The Big Three-O!!!

Thank you to everybody who sent me birthday wishes, cards and presents!! It was so good to hear from everybody. I had a fun day. Spent the morning relaxing after Joe made me breakfast in bed.

Then I went shopping at Banana Republic for a dress to wear to Jason & Rhian's wedding. I swear I tried on 40 dresses and the last dress I put on was perfect.

Then Joe took me to dinner at a french/italian restaurant. it was really good and I can't wait to go back soon!!

-my cards and delphiniums

-on the phone with Linda after dinner

St Patrick's Day, Dallas style

We decided to watch the St. Patrick's Day parade over the weekend so we could check out a different area of the city since we've been complaining about how much Dallas sucks. The parade was a bit weak, but the various floats were entertaining. This was my favorite float because it has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day:


We then walked a couple blocks down to the block party where the streets are blocked off and had a good time drinking beer on the street. On the way there, we saw this guy and his green Swiss Mountain Dog.



At the block party, the only place selling Guinness was a bar, and they wouldn't let you leave the premises with beers purchased there.... only cheap beer was being sold on the streets of Greenville Ave.... it seemed wrong that Joe was drink Dos XX at a St. Patrick's Day bash. At least he wasn't one of the many drinking margarita's!!

The people, at least, were all dressed up and it was fun to be around people our age. Here's a shot of the crowd listening to the band.

and us!:

visiting with Sai in Austin!

Joe and I made a relatively impromptu decision to drive the 3 hours down to Austin over the weekend to get out of Dallas and visit Sai. Austin, with it's walkability and rolling hills, was a welcome change to the concrete wasteland of Dallas. On Saturday afternoon we drove around UT's campus and then out to a restaurant/bar called Oasis. It was a really awesome location outside of Austin overlooking Lake Travis, but it gave me the feeling that I was on a cruise ship.


Sai then made us an Indian dinner and then we went out for the night with a guy (who's studying at UT) we met in Switzerland while he was working in Melody's lab for a study-abroad-like summer intership.

-Brandon, Sai & Joe

On our drive back to Dallas, we passed this awesome truck. If you can't read what the back of the truck says, click on the picture for a larger view.


Who knew there are racing pigs?!

Some apartment updates!

We've been slowly making improvements to the apartment decor over the last few weeks as the necessity arises.

First, we bought curtains for our bedroom:
Then we finally got a coupon to Bed Bath & Beyond in the Sunday paper and so we could finally buy a cover for our sofa. It's hard to spend money on temporary things, but the apartment looks much homier with the new couch cover and pillows:

And lastly, we found a coat rack to hang by the front door. I also finally got around to hanging up the Welcome sign my mom bought for me to hang in our new apartment:
That's all for now!

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.