A weekend in Amsterdam

I do a lot of complaining (on this blog and in person) about my lack of European travels, despite living right smack dab in the middle of the continent. So last month I finally got B and myself off our collective butts and booked a few days in Amsterdam as a 3-year anniversary treat.

Hey, look, we're in another country!

 It was wonderful. Honestly, I wasn't sure whether Amsterdam would be 'our' type of city - we had no interest in recreational drugs nor did I feel the urge to visit the Red Light district (for sightseeing or other purposes). It turns out I shouldn't have worried, because I do like and appreciate wonderful architecture, impressive museums, amazing meals, and canals - and Amsterdam provided all of those in abundance.

Ignore the daily, intense (but brief) rainstorm looming in the background.

 We arrived on Friday afternoon and found our hotel without incident. We stayed halfway between the city center and the airport (due to an early morning departure flight), at a Citizen M hotel. The prices were reasonable (hence why we booked it), and we found the place clean, welcoming, and very modern design - not a bad thing, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea. Everything in the room - the shades, rainbow option of lights, tv, temperature, etc - was controlled by a universal remote, which techie B thought was very cool. The rain shower and toilet are contained in their own little "pods" - I found the shower funky fun, but felt a little claustrophobic in the toilet. Basically we had fun with the hotel, but it's the type of thing I imagine my technophobe mother would have nightmares about (love you Mom!).

Picture taken from the Citizen M website, as if someone was sitting on the bed (or outside the window, even - the sense of space is a bit misleading). The shower pod is open on the right, while the toilet can be seen through the one in the center of the picture.

The first night we just wandered around and ended up spending 2 hours in Waterstones, an English bookstore near the Spui tram stop. After 18 months in a German-speaking world, it was four floors of heaven, and only B's reminder that we would have to pay for a checked bag on the way back to Zurich stopped me from going crazy (I did pick up one book and a package of oat biscuits, which we later ate with yummy Dutch cheese).

For dinner, we ate at a place recommended by our Lonely Planet guidebook, D'Vijff Vlieghen. I loved the decor & interior of the 17th century canal house, but found that we were largely surrounded by large groups of other tourists and the food was underwhelming (not bad, just not very exciting). 

The next day, we met a college friend of mine for a late breakfast at and were thrilled when she presented us with museum passes, allowing us entry into most museums for free, as well as vouchers for a canal cruise. We wandered through a Dutch street market (so many cheeses and flowers) on our leisurely way down the canals to the Rijksmuseum. We quickly found a place for lunch just before the skies opened up. Selling itself as a Peruvian restaurant, Mashua's lunch menu was reasonably priced, but had only one actual Peruvian dish, although the seasonings on the beef sandwich were reminiscent (and freakin' delicious). We were very happy with our food and cost, although one couple at a table next to us left after having no service for quite some time.

The Rijksmuseum was amazing and overwhelming - there's no way to see all of it in one trip (similar to the Louvre, although smaller in size), so we wandered randomly, making sure we hit a few highlights. I loved it - more than just paintings, they also feature sculptures, figurines, 17th century dollhouses, and one crazy huge model ship. It was busy but was large enough to handle even a summer Saturday crowd without feeling claustrophobic.

One of my favorite paintings in the museum, although I can't say exactly why. Do I need a specific reason, though? It's just so pretty!

Zoom shot of the model ship, which was at least 2 meters long. Very cool.

That evening we took a canal cruise, which I loved and B (mostly) slept through. I simply couldn't get enough of the city's architecture - each building is different from its neighbors, but the overall similarity in shapes gives the city a wonderful symmetry.

Amsterdam as viewed from the water.

 After encountering several full restaurants, we ended up having dinner that night at Vlaming. Simply put, it was amazing - the type of restaurant that we always hope to find on our trips. We started out with their 23 euro sampler appetizer plate, which seemed expensive until they brought out a 3-tier tray with dozens of treats on it. SO good. Our main courses, steak and duck, took a while to arrive (the waitress was very apologetic) but were worth the wait, and we finished off with a sticky toffee (they called it a pie, a translation mistake that we didn't realize until they served us sticky toffee pudding, the British dessert). Go there - go there NOW.

Three levels of deliciousness.

The next day we managed to fit in a visit to the Van Gogh museum before meeting my friend to return the passes. To be completely honest, I'm not a huge Van Gogh fan - I love Starry Night and his painting of irises (which, btw, were originally purple, as irises should be - apparently the type of red pigment Van Gogh used fades over time), but it's a museum I never would've gone to if we hadn't had the passes. But I was so glad we decided to go. It was crowded (more so than the Rijksmuseum), but not distractingly so. The museum does an excellent job of laying out Van Gogh's progression as a painter - it was fascinating to see his art grow and finally blossom into what I think of as 'his style' (bright colors and thick, swirling paint), and all over the course of only 10 years (did you know that?! He only painted for 10 years - I had no idea!).

