Dinner with Stéphanie & Tristan

Last night, Stéphanie invited me and Maya over for dinner since Manu was in Barcelona for the night. Now that Tristan is only on formula, we were able to have an apero with Stéphanie for the first time in 10 months!

-Stéphanie & Tristan enjoying their drinks

-Tristan sleeping... due to his colic, this only lasted for 5 minutes

Carolyn's been a bad blogger...

Yes, I know, it's been a while. I got sick the last day of our trip in Brussels and got behind in doing things, so finally I've gotten around to blogging 2 weeks later. Joe and I had a nice time in Brussels enjoying the Belgian beers and cuisine. Here are some pictures:

-Eating a Brussels waffle with strawberries.

-Joe getting peed on by the Mannekin Pis.-A candy shop.

-Joe enjoying a Belgian ale in the Au Bon Vieux Temps bar.-The Atomium outside of Brussels.

Now we're enjoying our last month in Switzerland and it even has snowed one last time for us in Lausanne. It's all nearly melted by now, but it's supposed to snow again tonight. can't wait!

Election Day!

Sporting our 'Vote for _______.' shirts yesterday, Joe and I supported the cause for everybody to get out and vote... unfortunately, nobody who saw us wearing the shirts could go out and vote because they were either americans who had already filed absentee ballots or they were not americans.

But I got to go hang out with Stéphanie and Tristan last night and finally got to hold him! It's the first time in a long time that I've held a wee baby. But after the first minute all that babysitter knowledge came flooding back to me. See!!


And for the first time, after his long nap on me, he was awake and making lots of fun little noises and being very photogenic. Unfortunately, I had the flash off so that I didn't blind Tristan, so this is the best shot I got. What a cutie!!


Then, Joe took about 3 hours to make french onion soup, which was well worth the wait, as was the victory by Obama!! We stayed up until ~12:30am and then got back up around 5am to see McCain and Obama give their speeches.

Yeah for a new president! Hopefully we don't get harrassed in Brussels this weekend.

Happy Halloween!

On Friday night, Jacqui hosted a huge Halloween party. She even convince her friend from home, Janine, to fly down from BIF (Jacqui's home town) and party with us. I left work early to help set up and Jacqui let me carve the jack-o-lantern...she actually had no idea how to do it, so being the resident American it was up to me!

-my pumpkin

-the bishop/pope & Sarah Palin

-Princess Leia & Alice in Wonderland (Jacqui & Janine)For more Halloween pictures, check out the flickr page!

Weekend update

After the last 2 party filled weekends, we had a 'low-key' Friday night at the Great Escape. On Saturday morning Jen and I went shopping with Jacqui to get ready for her Halloween party this Friday and then Joe & I had a quiet night at home making one of my favorite Swiss dishes- Papet Vaudois. And on Sunday Joe decided to bake some bread! He added his homemade pesto to the bread and it sure was tasty!


On Sunday afternoon, we had a nice stroll along the lake with Stéphanie, Manu & Tristan. We went over to their sailboat so that they could get a couple pictures of Tristan with the boat. How cute!!

Here are some more pictures that I took while we were out along the lake on such a beautiful fall day.

Alice's thesis defense

Alice, a PhD student in Joe's lab that started with us back in 2004 had her thesis defense last Friday, followed by a Celebrity party. The pictures.

I helped Jen and Jacqui with their 70's hair, since they were going as Charlie's Angels.
Joe dressed up as Celebrity Chef, Bobby Flay (a bunch of people in my mom's office think Joe looks like Bobby Flay)... though, I don't think the real Flay would use his tongs for evil.

and I dressed up as Special Agent Sydney Bristow from Alias. Me and my angels....

Sai's going away weekend

Sai has grown wings and left Switzerland for the wild world of Austin, Texas. But before he left, we had a weekend full of crazy fun.

Day 1, Friday: Sai and Ed's big PhD party...some sample photos:

-Sai & me

-Joe & Sai

-Is that little shieldsy?

-Sai & ...who is that wearing a blonde wig and glittery hat?

Day 2, Saturday: Sai had been saving his change since he moved to Switzerland...that's nearly 5 years of saving change. He decided that we were going to go out to the bar and buy a couple rounds with all the change. I just realized looking for pictures that I never took a picture of all the change.... Sai had nearly 300 francs worth of swiss change and another 40 Euros in change!

-One last night at the Great Escape

Day 3, Sunday: Sai was frantically cleaning his apartment the entire weekend, but was able to sneak out Sunday for a couple hours to grab one last apero by the lake.

Here's the link to all the fun pics from the weekend. We'll miss you Sai!!!

Welcome to the club, Dr. Reddy!!

Yesterday, Sai had his public thesis defense, followed by his 'what I did while I wasn't in the lab' slideshow, which I put together over the last few weeks.

