Aha! Blogging Makes Me Tech-Savvy

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I'm a technological disaster. Sadly, the only things I know about are Microsoft Office and Photoshop (for Windows that is, not for Mac - uhm, and I have a Mac...). But when it comes to internet, codes, programming... I'm so lost! - Which is the reason I started a blog on Blogger - it seemed so much easier than Wordpress!

But although I'm still very green on all this, I think I'm improving. After all, I've achieved the following:

1. Established an RSS Feed - When I started this blog, I didn't even know this term, neither what it was meant for. RSS looks to me like SQL, so for the first couple of months I thought it was some kind of programming
2. Created a Reply to Comment Button - This is funny. I had thought Blogger would allow you to reply to people's comments, but I never found this option - so I took an external code! (wow,  me working with codes...)
3. Set Up my Facebook Page - Which, by the way, I would love that you join as I want to start using it as a way of talking to you, my dear readers, more directly - not only about the blog!
4. I designed my own button. What about that, huh? I've never been a button fan... but it has been just another technological challenge. I kept it quite simple (as said, my Photoshop skills were way better when using Microsoft, I'm still discovering what my Mac can do!). To grab a button, just scroll the sidebar, there soon should be another code. 

I really feel great about my tech-improvements! However, this learning curve is just starting. There are a couple of other things I would love to understand some time hopefully this year...

1. My own domain. But I still don't understand anything about domains and hosting. Any tips on this?
2. A Twitter Account. I was against Twitter. I've always related this to people tweeting about where they were every second and what they're up to: "drinking coffee with my best friend at ....." kind. But I've read too many good stuff about using twitter to chat with people with your same interests, or maybe even organize tweet ups!
3. A Flickr account to share more selected pictures, and add a flickr slideshow to my blog. Ha! That sounds extremely challenging though... 

Anyway, do you think blogging has made you more tech-savvy? Which are your blogging challenges for the year?

NY's Misunderstood Financial District

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The View from the Outside (Staten Island ferry)

I'm currently reading a book called Liar's Poker, from Michael Lewis, in which the author describes, from an insider view, the disastrous fall of Salomon Brothers. However, the most interesting of this book is Michael's misadventures in the firm's training program for traders. 

"The trading floor is a jungle", says one of the program's mentors. And there's no place better to represent a jungle of hungry men (and, oh well, a couple of reckless women) than the streets of New York's financial district. One skyscraper higher than the next one, banning sunlight from shining on the dark asphalt. When standing on Wall Street, freezing and overwhelmed with the buildings, it's easy to lose one's way. Streets are no longer named by cardinals and numbers, but are rather called Beaver, Stone or Wall Street. These streets are twisted and less structured, similar to the streets of London. Not surprising, given that this area was the first one in the city being settled by europeans, back in the XVII century. 

We kept on walking through the cold dark streets and bumped into the heart of the district - a couple of old european houses. Nobody tells you that there are still some buildings left from the settlers. The contrast is just simply dramatic. Tall stone and glass buildings surround some little charming taverns and pubs, with some of them dating back to the XIX century! A must see tavern is the Fraunces Tavern, one of the oldest standing buildings in the city with plenty of history. 

But from all, my favorite corner has been Stone Street. This street was New Amsterdam's first paved street. After loosing part of its old buildings to make way to modern offices, the remaining buildings have now been occupied by bars and restaurants, filling NY's jungle with a warm vintage vibe. 

Stone Street in Winter

Source

Falling Night from the Empire State

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Friday. After making our way through far too many shops, searching for additional winter clothing to survive NY's upcoming big freeze (and still not succeeding on finding a extreme-weather-conditions scarf), we decided to head towards the Empire State Building.

On the entrance, we had our first big tourist trap encounter - a couple of guys in a tour operating uniform offered us to buy the tickets outside to avoid the massive queue inside for a bargain - only 47 $, each. Not sure if anyone falls into that! We were a bit tight in time. It was getting dark and we wanted to watch the sunset from the top of NY. 

I'm not sure if it was luck or just the fact that it was -10ºC and no human soul was willing to be blown away on the 82nd floor of the building, but in fact, there was hardly anyone queuing. Ha! Take that, tour operating suckers!

I can't imagine a time during which this view could be even more beautiful: endless skyscrapers all covered in snow reflected with the last rays of light of the day. I think this was the moment I fell in love with the city. 