Sunday afternoon, we took a leisurely walk around Westerpark and happened upon a very active food/street fair. Unfortunately, we'd already had lunch so we couldn't take advantage of the dozens of different ethnic cuisines available - Greek, Peruvian, Turkish, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, gelato (ok, we did have some of that). It smelled amazing and made me wish that Zurich had such a celebration of other cultures' foods (perhaps it does, I just don't know about it).

There were several other sites we didn't get to - Anne Frank's house and the Dutch Resistance Museum were probably my other top two - but our feet couldn't have handled much more walking, and B likes to remind me that vacations are supposed to be relaxing ventures, not all-you-can-see adventures. I suppose we'll just have to go back...

Sunset over the harbor.

Now excuse me, I have to go pack for Vienna. :)

1.5 years = more thoughts

As I perhaps knew it would, the longer I stay here, the more quickly time seems to slip by. Unbelievably (at least to me), I'm coming up on my 18-month anniversary of arriving in Switzerland this month.

(From this random lady's blog - she seems very nice. I hope I'm not breaking any rules)

Yeah. It's weird. My thoughts go something like this:

I should've gotten more done over this time period.  
Like what? I've made a home, made friends - I even got a job.
Yeah, but it's just part-time and it's basically teaching glorified English - it doesn't feel like a career.
But it can be - the head of the language school would love for me to develop a science writing/coaching curriculum and market it.
Yeah, but - I have no idea how to do that. Especially the marketing stuff.
Then try.
But is it even what I want to do? I mean, I like teaching, but...  
Ok, then do something else. Finish the expat guide, then FINISH A DAMN STORY and see if I can sell it.
That's a scary thought. I - uh, never can figure out how it's going to end.
I find the end when I write. C'mon, face my fears.
I face my fears every day by living in a place where they have an impenetrable oral-only language!
It wouldn't be impenetrable if I worked on it. How's that German coming along?
Not great. But sometimes I have days where I understand a lot - the days when I run into German people and not Swiss ones.
So go back to class.
I have no rational response to that. I'll go do Duolingo and pretend that's the same thing.
At least find a German conversation group.
Ok, yes. I'll do that. Good idea, self.

From this rando-guy's blog. Maybe I need to learn how to make gifs.

Great. While I'm here, good job on finally working out regularly. Try to keep that up.
Yes, I hope to. I'm excited to be able to do multiple pushups, that's a good thing.

Yes, seriously, this program is often what I use to work out with. WHATEVER WORKS, PEOPLE. Sometimes I mix it up with Pilates. Also, B drags me on a run once a week. I sulk through it - give me a work out in my own living room or give me death!

And I've traveled, seen things, been to new countries!
Kind of. I'm in Europe, where countries are closer together than states are in the US! I've only been to Italy (three times), Spain, and Germany. Oh and England. Travel's going to get harder when we have kids. And I've barely been around Switzerland, either. No Matterhorn, no Bern, no Geneva - I fail at living here.
So freakin' get up and go! Plus, we're headed to Amsterdam this month, that's new.
It is! And I'm super excited to go.
Just don't forget to work out while you're there.
We'll get bicycles.

 And by that time, I'm usually exhausted and distract myself with food. So yes, still very much a work in progress; a constant battle between feeling amazed/surprised that I've gotten as much done as I have and the feeling that I 'should' be doing more to adjust and struggling to find the motivation to do those things.

 What makes you feel like you've truly "settled" into a home, abroad or otherwise?
Do you ever celebrate your progress or struggle with motivation (or perhaps both - even simultaneously)?

September fly by

September has always felt like a short month to me, and this year was no exception. My parents visited for three weeks, and in that time we managed to see a bit of Germany (Munich), Austria (Salzburg, which unfortunately was a bit of a rained out mess), and Italy (Milan). We also did more tourist-type activities around Zurich than I'd done in my previous 7 months combined, including a wonderful afternoon at the Zurich zoo, a boat trip on Lake Zurich, and visits to three of the main churches in town. We also trimmed hedges, dug up my entire garden, planted various bulbs for next spring, painted a bookshelf, organized the basement storage, picked apples/made homemade applesauce, and my amazing mother hemmed a set of curtains (by hand!). Busy times.

