living in the moment.

I haven't blogged in a while. My weeks have been super busy as I'm trying to get a lot of hours in before I have to leave my job. I have also been working out a lot. It is sometimes hard to find the time, but I always feel so good afterwards. I've been keeping healthy through diet and exercise and it has become something so important to me (not that it ever wasn't!).

I've been using the an iPhone app called MyFitnessPal and you can also keep track through their website. It's a good way to be aware of what you eat by keeping track of how many calories, protein, iron, calcium, carbs, fat, etc. are in the food you eat. You can keep track of how many glasses of water you drink, too. Then, you add your cardio workout to let you know how many calories you burned so you can stay consistently at 1200 calories a day of intake - if you burn calories, you eat more to be at that 1200 calorie goal. The more you burn, the more you can eat!

I have still been suffering off and on with these stomach aches and tomorrow I will go for an echo to figure out what the problem is. I also had blood-work done but haven't had the chance to go and pick up the results. All in all, it has been very busy.

Last weekend I did find the time to wind down and relax. My guy and I had breakfast out Saturday morning, and then I went for a nice run (Well, I was only outside for my run to the gym) but while on the treadmill, the window was open which was so refreshing. I was seriously smiling the whole time I was running. After, I went to lunch with a friend. I had a wonderful three course meal - green salad, salmon filet, and a café gourmand. It was such a beautiful day.

café gourmand - espresso with a few miniature desserts

Last week was one of those glorious weeks that teases you with a hint of Spring. It was poncho/no coat wearing weather. I didn't have to wait for my car to heat up in the morning (love that!) and even cracked the window a few times.

During the weekend we did some pre-birthday celebrating for my guy because we knew Monday night we'd both we working. I gave him a beautiful Montblanc pen which he loved. I wrapped the pen in a shoe box and then in a cologne box so he had to open three boxes to get to the surprise! The pen arrived a few weeks ago and I had been counting the days until his birthday because I could not wait to reveal my surprise!

Besides that, there's nothing new. However, I do want to post my Thai Curry recipe because I think I've finally mastered it!! :)

What I'm listening to right now:

Raclette

This weekend we were in Nancy, France looking at apartments and spending time with the French family. We had a really nice weekend; although I still can't manage to survive a gathering like they do. When they are all together, they eat around midnight and then stay up until about 3:30 in the morning talking. We ate dinner around 11:30 on Saturday night and were eating dessert a little bit before 1am. By 1:30, I was on the couch out cold (mouth wide open I'm sure... that's my signature move... so attractive). At 3:30 my guy woke me to help me get my body moving toward the hotel. I felt a little embarrassed to not be able to "keep up with the Jones'" so to speak, but I just can't manage to stay up that late anymore! What an old lady I am! And, he said nobody thought I was rude or anything.

I was a little confused as to what was happening for dinner (or if we were eating at all). Everyone was sitting leisurely in the living room chatting and sipping on some drinks but no one was in the kitchen preparing anything. I had seen meat being cut earlier but it wasn't being cooked. So when we were called to the table, I was thinking, "what the heck are we eating!?"

I was in for a nice treat. We were eating traditional French cuisine - raclette. You use something like this one from Tefal....

Here's how it works. On the top of the grill, they sprinkled some freshly cracked pepper and sea salt. The meat I had seen them cutting came into play here. The meat - beef and turkey - was thinly sliced so as to cook evenly and quickly. Right away everyone started putting the meat of their choice on top of the grill which was already hot. Underneath, where you see the little handles, are these little spatula-ish things. You put a piece of cheese (raclette) onto this and place it underneath the grill where it melts. Once it melts, you pull out your handle and the cheese slides right off. There were boiled potatoes which you slice and dice to your little heart's desire. There was a fresh, crusty baguette. Then, you take the melted cheese and put it on top of your potatoes, bread, and/or your meat. I even had a nice laugh when I saw my guy's brother putting cheese on top of a pickle!! Those French, they'll eat cheese with/on anything! 

