Where Did We Go?

Tiffany and I thought that the blog would be over now that we're back in the US and no longer have exciting, international stories to tell you. Really, what could we say about our lives now? Documented trips to Costco and Target?

As it turns out, we received numerous, (politely) angry comments about the death of our blog, which surprised us. So while we won't be able to post as frequently as before, we will still try for periodic updates of our lives. Hope you enjoy this update of our first 4 months back!

As soon as we returned to the US in late August, we had some traveling to do. Tiffany went on a traveling spree through Denver, Chicago, and Iowa (apparently, 4 months of traveling just weren't enough for the girl). At the end of her American tour, Zach broke from his diligent social schedule, I mean, study schedule, to meet up with Tiffany on the East coast. While we were out there, Zach was able to meet up with his friend and ex-colleague from their DC days, Andrew. As you can see in the photo below, Andrew and his wife Amanda are very busy these days with their first kid, a very cute little girl! We went and visited the new 9/11 memorial by the Pentagon.

From DC we drove out to University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, for Tiffany's friend Miriam's wedding. Not only did Miriam and her new husband, Dave, throw a beautiful and fun wedding, they even performed for their guests!
Here Tiffany rests on the steps of a beautiful building on the UVA campus.
The other big highlight of the trip? The sweet ride Zach picked up and got to zoom around in all weekend! Not to mention a stop at an institution, the Waffle House :)
So what is Berkeley's Haas Business School all about, anyway? As Zach quickly found out, it was about "theme parties" and "costume parties", or preferably both. For Halloween, with the election looming, it only seemed appropriate to dress politically. Zach was your everyday "Joe Six-pack", and Tiffany was a (pretend) proud "Hockey Mom", which was so convincing that she actually got berated in San Francisco for supporting Sarah Palin. Extreme liberals as well, it turns out, have no sense of humor.
Zach's school then decided to celebrate the end of midterms with another party. The theme was "Monochrome". We drew many compliments in our matching ballerina outfits, and Zach contemplated a career change to a professional costume-party-goer.
Zach got to see his first 49ers' game in years. The Tom Brady-less Patriots still won easily, and Zach remembered why he hadn't been to a game in years.
Meanwhile, Tiffany was actively involved with the Haas "Partners Club", an organization comprised of the Berkeley MBA students' significant others. Tiffany had some of the international students over to learn how to bake cookies!
Then Zach threw a party for some of his classmates at his good friend Cali's house in San Francisco. Here he is, building relationships, literally, in the form of a human pyramid.
One of the great aspects of business school has been the opportunity to meet all sorts of people. And then convince them to take photos in ridiculous poses... Zach flew out to Omaha to meet with the "Oracle", Warren Buffet. While Zach didn't learn any investment secrets, he did get a once in a lifetime photo with the richest man in America.
And at a Berkeley conference on diversity, Zach met his longtime 49er idol, Ronnie Lott.
Tiffany landed a new job at a greeting card company, Cardstore.com, where she is the director of marketing. She utilized her new skills to create our Christmas tree for this year.

Of course, Berkeley wasn't about to let the holidays pass without throwing another party!
And here we are, enjoying Berkeley's wonderfully mild winter!
And finally, we rang in the New Year with friends in San Francisco's famous House of Prime Rib. There's no better way to ring in the New Year than with good friends, lots of champagne, and large portions of red meat!
Zach recently returned from a trip to Israel, so that will probably be the next blog entry in a week or so!