Before departing for Munich, I watched a few lectures from the "Great Courses" (photography) series my parents had bought me before departing Boston - yes, about 8 months late. I was eager to try out my newfound expertise 45-minutes-of-knowledge and ended up taking well over 1500 photos in an attempt to learn more about both photography and my specific camera (a Nikon D3200). And what I learned was - well, I learned I want a more versatile lens. But! I also learned a lot about aperture and shutter speed and how to mess around with them. Good times.

So when we returned, I was all excited about playing around with the photos after the fact and posting stunning photos. Unfortunately, my poor 4-year old MacBookPro has single-digit GBs of memory free (as in, 2 or 3 GB), so I can't download my photos onto my computer. Boo. Hopefully I'll get an external hard drive in the next week and treat you all to magnificent works of art pictures that don't suck. In the meanwhile, I downloaded and am posting just one or two representative pictures from each outing as proof samples.

In other news, my German continues to be spotty (some encounters leave me triumphant, one has left me in tears of frustration), I think that I finally have what the Swiss consider a complete job application package (I'll find out this week if a picture of my PhD diploma counts as a "copy of my certification"), and I took on the position of managing editor for the bimonthly publication of the AWCZ - October, bring it on!

Bavaria, the statue:

Unfortunately this picture gives no sense of her size, but as per Wikipedia, she is 18 and a half meters tall (I originally typed it as '18.52,' but the period doesn't show up well, and I didn't want anyone to think she was near 2 km tall). 

Rainy view of Salzburg:

View of the river Salzach. The large building in the foreground is the Salzburg cathedral.

The (unbelievably enormous) Duomo in Milan:

Nice cathedral. BIG.

View from the Duomo roof back over the Piazza Duomo. An entrance to famous shopping area Galeria Vittorio can be seen to the right. Sorry for the crane ruining the shot. Zurich has the same problem ("Oh, look, what a beautiful cityscape - crap, never mind.") 

Zurich zoo:

Three tapirs and a capybara walk into a bar...

It's a llama! Or an alpaca. But definitely not a vikunya or a guanaco (yes, the zoo had all four). My Peruvian husband had only a 50% success rate in identifying the various types, so I don't feel bad.

Lake Zurich and mountains:

Yep, that's snow. I plan to try another outing on a clearer day (who wants to come visit and go with me?).

Trip to Como, Italy

This past weekend B and I went on our first official European weekend getaway to Como, Italy. Thursday was a holiday, so B took Friday off as well and we spent 3 days consuming gelato and enjoying the lake views. It was so wonderful to get some time to ourselves and see B take some time off. It was my first time in Italy, and it lived up to my hopes - and a surprising number of stereotypes.

Water fountain on the lakefront in Italian colors.

- The lake and surrounding mountains were gorgeous. Super gorgeous. Stunning. Crazy, movie scenery. This was aided by the multiple million-dollar villas scattered along the lake shore.

Como, with the Duomo as the overwhelming centerpiece.

Villa Olmo, walking distance from Como.

One of the many lakefront properties on our 2 hour boat trip up the lake.

All of the villas had impeccably done gardens and grounds.

- It was hot. Super hot. According to the weather on my phone, it was around 27C (80F) and never got above 31C (88F), but B and I call bullshit on that. The humidity was off the charts, and the sun was relentless. Neither B nor I are built for heat, so we spent most of the days planning our meanderings around where there was shade. Many, many visits to gelaterias helped take the edge off the heat.

Dark chocolate gelato. One of the dozen plus that B and I consumed over 3 days.

- Grazie, Italian language, for allowing me to realize exactly how much progress I've made in German. Coz I understood NOTHING people were throwing at me. But I did enjoy eavesdropping on both German and French tourists, which made me feel all multilingual (make no mistake - I'm totally not. But compared to 0% understanding in Italian, the 30-50% comprehension of German and French made me feel positively genius).

- Our dining out experiences varied greatly, but the best meal by light years was the tasting menu at The Marketplace. If you ever find yourself in the Como region, check this place out. Five courses, 35 euros, and B also got a wine tasting flight to accompany it (4 types of wine, 15 euro). The dishes were inventive and unbelievably delicious. It was one of the top five meals I've ever eaten in my life. We also loved the decor of the restaurant - cozy, quiet, upscale without pretention. 

First course from The Marketplace - a roasted tomato salad with basil ice cream and some sort of salami and I don't know what else but it was SO GOOD.

Tiramisu at a restaurant in Bellagio.

Mango tart tatin with violet ice cream at Ciboooh (yes, that's the restaurant name) in Como.