As you see in the picture above, you can try it with veggies or whatever else you'd like! If I wasn't eating with a bunch of carnivores, I definitely would have tried some veggies brochettes out.

This was a pretty cool experience and an awesome way to host guests. Not only was the hostess able to sit and spend time with the guests rather than being stuck in the kitchen, we were able to have some fun with the dinner. There was also a big salad and an elaborate array of sauces to put on the meat. I would love to buy one of these to use at dinner parties one day (a wonderful wedding registry gift, people!!). 

I can't wait until I have my American family visit and can share this wonderful French experience with them. I am also so glad I got to be there on Saturday night to spend this wonderful evening with the French fam. They have welcomed me with open arms, and considering my family is so far away, it feels good to be loved by so many people here. 

As far as the apartment searching goes, well, it hasn't gone very far. The problem is that the buildings are all about 3 stories high and this doesn't allow much light to get it. Each building blocks the light from the next. It's like when people come to the beach and sit right on top of you and put an umbrella up. It felt like every apartment we walked into was dark. There wasn't a whole lot of natural light. Even the pictures we look at online are dark! We need to find a place that won't be miserable and will have a lot of windows and light. **Side note: When I lived in Long Island, NY for a short period of time, I had an apartment that literally didn't have one window. There were a few occasions where I fell asleep early on the couch and would wake up and see my phone said 10 and would freak out thinking I was super late to work - not even realizing it was 10pm. When there's no natural light, you have no concept of whether it's night or day and it's a whole heck of a lot harder to get your butt out of bed in the morning.

The apartments we saw also fell into two not so wonderful categories. There were the apartments that were old and classic with hardwood floors that I just loved, but they were also kind of falling apart with cracks in the ceiling and things that would require an insane amount of scrubbing. There's also the issue of them not having any appliances in the kitchen. My guy found and apartment last night and said, "the kitchen isn't that great." When I looked, I saw that there was literally nothing in the kitchen except for a few pipes to hook up your gas and water lines, too. And then we both laughed and simultaneously said something like, it's really just a kitchen. A lot of the apartments were like this - you really need to use your imagination to figure out where everything would go. For renters, it's also an added hassle and an obvious added cost to have to buy new appliances. For fourth floor walk-up apartments, lugging appliances around isn't enticing at all.

The second category of apartments were the ones that were trying to be modern but done in a very cheap way. They had fake wood floors and those kind of marble looking counter tops that are made of plastic. Everything was just so cheap looking.

My ideal apartment would be classic (while not falling apart) with modern appliances. I like the classic meets modern feel where the modern is just in the kitchen. I love to cook and don't like cooking on old stuff. I wouldn't mind having something classic and fixing it up if it was something we were buying, but since we're renting, we don't really want to invest a load of cash into something we're not investing in for our future. We'd really just be making it better for the next renter!!

I think I have just been typing as my brain is rambling and thinking. That's enough!! :)

TGIF

This has been a long week. Last Thursday night I started to have a fever and woke up on Friday feeling terrible. I had a horrible stomach ache and felt tired all day, despite going to bed at 10pm. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I was totally fine! I ran 6 miles on Saturday and 6 miles on Monday. Things were fine. I woke up Tuesday morning and got out of bed and my stomach was hurting again. When I was sitting or laying on my back but standing and walking were horrible. The thud thud of my feet on the ground just vibrated through my stomach. I walked to the doctor and it was just excruciating.

I had convinced myself this was a pulled muscle from crunches or something and really didn't want to go to the doctor. However, Wednesday I finally did. He said my situation was atypical and really didn't know what to make of it. He said it wasn't the muscle and my stomach was certainly inflamed. Other than that... he really wasn't sure. Yesterday I was feeling a bit better but still not 100%. Today I feel great. I have no idea what that little problem was with my stomach. The medicine he gave me appears to have worked and I guess the mystery will never be solved. As long as I'm better, who cares!

The perfect part is... it's just in time for the weekend! Tomorrow we will go to our new city (we're moving in April) and look at an apartment. We are really excited to move to a bigger city. In fact, I can't wait. Everyday I say to my guy, "Can I tell my work today!?"

