Costume Party!

The whole gang gets dressed up!

Every now and then, when the winter is long and the days get gloomy, you just gotta throw a dang party! And voila: just a few home-mixed cocktails, a whole lot of laughs, and a completely wrecked apartment later, you feel So. Much. Better!

We decided to celebrate in costume because, though the prep can be extensive, the result are often fantastically amusing. Opening the door when the buzzer goes becomes half the fun...especially when your friends start getting creative!  This is a shot of the living-room contingent (isn't it funny how every party seamlessly splits into 'Team Living Room' and 'Team Kitchen'--or is that just us?!) I loved my roommate Sophie's ladybug approach, but I have to say the astronaut, nun, television and tiger were also incredibly cool. 

What are your go-to costumes? All time favorites? 

4:00 AM

And (a question for the ages) clean up in the wee hours directly after the guests depart or leave it all for the next day?  I'd love to hear your takes!



Look up at the Sky!



-Zanna

Pre-Gaming Christmas

Karl's family is so extensive that they don't get together for Christmas itself, because it's just so chaotic for everyone to travel to one place for the holiday. Instead, they have a wonderful tradition of picking a weekend in December that works for all the families and having a big pre-Christmas bash with everyone there.

 Karl's inexhaustible Aunt Greta hosts it, everyone exchanges gifts and coos over the new additions, and we all eat an amount of delicious dishes that defies the anatomy of the digestive system. Then, we all fall into bed like the gluttonous dead weights we are and wake again for a sumptuous brunch on Sunday morning which renders all easting unnecessary for the rest of the week. Seriously, Greta's brunches are legendary and fill you up for days. She's also a prolific decorator and purveyor of kitch (see her epic Santa collection) which adds another layer of festivity to the whole event.

I've heard many horror stories of relations with in-laws and partner's families. Karl's is fabulous and all have welcomed me into the family with open arms. I'm so grateful for them and for our relationship. Karl's grandparent's are so sweet to me they're almost like my own and his cousins and their girlfriends (the whole youngest generation of that family is male) are more like friends to us than distant relatives. In fact, we girls had a great hair-dos-and-gabbing session during a break in the feasting.  Having family, whether your own or adopted is the greatest blessing in life. We had a wonderful weekend, got in the Christmas spirit, and left with a huge haul of presents! Happy pre-Christmas!

Look up at the Sky!

-Zanna

Introductions

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen: Let's meet the cast!

Bay Area Beach: The Family at Play!

Zanna (aka Me)
Twenty-something, trilingual, trying to be an adult and so grateful to be failing terribly!
Things I love: red peppers, frozen raspberries, dark chocolate, traveling, studying medicine, good books, evenings that end with the kitchen a mess and covered in vanilla sugar.
Things I hate: cheese.
(I know that makes me persona non grata with some people. Sorry, can't stand the stuff)

Karl (aka The Boyfriend)

Karl et Moi

Also studies medicine, started in the same year as me but now taking a semester off to do research on tuberculosis. We had not one but several meet-cutes as the universe kept pushing us together and pulling us apart like an accordion. Finally got together, survived half a year of long distance (me: Paris, him: Lausanne) and then we both called uncle and moved back to the same city. Much better. Just celebrated our two year anniversary and still going strong, due mostly to his inexhaustible patience for my many crazy schemes and idiosyncrasies.

The Roommates 

Sophie holds me up in the Bolivian salt flats

My roommate since we moved into this lovely apartment on the edge of the woods (and a sleep-in-friendly ten minute ride to uni) is the unshakable Sophie, fellow med student and port in any storm. She's a scheduled, orderly, and utterly endearing vegetarian who loves baking and "basteln" with her three nieces. Sorry, there are some words that just don't translate. Also crashing here on a semi-permanent basis is her Chinese-American boyfriend Pete, whom she met in Australia the summer after first year. He's a whiz with computers and card games, except Rommey with we girls always win. Home is cozy, there's usually something delicious in the kitchen, and with a revolving door of residents, spontaneous parties can happen anytime from breakfast to bedtime (and beyond. Pillow fights.)

The Family

Sunbathing in Chapada Diamantina, Brasil

Mama, Papa, and my sister Zelda: the fabulously funky foursome. Zelda is three years younger and studying something math-y and computer-y in Rotterdam (one of Europe's coolest cities. Believe it!). Parents live in Berlin, both academics, both work and travel like there's no tomorrow.
We interrupt each other, text constantly, and have been first on the dance floor at every family wedding in living memory.
I'm also close to my slightly more extended family, Paternal Grandparents and Paternal Aunt who live in sunny California and my cousin Brooks who lives in NYC with his girlfriend Deedee.


The Best Friend

Scottish sunset with Clara and Charlie

Clara is lovely, loony, and LDS--a great combination, by the way.  We've been friends for a billion gazillion years (aka since middle school). She's one of my few friends who isn't in medicine (med stu's tend to cluster, its not a good thing). She's originally South African, raised in Europe, studied anthropology and archaeology and now lives in Edinburgh with her amazing husband of one year, Charles. Charlie is the exactly the kind of guy you would wish for your best friend. Kind, calm with a sense of humor as dry as the Sahara and the perfect mix of responsible adult and take-it-as-it-comes. They are a fascinating couple to converse with on just about any topic and she's my one and only talk-about-absolutely-anything friend. Everyone should have one of those.

That's everyone! Well, not everyone of course, but the ones that count. We'll see who else pops up in this blog as time goes on.

Look up at the Sky!

--Zanna