Thank you SO much for your kind words on my last post. You truly are the best!

I woke up this morning at 5:45am and felt extremely bright eyed and ready to go. Well this definitely isn’t me. I always feel a bit sleepy first thing but on most days I still drag my butt out of bed to do some running, walking or yoga. However, this morning I felt like doing a HIIT and so I sprinted along the river at 6:10am feeling utterly amazing (yeah I know.. WTF? In a good way ). I’m sure that being excited is some kind of drug.

I felt utterly bouncy all day long and caught up with my to-do list at 4:45pm. Hooray!
After work I did some last minute shopping – it’s always the same but I never learn anything! – and headed back home to make a lovely dinner with the boyfriend.

No, my food wasn’t blue. I just forgot to change the settings on my camera.

For some reason I really like veggie sausages but never liked the real stuff. Wonder why that is.

Apparently American Airlines has some extremely bad film system. There’s only a main screen on most flights and they only show two films or so. I’m the first to admit that I am a HUGE film snob when it comes to films on flights. I just need a huge selection to keep me entertained because there’s no way I can sleep on flights. (Everyone has weaknesses, right? )

I just hope that the info is completely wrong and they have personal screens and tons of films to choose from. (A girl can dream!)
Silvio is currently trying to load some DVDs onto my netbook in a very complicated way (that I don’t understand..). If that doesn’t work I still got some books to keep me entertained:

I know, it’s a shame that I haven’t read them yet.

“A Long Way Down” by Nick Hornby is also in my bag but I’m already halfway through that. I’m also currently looking for some good audio books on iTunes, though I should slooowly go and crash now since we’ll leave at an ungodly hour tomorrow morning.

I won’t post any guesties this time but I’ll write as often as I can.

Take care sugarplums and keep on dancing!

Ps. Got a long distance flight ahead? Go and check out my tips!

It takes some time to wrap my head around it all but I just wanted to let you know about what happened.

Today I handed in my notice.

I will continue to work in the office until 31 December but I handed in my letter of resignation early because my boss will leave her position in September and I didn’t feel like dropping the bomb on her successor on his first day of word.

My hands are shaking a bit and I can’t form any proper sentences. Can someone slap me please?

So I’ll keep this short so I can go and dance/scream/laugh/cry/whateverthehellkarinfeelslike.

I’ll tell you all about my secret now.

On 4 January I will fly to San Jose, Costa Rica and travel around in the country, as well as in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador for two FRIGGIN! months.

After that I’ll stay two weeks in Switzerland.

And then I’ll move to London where I will go and study for the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English exam for three months. Then I’ll hopefully find a job.

AND ALL THIS SETTLES BEFORE MY HOLIDAY IN THE STATES!

Well I knew that I “had” to hand in my resignation before I leave but it feels so.. real now! I don’t mind change but it’s still making me nervous.

Am I really leaving my great governmental job and grab all my savings and explore the world?

This must be someone else’s life, not mine.

I need to breathe.

I’m so sorry for my rant but I guess you understand how wonderfully overwhelming everything feels like right now.

I’ll chime in tomorrow when I’m hopefully more like myself again. In the mean time, go and make my apricot jam.

Love and peace and thank you for joining me on this journey.

But seriously now: I am not kidding!

What I hate most about jams are the ingredients. Sure, there’s a huge amount of fruit in there which is, however, closely followed by tons of sugar and sometimes some other weird little ingredients.

But then again I didn’t find any semi-healthy recipes! (I’m still no fan of cooking with tons of sugar) Long story short: I simply made my own jam.

Give Me Bananas Apricot Jam!

Ingredients (for 2 medium-sized jars):
- (approximately) 600g of fresh apricots
- 150g agave

Directions:
Remove the pits and chop up the apricots.

Combine them with the agave in a medium pot.

Let the mixture cook on a low heat (just hot enough so it bubbles a bit) for 30-60 minutes, depending on how “chunky” you want the jam to be.

That’s all! You can go and dance a bit in between. Or maybe do some studying, if you must.

I still have a shitboatload of apricots left so I will definitely make a second batch before I’ll leave.

