Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring!

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View of Matterhorn - In Zermatt, Switzerland

This winter was a tough one. 

Switzerland experienced a very heavy snow fall back in November and December, the  strongest I had ever seen. Luckily, Switzerland is prepared for these kind of snow attacks - at the time I left to work, streets and walking paths were already cleared! I was amazed to see parents pulling their kids' sledges on the way to the market, or even people taking out their skis to ski in the park. There were people skiing, sledging and snowboarding down Le Petite Chêne (check from minute 1:00 onwards), a very steep pedestrian street in Lausanne. This was, in fact, what encouraged me to take snowboarding lessons this year - I want to be one of those people next time there's the chance to slide down a path!

Then, of course, Switzerland's cold winter wasn't enough for me - I wanted something more extreme and headed over to New York for the snowmageddon this January, where temperatures reached -18ºC. That was the coldest I had ever felt so far and I'm not sure if I could ever stand lower temperatures than than those ones (I'm not quite sure if I want to try out). This turns Winter 2010/2011 into the most extreme winter I've survived so far. This wasn't easy coming from an island where temperatures are around 25ºC all year round. 

Although I've now been in Switzerland for one and a half years, I think I've only learned now how to appreciate and profit from its winter. And I'm going to miss it (did I really just write that?).

What's Spring going to bring to me?

Flower in Tenerife, Canary Islands

I'm obviously also excited about spring. Spring means flowers, bright skies, green fields, and people drinking and eating on terraces. A lot of Switzerland's attractions and hiking trails that will reopen during spring as well and my mission this spring is to get the most out of it. I want to really immerse in the country's culture and enjoy its natural landscapes so, unless weather is very bad, you can expect more posts on Switzerland coming in the next couple of months!

I'll obviously continue with my usual travels around Europe - next stops are Frankfurt and Düsseldorf this upcoming week, and Tenerife in about a month from now, so there will be no time for getting bored!

Do you have any plans for spring? 

What are you specially looking forward to this spring?

Getting All Personal...

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I'm not the kind of girl that gets all personal on her blog - it's mainly about my travels and less about myself after all. But this time, I'll make an exception. Fellow blogger, Life begins at 30ty, tagged me on my first blogging award! Life begins at 30ty was one of the first blogs I started reading, and still follow closely - she has a hilarious writing style and always makes me smile with her stories on online dating. Thanks!

1. If you blog anonymously, are you happy about doing this? If you aren't anonymous, do you wish that you had started out anonymously, so you could be anonymous now?

In my case, I went the other way round! I started trying to be as anonymous as I could be, but as I started feeling more and more comfortable, I opened up to the blogosphere. I recently also told friends and close family about it! Then again, I generally write about my personal experience traveling – there’s nothing to hide about it.

2. Describe an incident that shows your stubborn side.



Back to the times I was a University student in Germany, I had to complete a compulsory 6 months internship in german. I didn’t want to stay in Germany, though, so I applied to Switzerland. After receiving an internship offer I couldn’t resist, I went to my tutor to get his approval. He rejected it – My internship was supposed to be in Germany.

I fought my way through e-mails and meetings. I wasn’t going to turn down this opportunity. After a week I told him that I had accepted the internship whether he liked it or not. So he approved it.

Sometimes I have the impression Professors only want to watch you fight for what you want.  

3.What do you see when you really look into the mirror?

First thing I see: a terrible haircut! My expat recommendation: avoid hairdressers that don’t speak your language – 2 years of beautiful long wavy hair and one day, it’s gone! This was back in October or November, and I’m still not over it…

4. What is your favorite cold summer drink?



Tinto de Verano... I miss it so much!

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

Taking time for myself ideally equals to traveling. When this is not possible, I spend time at the food market, play in my kitchen, read a book, or take a walk (which mostly ends up in me going shopping, oops!).

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life?

