Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Swiss Food in my Life

Yesterday, ah yesterday, was all about the food.

So I basically sent our cafeteria an email saying we needed more Swiss food last week. And starting yesterday, they began selling fresh muesli. It had the works: fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, a hint of nutmeg--it hit the spot!

Then I discovered "il cappucino". Enough said.

The evening brought about a plethora of all things Swiss. I was in a mad stupor of cheeses, chocolates (avec noisettes!) and cheap wine. The chocolate avec noisette won.

I get back to my dorm and what's waiting for me but some friends and a batch of cookie dough they bought at a Zurich market in January. Now how could I pass this up? So I didn't. I'm not usually a big cookie girl, but these had cinnamon, nutmeg, almonds, and who know what else.

AND THEN, the next day, I went for a long jog.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Negative Nancy

All the tea I bought in London is nearly finished =( this makes me sad.

You know what also makes me sad? Not being paid enough for piano and English lessons in 3.5 hour segments. Oy vey. At least it's a little something extra for Academic Travel in two weeks. Okay, I guess that should make me happy.

And who knows if I'm going to Germany for my Ernst and Young internship anymore. I'm definitely aiming for it, but the chances are quickly tumbling. I've already signed the forms, searched for housing, and changed my flight. The NROTC scholarship needs me in the US this summer for a physical. Yeah, a physical! That's what I thought. Pretty lousy, eh?


All I'm really excited about right now is this bowl of muesli I'm about to eat. De-Lish!! ;)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

observations

So the Brits hate us (meaning US citizens), yet they are seriously just as loud and generally more drunk.

Trashy American graffiti: fuck you; Trashy Italian graffiti: va bene

In Cagliari, the graffitied whale that is currently shown on my profile picture is a ver popular image. I couldn't help but to notice it. I could never figure it out when I was there...wonder what it means??

I remember flipping through the Franklin catalogue books and seeing the buildings. These struck me. I thought they were so unusual. But now I know; the buildings are normal.

That's all for now.

Observations

So the Brits hate us (meaning US citizens), yet they are seriously just as loud and generally more drunk.

Trashy American graffiti: fuck you;           Trashy Italian graffiti: va bene           

In Cagliari, the graffitied whale that is currently shown  on my profile picture is a ver popular image. I couldn't help but to notice it. I could never figure it out when I was there...wonder what it means??

Thursday, February 23, 2012

My Average week

Left Lugano on Thursday evening with Gloria. Got locked into Milan Centrale with a graduate student from Israel, whom we took cookies from when he wasn't watching. (He offered them to us beforehand, but...) hehehe

Since it was the first night of Carnivale, the guards were drunk (ln the Italian side only). Ye be warned.

Although exhausted, I stayed up for most of flight. I remember looking out the window of the Ryanair jet and seeing only the rough mountains of central Italy, splattered by snow and sun. Literally, a few minutes later, we were over some islands in the Mediterranean. We passed some rickety looking boats with fishermen, the most beautiful water you will ever see, and flamingos.

There we were, in Cagliari (pronounced: Ka-EE-ahr-ee). That's the capital of Sardinia, aka the cheapest flight I could find for this particular weekend.

It was a minimum of 60 F the whole weekend. Not swimming weather but we were at the beach whenever we could get there!!

We also took this mini hiking trip to Sella Diavolo (the Devil's Saddle). Not too bad of a hike but the only shoes we brought were "woman boots"....

One of the strangest things we saw was a small flock of male peacocks in a park. There were children jumping rope, swinging, people walking their dogs, and peacocks. Pics on facebook.

I'm not usually a fan of Italian food (Italian food from Italy), but the last night we had one fabulous meal. Mirto, gnocchi con noci, and we even pulled out some Monica Wine. I don't think I can drink anything else again. Ahh...

It took us so long to get from Bergamo to Lugano, as it always does.

You would think that life would go back to routine after all that. No. Last minute on Tuesday, I decided to go to Carnivale with another friend. Left at 22:30, back at 5:30, dressed up as a homemade Valentines Day present. Pics on facebook. (Ye be warned)

Now it's Thursday night. What's there to do? Well, Gloria and I went to the spa for free!! I found a flier offering a free session to a local spa so she booked it. We originally got the day wrong, went wednesday, and yeah that was annoying.

But for 3 hours, I spoke some form of English/Spanish/Italian. I had a "nutritional facial" done in a room with 5 other people and the walls were the most fabulous shade of bright green I've ever witnessed.

