Ringing in 2020 in style

Since we stayed in Switzerland for the holidays, we had the chance to ring in 2020 with good friends! [We also had the chance to spend Christmas with two sets of good friends so we made the most of celebrating the season even though we were away from our families]

Chase kept saying "Happy New Decade" and was very happy that it was 2020!

Wonderful celebrations and the two Oksanas. 

2019 in Review

[Previous years in review: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013]

Another busy year for us. Even more intense than usual!

We started off the year in Nebraska and are ending it right here in Switzerland. Obviously, we have not yet moved career and life wise as we were hoping to in this last year, but Nate has a defense date scheduled and my post-doc ends this year, so 2020 will definitely see us make some move!

This year, our main traveler was Nate who spent September through December in Boston doing a data science fellowship. Other travels include:

- January - Kiev for my grandmother's 80th birthday party [all of us]
- February - Copenhagen with Boris and Laura [all of us]
- March - Colorado and San Diego/LA trip [just me!]
- April - Kiev for Orthodox Easter with my family [Chase and I]
- May - Day trip to Lyon to visit my parents who were traveling through [just me]
- July - Grindelwald and Gruyères with Nate's family [all of us]
- July - Zurich with my mom [all of us]
- August - Berlin [just Nate and I!] and Kiev to see family and watch Marko get baptized [all of us]
- October - Paris and Nantes (and Kiev again) [Chase and I]
- November - California to see friends and watch Genny get married [just me!]
- November - Bern and Vevey with my mom [Chase and I]

We spent a great deal of time in Ukraine, owing to the fact that we don't know how much longer we'll be in Switzerland and the birth of my new cousin (Chase's cousin uncle) last September, with whom we like to spend lots of time. Chase earned just 1 more country (Denmark) in his country count (3 continents, 13 countries, 9 states). However, he has a much better chance of remembering this trip to Paris as compared to the trip when he was not even 1 year old! We also did a lot of local activities throughout the year to take advantage of being here.

This year, Chase turned 5 years old and started his second year of school. He is super into numbers and is on the verge of reading (he actually read his first Pete the Cat book in English a few days ago!). He loves puzzles, crafts, and games.

As for crafts, I did make some homemade Christmas stockings, and Sakina and I (and then Chase and I) made a number of bead crafts like earrings and bracelets. One day, when things settle down, I'll get back to my crafting. There are so many things I'd love to make!

As in previous years, I will leave you with an Instagram collage. (For some reason, this year it looks like a lot of pictures but it's from fewer posts than before -- I guess I just really abuse the 10 pictures max rule.) As always, you can follow me on Instagram, or on Twitter if you don't have an Instagram.

Happy 2020! :)

Activities Nearby (Part 2)

[Previous Activities Nearby and (day)trips from/around Switzerland: Part I, Part II, Part III, with Olga, Part IV, Lyon, Part V, Part VI, and Part VII]

Since Nate was gone for most of the fall, Chase and I entertained ourselves by going out and doing activities. Many of these activities were with our good friends Christine, Yordan, and Theo. Here is a long summary of the many afternoon trips we took throughout the year (the first few still with Nate)

1. Cross country skiing at Col de Molendruz. This one was without Chase, but I really wanted to try out cross country skiing, so we ended up going for an afternoon in February. It was quite melty, but still a super enjoyable time! Definitely something to try again if possible.

2. Swiss Navigation Day. For one day only in May of this year, 1st class day boat tickets were at an amazing price, so we spent the afternoon sailing around the lake and having drinks on board. The weather was unfortunate, but we got a few chances to go out on the deck and explore the scenery.Chase spent the day counting to 100 since he had just learned to do this.

3. Hike up to Vufflens-le-Château. This was a hike with just our family of three. Similar to the Trout Hike we did a few years ago, we did the Sentier de la Morges hike up to Vufflens-le-Château with the plan to hike or take the train down. It was a nice hike with cows and views overlooking the vineyards and lake, but I made a wrong turn somewhere and it ended up taking at least an hour more than we had envisioned. By the time we finally got to Vufflens, using a shortcut through Monnaz, we were definitely ready to take the train back down!