Go and make this jam RIGHT NOW! You won’t regret it, I promise.

It also freezes well in case you won’t be able to gobble up that much jam by yourself.

Happy cooking!

I don’t particularly make lists for every little thing but when I’m busy and need to get certain things done before a deadline (aka in my case: the holiday) or just have to remember certain things such as what to pack.. I make lists.

Damn, I just remembered that I forgot to write down the PJs. See? That’s why lists are great. I’d forget tons of things otherwise. (“Wait a second, my passport is right..FFFFUUUUU..dge!”)

In the last couple of days I became a crazy lists-lady. I made lists for everything..
What to pack
What I still had to buy
Which projects I have to pass on to my colleague
What I must finish at work before I leave
What the names of my former boyfriends are

I really like ticking things off.

Tonight I wasn’t particularly feeling like going to pilates class so I went and had dinner with my sister (who ditched class too). We’re quite rebellious you see.

I love it when restaurants have good bread. This lovely piece was so moist and flavourful (tons of olives!)

The restaurant generally went a bit heavy on the sauce though..

Under the green leaves is a small sea of oil. I swear I could have taken a swim in there.

Gnocchi.. I love gnocchi.
I also love olive oil but boy.. do you see that lake?

Over the top.

It’s a bit odd.. I already took out my contacts assuming that I could simply put on my glasses. Well, I forgot them at my boyfriend’s place.
So I’m currently writing this while having my eyes oddly squeezed together. I probably look like I chewed on some lemon.

I will post a recipe tomorrow that still makes me think that I’m dreaming. I will test the final product in the morning but if it’s really as great and simple as I imagine I’m sure that it’s going to be the bomb dot com.

There, I said it. Bomb dot com. I’ve always wanted to do that.

Night kids!

Random veggie tip of the day:
Don’t order risotto (especially in Italy) without asking about the broth first. Even vegetable risotto is often made with chicken broth!

I don’t know about your family but mine is pretty… strange.
When my sister and I still lived at home we often did spontaneous taekwon-do fights or yoga pose “battles” after dinner.

Yesterday, at my parent’s place, we tried out the sports modus on our new camera.

Don’t worry, our neighbours are used to such behaviour.

I’ve been absolutely loving our new camera. It makes food look so much better .

I’m sure the boyfriend will miss it when I’ll take it with me to the states but hey, he gets to take it to Colombia in October and I won’t be able to use it for 3 months so I think it’s only fair that I steal it for 3 weeks.

My friend Christine is currently house-sitting her aunt’s place and they have a lovely apricot tree. I had to go and help her with those as they were ready to be eaten.

She sent me back home with a huge bag of fresh organic apricots.

I’m thinking about making agave sweetened jam, does anyone have a good recipe?

5 days until Seattle! And my to-do list is continuously growing!
No need to hyperventilate. Yet.

xoxoK

Welcome to Creux du Van

But more about that in a second..

First of all I want to let you know that Silvio and I got a baby!!!

No, not that kind of baby.

That kind of baby:

(Excuse the quality.. It was late last night.

We admired the little one until almost 1am which resulted in me looking like this today:

Yeah I know, I like my sexy panda eyes too. After all.. bruised eyes are hot, aren’t they?

But I’m getting ahead of myself again! So let’s start with today, ok?

Hiking needs good fuel and so I made a HUGE porridge for breakfast today. Into the mix went 1 c water, 1/2 c oats, 1/2 c rice milk and 1 scoop protein powder.

Toppings: Hemp seeds, flax seeds and 1 tbsp almond butter

I almost couldn’t finish it all. Almost.

We met up with two of my best friends, Livia and Daniela at 9am-ish at the train station.

Awww I love them! Livia is on the left and I’ve know her since before kindergarten! Daniela lived in the neighbour village and went to our school from 5th grade on. They’ve been two of my closest friends for years. You won’t be able to find people more kind and wonderful than them.

We headed to a place called Noiraigue (French pronunciation! ) where the route started.

I wish I would look that fresh-faced in the morning!!!

