Welcome Kaden!

My adorable nephew, Kaden, was born 3.5 weeks early at just over 7 pounds. He is healthy and already stealing our hearts.  I can't wait to meet this little angel baby in person!  Congratulations to my sister and Jon for already being such wonderful parents, I'm so proud of them and the beautiful life they have brought into this world. Yay for Auntie status (again)!!!

Diane's Baby Shower

I'm on a sibling roll this week!  In mid-July, my mom and I hosted a baby shower for Diane and 30 of her closest friends/coworkers.  It was such a fun day celebrating Baby B with so many people that have oodles of love for Diane, Jon, and baby.

Our theme was mint green (as Di and Jon have chosen to keep the gender of the baby a surprise until the birth) and baby jungle animals.  My mom and I were a little worried whether all of the decorations and theme would come together as we planned it entirely from afar, but everyone loved it in the end, including the most important person, the momma-to-be!

The food spread: salads and sandwiches 

Note the oreos in the back - there is now a skinny version of oreos with mint filling!  What will they come up with next?!

The gifts waiting to be opened 

This diaper cake was so fun to make!

Some of the mint green favors my mom collected for the atendees

Diane's niece Rivka helping her open presents

No baby shower is complete without adorable cupcakes!

This little guy enjoyed his cupcake

And I mean he REALLY enjoyed it!

We also set up a onesie decoration station, which turned out to be a great way to get the attendees involved in a non-game way.  I bought adhesive that pre-ironed it onto various fabric squares and then the attendees cut out their own shapes and ironed the designs onto onesies and bibs.  It was super easy to do and the resulting creations were adorable!

The finished creations

My favorite picture of the day - the 3 Kwist ladies!

It was so much fun to plan and host this shower for Diane, she is always doing so much for others in her life, so we were happy to spoil her for a day.  I can't wait to see her become a mom, she will have endless love to give Baby B... and even better yet, I can't wait to meet my new nephew or niece and shower him/her with love, yay for Auntie status (again)!

Andrew is graduated!

I'm a few months late, but I wanted to share some photos from my not-so-little-anymore brother's graduation in June.  All 5 of my family members flew in for his graduation. We spent some QT together, attended his graduation ceremony, and met some of his close friends from college.  Our family is so proud of Andrew and the wonderful person that he has become.  I like to brag about him and tell my friends that he is basically saving the world now that he is graduated from college - he works for a non-profit that delivers targeted medical supplies and equipment to communities in need (and he speaks 3 languages)!

At the graduation ceremony

Exchanging silly faces via cell phone from the graduation floor

The other side of the silly faces transmission

The handsome graduate and our lovely parents

All 5 of us in a photo - I can't remember the last time this happened! 

Siblings (note my beautiful preggo sis (with my soon to arrive nephew or niece)! 

What handsome guy

On Sunday, the rest of my family flew out in the morning but my flight wasn't until later in the evening, so Andrew and I took a few mini adventures in the Denver area. This was my first time to Denver and I really loved it - it is full of active people, good food, and beautiful scenery - in other words, right up my alley!

Checking out red rocks amphitheater - a gorgeous concert arena overlooking the city that is built into the natural "flat iron" rock formations

Hanging with some elk friends in the town of Evergreen

Tokyo and Singapore

I recently went on a business trip to Tokyo and Singapore.  Since I'm terrible about taking photos on work trips, here are my meager photos (yet plentiful observations) on both cities.

Tokyo
Tokyo is a massive city, sprawling for miles and miles. But its also an attractive city, with lots of parks, greenery, and temples dotted throughout.

The massive urban sprawl of Tokyo

The coolest window perch in my hotel room, overlooking Tokyo

The great thing about Tokyo is that it has a very unique culture to it - unlikely anything I've yet seen elsewhere in the world. Around every corner there's an assault on the senses -- lights, colors, cartoons, music, parks, skyscrapers, palaces, animation. The best example I can think of to show this is the "harajuku" fashion style of some of the younger teenage girls.  Its really hard to explain, but basically it is a fashion style where younger girls dress up in mixed and matched, loud, colorful, punk-style clothes.

I didn't take this, but it shows an example of the harajuku style

Looks like Halloween meets Japanese anime, right?  Much of Tokyo follows a similar theme - it may look kind of strange on the outside to us westerners, but its unique and full of soul.

Oh, and no summary of Tokyo is complete without a discussion of SUSHI. You won't find fancy combo rolls with non-standard ingredients as this was essentially an American adaptation.  Instead, sushi in Japan is simple yet fresh and well crafted, a winning combination of the necessary elements.

Singapore
Singapore is modern, orderly, and clean.  In this way, it reminds me a lot of Switzerland, except in Singapore, even spitting your gum out on the street or jaywalking will get you fined.  There are rules for everything and the citizens diligently follow them.

This sign in the subway station warns that heavy fines will be imposed for drinking or eating on the subway!

Similar to Switzerland, most of Singapore's commercial growth has been in the past 30ish years and is attributable to tax incentives offered by the Singaporean government to attract foreign investment.  While the city still maintains a lot of its historical areas, most of it is fairly new and is full of modern skyscrapers and flashy lights.  I ate dinner on top of the unique Marina Bay Sands building and was treated to stunning views over the city.

Marina Bay Sands building from afar (again not my photo…)

Looking out over the sunset at Marina Bay sands

One of Ryan's best friends from high school currently lives in Singapore, so he took me out for a night on the town and we ended up back at Marina Bay sands for another view of the skyline from the rooftop bar.  

