another successful weekend euro-style

this weekend was pretty fun. last night we met up with our friend roman and went to one of his friends houses. steffen and anita met us and we all went to st. gallen. first we went to the bierhof, which was aweeesome [live music, good bier] and met a group of guys who were chargers fans [boooooo] and then when they closed we went to the place next door. get ready for this. titty twisters. yeah. not a strip club or anything dirty. just a normal bar with fantastic schnitzelbrot! last night was also daylight savings. so although we got back at four [or something along those lines] we were in the mood of it was an hour later. it was rough but a great time.. we made some very cool friends!

then today lori and jon picked us up with one of lori's friends from school and we went to austria and saw a castle and ate at this great restaurant. the schnitzel was humongous and sooo tasty! now it is time for a massive nap because all the eating really wore me out!!

last friday of the month!

wow oktober is almost over! eek! we were pretty pumped about halloween this weekend, but it turns out that there realllly isn't much to do around here and that people think we are crazy americans for wanting to celebrate. no biggie though that is something i can handle! we spent last night putting the finishing touches on our modest outfits, and wore them to work today! i had thought that my sports jersey was a hiking team [i mean check out the image of the guy with the stick!!] but apparently it is for biking..

booooo... so ive decided to wear black spandex and halloween socks with it! oh and one of those headband ear warmers.. to act as one of those headbands that athletes wear to catch sweat.. as if i will be sweating in this weather! which is actually supposed to be really nice this weekend so get excited!!

harvard you are not that smart....

today at icon was fuuuun [as usual]. except the part where the harvard business manager attempted to trick me! we had this st.gallen ad that needed to go out to print in the publication, but for some reason the settings they gave us just did not want to work. check out how many times i redid the following file..

it does make me feel better that past interns have had issues with it too.. [jon has even written about it!] but noooo we got the best of it and it will appear! woooooo! it's always great to feel accomplished :)

just another day living in the swiss alps

so i am basically obsessed with the scenery that bombards us on a daily basis. everything is gorgeous and it nevvver looks the same twice! it is amazing. but it means i have a ton of photos from the same views. oooops!

yesterday jen and i walked home and i got some great photos of the mountains/sky! we walked because we are on a mission: project pretty. we are surrounded by chocolate, cheese, and overall fantastic foods that we cannot resist! so jon is going to see if we can join the gym [keep your fingers crossed!] after our walk from icon to the falken jen and i took a break and tried to sort out activities for the next few weekends. apparently there is a castle named burg rheinstein that we thought was close, but really it's near frankfurt. a trip we will certainly have to take!!

tue posts on twosday!

hahahahah my cleverness cracks me up at times... well even though i posted today about the happenings of lasterday i have decided to double up to keep track of today as well! today jen had her first stress day.. it happens to all, even at awesome workplaces like icon! so after a calm day at the office we headed home and hit up the denner before it closed. while there we purchased what we hoped was barley, and yet another <$4 bottle of wine... we are really keeping the denner in wein business. so we cooked some super awesome 'success barley' loaded with veggies and yummy goodness! naturally in order to instill the calm we whipped out our gigantic wein glasses from ikea [one bottle fits in two glasses with room to spare] and had an awesome time cooking some success food. we have got to attempt to work out. it's very difficult with the days getting so short in these winter months!

the real monday story....

okay so monday. basically the best monday icon has ever seen!

 

we originally lucked out [jon picked us up, so while we were waiting we were in the mercato at the train station...where they had a little bottle of smirnoff ice] because walking in the dirndl was scary.. they are considered formal wear to some, so we wanted to be careful with them.  plus the laundry machines here are scarrrry [only because they're different but it's all good] so washing them is going to be after a few wears... which made lunch a litttle scary to eat!

luckily jen is an expert chef and made some fantastical pesto spätzli, that we both managed to get in our tummies and not on our blouses! however, there was a scare later in the afternoon concerning some chocolate. but the engineers of the dirndl did their jobs well and it missed the white blouse entirely! the absolute highlight of the day [in my opinion at least] was the icing of good 'ole jon..

