Saturday mornings

As it is Saturday, I thought I would share one of my few frustrations about living in Switzerland, store hours. Stores in Switzerland are only open Monday to Friday 9-6 and Saturday 9-6. Now the reason why this always frustrates me on Saturday in particular is that I always feel rushed to get our big weekly grocery shopping trip in. Which means that as I am sitting here in my PJs on a Saturday morning, relaxing after a long week, and trying to think of fun/relaxing things to do for the weekend, the question in the back of my mind is always "OK, when should we go to the grocery store"? From what I have gathered since living in this country, the reasons behind these store hours are as follows:

1. to protect blue collar workers: in a society like the US where stores stay open 24/7, you often have people that are working non-stop, 7 days a week to make ends meet and they don't have time off. The Swiss shop hours ensure that everyone is able to enjoy their evenings and weekends.

2. the land of the stay at home mom: In one of the cantons (i.e., "states") of Switzerland, women just gained the right to vote in the 1970s and it never fails to drive me a bit mad that the citizens of this country refuse to acknowledge that not every family has a stay at home mom, dad, or nanny that can go to the grocery store while the rest of the family is at work.  The other interesting tid-bit on this subject is that kids don't go to school on Wednesdays in Switzerland, translation: one parent must stay at home every Wednesday or hire a nanny because the cost of childcare in Switzerland is equivalent to 30-50% of family income.

3. cost: In the land of uber-expensive, Switzerland has determined that employing workers for a few additional hours might not actually be worth the extra revenue that it would bring in.

4. importance of personal/family time: having stores open past 6PM means that time people would spend shopping would be cutting into time they should be spending with their family.

So where does this leave me? Well, still annoyed that I have to spend my Saturday mornings grocery shopping and a bit annoyed at Switzerland's "its my way or else" approach to family values, but I do appreciate their ability to stand up for worker's rights and a world economy that constantly pushes for more. And with that, I'm off to do our weekly grocery shopping trip! Happy weekend everyone.

Ideas for Boston contributions

I mentioned last week that I would be on the lookout for ways to contribute in the wake of the events last week in Boston and wanted to share them with you.  I don't want to make anyone feel in any way compelled to contribute in the same manner, I just wanted to share with you some of the ways in which we decided to help in case anyone else back home or here in Switzerland has also been looking for resources:

In case you haven't already heard, The One Fund Boston, Inc. is the official fund that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino established to collect donations to help the victims.  It has already raised over $20 million so let's keep it going! 

In addition to this general fund, I donated to a fund for Brittany Loring. Brittany was one of the interns in my Boston office last summer and was one of the people hurt.  She is in the process of recovering but will have rehabilitation ahead of her.  I have heard that it could take awhile for The One Fund Boston, Inc. to start distributing funds to the victims, so to make a quicker impact, you could donate on the Give Forward fundraising site set up for Brittany.

Operation Beach Body

As I alluded to in my last post, we have had indulged a bit too much in local Swiss delicacies this past winter (i.e., cheese and chocolate).  So a few weeks ago we decided to embark on "Operation Beach Body", which just translates into stop eating cheese and chocolate, get our butts off the couch and go for runs, and eat healthy food. So, we have set a goal of running a half marathon in Fribourg, Switzerland on June 23 and we have been making lots of healthy meals at home.

Now I know this isn't exactly a food blog and what I'm about to share with you really has nothing to do with Switzerland -- but in the spirit of healthier living this spring, I wanted to share our new weeknight dinner obsession -- spring rolls! The ingredients are surprisingly easy to find in grocery stores here because there are big international sections in the grocery stores to accommodate all of the expats from around the world. So we buy spring roll wrappers at the store and once its meal time, we quickly soak them one at a time in hot water to soften them.  Next, we fill each one with all kinds of deliciousness, mainly grilled/curry-flavored tofu, cold rice noodles, shredded carrots, sliced cucumbers, chopped avocado, chopped cilantro, and sweet chili sauce.  The best part about this meal is that you can prepare the ingredients on the weekend and save them in tupperwares for weeknight meals so that all you need to do come dinner time is dunk the wrapper in water and stuff it full of goodies, and Voila, its like a burrito except WAY healthier! Join us in Operation Beach Body by trying the spring rolls out for yourself and leave us a comment to let us know what you think (especially if you come up with new filler combinations!)

The yummy goodies in pre-wrapped form

The finished product

Whenever we eat dinner, Pumpkin jumps up into a chair next to us to join in on the company :)

Prayers and thoughts for our beloved city and country

The news of the tragedy in Boston quickly reached us here in Switzerland last night. Words cannot express how sad and angry and sick it makes me.  Boston is very close to our hearts and we have fond memories of celebrating Patriot's Day and the Boston marathon each year. Thanks to modern technology, we were able to quickly verify that all of you are safe, although understandably shaken up. Our prayers and thoughts go out to you and to Boston and the USA in general, we are thinking of you from across the pond and so is the rest of the world -- many of our friends and coworkers here from all countries have checked in with us to make sure that our friends and family are safe. In the midst of such terror, I find bits of comfort in the stories of heroism and kindness and I think Obama said it well this this morning...

We also know this — the American people refuse to be terrorized.  Because what the world saw yesterday in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness, and generosity and love...So if you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil — that’s it.  Selflessly.  Compassionately.  Unafraid.

If anyone hears of specific charities, contributions, or other ways we can help over the coming days, please do pass them along. Love to you all.

Spring has sprung!

