Change of Plans

As many of you may know, I was accepted into the International MFA program at the Basel School of Design in Basel, Switzerland. All signs seemed good towards moving so Allison and I quit our jobs in May, moved out of our house in June, and sold most of our possessions to prepare to move overseas. We had a great 3-week east coast road trip in July (hence the Acadia, Maine photo above) and were planning to leave for Switzerland late August.

We had been told that our visas (documents that give you permission to live in the country) would not be too difficult to obtain since I was going to be a student. Unfortunately, most people I had talked to had not dealt with spousal visas, and we found out about 8 weeks ago that Allison’s visa was next to impossible to get.

Basically, Allison either had to have a job offer before we leave for Switzerland, or we had to show 2 years of savings to live there (a large sum!). Finding a job from here is next to impossible. Allison has been networking and applying for jobs since March with no luck. The Swiss government makes it difficult to hire someone outside of Switzerland because the company must prove that a Swiss citizen nor a Schengen Agreement citizen (basically all of the EU) could not fill the open position. In some ways, it is a Catch-22 because it would be much easier to find a job if she was living in Switzerland, but she can’t live in Switzerland because she doesn’t have a job.

All of that said, I am saddened to announce that I will not be attending the Basel School of Design this fall. Obviously, this is not what we expected and it truly is disappointing, but we are choosing to look at this change of plans in the best light possible.

In our minds, we have been given a “bonus year” that we didn’t expect and so much is already falling into place. I have already started working on two major projects (a book and a film) that I have wanted to do for years. Allison has started a wonderfully flexible job online as a rater of ESL tests and is using her teaching experience a lot in this job. We’ve been blessed with a temporary home of a furnished cottage on a couple’s property from our church, so we can continue to keep expenses low and save money.

We’re so thankful for our community in Springfield and are glad to get the chance to hang out here a bit longer. We may look into doing some work overseas in the spring, but we will see. Being open can be terrifying and exciting all at the same time, but we are trying our best to embrace it. So here’s to our upcoming year, whatever it may hold!

Enough reading – 60 new summer photos just uploaded on our Flickr!

Happy Holidays

Dear friends and family,

Another holiday season is here! Although we have been busy, we have been enjoying this time of year. At Thanksgiving, Doug's entire family was in town and we had a great time together. Doug and I and Angela (his sister) even ran the Turkey trot - a 5k early Thanksgiving morning run through downtown Springfield. Allison's parents will be joining us for Christmas at our house, which we are looking forward to very much.

The semester finished up in a flurry for me (Allison) and I think I have graded enough essays to last me a very long time. I enjoyed both my ESL classes and my freshman college class I taught this semester, but I don't think I will do both at the same time again. I've been teaching a year now - I'm not sure I'll teach forever, but I definitely see it as a part of my future endeavors. I also took tap dancing this semester for fun and while I don't think I'll become the next Ginger Rogers the class was definitely a treat!

Doug's work at the advertising agency has been keeping him busy but he's managed to squeeze some time in for some outside projects on his dear letterpress. The most recent one being our yearly Christmas card - hopefully you received one! He's still selling prints at Keep Calm Gallery and has designed some recent logos for friends' businesses and for our church. He's thinking a lot about graduate schools now so we will keep you posted on those future plans...


With more room at our rental house, we finally were able to get a real Christmas tree and do a little outside decorating! 'Tis the season - to look at some winter photos and to view a time-lapse video of the printing of our Christmas Card, pop on over to our Flickr.

We are looking forward to all the new year will bring and hope you are well. Best wishes for a lovely holiday,


{allison & doug}

And of such fineness as October airs

Well, it has been a long time since our last post, seeing that our previous blog was entitled "the start of summer."

We had a great summer that was filled with many things - me teaching, Doug became a student again for 2 weeks at a typography workshop in Basel, Switzerland, travel to see family in NY, travel to see friends in KS and TX, and moving from our little 1 bedroom apartment where we have been for 2 1/2 years to a lovely rental house that seems very spacious in comparison!

Fall is wonderful but flying by as it seems to like to do. I just finished teaching a freshman Intro to College class at Missouri State, and I am also still teaching ESL with the university. I have also been taking a tap dancing class for fun, and it is FUN!

Doug is too busy with work, but now that he has his letterpress in our home he is about to start printing up a storm. We have enjoyed hosting some friends already in our new home and had a lovely housewarming earlier in the season. Our goal is just to fully enjoy this house and our Springfield community for the next year and then we will see what is next.

