Laure and Quarup

After going to Dan and Sejal's wedding, Laure and I spent a week with some of our East Coast friends in the city that never sleeps. We danced, attended some cultural events, and--best of all--ate to our heart's content.

As soon as we arrived in New York, we met up with our good friend Andrew, who took us to the first of many great meals.

Ramen at Ippudo.

Since moving to Switzerland, Laure and I had been craving some good non-European food. So we were happy to check out one of the restaurants in this Japanese chain of good quality ramen.

After eating delicious ramen, we settled into our home base in Queens. Andrew's good friend Jamie was kind enough to let us stay at her apartment there while she was out of town. In my opinion, New York easily has the best public transportation system in the country, so it worked out really well to be walking distance to a subway station with an express train to Manhattan.

Rug and Mochi taking a nap at Jamie's.

The scary big pigeons of Queen.

Sunset view from the New York office isn't bad.

As I've previously mentioned, one of the ways we connect with the locals while traveling is through swing dancing. One of the two venues we checked out was Swing 46, which is a restaurant where the George Gee's Big Band plays every week. Those guys can really swing, and the crowd of local dancers love them.

Laure with one of the local dancers at Swing 46.

The band and the dancers interacted in a way I had never seen before -- the band leader George Gee constantly stirred up the crowd and the dancers cheered when players finished their solos. Dancers also cheered and learned from one another regardless of whether they were beginners or advanced. Needless to say, this was a completely different vibe from what we experience in Zurich.

Andrew did pretty well for his first time swing dancing.

It felt surreal to dance in the birth place of swing dancing while listening to a great live band playing some of the classic swing songs written about the city (e.g. "Take the 'A' Train").

One interesting thing I noticed at Swing 46 is that most local dancers were African American, which is something that I had never seen in any swing dance club. Historically, swing dancing was founded by the black community in New York before becoming a national (and international) phenomenon. As other music trends became popular, most people including most of the black community moved on. Today's wave of swing dancers is quite international, but primarily not black. So it was great to see that in the heart of where it all started, some African Americans were still swinging with style.

Later that week, Andrew took us to another Japanese restaurant -- this time a more upscale restaurant called the Bohemian. Each one of their courses, including the cocktails, was impeccable. Interestingly, the only way for someone to dine at the Bohemian is to be "referred" by someone else that has already been there. This is similar to how Facebook started: you could only join if an existing member invited you. This unusual strategy of exclusivity creates a buzz in a city where foodies are always on the hunt for the hottest new restaurant.

The Wagyu beef at the Bohemian is delightfully soft and juicy.

During the last few days, we met up with more of our great friends Andy, who had just moved there from San Francisco, and Guillermo, who took a train from DC. We checked out the Christmas market at Bryant Park.

My buddy Andy and I in front of Bryant Park's ice rink.

One valuable find at the market was a food stand that sold the delicious Eastern European treat named Trdlo, with which Guillermo fell in love when we visited Prague in the previous holidays.

Trdlo is a delicious cylinder of dough coated with a mix of sugar and walnuts. It is slowly cooked over fire.

The market was fun although significantly less decorated than the extravagant Christmas markets in Europe. I think the New York version is a bit less lively partly because people can't legally drink their Glühwein (hot mulled wine) outside, so the American Christmas market is not as good of a place to just hang out and socialize. Maybe that will change one day.

On the topic of Christmas markets, we also checked out a small one by the local Swedish community. They hosted it as a fundraiser for the local church and explained Swedish holiday traditions and foods.

Swedish community Christmas market.

Another follow-up from our previous trip to Prague was checking out Hospoda Bohemian Beer Hall, which is the sister beer hall of Lokál Dlouhá in Prague. Although we didn't find the same beer master that we met on our previous trip, we still had a delicious round of the Czech beer Pilsner Urquell on tap. Apparently the New York beer hall didn't serve the beer out of the big tanks like they had it in Prague, which may explain why the texture wasn't as creamy. But the flavor was still pretty damn good.