-Sai laughing at the presentation I put together

After the apero in the auditorium, Jacqui graciously hosted Sai's Indian dinner extravaspectacular....aka... Sai cooked a crapload of Indian food for his friends and colleagues to feast on.

-The spread

As always, it was HOT HOT HOT!! and I couldn't eat it. I at least tried this time, which resulted in a numb tongue. Once everybody was done chowing down, Jen got all of the guests into position, especially Sai, for a special presentation that Jacqui and I were going to give for Sai.

Just a tame little striptease....

It appeared to have been a bit hit. Will post more later!

Welcome Tristan!!

Stéphanie & Manu's son, Tristan, was born Friday night and I got to go visit all 3 of them yesterday at the hospital. Tristan is soooo cute! See!!


Unfortunately, all the non-pink outfits were dirty, so Tristan got to wear pink yesterday, if you were wondering why he was wearing pink. He slept the entire time I was visiting, so I had a chance to sit and chat (and drink bubbly! -but only with the new daddy) with Stéphanie & Manu. I also got to watch Tristan blow bubbles! Here's a little video:

I also got to give them the cute little onsies I ordered from BabyGap. They're so cute!!
They'll be heading home today or tomorrow for some nice quiet home time and they'll let us know when we can come visit so Joe can meet Tristan. If you want to see some more pictures of Tristan, you can check out their website for Tristan.

yes, yes, it's been a while....

Lots of not-so-much has been going on. My advisor was 'busy' after I got back from our honeymoon and then left for a conference/vacation for 2 weeks. Of course she never replied to my emails and so I've been working hard on learning Photoshop, Photoshopping my wedding pictures, putting together my wedding album, and working on Sai's thesis defense presentation. No, not his presentation, but the presentation of what he did when he wasn't in the lab over the last 4 years... and there are plenty of photos!! It will be legendary, as Sai likes to say.

Over the holiday weekend a couple weeks ago, Joe and I took an overnight trip to St. Gallen and Lichtenstein...yeah FL!! The abbey in St. Gallen is absolutely beautiful. I had a lot of fun trying to take pictures in the church. I haven't uploaded them yet, but when I do, I'll put a link on here.

Joe's also back in the states for a conference, so I've been hanging out with folks for dinner and trying to keep myself busy.

Well, back to looking productive... my advisor returns tomorrow!

We're back from our Honeymoon!

Yes, I'm sure you faithful readers (all 4 of you) have been wondering what happened on the honeymoon cruise. I'll eventually post a brief blow-by-blow of each travel day, but for now, you'll have to sift through the pictures yourselves on flickr. Here's a new link to the photostream (if this still doesn't link to the new honeymoon sets, let me know). I've also broken down the pictures as follows:
Honeymoon Highlights (for those of you who aren't photomaniacs like me)
Mykonos/Delos
Kusadasi/Ephesus, Turkey
Rhodes, Greece
Limassol, Cyprus
Cairo, Egypt
Athens, Greece
Naples, Italy
Rome, Italy
Ship fun

I'm almost finished titling the pictures...should be finished by Monday.

Some teasers for you all:

Happy Wedding Stéphanie & Manu!

Saturday was Stéphanie & Manu's civil wedding... definitely a swiss wedding with all of the paperwork involved! It was very formal and quite quick. Afterward, we went to Stéphanie's parents' house for an apero.

-All of us in the Mayor's chamber, with the happy couple & their witnesses in front

- Stephanie signing the official document to be legally tied to Manu forever!!

-The happy couple outside the town hall after the ceremony

Sunday night was Jen's make-up birthday dinner party. Lots of people were out of town on her real birthday, so in order to celebrate her 32nd birthday, she decided to host a Twice as Sweet Party (get it 2 x 16???). Anyway, we all dressed up like we were 16...the boys didn't look much different than what they wear now....hmmm..... I didn't really have the proper wardrobe to dress as I did when I was 16, but I did find an old sports outfit from volleyball and even found my old Sports Walkman! I have no idea why it's in Switzerland, but I found it in the back of my nightstand a couple weeks ago and it didn't even have a tape in it! It was a good prop, though!

-group shot

-me & Joe
For more pictures, here's the link to my flickr photostream.

Jen's Birthday, Edelweiss & Marmots!

Happy Birthday Jen!

-yes, we're dancing....it was late!

Of course, like normal, we were at the Great Escape for Jen's 23rd birthday, the 1st of 2 birthday parties that Jen will have since a lot of people were out of town this past weekend. We had lots of fun and Jen even went into the Ripponne fountain and broke her toe!! See here for all the fun!