As always, the most important thing is that we have uploaded a plethora of photos on our Flickr

California & the start of summer

The day I finished my semester of teaching, Doug and I flew out to Los Angeles to visit family and old friends of mine from my college years. Doug had to fly back after the weekend to finish his semester of teaching, but I stayed a few days longer to spend more time with friends and to visit my old school. Beaches, hiking, lots of driving on the freeways, and a variety of good food were all part of our great time out west.

Summer is well upon us and we're soaking up the sunshine and long days. It will be very full of travel, work and moving to a rental house but we're looking forward to all of it. Quite a few new photos on our Flickr

Chicago & Things

A few weeks ago we took a weekend trip to Chicago with our friends, Jess & Kelly. It was a grand time of wandering the city, enjoying a Mates of State concert, and general road-trip goodness.

The end of the semester is whirling towards us, and very soon I will post a few pictures of my class on our field trip, a few activities, and our school's end of the year party. It looks like I will be teaching again in the summer too!

As always, go to our Flickr for visuals to these notes.

Springtime

This semester is moving right along, between both of us teaching and working along with weekend activities and trips here and there. Our good friends Jess & Kelly recently got married so we had a busy wedding weekend, and my spring break was filled with lots of projects around the apartment. We're planning to move this summer to a rental house, so I'm trying to get a jump start on cleaning out.

Doug has recently purchased a letterpress printing press and still loves to print when he has the time. He recently did another run of his popular Make Your Own Path prints. Although it did snow last weekend, for the most part springtime weather has come to the Ozarks, for which we are very excited! As always, we've put several new photos on Flickr! for your perusal.

Hola Cancun!

We spent President's Day weekend in Cancun, Mexico. My good friend from grad school moved down there last fall to teach at a University. We found a great deal on a long weekend and couldn't pass it up! It was so much fun to visit Ashley, meet her fiance, and see Mexico from a "local's" viewpoint. It was a nice mix of going out and relaxing - we ate great food, enjoyed a few beaches, and hung out with our friends and saw their daily life. More photos on Flickr!

A Bostonian New Year

We decided that Missouri wasn't cold enough, so we flew to New England for New Years! The day we arrived in Boston they had just gotten a fresh foot of snow.

Cape Cod, the city of Boston, hanging out with our friends and family, and just relaxing inside out of the cold made up our vacation. It was a lot of fun - especially to see snow on the sandy beaches! You can experience this for yourself (minus the cold) on our Flickr.

Christmastime is Here...

Hello all,

We are enjoying a relaxing holiday season this year after my (Allison's) graduation. I can't believe I'm actually done! We'll be around home for Christmas, and then braving the snowy north to visit some friends and family near Boston over New Years.

In January, Doug will be back to teaching one class of Typography at the University while still working at the Advertising Agency.

If you remember, I also got my Grad Certificate in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) along with my MPH and I'm going to be able to teach ESL part time with the University in the spring. It should give me great experience while giving me some time to breath after grad school and do some other projects around the house.

Wishing you all joy, peace and hope now and into the coming year!

Allison is Graduating!

In very, very exciting news, Allison is graduating with her Masters in Public Health in just a few days! She graduates on December 19th from Missouri State University.

This has been two long years in the making and I, for one, am super excited!

How Time Flies!

Well, we are thick in the middle of the semester - in both a good and bad way!

Allison is up to her neck in projects, papers, and presentations whilst I am keeping very busy with my new advertising job and teaching.

We are excited with all that is going on, but a bit overwhelmed at the moment. When Allison graduates this December, things will (hopefully) slow down just a bit.

The above photo is from a recent trip to Iowa where we visited my great-aunt that just turned 100 years old. It was a good trip and we even had our first touch of snow!

We hope all of you are doing well!

A Long Lost Update!

Ahh yes, the classic blog syndrome: you start off with the best of intentions to keep it up to date and then it just never happens. We could blame it on new jobs, last semesters, or plain busy-ness, but we will do none of those. Instead here is our latest update.

Since our last post, we are now deep into the semester of school. Allison is finishing her last semester of her graduate degree (Master of Public Health) and I am teaching another semester of Advanced Typography. Things are going well, but this keeps us very very busy!

I just recently started a new job at an advertising agency here in town. They specialize in food advertising and work with some big names (including Starbucks and Heinz). So far, things are going quite well and I am enjoying the company and the work! I am freelancing part-time for them, but I have my own computer, desk, phone, and office hours - so it is a nice balance of stability and flexibility.

