...at 5 pm MN time, midnight Zurich time. Then I'll hop onto the plane back to Switzerland! It's been a great trip!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Friday, December 7, 2012
Christmas at the HB.
I'm on my way to Ticino for the weekend, and enjoyed seeing the HB all decked out for Christmas!
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
News Flash: Switzerland is nice!
Switzerland has just been named the top country in which to be born in 2013! I can't say that I'm surprised...
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Just a reminder that Switzerland is gob-smackingly beautiful.
A friend forwarded this time-lapse video of places in the mountains around Switzerland at night. It's really stunning! (As a bonus, at the end of the movie, there's another suggested time-lapse video of Zürich, which is also super cool!)
Funny set of articles on being German.
Here's a link to the first of a set of three articles on being German. While not all of these things apply to being Swiss, I feel that actually quite a few do. I especially appreciated the point about insurance (#4). We've had multiple lunch–time debates about the various types of insurances and what you should have. (But that's it's own post, I think!) Now, if you ever meet a German, this will make everything just a little more clear!
Monday, November 26, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Hiking last weekend in Appenzell.
Last weekend, it looked like the sun might actually come out for a little bit, so Paul and I schemed up a hike at work on Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, the Ericksons and I met at the train station to head out to Appenzell, which is a region in the eastern part of Switzerland. This area of Switzerland is actually quite close by train to Zürich, but none of us had ever been there. A lot of the higher mountains areas are not accessible right now because they're either under snow or the lifts to access them aren't running during the between–season (as they call it). Also, in Appenzell, 8 hours of sunshine were promised for Saturday! So we were quite excited to see what this area was like.
Although I have to admit I was a little nervous, given that Appenzell has a reputation for being a great place to hike in the nude. Luckily, we saw no nude hikers. Unluckily, we pretty much saw nothing at all. The 8 hours of sunshine never materialized, and we ended up hiking entirely in a very dense fog that made everything look rather bizarre and mysterious. It was actually kind of cool and beautiful in its own way, but a little disappointing not to see the sun.
One funny part about the hike was that it was a joke hike, so every 10 meters (or so it seemed) there was a placard with a joke (there were 80 jokes in total!). Unfortunately, the jokes were all written in Swiss German, so the most we could understand was that a joke was about a doctor and water, or something else about that level. We thought it was a very interesting idea for a hike theme, though.
It was really fun to hike with Paul and Jessica and Jakob, and overall we had a nice day, in spite of the weather. Then, on the train ride home, we came out of the fog and saw the sunset, so we did get to see the sun, at least! Hopefully the next time hiking in Appenzell we will have better luck with the weather!
Although I have to admit I was a little nervous, given that Appenzell has a reputation for being a great place to hike in the nude. Luckily, we saw no nude hikers. Unluckily, we pretty much saw nothing at all. The 8 hours of sunshine never materialized, and we ended up hiking entirely in a very dense fog that made everything look rather bizarre and mysterious. It was actually kind of cool and beautiful in its own way, but a little disappointing not to see the sun.
One funny part about the hike was that it was a joke hike, so every 10 meters (or so it seemed) there was a placard with a joke (there were 80 jokes in total!). Unfortunately, the jokes were all written in Swiss German, so the most we could understand was that a joke was about a doctor and water, or something else about that level. We thought it was a very interesting idea for a hike theme, though.
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| What is this? |
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| The Erickson family. |
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| The fog was pretty thick. |
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| Lunchtime! |
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| Weitblick means literally "far view". Not so much... |
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| Walking through the foggy forest. |
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| Weird playground with a beer cask and pitcher for hard apple cider. |
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| Apparently this place has something to do with burning witches at the stake. Not creepy at all... |
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| Sheepies! |
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| A happy hiker! |
It was really fun to hike with Paul and Jessica and Jakob, and overall we had a nice day, in spite of the weather. Then, on the train ride home, we came out of the fog and saw the sunset, so we did get to see the sun, at least! Hopefully the next time hiking in Appenzell we will have better luck with the weather!
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Preparing for a second Thanksgiving.
The pecan pie is done! Now it's time to make stuffing and green bean hotdish!
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thanksgiving #1, 2012.
Last year, I celebrated Thanksgiving actually on Thanksgiving with my group at my old flat. This year, since we could no longer have it at my old flat, and because of the difficulty of preparing a feast for 25 while working during the day, our group decided to do Thanksgiving on the weekend. (Which we'll celebrate tomorrow!)
I still wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving, so I decided to invite some of my non-work Swiss friends over for a mini-Thanksgiving. Stefanie, my former flatmate, helped do a lot of the cooking. Jasmine and Stefano, who also were flatmates at one point, and Petra, my tandem partner, were the others who came to Thanksgiving. For all of them except Stefanie, this was their first Thanksgiving!
