Back in the US for the week

I'm back in the US this week for work and a weekend stopover to see family and friends and each time I return I realize how much I miss certain things about the US. Here is a list of some of the things that I really miss about this great country:

1. Family and friends: This is the biggest thing that I miss.  The more I'm away the more I miss those that I love.  I feel so lucky and treasured to have such fantastic and loving family and friends and its such a joy to see them and for them to take time out of their days to visit little ol' me while I'm home. Thanks for taking the time out to go to dinner with me, come out for drinks, send me an e-mail, come over to visit, travel to say hello, etc., I miss and love you all!
2. Longer store opening hours: On Wednesday night, I was clothes shopping in Times Square at 11PM. Is the American obsession with long shopping hours and 24 hour retail convenience necessary? No, I suppose not; but, is it convenient? Abso-stinkin-lutely and I take full advantage of it. When I visit it takes me a few days to remember that I don't have to plan my day and weekends around Swiss Saturday shopping hours and it is glorious to just pop into a store whenever I want to.
3. Prices: Is it really possible to buy wine in a grocery store for $3?! Wow, I seem to have forgotten the great deals that come along with US stores. I also just purchased my wedding dress while home in the US for a ridiculously cheap price compared to the Swiss wedding dress prices I have been seeing around Geneva - score!
4.  American food: HELLOooooo pancakes, eggs, english muffins, and bacon! I've missed you my friends. Among my other favorite American friends: Lawry's garlic salt, American Mexican food, cupcakes, Sam Summer beer, Sour Patch kids, and the list goes on and on....
5. Patriotism: Maybe this is just me because I'm glad to be back in the US each time or maybe its just because I spent several days in NYC, but the spirit and pride of the American people always pleasantly surprises me each time I visit. Whether its the flag lit up in lights in times square or a flag-decorated Budweiser beer car or the blessed "welcome home" from the customs agent, this country is full of great pride for its people and country and I'm proud to be American because of that.

And since no list is complete without a list of things that I don't really miss about the US (don't get me wrong, I love the US, I just want to share all sides!):

1. Disorder and mayhem: Give me some personal space people! There's nothing like going from orderly, peaceful, line-loving Switzerland to being dropped in the middle of Times Square insanity for the week. Walking out of my hotel room felt like fighting a daily battle with pedestrians each day and I'm also surprised by how LOUD Americans are in every day interactions compared to what we have gotten used to in Europe.
2. Cleanliness: I never thought of the US as a particularly dirty place (and I still don't), but I find myself thinking "this bus wouldn't be nearly as dirty if I were in Switzerland" or "there's no way that trash would be left on the street if I were in Switzerland". I think I've become spoiled with the Swiss pursuit of cleanly perfection.
3. Ease of public transportation: I am reminded that public transportation is often the least favorite choice of transportation in America for a reason!
4. Unhealthy culture: I'm all for chocolate and fondue every now and then (ok maybe more often than just every now and then), but the plethora of unhealthy food options and overweight people in America is distinctly apparent in comparison to Switzerland.

I love you America, we all have good and not-so-good sides :) This weekend I'm spending time with family and friends in NH and loving every minute.  Happy weekend y'all!

Love in Burgundy, France

June 30, 2013 marked one year of our civil ceremony in Boston last year, so we decided to do a little something special and go to neighboring Burgundy, France for the weekend.  Burgundy is only 2 hours away from Geneva by car, so it is an easy weekend trip.  I found an adorable hotel in the town of Beaune, in the middle of wine country. We fell in love with its cute courtyard and details...

Hotel courtyard

This wins the award for coolest bathroom ever, toilet in an old wine cave!

 Since the weather wasn't great on Saturday, we wandered around town to check out the sites (and wine).

Tasting some wines while wearing my new leather jacket, so "Euro"!

