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life in Switzerland
You know that list of things that we're no longer allowed to do at Hogwarts? Switzerland is a little like that, just less exciting. I'd give you a list, but it would only encourage me to feel petty. Or I'd talk about how I'm eating waaaaaay too much chocolate pudding and cheese (not together).
I do want to note, however, that despite the people in the flat upstairs coming down here repeatedly to tell us that cooking and showering are not allowed after 10pm because the noise is audible in other flats, they were totally showering last night at 11:16pm. If I spoke more German, I'd totally have gone up there and knocked on their door out of amused spite.
Yesterday I had a quite nice day. When I went into the office (which is just across the street from the flat), I noticed it was warm and gorgeous out, so I decided to walk down to the old town. I did that, went on the pedestrian bridge, watched the swans for a while, marveled at what is truly gorgeous scenery and felt nearly human.
On the way back, I checked out some of the eyeglass shops. The frames here are really brilliant, and since I just got a lot of back pay for overtime, I thought maybe I'd get a new pair. My god, I thought eyeglasses were expensive in the US. I am not paying $450 francs for a pair of frames. With my prescription and lens add-ons, that would be a $1,000 pair of glasses. I have expensive tastes, but that's absurd, regardless of my budgetary abilities or no.
Anyway, then I discovered the "good" mall, which was still pretty crap, but was sort of fun and interesting. I find that much casual clothing is hard fro my eye to immediately differentiate whether it's men's or women's here, and with less size zero's in the shops, I can't just use scale to figure it out. You'd think I'd be happy about that? But gender is stricter in some ways here (although looser in others) than the US, and I worry about making faux pas that would compromise my comfort or safety. So mostly I am curious from afar and wearing my awesome men's clothes not quite how I prefer in order to deflect some of my concerns.
Aside from the mall, I also discovered a gourmet food shop! They had good quality produce. And some amazing gluten-free bread and gluten-free yaffa cakes! And it wasn't really much more expensive than everything else here, so I was happy to do that. Super nice.
Then I went back to the office to do said work. Another visiting colleague told me she's going to Einseidel today to see the Black Virgin. It's actually pretty easy to get to from here, and maybe later in the week if my schedule let's up, I'll try myself. She's actually faithful, so I didn't feel okay about going with her (and I've a lot of work to do today), but I do enjoy things like that and there's a mass every day at 8pm, so I know the cathedral is open well into the evening. Assuming the trains run as late as I think they do, I can totally make that happen.
Here, have a picture, not of Switzerland, but of me in the cinderblock flat.
I do want to note, however, that despite the people in the flat upstairs coming down here repeatedly to tell us that cooking and showering are not allowed after 10pm because the noise is audible in other flats, they were totally showering last night at 11:16pm. If I spoke more German, I'd totally have gone up there and knocked on their door out of amused spite.
Yesterday I had a quite nice day. When I went into the office (which is just across the street from the flat), I noticed it was warm and gorgeous out, so I decided to walk down to the old town. I did that, went on the pedestrian bridge, watched the swans for a while, marveled at what is truly gorgeous scenery and felt nearly human.
On the way back, I checked out some of the eyeglass shops. The frames here are really brilliant, and since I just got a lot of back pay for overtime, I thought maybe I'd get a new pair. My god, I thought eyeglasses were expensive in the US. I am not paying $450 francs for a pair of frames. With my prescription and lens add-ons, that would be a $1,000 pair of glasses. I have expensive tastes, but that's absurd, regardless of my budgetary abilities or no.
Anyway, then I discovered the "good" mall, which was still pretty crap, but was sort of fun and interesting. I find that much casual clothing is hard fro my eye to immediately differentiate whether it's men's or women's here, and with less size zero's in the shops, I can't just use scale to figure it out. You'd think I'd be happy about that? But gender is stricter in some ways here (although looser in others) than the US, and I worry about making faux pas that would compromise my comfort or safety. So mostly I am curious from afar and wearing my awesome men's clothes not quite how I prefer in order to deflect some of my concerns.
Aside from the mall, I also discovered a gourmet food shop! They had good quality produce. And some amazing gluten-free bread and gluten-free yaffa cakes! And it wasn't really much more expensive than everything else here, so I was happy to do that. Super nice.
Then I went back to the office to do said work. Another visiting colleague told me she's going to Einseidel today to see the Black Virgin. It's actually pretty easy to get to from here, and maybe later in the week if my schedule let's up, I'll try myself. She's actually faithful, so I didn't feel okay about going with her (and I've a lot of work to do today), but I do enjoy things like that and there's a mass every day at 8pm, so I know the cathedral is open well into the evening. Assuming the trains run as late as I think they do, I can totally make that happen.
Here, have a picture, not of Switzerland, but of me in the cinderblock flat.
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Tangent re: Switzerland - the Lauterbrunnen valley in Switzerland is one of my favorite places on earth. I once visited while on an assignment in Belgium and... I had never felt more euphoric about being anywhere ever before. I was there in the summer, so it was all green valleys and soaring mountains and sparkling waterfalls. It really felt like the most beautiful place ever imaginable.
I just went to google images to get a link to show you (link: http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&gl=us&biw=1276&bih=788&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=lauterbrunnen+switzerland&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=lauterbr&gs_rfai= )
and I can feel my heart catch in my throat just looking at the thumbnails.
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hen our landlady, who lived directly below us, proceeded to have long and loud gatherings at her house throughout the three months we lived there, most of them lasting until 1 in the morning. Other neighbors in the building did so as well.
But WE were the loud Americans. And we were advised by our program not to say anything even though it was seriously affecting our ability to work. Interestingly enough we had the quietest apartment on the program, so I guess it could have been worse.
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Don't tell me you kids got banned from Argo...
And really? 10 PM? FFS. It's not like you're vacuuming or anything is it? Tell me your flatmates aren't vacuuming after 10 PM.
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