CLT+AVL, USA

Since I was in the proper earth-quadrant, I passed through North Carolina. Good thing I had this detour planned, because my parents are moving out of their house where quite a bit of my stuff has been living. I got rid of a lot of stuff, but can not bring everything to Europe with me. (Thanks for the continual storage space, folks!) I spent some time in the mountains fly fishing with my dad, then we headed to Charlotte for a few days of cleaning and hanging out with the whole family - the little sister was also in town. I was also fortunate enough to see my Grandma and an Aunt and Uncle - I didn't have time to make it to Raleigh, but will *knock on wood* be there in Autumn.

Asheville might be known for its beer, but the food that comes with it is pretty dope!

mole-mint lamb meatballs with cucumbers

Honestly, I ordered "the glutton" for the novelty value.
Fried chicken on a brioche doughnut with Gruyere and something maple. 

Back in Charlotte, I was forced to get a manicure with my Auntie B (Thanks! The "Game of Chromes" gel color I got to-go works great and I've gotten lots of compliments on it.) and was able to do some US American things like watching baseball and going to a bridal shower.

Family at the new-to-me downtown baseball stadium. So urban.

Technology can be difficult for the newly retired.

The lil'sis and me at her BFF's bridal shower.
Congrats, Emma! Sorry that I can't make it back for the wedding.

Gma aka my (probably) number one blog-reader.

Two sets of sisters. It  was great seeing all of you.

New Jersey, USA

After Grandma's party dad and I drove to Raleigh, where we spent the night at an Uncle and Aunt's place then took off for New Jersey Monday morning. Dad and I have spent a lot of time together in the prius (see all the excitement of out journey from Breckenridge to Charlotte near the end of this post) and I have gotten really good at navigating the satellite radio stations.

We arrived safely and spent the next few days preparing for the upcoming festivities: grocery shopping, getting mani-pedis (the upselled us to gel manis... quite the rip off), accessorizing our wedding outfits (this means buying warm things, as it was an outdoor evening ceremony in November). Dad and I even hit up the local fishing hole, but had no luck -- even though they had stocked the pond that morning. It was the most miserable fishing experience of my life, and I didn't even fall in-- cold, rainy and no bites. We also ate at Jim's Lunch, a south Jersey institution with a special sauce.

My cheeseburger

with onions and sauce. Tasty!

For Thanksgiving I made a coconut ganache pie. It had pressed and toasted coconut for the crust, a layer of homemade carmel, and dark chocolate filling. I might get disowned for saying this, but it was too rich. Thanksgiving spread covered the basics: turkey, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and stuffing. All delicious! I was able to talk my dad into making some broccoli, so there would be some non-starch veggies. My Uncle Todd's plate was filled with all white food! Dessert was great: pumpkin pie, apple pie, my pie and reese's pieces cupcakes. Plus we went over to my dad's cousin's house where his extended family had gathered where there was spice cake, more pies and cookies.

My pie

The sugar caramelizing!

The Fam around the table!

After all that food, we had to get up the next day and get all fancied up for my cousin Megan's wedding. It was so cold at the ceremony, but they had a hot coco station, so there was a little bit of warmth. The ceremony was celebratory and casual, with lots of clapping and wooooo-ing. We were able to get a full family shot during the cocktail hour and several informal photos during the reception. The food during the cocktail hour was, as Meg would say, slammin'. They were so impressive that there was some scandalous discussion about if there would be a dinner to follow. Apparently, dinner is standard at northern weddings. There was dinner and it was tasty as well. My little sister also taught me how to order a martini -- she is so fancy and cosmopolitan. My family hit up the photobooth and we even got my dad out on the dance floor. His lack of moves made me feel better about mine, but also worried that I looked like him :)

All of the cousins!

Happy family!

Saturday we said goodbye to my mom and sister and went fishing with some of my dad's college buddies (for being a small southern school, Pfeiffer sure had a lot of kids from New Jersey). It was so cold, but a pretty day nonetheless. It is the only time I have ever outfished my dad! We fished for about four hours without a hit. Then I pulled in a little sucker fish-- it's not a trout, so doesn't usually count, but we were just happy to have gotten a fish. On my next cast, I brought in a 14 inch rainbow. A few minutes later, my dad caught a rainbow. Not long after, it was getting chillier and we hadn't gotten any more strikes, so we headed back to the car. That little suckerfish turned out to be the tie breaker! Dad usually out catches me 2:1 (or worse), so I need to celebrate the little victory!