We took a trip to Texas to visit a few friends in Longview and Austin. In Longview we visited a friend of Allison's that she has known since going to London, England with her in 1997. In Austin, we visited our good friends, the Dours, that just moved from Springfield. It is a very cool town with a strange habit of having the best food being served from Airstream trailers...

We are planning a few more trips to go camping in Missouri and Arkansas as well as seeing family in Iowa. As always we are also dreaming up plans to visit (in no particular order): Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; Cancun, Mexico; and New Zealand (because once is not enough).

I am starting to work on getting a book of my Polaroid photographs published. It is a dream that I have had for a long time and I am finally kicking myself into gear to actually do it. More updates as it progresses. Also, I am still playing the banjo (and now the glockenspiel) in The Preservation Society.

As with any post, we have a few photos on our Flickr for your enjoyment.

We hope that you, our faithful readers, are doing well and we promise not to promise anything about updating this blog...

Labor Day Weekend

We spent the weekend going up to a wedding in St. Louis and visiting friends there, then headed back down to Table Rock Lake for sunning and relaxing! Here are some pics!

A Sad Day.

After 10 years, three speeding tickets, multiple minor fender-benders, and 80,080 miles, I have finally had to get rid of Victoria - my beloved 1982 Volvo 240 DL Station Wagon. It was a very difficult decision as it is the first and only vehicle I have driven since I was 15, but it was time to let her go to greener pastures.

She will now be lovingly taken care of by the person that has serviced her for the past ten years. Hopefully at least some of her parts will live on in other Volvos for many years to come...

I have made a Flickr album in Victoria's honor here.

We Are Home!

After a 13 hour train and bus ride, five hours of sleep, a rental car, a nine hour flight, a six hour delay in Newark, New Jersey, another three hour flight, and a three hour drive, we finally arrived home at 2 AM!

Needless to say, we are a bit tired, but very happy to be home!

Our Week of Traveling

After Davos, we spent the day in the tiny little country of Lichtenstein - the smallest German-speaking country in the world and one of only two doubly-landlocked countries in the world. It was really beautiful and a nice stamp to put in the passport!

We then took an overnight train to Vienna - which sounds all fancy and luxurious, but in fact the room was TINY! We could only lay down in our bunks or one person could stand in the room - no sitting was possible!

We took a day trip over to Bratislava - the capitol city of Slovakia. This was the first Eastern European country that we have visited and it had such an interesting mix of old-world and communist-bloc buildings and feel. We then visited our good friends Thomas and Mollie who live in Vienna - a beautiful city with WAY too much to see.

You can see a few more photos on our Flickr.

Zermatt, The Alps, and Davos

The past few days we have enjoyed the southern and eastern parts of Switzerland - especially what Switzerland is most famous for (after chocolate) - the beautiful Alps.

We took the train from Geneva to Zermatt to see the very famous Matterhorn Mountain. It is way more impressive than anything Disneyland could come up with and quite a beautiful sight.

The next day, we took the "Glacier Express" train through the Alps. They bill themselves as "The Slowest Express Train in the World" and it goes through some very spectacular scenery (as well as a fair share of tunnels). Despite being a bit on the foggy side, we still got to see some pretty impressive mountains and valleys in our panoramic rail cars.

We got in to the ski town of Davos last night and spent all of today hiking around the beautiful mountains and sitting by the shore of a small lake - then going to some friend's for dinner.

Tomorrow we head out to Liechtenstein before getting on a night train from Zurich to Vienna. We will take a day trip into Bratislava before visiting some good friends in Vienna for a few days.

As always, we put a few more photos up on our Flickr.

Visitor #5 and Our Last Post From Geneva!

Our good friend, Jess, just got on the train this morning after visiting us for a few days. He is a professional photographer and he was sent to get "people shots" of Europe, so he has the tough job of traveling around Europe for 10 days - not too bad if you ask us!

He arranged to fly into Geneva so we could spend a few days in Switzerland. We went around Geneva and also spent a day in Montreux - known as the "Rivera of Switzerland" - it is crazy beautiful and it even has a castle! You can see a few photos on our Flickr.


Also, this will be our last post from Geneva! We can't believe our time is coming to a close! Allison finished her internship this week and as I type this, our suitcases are strewn about the living room half full of things to bring home. We have loved almost every minute of living here (except maybe the awkward not-speaking-French times) and we hope to make it back again.

We leave on Monday for a week of touring through Switzerland and Austria by rail and then we fly back home to Springfield (and the heat!).

Visitors #3 and 4!

Some friends from our New Zealand trip 2 years ago came to visit us this past weekend. Katy and Hans from England came down for a Swiss weekend, and Christina popped over from working in Zurich to see us too!