A round of Czech pilsner at the Hospoda Bohemian Beer Hall.

On one of the nights, we checked out an "experimental theater" play. In such type of play, the audience and actors are not separated into seats and the stage. Instead, the audience is free to roam around different rooms of a building where they can watch different scenes of the play. Audience members sometimes interact with the actors and become part of a scene. We saw the play Sleep No More, which is easily the most popular of this genre in New York. It's a really interesting experience and feels a bit surreal at times.

Audience members wear masks to watch (and sometimes interact with) the actors in the different rooms of Sleep No More. Photo credit: Unit 24.

We visited some more good friends for another memorable meal at their apartment. Our host prepared an awesome meal that included his mother's delicious spring rolls, which we enjoyed while reminiscing about old times.

Our good friends accommodated us into their busy schedules for a delicious dinner by Huy.

Following Andrew's suggestion, we also checked out the semi-finals of a Poetry Slam championship in at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. The contestants wrote amazing poetry with topics ranging from personal life struggles (such as taking care of a brother with a learning disorder) to national issues (such as the police shooting of Trayvon Martin). Writing excellence was only one of the many requirements of the competition. The best competitors also delivered their poems passionately and beautifully.

Setting up the stage for the semi-final Poetry Slam championship at Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

Our last dinner in New York was at another restaurant that would be nearly impossible to match in Europe: an excellent Argentinian steakhouse named El Gauchito ("The Little Cowboy"). They serve the finest of Argentinian classics: thick and juicy steaks named bife de chorizo, which is commonly referred to as strip sirloin or NY strip in non-Argentinian restaurants. I had been salivating over the thought of this awesome steak since we had it in Argentina a few years ago. El Gauchito did not disappoint: the beef came cooked perfectly median-rare, although only Guillermo and Andy were smart enough to immediately remove it from the metal to stop it from cooking further. Noob mistake by the rest of us.

Accompanying the delectable bife de chorizo was another Argentinian classic: Malbec wine. Match made in heaven.

Guillermo, Andy and Laure with their bifes de chorizo and Malbec wine.

Don't forget me, Leslie, and Andrew.

After dinner, we checked out a nearby club with Latin music and delicious drinks, where we stumbled our way through some salsa and merengue moves. It was an amazing night apart from the moment of panic when we thought someone had stolen our coats.

This blurry photo reconstructs the ambience pretty well after a few drinks.

A long-standing item that was on Laure's and my bucket list was to attend one of those legendary Indian weddings that you see in the movies. I wouldn't say this was the main reason we were friends with Dan, but I must admit that we were putting all our bets on him.

Last November, our bets paid off.

Thanks, Sejal and Dan.

As soon as we got in New Jersey, Laure hit the floor running by going to Sejal's family's party where the ladies got their hennas done. As far as I know, Laure's previous experience with hennas was with the type that you can buy from Hot Topic and apply yourself at home. The henna artists at the party provided significant upgrade from anything Laure had previously had.

Laure's first legitimate henna.

Henna art is made with a dark paste of crushed leaves and twigs of a plant that goes by the same name.

Following others' advice, Laure waited until the next morning before washing her hands. This helps keeping the henna dark.

Final product after washing hands the next day.

On the second day, our friend Peter, Laure and I rented a car and checked out the surrounding area in New Jersey. The best part was seeing the the fall colors on the trees. Yes, I know it's a bit cliché, but the fall colors in the northeastern United States are really something special. And I hadn't seen them since I had moved out of Pennsylvania years ago.

The fall colors of New Jersey.

To balance out the beauty of the leaves' changing colors, some ridiculously rude guy screamed at us at a gas station because he incorrectly thought we were blocking traffic. He turned his back and walked away as we were trying to reason with him. That left a sour taste in our mouths.

But something that sweetened Peter's tastebuds was the cronut knock-off he got a Dunkin' Donuts. For those not in the know about the latest food trends, a cronut is a mutant half-croissant half-donut pastry. Dunkin' Donuts (a fast food pastry shop) caught wind of this fad and decided to sell it too. But they had to name it "Croissant Donut" in order to avoid a trademark lawsuit.

