Sunday 24 March 2013

The party with champagne is in Europe.

Ohlala. This apartment is a mess. My room is a mess. I am a mess. Why?
Because we had a house party last night. And even with the biggest effort it is impossible to keep it clean when 40 guests drink, eat and dance. So today's agenda is obvious: clean the place ... clean the desktop. Last point is the reason for me being a mess. I survived another stressful week and now a huge pile of work (especially financial risk management) awaits me.

But I don't want to complain. Our party last night was a huge success as we all had a great time. And my special raspberry-pineapple-punch turned out to be as delicious as the following photo promises.
Raspberry-Pineapple-Punch
(750ml prosecco, 100ml Martini, 400ml sparkling water, 300g pineapple, 400g raspberries, 100g brown sugar)
As already announced last week I began this week in France where I had a champagne tasting and visited my future university. During our stay I also visited two apartments in which one my friend and I will maybe move in by August.
Although my friends called me the "Japanese tourist" due to my great Canon camera I couldn't keep my hands of taking pictures. In the end I am the only one who has some souvenir pictures that I show you now.
Tasting Champagne Rosé
Champagne Cave
City Hall

Cathedral
To finish off today's post - believe me, it was hard enough to write down all so far as I am incredibly tired - I want to point out to a political and economical topic.
On Thursday I took part in a discussion of how Europe's future will develop. The two speakers were a politician and a scientist who obviously had two different opinions, one from a theoretical, the other from a more realistic point of view. The discussion was more a huge blabla with no concrete solutions given. Nevertheless it showed that there are a lot of questions that especially the younger generation has to think of in order to guarantee the balance of Europe, and also the world. How do we implement the thought of Europe in the different nations' minds? How will the expansion policy of the European Union be continued? How shall rules be respected neglecting political motivations? What can I - as simple inhabitant - do to improve the situation?
Those are enough questions to bother you, but I thought of giving you some impulse and sharing my thoughts. Next week will be as adventurous as the previous one, therefore stay curious!

Sunday 17 March 2013

France, my second home

Good morning my dears, 

This weekend I am back in France again. Though, this time it is not at my parents near the Swiss boarder, but the heart of champagne: Reims.
Here I will continue my study program in September for another two years, so it is worth to visit the city at least once before. We only arrived yesterday night which is why I will postpone further story-telling to next week.
Lake Geneva
It is not as if last week was any kind of boring. The opposite!
Main event was clearly the Business Cup Final that took place on Thursday and Friday. Besides workshops and lot of food, our main goal was to solve the business cases as best as we could. Actually we achieved: We won the competition although we couldn't believe it at first. Probably we underestimated our capabilities. What I liked most was that I met foreigners from Bulgaria, Czech and England giving the days an international touch and some important significance. Well, the trophy money was also a highlight.
What must not be neglected is my weekly cooking session with a friend. This time on the menu: Rice with spicy chicken and almond broccoli topping. Yummy! So much better than any canteen food here in university.
Rice with spicy chicken and almond broccoli topping
Last but not least, I owe you photos from last Sunday as sun was shining brightly at the lake. Oh, I forgot to mention that I started snowing again yesterday. Therefore I try to force spring to come back by looking at sunny photos. C'mon spring, where are you?
Jeans - American Eagle Outfitters / Shirt - Only / Scarf - somewhere from Africa / Shoes - Tamaris / Sun-glasses - Ray Ban
Spring!!!

Sunday 10 March 2013

Tourist guide

Bonjour,

You are wondering why I greet in French? Easy. I am home at my parents who live in France. Despite only a short weekend I enjoy every single minute of it, even another fallback to illness.
But I am not alone here: two friends from university accompanied me in order to visit the famous Geneva Automobile Fair and so we combined my family stay with their big wish. They went there on Friday - returning fascinated - while I was in my former school to hold a presentation about my university. Yesterday we all three went to the city where I was the perfect organised tourist guide, so we took some great shots from all over.
Old Town
Old Town II
Besides my home stay, my week was rather a disaster. I was unable to do anything because my head was full of thoughts about upcoming dead lines. All these stressful thoughts made me incapable to motivate myself and ended up in doing rather nothing. This means of course, that I now have a huge pile of things on my desk when coming back (let me tell you so far, that next week more deadlines and to-dos will make things worse. That I already know).
So what did I do instead of working intensively for university? Well, I had my first ice cream, I played soccer, I cooked another Potato Spinach Gratin and went partying Wednesday night. Some of my activities already reveal that weather turned a lot better - spring feelings - but actually it will be getting colder again next week. Although a fan of cold temperatures, I long to leave my winter coat in the closet and change it to my simple jacket. Don't you?

We are now preparing to leave soon, so I need to leave you now. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have great week! Bisous!
Potato Spinach Gratin
Winter Soccer
Winter Walk


Sunday 3 March 2013

Culinaric highlights!

Happy Sunday!

Honestly: It's been weeks now that temperatures were below zero and that snow kept on falling. You all know that I love the winter but this time I have the feeling that I cannot use it properly. No skiing, no walking in the woods, no snowman-building. Hopefully I can ski at least at Easter some days when I am back home.

As already foreseen one week ago, my week was pretty filled with activities: Of course most of it I spent in university meeting my colleagues in order to finish one of our thousand projects. Coevally I felt that at least the half of my classes are a waste of time - profs talk about their lives, elementary-class-content is presented or no concentration is possible because all are talking about the night before. Thereby we come to our next topic, the Running Dinner on Thursday night. Another time my friend and me were arranged to cook the starter's plate and decided for an Italian salad with dried tomatoes, rocket, lettuce, mushrooms, pine nuts and feta, accompanied by puff paste filled with cheese. Afterwards we "ran" to our second stop where we had a vegetarian risotto. Finally we ended at an apartment where we a large bowl of sangria and another one with raspberry yogurt expected us. Obviously this night was very delicious and a lot of fun. It confirmed that it is my favourite event throughout the term!
Starter's plate
Another cocktail night
Since there were a couple of things to celebrate I was a lot in restaurants or bars to meet lovely people. Salad, tapas, cocktails... For me it seems like a good resume.
What I always wanted to know is whether you have a favourite dish? Or cocktail?
I find it rather difficult to specify but a good steak with fresh salad can make a dinner really wonderful.

Speaking of, I leave now to buy some fresh bread at the bakery because I invited some friends to have breakfast here. Bon appétit!

(Have you recognised: Since I am back at university, everything's about food. When weather gets better, I will certainly have some photos outside! Promised!)