This week wasn't all bad. With my time off of work, I was obviously bored. I read a book. I watched movies and television. The Vow was really cute! This is War was really bad. So bad that I stopped halfway through, watched The Vow, and then came back to finish what I started. I also spent a lot of time experimenting with new recipes since I was able to do the slicing and dicing while seated.

I made a delicious take on Sheppard's Pie. Vegetarian, of course. It was super simple:
mirepoix
2 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
1 Tablespoon dried Thyme
100 ml red wine
1.5 liters vegetable broth
1 small (the baby) can of peas or some frozen ones
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
then add a big can of lentils (the big mama, not the little guy)
The red wine, of course, is optional but it added such a lovely flavor. Then, you make mashed potatoes. I put some thyme in them, too. After, you use a ladle to add the lentils and broth to the bottom of a bowl. I first used a ladle with holes to make sure to get a lot of lentils. I topped that with the sauce. I put a heaping helping of mashed potatoes in the center, topped with cheese, and added a little more sauce. This was so delicious and my carnivorous guy loved it, too. I did first cook him a steak and sat it in the sauce thenadded the potatoes and more sauce on top. He finished that and wanted more and I told him his only choice was to have the lentils and he didn't care at all and raved about it. I was pleased.

And since I had nothing to do, I made apple tarts and turnovers which were equally as tasty! By the end of the night, he was calling me a chef :) This made me feel good considering the last time I posted my dinner on the blog he had worked late and ordered takeout. Upon seeing my post, he said, "Well, if I knew you were making that for dinner, I would have come home to eat." I thought, oh okay, I should call you and then you can decide if you'll order takeout or not!! He swears he didn't mean it like that, but what can I say, I'm sensitive!

Everyone have a wonderful weekend! :)

amsterdam.

view from hotel window

all the bikes from the hotel window

see my excitement upon finding this place in the video below

Two weekends ago we spent our weekend in Amsterdam. It was a short, spontaneous trip. My guy was going there on business starting that Sunday and Friday night he suggested I come a day early (the following day) so I could meet his friend, see the city, and spend a night out dancing our butts off. And, so that's what we did. We arrived Saturday evening. I met his very nice friend (whose English had a very wonderful Croatian accent). We stayed out until the wee hours of the morning - because, well, why not? Sunday we enjoyed an Asian food festival and had one too many (or not) veggie spring rolls. We had to, of course, go to a French fry place and eat French fries smothered in ketchup (although there were about 20 different toppings to choose from). We walked all around the city - Bopping in and out of shops, looking at old buildings, marveling at bikers and houseboats aplenty, and paying 1€ to use the 'loo' all the while. We ate at a delicious Thai restaurant for dinner (SOOO good!). Then, Monday morning I was on the first flight back to France. Boo!

The nice thing about Amsterdam is that almost everyone speaks English. It made things very easy for us English-speakers. There are so many tourists in Amsterdam, but luckily, my guy had studied in Holland while in University so he knew a little bit about the city to help us steer clear of too much touristy stuff. 

I first went to Amsterdam in 2005 with my sister. We did the whole hostel, meeting people, being young thing. It was so much fun. We went to coffee shops. I ate space cake which was a big thing for me as I was a vegan. I figured, when in Amsterdam, eat space cake. We went to the Anne Frank house which was so so so moving and something I would love to do every time I am in Amsterdam. Our youthful trip was wonderful and fun (and a trip to remember!), but it is always a different experience doing things with someone new. It is nice to walk through a strange city, seeing new things, and holding the hand of someone you adore. I enjoy that... a lot. I don't think I will ever tire of walking through strange cities and seeing new things and holding the hand of that someone I adore. ....as long as life is always as spontaneous and bizarre as it is now. Because, as I have said before, I bore easily.

Video below makes clear two things. The first is that I love Asian food. The second is that I am a pig! 

a dose of positive thinking.

 what I'm listening to right now:

Have a wonderful weekend!

jet-lag

Jet-lag is seriously such a killer. My eyelids were so heavy today! It's only Tuesday and I am already looking forward to the weekend. I need to catch up on so many things - work, cleaning, UNPACKING, rest... I just need a few spare moments when my eyelids aren't so heavy to get my life together.