I made a pecan pie and prepared the sweet potatoes the night before, and then the day of, I roasted a chicken, made mashed potatoes and gravy (the first time I've made gravy on my own!), and baked the sweet potatoes. Stefanie brought the stuffing and green bean hotdish, as well as a French Silk pie.
Side note: I went to my local Coop to get a chicken, and the biggest one I could find was just under 1 kg! It was such a small chicken! I love how hard it is here to find big meat...
Anyways, we had a truly lovely meal. (I was having such a good time I totally forgot to take pictures, so sorry for the dearth of photos...) If I can't be home with my family, I'm really happy to spend Thanksgiving with friends, especially if I can introduce them to the wonder of sweet potatoes, which are a novelty here. In fact, in the grocery stores, sweet potatoes are not located by the potatoes, but in the exotics section by avocados, passion fruits, and fresh ginger!
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I really appreciate the time to think about what I am thankful for and to spend time with people that I care about. I have so much to be thankful for, and I am happy for the reminder to celebrate this! I hope that you all (at least those who celebrate Thanksgiving) had a special day as well!
I still wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving, so I decided to invite some of my non-work Swiss friends over for a mini-Thanksgiving. Stefanie, my former flatmate, helped do a lot of the cooking. Jasmine and Stefano, who also were flatmates at one point, and Petra, my tandem partner, were the others who came to Thanksgiving. For all of them except Stefanie, this was their first Thanksgiving!
I made a pecan pie and prepared the sweet potatoes the night before, and then the day of, I roasted a chicken, made mashed potatoes and gravy (the first time I've made gravy on my own!), and baked the sweet potatoes. Stefanie brought the stuffing and green bean hotdish, as well as a French Silk pie.
Side note: I went to my local Coop to get a chicken, and the biggest one I could find was just under 1 kg! It was such a small chicken! I love how hard it is here to find big meat...
Anyways, we had a truly lovely meal. (I was having such a good time I totally forgot to take pictures, so sorry for the dearth of photos...) If I can't be home with my family, I'm really happy to spend Thanksgiving with friends, especially if I can introduce them to the wonder of sweet potatoes, which are a novelty here. In fact, in the grocery stores, sweet potatoes are not located by the potatoes, but in the exotics section by avocados, passion fruits, and fresh ginger!
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| The little chicken! |
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| Prepped for roasting! |
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| The feast! |
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I really appreciate the time to think about what I am thankful for and to spend time with people that I care about. I have so much to be thankful for, and I am happy for the reminder to celebrate this! I hope that you all (at least those who celebrate Thanksgiving) had a special day as well!
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Prepping for Thanksgiving #1.
This year, I'm celebrating Thanksgiving twice! Tonight I baked a pecan pie and prepared sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving #1, which I'm hosting at my place tomorrow night. This will be my first Thanksgiving working, so it will be exciting to pull things together after work! I've tried to get a bunch of the prep work done tonight, and thankfully Stefanie is helping a lot with the cooking! (She's already delivered a French silk pie.)
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The end of Ruth's visit.
I guess since Ruth left Switzerland almost two weeks ago, it's high time I finish blogging about her visit. In my defense, it's been a little busy over here, but still...
On Ruth's last full day, which happened to be a Saturday, we spent the morning and early afternoon sleeping in, having brunch, putting together furniture, and unpacking. Finally, we had enough and decided to walk around Zürich and enjoy the beautiful weather. We walked down Bahnhofstrasse and had a quick visit to Sprüngli to pick up some of their famous Luxemburgerli before heading to the lake. It was really clear, so you could see the mountains at the end of the lake- beautiful! We sat by the lake and enjoyed eating our sweet treat and watching the boats and people.
We also wandered around the Niederdorfli, where we randomly ran into a parade of piccolo players and drummers. Not sure what this was for, but it was interesting. We followed the parade through the streets until we could get a good view, although we were a little nervous that this was some sort of Pied-Piper situation where we'd end up drowning in the river or something. However, we escaped!
Zürich is a beautiful city, especially at sunset, and we had a really lovely time on Saturday wandering around. Yay for sunsets and sisters!
On Ruth's last full day, which happened to be a Saturday, we spent the morning and early afternoon sleeping in, having brunch, putting together furniture, and unpacking. Finally, we had enough and decided to walk around Zürich and enjoy the beautiful weather. We walked down Bahnhofstrasse and had a quick visit to Sprüngli to pick up some of their famous Luxemburgerli before heading to the lake. It was really clear, so you could see the mountains at the end of the lake- beautiful! We sat by the lake and enjoyed eating our sweet treat and watching the boats and people.
We also wandered around the Niederdorfli, where we randomly ran into a parade of piccolo players and drummers. Not sure what this was for, but it was interesting. We followed the parade through the streets until we could get a good view, although we were a little nervous that this was some sort of Pied-Piper situation where we'd end up drowning in the river or something. However, we escaped!
Zürich is a beautiful city, especially at sunset, and we had a really lovely time on Saturday wandering around. Yay for sunsets and sisters!
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