Stuttgart, Germany

On Sunday Jared and I headed to Stuttgart, Germany to pick up a visa for him. (It's a long story that I rather not get into.) We decided to go and stay for a night. Here's the train station in Zürich. Similar to Grand Central where you wait for your train to show on the board which platform it will be leaving from. Except at Grand Central and Penn Station they show it 10 mins. before and when it pops up everyone all of a sudden runs to the platform knocking everyone in sight just so you can get a seat. It's pretty hilarious. They're a bit more courteous here in CH.

Jared is preparing for a relaxing 2hr 45 min ride through the countryside.

So am I. We were complete with dinner and snacks.

Jared quickly fell asleep. Isn't he so freakin' cute?

While I wrote in my journal, (a Sunday ritual.)

Here is the Swiss Consulate. Not too impressive. Just a small room.





I wanted to go down the tiny elevator which we barely fit in with our backpacks on. We are happy to get Jared's visa.













I love silhouette shots.













Here is a church that we passed by a few times while walking around, I love the windows and Jared mentioned that it's probably a spiral staircase.








Stuttgart is home to the Mercedes-Benz museum. Unfortunately we didn't get to go.

While we were waiting 3 hrs for the Swiss Consulate to put a sticker in Jared's passport we wondered around and found a nice park with giant chess pieces. So we played game. I don't have to tell you won.

Moroni on top of an LDS temple? Nope, just a deer.

To our delight a fellow Stanford ward member, Angie, was living not too far from Stuttgart for a while and came to meet us. She speaks fluent German so that was helpful when we wanted to order some lunch...a got old German wienerschnitzel.












Jared got a curry one. We thought it would be a curry flavored sausage, but they just put curry powder and ketchup on top. HA HA! He still liked it.

SCRABBLE

Jared and I have been addicted to Scrabble lately. It's always been a favorite along with Boggle. We've been playing each other online. However, in our temporary housing the connection can sometimes be slow. So, I searched high and low yesterday for a cheap scrabble game. Only to find when we started playing that it's a German Scrabble game, meaning some letters are of different values than the American version. Plus they have an ä and ü. We thought it would be a great idea to get out and play Scrabble on the tram. So we hopped on the #9 and rode it to the end and back while getting in a full game last night.



Doesn't Jared look super mischeivious?










We're having fun.




Playing on the train.













Who's gonna win? Well, Jared did. By 1 point. That's only because I told him about the rule where who ever has letters left they have to subtract them from his score. Then he was determined to get rid of all his letters so I had to subtract my points. Well, when this guy is determined to do something, he accomplishes it. I wish I never mentioned that rule.

Hair Conscious

OK so you all know that I am a natural blonde. Never dyed my hair. I prided myself on such healthy natural hair. Yup, until this summer when I got the "bright" idea to go dark. Why do I have to be so spontaneous and try new things that are permanent? I keep asking myself this question. Well I get bored. As an artist we like change.

Natural

Dye Job #1

After a couple of months I got bored again and decided (at the last minute) that I wanted to go back to blonde. So I went back to the hairdresser the day before we left California and he stripped my hair and tried to go back. Well it didn't really work. I hated it. It just isn't a good color for my complexion.

Attempt #1 to go back to natural

When I got here I browsed the hair dye section of the local supermarket. With the help of two knowledgeable woman and one translator we devised a plan. I tried it out on a hidden section of my hair and it turned out ok. Well then I tried my whole head.....dying your own hair is HARD and tedious.

Bleach Part 1

Bleach Part 2

Here's where I toned it. I guess I need to try a darker color. Anyhow, Jared's pretty excited about it and I don't feel like dealing with it until next week. I'm digging it for a while. I promise I'm not trying to look like you Amanda (the ultimate and best looking platinum blonde.)

The story is not over. It will be continued. I thought about resorting to shaving my head but then thought, winter is coming and that might be too cold. I would appreciate any of your dye horror stories and moral support.

Lifesaver

I got hit with a nasty cold this week and at the suggestion of a new friend here I went out and bought some NeoCitran. You mix the powder with hot water and drink. It has a lemon/honey taste and makes you feel better the next day. It's amazing:)

Jared's new...

Yesterday Jared got a haircut from a guy who didn't really speak English. He parted his hair to the side, (hee hee) and "did amazing things with the blow dryer," according to Jared.

He also got a winter coat. He looks so slick in it. You should have seen how handsome he was wearing it to church today.

We found this little café that serves delicious HoCho (Hot Chocolate) recommended by my new friend Tanya. I love whipped cream (homemade of course.) Well, this cream was packed on and almost butter.

Friday Night Dinner

Friday night we went out to a Swiss restaurant with some new friends of ours who both work for Google. They're from the Seattle area. Good thing they spoke German or else we'd be ordering something random...kind of like what Jared did. He ordered a plate of sizzling meat (unlike him since he's practically vegetarian) not really knowing exactly what it was. He is adventurous when it comes to food. I love that about him.

Can someone say NEWLYWEDS!!!! We're totally in love:)

McDonalds? No McPaperland

This is our local stationary store. I happened upon it one day because it's right next to the Post Office that I visited. It's like any other ordinary paper store accept it has a weird section with lots of pink. I averted my eyes of that section because I'm not too wild about the color. It wasn't an intense fuchsia or magenta. It was a hideous shee shee princess pink. Blech!

Smiling Mannequin???

I pass by this mannequin often on my way to the store. What weirds me out about her is that she's smiling. You don't come across this very often. She sits in the window of an Indian fabric store. Maybe she's thinking, I'm not remotely Indian but am dressed like one so I'm just going to go along with it and pretend I'm happy with my mistaken identity.

Food for thought

The mayo here comes in a tube, like toothpaste. (I got the WeightWatchers brand because it was the cheapest.)


I'm addicted to bubbly water now. (It's one way I'm assimilating into the culture here.)

Jared and I went out to dinner last Friday and I had panna cotta. I loved how they served it in this jar. (I bet Aunt Elizabeth is jealous.)

This is always the case, I order sweet and Jared orders CHOCOLATE!

Farmers market Zürich style

Yesterday morning I walked downtown and hit up the farmers market. Now in California we were very spoiled with fresh fruits and vegetables year around. Especially when I had a Farmer's Market a block from our apartment every Thursday. Well Zürich has a very nice one with lots of yummy fruits and vegetable and pastries...for a price though. Lots of the people only spoke Swiss-German, plus they pick out things for you. So I kind of just had to point and show with my hands how much I wanted. It was pretty amusing to them I bet.

Tonight I am making a soup out of all the things I bought. Squash, champagne mushrooms, green onions, red peppers, and I threw in some tomato paste, cream, cayenne pepper, basil, garlic, rosemary and water. I sated he vegetable and had to microwave the squash to soften it up since I don't have an oven in this apt. Right now the soup is stewing and we'll see what the taste tester thinks when he gets home from work. The goat cheese will go in the salad with pears, cranberries, some nuts that I roasted the other day and spinach:)

Mushrooms

Cheese (I got some goat cheese. How did I know it was goat cheese? There was a picture of a goat on the packaging.)

FLOWERS!!!!!!

Sunday afternoon bliss

On Sunday Jared and I like to relax. We come home from church and take a nap, and eat. Then we usually take a walk. This past Sunday we took a walk down to the west shore of the lake and read. Well, I read and he listened to a book on tape.