I’m disappointed in myself for letting the blog go un-updated for so long. I had all intentions of writing an in depth post about my time volunteering in Greece yet found myself unable to put into words what I wanted to convey. As such I got stuck, life moved on and nary a post was made. What I can say (ever so briefly) is that my eyes and heart were opened and the relationships, experiences and observations made during those whirlwind two weeks still shape and inform my perspective of Europe, the world and my own life every day.

Here is a summary of the trips, events and visits I’ve had since I got back from Chios in early March:

• I made chicken mole, there is still some in my freezer. It took me three days to source the ingredients. It was delicious.
• At the end of March, Tyler and I took a wonderful trip to Amsterdam and Dublin. In Amsterdam we stayed on a funky little houseboat and met up with our Cali friends Dave, Darien and their daughter Annika. We went to karaoke where we realized the Dutch are absurdly tall. We took out a boat and puttered through the canals in the rain. We ate a lot of french fries. Beers were also consumed. In Dublin Tyler and I had the chance to meet up with an old friend, Rachel, who has been living there for a number of years. I had forgotten how great it is to have a local guide! In town we ate some great food and stayed in a really cool hotel that is a converted 19th century schoolhouse. We took a day trip to Galway via the Connemara countryside. Tyler had to return to work and I stayed on to meet up with some
  

  Tyler and I looking for my pony in Connemara.

  other friends from California. Teresa and Mike are both musicians and I had the incredible opportunity to watch them play a gig and meet a few wonderful Irish musicians to boot. I even sat in and sang Jolene! It was an exciting and exhilarating experience. Rachel and I also made a day trip to the fabulous Castletown House, an early 18th century manor house. I finished off my Dublin adventure by taking a cross-country horseback ride with a lot of thrilling galloping and jumps before I popped over to London for a mini-reunion of volunteers I met while working on Chios.

  

  Chios volunteers in London.

• We had a visit from Pam, Tyler’s mom, in April and took some fun day-trips from Zurich. We visited Liechtenstein (can cross yet another country off my list!) where we saw the crown jewels (so. many. Fabrege. eggs.), the National museum and the postage stamp museum. On our way back to Zurich we swung by HeidiDorf village, the setting for Swiss author Johanna Spyri’s 1881 classic. During Pam’s
  

  Oldest biggest cuckoo clock in the Black Forest

  visit we also made a trip to Germany’s Black Forest where we sampled some of the famed cake, checked out a surprisingly intriguing clock museum and saw both the “World’s Biggest Cuckoo Clock” and the “World’s OLDEST Biggest Cuckoo Clock”. The Black Forest; keeping Guinness on the ball since 1986 (date of the latter clock). Pam was lucky enough to be in town for the bonkers Swiss tradition of Sechseläuten, an annual festival and parade that is capped with the burning of The Böögg. The Böögg is a snowman set atop a giant pyre. the Pyre is lit and men on horseback gallop around its base. Everybody waits to see how long it will take before The Böögg is consumed by fire and his head (which has been packed with explosives) blows up. This is a live televised event. Bets are placed as to how long before the head goes up. The longer it takes, the longer we have to wait for spring.

  

  Picture perfect covered bridge in Lichtenstein

• May brought more family to us with a visit from my Aunt Dee who I met in Amsterdam. We had a wonderful time visiting the museums, eating giant pancakes and soaking up the spring sunshine. Dee returned with me to Zurich and we were met with more love as my auntie from another mantie (sorry, that was hella sweaty) Patrice and her son Jessie came to visit. My grand plan to show off our glorious Swiss Alps with a day trip to Luzerne and Mt. Pilatus was stymied by rain, snow and zero visibility. We had a lovely time all the same sipping wine out of coffee cups and staring out into the white abyss. After bidding adieu to Jessie, Dee, Patrice and myself hit the rails and took a train to the South of France to visit our dear friend Christine. Christine, who is French, recently moved back to France after having lived in the U.S. for many decades. Her house is in the breathtaking medieval village of Pujols. Again I was so glad to experience a place with a local guide! It makes such a difference and gives one the feeling of superiority over the lowly “tourists”. Christine’s amazing hospitality had us dining al fresco on her balcony, enjoying the best of the village market produce, traipsing across fields of wildflowers in the countryside and sipping locally made moonshine. It was utterly magical. And should you think the adventure ends here, you’re very wrong!