Hmmm which way?

Hiking is my favourite activity next to running and yoga. It’s so liberating and calming! I have no idea why “people of my age” aren’t that into it.

A quick explanation about our outfit: It dropped from 30+ C° (86F°) to 20C° (68F°) within TWO days over here. I really enjoyed the constant summer heat so the temperature change was a bit of a shock. It was also pretty windy up there.

Hikeface:

The force was with me today.

Hiking company!

Yes we also hiked, we didn’t only pose for photos..

The trail was absolutely beautiful..

Even though it was so gloomy we couldn’t help but admire the view. I feel very touristy in Switzerland sometimes .

After 1,5h we reached the top! It was absolutely scary up there (I’m terrified of height) but the view was still breathtaking.

That dude was brave..

He too:

This is my very first food photo with our new camera. I know, it’s not utterly fascinating but that wrap was great nevertheless . I also had some banana, cucumber, pepper, 2 grapes (hehe) and cookies. Starving Karin!

(I think I like him)

I bet she’ll hate me for posting this but I love how “authentic” it looks

We posed some more because the sun decided to show up. For 15 seconds or so.

And then we walked back down…

I hate walking downhill! It always kills my legs.

We also made a necessary stop for hot chocolate. Great for the soul!

And then we were back down again.

I can’t believe that my first hike this summer was this late. But it was a day worth remembering.

Now I can barely keep my eyes open.

Good night!!

Q: Tell me about your favourite hiking adventures! (Ok that wasn’t really a question but hey.. I’m tired! )

It’s been raining a lot.

And I had a vegan whole spelt chocolate chip brioche for breakfast.

And a chocolate protein smoothie too.

Needless to say that life is good when chocolate is involved.

In one week my friend Simone and I will leave for the US of A and I still haven’t wrapped my head around it. So much more is happening right now and I can’t wait to share it with you all but you’ll have to stay patient for a bit longer.

Anyway, we will fly to Seattle on my mum’s birthday, 31th July. My parents will drive us to the airport at 6am. Aren’t they crazy? Aren’t they fantastic? No wonder why my genes are so nutso. Haha!

It still feels like the holiday (or in American English: "vacation" ) is so far away. Is it really true that we will drive down to San Francisco in less than two weeks? Will we really stay in New York for one day on our way back? It all feels pretty unreal right now.

Simone and I have planned everything, besides the exact route we’ll take. We just know that we want to visit Mt. Rainier, Yosemite and Napa Valley on the way. Everything else is still unsure.

Do you have any insider tips? Which restaurants in Seattle, San Fran and New York do you like?

I only know a bunch of (apparently) great places in NY (Pure Food & Wine, Candle 79, Babycakes NYC…) though Simone and I already talked about eating our way through NY. I like that.

It’s odd, I’ve never been that far west before. Also, it doesn’t really feel like I’m leading my life right now. I’ve never travelled that much before (Rrmember Japan in January, Florence on Easter and London in May?) and you know what? It’s getting even crazier! But that’s still a secret. I hate secrets so I’m really sorry that I can’t share it with you right now.

Oh well, I work my butt off so it’s time to get a breather.

I usually spend most of my money on food (who would have guessed) but I LOVE travelling. Cheap. I stay in hostels and do lots of camping which allows me to "save" some money and travel a bit more. Maybe it’s my multicultural background but I always have an urge to pack my bags and explore the world.

On an other note, my lovely friends Christine and Janine came around for dinner. We made some whole wheat pasta with tomato/zucchini sauce, served with garlic bread and salad. I was feeling a bit carby you know .

Tomorrow I’ll go hiking with my besties Livia and Daniela. I can’t wait! It’s my first hike this summer and it’s already the end of July!

Do you like travelling? What’s been your favourite place you’ve ever visited? There are so many great places I’ve seen, it’s nearly impossible to choose one. But I’d have to say that I really love my grandmother’s place (in Japan). I always feel extremely “home” there even though I’ve never lived there. The countryside is breathtaking (except for in winter ) and thinking about it makes me miss it so much.

