Pumpkin Patching

This weekend we got out and enjoyed some of the last of the sublime fall weather. It's turned chillier in the last 24hrs. but this weekend was spectacular.
So keeping with the spirit of the fall we decided to find the pumpkin patch we missed a few weeks ago and this time, we were successful!
When we got there is was unbelievable to see not only how many there were, but the variety! It was pretty impressive.
So we wandered around, played with the frolicking kitties and picked a few Kürbis....

Fall Happiness!

Homeward Bound!!!

It's been roughly 11 months and a week and several long hours since I have stepped on homeland American soil. Now, I'm a mere 10 hours away!

I said goodbye to my colleagues and little munchkins yesterday which was more difficult than I would have anticipated when I started the job. But as they say onwards and upward.

So now with a week in between drastic professional extremes, meaning circle time being replaced with staff meetings and nap time being replaced with a gym membership and snotty faces to snotty parents, a week of down time is in the most dire of necessities, and where better to get a breath a fresh air than in the dirty water city of Boston. My love.

It's been a great year since I have been home last. I have obtained my right to live in Switzerland, found an amazing job, had more laughs with some of the greatest crazies, traveled some, skied a lot, lived everyday and, oh yeah, got married. ;)

Now with just less than two weeks before turning 30 (when did THAT happen?!) I look forward to wrapping up my twenties where I started this decade of amazing opportunities, memories, challenges, friendships, love, life and beer. Lots of beer.

So, auf Wiedersehen Switzerland. My new home away from home. See you in a week, and here's to some great friends and good times ahead!

Edible Amethyst

The purple potato. Absolutely love them. We ate them all the time back home in Vermont and now, I get to enjoy them in Switzerland thanks to a local farmer with excellent gem colored inspired fall taste!

Xoxox

At Tupac!!!!

Alive and well! Damn! Living and loving'!

Peace

Do It.

No question mark, just an instruction. Hey, why not?! Could be fun...

Here I Come!!!

A long overdue and long awaited favorite pastime has finally made its way back into my life. I absolutely LoVE concerts and haven't been to one since being in Europe. Sad.

Until yesterday when I marched with conviction into the ticket office asked for two tickets to Keane on October 27th (the weekend of my birthday, wink wink).

So excited!!! For those of you who aren't familiar, get on the train. Each album lends a new sound so explore them all and you too will become a fan.

Top 3 Favorite Keane Songs:

1. Spiraling
2. Silenced By The Night
3. Bad Dream

Newly Inspired Season

On a rainy autumn Saturday one American girl and one Swedish boy set out to find some inspiration in the Swiss countryside. There had been tales of a pumpkin patch so big it could take hours to find the perfect one so they thought they would have a go. Well in this story they didn't make it there. But where they did go was about 1.5kilometers away.
As they turned left into this single lane half paved-half dirt road they saw fruit trees and a big ass garden and an old country house and cows and eventually, a little blackboard with a list of goodies. So they parked their Saab 9000 next to the 900 year old tractor and shouted "Greutzi!" to the confused local farmers. Theyexplained that they would like some apples and with a smile in the rain were asked if they had other foot ware. They didn't. So in her poop covered boots she called up to the nosey old woman standing in the doorway, they grabbed a basket and we set out to the orchard to pluck some fresh apples.
They had a nice German chat and country stroll with the two nicest ladies covered in cow poop you could meet by accident and after sampling the apples and collecting a healthy bunch, they then led the smiling giddy couple downstairs into the cellar where they had fresh picked tomatoes, all kinds of potatoes, onions, you name it. Then she asked if they wanted some lettuce, so she went to the garden and hucked a head then she came back and asked if they wanted a pumpkin so she went back out and plucked a pumpkin, then she threw in some pears to sweeten the deal and 20chf later they walked away with the most fall inspired ingredients straight off the farm and made their way back to the flat to start choppin!
Within a few hours they had a delicious apple crumble-half American style, half Swedish, all Swiss. An amazing tomato salad and an experimental roasted pumpkin with ginger and nutmeg soup. Ummmmmm what?!
To be clear, I love living in the city but what I love even more is driving out to the country and getting lost only to find the nicest people willing to drag their little old mothers out of the house in the rain to pick you apples so your shoes don't get dirty and then opening their vault of nutritious hard worked goodness so you could go home, put on some fantastic music, open a bottle of red wine and spend the rest of the day cozy in your slippers and appreciative for a Saab 9000 and a little adventure. Which is exactly what they did.

The End.

Spass Freitag!