• After leaving Patrice and Christine in France (don’t judge, I know for a fact that Patrice eventually made if back to Berkeley!) Dee and I embarked on a bigger adventure. Taking the train to Toulouse, we flew to Casablanca to begin a Moroccan excursion. Travel in Morocco was challenging and rewarding. We got a taste of both ancient and modern Morocco and witnessed a country struggling to balance both. We witnessed poverty and generosity, beauty and squalor, Western aspirations and aversions. We rode camels through the Sahara desert and had dinner under the stars with a Bedouin guide. Lest our reverence be too earnest, we also saw the heavily guarded mines just over the hill and heard about the devastating environmental degradation of the desert caused by unrestricted and rampant use both private and commercial. We also learned that two single gals driving around Morocco isn’t for the faint of heart but can be extremely rewarding, especially in hindsight! Dee and I capped our Morocco trip with a horseback ride through the countryside and ended our wonderful visit with a cocktail in Montmarte, Paris. Where is Tyler all this time you ask? Poor man has been working tirelessly back home in Zurich. He needed a break so he joined me in Paris for a long, well deserved weekend. We ate, we walked, we looked at stuff, we ate some more.

• Finally home for more than a week at a time we enjoyed the fine early summer weather of May/June in Zurich. A visit from Rachel up from Dublin for the weekend found us day-tripping to Gruyere, you know, like the cheese. Adorable town, lovely castle and incongruously, crazy smutty H.R. Giger museum (the designer of the Alien creatures from the movies, Swiss born Giger once lived in the village of Gruyère).

• Comes June and Tyler and I’s 5th wedding anniversary! We booked a remote cottage in Umbria for the week. Tyler got to read an entire book! We visited the ancient walled city of Orvieto and the stunning hilltop village of Civita di Bagnoregio. We ate fresh truffles brought to us by the kindly groundskeeper of our cottage and picked our own veggies out of the garden. Finally we had dinner in the town of Macerino in the shadow of the villa we were married in. I had forgotten how glorious the air smells in that region, heady with the sweet smells of jasmine and broom brush and the herbal notes of rosemary and wild sage. Truly magical.

• July brought Swiss national day where there was an airshow and carnival followed by fireworks. I also took myself to see Beyonce in concert on her Zurich stop of the Formation Tour. She slayed.

• Late in July I made my first journey back to the U.S. since we arrived in Zurich  in August of 2015. I can’t believe it’s been a year already yet it also seems like it’s been much longer given the amount of traveling and number of random adventures we’ve had! Since I probably saw most of you at some point during that trip I’ll keep it brief. My book club is still better than your book club. Our Tahoe offsite #2 was beyond compare. My niece is still cuter than your niece. The Bay Area is still my favorite place to eat in the whole world (sorry Paris, ya tart!).

• Returning home was a very special experience as was returning home from returning home. This fall Tyler and I have been concentrating on work and participating in various social events (thank you to everybody who miraculously keeps inviting us to things!) here in town. Wanting to invest more of myself here in Zurich, I started taking an intensive German class in September. I also started an English Conversation workshop for Spooglers (spouses of Googlers) with the help of my good friend Tracy. In addition, I’ve made an earnest promise to myself to write every day. Not necessarily on the blog but I mention it here in an effort to keep myself honest. I will be updating regularly though so don’t unbookmark it just yet!

So… good lord! You’re still here? What a long and convoluted post. But it’s been a long and convoluted year so I suppose it’s fitting. As our second year living abroad charges forward I have so much to look forward to and to be thankful for.