The cronut knock-off tasted about as good as anything else you'd get at Dunkin' Donuts.

We then went back to the wedding venue and joined our friends for another night of partying. Dan and Sejal had set up an amazing variety of delicious vegetarian Indian food. Coming from Switzerland where it can be tough to find authentic Indian food, Laure and I were very excited about this.

This dish named Raj Kachori Chaat was amazing.

The main part of the night was comprised of performances by Dan and Sejal's family and friends. They varied from traditional regional Indian dances to more modern Bollywood style performances.

Dance performance for the wedding couple.

My favorite was this traditional performance by Dan's cousin.

After the performances, the dancing experts taught us the basic routine of Dandiya Raas, which is an Indian dance where each person dances with two sticks. Dancers line up in two rows facing each other and perform a routine that involves hitting the sticks together and rotating positions.

The Dandiya Raas "stick" dance sounds complicated, but it only takes about ten minutes to learn.

The dance kind of feels like a group bonding exercise because everyone needs to be well synchronized. It only takes a couple of people to stumble out of sync in order for the entire thing to fall into chaos, which happens fairly often. So it is to everyone's best interest to help out the newbies. That was us.

After the party, a few of us temporarily invaded Dan's room with a bottle of champagne. We reminisced on days past and daydreamed about the future.

The next day was the main day of ceremonies. The groom's and bride's sides celebrate separately for the first part. That's when we witnessed Dan's awesome arrival on a white horse.

Awesomeness.

I won't claim that I actually understood everything that was going on, but I enjoyed that nearly every part somehow incorporated dancing. What better way is there to celebrate long term happiness among family and friends?

Dan dancing on his white horse to the live music.

Don't know what's going on? Just dance.

Next, we followed Dan's side of the family to meet with Sejal's.

Something important happened here.

Then came the main ceremony, which was comprised of many traditional and spiritual rituals.

Both sides were presented with spiritual items.

My favorite part was when Dan had to put a flower garland around Sejal's neck while others lifted her away to complicate the task.

Sejal playing hard to get.

An important ritual was the Mangal Fera, where Dan and Sejal walked around the fire four times.

Mangal Fera symbolized the cleansing of Dan and Sejal's souls as they united into one.

Finally, the most important ritual is Saptapadi, when Dan and Sejal made seven vows to each other. That's pretty much the "I do" of Hindu weddings.

After the ceremonies, we enjoyed another night with lots of performances, food and dancing. The most notable performance was the re-enactment of Dan and Sejal's love story by Sejal's family.

Dan and Sejal's love story. Bollywood style.

More awesome food.

During the party, everyone was impressed with Dan's and Sejal's dads. Those two were dancing machines -- I picked up a couple of moves from them.

After Dan and Sejal left the throne on which they were sitting, a few of us stole it for the photo opportunity.

How much did we drink, again?

Naturally, the ladies look much sexier than the men.

We had a ton of fun at Dan and Sejal's wedding. We wish them an awesome future.

I never feel fully settled in a place until about a week before I decide it's time to move - it's one of the ironies of my life. But with no plans to move in the near future, I thought it would be nice to share our place at its current state even though we're not fully settled in. There are a few finishing touches I still need to add but here is our Swiss home at the moment.

We donated many of our books before leaving the States and bought some for local living and traveling.

It has been a year and a half since we moved into our current apartment. Even after the arrival of our shipping crate from San Francisco, it took a while to make our apartment feel like a home. We gave away many of our possessions before leaving the US and needed to purchase a few replacements. There were larger essential items (like a sofa, a dresser and a dining table) that would have been expensive to move overseas and other items were small basics (like flatware and dishes) that were easy to replace in Switzerland. We got as much as we could from second hand stores before heading to shops like IKEA. The main excuse for taking nearly a year to get our apartment set up was our preference to travel rather than furniture shop - which is why we came to Europe anyways.

Ninety-five days later, we were reunited with our belonging from San Francisco.