It was actually really nice. Very Swiss. They had the Renasaince pictures on the walls, didn't speak a word of english, and they shook hands with us because they knew we were American. Oh, dear...

That was my average week.

Normal Weekend

Left Lugano on Thursday evening with Gloria. Got locked into Milan Centrale with a graduate student from Israel, whom we took cookies from when he wasn't watching. (He offered them to us beforehand, but...) hehehe

Since it was the first night of Carnivale, the guards were drunk (ln the Italian side only). Ye be warned.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

More London

There were so many people to talk to!

The MUN of UCL hosted a dinner for the participants. good times....

They also bought tickets for us to get into a couple clubs. It was 80's night at one. I still remember doing the exercises similar to "Buns of Steel" with the performers on stage...

I do have to admit that the music could have been better. First, they needed "I believe in a thing called love". Second, they could have snuck some Spice Girls in there.

Tera, Gloria, and I were out til at least 3:00 both nights. We were together for most of it, but we also bonded with the people in our committees.

I made a couple of good friends there I'd say: the Representative of Turkey, the Representative of Somalia,who did a horrid job of representing the US ;) (since when are we run by Exxon Mobile??)

Model UN: LONDON

Wow, so I did it. I actually made it through the month of January. I managed my life through Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, credit card crisis', three languages I'm not a native speaker to, and a very shady train station with blue florescent lights.

Not to mention going to London, England after three days of class.

Traveling to the airports around here are always a hassel. Mostly because they're not actually "around here." I had to go to Luzern, to go to Berne, to get to Geneva HB.

The last train from Geneve HB to the airport was around midnight and I, of course, didn't get there until 1 in the morning. I ended up staying at the same hotel that Kristen and I stayed at the weekend before. I also asked for a student discount. The man at the desk laughed at this but he saw my demeanor. He took 20CHF off the price.

I have to say that the next day, I slept in (ie woke up about an hour late), and still made it to the airport on time. It was a beautiful thing.

So I get to London, King's Cross. I'm tired, not sure which language I should attempt, and all I wanted was some Swiss tap water.

After this trip, I learned that no one in London knows anything directionally about London, even the natives.

I eventually get the Generator Hostel London. I was put off immediately by it's Jack-the-Ripper-like location and, what do you know, blue florescent lights. It was huge and there was a bar in the back. I stuck my backpack in a locker and hit the town since the other three in my group wouldn't be coming until well into the evening...

I had a day in London to myself!!

I started with the spiciest Indian food I could find. I think they thought I was European of some sort because when I told them to make it really spicy, it was spicy on the European scale.

I remember going to an Indian restaurant with my dad in Vegas this summer and I told the waitress to make it as spicy as possible. I don't know if they were holding back or not, but I barely cried. My dad was even impressed and he knows his spicy.

Anyway, I ended up walking through the British Museum, the Portrait Museum, Chinatown, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and through the center of everything "theatre". I was so close to seeing Les Miserables for only 15GBP but I didn't want to be late getting back to the hostel and meeting my roomies. Next time, though....

So I went to bed in the disgusting rooms of the Generator. Around 4:00 am Tera bursts through the door with a smile on her face "Hey guys I'm here!". Gloria and I sit up while Tera wrestles to get all her luggage through the door and into the squeaky locker. Uh. 4:00am. Ce soiree la.

No one was able to sleep because there were people screaming, yelling, pounding through the corridors at all hours speaking every language. Gloria apoligized and we found a smaller hotel the next morning, "The Goodwood Hotel: Bed and Breakfast".

Life at the Goodwood was rough: two keys, four girls. That's all I have to say about that.

Okay Model UN. It was much like debate but on a grand scale. About 25 of us had been assigned to a committee last month with a country and that's what we debated. We actually ended up passing the two resolutions for the two topics we had. I represented The Republic of Seychelles. I was talkative at first but then I just had to back off because really, what does Seychelles have to do with the Northwestern Passage?

Tera and I were the only students not attending school in England in our committee. Everyone else was from Leeds, Exeter, London, Sussex but many of them were originally from countries like Malaysia. We had a fun group =)

Even though I didn't speak up as much as I'd anticipated, the research I did beforehand and the debate that went on was really quite fun.  It was like a better version of high school CX  or Drama. (Speech and Debate was so much more staunch and serious in the US than here...I loved it).