"Marche des vins" where you are essentially left free to wander around wine cellars and taste 13, yes 13, different wines. Thank goodness I'm not in college anymore or this would have been a dangerous place

We have a new-found obsession for escargot, I was deathly afraid to try them but they have the most amazing sauce on them of garlic, oil, and parsley. I think we had about 4 orders of escargot in one day because they were so good.

For dinner, Ryan booked a surprise dinner at the most amazing restaurant we have ever been to, Le Benaton. Talk about a food "experience", this dinner was a show in itself. We ordered the three course menu, but didn't realize that standard with every meal are also "pre" and "in between" courses, fancy pants!! Every dish was super creative both in its taste and presentation. It was fun to keep guessing what would come next. The sweetest part of the night was the surprise happy anniversary cake that they brought to the table in between dessert courses. Check out the collage below to see all of our amazing courses!

Dinner picture

The next day we checked out some of the vineyards and chateaus in the surrounding countryside.

All said and done, Burgundy was an easy and relaxing weekend trip from Geneva that we are looking forward to doing a few more times while we live here and as the first year of our civil ceremony comes to a close, it was nice to celebrate a year of love, adventure, challenges overcome, and optimism for the future (and for our actual wedding ceremony and reception in March!). We feel lucky to have each other on this journey called life -- I love you Ryan :) 

Now the only question remains... what do we celebrate after the wedding next March? June 30 and/or March 1, only one? both? and do you count next March as our first year or second year anniversary? Any recommendations out there?

Euro-tripping friends

We love being a stopover on a Euro-trip agenda for friends and its even more fabulous when they have equally entertaining blogs to follow before and after their adventures with us in Switzerland (and to see their posts from the time they spend with us)!

Sam and Eric are friends of ours from Boston - Sam was Lauren's first roommate in Boston after graduating from college.  Sam and Eric came to visit back in October and their insightful blog documents their travel experiences while on their 8 month traveling adventure around the world as they moved out of their home in Boston and moved into their new life in Australia.

Caroline (aka "Choyle") and John are currently visiting us on a post-MBA trip around Europe and Asia. Choyle was one of Lauren's good friends and sorority sisters in college. Their artsy blog documents their travel experiences while on their 2 month traveling adventure soaking in all that life has to offer before returning to the working world.

Click on the links to read their blog and follow their adventures!

Half marathon success!

Two weeks ago Ryan and I ran our first overseas half marathon (and Ryan's first half marathon ever)!  It was in the canton of Fribourg in what was essentially the middle of no-where, Swiss, cow country.  Although the route itself was pretty boring and the strong smell of cow manure at points was certainly not a welcome addition to add to the already challenging running experience, it was a flat course which was a blessing in disguise.  In general, the race experience was overall essentially the same as the half marathons I ran in the US; but, I do have to say that it was neat to watch the kilometer markers go by instead of mile markers --the race seemed to go by faster since it was in 21 km increments instead of 13.1 mile increments.  

We ran together the entire time and finished in 2 hours and 5 minutes, which was also a personal record for me! The strange thing is that we were barely sore in the days following the race, which perplexes me because I was practically bed ridden after the last 2 races that I did... perhaps it had something to do with the altitude? Any runners out there have any theories?

Training for the race together was motivating and fun and we decided that while we are living over here, we are going to start picking half marathons in snazzy destinations to keep fit while doing some traveling.

Post race with our medals on 

I couldn't resist sneaking a picture of these totally strange and kind of scary school band uniforms, whoever thought these uniforms were a good idea?! I just don't understand...

One of the other amusing US vs. Swiss race differences is that after the race, they had a "Rosti" and sausage party for all the runners.  Rosti is sort of like the Swiss version of hash potatoes, with a lot more butter and fat. We allowed ourselves to deviate from OBB (Operation Beach Body) and indulge.

Another amusing find - they provided carrots post race to nibble on... I've seen oranges and apples, but carrots was a new one to me! Of course Ryan had to turn it into a silly photo opp..