Every Friday at work we do something special with the few kids who make it to school. I know, they don't even know their ABCs and 123s and they are at school maybe four days a week, maybe.....Great message Mom... ;)

Anyway, for those whose parents believe in a strong learning ethic send their kids to us and we get to beat ourselves up while pretending to have the time of our lives. I can assure you that while it sounds super fun to go on boat rides and to the farm and the biggest playground a set of 3 year old eyes has ever seen...it's bloody exhausting! Fun for them though which, at the end of the day is our mission, but shit. 18 kids moving at three speeds of a) I dont pay the fuck attention b) I know how to walk but today I am choosing not to and c) tug of speed walking war with their buddy stirring a breakdown of the system. It happens and is bound to happen with that many little people, but it's no picnic let me tell you and takes about 6times the average time google maps states with walking conviction. I think they should add an icon that has a big person walking with a little person and calculate THAT time and show alternative routes. That would be something!

Anyway, last week we went to the playground with this awesome ship climbing thing and tunnels for them to get stuck in and make echoing sounds and for meeeee....this! The mega super awesome killer Swiss hill slide.

Now I have seen some slides in my day and personally I am more of a swinger than a slider, but when you see this monster your age and preference and sense of being at work goes right out the window and it's ah-ma-zing!!!

So next time you are in Rapperswil or some other dorf (village) in Switzerland or anywhere in the world for that matter, and you see the beast. Take it on. Its the little things that count, feeling silly is stupid, just be silly because that's what counts!

Perfect Playlists

There is something to be said when you find/discover/notice yourself at the perfect moment on the perfect street in the perfect daylight enjoying perfect scenery listening to your perfect playlist.
It's an amazing and glowing feeling how the light in conjunction with the right song changes your mood and being on the street that you've walked 1000 times somehow seems different when listening to that song that ignites a smile so big that when strangers pass you by it's like they're looking right into your soul.
Moments like this always happen when you play a song that you've heard a million times but it somehow seems better or perfect at that moment when other times you can't stand it.
One can claim that because it's your iPod they are your songs so every song could be the perfect song. Au contraire! Having to skip or reshuffle defeats the perfect playlist. It's when it's a continuously ongoing stream of magical musical greatness keeps up with your mood/high/amazement of how fantastic it continues to get!
Today my perfect playlist included the following tracks back to back (no peeking or fast forwarding!)

-Time to Move On (Tom Petty)
-Magic in Me (B.o.B)
-Miss Independent (Ne-yo)
-Everything Is Wonderful (Lily Allen)
-Soul Meets Body (Death Cab For Cutie)
-Don't Dream It's Over (Sixpence None the Richer)
-Feels So Good (Armin Van Buuren)

Seriously?!

This rainy morning I am getting off the train and by sheer dumb luck as I am opening my umbrella there is this (hard) metal I don't know what, but it looks like a window washing basket for the side of skyscrapers, which is puzzling as to why it would be on a platform, and the top of my umbrella lodges into it as I am walking. This happened and now I have a bent antenna and look like a big dufus. Awesome.

Classroom Art

After having survived the first week and a half of school, here are some snapshots of my classroom board.

All of our kids have advanced from being turtles to dolphins and to get them excited about being a dolphin (the big kid group name!) we made an under the sea welcome board. My creative swiss miss Sara and other half has made the dolphins, crab, seahorse and octopus (my favorite under water animal :) ) and I did the rest. All of the dolphins have their names and photos on it and the urchins and shells come to creative life and are part of story telling magic.

The famous and insanely adorable Mr. Men and Little Miss characters are a part of our daily lives and used to help us describe and talk about feeling words and actions. They are on tongue depressors making them perfect 2-d puppeteers and cheerful charms to settle disputes, strike up conversations about handling situations and getting the munchkins to give us some insight to how they are feeling that day. Brilliant!

We have many projects and crafts in the works, but to help get the ball rolling in our room, these were a few of my fun little additions. :)

And for the record....

I fucking hate these nasty obsolete handy drying sanitation devices. Awful.

Long time no see...

As a man passes me in the stairwell smoking a cigarette I think, wow, that's rude...until I get upstairs to the toilet and see this...


And I know it was welcomed.

In The News

As temperatures reach sky rocketing heat around the globe, it was with comedic pleasure and repeated astonishment to have opened the news paper this morning to the following photo.

Could you imagine being in Peking, China in this heat. The title of this article by the way is Froot Loops. Awesome.

Unreal Hair Advertising

I was walking through Luzern when this stunning window display of hair styles caught my eye.

Apparently there is something insane like 178 hair salons in Luzern which is ridiculous in and of itself, but when you know there are salons still producing cuts like this, you have to wonder how far up in the mountains do people have to come down to get their annual cut and are there really enough of them to keep this place in business?

