Francophile in the West

I'm back in the States! After 22 crazy hours of travel from Geneva, Switzerland to Portland, Oregon on 22 December, I'm home, with family, and enjoying the holidays. Although it's great to celebrate the end of the year with family and start catching up with friends, I very much miss Europe. Also, America is a weird place. Grocery stores that are open until 10 or 11pm every day of the week? Weird. In Switz, they close at 7pm and aren't open at all on Sundays. It's also really strange to now have US Dollars in my wallet and not Swiss Francs. And finally, it feels especially wrong not to have a plug adapter attached to my chargers when I plug them into the wall! These are the main, random differences that I've noted in the past week, but I'm sure there will be more as I continue along and return to Denver. This American girl misses her European life, that's for sure.  Fortunately, I left Switz and Europe on a super high note! My internship finished up

Last Sunday was my 26th birthday! Fortunately, I'm still in an era of life where I genuinely enjoy celebrating growing another year older (and wiser, too, theoretically). Twenty-six was the third birthday I've been able to celebrate in Europe ( twenty-one and twenty-four were the other two), and this time, I made my birthday last a whole week long! :) With beautiful late fall weather in Geneva, my birthday week started of wonderfully the Thursday before the big day, with a trip to the wine market after work for vin chaud (mulled wine, or glühwein in German); my first mug of the season! Vin chaud and Christmas time in Europe are among my favorite things ever. After a great treat at the wine market, I went on a solo adventure to Geneva's Park des Bastions, where I enjoyed a sun and space-themed light show played out against one of the University of Geneva's oldest buildings. It was only 15 minutes long, but so fun to watch! It's amazing what you can d