You know that feeling when you feel like you're forgetting something...? That's how I feel when my things aren't organized and arranged and in order. I'm experiencing a whole lot of that right now.

I also really need some catch-up time with my guy who has been so wonderful through all of this!

What I'm listening to right now:

6 things.

There are 6 things on my mind right now.

The first thing is kind of funny. So this morning I quickly blow dried my hair. It was pretty much half dry already.  I was looking in the mirror and debating whether my short, wavy hair looked sexy or messy. I was diggin' it at the time so I thought I'd go with the look. I asked my guy what he thought, and he said, "It looks really good." Naturally, I was feeling beautiful. Usually he would be like, "It looks fine, babe" or something equally as uninterested or impartial.

I met him for lunch (meaning, to pick up our take-out that we would each eat individually as the day was crazy). He said to me, "What happened to your hair?" I was like, "OMG, what happened?" I thought maybe a bird pooped on my head or something. He said something along the lines of, "Why is it so messy?" I said, "This morning you said it looked really good." He said, "Yeah, but I thought you knew I was kidding." I guess what looked like sexy, beachy waves or borderline hot mess actually looked like a big, old hot mess. I was too tired, hungry, and busy to be concerned so I rocked the disheveled look all day without a care in the world. It doesn't bother me at all. Who really cares!! :)

The second thing on my mind is that Friday is my longest day of work. Most people are winding down and I am super, super busy. During the middle of the day, when my eyelids are drooping and I'm just so drained, I consider telling my boss it's too many hours and I can't do so many classes on Friday. Then, I get my second wind. When the day is over, I realize it wasn't that bad. I feel happy to have experienced so many wonderful conversations with people. I absolutely love when they don't look at the time and our class runs late because they enjoy being there so much. I said to one man late in the day, at a time when I was feeling really tired - "Okay. That's time. It went by so fast." And he said, "Yeah, too fast!" Maybe to him it was just a comment, but to me, it meant so much. I felt like he valued the time. I don't know. I know I always look way too much into things, but it felt so nice to hear.

The next thing on my mind is electric water heaters. Why don't we use them in the USA? All my life I have sat and waited for the teapot to whistle until now. This is seriously a revelation to me. I drank a lot of tea before, but now I drink WAY more. It takes 2 minutes to heat that water up. It's seriously incredible. I use it to get cous cous made in a flash. I use it to pre-boil my water for pasta - cutting the time of making pasta in half. Really, this baby has a million uses and I will never again live without one. I am drinking a steaming cup of green tea with mint as I write this and will continue to reheat and refill all night long.

The next thing I want to talk about it heat. When is the right time to put it on? My Dad always had this rule about November 1st. It's crazy, right!? I am a firm believer in wearing sweatpants and sweaters and wrapping yourself in a blanket (and of course, drinking hot tea) for as long as possible, but some nights, I am so tempted to turn the heat on and be all cozy and warm. However, I will suck it up.. for at least a few more weeks.

I did, however, put the heat on in the bathroom. I love that the heaters in the bathrooms double as towel warmers here. They are on the wall and have a bunch of rungs to hang your towels on. I love having a nice, hot towel. We hang our robes on there, too! To me, there is nothing worse than stepping out of your hot shower and being blasted by cold air. Now, the problem is, I want to sit on the toilet all night with my computer and my tea just to stay warm!!!

I saw on another blog that Felicity is now available on Netflix and have been watching every episode starting with season 1. I forgot about that show, but not about Kerry Russell's enviable hair. I am beginning to be a bit of a hermit now. Part of what gets me through a work day is knowing I can come home and watch Felicity all night. Last night, I even considered cancelling plans with my friend so I could watch all night. I realized that would be a big sign that I was a LOSER!!! But tonight, here I am, back at my computer and am so excited to watch Felicity until my eyes close.

