Favorite Things Friday!

It's time for another FTF! The weeks are just flying by. Like I said earlier this week, we are entrenched in midterms right now, which has been an extra challenge considering the (very alluring) great weather we've been having (luckily the weather is supposed to get bad again next week?). Here are some of my favorite things this week!

1.  GETTING MAIL! I adore receiving mail, and have always been big into letters, so it was great to get TWO letters this week! It makes me feel so good to get a note from a friend and that people had taken the time to write out letters to me :) Getting mail is an extra-special thing in this age of instant-messaging and email. Made my week when I got called to the mail room :)

2. Broccoli! And soup. Broccoli is the best. This week I've been eating it plain, chopping it up in salad, and stirring it into my soup with other veggies. Broccoli is filled with iron and calcium, which are both things I need because I don't eat much meat or dairy. It's also a great source of fiber and those Omega-3s that everyone's always talking about. YUM.

3. Train rides as the sun is going down. Our trips home this week have coincided with the sunset and I love watching the glowing sun as we're traveling home! The 3-hour (total) commute each day doesn't seem so bad when you can look out your window and see sheep grazing or kids walking home with their parents. It's much better getting home when it's still light out!

4. Being able to have bare legs! Yikes, my legs have hardly seen the light of day for MONTHS! (They are still this pale in the middle of August though...I don't really get tan!). Yesterday I loved getting out my favorite pink skirt and going to class with bare legs in the 60-something degree weather. 

Off to get ready for Amsterdam! We head out around noon and will get there at dinner time. Have good weekends, everybody!

Exciting Wednesday things...

Berries!

Started the day off sitting by the window and eating some raspberries and blackberries in the sun. I also got in my first run since I've been sick and the weather couldn't have been better for it! When I got back home the thermometer said it was 55*F! They say this is the warmest it's been in March since the 1800s or something. Towards the end of my run I was just so thrilled that it was sunny, and warm, and that I was finally feeling better, that I reached my palms towards the sun and wahoo-ed with happiness. Later this morning I saw this quote that HRG shared and thought it so embodied my run today (but also how I've been feeling now that it's spring) :

Berries are a lot cheaper here than in the States, and they're wonderfully fresh now so we stocked up! Alex got a bunch of blueberries and I decided I needed a way to use up the Greek yogurt in the fridge. I made a double batch of blueberry cake.

I used THIS blueberry cake recipe this morning.

My version:

Today I got an email from someone at the school saying my residency permit card had arrived. Guess I can stay after all! Only 9 short weeks left though...Can't believe it!

This weekend will feature a trip to...AMSTERDAM. We're going with another couple who we've befriended over the past few weeks, and on Friday night I get to meet THIS girl who is there on a spring break study trip with her school!

She is one of my oldest friends, my February-birthday twin, my Psychology buddy, and was my co-captain on the rowing team in high school. 

I love her and can't wait to meet up! Now we only see each other a few times a year with our mutual crazy college and work and travel schedules, so it's really great to get to see each other in such a special place.

The guy in the reflection of that first picture is her ~beau~ - he will be in Amsterdam too. I'm excited for Alex to meet him!

She flies back home on Saturday so we're going to catch her on Friday night and then spend the rest of the weekend with our two MUDEC friends. We're planning to see the Anne Frank House, do some bike riding, and see the van Gogh museum. 

The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy - we're in the heat of midterms which are pretty intense around here...the teachers are (almost) all European so rather than a few small exams every few weeks,  there are BIG TESTS twice a semester and that's it. I'm also awaiting my parents' arrival...just a little over a week until I'm going back to Paris to meet them.

I sure hope the Ohio weather is going to be improving a bit soon...it's seemed a little crazy from what I've heard. I miss you all!

Yodeleheehoo! aka Zurich.

If you are outdoorsy, Zurich is the place for you! We just spent an outdoorsy weekend enjoying Zurich - one of the most scenically beautiful places I've ever been...

We had to take a ~5-hour train ride to get there, but if flew by because the three of us slept on the train. We had one change, and then arrived finally at about 8:00. One of the first things we saw when we came up and out of the train station was this: 

Biking is big in every European city, but not so big as it was in Zurich! I guess it was a good preparation for Amsterdam.

During our train change Alex and I found CARAMBAR! This tootsie roll-like candies are French and were introduced to us by our French teacher in high school... Alex has been searching for them this whole trip but we haven't been able to find them in Paris, Bruges, Edinburgh, London, or Luxembourg City, but Zurich had them in their train station! Success!

We headed to bed fairly early so we could wake up and take on the day nice and early on Saturday. In the morning, the first thing we did was go purchase a Zurich card, which covered a 90-minute boat ride, all public transportation, and even museum entry for 24 hours. After that, we hopped on a cable car and headed to Zurich Lake for our boat ride. 

First thing we saw!

Over the course of our boat ride we saw ~15 different rowing shells! Everyone was rowing! It was a gorgeous morning, and cruising along with the mountains in the background and the fog rising off of the lake was a glorious experience. I adored watching the rowers...but it made me miss my sport more than I ever have so far! I very nearly jumped off to join them for practice!

A new kind of rowing I've never seen before...sort of like dragon-boating but with only 2 people?

After our beautiful boat ride, we hopped on a train and ascended the mountain for some hiking. 

We climbed up this tower!

So beautiful. 

While hiking, I kept feeling that everything about Zurich was natural and clean and clear. I felt like I could really breathe up in that mountain (which was extra-good because I had a sinus infection :)

We hiked for a couple hours before we were a bit hungry and tired, so we headed back down the mountain and took the train back. On the way back to the hotel we stopped in a chocolate shop (Ladurée). We watched this guy making chocolate cars! Awesome!

Of course, I got a couple chocolates to try. So far, Swiss chocolate is my favorite. Belgian chocolate didn't really do it for me. Good thing we are coming back here in three weeks! (Fondue anyone?)

Originally, we had hoped to get in a few more activities in Zurich that afternoon/evening and the following morning, but I was pretty immobilized by the time we reached the hotel (darn sinuses!) and once I laid down on the bed I didn't want to get up again. I wanted our Traveling Friend and Alex to do some more stuff, but they ended up just going to dinner and calling it a night. I felt awful that they didn't do more...but in the end I don't think it would've been good if I'd pushed myself too much more, especially after all that hiking!

They brought me back some soup from a natural foods restaurant - carrot and apple stew! It was delicious! Later I found out it was 12 Swiss Francs! I didn't mind so much because it was very delicious and I'd packed most of my food for the weekend...but I was shocked! Throughout our time there, we found that food was very expensive.

We all had an early night and on Sunday morning (after finding out that we don't have DST until 30 March!) we wandered around some more and got postcards and lunch foods before getting on the train for our journey home. 

When we arrived back in Luxembourg it was bright, sunny, and about 60*F! Maybe spring is here for good...?