There are too many things I still want to accomplish – starting with learning French and snowboarding (which, with the current winter, doesn’t seem too feasible), taking a gap year to travel, complete an MBA and building my own business. There’s still some time for that, for now, I’m focusing on my French skills. 

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the overachiever, the shy person, or always ditching?

Do I have to be any of them? I think it depended on the subject itself. I was the overachiever in math, physics and technical drawing. My math teacher used to take my homework to other classrooms to show people how to be clean, tidy and precise when completing an exercise. Then again, I wasn’t good at history or literature. I blame my tidiness – to write neatly you have to take your time, so I usually didn’t manage to complete the examination essays.

8. If you closed your eyes and wanted to visualize a very poignant moment in your life, what would you see?

Last year I had bought tickets to spend Carnival in Tenerife. It wasn’t an easy ride nor a cheap one. The day before, I started to have fever, which got worse during the night. On the day of my flight, I went to the nearest Urgency Room only to find out that I had a liver infection and couldn’t fly home. Worse than feeling the pain I had, was how miserable and scared I felt during the 4 hours I spent at the hospital alone without understanding ¾ of the words being used around me.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog, or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people and events?

I share things about myself, but must admit, I hold myself back on anything too personal or that may play against me in the future.

10. If you had a choice to sit down and read a book or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?

I’m often more of a book fan than someone that spends hours on the phone (and my phone bill thanks me for this). Then again, sometimes there’s an idea in my head that I need to talk through with someone, which is usually when skype steps in. 


And now... I nominate another 3 bloggers that I enjoy reading regularly and from which I'd love to know more about!
Meri-Goes-Round
Smile Soup
Eat Drink Be a Tourist

My Guilty Little Travel Secret

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A Cafe in Saint Martin

I love hostels, tasting exotic food and drinks in a foreign country, and mingling with new people while sharing a local beer. I like the excitement of discovering a new place each day of my trip, indulging in the countries' culture, learning about its history and present, and taking the road less travelled. I really do. 

But something I've learned during the last 1 and 1/2 years (since I started on my full-time job) is that traveling this way, although rewarding and fulfilling, is not relaxing. After returning from these kind of trips, I have 2 memory cards full of pictures and a lot of fantastic new experiences - but am exhausted. I then spend the following week dragging myself from home to work and back and hope for the weekend to recover from my vacation. 

But this summer, things will be different. 


... I will wake up whenever I feel like it.


... I will get a perfect tan.


... I will watch the sunset from the terrace and toast with a glass of wine!


From time to time, the little explorer inside me needs a break. A day without schedules. A week on which my only calendar entry is playa. No museums. No city walks. No hiking. No road trips. No GPS. No sleeping somewhere else each night - just playa.  


It has been so long I haven't taken a real time off that I'm not even sure if I can make it. Maybe I spend those 7 days checking my e-mails every 2 minutes, reading books about the petroleum industry or learning french, so I feel like I'm doing something proactive. But I'm almost sure that as soon as the sand touches my bare feet, I'll be somewhere near the Limbo. 

Fernando de Noronha, Brazil

PS: Watch out for the next blog posts to find out about my destination! 

Do you also need a cultural break from time to time and enjoy a vacation doing nothing? Which is your guilty little travel secret?

... The One on Where I'm From.

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Whenever someone pops up the question of where I'm from, I hesitate. When I turned 18, I engaged in a life of long-term living abroad, and never have lived in the same city for longer than 3 years in a row. Any expat may agree that, the more time you live away from where you were born (just to set a starting point) the more difficult it gets to properly define "home". This doesn't get any easier when your passport doesn't even match the country where you grew up in.

My passport states I'm german, and I'm proud of it. There are a lot of german genes in me: after all, my favorite beer is Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier. I'm a planner and sometimes too much of the laid back makes me tense, as I start to think I'm loosing my time. I'm impatient, too. However, I'm also usually 3-5 minutes late to work, I can't concentrate for more than an hour on a row and I have a general lack of interest in cars. 

