I have been in Europe for 18 days, most of which has been spent in Switzerland but I will go back to France this weekend.

Lucerne

Two weekends ago Toby and I visited Lucerne and it was absolutely beautiful! Everything about it was perfect, except for the buses and buses of tourists. I could never travel that way. They walk around in huge clumps following a little tour guide who stops to tell them bits of information, and they are constantly taking pictures and eating ice cream. In my opinion, it looks miserable. I like to explore on my own.

This, my friends, is a wall of flowing chocolate! As you can see, there is an annoying tourist in the way.

I thought this was awesome:

The Alp Horn! I have always wanted to see and hear these in person.

It was a little cloudy but it never rained on us. It was a very nice day!

Street Food Festival

A week or two ago we visited a street food festival here in the Zurich. It was very crowded, as usual, but it was pretty fun! There were a lot of interesting foods to try. We tried Taiwanese steamed buns which I had never even heard of before. They were very sticky and soft and a little bit sweet even though they are used in place of a regular bun for burgers and sandwiches. I also tried a tiny little tofu taco... an 8 CHF little taco that was most disappointing food of life. The sign said it was fried tofu but they literally served plain, cold, unseasoned tofu on a veggie taco. However, the vegan FROYO did not disappoint! It tasted better than Toby's dairy FROYO. 

I aslo had my first cannoli! Strawberry, mmm. 

The best part, of course, was finally trying fried grasshoppers! Ever since I was little and watched the episode of "I Love Lucy" where they go to Japan and Ricky eats them in the Geisha house I have wanted to try them. I have to admit that I had to give myself a little pep talk before I could do it but I wasn't gonna miss my chance! I didn't think to take a picture of my own, but here:

Thats not so bad, right? I am sure you would eat them too, right? RIGHT?!

As far as taste is concerned, they were quite good. They have nutty sort-of roasted flavor. It was the feeling of having an insect in your mouth that was hard to swallow. Haha! You good feel their legs and head on your tongue. A little creepy, to say the least. They served a grasshopper taco but I wasn't quite brave enough to eat one of those. And after they served me raw tofu when they claimed it to be fried I didn't trust them not to give me raw grasshoppers. 

As a whole, it was a pretty fun night! 

MORE ABOUT FOOD

So far, the food I have eaten has been fairly simple. Good (delicious, in fact) but simple. I don't eat meat so I have been somewhat limited on the things I can try. I do eat some fish but not often. Most of the vegetarian options here are pasta dishes. I love pasta but its not always the healthiest being as it is typically swimming in butter and cream. 

Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of this but it was yummy! It was some sort of Swiss flatbread type of food. 

Toby made his mom's traditional Swiss macaroni and cheese... so heavenly!

I cannot forget to mention the espresso. One struggle I often faced in America was weak coffee and that is never an issue here! 

My love of pretzels is satisfied on a regular basis. 

So, as you can see things have been going great! However, I cannot deny that I have some very stressful moments. Things that I have been able to do for what seems like my whole life are suddenly a major struggle. For example, washing clothes, cooking dinner, buying groceries, etc. All of those simple things that I did everyday in America with ease. Toby's washing machine has so many settings and it's all in German. Oh, and the oven... don't even get me started on the oven! Sure, the temperatures are different but that is actually the simple part! I understand nothing about that stupid contraption. Buying groceries wouldn't be so bad except that I still can't find my way around the city. There is a small market near the apartment but their selection is very small. I have to take the train or bus to the bigger stores and I have no problem doing that except that I can't understand schedules and locations. I am actually a bit thankful that my visa is for France and not Switzerland like I had originally wanted. I have not had time to get settled in France but I think in some ways it will be easier for me. The biggest reason is probably that I know a lot more French than German! Nothing here makes sense to me.