The tie-breaking fish!

Sunday we joined one of dad's cousins and her husband's family to make grave blankets out of evergreens and holly to place on relatives' gravestones. Apparently, someone will probably steal these pretty soon, but I really like the new-to-me heard lots of good stories about my family and those of the others who went with us.

North Carolina, USA

Shortly after I accepted the position in Switzerland, I flew home to the US. I wanted to experience an American autumn (and all of its holidays) and didn't want to spend my savings living in Stockholm's gloomy winter. This means three months with my parents. Because I went to boarding school for part of high school and spent my summers in college interning abroad, I haven't been at home for that long in about ten years.

Mom with some trick-or-treaters (a witch, frog, and functional transformer!)

My dad retired almost a year ago, so we have been doing lots of retired-man things: going to the grocery store multiple times a day, home improvement/DIY projects, home brewing, and fishing two days a week at my parents' house in Asheville. I'm loving it!

We tiled the mailbox!

This blue heron nabbed our fishing spot. 

Also spending some quality time with mom when she isn't at work!

At the Southern Christmas Show!

Cleaning mom's stitches after her skin cancer removal.
(She's fine! Wear Sunscreen!)

It couldn't all be fishing and beer, after a few weeks, I started working part-time for our neighbour who has a home civil engineering office. She designs parking lots and stormwater management strategies for them. I prepare environmental reports and look up regulations for cities and towns. I also draw schematics of sewer lines!

After two weeks on the job, I had to take a 2 week vacation for Thanksgiving. My dad and I drove to New Jersey for Thanksgiving with his side of the family and the wedding of a cousin that happened on Black Friday (my mom and sister had to work, so they flew in Thursday - Saturday). On the way, we went to my Grandmother's (mom's mom) 80th Birthday Ice Cream Party! Most of the fam was able to make it and it was so nice to be able to see so many folks who have been part of Gma's life.

I also got to see my college friend/flatmate/classmate, Alyssa, while I was in Winston!

Stockholm & Godegård, Sweden + London & Manchester, GB

This past Spring my dad came to visit me in Sweden. The true purpose of the visit was to watch Premier League games in the UK, but he flew in and out of Stockholm, so we also got to take in a Swedish league game, sight see in Stockholm and visit the town that our ancestors emigrated from in the nineteenth century. A lot of planning and research went in to figuring out this trip: we tried to find a weekend where there were games on Saturday, Sunday and a weekday for which we could get tickets.

Stockholm
Dad was with me in Sthlm for a day before we went to England for our soccer-vacation. It was rainy, but I tried to squeeze some Swedish things in: a bus ride around Gammla stan and Södermalm, a tour of Systembolaget, a tour of KTH (well the library and quad... no hiking up to my office in the M building). The sun came out and we walked around Stureplan/Nybroplan on our way to Stadion, the 1912 Olympic stadium to watch Djurgården IF play. The stadium is brick and beautiful, but the team is moving to a stadium in the outskirts because the field doesn't comply with FIFA regulations.

Fika. Swedish afternoon coffee break.

One of the quads at KTH.

GB

Peter Crouch: awkward looking in real life, too.

We flew to London the next morning where we were graciously hosted by Kathryn (our families go way back) and her husband, Richie, a wine writer. We "went for a curry" for dinner then turned in. The following day, Dad and I walked around South Bank (and got some Krispy Kreme... they are fancy in England) before heading to Loftis Road to watch QPR play against Stoke. This wasn't an ideal game, but tickets were available and there were two Americans on Stoke's roster at the time (Shea and Cameron - I'm pretty sure I was the only person in the stadium who cheered when Cameron was subbed in late in the game).

"Enjoying" a pint at the local...
my super smokey microbrew was a bad choice. 

Hanging out with the (replica) dinos at the Natural History museum... well worth the visit just for the architecture
 + PROTIP: they have eduroam wifi.