My Mom sent me the cutest package recently. She sent shake 'n bake, candles, my favorite Vegan cookies, chocolate for my guy, and packs of my favorite pesto mix (as well as 2 beautiful additions to my wardrobe). Let me talk for a minute about these candles. AHHH! Fall isn't so incredible and romantic here as it is back home. I have already burned these candles down pretty far. The smell is incredible and reminds me of home. Mmm... it's so peaceful and wonderful.

Tonight, I can assure you I really won't be sitting on the toilet (well, maybe once or twice). However, I have already lit my fall candles, made my tea, and started getting Felicity ready for viewing. What a night this will be!! My guy will once again be working until forever, but who needs a man when you have Ben.... sighhhhhhh.

Stay American, Baby.

After my last depressing post, I am feeling a bit revived. We hosted our first American BBQ and to rave reviews! We had some of my guy's family over for an All-American cook-out last night. Sure, it would have been a bit more fun tailgating and cheering on the Big 10 and bouncing around to Zombie Nation, but I'll take what I can get... and the company was good!! It was a really nice night.

We were all set to have the BBQ on our outdoor terrace which was really the biggest selling point for us on this place, but just as we had the tables set and the candles lit and the BBQ fired up, it started to pour! Just our luck! We love entertaining outdoors, and we do it almost every night. We are getting good at working as a team (in tight quarters). Entertaining his family daily is also the perfect motivation to keep this place clean. There is always someone coming over here, and I never want to get caught with the place looking like too much of a hot mess. 

My guy really let me go all out yesterday (I had him feeling bad after my last post. However, it's not him - he just can't fill the void for EVERYONE else!). He patiently took me to FIVE stores to get all the ingredients I needed. He didn't complain while I spent two hours making an apple pie thus forcing him to clean the bathroom and sweep the floors. He didn't mind when I spent some of the precious time I could have used cutting the potatoes for our now "famous" french fries to decorate my mason jars as I had seen here. 

Sometimes I need to sit back and take a look at what I have. I need to be more accepting of this challenge. It is never going to be easy to be away from my loved ones, but I am fortunate to have shelter, a job, the chance to see the world, and people who love me right here. I have to remember that when I complain about being away from the people I love, there is someone right here who loves me that I am hurting. I can't always have everything I want right at my fingertips, and maybe the saying "it doesn't hurt to try" isn't always true. I am hurting myself and others by trying.

My last post saddened my family and friends that can't be here. And, it hurt my guy because it made him feel like he'll never be enough. Let me be clear when I say that I am happy, but sometimes life gets you down. Sometimes the only cure for me is a day playing dominoes, scrabble and yahtzee for hours on end with my Mom and Aunt or a day at the beach with my best friends. And vice versa, sometimes nothing comforts me more than a lazy day watching movies with my guy or watching him suck wind as I run circles around him (joking joking... maybe!!).

I will soon get used to all the changes and will adapt to life across two continents. As my friends work more and save more and when my father retires, there will be more visitors; and in time, I will make friends here, too. Maybe now I feel like my heart is being stretched in different directions, but I think I should consider myself lucky that my heart is so big and has the capacity to love so much.

Now that I got all the mushy stuff out of the way... here is a recipe for perhaps the most American thing you can think of... Apple Pie! I adapted this recipe from a whole bunch of recipes, and I promise, it was delicious! The hardest part of making this is sitting and peeling, slicing, and coring the apples as that was a bit tedious. I used apples that my guy picked himself when we were in Besancon.

Apple Pie

Ingredients:

• 2 - 9 inch pie crusts (store-bought or homemade)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (I, of course, used the vegan stuff)
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add syrup, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. 
2. In a bowl, mix half of the sugary mixture with your apples.
3. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust (this is my favorite part!).
4. Gently pour the remainder of the sugar mixture over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
5. Bake for 1 hour.
6. Let cool at least an hour before you eat. It allows the sugary mixture to form a gel rather than be too runny.

Follow the directions exactly and it's fool-proof!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm back to more cleaning and more entertaining!

the week is over.

