Haven’t written anything in almost 3 weeks which in comparison to how long I’ve been in Switzerland...is a long time! Sorry about that guys but my mind’s been occupied elsewhere for the last couple of weeks. Lots of things have happened in 19 days. Kissed a boy, met a prince, got a killer cough, went skiing, got a flesh eating disease, went to a Swiss hospital and my favourite, found myself again. Sounds really corny but sometimes life is just a tad corny and I like it like that :) Just a disclaimer cause this is about to get real gay!
First thing – boy I kissed is Reto. So after our kissing to prove a point, we did find ourselves on his bed having a little kissing party on pub night 2 days later... and then the next night as well. It was on the second night that I realised my mind was on someone else even though I had a boy right next to me. Kind of a bad feeling really; wishing you’re with someone else even though you’re with someone already. So that put an end to anything that might have eventuated with Reto. It’s good between us now, never awkward when I’m over at Allison’s. I’m good like that.
S this other boy is a prince – I can’t stop thinking about him. I didn’t even see him coming but he swept me off my feet so easily and sucky thing is, I fell straight on my ass. Haha. He’s amazing; everything I could ever want in a boy. We had a really good night together and I liked him so much. I got all those butterflies when he held my hand and that warm fuzzy feeling when he kissed me. I’d forgotten what it was like to like someone. I’d forgotten all those good feelings you can have but I also forgot the bad ones that came along with it all. He brought them all back for me. Here’s the problem. He lives an hour away from me and it’s extremely expensive for us to see each other. It gets worse, he leaves the country in July until December for an international internship. When he went home the next day and I realised all this, I had the worst empty hollow feeling which took me down for a good week. I completely panicked and acted like (sorry ladies) a girl, over analysing everything and getting down about things that I started making up in my head. I want to laugh about it now because the previous day, I had just told a friend not to do exactly what I was doing. It’s amazing how bad we are at taking our own advice... well how bad I am.
Luckily I went skiing that weekend which took most of my mind off it. Had a great weekend learning how to ski and rolling down the mountain. I was bruised and sore but I had the best fun. The most satisfying part is actually getting the hang of it and skiing down the entire mountain without doing the triangle stop at the end of the weekend. It’s always funny when skiing to see the pro Swiss 5 year olds zooming down the mountain while we 20 something oldies have our legs bent inwards trying to stop. The place, Ovronnaz, was absolutely amazing and so beautiful. It really was a little bit of paradise in the middle of Switzerland. The weekend was a good distraction for me but unfortunately, a little cut on my face got infected and developed into a flesh eating disease. What started of as a very little cut grew to about 6 times its size by Monday and looked like the flesh was still being eaten. I spoke to Hieu back home and got his medical expertise and found out it’d gotten infected . All I needed was antibiotic cream which required a doctor’s prescription. That was scary, going to a Swiss hospital and waiting for 3 hours to see a doc for 5 mins only to have him tell me exactly what Hieu had already told me but I got the prescription and got some cream on it. It really was starting to look scary – people stared on the train to the hospital. It’s doing fine now, mostly gone.
Alright so back to the boy. Haven’t seen him since I sent him home and fell into my hole of despair but I have spoken to him. We don’t talk about us or how we feel and I don’t really want to do it over msn but hopefully he’s coming to see me again next week. Hopefully. A few guys asked me out over the last week and I almost said yes since me and him aren’t together. In fact we haven’t even talked about us... and it doesn’t seem like there can be an us. I was really confused over the last week about exactly how I felt. After some good advice from Asher (Lol I know!) and some serious dish washing and room cleaning (it’s what I do to think) I figured out alot of things about me.
I don’t know if you guys remember what I was like before I met Mitch but I was a very different boy with some very naive ideas. After Mitch, I kind of buried every feeling I had so I could recover and now there’re all back so it was a bit hard to handle it all at first. I don’t know what I’m trying to say but I missed being that naive boy. And I miss what I use to be like and what I use to want because that’s who I want to be. (Aw how melodramatic!) Okay so you guys probably won’t understand a thing I’m saying now but here’s the important thing. I like a boy now, and even though I don’t know where we stand and know that we probably don’t have a future, I don’t want anyone else. I’m a one man man. Haha.
Hmmm okay I give people permission to judge me harshly at this point because I’ve obviously gone loopy. But one thing I did realise is that I haven’t been this happy in a while. I’m a bit sad because I know it’s probably a dead end but at the same time, I’m glad that I got a chance to meet him and I’m glad because I also feel like I know who I am now, and where I’m going and okay okay I get it... I’m being completely gay so I’ll stop.
