2017 - A Year in Review

It's been a while! 

I'm still alive! 

Dear Blog readers, 

Please excuse my absence. 2017 has been a very exciting yet extremely busy year for me and even though I often thought "you should really post on your blog," I never got around to it. 

Sorry.

I am currently on winter break with only one semester of my graduate studies left. Instead of a Master's thesis, my program has us write a case study, so that is what I am keeping myself busy with at the moment. Nonetheless, I have decided to use some spare minutes to finally, finally update this blog.

To make things easy, here is a summary of 2017:

Spring semester 2017 probably deserves the title of "busiest semester" of my graduate studies. I had three rather demanding classes in terms of homework load and due dates. Additionally, I taught two sections Elementary German II with 27 students each. Grading 54 students while having to keep up with your own assignments was no fun. I managed it somehow, however, and even though it was tough, it was another successful semester.

Apart from school, there was also the wedding planning. Throughout spring, I was busy with planning all the details of our wedding. I would have never thought that so much needed to be planned, even for a tiny wedding like ours. Looking back, that was the fun part of spring, nonetheless.

After school ended in May, I had the opportunity to work as an in-house translation intern at a software company in Westlake, Ohio, for 2.5 months. I was translating from English into German for once, yay! And for the first time in my life, I translated for the "real world," which posed its own challenges. I loved it though!
The internship ended one week before J. and I got married so my summer was very busy, too. 

Cleveland

On August 12, I said yes to my husband in front of family and Swiss and American friends, and it definitely was the highlight of this year. We had a small wedding with 60 people in his parents' yard on a lake and it was perfect. Thanks to everyone who was able to make it! <3




Before the semester started again (and our fun lives ended), J. and I took the bike to ride to Sugarcreek, Ohio, for a little honeymoon trip. Our first stop was at Cuyahoga National Park, the only NP in Ohio.

Brandywine Falls at Cuyahoga NP

Sugarcreek calls itself "The Little Switzerland of Ohio," due to many Swiss immigrants and cheese production, yet their main tourist attraction is the world's biggest (no kidding!) cuckoo clock. I was antsy to tell them that cuckoo clocks are actually from the Black Forest in Germany, not Switzerland.

Sugarcreek cuckoo clock

Fall semester 2017 was less demanding since I was able to get credits for the internship and only had to take two classes. Also, I had less students to teach, so all in all, it was a little less busy than Spring semester. 

J. got this pumpkin carving down!

On December 17, J. graduated with honors from Cleveland State University (so proud of him!) and I will graduate in May 2018.



Right now, it's freezing cold but really pretty outside. -13C!


I'm looking forward to another exciting year in Ohio and I will try to write for this blog more often in the future. 

I regularly post on Facebook and Instagram, though, if you want to follow me there (just click on each and you will be redirected to the Swiss in Ohio page)

Love from Ohio,
J.