goings on....

so, life in Dallas continues. We've been slowly exploring areas of Dallas farther and farther from where we live. So far, Central Markets is the coolest store, especially because I can buy all of my favorite European cheeses. Last week while leaving Target, I noticed that the Texas Rangers plane was parked at Love Field... don't worry, I was waiting for the left turn light when I took the picture. And this lovely store is on the corner across from Central Markets.

Unfortunately, we missed Bushy's big trip to the hardware store down the street from us.

Our new apartment

Finally, after a week, we are nearly unpacked so I finally feel comfortable enough to take pictures of how things are arranged in the new apartment.

-Bedroom

-Bathroom

-Kitchen


- Living room and balcony


-Dining room

For now we're improvising with some of our non-essential furniture, but we'll get around to it in a couple weeks/months once we start getting paid regularly again.

And I must say that I absolutely love sleeping in my queen-size bed again.... no head-butt wake up calls in my future!

We're in Dallas!!

After a heart pounding Superbowl.... Go Steelers!!.....we moved into our apartment on Monday morning. The movers showed up around 12:30 with all of our stuff.

-View of the truck arriving from our balcony with a view of the Dallas skyline in the background

Slowly we're clearing out the boxes.....

-dinner day 1 between the boxes

-dinner day 2.... fewer boxes

We've unpacked a lot more today and I'll try and post more pictures tomorrow of the apartment as long as most of the remaining boxes are emptied!

Roadtrip continues....

Here are some more photos from the remainder of our trip to Dallas.....

We headed to Memphis after Nashville and were so excited that we didn't have to wear our winter parkas anymore!

-Graceland

-some of Elvis's gold records

-Drinking on Beale Street with Memphis's finest

We then left Tennessee and headed into Arkansas, which was absolutely desolate. It was just farm after farm after farm which was very boring in February when nothing is growing.

-heading into Arkansas

-our hotel and bathouse row in Hot Springs, AK

-at one of the outdoor hot springs

Go Steelers!!

Finally out of PA!

After being stuck in Pittsburgh for a few days due to the ice storm, Joe and I are finally in Nashville! Driving through Ohio today was a nightmare. Ohio has earned a D- for it's poor ability to clean the roads. We had to drive on this for all but about 40 miles!!

Even though Kentucky looked as if they got more ice due to the number of snapped trees, there roads were amazingly clear. They earn an A in my book!! Here are some photos of the ice destruction in Kentucky....

Then the sun came out as we entered Tennessee...

Then we took this cool little motorcycle taxi with Warren from our hotel into downtown Nashville for dinner and back again. Here's a view from inside the passenger cabin...

We're on the road!

The movers came bright and early, 7:45am to be exact, on Saturday and picked up all 3600 lbs of stuff we own and we've finally started our trek from PA to Dallas! Of course, due to the weather we've already had to alter our travel plans and are stuck in Pittsburgh for an extra day. Then we'll skip Kentucky and head straight to Nashville on Wednesday morning as long as the roads are clear. Hopefully we'll have internet at the upcoming hotels so that I can keep everybody updated.

Hope you're all staying warmer than we are in frigid PA!

Here are some picks from the pickup:

-half of our boxes

-the moving truck

-the truck is on it's way to Texas!

Back in the USA!

We're back!!

We've been keeping busy entertaining ourselves since we've been back.

-Christmas

-rabbit hunting


-New Year's Eve
unfortunately, we never got our cameras out on NYE, so I don't have any photos. But it was damn cold that night... walking home at 3am and it was only 16 degrees F outside!!

-Bridal Fashion Show for the shop where I got my dress

-Jacqui's visit (Yuengling Brewery & Penn State)



Since we're currently in a hotel at PSU, I've finally been able to upload some pictures. Hopefully this will tide you all over until we get to Dallas and have real internet again!

Super busy and stressed!

Everything's a bit strange right now. We're getting ready to move and we're trying to finish up our stuff in the lab. Christmas is coming. It's cold and snowy in Lausanne, which it's never been, at least in the last 5 winters I've been here, in December. I'm applying for jobs in Dallas as often as I can... it's a lot of work writing cover letters!

We have done some fun stuff recently, and I'll add some pictures below, but it'll be a while before I upload pictures on flickr since I don't have much time to get them all photoShopped, etc. I can't believe we're leaving so soon... it's so sad :(

here are some recent photos.....

-Stéphanie & Tristan came up for lunch last week. Here's Tristan in the lab!

-We went to the Montreux Christmas market on Sunday with Jacqui and her mom. Here we are with the beautiful sunset in the background.

-Luca & Lolly are in town visiting all the way from Australia. Of course we met up with them at the Great Escape.

-It started snowing Tuesday night and it still hasn't stopped! Here's the cathedral in the snow.

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.