Besides for it's incredible view, the Empire State is all-round an interesting building to visit. And because I got a good feedback from the last fun facts (it's great to know I'm not the only freak out there, thanks!), here you go with 5 facts about the Empire State Building:

1. The top of the building was originally designed for mooring zeppelins
2. 1933, the building was set for the original King Kong movie (the remake from 1976 held its scene on the towers of the World Trade Center)
3. It has it's own zip code (10118) to accommodate its 1,000 businesses and 21,000 employees
4. With its 102 floors, it was the first building in the World with over 100 stories
5. The building holds an annual race up 1,576 steps to the 86th floor. The world record goes to a guy who reach the last floor after only 9 minutes and 33 seconds!

East Village - My first Airbnb Experience

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An Ideal Apartment in Upper West Side, Manhattan 

Source

Back in December, I was concerned about the accommodation alternatives available in Manhattan. Although our budget constraint is higher than when we were students and would be enough to pay for a hotel or bed & breakfast in some cities, it certainly wasn't enough to pay for it in Manhattan. Wrong, let me rectify - it certainly wasn't enough to pay for it in nice and safe Manhattan. And, in my opinion, this should be top priority, specially when visiting big cities that you don't know very well.  

This is when Airbnb gained caught our eyes. AirBnB is a community market place where you can wist and book anything from a shared room to a private island, in over 160 countries worldwide. 

Airbnb Main Page

How does it work?

1. Search. As a guest looking for a place to stay, you only need to write in the city or country of destination, dates and the total number of guests looking and hit the search button. Once you are led to the list of results, you can narrow down your matches by specifying what kind of accommodation you're looking for (a whole house, a shared apartment or even a shared room),  preferred neighborhoods, a minimum (or rather maximum!) price per night, or particular amenities you can't live without (in my case, WIFI !!).
2. Choose. Once you've chosen a short list of the accommodations that match what you were looking for, you can contact the host directly through the website confirming if the listing is available for your dates and asking some further questions about the area, the apartment etc. 
3. Pay. When you have your final pick, you need to provide your credit card information to the website and wait for the host to "accept" you. Payment will only be transferred 24 hours after your check-in date. 

How do you know, as a guest, if the apartment i for real?

Well... you don't. However, there are a couple of tips that may be useful to spot possible fraudulent advertisings. Check out my previous post on Budget Traveling!

My Experience

The beautiful apartment we stayed at in East Village, Manhattan

Source

I had never used this site before, neither did I knew anyone who had employed it. But I was willing to give it a try (specially because Manhattan's boutique hotels were far out of our price range!). 

Our budget was of 100$ per night (50$ per person). Given that even hostels in Union Square start with around 42$ per person in a shared room, you can imagine that this wasn't much. However, when searching in Airbnb under this one constrain, there were still many housing offers! Now came the difficult part - where to stay? A friend of mine recommended Lower East Side - East Village, which shrank the number of available locations within our budget significantly. Among the final results was this artsy beautiful apartment, which matched exactly our expectations. 

We exchanged a couple of e-mails with the host and soon afterwards had booked our 4-nights in their spare bedroom. 

Of course in matters of payment, it always goes smooth, right? My main concerns from then onwards: what kind of people were we going to live with? what if we do not come along well with each other? 

I don't easily trust people, at least not up to the point of staying over at some stranger's house. But Airbnb made me feel (a bit more) secured. It's not a simple Ebay for apartments, but a strong community that connects people from all over the World. Reading other people's feedback on my hosts and the apartment itself felt comforting. 

On the day of arrival, the remaining fears simply swept away when we met our hosts. Both of them gave us tips on places to visit and where to eat in the East Village, as well as how to come around in Manhattan (and how to get best to JFK!). 

What I liked most (besides from our hosts and their great tips!), was the fact that you spend your time in a real home, which, unlike many hotels and hostels, feels warm and cozy - and believe me, when it's -15ºC outside, you would die to feel warm and cozy. 

So, what do you think? Would you give it a try?

Start Spreading the News...I'm Leaving Today!

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Times Square, NYC

...Remember the day I won two flights in my company's New Year's party? 

Well, I'm finally making use of my gift and we're flying to New York for 5 days! This might not seem a big deal for those of you living in the US, but it's the hell of a big deal for me, I'll be flying all the way over the Atlantic for what basically could be considered a long weekend.