- We took a boat up to Bellagio, which is located in the center of wishbone-shaped Lake Como, where we enjoyed walking around the gardens of Villa Melzi. I wish we could've spent more time exploring the town, but one of the afternoon boats back to Como was cancelled and we were concerned about getting a seat on the remaining one.

The gardens of Villa Melzi

- Our return train on Sunday evening was 40 minutes late arriving in Como, and then broke down 10 minutes later (Italian transportation did not measure up to the Swiss, in our short experience). We were shuffled onto a smaller regional train to Lugano, where another train was waiting for us. On the overcrowded regional train, I ended up sitting next to an Italian-speaking (only) mother and small girl in a stroller, who was fascinated with my Kindle and insisted on playing with it. The delays meant that the regional trains had stopped running by the time we pulled into Zurich, so we had to take a cab home around 1:20 am. Very, very long day.

I finished two books, started a new crochet project (almost 3 squares done on this afghan), and managed to avoid a sunburn - overall, a very successful vacation, and I'm looking forward to our next one!

Home and back again

I'm actually not sure what "home" I am referring to in this title - either Zurich or the US would be appropriate, I suppose, and honestly, I'm not sure I feel 100% home in either place at this moment. But let's not get deep. B and I just returned from a wonderful 12 day visit to the US that included seeing many of his family and mine. We spent 3 days over Mother's day weekend in near Fort Lauderdale, FL visiting with B's aunts, grandmother, and multitude of cousins. It wasn't as hot as I feared, although it was humid (ick). Regardless of the weather, we had a great time. I'd only met his family at our wedding previously, but they were all welcoming and much fun.

Dania Beach in FL. Gorgeous. I missed getting any pictures of the enormous shark yard-long tarpon that was near shore when we first got there (I had wikipedia tarpon - some random man on the beach claimed that's what it was, so I actually have no idea. But isn't a shark a better story? You could see the dorsal fin above the water, that's how it goes in the movies!)

We spent a week in near Chapel Hill, NC, visiting with my sisters, parents, and friends, including one who flew down from Boston to hang out - and I'm proud to report that I finished her supposed-to-be bridal shower gift and finally handed it over (as perspective, she celebrated her 1 year anniversary last October, so...yeah). We also managed to fit in an evening in with one of B's aunts from the other side of his family, who lives in Charlotte and was generous enough to drive 2.5 hours each way just to have dinner with us. Much chatting, hanging out, game-playing (of the card/board variety) general merriment, and puzzle-solving was done - both of the crossword and jigsaw type.

Embroidered apron gift, ~1.5 years late, but finally completed! Thanks for being patient, J :)

One of the three 1000 piece puzzles that B, myself, my mother, and friend completed over the course of a week. Totally not addicting.

I was eager to get back to Zurich to my garden and see how it survived my 12 day absence, since I hadn't actually finished setting it up before I left (I actually had 3 separate dreams about this in the US - my brain just searches for things to stress about, apparently. My favorite was a dream that involved B's grandmother requesting that I describe the garden to her in Spanish; not only did I not know the plants' names, but also each time I reached for one, I realized it was dead or moldy).

The garden answer is mixed. I couldn't believe how some of the 'inherited' plants exploded in a good way (the now-confirmed-as-peonies-due-to-the-inevitable-ant-presence bush is about 3 times as tall and full as it was before we left, to the detriment of some other plants I put in), as did a few of my potted ones, but my cilantro is yellowing and going to seed, while someone seems to have snuck over and chewed up, then bleached, my basil plants.

Out-of-control cilantro on the left, basil in the center/foreground. Seriously, what happened?

Success stories! From left: sweet pepper plant, tomato plant, pea seedlings (yes, I will need to thin that - I had no idea it would be so spectacularly successful).

Peony bush - it predates my efforts with the garden - although note the weeded ground surrounding it. In the foreground, if you look carefully, you can see a small brown twig on the left that is supposed to be my blackberry plant and a rather sad looking iris plant to the right. 

Anyway - I have much to blog about, including many pictures from my US trip, my exploding yarn stash (I have issues controlling myself, especially when STUFF IS SO CHEAP IN THE US - and yarn makes an awesome lightweight packing material), my lack of hitting my Camp Nanowrimo goal last month (boo), my part-time job that thinks 3 assignments a week actually means 3 in one day (ahh!), and how today is the first day of the rest of my life (no schedule, no job, no German class), it's almost 4 pm, and I've done one thing on my list so far - this blog post counts as the second. Carpe-ing the diem is definitely something I am working on.

PS - did I miss the Swiss spring/summer while we were gone? The predicted low for Friday and Saturday is 1 degree Celsius.