Today is my little brother’s golden birthday–he’s turning 26 on the 26th–happy birthday Sam! If he ever decides to start a blog, I’m sure he could fill it with horror stories about me as a big sister (hey Sam–remember when I used to sit on you? That was fun! Or, remember the time I bowled you down the stairs? Let’s do that again!). But, every year on his birthday I think back to how he looked when I saw him for the first time, a look that inspired my first foray into writing, a kindergarten essay entitled– “My Brother the Wrinkled Raisin”. My parents were, understandably, very proud.
Moving on! We came back from the Swiss Alps last Monday and I was immediately laid low by a wicked sinus infection, hence my delay in updating you about our trip. But, I am on antibiotics and back to it. Dan had a conference in Bern, Switzerland so I joined him Friday and we went to Interlaken for a long weekend in the mountains. Joining us were our friends Kathy (also a rocket scientist at the same meeting as Dan) and her husband-to-be Karl (taking advantage of all the places his partner gets to travel, like me). Interlaken is a beautiful town in between 2 lakes and at the base of some of the highest mountains in Switzerland.
Dan and I spent Saturday going alpine sledging, a very intense form of sledding. It involves taking a super fast metal sled down steep, curvy ski trails. You sit on the sled solo, steer it with your legs and brake with your feet. Dan was awesome at it, me not so much. But, despite one slightly terrifying moment when I thought I might fall off the mountain, we had a great time barreling down the Swiss Alps at high speeds, catching air, dodging Japanese snowboarders, and riding the gondolas.
Sunday we all went cross-country skiing and again, had a great time. I am total crap when it comes to skiing–I don’t even know how to snowplow–so the downhill-ish parts were a little difficult for me, but I still really enjoyed our adventure. We skied, rode a tram up to a mountain village for a delicious lunch, saw frozen waterfalls and glaciers, and dodged flying toilets. Dan has 2 more meetings scheduled in Switzerland and we can’t wait to go back for the mountains, the food (fondue! potatoes! Indian! seriously!) and the hospitality.
To celebrate the inauguration of President Obama (love typing that!), we went a party throw by the Democrats Abroad chapter in Belgium. They had a big screen set up in a hotel ballroom showing CNN, hors d’oeuvres, a bluegrass band and more Americans than we knew lived here. It was so exciting being in a room full of hundreds of cheering supporters as President Obama (seriously, doesn’t get old) was sworn in and Former President Bush flew away. Belgian radio, print, and t.v. reporters were there covering the event and we made it into a video on the Le Soir (Belgian newspaper) site which I’ll try and find and post. It was an amazing evening.
Dan is away again, in Dublin for a couple days for some meetings, and he and I are both looking forward to not having any travel plans for the month of February. Yet. We are also starting to fill up the Seaton Wisman B&B for the spring so please let us know if you’re thinking of visiting (and we hope you are)! I am catching up with work that didn’t get done while I was away and then sick. I am still having a little difficulty working here, if anyone has any tips on how to be most effective while working from home, please send them my way. Turns out I actually like going to an office to work. Who knew.
Have a good week!
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