When did traveling become so easy, that it's actually possible to cross the Ocean for 5 days of shopping and cocktails?

Ok, I promise to do some tourism as well... This won't fall hard at least, I'm dying to visit the Guggenheim, the New York Library and the Brooklyn Bridge (among many many others, of course). But as said, I don't believe that you visit a city by only visiting it's attractions. Probably the main attraction will be living in East Village, Manhattan - which is the neighborhoods with the highest concentration of bars in the city and which also gave birth to many of artistic movements - I love street art, like the mural below!

Graffiti Mural on the corner of Houston and Bower, NYC

Any recommendations on where to shop, eat or drink are highly appreciated!  

Oh and before I forget, in case you haven't notices, I'm now on Facebook! (pointing on the upper right corner of the blog). Join me! 

Paris Photo Essay (by a Frustrated Architect)

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Did I ever tell you that, when I was a kind, I wanted to be an architect? This career fixation started at the earliest of my memories and lasted until I turned 20. Yes, 20. I studied to become an architect. I spent those 2 years facing each paper submission alone and realized that, although I can spend hours looking at constructions like this one, I wanted (and needed!) something more social and interactive. I wanted to work with people, not to stand on my own at all times. 

But then, admiring the Eiffel Tower, makes me wonder if I took the right decision. I might had been the next Gustave Eiffel, right?

Anyway, I'll leave you with a couple of fun facts of this Masterpiece:

1. It helps you to find your way in Paris as its 4 pillars are aligned to the points of the compass
2. With extremely strong stormy wind, it can move 13 cm
3. On a clear day, you can see up to 67 km away from the upper part of the Tower
4. During winter, the Tower shrinks 15 cm
5. During summer, the Tower leans very slightly, as one side is heated by the sun and expands up to 8cm

I Eat Paris.

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It was saturday morning and I had made my way to the one place that had never dissapointed me in this city - Marais. I remembered it colorful and full of life. I got out of the cab at Rue de Bretagne, and walked along this street until I reached the marché des Enfants Rouges. This is not any food market, no. Besides from having a broad selection of fish and vegetables (as any other local market), it has stands offering all kind of culinary creations from all over the World. I was particulary impressed by the moroccan corner - people were even queuing to order one of their tajines with couscous, chicken and vegetables! It was still too early for me to have lunch (my internal clock still ticks on spanish times), I only queued for one of their sweet delights (funny they call them delights - what's so light about them?).

The moroccan "delights"

 Le marché des Enfants Rouges, from the inside

Just a couples of steps from the market, there was a traditional cheese shop. A real one. I thought the swiss knew how to make cheese, but you know what? The french know better. There you go, 11:30am and I was already complimenting the french. But I wasn't going to be that easy to conquire. There had to be something else than well, cheese, to win me back ( of course, I couldn't resist, and bought a smelly cheese before leaving the shop).

The traditional cheese shop 

You think this is a lot of variety? This was only the "on sale" section...

After doing some shopping (more on that coming soon), I found this little cafe called Rose Bakery in Rue Debelleyme, in with people were queuing to get a table and I thought if the french are queuing for it, it must be really worth it. Well, turns out it wasn't very french, as Rose Bakery is a british bakery with a couple of branches around Paris, London and Seoul (which explains why the waiters spoke perfect english). It might have not been the oh-so-french-cafe I had thought, but the 10 minutes queuing were still worth it. I ordered a fresh pressed apple juice and a roasted vegetables quiche accompanied by an organic salad, which I really recommend to anyone looking for fresh and handmade quality food. A very healthy place, if you manage to ignore their multiple cupcakes and brownies, that is.

Notice the basket full of oranges!

I started walking out of Marais, hoping to arrive to the Eiffel Tower just on time for sunset. This seemend to be a total achievable goal of mine, if it wasn't because I got caught up in a tunisian demonstration. A couple of long minutes later, I got out of the wave of people right into Rue Saint-Martin, where a tiny cute shop caught my attention - Le Boutique du Macaron. Now how was I going to leave Paris without macarons? That would be like leaving Turkey without baklawa, right? Le Boutique du Macaron has a surprisingly unusual set of salty macarons - chocolate with foie, tomato with basilic and truffles are some of their exotic flavors (which I bought, of course).