After a month of really terrible, rainy, miserable weather in Geneva, this weekend marked the turning point and entrance to spring in Switzerland.  With sunny skies and temps in the 70s, it is a glorious turn of events that has the entire city waking up from its winter slumber.  Cafes have put their tables/chairs out for the seasons, tourists are strolling by the lake, the fields outside of town are popping to life with bright green grass (which is wildly juxtaposed against snow-capped mountains -- ski season is still going strong!), and people are lounging in the parks soaking in the glorious sun. Since we moved here in late September and at the time we were very consumed with moving errands like going to Ikea, etc., we haven't really had much of a chance yet to explore this area in the warmer seasons, so we are re-discovering it over the past few days. We have been running by the lake in the mornings (a great way to work off the winter "raclette body"!), having lunch outside at cafes, walking everywhere to take in the sights and warm air, and then this weekend we went to a friend's chalet in Chamonix for an evening out in the town on Saturday night and a lazy Sunday soaking in the sun on his patio that had the most amazing views of Mont Blanc.  I just love Spring time, its such a happy time of the year, full of new life and greenery.  Happy Spring everyone!

Our host opening a bottle of Champagne for breakfast

Breakfast spread

Boys manning the grill

Lunch time

Easter weekend in Cinque Terre

Easter weekend is a big event in Europe, everyone has a 4 day weekend for the holiday and there is a mass migration across country borders in search of the perfect weekend getaway.  We decided to drive to Cinque Terre for the weekend, it is only a 5 hour drive away from Geneva and we had never been to this part of Italy before.

We arrived in Monterosso late Friday night after driving in the dark and fog through some of the scariest roads I think I've ever driven on.  Unfortunately it poured all day Saturday, which was actually a bit scary after hearing so many stories about the devastation that a severe storm brought to this area on October 25, 2011.  On this date in 2011, the towns of Monterosso and Vernazza were devastated by mudslides and flash flooding. The towns were buried in mud, a dozen people died, and it took the village over a year to dig out and restore all of the buildings (in fact, Summer 2013 is the first tourist season that the locals feel that the towns are fully restored and ready to welcome visitors again). Thankfully nothing serious happened after the storm we experienced and we looked forward to exploring on Sunday. We woke up to sunny skies and beautiful temperatures the next day so we decided to take a late morning hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. The tourism office told us it would only be a 2.5 relatively easy hike.  It turned out to be a 5 hour, very difficult hike UP an entire mountain, across, and then DOWN an entire mountain. The bright side: amazingly, beautiful views that Cinque Terre is known for and a delicious Italian lunch next to the sea as our reward for finishing.  What a gorgeous region.  The town of Vernazza was our favorite, we decided it was one of the top 5 picturesque towns we have visited, with rocky vistas, crashing seas, tiny alleys, pastel colored buildings, and wine terraces that cling to the mountains.  All said and done, it was a relaxing weekend in a gorgeous destination with delicious Italian food :)  Here are some pictures (and a video in which I quickly compiled some video clips) from the weekend.

Stormy beginnings on Saturday

Rainbow after the storm

Sunny skies and an Italian flag flying on Sunday morning looking down the coastline, each valley contains one of the Cinque Terre villages

At the top of the mountain on our hike, overlooking Monterroso (the town where our hike started!)

Overlooking the idyllic town of Vernazza

View from the top of a restaurant in Vernazza

A beautiful Easter reminder

Cinque Terre local specialties, pesto gnocchi and mussels

The village of Vernazza and the surrounding wine terraces

Having a glass of wine in the village square to soak in the sunshine

My recommendations for Cinque Terre:

EAT: Ristorante Miky, slightly fancier than other restaurants, delicious seafood, fantastic service and wait staff. You must try Ristorante Via Venti and the pear/gorgonzola pasta there, it was HEAVENLY!
STAY: Hotel Villa Adriana, it was basic, clean and well located in Monterosso del Mare
PLAY: Hike trail #8 from Monterosso to Vernazza, but beware that this is a long and sweaty hike. If trail #2 is opened again, this one is preferable and much easier.

Quick and delightful trip to Florida

Last week I needed to be in Toronto for work on a Friday and NYC for work on a Monday with no plans for my birthday weekend in between and no way I was hopping a plane back to Switzerland for such a short time in between.  What's a girl to do?   Well, it just so happened that my entire family was going to be at my parents' house in the Florida Keys for that same weekend. So after much last minute research on flights, I found myself flying to Florida for less than 48 hours to spend some QT (translation: quality time) with my fam.  Even though the trip was short it was the PERFECT way to spend my birthday weekend.  I was able to spend time with my family, play in the ocean/sun, check out my parents' new house, visit out our wedding reception location that we had booked without ever seeing before (!), eat some delicious US food, enjoy some birthday cupcakes, and just relax.  Although I took 4 flights within 4 days, I couldn't have been happier to spend my birthday weekend with my family - minus Ryan unfortunately :(

Jumping off the boat into the pretty blue ocean :)

The palm pavilion at Post Card Inn is the location of our wedding reception!

Cupcakes!

Video tour of our furnished apartment

I have been receiving some requests lately to post a video of the apartment now that we are all moved in.  After one of Ryan's recent cleaning streaks, the apartment was looking particularly snazzy so I shot this video of our digs.  While we had the majority of the "stuff" in the apartment shipped over (pictures, bedding, books, kitchen supplies, clothes, carpets, etc.), all of the furniture except for the bed and the clothes racks were purchased at Ikea (i.e., the world's most amazing yet exhausting store). I think we spent an entire 2 weeks putting furniture together when we first moved here, but at least it feels like "home" now :)

I'll venture outside this spring and take some videos of the neighborhood, etc. so that you can see the area that we live in!