On the other side, I do not have any document that indicates that I'm spanish. But I feel spanish, too. I need a siesta after having lunch and often do stuff in the last moment. Most of my conversations are about food and eating tapas is my favorite social gathering. 16ºC is still cold enough for me to wear my winter jacket. I hardly ever get a sunburn and I have no verbal filters when talking to complete strangers. I use hand gestures, all the time - picture an italian cook? that's me, even when I'm on the phone. I get excited when I meet someone spanish in a foreign country and talk a lot (and loud). And most importantly, hey, I cheered for Spain during last year's World Cup!!

So, whenever someone asks me where I'm from, I like to say that I'm a mix of the good and the bad of both cultures and wouldn't be able to choose. 

Being german doesn't mean I can't be spanish, too, right? Categorizing someone only by a document doesn't seem accurate to me - What about the habits, life rhythm and language skills? But then, feeling spanish doesn't mean that I don't feel german. This concept of belonging to more than one culture is probably a consequence of globalization - we now have the ability to discover and be part of other cultures without having to give up where we initially came from - We have the opportunity to preserve where we came from and integrate it in where we are now.

And now it's my turn to ask.... Where do YOU come from?

...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

What Do (All) Frenchmen have in Common?

I've always had this thing for frenchmen. They are mysterious and have this particular attitude - so confident and arrogant. After a few years of experience with the french, I can proudly say that I can recognize them in a crowded bar, in the streets of Hong Kong or even among the swiss-french, which I thought were similar, but this last year has proven me wrong. There's something about them:

1. Frenchmen drink wine instead of beer - it's much more classy

2. And are slightly obsessed (not always in a good way) with fine food and cuisine

3. They know how to be polite and rude at the same time

4. They believe they're right even when they know they're wrong

5. Me

In the last years, I've had a few relationships with frenchmen (most of them characterized more or less by the points above). Obviously, each of these relationships failed, which, I guess, has made me somewhat like immune to french charm. But even when I avoid the french (if you're french, don't take this personally - it's a life stage I'm going through), they come to me, as if I am continuously sending out some signals that only the french can decode.

Last weekend, I was in Brick Lane with my friends. From the whole packed bar, only one guy came to talk to me - he was french (afterwards, I learned that he was chatting up every 3rd girl in the bar, so let's leave it as a coincidence). Today, while I was checking out the skaters performing (they were quite pro I must admit!) somebody sat next to me. I didn't care, there were a lot of people watching the performance anyways. However, this guy suddenly started speaking to me (in french):

French Guy: "I assume you are not swiss - you are french, right?"

Me thinking: "is it my dress? my shoes? my hair? my sun glasses? what gives me away, huh?"

Me: "Not really - I'm spanish and don't speak french, actually. Sorry - english?"

After a short 5 min conversation, he grabbed my back, leaned into me and said "you are so beautiful".

Me thinking: "there we go again...."

Dude, thanks - but no thanks. This was far from being the best way of me getting over my french ban. Does anyone actually fall into that?

I'm seriously worried. This has been going on for years now. Are all frenchmen following the same pattern? Am I the pattern? Or am I still the one responsible for all this? Does my mind and body reject my french ban?

I shall investigate more, definitely.

Make me Laugh and I'll be Yours

I'm back! - Not sure if I'm feeling as enthusiastic as that exclamation mark, though.

Madrid again was a perfect weekend (this time including my flights being on time, and me getting an upgrade from Iberia to business class as a reward for my "fidelity" with them - it was about time!).

After a hammering friday night on which we had drinks at my friend's apartment until 5 am, which is when we left to a club to have the deadly last drink - we call it deadly, because we are sure that it's the reason for our huge hungover, not the mix of bottles of wine, cocktails, pacharan, turkish shot and beer. No way.