Apparently....WOW.

Welcome to Pre-K

Today was my first day of school. Teaching, not learning. Well, so I thought. Turns out I have much to learn and while I am extremely excited, I realized just in 8 short hours that I am going to learn the hard, gross and exhaustedly fun way. It's going to be fun and interesting but here is how I got back to school.

I first welcomed kids and parents back and re-introduced myself this morning which was fun. I had played and sat in their classrooms this spring, but now we get to play and do cool stuff all year which was exciting to share with them! Not that they have any idea what that means but I appreciated the enthusiasm. Some of the parents couldn't have been bothered but who cares, I'm just the stranger watching your kid for the next 8 hours for a year...get out of my classroom! ;)

We moved on to circle time, where I realized immediately who my little chatter boxes are and was impressed with how much they remember from just a few weeks ago which in kid time is a bazillion years ago. It's going to be great to move them forward now realizing they actually do retain information!

Snack was good, no fuss, no complaints and a surprising amount of pleases and thank you's....music to my ears!!! Then the toilet of which they are still practicing the follow up steps of flushing and washing hands, but over all, solid messy less start!!!

And then, my perfect first day had a little hiccup when one innocent quiet little munchkin asked me to hold, correction, silently handed me her rolled up BOOGER as she went to the toilet. It took me less than three seconds to look at this brown little rolled up ball of what the **** before I realized what it was.

Welcome to Pre-K.

Washed my hands, disinfected, laughed and continued my day, but now slightly more on the defense...you just never know! On to more play, no tears, complete with sharing, working together, no biting, singing, coloring, jumping, building, rolling, imagination safari and giggles. Lots of them! It's going to be a great year....

Lunch was sub par but the kids were happy so I made out with our salad bar and enjoyed not having to spoon feed any of them. Poor Vaness though. Haha, her lunch got sneezed on....

Welcome to Pre-K.

Next week we start fresh with manners and all of the proper human etiquette we as humans are unnaturally aware of. Starting with covering your mouth when you sneeze, especially if you have a mouthful of rice in it........ Blahhhhhhh!!!!

Sleep. Best hour of the day. Hands down and thank you for it being no less than that.

Adventure walk complete with kitties, chickens, butterflies and boats to keep the next hill interesting. We discovered a new playground, where one of our kids got a splinter, didn't tell anyone, pulled it out himself and then started crying.

Welcome to Pre-K.

Tomorrow is Friday. Can't wait to get back and am extremely happy with my best first day of school since, well, maybe Pre-K!


Xoxoxo

Basil Elderflower and Peach FroYo

So I decided to get a little crazy and whip up some frozen yogurt for my special dinner guest.

You will need:
Fresh basil leaves (1-2 nice size)
Finely chopped peach
Elderflower syrup (to taste)
(Vanilla) Yogurt (200g)
Confectioners sugar (100g)
*substitute cream for yogurt for ice cream
Ice cream maker

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Finely chop basil and peaches
Mix sugar, syrup & yogurt (refrigerate)
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An alternative idea would be to marinate peaches and basil in elderflower to infuse the flavors without having basil chunks and just the hit of elderflower in the peach, but whatever, cooking is all about experimentation and trial an error right?!
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Mix away.
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Invite a friend over to be your guinea pig and enjoy.

Welcome Babies, Fall 2012

I had been asked to paint the windows of one of the classrooms at school. I had done them last term for the spring and this is the start to welcoming new fall babies! I hope they feel welcome...some of them are only 3months old, but I will be in another classroom so even if they don't like it, I don't have to hear about it! ;)

But this is for them...welcome babies!

Sushi with Sashi

I love random Monday nights and tonight was primo! Typically Monday's are quiet nights in, but tonight was a quiet night out. Tonight two sushi lovers made some sweet sushi rolls Sashi style and it was deeeeeelicious!

I have to admit, in all of the years that I have been eating sushi, never once have I made it myself. And while tonight I still didn't do any actual rolling of the final dish, I contributed and watched the simple process from the other side of the little glass kitchenette and got really excited to go out and get my own mat and fixings to practice more at home.

We made crab and salmon rolls with cucumber and avocado and it is certainly a scrumptious clean flavor that I could eat every single day. Alas, welcome to Switzerland where at the coop you can buy 6 pieces for 18chf, yeah right, or you can make it at home and be much more satisfied!

So after some dinner and cool cloud watching rolling over Luzern it was time to shuffle home for an early night. Time for bed with thoughts of happy fishes, chop stick suppers a belly full of ginger and another great night with Shashank!

Muah!