Geneve, Genf, Ginevra, Geneva

The multi-lingual, 3rd highest standard of living, 4th most expensive city, and home to the World Health Organization--Geneva, Switzerland is where I spent a week this summer. At USAID I manage grants, and one of those grants are with the WHO. In efforts to learn more and have the grant process run more smoothly, USAID sent me to Geneva for a week. Sounds so official, doesn't it? In reality, it was a three day meet and greet as I met with directors of the many health programs that our grant supports.

 Statue depicting Smallpox eradication 

(Yes, I am a fan of vaccines)

Geneva is a BEAUTIFUL city! I took a red eye flight from DC and arrived in Switzerland early Sunday morning. I was a little nervous landing in a foreign country and having to figure out currency, taxis, and hotels, but as usual I was just fine. On arrival I was enveloped in pouring rain and a whole lot of French. Luckily, everyone in Switzerland speaks English and about 40% of Geneva residents come from outside of Switzerland, it has a very international flavor. The taxi dropped me off at my hotel where I immediately fell asleep for a few hours (I can't sleep on planes and so jet lag and a night of not sleeping was a perfect combo for a long nap.) I woke up just in time to meet two BYU students in the hotel lobby who were there to show me the way to church. I attended the English branch, which consisted of a lot of diplomatic and business families living in Geneva for various jobs.

After church, I was off by myself to explore the city. My hotel was located minutes from the gorgeous Lake Geneva and I simply walked around and enjoyed the scenery. Monday morning I met up with the same kids and they gave me a very brief and fast paced tour of Old Town Geneva. Of course, only after we stopped at the Best Pastry shop in the city--pastries filled with nutella, hazlenut chocolate, and other deliciousness. Meetings at WHO started late that morning and the rest of my day was running from meeting to meeting.

 The world's longest bench

"The Reformers Wall" A monument built to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the University of Geneva, which was founded by John Calvin, a leader in the Protestant Reformation

The meetings were less than exciting, but just as a fun side note, if any of you see the movie "Contagion" the front doors and lobby of the WHO are exactly as shown in the movie. I got really excited watching the movie and seeing places where I had actually been. After meetings each day, I had time to explore. With some other work demands that came up, that exploration time was cut a bit short, but in the time I had, I went running around the lake, visited shops, ate lots of chocolate and yummy sandwiches, and just took this gorgeous city in. Geneva really is quite friendly and easy to navigate and I only wish I had a bit more time to see more of the city and explore the culture a bit more.

 The walkway of flags at the United Nations Building

I had three days of meetings and on Thursday I hopped on a train to Germany to visit die Oma and other relatives...Swiss train rides are so magical! Stay tuned for my next post as I transitioned from French speaking, pastry eating, international flair Switzerland to beer and pretzel eating Germany!

Didenhover Family Reunion: Oregon Coast

In June, all the Didenhovers got together in Waldport, Oregon on the Oregon Coast to spend a week together. With our family growing each year (21), it's hard to get together regularly. The last reunion was 5 years ago, so we were due for another Didenhover extravaganza!

6 full days together at the beach, it was incredible. I love my family. It is a blast being together and watching the cousins play together. My siblings are great and we have so much. It was absolutely wonderful being together.

The weather cooperated for the most part. We had some rainy days, but the sunshine days were gorgeous--70's, clear skies, light breeze. In addition to playing on the beach, we visited the Newport Aquarium, Tillamook Cheese Factory, played games, watched movies, talked, and ate some great meals. All in all, it was a fantastic week.

 Sisters

 All the Didenhover Kids

 Exploring the tide pools in the rain

 Eating "squeaky cheese" at the Tillamook Cheese Factory with my niece Leah

 Washing up after playing in the tide pool at the Newport Aquarium

 Rainy walk on the beach

 Zach (4 years) just chilln' watching the waves

Me and my Papa

THANK YOU DAD and MOM for planning, organizing, andd being the best parents in the world. I love you!

Viva Mexico

Oh Mexico...I've never really been, but I'd sure like to go...