Saturday night was about our routine: having tapas in la Latina. This time, instead of going to our usual bars, we tried out something new - Aroca XI, a designer tapas bar. The interior was amazing, and I later found out that it preserves part of the Arab and Christian walls. Specially recommendable are their cocktails - try out the Watermelon Mojito!

Anyway, getting to the reason of this post - the waiter. He wasn't particularly handsome, rather average (although there was something in his voice or accent that was appealing). He was watching for us all the time and, the best - he was hilariously funny. It was a really long time ago since last a guy used his sense of humor to flirt with me, and I don't understand why - it's such a good tactic! I noticed how my attraction towards him was changing during our dinner. Where I started thinking he was average, I found him more and more attractive - and the reason was definitely the way he acted towards me - he was sassy, cheerful and flirty, and I just love that. This got me thinking: in my long list of qualities the one should have, I now rank "makes me laugh" as the very first. In my last relationships it was me the story teller and the one trying to make the other laugh. It had only been my first boyfriend, who was a big story teller and who had a great sense of humor that could keep me laughing for hours in a row (at least the first two years of the relationship). Why did I just push this quality down the list? Maybe I had assumed that it's something rare, after all, I only found it once (ok, twice including the waiter). It's about time to change back my top priorities - maybe I wasn't being lucky because I was looking for the wrong character.

I must admit, that I was sad to leave this bar (with its waiter), knowing that I cannot come back as often as I would like to - but I'll keep it in my mind, and will definitely go back next time I'm in my Madrid.

8 Reason for being a Geek

1. I own 4 BB's. 3 of them are in use being it spanish private, swiss private and swiss work. Usually I "only" carry 2 of them in my handbag - the spanish and the work BB.
2. I'm a fan of Microsoft Excel in Facebook
3. My latest book acquisition is called Mathematics for Financial Engineering
4. I'm planning to take the Certificate in Quantitative Finance, with engineers and mathematicians; where I am really looking forward to learn how to program with VBA.
5. I make word-play related to finance that generally very few of my friends - I can only think of 2 :) - find funny
6. At Uni, I joined a Tolkien fan group to go to the cinema premiere of The Two Towers dressed up as an elf
7. I follow flight ticket prices as if it was part of the stock exchange
8. I check my e-mail before leaving to work and before going to bed - no matter what time this actually is

Hot (unconscious) Temptation

These last weeks have been unbearable - I've been melting away on my working spot even being surrounded by numerous air fans. We've tried many different highly-professional technics of dropping the temperature inside: we've pulled down all the roller blinds, left the windows open to create current, turned off all lights, and have bottles of cold water next to us. But when it turns 12am, not even this helps!

With such high temperatures, there's nothing I can think of but a fresh cool ice cream (which doesn't really help on summer diets).

While I was searching for some nice and easy receipt for preparing home-made lemon ice cream this sunday, I found a funny article (in german) that reveals people's character and sexual/love desire based on their favorite ice cream flavors. Yeah, sounds like a joke, I know! But I was curious - what would lemon ice cream reveal from me?

So here's the deal: vote for your preferred flavor from the list below - I told you mine, now I want to know yours! Next, you can check below the poll what your ice cream choice brings out about you!

Done? Ok. Then here we go!

