Weeks 45 to 49- Work, work and more work (and trips to the US)

Sorry to anyone sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for the next installment. The last month has been quite busy with work. The big excitement for January was overlapping business trips to the US. M had a multi-state (GA and NJ), week and a half long trip, and K had 5 days in Texas.

While scheduling supplier visits in Georgia, M was able to take advantage of the opportunity to also visit family and friends (as well as to do some shopping). She spent most of the time with her parents (who were nice enough to lend her the use of their car for the trip), and also got a chance to see some extended family, which included her grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousin. She enjoyed getting to see them and talk about her time abroad. She was also fortunate to be able to spend an evening with friends, Charlotte and Buck. (Although due to the wintry weather conditions, she had a bit of an adventure navigating through their neighborhood.) After a week in Georgia, she flew to Newark, which was also in the grips of a winter storm, for additional work.

In Newark, she had a delicious dinner and captivating conversation one night with Flannel/Eric and his family. The next night was dinner with an old highschool/college friend, Cindy, who had just had a baby. M was lucky to be one of the first people to get to visit with the new little one.

During her US trip, M really tried to take advantage of being home, which included trying to fill up on good Mexican and Thai food, as well as shopping for some clothes, where the prices are not only lower than Switzerland, but the sales staff speaks English making for a significantly less stressful shopping experience.

The first weekend that M spent in the US, K tried to take advantage of some unseasonably warm CH weather by going biking near Lake Neuchatel. Unfortunately, it turned out to be foggy by the lake so most of the ride was chilly and damp. And, of course, after being out of bike-seat-riding shape, he was a bit sore when he had to sit on the plane the next morning.

Compared to M's US experience, K, unfortunately, was not able to profit as much from being stateside. The extent of his movements were really between the airport, hotel, manufacturing plant, and a restaurant. When he did try to get dinner on his own without a car, he was thwarted due to the fact that Irving, Texas (or at least the area around his hotel) was not designed with pedestrians in mind (a huge change from Neuchatel).

Since the US trips, we've both been buried in work, though we do get out for some weekend walks.

Just this past weekend, K went on the company ski day. M decided to stay home to prevent from "making a fool of herself in front of coworkers". (She got to teach this phrase to one of her co-workers as well as the complementary "to make a fool of someone else".) All week at work, people were forecasting a ski day without any snow, but it wasn't the case. While there were a few spots where the snow was thin, and other spots where it was just ice, there was plenty of white-stuff on the mountain. Being in the Alps, the views were tremendous. The slopes were, in general, better groomed than what we experienced last year in Grindelwald, but still much rougher than what we were used to in Tahoe.

After a full day on the slopes (including the obligatory wipe-out or three), K headed to the thermal baths. Two outdoor, in-ground, 4ft deep, medium-sized swimming pools, heated to bath-water temperature and crammed full of people. The air was near-freezing, so the goal was to expose as little skin as possible out of the water. After an hour in the baths, some of the kinks from the aforementioned snowboarding-crashes were soaked away.

We were then treated to a Raclette dinner, with a variety of local cheeses being melted and scraped onto our plates paired with potatoes, onions and pickles.

Below is picture of the Alps from across Lake Neuchatel this weekend.


Lessons learned:

1. There is a Swiss Cannabis energy drink available in the local supermarket. (This doesn't seem very Swiss-like. It is something I'd expect to see in Amsterdam, however.)
2. Practically nothing we signed up for last year renews itself automatically (e.g. the parking permit for our street), so we keep finding things have expired. I'll ask again...how are the Swiss known for being efficient?
3. Demi-sang oranges are a hybrid between blonde oranges (i.e. good old orange-colored oranges) and blood oranges. They are apparently in season now, and have been enthusiastically welcomed into our pantry.