Wedding Wednesday

January 29, 2014 By 2 Comments

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As you could probably guess, the “Wedding” section of Pinterest is my favorite (you can follow us on Pinterest here). Well, the other day when I was on Pinterest scrolling through endless amounts of wedding pictures, a groom in a navy suit popped out at me (yes, that cute groom you see pictured above) and I was completely inspired. I decided to take that picture and create a whole wedding vision board based on it for this weeks Wedding Wednesday! So, without further ado, here is what I came up with…

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Navy Blue Suit/Wedding Dress/Pink Kate Spade Earrings/Navy J Crew Dress/Peonies/Navy J Crew Flats/Silverware/Kate Spade Plates/Napkin/Flower/Candles/Vase/Bouquet/Cocktail/Mini Pies/Lightbulbs/Chevrolet/Sparklers

 

Filed Under: Caroline, Wedding Wednesday 2 Comments

“Swiss Watching”

January 23, 2014 By 1 Comment

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Remember way back to the beginning of my sophomore year, I had only lived in Switzerland for a couple weeks, and I wrote about some of the little differences I had noticed about my life living in this new country in comparison to America? Well, I learn something new about this country every day and I thought I would share a few of the things I’ve learned or observed since those first couple weeks after moving here.

  1. Not every Swiss cheese has holes.
  2. It’s roughly twice the size of New Jersey.
  3. The Swiss usually always make conversation in elevators, whereas in America we usually tend to say nothing more than hello and stand there in silence.
  4. I didn’t actually notice this one until I went back to America for winter break. I guess it was an out of sight out of mind kind of thing. Anyway, I was sitting down to eat my first meal back in America and into my cup poured a couple ice cubes. My eyes widened and I realized that I had gone 4 months without a single one. Apparently, they don’t exist in Switzerland or Europe, for that matter. (Along with air conditioning…except I noticed that one almost immediately.)
  5. Swiss time means 5 minutes early. Dad, this is your country, your people. (He sets his watch 5 minutes fast so that he is never late.)
  6. The Swiss train system is on time to the SECOND. It’s really rather amazing.
  7. They use military time. So, don’t say to your friend “meet me at 7 o’clock at Sheep’s Café” when you have a dinner date in mind because you’re about to be 12 hours late to your breakfast date.
  8. Crossing the road. If there is no traffic light for the crosswalk, the Swiss don’t hesitate even a little bit to walk right out into the middle of the crosswalk confident that the oncoming car will stop for them. And they do…they always stop. But because I’m American, I still hesitate just a little bit by slowing down before plunging out into the middle of the crosswalk and I look at the driver to see if they see me. If they see me, then, I’m 100% sure they will stop. In America, you could be standing on the side of the street making eye contact with every single driver that passes you by and maybe the 5th person you make eye contact with stops for you. I seemed to forget about this when I was back in America for winter break. I was walking along with my mom and I slowed down when I approached the cross walk, and once I made eye contact with the driver who was coming around the corner I walked right out. I didn’t realize how badly that could have ended until I noticed that my mom was no longer walking next to me and instead was still standing on the sidewalk giving me a look of “um are you trying to commit suicide?!” Luckily, the driver was going slowly enough that it was a happy ending. Yay.

Stay tuned for more…

(Photo Credit: Sarah Tucker)

Filed Under: Caroline, Caroline's Year Abroad, Travel 1 Comment

Sometimes you just need to get out of the house

January 18, 2014 By 1 Comment

I miss this blog. I’ve been away from it for only a few days now and I miss it. I’ve been pretty stressed out the past couple days because the wifi system in our house is quite terrible (to put it in the nicest way possible). Last semester, it would go in and out. Sometimes, at random times of the day and always after 9pm, it would turn off completely. It made it very hard to see what my homework was for the day since my teacher emails it to us, it made it very hard to work on research papers, it made it very hard to plan thoroughly for upcoming trips…it just made studying and life as a student really hard. This semester, it is completely nonexistent at all times of the day in my room. I study best in my room where people aren’t going in and out and talking to me and interrupting me, which is what happens when I study in the designated study rooms.

You take wifi for granted when you have it everyday all the time with hardly any hiccups. I know that I certainly did. Maybe that’s the whole reason why we have terrible wifi and why Pepperdine hasn’t been so eager to fix it – to teach all of us to appreciate it and not take it for granted. If that is the reason (cause I really can’t think of any other good reason as to why it hasn’t been fixed yet)…then I am publically proclaiming that I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON. I do not take wifi for granted anymore. Okay, so now can it be fixed?

I’m currently sitting on the floor in the middle of the hallway because that’s where I have found the strongest wifi spot. It will most likely be here where I will be completing my research papers, blogging, checking my homework and emails from my professors, texting my family, calling my family. Well, at least until I can find a solution. I’m looking into buying a router for my room. And I am hoping with all of my heart and crossing all of my fingers and toes that this will be a solution.

I have been pretty bummed out about this and it is beyond frustrating. Almost to the point of tears, which sounds dramatic. But when it takes you about 5 hours to complete an assignment that would normally take you 2 hours or when you are trying to manage booking and planning an entire trip on top of all of the school work that you have to do or when you are completely inhibited from reaching your fullest potential as a student due to the wifi…it just gets to be so exhausting. And you just want to throw up your hands and give up. But, as Hannah and I were sitting next to each other on the floor in the middle of the hallway with our computers about to rip out our hair researching solutions to our wifi problems…we realized that we just needed to get out of the house before we went insane. Even though we weren’t in the best moods and we were feeling like just sitting around in our pajamas…we forced ourselves to shower and put on real clothes and just get outside. And I think this is applicable to not just when you have a wifi problem, but whenever you have a problem that is overwhelming. Sometimes, staying cooped up inside where you are constantly thinking about the problem and how to fix it is just not healthy after a certain point. You need to walk away from it for a little bit and take a breather. Then, you come back a little bit more refreshed or at least calmer. Maybe then, you’ll be ready to try tackling the problem again.

It wasn’t the prettiest day outside and it was a bit chilly. So, we just decided to wander over to the movie theatre that we found last semester that shows movies in ENGLISH. Hooray for that! We thought that a movie would cheer us up and take our minds off of our worries. We saw Philomena and Judy Dench did such a good job! I thought it was a really good story…a bit sad, but well done!

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(Photo Credit: Philomena)

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Then, we headed over to our favorite café with the sweetest owner in the entire world. We have made friends with her after going there several times and we just can’t help but smile when we are in there talking to her. We ordered some dinner and a glass of wine (just a little reminder…the drinking age is 16 in Switzerland for wine).

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And by the time we got home, we were feeling much happier than when we left the house. Yay, for happy endings! And we are hopeful for an even happier ending of wifi in our near future. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us please. (At least for the sake of our sanity. We would like to go home to our families and America in one piece.)

Filed Under: Caroline 1 Comment