(photos from the past two weeks)

it's been a long week, but it's finally over. i can't help but missing home and my family and my friends. when it comes to the weekend, and i have no one to go grab a coffee with or someone to see a movie with or some ladies to go dancing with, then, well, i can't help but to be a little somber.

there are so many ways an afternoon with my mom or a best girlfriend can cure me. i know these little rendezvous will be full of laughter and smiles, secrets and gossip, stories reminiscing about the past and others sharing hopes for the future. we will give each other advice. we will comfort each other. these are things that i just cannot do from afar.

i know i can't replace my friends or my family while i am here, but i just wish i could have someone here. it's so hard to do these things with a language barrier. i really need to concentrate on practicing my french, because the longer it takes, the lonelier it is.

so with that being said, it's friday night. i am laying in my bed writing on this blog. i'm not complaining. life isn't always supposed to be exciting, but i could use a little bit more laughter and a lot more hugs.

have a nice weekend everyone :) ...full of laughter and hugs (or whatever it is that makes you happy!)

cupcakes.

Tomorrow is the official start date of my job. I'm basically just shadowing someone all day. However, I have to be there at (gasp!) 8am. I usually would not complain about 8am, but an 8am morning during Ramadan is difficult. We get up to eat a little after 4. We eat and drink as much as we can fit into our bellies until 5. Then, we sit up in bed - him playing ping pong on his iPhone, me playing Sudoku on mine - for as long as it takes for us to be comfortable enough to lay down. Seriously, the thing I should be grateful for during Ramadan is eating, but one of the hardest parts is trying to get comfortable and sleep with an over-stuffed belly. Anyway, my point is - I'm sitting here at 12:15am debating whether or not when I wake up to eat in 4 hours I should stay up or try to fall back asleep for an hour. I'm not sure which will be easier... and I kind of still want to eat a cupcake so bed isn't happening anytime soon.

We had a wonderful weekend full of movie-watching, family and delicious food. Tomorrow I'll share some recipes but now, I'm off to grab that cupcake!

Checking in!

in my Aunt and Uncle's neighborhood

Venice

view from our lunch on the Grand Canal

my yummy pizza!

the beach at the island of Lido, where I put my feet in the Adriatic Sea

hiking in Dardago

The weekend is here! The world didn't end (although I never believed that in the first place). The weather is beautiful, and I suspect back on the East Coast of the states, too.

I have been enjoying myself thoroughly while in Italy. My Aunt and Uncle are wonderful tour guides and really make sure I don't miss a thing. We have traveled all around here. My uncle took me hiking yesterday and to some amazing look-out points. We went to Venice for a day. We drove to the top of the mountain, Piancavallo, which was both beautiful and frightening. We saw paragliders jumping off the mountain and flying through the air. I put my feet in the Adriatic Sea for the first time, and it was surprisingly very warm! We've visited old churches and ate authentic Italian. And, with them being stationed here, I've been able to go on base and enjoy some comforts of home, too! I've had Subway, Starbucks, and... a bagel!!

As I write to you now, I'm sitting here on their terrace which overlooks the vineyard. The sweet smell of flowers fills the air. The birds are flying around making their music. I hear the comforting sounds of lawn mowers (something I just don't hear living in a city). The breeze is cooling yet the sun is hot. I am drinking an American cup of coffee (I missed sitting with a cup of coffee for 30 minutes). I am totally at peace.

Today we are venturing to Trieste. It is right on the border of Slovenia. It is the meeting point for Western Europe and Central Europe. It is already almost 80 degrees and is supposed to be beautiful there, with beaches and castles. 

Off I go... more pictures to come!! Enjoy your weekend, too.

And, Happy Birthday to you, Mom!! You rock!

weekend.

Ahhh the weekend has arrived! This weekend will take me to Forbach, a French town just 5 minutes from the German border (one I suspect is largely influenced by German culture). It is a 3 hour drive from here that I will happily take along with the French family (the babies, too!!). Unfortunately, my love won't be able to join us as he's working on something HUGE at work and the deadline is Sunday! 

Well, I'm off! Have a fabulous weekend everyone! Spend it with your Mother's because I sure wish I could!!