We spent the next day in London, we couldn't get tickets to the Tottenham game that I was targeting (I'll have to go to an MLS game, if I want to see Dempsey play), but we watched it in a pub. Dad loves talking to strangers about soccer. I don't remember the chronology, but we also went to the Natural History Museum to check out the dinos and the British Museum to look at the stolen artifacts. Richie roasted chicken and vegetables and picked out a with a nice dessert wine, which he needed to taste for a certification he is doing, to pair with the strawberry trifle dad and I picked up at the grocery store (that seemed so casual in comparison).

I went into the ManU supporters only Trafford Pub,
but now they are making me accessorize!

We then headed north to Manchester to see Man U play Aston Villa. We had to join the supporters' club in order to get tickets. One of my dad's teammates and a lifetime ManU fan was also at the match, so we met up with him and his girlfriend before the match to talk soccer. We are not really Man U fans: in England, I like certain players and tend to follow them as they move around Europe (especially the few Americans who make it over there) and don't like the big money clubs and I'm not sure, but I think dad just likes football. Nevertheless, dad bought a scarf and I did not appreciate getting draped with it. Van Persie had a beautiful hat trick (including the "EPL goal of the year" according to my dad) against (american) keeper Brad Guzan. Man U clenched the League title by winning the match, so the crowd was really happy. They sang and chanted all game long. It was a crazy fan experience - very different than that at QPR! We caught a flight back to Sweden the next morning.

The view from our seats.

Godegård

After our UK soccer extravaganza, we returned to Sweden for 36 hours before dad flew home. We watched Bayern trounce Barcelona in my local pub, then work up early the next morning to road trip 3 hours to Godegård, the town where my dad's great-grandparents emigrated from. Armed with some cursory genealogy research (thanks LDS church), we hit up the cute old church and cemetery. We knew the names' of parents of the relatives who settled in Pennsylvania, but could not find their headstones. There were lots of Karlssons and Perssons, but we were looking for Larssons and Jonssons. We found a few potential relatives, but no one whose names we had. It was really fun searching for our roots; it felt so detective-y.

The town had several informational placards posted (all but one were in Swedish), so we were able to gather a little bit of history of the town. It was big in iron/steel and the smelter shut down about the time that the family came to the US, so we think they may have left because there were no jobs, especially since they settled in a metal smelting area of PA. We also saw the old festival place (now a field) and missed the annual festival by a week (it was May 1).

The sole restaurant/gas station/store.

Cute little church. We couldn't go inside, because as far as I could tell,
the guy with the keys would be there tomorrow. 

Some history in English, so I could confirm what
 I "understood" in Swedish

The manor house.

USA

Over the summer, I was back stateside for 6 weeks, the longest span I had been home for since leaving in May of 2011. I traveled across the country (going through 13 states) and had a blast!

Seattle

My ultimate team in Sweden, the Stockholm Syndromes, has been tossing the idea of going to Potlatch around for a few years - one of the key organizers is from Seattle and a few exchange students have hailed from the west coast. Potlatch is a massive co-ed tournament where you camp around the fields. It is one of the "fun" north american tournaments, games are played after each ultimate match, but it is also serious - the Canadian team training for the world games was there.  While chatting last Fall, it became clear that several members of the team were going to be in North America anyway this summer, so a bid was submitted and members of the traveling team were recruited from current Stockholm residents, Syndromes alums, and friends of the team. We ended up being quite a mix of players: Syndromes/Fish (our women's team), two estonians, a few guys from the University of Washington's team - fresh off their trip to Nationals, some ex-syndromes who had moved back to the US, some of their teammates, and a guy who knew a guy who had met us at a tournament in the Netherlands a few years ago.

Photo from Dani. Check out her work at http://dcosmephotography.com/

Colorado

My mom, dad and sister got together at a family friend's place near Aspen for the 4th of July (I wasn't invited). The ladies hiked and my dad fished. A good time was had by all (allegedly - I wasn't there). (Granted, I was defending my thesis in France and in Seattle during this gathering) Then I met up with my dad, one of his college buddies, and my uncle at another friend's duplex outside of Breckenridge for week of fishing (and eating massive breakfasts). My dad is recently retired, so he has a lot of time for fishing (and driving across the country) these days. I didn't have much luck, but did land a few.