he was a very good sport about the whole thing. he was gone at lunch so we snuck upstairs to his lair and placed the bottle on his keyboard with a note informing him to check his email. there we had sent him the wiki link [see the link above] so he could read up on the activity and realize he needed to take a knee and chug. a very simple concept, but solid for a first ice experience.. if we got toooo creative it may not have been understood! we compromised and he did not take a knee, but the chug did happen... in the form of a few gulps. he'll get the hang of it later on. i guess it's been a while since the chuggin' days at wisconsin... as we were cheering on our chugging boss, he decided to capture our happiness [below]

this just really captures the whole feel of the day perfectly. keep calm and get your dirndl on

solid nap.

so today was awesome.. it included dirndl and icing jon. an overall amazing day. i tried to take a little nappy nap after work because i was just exhausted. it is now 2am and i just woke up [with my lights allll on] thinking it was the afternoon. solid nap. tomorrow i will have to post all the fabulous adventures of the dirndl!!!

rahhhr bern bear!

so in the spirit of the large sum we paid to get some 1/2 fare we decided to go play in the capital city of good ole switzy... bern. named after a bear, go figure. we literally had no idea going into this what was going on. jen and i slept in [which was fabulous] and then hopped a halbtax ride to st. gallen where we bought round-trip tickets to bern... our train was right there [or so we hoped] and we got on and then only about three hours later we arrived in bern! luckily jen had brought her rick steve's guide book so we went on the self guided walking tour of the place. awesome. its just a really well kept city, not many cars and a lot of great history. they did a great job integrating the old city into the new city.. adding in modern fountains that enhance the original crazy old architecture from the 1200s. i was honestly not all that excited about the day trip but i think it was awesome. and we tried the chestnuts that were roasting [unfortunately not on an openfire] ont he side of the road in these stands, they smell fantastic so we finally decided to give them a try. no wonder there is a song written about them. i think i'd like to go back to bern when it isn't raining, but even in the rain it was awesome! basically i feel as though all the adventures we've had this week have been ridiculous in a great way.. yay for the arrival of jen! also.. check out my facebook album of my first month in switzerland! this week marks the beginning of my second month already! crazy how time flies...

dirndl on.

so last night the jazz place absolutely rocks. bluesclub bühler. or bogenkeller. not really sure. either way it is our new hangout. as we were walking to the train [that never came] after work on friday this man stopped to ask us if we knew where the begenkeller was. we had absolutely no idea and he said well im playing jazz/blues there tonight so if you can figure out where it is come stop by. so we inquired and found out it was in the middle of a field. but ryan and steffan wanted to go, so jen and i were down to check it out. the music was awesome! the band was called big deal and they were all swiss except mike, the guy we spoke with. we helped the band pack up in exchange for them and roman, the bartender [for the lack of a better term] attempting to teach us how to speak german. we got down a few choice swear words and some necessities about cheese. overall a good start. mike's daughters go to uni in basel, and he told us its an awesome place, so we are going to go [with roman of course] for halloween and hopefully mike's daughter jamie [who is our age] will have some great suggestions for places we should go!

today we went into st. gallen and jen and i bought our 1/2 fare cards [which will be here in five days] so we could start traveling for cheaper. then we walked around and saw the markets, i got an awesome hat/scarf from c&a and then we went to this store i had seen before with dirndl. and naturally after trying on a perfect fitting dress [jen as well] we ended up purchasing them. we feel that the dirndl is a great investment and we can wear it when we go to hang out at the blues club, to work, anytime we go to germany, and anytime we go to austria. oh an for halloween next year when they aren't always normal for us to wear. jen got a black and red one and i got a black and blue one... hers has a lot more decoration and a metal chain, which i must admit i am envious of, but we got the last two in our sizes so it was perfect-o! for lunch we had this fabulous fresh pasta and the best pesto i have ever had. hands down [sorry zac and italy..] then we went to this place that was basically the salvation army only wayyyyy better and got some halloweeny stuff! basically its been a fabulous weekend.

beignet!!!!!!!