4. Scavenger hunt around Morges. For the Semaine de Mobilité, some organization in Morges set up a cool scavenger hunt between parks on the edges of Morges (Parc de Vertou to Parc des Sports). It was a QR code reader scavenger hunt where you would need to scan the code, read the information (mostly having to do with green living and transportation) and look at the picture which would be where the next lock was. I ended up having to google most of the answers because they were not simple (years, parking spots, discount amounts, etc.), but then we would need to use those answers on the next lock. Chase was super into this whole thing. He biked most of the way, and I was running. However, my phone died with two left, so we ended up going back at night to finish the hunt (in the dark! which Chase also enjoyed). Overall, it was a really cool idea and a fun way to spend an afternoon.

5. Château de Pragnins. For the annual free Swiss Château day, we (with Christine, Yordan, and Theo) went to the Château de Pragnins. It is a beautiful château and it had some really nice exhibits, but it seemed like it had a bit too many exhibits. It would have been nice to learn more about the people who lived there, but it seemed like they weren't particularly exceptional. Some châteaus around Switzerland are quite empty (like the Château de Chillon or the one in Thun), and that makes them a bit boring. Others are a bit too full, like this one. There are a few that fall in the happy medium (like ours in Morges and the one in Gruyères). They all do have different history, so sometimes that helps (Chillon) or hurts (this one).

4. EPFL Open Doors. This year was the 50th anniversary of EPFL, so its annual open doors weekend was even more grand. Chase is at the perfect age to enjoy it so we were there for a full day. He loved the Life Science exhibits (and built some DNA from candy), went to a math lesson/demonstration, built a ramp to study kinetic and potential energy, and made a rocket. It was perfect for him!

5. Night of the Museums. Every year, Chase and I have enjoyed Night of the Museums, which is when most of the museums in Lausanne are open late and have one admission ticket to all (free for kids and only 10 or 20 CHF for adults). There are also transport buses that take you from museum to museum (usually, the connections are quite awful to hop between them like that). Last year, we ended up going to Pully and visiting the museums there (even having a mother-son pizza dinner while over there). This year, we wanted to go to the Hermitage and visit the Computer museum at EPFL. We also had the chance to meet good friends at the Olympic Museum (where we have been quite a few times now). [Although not mentioned on the list here, Chase has spent lots of time with Marko going to Jayland and other kid play places, and just generally hanging out at the playground in Morges].

6. Hike to Mt. Pèlerin TV tower. In October, we hiked up to the Mt. Pèlerin TV tower from the Vevey Funicular. It was a very interesting hike -- half forest, half random road. The actual TV tower has coin operated elevator access and looks kind of like a prison with barbed wire everywhere. But, the view from the top is absolutely amazing!

7. Hike up from Yens and pumpkin carving. I actually don't know the proper name for this hike, but I know its from Yens somewhere. It was a nice fall day, full of leaves on the ground when we did this Halloween-ish hike. We coupled it to getting some pumpkins and carving them. Some fun American traditions in Switzerland!

Trips Around Switzerland (Part VII)

[Previous (day)trips from/around Switzerland: Part I, Part II, Part III, with Olga, Part IV, Lyon, Part V, and Part VI; and Activities Nearby]

With Nate back in Boston and me not yet back in Switzerland, Chase needed to be minded for a few days, so my mom came here to help out. This was right after Chase had fallen and needed stitches on his chin, so she had to deal with all the doctors and school/daycare, making sure his wound was healing ok. We did have a full weekend to explore, so we went on two day trips.

On Saturday, we went to Bern. Although we have gone there before with Sonia and Nate's parents, my mom had not been, so it was worth going. We walked around the city center, looked at the parliament building, went into the Bern Cathedral, checked out the beautiful views, went up the Zytglogge tower, tried to see the bears (who were hibernating), and went to the Paul Klee museum. We were not particularly impressed with the Paul Klee museum, but they were playing videos of Charlie Chaplin to show what inspired Klee. On the train home from Bern, I mentioned to my mom that we actually had a Charlie Chaplin museum nearby in Vevey since he spent his last many years living there. So, on Sunday, we decided to go the Charlie Chaplin museum and visit his grave. We were blown away by the Chaplin museum! Even though we weren't particularly fans, we thought the museum was so well done. There was so much to explore and see! Overall, a wonderful weekend spent sight-seeing with my mom.

Overlooking the Aare (top left) and behind the Parliament Building (others). 

