lin, salt & peper tofu at the Yummy House, a Cuban sandwich, a Publix sub, running on Bayshore Blvd, and of course, seeing as many friends as possible!

Then I'll be heading to Colorado to celebrate New Years at the Frozen Tundra Chalet with Stephanie and the gang!  This will be my fourth NYE spent with Stephanie, Lena, and Cindy (see 2014, 2013, and 2012), and this is our first return trip to the FTC for NYE.  You may recall that last year, I had just began to learn to ski - with mild success.  This year, I'm looking forward to getting a lot better on the slopes, and I'm curious to test out my skills in Winter Park!

I've already kicked off my second season of skiing earlier this month.  The ski club that I am in does an opening trip to Zermatt every year, and since I had such a great time in Zermatt last season, I was happy to return!

We rode the bus up on Friday night, and after a late dinner, we called it a night pretty early because we wanted to wake up early to get on the lifts!  It was a beautiful day in Zermatt on Saturday, and ski buddy Becca and I spent the day cruising around the blue slopes shaking off the cobwebs.  There wasn't a ton of snow, so not all the runs and lifts were open, but it was plenty to keep us entertained for the day.

There were a few points where the visibility was not so good, but we managed to navigate through every run pretty successfully.  We even managed to make it down two reds!!

After a long day of skiing, you do shot-skis.

On Sunday, Becca and I tackled the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, which is basically skiing on a glacier.  Fun right?  The only way down from the top is a series of reds, so we were a bit nervous going into it, but we took our time and made it down without any problems!  We both actually felt like it was not at all as bad as we had anticipated.  So proud!

And after the glacier, I treated myself to a giant rosti for lunch :)

This coming weekend, I am heading over to Chamonix, France.  So far, the snow conditions don't look great, but even if there isn't much skiing to be done, I'm excited to get to look around the town a bit more!  Since Chamonix is only about an hour away from Geneva, it is a really popular place to go, but since I don't have a car, I haven't really had the chance to spend much time there, so I'm looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about.

Other than that, I'm basically just counting down until Florida and frantically online shopping.  The weekend can't come soon enough!

Safe and sound

Hi everyone - right now, Geneva is on a heightened terror alert, but I am safe and sound at Zach and Courtney's apartment.  Don't worry!

Life lately

Hi friends.  How is everyone's week starting out?  I have returned from my first ski weekend of the season, and I'm happy to say that I wasn't as rusty as I expected to be!  I will have more to share about the past weekend later on, but for now, here is a look at all things that have been happening in the past few weeks.  Life has been busy, but full of good things, lately!

I celebrated Thanksgiving with a group of co-workers and friends.  I am so thankful for the people in my life here in Geneva.  They are awesome.

The weekend of Thanksgiving was spent at Mallory's wedding in Waterford, Ireland!

We stayed in a castle, which was absolutely spectacular.

Flowers for the nine (!) bridesmaids

 

Of course, we had scones to snack on while getting ready

Yay!

Have you ever been to an Irish wedding?  The ceremony was at 1pm, and the DJ didn't stop playing until 2am... needless to say, it was such a fun night :)

I got these buffalo chips from a vending machine in the Dublin airport.  What I think is funny is the fact that there is a picture of an actual buffalo on the bag!

Uh - I joined Crossfit for a month.  Some of the workouts absolutely smoked me.

I made 7-layer dip for a co-worker potluck.  I work on a pretty diverse team, and we held a small potluck dinner where everyone had to bring a dish from their native country.  It was so much fun!

My favorite dish of the night was pudding chomeur, which is a Quebecois dessert.  Sort of like a fluffy pancake with tons of maple syrup and whipped cream!

Things are busy right now, and some of it is good, but some of it is bad.  I can't believe that it is December already!  There is so much that I need to do before the holidays (including shopping!), but I am so excited to go home and see everyone (hopefully).  See you guys in a few weeks :)

Season opener

Hi friends.  It seems like lately, every post I write starts out with an apology over how long it's been since my last post.  I keep thinking things are about to slow down, but that obviously hasn't been the case.  Today, I woke up early to go up to Bern for work, and tonight, I am heading over to Zermatt with the ski club for the opening weekend of ski season!!  It is crazy how quickly this year has flown by - I can't believe it is December!

I have a lot of things I'd like to write about here, but I just don't have the time to do it properly right now, so you'll have to bear with me for a little while longer.  I hope everyone has been having a good week, and hopefully I will be back here soon.  (And hopefully I don't suck too badly at skiing this weekend!)

Thankful

Omg hi everyone.  I know that I've been very delinquent in blogging lately, so I appreciate that you are still checking in and reading!  Life has been busy and full.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share with you some recent highlights to show you some of the things I'm thankful for!

Friends - One of the best things about expat life is the friendships you make.  Not only do I feel like you are much more likely to be friends with people you wouldn't otherwise be friends with, but you also develop these intense friendships very quickly.  I am so thankful for my friends here (and at home too of course!!).