Switzerland vacation: Friday in wine country (Lavaux)

I saved my favorite vacation day for last.  If you've been following my blog regularly you'll know that I have frequently posted about the Lavaux vineyard region since we go here often for wine festivals and scenic drives.  But there was just something about this particular day that made it magical.  The combination of absolutely gorgeous weather, the vineyards in bloom, the azure blue lake, frolicking  in the vineyards with one of my best friends, and a surprise afternoon adventure, made this day one of my favorite yet in Switzerland.  Here's how the day went...

We took the train from Geneva to the little town of Epesses in the wine country (this is about a 40 minute train ride from Geneva).  From Epesses we wound our way up the hill through the vineyards to Rue de la Corniche, one of the main (and only) local roads through this area.  The road makes for an easy and beautiful stroll throughout the region.

The view from the town of Epesses

After walking around the town of Epesses, we kept meandering our way on the Route de la Corniche to the town of Chexbres.

The view in between Epesses and Chexbres

Unfortunately the clouds were stuck over the mountains on the other side of the lake, still beautiful though!

We arrived in Chexbres around lunch time. The nickname for Chexbres is called "Balcon du Leman" or in English, "Balcony of Lake Geneva", a name that it acquired for its drop dead gorgeous views over the lake. Having researched thoroughly beforehand (can you tell we are both Type A's?), our destination was to have lunch at "le Deck".  This restaurant hangs over the vineyards and the lake, what better place to have lunch? 

Le Deck has a amazing deck -- ironic, right ;) -- in the middle of the restaurant with a vanishing pool in front of it which provided for some spectacular photo opps.

The view from the vanishing pool

Looking over the restaurant

The next part of the afternoon was one of the most authentic and entertaining parts of my time in Switzerland thus far... we spent our afternoon with the lovely Swiss gentlemen below (and about 4 others that Sarah wasn't able to slyly capture all in the same secret camera shot)...

Who are they?  Well, let's back up. After lunch at Le Deck, we walked across to a hotel and asked the concierge to recommend a "cave ouverte" for us in town.  He called Eric, the guy on the left in the above photo, who owns one of the larger vineyards in Chexbres with his brothers. Eric told us to come over at 4PM to have a tasting.  Said tasting was supposed to be 3 mini glasses of wine for 15 Swiss francs.  Well, said tasting turned into 8 glasses of wine for free and many hours of chatting with Eric and his neighborhood buddies about everything under the sun: the local wine industry, the Miami Heat, Puff Daddy's upcoming visit to Lavaux, Eric's anniversary, US taxes, Swiss politics, how we felt about our American heritage, and everything else under the sun. It started with Eric sitting down with us to explain the first wine we were tasting and telling us about the history of the winery that has been in his family for hundreds of years and it turned into him staying and then one by one, his neighborhood friends joined and each was greeted with more wine by Eric as he asked them to stay and join our conversation.  By the end of the afternoon, we were joined by Eric, his wife, his best friend from Belgium, his brother-in-law from Italy, the guy who grows grapes for him in the next town over, and the caterer who brought lasagna for dinner.  Swiss are known for being traditionally reserved and not overly open to making friends with foreigners, so I was loving this welcoming and friendly Swiss family.  They were just plain nice, warm, authentically Swiss people.  We kept wondering how we would ever escape; but, with free wine in our glasses, entertaining company and conversation, beautiful weather, this scenery, and a plate of local Swiss cheese and meat in front of us -- it was the quintessential way to end our vacation week in Switzerland.

We had to break away from Eric and his friends to meet Ryan in Geneva for dinner, so we bid adieu and purchased a few bottles of Eric's wine to bring back with us

View from Eric's vineyard

The sun setting on a beautiful day and vacation week

Here is how we met our cheese/chocolate/wine requirements for the day:

Cheese: Cheese at Eric's vineyard
Chocolate: Nutella on bagels on the train ride over
Wine: Duh! ;)

So that was vacation week! What a great time! Thanks Slac (aka Sarah) for coming over and joining me on this Swiss adventure.  Who is next?! :)