When I realized that I wasn't going to make it before sunset, and felt exhausted of carrying cheese, macarons, and a couple of impulsive sales purchases, I walked into Adam's, in Rue Danielle Casanova - in theory, I only wanted to have a cup of tea... But couldn't resist their lemon cake and ended up having both (I know... what's wrong with me?). Some time around 8pm, Adam's closed, and they gave a piece of galette to each of us last stranded customers (which I had for breakfast today!). 

Anyway, out of all places and foods I tasted this weekend, I've left the best for the my last lunch. My train was leaving at 4pm, so I still had half a day to enjoy the city (noticed that I'm using terms like "enjoy" when talking about Paris...?). I walked around Notre Dame and Louvre (you see? I also do some sightseeing!) and decided to walk back to this rather hidden square I fell in love with a long time ago - Place Dauphine.

Place Dauphine, Paris

Although there are quite a few cafes surrounding the square, don't expect many of them to be open on a sunday. I tried my luck and asked for a table at La Rose de France, a charming local cafe with a mouthwatering menu, with starters being 12.30 € main course 18.80 € and desserts 8.60 €, which, although it cannot be considered budget, is quite acceptable for the area and quality of both food and service.  

La Rose de France, Place Dauphine

Mille-feuille of duck breast and pineapples 

with gratin potatoes and honey sauce 

My verdict? In terms of food - Paris has got me. I can't resist to a city with such a broad variety and good quality of food. In my opinion, as long as you escape from the tourist traps, you're in a safe haven in almost any corner shop of the city. However, this, I already knew. France (and the french) enjoy food - it's not the material that fills you up when you are hungry, it's cultural. The french eat in groups, they'll have a glass of wine (or two or three), they'll talk (main subjects being the food and the wine) and have a good time. In this aspect, they are very much similar to the spanish, which is why I like it. What concerned me most was the service. As you might have read previously, I was treated like shit in bars and restaurants all over France (and specially in Paris), and I was expecting the same this time, being the only difference that this time I would know what the waiter was complaining about. 

Turns out, I was wrong. In each place I've had a lunch, coffee, dinner, I was always treated with respect and, in some occasions even with kind words and wide smiles! One waiter recommended me not to take a plate because "it's too expensive for the quality", many of them asked me where I was from and told me that I could also order in english if I preferred (which I didn't - I wanted to practice!). 

If you have been in Paris in the last couple of years, what are your impressions on this? Do you feel the service sector more.... service oriented than before? 

And more generally, have you ever ruled out a country / city because of a bad experience? 

The Day I Planned the Unplanned.

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Source

Last night we arrived in Paris.

Paris and me, we have this kind of love-hate relationship. I've had great times with my friends, spending the nights in a spanish bar in Marais (which we later on discovered turned into a hype gay bar during the weekends), or dining in the strangest places, like a restaurant where you order a surprise menu in the dark and can'thelp it to wonder if the chefs are having a blast serving dead worms and telling you (afterwards) that it was aubergines. Even today, I'm not totally convinced of that days menu.

But then, there have been many times that this city has simply slapped me in the face. I was followed by an angry man who wanted to break my bones until I hid in a pharmacy, I got treated like shit in too many of those charming cafes, I got insulted on the streets and laughed at in a shop (probably because I just spoke to people in spanish with a french accent, and believed they would understand me this way). This has certainly kept me away from Paris in the last, er, 4 years and, if I had to be true, I hadn't felt the urge to come back.

Driving across the city last night, watching it's shiny lights and beautiful buildings made me look at it in a different way. I shouldn't punish a city for the bad experience I had during a few visits (after all, I had spent good times here, too). So this morning I decided to do the unthinkable - to give Paris a second chance.

This weekend promises to be challenging: I've started the weekend with black heels and a black suit (as I hadn't planned on staying over the weekend). This only lasted for 2 hours - the time that took me to shower and go to Galeries Lafayette and take part in one of the cities most famous traditions - the winter soldes! With a parisian flowery dress, flat boots and a chic black umbrella, I'm now ready to face my rival.

Friday's Five - #4 Edition

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Top 5 tips for visiting New York City (from a Manhattan tour guide), Downtown Traveler. Remember the tickets I won on last year's company party? Well, time has finally come and now it's only 6 days to go, and I'll be in New York having a couple of girly days shopping, sipping cocktails and well, ok, also doing some proper tourism! I can't wait to see the New York Library, the London Bridge... the TATE, the Guggenheim. I've been writing a list since, er... November. I came across this useful post that shares some local tips for anyone visiting the City. Any further tips or suggestions?


