Could not be prouder!

A modern-day superwoman! 

My amazingly talented, social-media expert friend Stacey Hall has been working her behind off for the past 3 years for a start-up. Last night her company announced their acquisition by e-Rewards!! She is a rockstar and words cannot describe the absolute pride that I have for her. We were just chatting this summer about how it would probably be a couple more years before this happened, then WHAM! 

Congrats Stace and I can't wait to toast you in person when I see you over the holidays!! 

I think this is a sign

This morning after my run with Carol, I was passing by IMD when I noticed on the ground a suspicioulsy familiar looking spiny shell and two-toned nuts... Could it be? Is it possible that there is a real buckeye tree right in our neighborhood and directly outside of IMD? I couldn't believe it! I gathered a bunch and started filling my running jacket pockets with buckeyes and called Nicholas to tell him of our good fortune. Everyone knows that carrying a buckeye on you is good luck! I gathered enough to possibly make another buckeye necklace and then of course to hand to the most worthy students who may just want a little extra luck these coming days and weeks with the job interviews and call-backs. Go buckeyes!

Life is good

• In just over two weeks, I will have my mom and godmother in Switzerland :) 

• We just bought our tickets home for the holidays :)

• One of my very best friends may be visiting before we leave :)

• The weather has turned and so are the leaves. I love fall for three reasons: American college football, the weather, and the food :) Go Buckeyes!!

Just do it

A partner is now a student :)

Check out the other blog I (have been ignoring for months) write for the partners! So proud of my sweet friend Nicole!! Parabens!

Less than 3 months

Until Nicholas graduates and we leave our Lausanne home.

 

we sure love this view! 

Where oh where has the time gone? Tomorrow we have our "Departure Meeting"at the school to learn how to wrap up the year and all the loose ends that come with leaving. Can you believe it! It feels like yesterday we were all sitting down for orientation in our new homes.

Because we have no idea where we will call home after December, it feels a bit strange to be discussing our departure but we are both excited for our next adventure!

Sevillana Flamenco

I have started taking Sevillana classes with some of the students and partners with the goal to perform at IMD's graduation ball in December. To be continued... :)

Courge... The story of my first fresh pumpkin pie

Because Switzerland does not have that delicious canned pumpkin goodness that we have in the States and I can feel the pressure of Thanksgiving upon us, I decided to do a test run of pumpkin pie today to determine whether a request to the States needs to be made for the tinned version or if I can do it on my own. Fresh.

I went out, bought some courge and went to work making my very first real pumpkin pie. Or so I thought. I boiled the pumpkin, removed the skin, mashed it and mixed all the ingredients together and set it aside to bake it later that evening. When I met Yann later, I told him about my new recipe with courge, he said, oh, you mean citrouille? The orange plant used at halloween? hmmm. Yep, that plant. Turns out, I used a squash to make my first "pumpkin"pie.

When I baked it and served it, it tasted just like pumpkin pie. I have to make a few variations on the recipe, like buying pumpkin :) but all in all I don't think I will go back to the can. Fresh is just too easy and good.

Training season begins

I am starting a new round of training programs for new runners. We will be running a half-marathon in Burgundy in November and possibly a half in October. Now is the time where I am balancing everyone's schedules to try and make sure that each person gets the runs in that they need, along with my own. I am so happy that I have found my passion in running again. For a few years, I definitely lost it. Probably doesn't hurt to run next to this everyday.

Walk On- The ONE Campaign and U2

How do I even begin to put into words the amazing weekend Nicholas and I had? It started a couple weeks ago, when a former colleague sent an email out asking if anyone wanted to volunteer in Zurich for the two U2 concerts coming up. I immediately emailed him and told him that I now live in Switzerland and Nicholas and I would love to come and help out.

Working the streets signing people up

We arrived Saturday morning, Sept.11, in the Z and got to the Letzigrund Stadium and met the other 20 or so volunteers for The ONE Campaign, which is the campaign to end poverty supported by Bono. Definitely read about it and join.

We then gathered around and were handed t-shirts, bags, pamphlets and iPads to sign up new members to the campaign. My friend then told us the schedule for the day:

• 1:00pm-4:30pm Stand along the perimeter of the stadium to get all the super fans signed up who have slept outside waiting for the gates to open.
• 4:30-5pm Take a break for food, etc.
• 5:00pm-7:30pm Continue signing people up, but this time inside the stadium.
• DRUMROLL
• 7:30pm Meet back at our tent to drop everything off and meet the tour staff who will show us our front row spot for the concert and who will lead us onstage during the show...

Our friends from Lausanne at the concert with us, first night! 

WHAT?! Are you kidding me? We didn't even think we would see the show, let alone have the once in a lifetime opportunity to go onstage at a U2 concert! But that is exactly what we did :)

We walked onstage with an electric torch to " Walk On" dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, opposition politician and general secretary of the National League for Democracy in Burma. She is currently under house arrest and has been for the past 20 years.


We were joined with other volunteers of The ONE Campaign and Amnesty International. It was a really emotional and exciting moment, walking in front of 70,000 people in the stadium. It is a night I will never forget. We volunteered for both shows, so we had the opportunity to do this twice. I decided one time was good enough for me, but Nicholas was eager to hit the stage again, even in the downpour that ensued during the entire show the second night.

Nicholas in the rain, preparing to walk on

Nicholas walking onstage with torch

Nicholas on stage

Nicholas standing in front of 70k people

Needless to say, we were exhausted after each night.

After night one.

Finally back in Lausanne

The rest of the photos! 

9-11-10

9-12-10 in the rain! 

Continuing to have the time of my life!