• Banana. Banana ice cream lovers know what they want, are independent and don't like to follow the rules. They tend to have a variety of lovers to experiment with, before settling down. They get well together with Lemon, that is... me! - Who's banana? ;)
• Lemon. If, like me, you order a good acid sorbet every time you get the choice, then you are a laid-back, cheerful and talkative. You are looking for someone adventurous and exotic, and always enjoy surprises! We go well together with Chocolate and Bananas.
• Strawberry. You are cheerful, expressive and sometimes act purely on impulse. You're partner has to be able to hold on to your action! Your kind ideally has a good feeling with Vanilla, Coffee and Stracciatella.
• Coffee. Coffee-addicts are bubbly, flexible and social. In love, they tend to put first spiritual connection rather than physical attraction. They go well together with Vanilla and Strawberries.
• Stracciatella. You like variety and change, but like to live this with only a few reliable people. It takes a time to settle down but when you do so, you do it for real. Stracciatella-lovers go well together with Strawberry and Chocolate.
• Chocolate. If you enjoy chocolate most, you tend to be rather reserved, tolerant and trustworthy, and enjoy open air activities (including traveling). You are searching for a faithful, kind and transparent. and therefore go together with Stracciatella and Lemon.
• Vanilla. You have your feet on the ground and come well along with very different characters. Vanillas' are erotic and relatively traditional - they prefer avoiding experiments. The best matches are Strawberries and Banana.

After this, I think I'll get a spoon full of lemon & lime from the freezer...!!

Yes, I'm single

Sometimes, singles are pointlessly hunted. We are considered weird people, following the typical assumption that “if we’re in our 20something and single, there must be something wrong with us”. We are also wicked – how can we just be friends with someone from the other sex? The girlfriend will immediately suspect of a secret malicious plan. We are long-time pitied, since we have been so unlucky to not find the right person yet (unlike them). And, of course, we are put under pressure to find someone on time, because we all know, the clock is ticking and we are not getting any younger!

As if it wasn’t hard enough already to live a singles’ life! I have to run home on lunch breaks each time a technician comes to fix one of the still pending duties in my new apartment. I don’t have anyone to kill the crawling/flying insect that comes towards me with unpredictable harsh moves. I don’t have anyone to go with me to the doctor (even less to translate my diagnosis to non-french) and to take care of me when I’m unable to move in bed.

No, of course it’s not enough. Besides from that, you get all the weird, wicked, pity looks. At the end, you don’t even need others to put pressure on you since you already put it on yourself when you start to think “maybe its time to settle down” (let’s admit it – this mostly starts after having spent time in one of the uncomfortable situations mentioned above). But it’s not only that, but every time you check into facebook, a new match.com type of ad pops up to remember me that even in e-life, I’m single.

Don’t misunderstand this post, I’m not complaining about my singleness – I think that most of the times, its better to be alone than in bad company (although I do miss having someone around sometimes…). I’m herewith complaining how everything around us wants to make us feel sorry for being single and want to change it. I’m happy for those of you who found someone worth it, but for those who (like me) haven’t… why not enjoy and still have our fun while we can?

I feel like having girls night out like I was used to in Madrid, a nice trip with my close friends, chit chatting with a glass of wine or a cocktail watching sundown like in Tenerife, a nice dinner in a new restaurant, and a simple pizza-movie-sleepover. And I can't be more excited about London in two weeks to make this come true!

Can't find the words...

...Can't find the proper words to express my excitement...

but I think the following pictures do a great job...

VIVA ESPAÑA !!!!

Moving!

I'm moving into my new apartment beginning of July and I need to furnish it completely (I'm not even sure it includes a mirror in the bathroom...!). In the last couple of weeks I've been investigating a lot about all kind of basic furniture - say the essential to live comfortably.

During lunch break and after-work, I have walked into every furniture design shop I found in my city... (I leave the basic ones like Ikea for the weekends).But this week, I found the one that made me want to stop searching - the shop has everything I ever imagined in my home!

I always wanted to live in one of these apartments with a brick wall or with one wall painted with a metallic effect, high ceiling and big windows... And imagined it with some kind of modern vintage decoration - like brown leather sofas, and tables and chairs made of a combination of dark wood and an imitation of rusty metals. Let's say, I visualize my apartment like a industrial studio - Now that I write it down, it sounds weird...

Anyway, I've absolutely fallen for this brand, Kare Design. They offer a broad collection for practically any style. Here are my favorite picks:

Amazing painting of the City that never sleeps

Love it! Seems confi, chic, used but modern...

And... my favorite piece of art.