P.S. Zoom out 2x on my Google map of Forbach, look diagonally down and right. I bet that town is a Biitche to live in! :) 

what a wonderful weekend.

This past weekend was really great!

It started on Friday night. My love took me to the old city part of Belfort where we went to a traditional French restaurant. Everything from the food to the decor was so French. We both really enjoyed it.

Saturday morning we had planned to go to a G Star outlet store in Germany. He really likes the clothes there and the prices are really affordable. We both did some browsing and didn't find anything. However, it was such a beautiful day, and we didn't want to head back to Belfort just yet.

My uncle had written on my Facebook about how we should go to Freiburg and so we did. I didn't even realize we were going there until I started seeing signs and realized which direction we were headed. It was just wonderful driving with the windows down, letting the sun seep in, and having the freedom of going wherever we pleased.

The city of Freiburg was really cute! All of the architecture is, of course, very traditional German. There were so many coffee shops and pastry shops. Because it was such a beautiful day, every cafe was packed. Everyone was sitting outside; the streets were bustling; it was very jolly. It must rain a lot there, because all the streets had a little steam running down them. I guess how we have sewage drains, Freiburg has these open streams. They are about 1 to 1.5 feet wide. All the kids had these little boats on strings that they would pull along with them as they walked down the streets. It was very cute! *We didn't bring a camera, an iPhone or anything with us to take photos as the original plan was just to go to the outlets. We bought a disposable camera so I will post more about Freiburg when I get the pictures back!

After we returned from Freiburg, we went over to see his sister who was 9 months pregnant! She has another baby girl that will be 1 year this month. When we arrived, she was wearing her I <3 NY onesie that we brought from NY! It was nice to see the family!

We went back to his Mom's house where I prepared a dish I had been really looking forward to making. One of my favorite bloggers posted this recipe back in March. My love and I truly enjoyed the meal! I omitted the wine and instead added lemon juice. I also doubled the tomatoes since I love cooked, fresh tomatoes. I also added 2 peperoncinis to the pan because we didn't have any dried red pepper flakes and we wanted the extra kick they would have provided. We used all fresh ingredients - fresh shrimp (this turned out to be a bit of a pain as peeling, deveining, and cleaning the shrimp was quite time consuming but thankfully my love took the reigns on that project), fresh tomatoes, fresh parsley, even the juice from fresh lemons (I cut up lemon slices and cooked them in the pan, too). We served it over pasta. It was so delicious! I will definitely be making that again.

We were woken up at about 9 on Sunday morning with the call we had been anxiously awaiting - it was time!!! We hurried ourselves out of bed, threw some clothes on, and we were out the door. My job was to watch the baby while my love took the expectant family to the hospital. This, as it turned out, was not a job. The baby slept until 10. She didn't make a sound when she woke up. I kept checking in and eventually found her standing up in her crib. I was nervous she might cry when she saw me (thinking, you are not my mom!). However, she had a big smile which warmed my heart - I could see all 4 teeth!! We enjoyed the morning together eating, dancing, singing, and hide and seek (although not even a year, she is a very fast walker!!!)! I welcome the fact that this beautiful baby girl is the only person on this planet that enjoys my singing!! She also loves Lady Gaga (as she danced she said, "Gaga!")! It was so funny. Every time the music would come on.. she would start bending her knees and bouncing up and down or swaying back and forth. I just love her!

And now, she is a big sister!! Another beautiful, healthy baby girl was welcomed into the family yesterday... how exciting! Yesterday was my father's birthday so I was secretly hoping the new baby would be born on that same day, and to my delight, my wish came true!

On that note, Dad, hope your birthday was a good one!

After leaving the hospital, having a coffee back at the hotel with his oldest sister and her family (it was my first time meeting them and they were SO nice), we took a short drive to  Montbéliard. We took a walk and soaked in the last moments of the weekend together before Monday would arrive and bring with it another busy week. The weekend was such a happy one and we didn't want it to end.