We had lovely, lazy time eating, touring, swimming in the lake, and just taking it easy - the way weekends should be. A few more photos can be seen on our Flickr.

Doug Prints Things!

I thought I would let you, our faithful readers, know what I have been doing this summer beyond keeping up the apartment and carrying a ton of groceries back on the train. I have been letterpress printing at an art college here in Geneva and I have printed two different prints.

For those who do no know, letterpress is the old fashion way of printing that was invented by our good friend Johannes Gutenberg in the middle of the 15th century. It was the common way to print things until the 1960's when other technologies took over. I love letterpress because it is difficult, dirty, and extremely rewarding. The type physically impresses into the paper and is beautifully tactile. You can read more about it here and see a great intro video here.

I have been letterpressing for more than three years and I have an online gallery based in London, England that sells my prints online. It is called Keep Calm Gallery and they are very nice people. If you want to see more of my work, you can see it on their site.

Anyway, you can see a few more photos on our Flickr if you so desire.

Scottish Summer

After two years, we felt that we needed to see the beautiful United Kingdom again so we jumped up to Scotland this week!

I (Doug) have been interested in Edinburgh College of Art for my MFA degree for quite some time and we felt it best to visit the school, see the facilities, and speak with people in the Graphic Design department. Don't worry, I'm not starting school this fall or anything, we just wanted to get a feel for the school and it is much cheaper to fly to Scotland from here than from back in the States.


As an added bonus, we got to see two sets of our good friends in Scotland and England from our YWAM days. We flew into Birmingham, England, rented (or "hired" as they say in the UK) a car and drove up to Scotland. We spent two days with our friends Conor and Lucia and toured around the very windy, very chilly (long sleeves, jackets and hoods in July?!) and very beautiful Edinburgh. We then drove down to Macclesfield, England to see Hans and Katy - who actually will be visiting us here in Geneva in a few weeks.

We don't know yet if Scotland is where we will end up for school, but we do know that the weather will be a big factor in our decision (both good and bad)!

A Flickr account? Yeah we have one.

"Frank and the City of Zurich"

My good friend, Frank Chimero, came to visit for a bit! He is a friend from my undergraduate design school and this is his first visit to Europe. We enjoyed tooling around Geneva and he even helped print a small edition letterpress print.

This past weekend, we all went up to Zurich to see the sights. Although it was rainy and cold, we really enjoyed the city. Changing from French to German was a bit of an embarrassing challenge, but we made it! Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the financial capital of Europe - which means it is very clean, efficient, and expensive. It is situated on a beautiful lake, has great old churches, a very fine art museum, and is easily walkable - all things that make Zurich a top-notch city in our book!


Like the big dorks that we are, we visited the Freitag Flagship Store which is made from old, stacked shipping containers. Freitag makes super-awesome messenger bags that are from completely recycled materials - mainly semi-truck tarps, bicycle inner tubes, and old seat belts. If you live in Springfield, Pastiche sells them downtown and they are worth every penny!


Our hotel was in a prime location and we just wandered around the city along the river toward lake Zurich. While we were walking we heard a brass band and polka music being played outside. As we got closer, we realized that they were playing music for a water jousting competition between different (very old and very exclusive) mens fraternal organizations - awesome!

More fotos on Flickr.

Daily Life in Switzerland

We've really settled into life here and feel like locals (minus the fact that we still can't communicate in French). Some things we appreciate about being here:

- amazingly accurate public transportation
- the sun not setting until 10pm
- cool summer nights
- living within a 5 minute walk to the lake
- the Alps from our balcony
- little cars and so many people walking

However, we do miss things about home too, such as:

- friends and family (of course!)
- American keyboards (Allison - I can never find the parenthesis at work!)
- an oven
- clothes dryer
- Target (have to admit it)

So, lesson of the day, there are always positive and negative things no matter where you live - just depends on how you view it!

Summer Reading

Books we are currently reading:

In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan (A)
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand (D)
A Severe Mercy - Sheldon Vanauken (A)
Lonely Planet Switzerland & Eyewitness Travel Switzerland (mostly D)
Bound for Glory - Woody Guthrie's Autobiography (D)
New Seeds of Contemplation - Thomas Merton (A & D)
Three by Flannery O'Connor (D)
W.H.O. books (obviously A)
And listening to the occasional This American Life podcast.

And for those interested, here's a recent article about one of the things the department I'm interning for is involved in.

