Busy, busy....

So we have been busy! I can't believe it's mid-April already. We are moving out of our wonderful apartment in two weeks....ahahaaa!! Let me fill you in on what has been happening.

Well, the last time we wrote I went to Gstaad, Switzerland and Aggie was in Poland (the first weekend in March). Then the weekend of March 14th and March 21st I had E&Y skiing days. They had group team events and covered the cost for our hotels, lift tickets, etc. For one of the days, Aggie came along as she is friends with all the girls (and most the guys) on my team. The girls went sledding and we boys went skiing. As you can see, Ag is quite the sledder and a force to be reckoned with. It was tons of fun, and we all enjoyed ourselves!

Then the weekend of March 28th we went to Zermatt, Switzerland. Zermatt is a beautiful, car free ski village up in the mountains. It's located near France and Italy (in fact, I skiied to Italy for a cappucino and then back over into Switzerland for lunch one of the days we were there!). Zermatt is home to the Matterhorn, a mountain in the Pennine Alps that lies on the border between Switzerland and Italy. The weather was BEAUTIFUL on Friday, but only so-so on Saturday and Sunday.

Aggie and I booked this trip a few months back and our friends, Danielle and Nate, decided to join us. Then, Danielle's roommate, Helen, and her friends from London came, plus, our other friends John and Helen came down.

So, we booked a long weekend, Thursday to Sunday. All was perfect except the ride there. Danielle, Ag and I left together on Thursday and we were supposed to catch a train at 5pm. Well, for some reason there were massive train issues and delays (ssssoooo not Swiss; everything is clockwork here.), plus it was rush hour train traffic. It was quite entertaining if anything else and one Swiss guy was nice enough to help us and translate what was being said over the loud speakers. We joked this was the most action and chaos the city has seen in 20 years! Anyway, people were "stuffing" themselves onto the trains. Long story short, a trip that should have taken 3hrs and 15 mins took 5.5 hrs!

So, we finally arrived around 10-10:30pm, checked in to our hotel and went to bed. Our hotel was in a perfect location; it was right on the main strip and about a 50m walk to the train station and a short walk to the lifts. (Nice work Aggie!)

After a hearty breakfast on Friday morning, I set out for the slopes - just me and my iPod. As I tore it up on the slopes (it was fantastic), the ladies shopped in town and tore that up! Then, that afternoon they hiked and walked the countryside. They found a perfect spot to grab a late afternoon drink before making it back to the town.


The views were amazing and as I said above, I skied into Italy that day! Just a quick note: as I skiied back into Switzerland from Italy, I had "Good 'Ole Boys" by Waylan Jennings on the iPod...not too sure many people could say that they've skied from Italy into Switzerland with that music bumpin in their ears. Straight outta Lindenwald. Anyway, the top of the mountains was a total skier's paradise as there were just lifts and gondolas that went up and up and up and to new spots, new powder, etc. It was amazing.

Later that afternoon, the 3 of us met up with Nate who had just arrived, had a drink and then headed out to dinner that night.

The next morning, all of our other friends arrived (Sat-Sun stay). Everyone skied, hiked, etc and basically did their own thing. That evening, our group of 9 went to dinner at this awesome restaurant in town, Le Gitan, Grill Room. Aggie and Helen get props for scoring reservations for us!!

After dinner, we went dancing at a few different places. Of course, it started snowing that night, and I was cold. Well, when Ag and Danielle went shopping earlier in the day, Aggie got some fancy-schmancey jeans and Danielle got a fur headband. The jeans looked amazing on Ag, however the headband looked better on me than it did Danielle. Why do you ask?? Um, because it matched my beard. That's right people. I was one hairy beast!!


Needless to say, it was a wonderful crazy evening, and we all went to bed tired and happy from the day's events.


On Sunday, again everyone kind of did their own thing. Aggie, John and I went for a hike which was nice (we didn't ski b/c it was dumping snow and the visibility at the top was terrible). Then we grabbed some delicious pub food before heading back to Zurich that afternoon.


The work week came and went and Aggie actually went to Chicago the following weekend (April 4th). Her girlfriend from college, Trish, is having triplets and the whole ND/SMC crew came into town to celebrate at her baby shower. Ag only told a few friends she was coming, so most people were surprised to see her. Watching people's reactions was the best, she said!

She also went home to search for apartments for us. This was a very stressful task, however, she had a great support group (aka Emily and Alison went with her to look at places). Long story short, we have found a place and are super excited! We will be living in the Southport Corridor area and close to all the exciting things Chicago has to offer....great restaurants, bars, Wrigley Field, etc.

Last weekend, for Easter, we stayed in Zurich. Our friend, Dave, was confirmed into the Catholic church so we attended his confirmation, which just also happened to be Easter vigil mass. Aggie's nephew, Grant, and brother-in-law, Bob, were also baptized (although, in Cincy, not Zurich...don't get confused!). Congrats to all of them!

Ferd arrived today, and he will be here for a week. Hooray!! We have some events planned while he is here, but really, we just want to take it easy. We will be heading to Berne, Switzerland on Saturday for a 10 mile race Aggie and I are running in. Then Sunday we have brunch plans at Helen and John's. Monday we plan to go on a hike down in the Alps and who knows what else?? The weather has been in the 70's and just beautiful...crisp/brisk mornings, warm afternoons.....

So, that's all for now. We have just been trying to keep everything in order for our move back and all is working out okay. We will be in touch soon with more updates. Ciao for now!!