Toga! Toga! Toga!

First, this is the second of two simultaneously posted blogs, so make sure to go back and read the one before this...things will just make more sense and you'll also get to hear about two things very dear to our hearts: beer and champagne.

So as I mentioned in the last blog, last weekend we went to a toga party to celebrate our four friends' birthdays. All of their birthdays were around the same time, so why not have one party to knock them all out right?! Of course, it couldn't be just any party, it was a toga party! I must admit, I've never been to a toga party (I was in Cumberland for Renners' that one year), so I was a little bit excited!

Any-who, we were not going to be "those" people who were not in the spirit of the event so I gave Ag the task of finding togas for us....when I told her her mission (should she choose to accept it), she looked at me like I was crazy. "You know there is no Hobby Lobby or Michael's here right?" Say what? What-chew talkin' 'bout, Willis?! Obviously, I am not up to scratch on my US craft stores.....

Of course, she took on the mission. First thing was first, we had to read up on the proper ways to make a toga. Contrary to popular opinion, you don't just make a toga with a bedsheet. Basically, to make a proper toga, you need about 3-4 yards of material, some cool accessories, and vines wrapped around your head....then you got the Greek god look down. Well, yeah, you also need stunning good looks and heavenly bodies, too, but we weren't worried about that (ah hem)...

Agnes went to several stores throughout the city looking for materials. Or should I say "textials" as they like to call fabric stores here. She found a few places that had material, but were super expensive and opted to talk to the mom of the family she babysits for clues and ideas. The thought of explaining to Aviva (the mom) that she was looking for cloth for a toga party was kind of funny! Anyway, Aviva had the best spot ever for her to check out and in the end, we had our material!

We wore our "normal" clothes to Dave and Kevin's apartment that Saturday night and when we got there, everyone was in costume. We immediately put on our outfits and were set for the night. The best part about our hosts is that they bought extra material for guests who showed up "togaless" (....if that's a word?!). There was NO excuse for anyone not to get into costume!

The night flew by and we all just hung out, enjoyed each others company, drank and ate. We had a super fun night and can't wait for the next toga party!

On Sunday, we got up and went to the Zurich Open (pro tennis tournament). The women's finals were that day and we were watching Justine Henin and Tatiana Golovin play. It was really fun as we had never been to a professional match before. Some random highlights:

- People were dressed pretty nice, some ladies had dresses on, lots of men with suits on, and people were drinking champagne everywhere; we were the common folks in our jeans and the thought of a drop of alcohol touching our lips made us both shudder.

- The crowd gets COMPLETELY slient at the serve. Obviously we have seen this on TV but didn't realize the intensity of it. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

- They had "cheerleaders" that were awful! The median age for the cheerleaders was probably 12 yrs old. There were 10 girls total and they placed 5 girls in two different areas on the bleacher steps, totally blocking the walk-way. Then, when there was a TV time-out, music would play and these cheerleaders would stand and do different dances. They would move their arms all around, turn and shake it! We were lucky and were sitting above the madness. The best part was watching people try to get through them during a break (e.g., after coming back from going to the bathroom or having a glass of bubbly). They didn't stop their routine for anyone and if you weren't careful, you would be bopped in the head (we actually saw this occur more times than we could count)!

Henin won in 2 sets and afterwards, we just headed home to relax and prepare for the work week. Unfortunately, the weather took a major turn last Sunday too. We had beautiful weather in the 60's and 70's for the longest time and now it's highs in the 40's and lows in the 30's. Due to the extreme turn, we both got pretty bad colds. So, on top of working late and having major partners in from NY to review our work, I have been trying to get over a nasty cold. The good thing about it is that my office mate didn't want to get sick and kicked me out of our office...and into an empty one that I had all to myself! That was pretty nice and I'm not sure I want to go back!

This weekend we are taking it very easy! We are going to dinner tonight in Uetliberg. Basically it's a very small mountain that has a restaurant on top that overlooks Zurich. Then on Sunday, we are going to brunch at one of my co-workers' house in Zug (about 30 minutes southwest of Zurich).

Other fun upcoming events:

-Thanksgiving will be here soon! We are flying to London to visit Darren and Nicole Ludwig, who just moved there on the EY Global Exchange, as well as Matt and Brandi Render. After a couple of days in London, we are jumping on the "chunnel" train to Paris for a couple of days. Our Zurich friends Dave and Ali will be in Paris at the same time so it will be fun to hang out on a little road trip with them. To get home we are taking the TGV (high-speed French train) direct from Paris to Zurich...fun fun!

- In December we are going to Luxembourg and Trier, Germany for the X-Mas markets. We, again, are going to see Darren and Nicole Ludwig (who will be visiting Lux as well), as well as Brendan FitzGerald (flying in from Dublin) and of course Eoin, Sorcha and Robbie and Laura all there. It's going to be a great weekend and a big reunion!

- Also in December we are flying up to Copenhagen, Denmark for a day and from there to Berlin, Germany for a couple more days. Aggie has been busy working on our travel arrangements there. The day after we get back from there, the real fun begins...

- Josh comes on December 25th! We are busy trying to book up some rooms in St. Moritz, Saas Fee and Zermatt for the week he'll be here in Zurich. We are also planning to go to Gruyere for a cheese tour, a chocolate tour, and some cheese fondue. For New Years' we're going to book up a nice restaurant for dinner and all hang out. Should be a great time!

