Some highlights from December and January in MN.

I really am trying to catch up on my blogging, and I'm so close!

After moving back to the US from Switzerland, I had about a month at home in Minneapolis before I moved to Ann Arbor to start my new postdoc. It sounded like a long time at first, but it totally flew by.

One of the highlights was going to (possibly) the last Hollidazzle parade ever. There's something that's just so Minnesotan about going to an outdoor parade in the dead of winter, and I loved seeing some of the same floats that I've been seeing since I was a child.

These light bulbs were always my favorite!

In preparation for Christmas, there was a lot of cookie baking that happened as well.

We spent Christmas in Minnesota, but then traveled down to Nebraska for the weekend after to spend time with my grandparents. We had a really nice time together, doing the daily jumble, going for walks in the much warmer Nebraska weather, visiting family nearby, and playing board games. It was really a sweet time together that I'm really glad we had.

Besides a trip to Mexico (which will get its own post), a lot of the rest of my time in Minnesota was spent packing and organizing for my move to Ann Arbor. And, of course, enjoying the time with my family and puppy!

The grass is actually greener...

I had an epiphany this week about another of the many ways I had gotten spoiled in Switzerland and had adapted to living there. There have been many things that have taken quite some re-adjustment, such as forgetting how floors are counted in the US and always ending a floor above where I want to be because I think that the ground floor is not the same thing as the first floor, having trouble with understanding dates because I can't remember if it's day-month-year or month-day-year here, getting confused when calendars start on Sunday instead of Monday, etc.

The most recent example is grass. I have been looking forward to the snow melting and the start of spring here in Ann Arbor. But, for the past two weeks, I've been wondering why on earth it's just so ugly here. The snow melting didn't provide the relief that I was subconsciously expecting, which I was puzzled by.

Then I realized: when it's actually cold, like it is here in Ann Arbor, the grass DIES. So, when the snow melts, it's not automatically green again. The snow melting is not the same thing as spring.

In Switzerland, the grass is never not green. The cold and snow in Zurich just don't last long enough, so the snow melting actually improves things in a way it doesn't here. 

I feel like an idiot for forgetting that grass dies (I am from Minnesota after all!), but it just means that I'm looking even more forward to the start of spring!

Zurich around this time last year.

My life has been a whirlwind.

Things have been wild and woolly since I moved to Ann Arbor.

First, it has been the snowiest winter on record here, meaning lots of shoveling and wearing of long underwear and slipping and falling on my bum.

Second, when it rains, it pours. Some of my dear friends came to visit me at President's Day weekend. We rented a condo, toured the Ford Rouge plant, and toured around Ann Arbor, which was really enjoyable.

While they were here, I found out that my grandfather had passed away, meaning that I headed out of town two days after my friends left. While I was in Nebraska at the funeral, I found out that I was selected for an on-campus interview for a position I had applied for last year, so I started preparing my two talks for that interview and online shopping for interview outfits. I returned to Ann Arbor after the funeral, and, two days later, gave my first guest lecture (on Acid Rain) in my advisor's undergraduate Environmental Geology course. A week later, I headed out of town for my three-day marathon of an interview, which I was 4 hours late for because they lost our pilot in the airport and had to scramble for a replacement who showed up in his khaki pants and shirtsleeves, making me very nervous that he wasn't actually a pilot. Thankfully, I finally made it to my interview and survived the three days of meeting after meeting, and I had a lovely weekend with my family after the interview. I returned to Ann Arbor late last Sunday, and then, this week, prepared and gave my second guest lecture on the Great Lakes for the same Environmental Geology course. Good thing I don't also have a job that I'm trying to do or anything...

That has been my last month. I'm so thankful that things seem to be slowing down a little so that I can actually settle in here. Plus, spring is on the way, the snow is melting, and the birds are singing! It has been so lovely to be closer to family. I've gotten to see them at least once a month, which is FABULOUS! Although I totally miss Switzerland, there are definitely pluses to being back in the US!

My dinner companion.

Sunset over Michigan.