Indian (Summer) Dinner

The other night, one of my good friends invited us to her home for a home-cooked Indian meal and to show us her amazing art work.

As everyone knows, I am a fan of home-cooked meals and love trying new and authentic recipes.



She made dishes from "Bollywood" and elsewhere. The food was fragrant, spicy and delicious. The pudding dessert was made of tapioca, which I later found out is a part of many of our cultures. The Japanese girls told us that this is the ingredient in bubble tea and our Brazilian friend told us that the root vegetable that is used to make tapioca is from Northern Brazil and is made into many different things such as crackers, crepes, and flours. I have had bubble tea and love it, but I always was a little weary about what those chewy pearls could be. And of course, I have had the American tapioca pudding before. Who knew it was so worldly!

Just another beautiful, sunny day in Lausanne

We are probably in the midst of some of the last sunny and warm days here, so Yann and I decided to have a picnic lunch at the lake.

Tonight, we will be attending one of the last IMD bbq's of the year at the home of a few of the students. The outdoor pools have closed, the paths that were closed for the summer are open again and things are feeling much more fall-like. With interviews coming up for the students, along with more and more job applications, in no time we will be getting ready for our next adventure.

Outdoor Photo Exhibit

I have spent the past two days in the beautiful town of Vevey going through their huge outdoor photo exhibit. It is a really cool project that they put on every 2 years throughout the city and in a few of the buildings. Nicholas and I spent Sunday seeing practically every single piece and yesterday I went back with Yann et co. to see the last few exhibits that we had missed. You get a map of the city, below, with the various pieces of art marked on it and then you wander around discovering both the city and the art. So fun!

Some of the highlights and the album

Vevey exhibit 2010-09-06

Photo of prostitute on outside of old jail

underground/homeless exhibit in underground metro station

Timely piece- Recently banned Minaret on outside of building. 

When I saw this electric red/orange wall, I just knew this would be the backdrop to endless amazing photos- and it was! 

My twin

martial arts kick-punch sequence

The three of us

Having the time of my life :) 

Hotmail Fail.

Yesterday, my email account was hacked and a message was sent to my entire address book asking for money. I was walking in beautiful, sunny Vevey with my husband, enjoying the gorgeous outdoor photo exhibit  when I received a call on my Swiss cell phone from my dad. I freaked out as he never calls this number and feared something happened in the family. I soon found out that I was the victim. After mentioning the email, he went on to state his opinions on how this was obviously a scam because the embassy would have been helpful, etc, etc. I became annoyed. Ugh.

This is how clever hackers are nowadays:

The email started off with emotions, which I give the hacker credit, I do like to lead stories with a tug at the heartstrings, but then s/he got it all wrong. Sure, if you know me even a little bit and have been in touch in the past year, you would know that the email did not make sense for a few reasons. Here are my two biggest complaints, although I could go on and on about them all.

1. Horrendous grammar. I mean, I am no English pro, but I hate a poorly worded and spelled email. Lodged? I have never used this word in my life. Correct tense and all, but not a favorite word of mine. I get nauseous every time I read this and see my name signed at the end. 
2. Hotel bill for $1450?? Can you say student budget and ramen noodles for a year? How the heck does one spend $1450 on hotels for a short vacation? If this situation did happen, for future reference, the skype call would have gone something like this: "Hey, I am totally embarrassed, but since we are staying in the "dodgy"part of town at this extremely cheap hostel, we got mugged. Luckily, we only owe $120 for 3 nights at the hostel for 2 people and the muggers got away with our student IDs and 10 CHF. Haha, that won't even work here. Good thing the UK and Switzerland decided not to go Euro ;) Anyways, I don't actually need the cash since the hostel manager is understanding, but just wanted to call to tell you the ridiculous story. We are fine and heading back on our easyjet flight shortly."

I hate anyone that does anything like this. I felt violated for having someone go through my account, change all my details and block me from what is mine. It was like someone went to rob my house, found it empty, but stayed inside, changed the locks, maybe even waited for someone to stop by with some cash. Get out of my place!!! I definitely learned my lesson and my super-techy man has berated me about the need for strong passwords that are routinely changed. 

Thank you to everyone who after reading the clearly bogus email for the concern and the emails, calls, messages. The only thing that actually had me worried was that our family in Colombia that doesn't know my English written "voice."They were worried and they are kind people, almost kind enough to believe that horribly written email, but luckily one cousin replied "LOL, we are Colombian, we know when something is a scam." 

For all of those out there who are still thinking, geesh, I would have liked to send you money. Nicholas is currently accepting donations :) 

Labor Day Weekend

Strange how when you leave the US you forget about some of the dates that were so pinnacle- like Labor Day weekend. Back home, I used to plan ahead to see where we would travel for the weekend or at least what great bbq's we could throw for the "last" weekend of summer. Now that we are here, we have other, new holidays to celebrate and some great ones creep up, almost forgotten.

Happy Labor Day for everyone back in the States! 

Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life

Three things of note today, 9/02/10

1. Dave and Caitlin are here. Loving it, YAY!!!

2. Equally as importantly, the Buckeyes first game is today!!!

3. Today's date: 90210. Nothing like a day to celebrate the Walsh's :)

Back in the Swing of Things

Now that the temperature has dropped to a ridiculously fall-like weather, our French classes have begun, and my running is back in place, things are starting to feel like normal around here.

With only 3 months left, I have vowed to enjoy all that this country has to offer by going to the mountains often, swimming a few more times in the lake and enjoying all the new friends I have made. We have no idea where we will go next, but we are enjoying the moment, before it is gone.