And...I'm spent! That's all we got for now, but we'll see you soon. One last thought that Aggie and I keep kicking around is.....time is FLYING BY! Better make the most of it!

Been a long time....

Hey there folks. Sorry for the long delay since our last post. Last time we wrote, I mentioned we had a few upcoming trips. Well, I went to Oktoberfest with the boyz (that's right, with a 'z') and it was a blast! Plus, Aggie and I visited Reims, France a couple of weekends ago, and we ended up coming homewith 8 bottles of champagne! Then last weekend we attended our first toga party. It was COLD outside, but did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? NO! And neither did Agnes or I.

Our adventures began a few weeks ago when I went to Oktoberfest with 3 guys from work (Oct 5-7). Dave, Kevin, Jeff and I left Zurich on Friday after work and drove up to Munich...about a 4 hour drive. The details of the weekend are basically as follows: drink, eat, drink, drink, eat, drink, etc. We got to our tent on Saturday morning around 11am. The three yay-hoos I was with were in complete lederhosen gear. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to get my outfit as we arrived too late on Friday night and all the stores were closed (they bought theirs the weekend before). Don't you worry though, I'll be back next year in full get-up. Anyway, we took our seats at the table and started with a round of steins and basically....we drank several liters of beer, enjoyed the music and the atmosphere, talked to people, ate some delicious pretzels, brats, sauerkraut, drank some more, etc.

The music was very lively and set an awesome mood for the day! About 14 hours later my head hit the pillow back in the hotel room...the time in between somewhat of a blur. Needless to say it was a long drive back on Sunday. The rest of the day I was a waste of space and just hung out on the couch with Ag. Her one question to me was "Did you get a rotisserie style chicken or duck!?" (Please read about our last trip to Oktoberfest in the "Munich....Beer we come" post to understand why she would ask such a thing) To answer her question (and to her disappointment), I did not. Anyways, I worked in Zurich on Monday and turned around and drove up to Luxembourg that night.

I worked in Lux all that next week (Oct 9-12th) on one of my old clients that I never could quite get away from. One night I had a chance to meet up with Laura and Robbie, and then another evening I had dinner with my old "possy": Luc, Robert and Nicolas (see the posting, "Au Revoir, Luxembourg"). After hanging out, I realize that I totally miss working with those guys but I don't miss the struggles and frustrations they are still dealing with in that office.

Anyway, Aggie took the train up to meet me on Friday evening in Lux. We went to Laura and Robbie's for a bit, then we went to Robert and Alexandra's apartment (Robert is part of the old "possy"). Robert and Alexandra actually moved into our old place, so it was kind of a weird/familiar feeling staying with them.

We ordered Chinese from our old place on the corner and I swear the lady recognized my handsome face as soon as we walked in! It was pretty comical...she asked me how come I haven't been there in so long. Ha!

The next morning, Ag and I went for a run in the forest....it was my old, favorite running route. It was beautiful...and I'm not just talking about Aggie here, I'm talking about the forest! We got back, showered up and hit the road. But not before stopping at the grocery store for a beer and a metwurst.

The one thing we loved about going to the grocery store on Saturday mornings in Lux is that they would always be making fresh waffles, grilling brats and mets, selling beer, etc, right at the entrance. It always made going to the grocery store more enjoyable. At least for me anyway! For some reason, Agnes LIKES going to the store even when you can't get beer and mets. Any-who, the food was delicious! So we grabbed lunch and then headed out to Reims. Just in case you don't know, Reims is the capital of the Champagne region of France.

The drive to Reims was very uneventful, but the weather was prefect and it was very pretty. Once we got to the city, we were really lucky to find our hotel right away. It was smack dab in the middle of the pedestrian shopping area and surrounded by bars, restaurants and shops. We checked in right away and began to explore.

We found the tourist office, got a map (it's all about the map!) and went into the Notre Dame Cathedral. Then we continued to explore the city...went to a few champagne shops, bought a few bottles of champagne...stopped to drink some champagne...shopped some more, took a few more pictures, etc. Needless to say, we had a very fun afternoon of sightseeing, drinking and shopping!!

We grabbed an early dinner and then crashed at the hotel for about an hour. Then we rallied and went to find a place to watch the Rugby World Cup. It was the quarter finals and France was playing England, so this was going to be a great game! We found seats at this swank, loungy restaurant just a few doors down from our hotel. (There was an Irish pub right next door where we had dinner but it was way too crowded and and way too smoky for our liking)

It was a really close game till the very end and unfortunately (for our lounge mates) France lost. When we walked out of the restaurant, the pub where we were earlier for dinner had about 100 or 200 people outside, standing in the street watching the pub's tv. Crazy!

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to the Pommery Estate for a champagne tour and tasting. It was pretty cool and interesting to learn about how champagne is made. Then we jumped on the road and headed back to Zurich. We loved Reims and are trying to figure out when we can go back again in the future....

So...last weekend, our friends had a huge toga party to celebrate four birthdays. It was interesting!! Sunday, we went to the Zurich Open, the women's pro tennis tournament. Serena and Maria got knocked out early, so we saw Justine Henin (current world #1) vs. Tatiana Golovin (a relatively young newcomer). We've put the pictures up from those two events already, and we'll be writing about them soon (like, this weekend).

In the meantime, take care and we will be in touch soon!