How to have the Worst Day Ever in Phuket ( and How to turn it Around), Twenty-Something Travel. When I read this post, I couldn't avoid having a shy grin on my face. How many of you have had days on which every thing seems to go upside down? I had plenty of them. Really, plenty. Her post teaches to never lose your sense of humor when things go that wrong, after all, they can only get better. 


Gadling teaches you to read Cyrillic alphabet in 5 minutes, Gadling. If you've taken a look at my current Bucket List, you will have read about the the Trans-Siberian or, well, Trans-Mongolian trip I am dreaming of. This is slowly developing into an obsession (and it's killing me to think that I might not be able to do it this year). However, I'll be flying over to Moscow for a Conference in March, and, now that I started developing my french skills, I realized I have to take a quick course in Cyrillic. 


Drink Your Way Around the World, As We Travel. Drinks are often left behind when you're tasting the culinary offer of a region or country. It's easy to relate Spain to sangria, but there are so many other drinks that have not been internationally recognized. You can't leave Argentina / Uruguay without sipping some mate or Peru without tasting pisco. Nathan and Sofia highlight some other interesting drinks from around the World (being moroccan mint tea among my very favorites!). 


Top 10: New Year's Traditions from Around the World, Strux Travel. As much as I enjoyed my New Year's Eve in London, I did miss eating the 12 grapes at midnight (a spanish and portuguese NYE tradition). I had never stopped to think about other NYE traditions from around the World. Among the 10 traditions, I think my favorite is the brazilian one, where locals lay candles and flowers in the sand. I'm sure it looks beautiful. 

Can Traveling for Work be actually considered.. well, you know, Traveling?

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I'm back in London.

But this time it's for work, so don't expect fancy dress parties or chocolate festivals, but rather, well, maybe a picture or two from the Lloyds Building in London City and one of Champs-Élysées from the Cab once I've made it to Paris. 

You might think it's exciting to have a job in which you travel relatively often. Well, this depends on what excites you (that's not what I'm referring to, you perv - so let's better use like, shall we?). If what you like is to meet new people dressed up in suits, talk about business the whole day and eat at fine restaurants, then you might like it. But if you're picturing yourself in a two hour meeting and then having the rest of the day free for shopping around Oxford Street and drinking coffee with your friends in Soho, then you'd be disappointed. 

To put it brief: during winter, there's a high possibility that you won't see the daylight. Actually, you might even have such a thick morning fog that you can't recognize the building you're heading to. 

This got me wondering....

...If traveling is all about leaving your home to explore the World and learn about it, can actually business trips be considered... traveling?

Let's look at some things that I do when I travel. 

Getting lost in the Streets, forgetting about time and distance. 

Lost somewhere in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2010

No maps, no GPS (or, what's mostly my case, a map - but not knowing how to read it properly). Most of the time I've walked without any direction, I've sooner or later ended up in the most charming corners of the cities (like the time I got lost in La Habana).

However, when you're on a business trip, you have a starting point and a destination. Your task is to find the quickest way to go from one to the other, and, unless these two are ridiculously near, you'll take a cab. Then, when you're sitting in a huge traffic jam, instead of looking out of the window to appreciate the Big Ben, you've got your eyes fixed on your watch, counting the minutes left for the meeting. 

Once you realize you're late, you start to calculate how many minutes you're losing in order to cut down (or speed up) the discussions, and start to wonder if you're ever going to make it on time to the next meeting, which is starting in less than an hour time. After a complete day of rushing through the City of London (or whatever other City, they now start to look the same to you anyway), you get back to you're hotel and get an hour and a half break to freshen up and get ready for dinner. It would (theoretically) mean you have half an hour available to walk around and see something of the City, but let's face it - you're tired, you're head is drunk of facts, names and numbers and preferable you would stay in bed until the next morning. Fuck the skyscrapers, you'll see them from the meeting room tomorrow.

Connecting with the Locals - specially cab drivers!

Chatting with the cab drivers in Hong Kong (whenever none of his 
12 phones were ringing...)