The Drive

Dad's time in Colorado was right after the national soccer tournament in California. Because rental cars are expensive in CO, it made sense (to him) to drive to colorado, leave the car at the airport, fly to california, play, fly back to CO and drive to the houses and fishing holes. That meant dad and I had a 28 hour drive from Colorado back to NC! 

Kansas lures you into their Welcome Center with the promise of free coffee. Dad took a bunch brochures that the lady offered while he was getting our joe, but refused to stop at any of the quality attractions across the state. No Castle Rock or World's Largest Hand Dug Well for us! We did get to see the oil and gas wells and the 250 MW Smoky Hills wind farm from the interstate.

I drove us through St. Louis in rainy darkness (they need to get their detours together!) and we slept in Illinois. The next day we passed through Kentucky (no stopping for bourbon), Tennessee (no stopping for music), and finally made it to North Carolina (no stopping in Western NC to look at the mountain house they just bought). The landscape was generally more interesting than Kansas', but dad's favorite Sirius channels repeated the same music!

North Carolina

 Finally home! So nice and comfortable! Before I went home I was totally set on staying in Europe, now I think working in the US could be fine. Some highlights include:

• Being in the same city as two of my favorite people at the same time
• Crazy popsicle flavors (cucumber lime - okay, but not recommended).
• Went fishin' with Pa in Cherokee!
• Helped get my parents' new house in Asheville settled.
• Being in Alyssa & JP's wedding!

Switzerland with mommy

In two days I will have been in Madrid for almost a month, so now is obviously the perfect time to recount the vacay that I took with my mom between working in Germany and starting school in Madrid. Ten days, just me mom and the Alps... sounds dangerous, right? Well, we survived and hit most of the categories of Swiss sterotypes: mountains/cows, chocolate, trains and I even bought a knife (also wine, which they are trying to push as the 'next Swiss thing'). Okay, almost all of them... I guess we forgot cheese and cuckoo clocks.

Mountains

They are tall, windy and beautiful. We went up Mt. Pilatus where we explored some dragon caves. There was also this cute white church halfway down that mom wouldn't hike to, despite her trip goal of wanting to go to "a cute little church." The doors/doorhandles were particularly nice in this area.

From there we moved onto the Berner Oberland, which was even prettier. We did a bunch of hiking and got some great views of the Eiger, Jungfrau and Monch, saw some crazy paragliders (I want to try! well, I guess that isn't something you 'try,' but you know what I mean) and cheered on the poor souls running in the Jungfrau Marathon. We stayed in Grindelwald and Wengen, both of which were much nicer than Interlaken (where I had camped the last time I was in der Schweitz). There was compulsory frolicking. Another of mom's goals was to see some cows on a mountain side. This lil guy joined our picnic on one of our hikes!

Chocolate

I think that any of you who have met my mother can probably guess the sort of role chocolate played in our trip. We went into so many chocolate shops and even went to chocolate school! The lesson was on filled chocolates and then we toured the factory (and bought a bunch of chocolate). My pralines were dark chocolate with a chocolate and port ganache (mom was supposed to share them around NC, let me know if she didn't) and mom's were dark chocolate with dark chocolate ganache. The playground at the factory had huge chocolate bars to climb (or in my case lean) on.

Trains

We had SwissPasses so we rode them (a lot). The SwissPasses were really nice and allowed for flexibility. For example, on the way up to the Pilatus Base Station, we saw an advert for a Glass Blowing Museum with FREE ENTRY. So we just hopped of at that station did the tour, bought some glass accouterments (i got a hippo), then got on the next train heading our way! Also they have trains just for Chocolate tourists (we did not ride those).

Knives

I got the most adorable victorinox ever! Mom gave me some crap about buying a Swiss Army knife, given the selection we have at home from my Granddad, but I like to think of it as carrying on the tradition (plus we had leftover CHF). Guess which color I picked out!

Wine

After mountain-time we headed to the wine region in the French speaking part of the country around Lake Geneva. The lake and the vineyards are so pretty! Honestly, the wine was a little boring, but a nice grape farmer's wife gave us a bunch to try.

I think that's all for Switzerland (for now)! I'll start working on some Spain stuff, but between classes, a new ultimate community and cervesas with the classmates I've really been going pretty non-stop since I've arrived. I really like it here!!!

PS: ENE geeks don't worry. I documented the MSW and water distribution systems while I was there.