Sunday, November 13, 2011

My VerySwiss Weekend

Thursday (close enough to weekend)--went to Swiss bakery where I got this...circular pastery....it was about the size of my hand and equizzzitely delicious. There was some lemon filling, too, which made this 5am dessert/breakfast REALLY something special. ;) Thank you Salem, for transportation.

Friday--so I finally went to NYX. It was absolutely nothing compared to Hugo's. Malta just has the upperhand in this one.

Saturday--Zurich. How much more Swiss can I get than by going to Zurich. I saw the Occupy Zurich protesters while there and ate a banana curry dish at this vegetarian restaurant. I shopped around a little (ouch, that pricetag hurt) and actually found two shirts for 9 franchi, needless to say that store was packed. I haven't found a city I love more in Europe than Zurich. The language, their way of life, the architecture, the natural beauty,but most of all the people just amaze me. Everything is so much cleaner and more efficient, it seems, in the northern part of the country. Or maybe it just appears to be that way to me because they generally speak more english than the Ticinese. It's vain, I know. I came here I didn't bother to learn any Italian, French, German, or God knows, Romansch. But Swiss German, I can't really tell the difference between it and High German, but I like it more. I can't tell you why really. Maybe it's that it's closer to home. Switzerland is one of my homes, I feel. I have Wyoming, Vegas, and Switzerland (depending on who I'm talking to). But there's just something about Zurich that makes me tic.

Sunday--Today I went to a Swiss woman's house. My job was to teach her 6 year old daughter piano and read to her in english. Easy enough. So that's what we did. The little girl was very bright! We were playing duets by the end of our first lesson...to be honest I haven't played piano since before I came to Franklin. I hope the girl doesn't become better than me too quickly. I also got lost on the way home for two hours. I went in two circles with the bus and ended up walking home for part of it. uh.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Spain Is Finalized.

...but first, New Lifestyles November.

for November 5: posted a Swiss article to my fb =)
                         continued writing a research paper on the effect the Swiss franc will have on the national economy....that's a Swiss thing to do, yeah?

So Spain.

I'm departing at 8.40 from Bergamo (BGY) on December 18. flight 5992 arriving in Madrid at 11.00.

I have plans to be in Madrid with a couchsurfing host I found who used to live in Switzerland. She's even going to pick me up from the airport =D

(I know this is a lot of details, but some of it is for me in case I lose my flight info...)

I'll be with her on my birthday, then I'm headed to Valencia to rekindle with my salsa friends from Malta! I'll just take the train on the 20th. I'll be staying with them for two weeks! They're originally from Peru and Ecuador and don't speak very much english so I'm way stoked. We're going to go salsa dancing and bachata dancing and I'm going to become a real latina jeje.
;) ojala

I don't know what I'm doing there yet or who I'm really going to be around. I know I can do anything, go anywhere, but my goal is to learn as much Spanish as I can in the two and a half weeks I'll be there. Who knows when I'll get another opportunity?

Departure is on January 5 at 6.00, flight 5991 from MAD to BGY--no layovers, no extra stops. I arrive at 8.15. Hm, I still have three weeks after that so... I wonder what I'll do next.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

New Lifestyles November

My New Lifestyle for November is Swiss Life.

I didn't think my life could get anymore Swiss, then SGA hit me with this opportunity...and a free dinner.

So here's what I've been doing so far:

Nov 1: started reading "Heidi" by Johanna Sypri
Nov 2: crossed at all the crosswalks and ONLY when the light turned green
Nov 3: went to Mamma Mia in Zurich--that's so Swiss
Nov 4: read a newsarticle about the strength of the Swiss franc

My life is Swiss

Mamma Mia!

Some girlfriends and I made our way from sunny Lugano to Zurich in about two hours. Unfortunately no one wrote down directions so we learned our lesson. Not to worry, we still arrived a good 30 minutes early. (And even if we had arrived late, the show tickets were free! Payed for by SGA, thank you).

Wonderful Miss Gloria and I ventured off and found ourselves trying to order what we thought was pumpkin soup. It was SO not what we thought it was, but hey, I still enjoyed it.

I didn't realize how much they would modify the dialogue in Mamma Mia. The songs were all the same, but the performers were English and Scotish and so the language was completey upsidedown.

They put jokes in about Scotsmen you wouldn't have heard in the States and jokes off Oedipus....yeah, ew. That's the British I guess.

We were originally up in the nose bleeds but the acoustics were awesome. Something I've noticed about the Swiss: many of their buildings are "red" oriented. I'm assuming it's going off their flag, but it kind of reminds me of Nebraska (minus corn on the cob).

The Swiss do not cheer outloud as my American counterparts do. But they will clap for a longer period of time, it seems. I guess it makes up.

Most importantly, the tap water is still AWEsOmE in Zurich!