We had a great hotel in Marrakech, maybe the nicest of the whole trip. Many of the group I traveled with had diarrhea/issues with digestion. My roommate for this trip had it worst of all. From Marrakech onward she was weak, had fever and diarrhea and spent the whole time in bed.

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After a night in the worst hotel room I've ever slept in, it was time for another journey by bus to Marrakech.

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We got up super early (4 a.m.) to be in the desert at 5.30 to be up in the dunes at 6, when the sun came up.

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Day 3 was mostly spent on the bus, with photo stops and bathroom breaks.

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Next stop was Fes. Fes never had a map that was actually factual. They have so many small nooks and crooks in the old part of the city, they advise you not to go in there without a local guide and they are not lying.

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We flew to Casablanca.

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From the Sierra Nevada we went to Grenada. We spent 2 nights there. I liked it. Funny tidbit about Granada: when you order a drink you get a tapa free of charge.

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My trip started in Malaga. I flew via Madrid with Iberia. Wow, what a cheap ass airline! No wonder that my flight was dirt cheap. You don't even get beverages for free. I expected to pay for the food, but not even water? Seriously.

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Here are some pictures of my vacation in France this June.
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I got my hair done today, which meant that I had to get up at 8 o'clock. That's super early for a saturday morning. Afterwards, I visited my parents and had breakfast with them. It was nice seeing them again. I haven't seen them since Christmas.

Here are some pictures I took at Christmas:

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I found this picture while going through my papers. It's cute, isn't it?


It's my sister, my dad and me in our backyard.

I had dinner yesterday with Sonja and her boyfriend. That was fun. We cooked and cleaned up together.

Less than 12 hours in the old year left. I have a New Year's resolution: Look for a new job. My file for job applications is almost ready. I only need to format my CV, print it out at work, put one of the many pictures I still have left over from my last application process on it and voila. Ready for send-off. I think I'll go to a job placement agency first, since that is how I got my job the last time.

I always wanted to do a picture entry with lots of pretty pictures from Zurich and never got around to it. Here it is:
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I had a great time in San Francisco. San Francisco is a great city. I love the steep hills and even the fast changing weather. And the Golden Gate Bridge is breathtaking, no matter how many times you have seen it in the past. Another great thing about SF are the people: They are superfriendly and eager to help. You can't look at a map for more than 30 seconds without being asked if you need help.

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Yesterday I spent the better part of the day at my aunt's birthday party. Even though I had to get up early, I had a lovely time. My parents finally returned from their vacation and I got to spend some time with my brother and sister as well. I even saw my cousins Claudia and Daniela again, both of whom I haven't seen since my grandfather's funeral. There were a couple of simple adorable kids there. So cute.

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I had a lovely time in Ascona last week. What is amazing about the Ticino, the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, is how close it is to Zurich. It takes 3 hours by train and you're immediately transported into another world. The weather is usually a lot better there, the whole climate is different. The are palm trees and other plants you won't find north of the Gottardo. The weather was great while I was down there. Ok, there were storms in the evenings, but they were summerstorms. They didn't really cool the air down. I arrived Wednesday and I went to the Lido in Ascona everyday. I had a great time with Daniel and Martina. Daniel was already there since Sunday and Martina arrived on Friday. On Thursday, Daniel and I went to Locarno to see Bryan Adams in Concert. That was great. The atmosphere on the Piazza Grande is special. Bryan Adams played for almost 2 hours. I especially liked the second encore, the 3 last songs, with just him on guitar and singing. I had a great time with Daniel and Martina. It's been a while since we have spent so much time together. I enjoyed that a lot. These 4 days were very relaxing and felt much longer somehow.

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I returned to work after a week off and I'm already ready for more time off. God, I wanted to kill my boss, because I do not only have a ton of work to do from her and catch up on my work from last week, I also get to do part of my coworkers, who's on vacation for 2 weeks. What a great return. I had a headache, my eyes hurt and I was ready to go home by 4. Thankfully I didn't have to go to this work event that I was dreading. That really would have topped this lovely day off.

I'm still getting used to living with Sonja. The thing that annoys me most about her it that she takes forever in the bathroom. I have no idea what she does so long in there. Today I couldn't even brush my teeth in the morning, because she was still in there. If the same thing happens tomorrow, I'll ask her to hand me my toothbrush and toothpaste outside. Maybe she'll get the drift. Another thing that I'm not getting is the whole door closing thing. Let me explain: I sleep with the door of my room closed and I close the door of the bathroom when I'm using it. Sonja on the other hand closes doors all the time, like the kitchen door at night. She locks the door to the bathroom when she's using it, which I think is really unnecessary. In an apartment with two people, is that really necessary? When the door is closed and I don't hear her anywhere else in the apartment, I'm assuming she's in the bathroom, so I don't barge in.

By the way, this is my new kitchen table ( Read more... )

More on my 4 days in Ascona later...