L: Zytglogge tower; R: Overlooking Bern from the banks of the Aare

Chase being super into the Charlie Chaplin Museum (in Vevey).

(Another) Solo Trip to the US

[Previous solo trips to the US: 2019 #1, 2018, 2017 #2, 2017 #1, and solo-ish 2015]

As happened in 2017, I had another banner year in 2019 with two solo trips to the US. I didn't particularly plan it this way, but as there was another wedding coming up (this time Genny and Ryan's, who had visited us here in Switzerland earlier this summer!), it made sense for me to go. I had booked the tickets way before we found Nate would be in Boston for the semester, but he planned to come back to Switzerland at that time anyway to see Chase, so I ended up going on the trip. I spent a good chunk in LA hanging out with Sakina (and Sophie), in San Diego seeing my parents and other friends (while doing quite a bit of work because I was taking an online class at the time!), and in the LA area for the actual wedding. It was such a great time to see my parents (and Sonia, who happened to be in LA at the same time!) and reconnect with high school, college, and grad school friends!

In San Diego, my parents and I went to Julian (where I haven't been in many years), and spent some time at the beach. 

With Sakina, we went to the La Brea Tar Pits, the Getty, the Skirball, and did these super fun virtual reality adventures. We also made lots of jewelry, watched movies, and had super yummy food. 

All dressed up at the wedding! I hadn't seen some of these people in over 5 years!

Paris, Nantes, and Kiev

[Previous trips to France: Paris, Lyon]
[Previous trips to Ukraine with Chase: Summer 2019, Spring 2019, Winter 2019, Summer 2018, Spring 2018, Summer 2017, Spring 2017, Summer 2016, Spring 2016, Summer 2015]

In October, I had a conference in Nantes. Since Nate was not around and it happened to have been during Chase's school and daycare vacation, I decided to bring Chase with me. Before the Mon-Tue conference, I decided we could do a weekend in Paris. We had a great time exploring Paris, seeing the Eiffel tower, walking through the Jardin de Tuileries, going to the Orangerie (which was mostly under construction), seeing the rebuilding of Notre Dame, and generally walking around.

In Nantes, we had an afternoon to explore the city, going to the Machines de l'Ile (which is a workshop and demo of huge, working animals and machines!) and checking out the Nantes castle (which had a moat!). 

Finally, we flew out of Nantes and landed in Kiev, where we spent a long weekend with family. We finally went to the coffee shop (Big City Cup) below my grandparents' apartment which opened probably a year to a year and a half ago. Chase got to go to his cool play place and ride a robot thing, play with his cousin uncle on a playground (!!), and have a great meal with all of the family. We might have been to Kiev a lot this year but it's always so nice to go and see family!

Chase's 2nd year of school

[Previous Chase updates: 5 years, starting school, 4 years, 3 years, 25-32 months, 2 years, 15-20 months, 1+ year, first four months in Cambridge, data analysis from first 2 months, first few months]

This late August, Chase started his second year of school. To finish off the school year in early July, they had a celebration with a performance where the children did routines and sang songs together. This was done in combination with the other 1/2P class in the same school and the 3P and 4P classes down the street. Since Chase transitioned from 1P last year to 2P this year, he stayed in the same classroom with the same teachers and the same students that were in 1P before. There are all new 1P students and even two new 2P students that moved from somewhere else, so plenty of new faces and friends. Overall, Chase still likes school but sometimes has temporary annoyances like a craft that's taking too long or not being able to play with his friends freely as much as he wants.

End other year performance in July. In the middle, Chase is taking a picture with his best friend in his class, who was in 2P last year and transitioned to 3P this year. They still see each other at lunch and around town. 

While they don't do any formal math in school, Chase started writing out equations. At first, he was using equal signs to denote pluses and he had numbers backwards (both mirror image and tens/ones switched). In a few short months, he got much better and started writing much larger numbers -- although still not always using equal signs correctly. He is now much better and loves to write out equations and numbers in general. 

First day of school pictures!

They start doing letter sounds in his school now but aren't quite reading yet. Chase has been very resistant to reading in general. As a 5.5 year old, he is very stubborn, which makes parenting incredibly difficult. If he doesn't want to do something -- go outside, eat the food I have cooked him -- he gets very annoyed and will hold his ground. It takes a lot of patience and talking/convincing to make him acquiesce.