so today was quite interesting. after work jen and i were waiting on the train to get here. the train comes, but it is the one that goes in the opposite direction of where we live. the one that goes in our direction doesn't show. so we cross the street to go to the "bus stop" and it is now ten minutes after the train is supposed to come. then it shows. we are not at the stop because we crossed the street! so we decide to walk from steigbach to gais. it was pretty awesome. and tiring. but awesome. so for dinner we attempted to go to this bistro. it turns out it is a bar. for men. and by men i mean 16 year-old boys. they stared at us so creepily that we quickly left asap. we walked down the street and found another restaurant. the waitress spoke a bit of english so we sat down and attempted to order. jen only eats fish so we had trouble trying to figure out what was not straight up red meat [or the likes] we finally figured out something sweet and vegetarian-ish so we ordered that and a weinerschitzel mit pommes and waited... it turned out to be beignet with a homemade plum sauce that was fantasticcc! now were off to check out a jazz club...

sigma aldrich

so there is this semi huuuuge company we do work with called sigma aldrich [catchy blog title, right?] and they're big in the chemistry, sciencey world that i am foreign to.. probably more foreign than i am being an american living in switzerland! but the place that we meet is in the designing of their collateral. i have helped out on a brochure and created a newsletter template, that sort of thing.. their newest request however, appears below.

it is going to be printed as a magnet for them to disperse at their will! pretty fun. as you can see from the description the top left is the original and the bottom right is the reworked and retouched image that i created from the bottle and elements that sigma sent us. i hope they enjoy it!

also today, i went to ikea for the first time ever! i have ikea, i love the website... but today was my first in store experience...

it was awesome!! i almost got lost. we got so much awesome stuff. we have turned most of my room into an awesome lounge area [pictures to come.. and i should have taken a before shot!] and we stopped into h&m and i got a warm winter scarf so i don't freeze on the way to work tomorrow. also we decided to be a team of chefs for halloween since we've been cooking some awesome foods lately. french toast for breakfast this morning... pictures to come of that as well!

oh hey. it's october and it snowed here.

so apparently mother earth woke up today and said "eh, i don't really like autumn that much". which i find a huge shame because the fall is my personal favorite season. it has everything you could ever want! great colors, the turning of the leaves, warm and comfy clothes, awesome food, football, and did i mention the leaves?? well this morning in gais all that was ignored and big, fat, wet drops of snow pounded down on us as we walked to work [jen's first day i might add...]

here is the town square all covered in snow. spending my winters in south carolina made me forget just how cold and wet snow is! i was literally dripping while we were in the bakery! after we got to work we took a little outing for lunch and it was bright and sunny and nice out... sunglasses weather. i almost thought fall was going to come back to us.

and then the monsoon hit. the weather here is more a.d.d. than the south carolina weather, and that weather is allll over that place! after the monsoon it again got pretty nice out. after jen and i got back to the falken we rearranged my room so that we can have a little hang out area [and so we can have more space to practice tae bo if we deem it necessary] and then we went for a walk up the mountain to some residential area of gais. overall a great day!

week three!

today was the beginning of my third week here at icon! i can't believe it's been so long. today the new design intern jen got here. she is from cali and seems pretty awesome. i'm glad to have someone here who's onto the same track and wants to get some traveling under way! i just moved rooms so there's not too much going on tonight.. time to unpack again!

olma

today ryan and i cleaned up a bit in the kitchen [a good start but once we get some sponges that place is going to sparkle!] and then hit up the olma in st. gallen. this was the most ridiculous experience i have ever had [in a fabulous way] there was everything you could imagine. crazy carnival rides, animals, food stands, candy stands, bier and weine halls, shopping halls, flag stores, bell stores, electronic halls, furniture and bedding halls! it was nutzo. the most nutzo was for sure the pig races though..

along with this super awesome video i also took some pretty great snapshots of the happenings at the olma. check out the photos i've been taking during my trip[olma and then some]! oh also there was this awesome lumber race...

diplomprogramm unternehmensführung der universität st.gallen

today has been an extremely productive day. it has also been a fabulous day, for it is the day i discovered songza and their fabulous 90s station. there is seriously everything from the 90s. its the most fantastic thing i have experienced in a while. so as i'm rocking out to some beck and marcy playground [i can't believe they're still around, props boys] i thought i would share some more of what's happening at icon.

yesterday i took the look of the general management catalog that is currently being printed and put together this brochure for a program at the university of st.gallen on monday. once i took the information for the course off the website i made sure all the design fit into the correct layout and i included photos of the main three professors, along with the 25 professors included in the diplomprogramm unternehmensführung der universität st.gallen!