Some other observations of Singapore I had were that (1) it was HOT HOT HOT and HUMID and (2) it has a lively expat community that loves to travel and explore Asia.  I can see why many people want to live here!

Left coast adventures: Big Sur

This week has been emotionally draining on the relocation front, so rather than rehash my week, it sounds like more fun to me to share some photos from my recent day trip to Big Sur when my brother Andrew came to visit me a few weeks ago.

Big Sur is a sparsely populated area south of San Francisco that spans 90 miles of gorgeous Pacific coast terrain.  There is only one road that cuts through this stretch of land (Highway 1).  Ever since the highway was built in the early 1900s, California has fiercely fought against the commercialization of this area (thank goodness) and has won the battle thus far.  The result is a rugged and beautiful coastline where you can see California in its truly natural state.

Andrew and I started our journey in the town of Carmel. Carmel is an adorable town, the houses look like they were plucked straight out of a story book.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of this town (shame on me, I shall have to return).

 From Carmel, we drove down the coastline on Highway 1 for about 45 miles.

Beautiful coastline (+ dangerous cliffs!)

Our destination was Nepenthe restaurant, a spot that Ryan brought me to before when we visited this area in 2010.  The restaurant has an open terrace that overlooks the ocean.  We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the sun catching up on life and soaking in the views and vitamin D.

One of the most photographed spots in Big Sur, Bixby bridge

Big Sur was a wonderful respite from the hustle and bustle of silicon valley and I loved spending time with my not-so-little-anymore brother who is a fantastic travel companion (and person in general!).  I'm looking forward to returning to Big Sur soon - I would love to go hiking and camping!

Repatriation observations

Although I visited the US many times while we lived in Switzerland, moving back to the US (and to a new area of the country) is a whole new ball game.  In particular, I often find myself noticing many things about the US that I hadn't realized before... or are these things that changed since I left... or are these things unique to California… or are they unique to Silicon Valley? Who knows, either way it makes for some entertaining "repatriation observations" that I wanted to share.  

#1: The number of choices and the variety of selection in consumer goods is both amazing and overwhelming.  It is amazing because I craved selection and variety of foods for the past few years.  Now I have a multitude of food choices within a 10 minute radius of my temporary apartment - hello Chipotle my friend, I have missed you so dearly!  At the same time, it is overwhelming because it means I spend way more time in grocery stores than I would like, debating over which flavor, ingredient, food process, or price combination is best. 

Since when do Wheat Thins come in so many flavors? Spicy buffalo? Lime? Sweet Spicy Chipotle?

The butter aisle - why is it necessary to provide 50 different kinds? Someone please help me choose.

#2: Some American food products can be just downright scary. What ARE these presumed food products? I now understand why there is such are big organic/clean eating food movements in the US.

What in the world is "cheese food"?

Since when does a sausage come with pineapple inside?

#3: Americans love color. On their food, their clothes, their cars, their bikes, everything is colorful. It's a pleasant deviation from my all-black European wardrobe which needs updating ASAP. Speaking of clothes, another observation (that I have taken full advantage of) is that Americans are totally accepting of wearing gym clothes out in public (Swiss are not) -- hooray!

The cake section is very colorful.

Colorful gbikes

 #4: The concept of a suburban "neighborhood".  Silicon valley makes feel a bit like I'm living in the Truman Show and it was/is probably one of the most significant differences for me.  The valley itself consists of a lot of pavement, highways, buildings, and "communities" with apartments/houses that all look the same and have perfectly manicured lawns. I'm missing the open space and beauty of nature in Switzerland. I don't mean to sound debby downer though, I mainly feel this way because I haven't had time yet to explore my surroundings. I have gone on a few quick adventures (more about that in later post this week) and from what I have seen so far, the surrounding area is gorgeous.  Everyone has told me that you can easily get outside of the valley to numerous mountains, hikes, beaches, vineyards, etc., I just need to start exploring. In the meantime, I'm certainly won't complain about the spacious, new temporary apartment that I am living in or the pool in my suburban "community".

#5: Americans love their cars.  No one walks places and there are so, so many cars on the roads. Tonight I walked a mile to the grocery store because I miss walking around. I do realize this is a snobby observation though, the fact that I can afford a car is a major privilege that a significant number of people in the world don't have, and because of that, I am appreciative. Also, this isn't to say that Californians are lazy, in fact, the opposite seems to be true, Californians seem very active, always adventuring on weekends and spending their time outdoors. Again, this is another "Lauren just needs to explore her surroundings" conclusion. 

#6: People don't say "Hello" on the streets or in the elevators.  I remember when we first moved to Switzerland I was so caught off guard by the strangers that would say hello to me in the elevator or on the streets. Flash forward 3 years and although its nice to be left alone sometimes, it also feels unkind to not say hello to people. This will just take some getting used to.

#7: Technology is intrinsically linked to American life, particularly in the valley. The phrase "there's an app for that" can be said about basically anything .  For example, I can order goods online and have them brought to the curb of Target for automatic pick up, I can order an Uber from the airport and pay $60 to get home instead of $150 with a regular taxi, I can request maintenance repairs for my temporary apartment via an online app, I can order shoes online and have them delivered to my desk at work (and return them free of charge, thank you Zappos), and of course there are a multitude of work-related apps. Many of these examples might seem like old news to many people, but technology has drastically changed since I left the US (and I would argue that in most cases, these advancements have simplified life).

There are many more epatriation/reverse-culture shock moments that I have had.  I'm sure many of the challenging aspects I mentioned above will quickly fade and the positive aspects will outnumber them in due time, I just need to remind myself that the mental adjustment to my new environment won't happen overnight.