I know you are all thinking of beautiful beaches, poolside lounges, and pina coladas with tiny umbrellas...but what if I paint a slightly different picture.

Tacos, taxis, dusty streets, colonial Spanish architecture, mariachi, street fairs, mexican lakes, and did I mention...ping pong?

All this adds up to a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend in
GUADALAJARA, MEXICO!

 

Mike was headed there for work and invited me to tag along, so we spent our holiday weekend in the lovely land of Guadalajara! Mexico's second largest city, cultural capital, and home of Mariachi music!

In the lovely city of Guadalajara, we did some sight seeing, some eating, and watched a whole lot of ping pong. Guadalajara was hosting the Latin American Ping Pong Championships and Mike was there to promote his new product, the iPong (see retail/online stores like Sears and Amazon to take a look). We spent a few afternoons at the tournament and while Mike did his thing of selling and schmoozing, I tried my best to interact with the Natives and to learn a little more about this basement sport that has gone wild.

Mexican kids playing ping pong outside the tournament

When we weren't watching ping pong, we were exploring the city's cathedrals (including a Catholic Mass where I was blessed by the Priest), markets, street vendors, and taco houses. We also ventured to Chapala, a lake city about an hour away with gorgeous views of the lake and mountains with lake water that was questionable to say the least. We even got a chance to visit the Guadalajara Temple, which has the exact same layout as the Spokane Temple, so I felt right at home (minus the Spanish immersion).

 Catholic Church dating back to the 1600's

 Guadalajara Temple (The Senior sister took one look at me and said, "You don't speak Spanish do you?" I think she was thrilled to speak some English.)

 Chapala

Famous Mariachi

 Guadalajara is BEAUTIFUL by night

 Tacos--so good

For a real taste of Mexico, visit Guadalajara, where tourists and blondes are few and the pick up mariachi bands are everywhere.

Viva Mexico!

Birthdays and Baseball

I love birthdays.  I love half birthdays. I love my birthday. And I love celebrating others' birthdays. My roommate, Whitney hit the major milestone of 25 this year and we decided it was reason to celebrate. I wanted to do something fun, something meaningful, and something memorable. I think, just maybe, that the birthday fesitivities covered all three. Whit isn't really a big party person, so we opted out of the ward dessert night that just happens to coincide with a birthday and plan a real party. This party included dinner, dessert, and a talent show! Whit is full of talents herself (singing, piano, crafts, creative, masterful teacher, and a contagious laugh that earned her a nickname of Giggles), so in return we as roommates decided to provide Whitney with a talent of our own. Here's the run down...

Steff started us out with a bang. She might be slightly obsessive about her new ipad and as her talent decided to showcase this.

Ally, a trained yoga teacher, demonstrated her ability to do the splits.

Marissa LOVES creating in the kitchen and she baked Whitney some wonderful treats.

Mike decided to show off his juggling abilities by juggline 2lb weights.

And I sang Whit's favorite rendition of "Climb Every Mountain" from the Sound of Music...

All in all, it was quite the talent show! I can't wait for next year.

BASEBALL- GO M's

Last year when I moved to the East Coast, I made a goal to visit all the ballparks on the East Coast. Well, that hasn't really happened, but I have attended every Mariner's game in the area. This year the M's came to Baltimore and to Washington D.C. I made sure to attend both games. Unfortunately, Seattle couldn't pull out any wins. There were some heartbreaking losses and I may have shed some tears. I guess with 162 games a year,  you can't win them all (or even half). Still, I am a Seattle fan through and through!

 My angry face as Mike gloated in Baltimore's win over Seattle. Supposedly the Orioles are his team.

 

Spring Travels

Time to recap my last 3 months. Life is pretty much the same with work, church, friends, etc., but what makes it interesting is all the trips!

April: NYC-Concrete jungle where dreams are made of....