Connecting with the locals is probably one of the most important points when traveling. The day I arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, I asked the cab driver which is the best mate, and the most interesting local market. Every day I had to take a 40 minutes trip with a private cab (they have a fixed price, and are usually hired by companies as they offer more comfort than a regular cab), and asked plenty of questions about traditions, history and recommended places to visit (it all started when I asked "what's mate?").

For the basic stuff, not even the language barrier is an excuse. On a Friday night in Hong Kong, I got on a cab and told him to take me to the place where the best authentic chinese food restaurants are. How? Using signs! This was the day I ate at a restaurant with all menus in chinese and no without pictures. 

But this was a 3-week training in Uruguay, and a 1-week training in Hong Kong... with at least one weekend included. When you're business trip is only for 1-2 days, there's no real point about asking the cab driver for a nice place to visit, as you probably won't have time to check it out. And besides, the only person you'll be chatting with in a cab is a work colleague calling from the office, turning your mind dumb asking for hundreds of figures. 

Tasting some regional dishes

Century Egg, at Leong's Legend (London)

not my thing, but had to try it!

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you'll know about my love for food. What I haven't been telling you about is me ordering strange exotic food wherever I go, which is the reason why I've ended up tasting some nasty dishes, like sea urchin sushi (not my cup of tea...). 

In Asia it's usual to go out and eat in a good regional food restaurant when you're doing business. In fact, chinese love to see europeans reactions to their cooking highlights, such as the century egg or the moon cake. But it's not the case in the UK. I'm not even sure I want to actually taste its traditional food - I mean, come on, bite into something called Toad in the hole? Seriously? Ok, I would probably try it if I knew where to find it! My point is, that whenever I've been in London for a meeting, I've always had dinner and/or lunch at a hype italian / asian / french restaurant instead (and I still don't know what a Love in Disguise is like...).


According to these points, business trips can't really be considered traveling. Which are your thought on this? 
Am I leaving out something that would bring back business trips into the travel category?

...The one on TRAVEL.

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Amsterdam, Feb 2008

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you will probably already have realized my passion for travel. Not that I'm planning on getting all philosophical about this, but living on my own does give me some valuable time to (over)think - specially on rainy days! 

From what my rusty memory can recall, I've always had the travel bug. My first travel memories include eating spaghetti ice cream in my great grandmother's home town in Germany (later on, I found out it was made of vanilla, and I felt as if someone had told me back then that Santa was actually my uncle), getting lost in a Toy Store in NY, playing piano in the piano bar of a Hotel in Rio de Janeiro (not that I was any good, but I had no shame to go to the piano man and ask if I could play "my song"), visiting Disney World in Florida and fishing in a private lake in Belgium. All this was before I turned 8 years old. I now know I've been lucky - All this wouldn't have occurred if my family didn't have the so-called travel bug, too!

Phuket, April 2008

But it wasn't until I started the University, that I realized how much travel can change your life. And by travel, I do not particularly mean being a tourist somewhere; but also living somewhere new - basically, leaving what we all know as home. During my, er, 7 years as a student (I'm not lame, I think, I just gave my career a 180º twist after the first 2 years), I lived in Spain, Germany and Switzerland, and each of these countries have had a significant influence on who I am today. 

In the past weeks I've read many stories about people quitting their corporate jobs, selling their "stuff" and deciding to start a nomadic lifestyle to travel the World and find them selves in other cultures. It's exciting to read about these adventures (it really is!) but from my experience, the real change happens once you are living in the same place for a longer period of time - when you really get to know the culture and truly understand what's behind their habits. For this reason, I rather consider myself someone who does the Long-term living abroad (a concept I learned from Lauren, at Lauren's Road Less Traveled) and travels short-term in the meantime. 

I enjoy having a home to go back to after my journey, I need some kind of planning, objectives and a timeline (this is definitely something I adopted from my German and Swiss experiences). I would go crazy if I had to live one year out of a backpack - it was difficult enough to come over to Switzerland with only 20 kg! (Ok, I confess, the rest came 2 months later in boxes...). 

My point is, although I admire the long-term travelers, I'm not that sure it would be for me, at least not at this moment. I'm happy at my 9-6 office job. It's challenging but also rewarding, and it keeps me funding my weekend escapes (if I want), while still enjoying my life as an expat in Switzerland. 

Zürifäscht, Zürich 2007