All of our worldly processions arrived, 97% of them arrived in their original condition.

We chose to settle in Zürich's 2nd quarter, Enge. It's not the most happening part of town but it is right along the lake, next to the city center and well connected by public transit. Catching a train to the mountains is now more convenient and faster than finding our car when we lived on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. What turned out the be the absolute best attribute of our apartment's location is the local grocery store. It is open late seven days a week (even on holidays) and it is a stone's throw away!

Zurich's quarters

Our current apartment is 1.5 times the size of our previous apartment. Compared to apartments in our prior neighborhood, this place is a steal. Not only is our apartment larger but the place is actually well taken care of. No more rotting floorboards, holes in the walls, mismatching baseboards, or appliances from another century. Unlike in SF, landlords in Zürich normally must make improvements on their rental property in order to raise the rent. Many of the apartments we viewed had remodeled kitchens, bathrooms, or a new balcony. It's frightening to look back and realize that our old SF apartment was going on the market for nearly a thousand dollars a month more then what we were paying; our previous landlord had no intention to renovate or repair anything.

A little part of me does miss the corky charms of living in building over 100 years old - tilted floors and all. Our current place was probably constructed around WWII. I also miss living in a small cozy apartment. Having always lived in small spaces, I find our current place a little too big for me.

Welcome to our new home.

Separate living room - a common find in older apartments we viewed.

Having a balcony was a must for us.

The sleekest bathroom I have had in a rental unit.

My favorite part about the apartment is the in-unit washer and dryer. The majority of my life I've gone without one or both. No more laundromats, crunchy air dried towels or hoarding quarters for us. I didn't think having my own stacking unit in the kitchen would be amazing but it really has been.

Actually, having one's own washer and dryer units wasn't the norm for many of the apartments we viewed. Many buildings offered a shared machine for all the tenants to either use on a first come / first serve basis or by assigned days and times.

Okay, so I don't fully know how to use it since the instructions are in German but I know the basics and love it!

Another new concept for me is having a spare bedroom. We now can offer overnight guests an actual room of their own. The room also doubles as a small office.

Basic guest accommodations - comfy bed in a private room.

Corner home office with just the basics.

A strange thing we noticed about apartment hunting in Zurich was the lack of built-in closets. It turns out that the Swiss buy wall wardrobes. Unfortunately, decent looking wall wardrobes do not come cheap and are a pain to move from apartment to apartment.

Prior to moving overseas, we had been slowly working on reducing the amount of stuff we own but this last move encouraged a huge binge. Since our purge, we have made a conscious effort to keep our place fairly minimalistic. I was thrilled that we didn't need to buy much storage furniture. We fit all of our clothes and linens into one shared dresser and in the hall closet. Worrying about less furniture will make our next move a tad bit easier.

Simple bedroom

Just acquired the basics to keep us flexible.

Another lifestyle habit we brought over with us from SF is my obsession with reducing waste - thanks to Bay Area bloggers like My Plastic Free Life and Zero Waste Home. Unlike in the US, large garbage cans in Zurich aren't picked up from driveways weekly for a flat rate. We purchase specific trash bags that are charged by the liter. Once the bag is filled, we need to drop them off around the corner at a collection bin.  I absolutely love this system since it encourages people to produce less waste and to recycle. I wish SF had a program like this.

One of these per month - not too bad but there's plenty of room for improvement.

A few of my reusable sacks that help me cut back on our trash. I've impressed several shop clerks and framer's market venders with my eco sacks.

I once read that an expat's kitchen is the last place to adapt to a new country. This definitely holds true in our kitchen. Once you get past the restored Swiss restaurant table and Swiss sleek cabinets, the inside of the cupboards look like one from an American kitchen. Every trip to the US is a chance to restock my favorite chocolate chips, granola, and other favorite consumables. I'm also guilty of requesting visitors to bring along some American goodies. I never knew there would be a day that US consumables would be the best gift ever.

Simple and efficient Swiss kitchen.

A few of my American comforts.