so really... why not???

it was a pretty big week at icon. we had michael from the printers coming and going, files and websites being checked and rechecked for spelling, translations, all that good stuff. and in the midst of it all there was glory... why not affairs and its mother why not enterprises are launched and live!

this crazy ginger angel you see above was one of my designs for a web banner for the philanthropy page of why not enterprises. the angel comes from a photograph by esther haase that i believe is owned by the why not founder/prez. the banner was originally located on a different site (the why not affairs one) and so i had also created the following two to go along with that theme.

the theme of the lilies came because the owner of why not [gabriella bär-richner] donates most of her profits to different mental health organizations here in switzy. the lily stands for hope and the purple ribbon is often used to symbolize mental health, as well as the two colors for the chakras located in the head are both varieties of purple! i had an awesome time researching hope for some of gabi's hope projects. there are just so many crazy symbols and meanings its fantastic!

bloggers block

every once in a while everyone must battle writer's block.. or in this case, blogger's block [dun dun dunnnn]!!! for me, the writer's block is easy to push through seeing as i have been an avid journal keeper since i was a teenager, but blogging, this is a new media for me to be dabbling in! so i have decided that if the only thing that is 'on my mind' is work, that i will begin to post a little bit about what i am doing over here in good 'ole swizty... because let's face it, there is a lot happenin' at icon worldwide and seeing as that is the whole purpose of this trip, it is often on my mind! [in a good way of course] so check back this week for some of the fun projects i've been working on...

sidenote: i neeeeed to get ryan's help fixing the background and whatnot of this thing! it's driving me crazy how off it is!!

anyone lived in a pretty how town

the avett brothers just appeared out of nowhere [via my itune dj of course] and graced me with their breathtaking 'the ballad of love and hate'. if you haven't heard it you really should. it's this fantastic slow and chill song about the patience and care that love has versus the disregard and distance that hate has..

my favorite part about this song, besides it sound and feel, is that it reminds me of my favorite poem [that i learned from jr. english, thank you mr. broadway for getting me hooked] called 'anyone lived in a pretty how town' by e.e. cummings. well, actually it's technically unnamed because that is how e.e. rolled, but it is still a masterpiece in my opinion! i actually attribute this poem for my utter disregard of capitalization while writing. the poem "details" the lives of anyone and the love of his life noone. i couldn't even choose a favorite line because every time i read it there is something new and refreshing that pops out and says pick me! let's hope that itunes genius can now create me the perfect anyone lived in a pretty how town playlist...
sun moon stars rain

cooookies!

oh boy! can you imagine 68 years of cookies? i can't. but gourmet has been around long enough that they not only have seen 68 years worth of recipes...

they even made an entire cookie book! what an awesome thing to have. the tag line is "the single best recipe from each year 1941-2009". this means they have over 68 recipes for cookies. i'm torn. should i go for it, or is this a bad idea??

oh philippa gregory

philippa gregory just does not get enough credit for her genius. i just finished the white queen, and if i hadn't already purchased the red queen in advanced i would have freaked out. this might be a better series than her writing on the tudors. and i loooove tudor history so that is saying a lot for these books!

the research and facts that she puts into all of her writings is amazing. it is almost as interesting to read the authors note at the end as it is to read the novel itself. i find myself wishing that she wrote about more than just english history.. i would love her take on the romanovs and marie antoinette and the medicis... so much history so little time! anyway.. philippa's stories will always hold a very close second place to harry potter... always waiting for the next one in line.

coldplay

so i woke up yesterday and for some unknown reason i had to listen to sparks it was just on my mind [i have no idea why]

 
so in my obsession i begin making genius playlists so that i don't get sick of the song itself, and get a bit of variety [also because pandora only works in the states] unfortunately a majority the songs that are coming up are ones that i don't care for.. for this i need my sara to swoop in and rescue me from certain musical doom. sara is my best friend and our itunes accounts have been linked since before there was an itunes [we swapped CDs and those awkward mini disc players]. unfortunately sara is busy in ann arbor at the michigan football game, so i have no access to her musical treasury until she returns. this means i am going to have to use itunes suggestion column to bully me into purchasing music that i have access to. lovin' it!