Tour de France: Strasbourg

The truth is, even if we didn't travel on the weekends I would be happy. My love works SO much during the week which means I am alone all the time. I  look forward to the weekends, because I love getting to spend time with him. We can finally catch up on what's going on at his work and what I am learning in my French class. I love that! I didn't think it was possible to miss someone you see everyday, but now I know it is. However, it is really nice to get to see new places so I welcome the opportunity!

This past weekend, we took an impromptu trip to Strasbourg. Saturday morning we were sitting around and thinking about what we could do (it was such a beautiful day) when my love said, "Do you want to go to Strasbourg?" I said, "Sure, why not!?" He said, "The train leaves in 10 minutes so can you be ready in 5 minutes?" I said, "I guess we'll see!" We threw clothes in an overnight bag. I put my wet hair in a ponytail. We grabbed some stuff to do on the train, and we were off! We sprinted across the street to the station. The man said, "Train to Strasbourg leaves in 30 minutes!" (in French, but I understood!).  We laughed that we had hurried so much and we still had 30 minutes. I went back across the street to put some makeup on and to raid the hotel fridge for some snacks for the 1.5 hour train ride. He went to the ticket counter to purchase our tickets and to secure a hotel room in Strasbourg.

I studied my French on the train; he read the newspaper. We admired the countryside together. I would point things out to him (my mom's favorite trees), people riding bikes (I would say, "Look, it's my dad!"), and people wearing not enough clothes in their yards to be living next to where the train passes (if you catch my drift!). He would tell me the names of towns or what the names of certain things were in French. It was very pleasant.


Upon arriving in Strasbourg, I liked it immediately. It helped that it was just a perfect day weather-wise. The sun was shining; everyone was smiling; there were people laying on the grass basking in the sun, and the shops were full of people browsing. We walked all around and took a lot of photos. We had lunch right outside the beautiful cathedral (pictured above). We liked the food so much that we went back for dinner. We just walked and walked. It was a fabulous day.

Sunday was another beautiful day. We walked around some more. We had delicious Italian gelato (the line was out the door). You can't see that great (last picture), but they would make the gelato look like a rose on your cone. In the US, I am used to getting a cone with scoops on top, This was much fancier! I had pistachio, coconut, and dark chocolate. My love had lemon, strawberry, and chocolate. They had so many flavors including 3 different kinds of chocolate, nutella, a myriad of nut and fruit flavors, and specialties like caramel, dulce de leche, etc. It was very cute and doing a lot of business! After we had our gelato, we went and laid in the sun and people watched for the rest of the afternoon.

Overall, it was a good weekend. Strasbourg is in the Alsace region which is historically German. The architecture is much more representative of German style. I prefer the old, quaint look and feel of the French style. I definitely wouldn't want to live in Strasbourg (too many people could speak English and I would never learn French!!). However, I do think it's a nice place to visit. There were a lot of super high end stores there - Hermes, Gucci, Cartier - as well as my favorites - Zara and H&M. I hope my Tour Guide de France takes me back there someday!

Off to Paris!

Ciao Friends!

I have two more hours of French lessons, and then I'm off to Paris with my love for the weekend.

This will be a great opportunity to practice my French. It will also be a great opportunity to drink espresso at a cafe like in the movies! :) The weather is supposed to be beautiful! It's been over 60 degrees the past two days, and (inch'allah) it will continue into the weekend!

I have been to Paris once before with my sister, but it wasn't exactly the most positive experience. First, it was FREEZING cold. Second, we stayed in the sketchiest hostel in the dirtiest part of Paris. Why we didn't run out of there upon entering is beyond fathomable to me now...!? What were we thinking? We didn't have any hot water. Our beds were chained to the floor. What class!

However, it wasn't all bad. We saw many great sights (including the Eiffel Tower), we ate great food, drank good wine, and danced the night away at a swanky club. I am looking forward to doing all of that again but this time in a nice hotel, with a little bit of French knowledge and a handsome French man at my side.

Au revoir for now! Have a great weekend! Come back and see my post about Paris next week!

                                                                               Bisous!
                                                                               Kaylan