My favorite running buddy, Traci, has been living in NYC for the past year and I needed to make another Big Apple trip while she still lived there. I buddied up with my friends Jackie and Liz and we took a girls weekend in New York. The easiest and cheapest way from DC to NY is by bus, so Friday after work we hopped on a commuter bus and arrived in downtown NY close to midnight. Saturday was perfect! Traci and I went running through Central Park, then Liz, Traci, and myself went downtown and checked out Times Square to see if we could score some cheap tickets to a show (no such luck). Later, Liz and I left Traci to do some studying and resting and we went walking and exploring. One of the best things about NY is the food--on our stroll we found some good street pizza, visited Pink Berry, and randomly happened across Insomnia Cookie, a cookie bakery a few blocks from Traci's place that she was trying to find. I ended up going with Traci to the suburbs for church on Sunday where she teaches Sunbeams and we had a grand ol' time teaching the Sunbeams about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Traci put me in charge of telling the story of the Israelites and manna and how God provided double portion of manna on Saturday so that Sunday would be a day of rest. We prepared pieces of bread for each kid and everyone got to eat some manna! My favorite quote was by a little boy named Cache, who when he finished his bread asked, "I want some more mannas please." Too cute!

NYC is a busy, big, and fast paced city...it's nice taking it in doses and having a local to show you around.

Times Square

Hanging out at the NYC Public Library

Happy Easter in FLORIDA!

Over Easter weekend, 7 friends and myself flew down to Destin, Florida! That's right, Florida. Sunshine, white sandy beaches, warm water, and good times! The trip included lots of beach time, Saturday dinner on a yacht, jet skis, dance parties in the street and lots of yummy food. I need my beach fix every few months and this was the perfect trip to start the summer season!

More beach in VA BEACH

In May, Mike and I decided we needed some more beach, to remedy this, we ventured down to Virginia Beach, VA for the weekend. While I was expecting some warmer temperatures and beach time, VA Beach had something else in store for us--our very own MONSTER TRUCK RALLY! Yes, as we looked out the balcony window late Friday night, we saw the beach scattered with monster trucks and mountains of sand scattered throughout. Now, for me this was no big deal and actually kind of a nuisance since I wanted to play on the beach, but for Mike this was childhood dreams becoming reality. I forced him to go running with me Saturday morning and then I spent the afternoon wandering the beach and trying to get excited over "Grave Digger" and "Stone Crusher" and other monster trucks that supposedly Mike knew and had watched as a kid when visiting VA Beach. To make his boyhood even more complete, we took a ride in one of the trucks! Wow, my life is complete. To round out the day and weekend we also went golfing (I'm a 'natural' according to Mike and of course, I believe him), listened to some steel drum music as part of a local festival, and had some scrumptious seafood on the water. All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.

 Livin' the dream

 VIP pass inside the truck itself

Enjoy the pics and stay tuned for more spring/summer happenings.

I think I have a problem

Admittance is the first step, right?

Well, I think I have a problem. I am addicted to running races. In the past 12 months, I have run 5 races covering a distance of 257.4 miles. I guess you could say I am a runner. Those races include 2 half marathons, a Ragnar Relay race, and a midnight New Year's Eve race, and a full marathon. My latest adventure was the National Half Marathon in downtown DC on March 26. It only seemed fitting to do a race in my city with my favorite running buddy, Traci Garff. A big shout out to Traci! We have run all of those 257.4 miles together plus countless training runs. We started in North Orem and slowly moved east as we ran in Maryland, Richmond, VA, New York City, and Washington D.C. Traci's moving back to Utah, so our legacy of running races together might be over, but I'm thinking we'll somehow meet up for another race...Marathon in Rome? New Zealand? Uganda? Who knows?

My latest race....

 Washington D.C. National Half Marathon

37- number of comments we received on our tutus during the race. After 5 races, why not tutus? I promise it helps with speed, something to do with aerodynamics. And yes, we ran all 13.1 miles in our tutus. Plus we both PR'd (personal record) 2 hours 1 min. Someday I will break 2 hours...someday soon. Maybe the tutu will have to come out again.

 Obviously, I wasn't a ballerina...since I'm doing the YMCA instead of 1st position

 Notice the sign. Respect for Ukrainian (molodets = good job)

Running is a positive addiction--at least that's what I'm telling myself. It's all about getting some exercise and having some fun!