Anyway, last time we wrote we were just about to leave for Santorini, Greece. I'll follow up in a week or two about that trip. However, I can describe the trip to you now in one word: AMAZING. It was quite the package: delicious food (surprisingly so, in fact), great friends and breathtaking scenery all wrapped up with a nice big bow...that's what Santorini was for us.
We will also be posting about our trip to Thailand. We are so behind on things, people!
Now back to where we are and what has been going on....
We arrived back in Zurich (after Greece) on Wednesday, June 3rd, really late at night. Anyway, we ran around a bit on Thursday (June 4th) finishing things up and then attended a great BBQ hosted by our good friends, Hesh and Danielle. Here's a picture from that day with Ag and our old landlord Mara.
It was wonderful seeing everyone one last time before we finally said good-bye! We flew home on Friday, June 5th. The itinerary was Zurich to Amsterdam to Chicago. I have to say, we went out in style. When we landed in Amsterdam, we had a couple hours before our long flight. I went to the transfer desk in Schipol Airport and finagled an upgrade to 1st class using miles and it was sssssssooooooooo worth it! The plane was a double decker, and we sat up on the top level. It was basically us and 6 other passengers (all seats were not filled), 2 bathrooms, and then the cockpit. Champagne when we got on the plane, seats that lay down into a bed, 3 course meals...not to shabby!
We stayed with our friends Justin and Alison in Chicago on Friday and Saturday before flying out to Cincinnati on Sunday, June 7th. On Friday afternoon we checked out our new apartment and I went to the office to get my computer. On Friday night, our friends, Emily and Nimesh, hosted a small dinner party and on Saturday night we met up with our other good friends, Darren and Nicole. In Cincy on Sunday, my parents had a BBQ with our family and some friends, which was really nice. Plus, Josh and Lauren were in town so it was great to see them.
Then, the work week was really busy for us as we "worked" to organize our lives. Priority #1 was getting a car, which meant getting our drivers' licenses too. First off, apparently the US will only do a one-for-one swap with foreign drivers' licenses from Japan, Germany and France. Why not the neutral country of Switzerland!? What did they ever do to us Americans? Anyway, so we went to the BMV and retook the vision and written driving test. We both passed with no problems which was great! Unfortunately, they told us soonest we could do the actual driving test was June 25th. With luck, while we were taking the written test, someone called and canceled their driving test. So I took the golden opportunity to fill their spot that very day.
Now, I don't know if all of you can think back to when you were 16 and how you had to drive around the block with an instructor and then maneuver through some cones and back up into a parking spot? Well, I passed the street driving part with no problems, but I flippin' ran over a cone in the parallel parking part! Who does that? Apparently I do...the instructor said in a thick Hamiltucky accent: "Please pull over to the side sir. You have failed." Freddie was really disappointed in me, I could tell. The best part of the whole thing is that we jumped in the car after I failed, and I drove us away. (You can legally drive on an international license in the US for up to a year.) Seems kind of messed up but whatever.
So, Ag and I both went back to Cincy the weekend of June 26th to take our driving test...and this time we passed! Lovely.
So, we found a car, furniture for our apartment, went through our wedding gifts (it felt like Christmas), met up with friends, golfed, etc, etc. Ag's sister, Theresa, got married on the 4th of July so they celebrated her upcoming wedding with a bridal shower and bachelorette party. All in all, it was a great time to come back to the US!
We got back to Chicago on Sunday, June 14th, and we lived in a hotel for 2 weeks before moving into our apartment. The hotel was located right off Michigan Ave so we really enjoying the fact that we were right in the heart of the city. On Monday (June 15th) I started back to work at the Chicago office.
Now that we are in our place, we finally feel settled. It has taken us a few months to really get back into the swing of things and the "American" way of life. So far so good though....
I had a few buddies, Gil and Joel, in town to visit one weekend for the Cubs/Indians game. We had a great time hanging out! Plus, it was my first baseball game in a long time so I was pretty pumped for a bag of peanuts and a hotdog!
We have had a few other visitors come see us as well....Sarah and Ryan, Ferd and Andrea, Frigon, Ag's cousin Sarah, a few members of the Swiss crew....it has been fun!
We've sort of been on the move too. As I said, we had Ag's sister's wedding over the 4th of July (first pic below) and then recently we went to our friend, Dave and Ali's wedding (second pic below). Dave and Ali are our friends who live in Zurich, Switzerland, but got married in Indiana.
Our other great friends, Steph and Pete, were in town last weekend for a wedding. We also have plans to go out and visit them in Seattle over Labor Day weekend which will be awesome! Here's me and Pete getting ready for the inevitable...
Needless to say, we have been busy every weekend since we have been back!
During the week, we have been busy meeting up with all our other friends who still live here. It has been fun and kind of crazy....it feels like we never left!
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