Double Rainbow Over Lake Geneva

I feel like my dad on this one, but after a day of rain, we stepped out on our balcony and saw this! It was the brightest rainbow either of us have ever seen - the picture doesn't do it justice!

Our First Visitors!

Doug's sister Angela and her husband Jon came to visit this last week! They came to Europe to go on a cruise of the Adriatic Sea and stopped off first to see Geneva. It was nice to have some English speakers with us!


We also got to walk around more of Geneva and visit a giant outdoor flea market - a goldmine of old posters, postcards, and the like!

A few more photos are available for your viewing pleasure on our Flickr.

Quintessential Switzerland

Allison and I got up early Saturday morning and took a train to the Swiss Alps. As you would imagine, they were extremely beautiful and awe-inspiring.

We first went to Interlaken - a city in between two beautiful, glacier-fed lakes. From there we took a train, bus, and gondola up to Gimmelwald - a tiny farming village of only 130 people on the side of a mountain.

The weather was perfect and we spent the afternoon hiking around the village and up into the mountains. We got to see the highest point in Europe and learned how to pronounce Jungfraujoch. It was beautiful - but I think I already said that.

Yep, you can see more photos on our Flickr.

Sunday in Greater Geneva

We spent our Sunday in two countries, France and Switzerland - which sounds all cool and exotic, but it really isn't as cool or exotic as you would think. We visited a church just across the border in France. The border crossing was simply the bus slowing down - so, it really shows that the Swiss and the French like each other (in full disclosure, on the way back into Switzerland, the bus did stop, but all the border-patrol officer did was glance at our passports for about one second each).

After eating lunch (Americans, eating at a Thai restaurant, in France) we went down to tour the United Nations. Really, it is just a bunch of conference rooms, but these conference rooms have held important world leaders making massively important decisions.

And now we are back home, preparing for the week and maybe watching some football (soccer) games on our tiny TV.

Want to see pictures of flags and conference rooms? See our Flickr!

Day in Geneva

Today we wandered around the city of Geneva. We sunned in complimentary city lounge chairs in a park, viewed a monument to the Protestant Reformation, walked the Old City, and climbed to the top of the Cathedral St. Pierre for a panoramic view.

You can see more pictures on our Flickr.

IKEA!!!

I think the title says it all. We spent our Friday evening in glorious IKEA - first had dinner, then shopped, enjoyed the familiar and marveled at the "Swiss only" items, and then checked out and packed our stuff in our backpack and bags and came home to a happier apartment.

Our $100 was well spent:
2 pillows
1 pillowtop mattress cover (our bed isn't so comfortable)
1 fitted sheet (most people here just use a duvet, we miss the sheet)
1 desk lamp
mixing bowl set (tried to use a saucepan and it was disastrous)
1 whisk
1 square platter
silverware organizer
6 sets of silverware
2 plates (we need more for when our friends come)
1 pitcher
collapsible fish hamper
2 hand towels
2 dish towels
hand soap
body wash
wet wipes

Doug Goes for a Walk!

I spent yesterday walking around Geneva getting my bearings of the city. There is a nice, big lake, a giant jet fountain, a nice river, lots of old buildings, and nice public parks.

I put more photos up on our Flickr for your viewing pleasure.

Birthday Celebrations

Thanks to all who sent birthday greetings my way!

After work, Doug and I went out to eat at a wonderful restaurant in our town. I got a kebab (like a gyro or sovlaki) and Doug got a pizza. We then decided to brave the crowds and go into the heart of Geneva to watch one of the Euro2008 games on the big screen in the park. If you aren't aware, the unity over soccer in most places in the world is rather amazing.

After an exciting and crowded 45 minutes or so (and just after the mayhem of the Swiss goal) we decided to go get ice cream and then walked down over the river by the Jet d'Eau at night. It was beautiful and no one else was around.

Birthday Surprise

On Allison's birthday we were given a nice surprise - seeing the famous Mount Blanc from our balcony.

We didn't realize when we posted the other photos of the alps from our balcony the other day, that the biggest surprise was still to come - a beautiful view of snowy Mount Blanc. Want to know more about Mount Blanc? Sure you do - go here.

Home Sweet Home

We are now fully settled into our apartment here! Allison had her first day of work at WHO and it went well.

It is taking a bit longer than we expected to transition to living here. We have noticed all of the small things that you never think of (from butter to cell phones to bus routes) are much more difficult when they are not in your language. It is fun, but at times, pretty frustrating and everything take three times as long as it would take back in the States.

But, we don't want to complain - the clouds lifted just enough today to see the Alps from our balcony.


Just can't get enough? More photos on our Flickr.