Meet my new friend:

He’s been hanging out at my place for a couple of days now. He (yes it’s a he) is a bit dusty and doesn’t pay any rent so that kind of sucks.

Let’s call him Dusty, shall we?

Well Dusty has been loving that red pot and has been walking his rounds quite diligently. He likes to work out.

He didn’t help with dinner though which was kind of lame. I don’t mind having guests over for some time but he didn’t even bother joining us for dinner. How rude!

That’s why Silvio and I had to make our eggplant Zucchini lasagne for ourselves.

The idea for that dish came up when I was thinking about what I had at home. Zucchini, eggplant, carrots.. LASAGNE! The non-traditional way that is.
(Is it just me or do you also think about food at work?)

So we started with the layers. Layered food is our thing – it’s what we did on our first date! We made tomato mozzarella salad, lasagne and some sort of layered dessert. When my then-soon-to-be-boyfriend suggested that we should make a layer-themed dinner I knew that he was a keeper.

That’s my story to layers.

Let’s get the layers party started!

fascinating, isn’t it?

Cheese!

Dusty my old friend, you totally missed something. Ha!

Howdy people!

How’s life? I actually wrote an entire post but accidentally deleted it. Duh! (Don’t you love it when that happens?)
I will keep this short and sweet, I hope you don’t mind.

The Gurtenfestival was so much fun! The weekend was filled with lots of music, laughter and friends. Can’t beat that!

Are you tired of concert pictures yet? If not.. here’s an other round:

Gossip!

I love seeing Beth Ditto in action. The last time I saw her she stripped on stage. That woman is one hell of a force of nature.

The main stage area turned from this…

Into this… within minutes!

Maybe they were scared of the rain?

Editors (again!) it’s actually the third time in a year that I’ve seen them in Bern. I don’t mind it though – their music is fantastic.

I’ve seen lots of bands that were playing at the Festival before even though I’m not that much of a concert-goer anymore. However, it was my first time for Biffy Clyro and they were great live. I like their music.

Stereophonics – As good as ever. Their bass player once wanted to chat with us after a concert but we were already walking towards my friend’s car. Once we left we realized who that actually was. Oops!

I was SO excited for Florence + The Machine. My boyfriend stated that it was a pretty lame name but I love her voice and songs. I’m currently listening to her music nonstop.

An other band that I saw were The Parlatones. I’ve never seen them before but I really enjoyed their music. It’s a band that still wears matching outfits (remember when Franz Ferdinand did that? Oh the times..)

Yes I know, I’m an Indie girl at heart. Don’t fight who you are, right?

Alright let’s move on for those who don’t like music that much.

I had french fries, pizza, garlic bread and crêpe at the Festival! I rarely eat that stuff (well besides the pizza ) so that was ok. I guess I burned off those calories by running uphill.

(It’s blurry because I was racing up there. Uh-huh)

There are two ways of getting on the Gurten hill:

• Take the Gurten rail
• Walk

It takes 25 minutes to get up there if you’re a really fast walker but don’t take all the shortcuts. It often takes less time with the rail even though the line seems a bit crazy. However, I’m really not good at waiting and standing around and I always rather walk.

As I was walking uphill I thought about strolling and realized that I can’t do it! Isn’t that odd? I can sit still and meditate without a problem but strolling annoys me for some reason..

Let’s move on to food!

I made Tone It Up’s Blueberry Protein Muffins on Sunday and they turned out a bit dry.. Maybe because I left them in the oven too long or because I should have added more water.

However, they are great with some almond butter sandwiched in between..

Mmmm chocolate!

Gurtenfestival Day 1

Festival people

Festival Feet

Sisters

Friends

Empire State of Sun

JET

Babyshambles (Isn’t that obvious? )

Randomness

hahaha

More words..

• There are always less people on the first day (Thursday) than on the other days but tonight it got really crowded. I miss the good old days .
• I left after watching the first half of the Babyshambles concert. I love Pete but I love sleep even more.
• I really don’t feel like working today.
• A few more hours until the weekend! Hooray!
• Hope you’re having a good Friday!