Sadly, one of the worst things about expat life is the revolving door of people that are coming in and out of your city (and sometimes, your life).  Emily was one of the few friends I made before moving to Geneva, and I was so sad to see her move back to the US earlier this month.  We threw an epic going away pub crawl for her in order to give a proper send off!

Pre-party treats

My job - Although I go thru my ups and downs at work, I am definitely very thankful for my job.  It has led me to the most amazing opportunities, as well as some great friendships.

Since moving to Switzerland last year, I've done more work travel than ever before.  Earlier this month, I spent a few days in Bern, which is an area of Switzerland that I had never really been to, but I was very impressed!  We didn't get to see much, since we spent most of the day cooped up at work, but we did manage to get out for dinner in the Old Town one night, and I would love to go back one day to explore more!

In the Old Town, there are tons of little shops and restaurants buried into little caves along the road

Here we are going down for dinner - this cave has been around since 1635!

Yum!  It is always amazing to me how different Swiss German cuisine is from what we normally eat in Geneva!

View from the train on the way home.  The window is filthy, but the sunset was spectacular.

Home cooked meals - When you travel all the time, home cooked meals can be hard to come by.  Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love restaurants, but really there is nothing better than being at home, eating delicious food, and hanging out with awesome people.  I'm very thankful for my circle of people who are always willing to open up their homes and share a meal together.

Chicken chili

Gingered zucchini soup - I know it looks gross, but trust me, it's delicious.

Zucchini pasta!

New adventures - one of my favorite things about this season of my life is all of the opportunity to do new things and go new places.  Even though I am relishing (wishing for?) a bit of a calmer travel schedule now, I am still so thankful for the excitement of discovery.

Earlier this month, I did a quick weekend getaway to the Burgundy area of France.  We stayed in the town of Beaune, and there was actually a huge wine auction going on at the time, so the town was pretty lively!  We sipped lots of wine, ate some amazing food, and just soaked up the sunshine and the company.  It was the perfect little adventure.

Cheese course at our fancy lunch

Oysters!

 

There were no leaves left on the vines, but the scenery was still stunning.

I just love pandas haha :)

Be back soon

Hello all!  Just popping in for a quick hello.  I realize that I've been a bit behind on blogging lately, so I just wanted to apologize and to let you know that I will return to a better schedule soon.  I am in Zurich for a couple of days this week, but it is my last business trip of the year!  Although I do have quite a few weekends in a row of personal travel, hopefully my schedule will get back to normal pretty soon.  Thanks for reading!

Weekend in London

Hello all!  In continuing with my theme of "weekend in" posts lately, I thought I'd share a bit about my trip to London this past weekend.  The original purpose of the trip was to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions play at Wembley.  I don't feel any particular affiliation for either of these two teams, but when the season was announced, I thought that this would be the most competitive match up in London.  I was wrong :(

The game itself was not too exciting since it was a total blowout, but I had a great time enjoying the NFL atmosphere, tailgating with friends, and eating an enormous hot dog.

Is it me or am I wearing too much blush?

 

We saw this lion being interviewed by CNN and I thought it was hilarious.

These two dogs were 25 freaking pounds!

We actually ended up selling the tickets I bought because Zach and Courtney were able to get us some amazing seats

Wembley at night!

Other highlights of the weekend included a reunion with some of my favorite British peeps, watching the Rugby World Cup finals, and some random London strolling.  Sadly, I didn't get a chance to visit Borough Market, but I still managed to eat some tasty treats!  London remains one of my favorite cities to visit, and I can't wait to return!

Chipotle!

DISHOOM YA'LL (if you are confused, please ask Katie)

This entailed quite the effort, but we were finally successful!

Back in Geneva, it is a tough time of year.  The skies are grey, and the weather is cold, but there isn't any snow, so there is no skiing yet!  I did sign up for my first ski weekend of the year with the ski club, and I'm looking forward to/nervous to get back on the slopes in Zermatt this December!

Work is also picking up quite a bit these days, and my travel is pretty steady right now - although luckily, it is primarily within Switzerland these days.  I'm also starting to slowly transition onto a new project, so I'm working on figuring out how to balance it all now.

Just to give you guys a little perspective, the two pictures below were taken within ten minutes of each other at the end of my flight back from London yesterday morning.  Above the clouds, we see beautiful blue skies, and as soon as we drop below the clouds, it is just blahhhhhh.  Have a good week everyone.

Weekend in Geneva

I'm just kicking off another stretch of crazy travel, so I have been savoring my time in Geneva lately.  This past weekend was basically perfect - pizza and game night with friends, morning runs, brunch, dinner with friends, and a day trip to Annecy on a surprisingly sunny Sunday.  Bliss!

I lost.. both at Settlers and at Qwirkle!

I actually went for a run on both Saturday and Sunday mornings!

We saw these random Asian tourists shooting a video of them eating churros.  Amazing.

Sunset!!