Saturday, Joe & I just hung out at home and relaxed/did laundry. Sunday, Jen & I headed up to Rochers de Naye, a mountain above Montreux, even though she had a broken pinky toe. I've been trying to go up there since June, but the weather has been a pain when trying to get up there on free weekends to take pictures of the Edelweiss at the Alpine Garden. Finally, even though the weather wasn't great, we headed up 2000 meters so that I could take pictures of Edelweiss that Margaret Wilson can use to finally paint our wedding present from Jess & Tom Wilson. They've all been very patiently waiting for me to get these pictures. Now that I have over 100 pictures of the chinese & swiss varieties of Edelweiss, I need to sort through them to send to Margaret. Of course, the swiss edelweiss was difficult to get to, so I was completely splayed out on the wall trying to take the pictures. Jen took pictures of me taking pictures...when I get it from her I'll put it up!

-Swiss edelweiss

And a lucky treat for us, all the marmots in Marmot Paradis were out to play when I finished taking pictures of the Edelweiss! They even ran down to the fence... probably looking for food. One lady next to me petted their noses, but once I saw their bit teeth, I decided that I didn't want to lose a finger to a marmot attack!

-trying not to get my fingers chewed off

-it was super cloudy and started raining just as I took this picture... isn't he cute!!

And here are all the pictures from our trip to Rochers de Naye.

Happy Birthday Roberto!
I mean... Dr. Roberto!!

My 100th blog!! Ethnic food, bachelorette party & hiking

What a busy weekend! Friday afternoon, Joe, Jen, Adrian and I went to the Olympic Museum (the IOC headquarters are in Lausanne) to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Afterwards, we tried out an Afghani restaurant in a neighboring town. It was really good!

Saturday was Stéphanie's bachelorette party, which, in french, is called the 'Enterrement de vie de jeune fille', which literally translates to the 'burial of the life of a young girl'. We had a blast! Stéph's high school friends planned a great day. I made her a 'Miss Bachelorette' sash to wear all day. I also made her a 'pocket-Maya-the bee' because Maya wasn't able to attend the bachelorette party.

-modeling her sash, necklace and portable Maya

We then went on a boat cruise around lake Geneva, ending up in Montreux for dinner at an Iranian restuarant. But, before we got to Montreux, Stéphanie had two tasks to complete.

1. Asking someone on the boat, but not one of the girls, to buy her an ice cream.

-what a great reaction!

2. Stéphanie had to ask the boat's captain if she could blow the horn on the boat. So, after sending a message to the boat's captain, he allowed us up to the bridge! In exchange for blowing the boat horn, the captain put Stéphanie to work, making her count the number of passengers getting off and on the boat.

-with the captain

After we got to Montreux, we went to dinner at one of Stéphanie's favorite restaurants where we gave her a 'survival kit' for marriage that Alexandra put together. You can check out the rest of the photos here!

On Sunday I went hiking with Jen and Adrian. Joe's knee still hurts, so he didn't come along. We hiked up to the Jura ridge, to the top of Le Chasseron, starting in La Combaz & finishing in Ste Croix. It was about 2.5 hours or so to the top, where we lunched with a view of the Alps!

-whole range of the Alps... Jungfrau in left side, Mont Blanc on right side

-the Mont Blanc

We also got to walk through lots of fields of cows.... one was wearing the loudest bell I've ever heard... I don't know how she hasn't gone deaf. I decided that it must be the pregnancy bell because she was huuuuuuge. You can see pictures of the cows, and other pictures from the hike on flickr.

fancy dinner

The long August 1st weekend was a well spent weekend of relaxation. I was planning to head up to the botanical garden Friday to take advantage of the holiday, except that it rained all day and was chilly. Instead Jen and I went to lunch and then I headed into work for a few hours since we ate nearby. And since it rained all day long, we decided not to venture out to watch the fireworks that night, but got to see some of Renens fireworks from our balcony. Saturday we had planned a group trip to Bern for a nice dinner, but by the time we figure out exactly who was going and called to make a reservation they were completely booked!! So Joe, Adrian and I scoured the internet and guide books looking for a suitable replacement somewhere around Lausanne and settled on a fancy restaurant in St. Saphorin, one of the small villages nestled in the vineyards of the Lavaux. Luckily they had room for 7 people and so we all dressed up and headed to St. Saphorin's for our very first dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant! Of course, we stopped by the town's very own caveau before dinner.

-Jacqui & I all dressed up on one of the quaint little streets of St. Saphorin

-Adrian in front of the Auberge de l'Onde... we ate on the 3rd floor.

Dinner was delicious and the desserts were amazing. I looked up the dessert chef and found that he has a blog and blogged about making the dessert that I had. Check it out!
It's all in french, so here's a picture for the not-so-adventurous types. Also, other photos are on Flickr... scroll down to find a link to all pictures... you should all know the drill by now!!

-mmm.....A rose flavored macaron and wild strawberries and sorbet

-Joe and I waiting for the train back to Lausanne