Most Awesome Highlights Part 2

Swiss Weekend
My Tita Ruth and I decided to go visit mi familia in Switzerland for the weekend in mid-November. At the same time, I wanted to see Leilani's new baby girl Ava, who I heard had the nicest blue eyes I will ever see. And they were right. ;)

We arrived on a Friday afternoon first using plane and then train. Unlike Austria, the train system in Switerzland is ALWAYS on time. And they ALWAYS arrive on time too. We get to Liestal around 6PM-ish and my Tita Evelyn meets us on the platform. One thing I noticed right away is that the Swiss German is SO different from the Austrian German. So I had a hard time following the accents. Most of the time I have to ask them to repeat several times.

Immediately, Tita Evelyn said we should go to Basel to see Leilani and Ava. Quick hello to Uncle Ernst, along with giving him our luggages and we boarded the train to Basel. I remember going to Basel and the only difference this time is that people dress more like Americans than anything. If they didn't speak, I would have thought I was back home in the States. We go around Basel for a bit and then go to Leilani's apartment. Baby Ava is SO adorable and she was fast asleep when we arrive. She eventually woke up and I got the most adorable photos of her with my Tita Evelyn. After our short visit, we went to a Chinese food place to eat and catch up with Tita Evelyn.

The next day was beautiful but really cold as we were at a higher elevation than in Austria. We took a lot of photos of the garden, Tita Evelyn's cool paintings she painted and her miniature vase collection. The place has gotten more stuff since I last visited and so it was cool perusing through the trinkets and objects.

From there, we headed back to Basel to sightsee and go shopping. We met up with Leilani and Ava for lunch and then toured around Basel more. I was determined to get myself a football scarf and found one of FC Basel. Uncle Ernst is a HUGE FC Basel fan and was excited that I got a scarf of his team. He also surprised us when he made us his delicious paella. Oh so good! White wine and paella. Dessert was sorbet with plum schnapps. Yum!

The following day we drove around Liestal because the weather was not so great. They took us to Roman ruins and a huge amphitheater, where I had fun with all the artifacts. Once we got home, Uncle Ernst and I watched the FC Basel versus FC Zurich game. Both teams are so good the game ended in a tie of 1-1. Because Uncle Ernst has limited English skills, I had to really force myself to use my lacking German. He somehow understood me and I got the gist of most of his explanations.

After having Tita Evelyn's delicious pancit, we had fun dancing to Uncle Ernst's jukebox while getting ready for our train. We kept on dancing until it was time to go and they dropped us off at the train station. Overall, I had a lot of fun in Switzerland. :)

Africa Day at the U.N.
With a group of my friends, we heard that the U.N. was celebrating Africa Day with lectures and talks. At the end of the day, there was a reception with free food and drinks. So of course, we had to go to that after work. We had a lot of fun and great times hanging out with each other. We even danced a bit and I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and I think I'll let the photos do the talking . . .