LOL.
I can feel again!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Julz Leaves! Molested by Creepy European! First Kiss in Switzerland. All in One Week.
Monday 9th March 2009
It’s a Monday afternoon and it’s about the first time in a week that I’ve had a bit of time to myself where I’m not completely stuffed or tired so thought I’d update this thing. Back all the way to last Tuesday, I think, is where we left off.
I had French litt in the morning with Allison but I think we were both to stuffed from Fasnact so we both ended up missing it. I awoke at some ungodly hour and had to do my French homework that was counted as part of my assessment. That’s right people; it’s not all fun and games in Switzerland. Jun’s actually got to do some work (speaking of which, Allison’s coming over around nowish to study but I’ll try and finish this now). Matt randomly dropped over around noon so ended up making us both lunch and then afterwards we went to the post office to pay our rents. Matt could only withdraw 500 CHF a day and he needed to pay a thousand bucks so I ended up lending him 500 CHF. I’ve now got people in debit to me everywhere. So Matt owes me 500 bucks, Allison owes me 130 cause she keeps need to borrow and Juliette owes me 400 CHF or 270 Euros. It’s about over 1000 bucks of my money floating out there; I should start my own bank. Headed into uni in the arvo and slept my way through 2 classes... I physically couldn’t keep my eyes open and it was somewhat difficult trying to hide the fact that I was sleeping from the professor but I was sneaking and made it look like I was writing with my face glued to the table.
After the last class with Krista, we went over to Matt’s for dinner and the kids were making some crazy potato fritters with mushrooms in balsamic vinegar. Yummy. Chilled out there the whole night.
Wednesday!
Slept in a bit again. Got to try and fix my sleeping patterns cause I can’t seem to get to bed at night; rolling around thinking about the most random things. Met up with Julz after I dragged myself out of bed and she wanted to do a law class (oh the crazy French enthusiasm in her). By now you should all know Wednesday is a big night for us exchange kids so I needed to get my assignment done before the sunset (unlike Allison who tried doing it whilst we were playing drinking games). I had it finished and I had to print it off at uni; half way to uni with Julz I realised I’d forgotten my USB at home so we ended up missing the first half of the class to go home and get my USB. Then I missed the second and last part of the class because it wouldn’t print and I ran around for an hour trying to get it done – success at the end but I missed the law class (I did drop Julz off so she went to the second half). Whilst on my crazy print run, I bumped into Allison and Matt drawing cartoons of our little family (I got given small eyes and an Asian hat -_-). After Julz finished her law class we all went back to my place and chilled there for a bit. Then the other kids left and me and Julz quickly got ready then headed over to Matt’s for dinner and drinking games!
Had some crazy French onion soup for dinner made by Krista.
Jonas came over to join the festivities so there were 2 more of us then usual (that includes Julz) giving us the perfect number of people to play Kings. Basically same rules as in Australia but with some added on weirdness by the Americans. Needless to say we all got somewhat drunk and it was good fun. So I got somewhat screwed and outed to Jonas because of freaking card 5 which is never have I ever – great friends I have. We played one game (dirty dirty photos are up on facebook – Warning they’re dirty!) and then headed out into town around 12. It was probably one of the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here, I dance liked quite the little slut (with Allison whose booty was shaken). There was this cute German guy who lived with Kimberly and we met him out; he kept on trying to dance with Juliette and she didn’t want to so I spend half the night trying to get in between them – I was later warned by Jonas that I almost got punched in the face lol. Europeans! Some chick also kept grabbing my arse - and this begins Jun’s violation at clubs – unpleasant! We all walked home around 4 and me and Julz crashed on a mattresses at Allison’s. I vaguely remember Dane (her boy) talking to her on Skype and me saying crazy crazy things. Apparently he got angry at her cause she was talking to me the whole time. We had class the next (well same) morning at 10 and Allison was suppose to set the alarm for 9. So I’m deep in sleep and suddenly I hear a voice going ‘Jun what time is it!!’ Allison is frantic and I get up to check my time and it was 10 o’clock. That’s right..Allison didn’t set the alarm and we woke up at the same time as our class. WE had to go because we had assignments to hand in so we hurled our asses out of bed and ran for the bus looking and smelling like brown things. We burst into class half an hour late and the goddamn lady asked me to translate something!
After class I went home to recover and half passed out somewhere. Then at night, straight back out to meet Kimberly’s tandem. We had dinner at a pizza restaurant and it was delicious. Her tandem was pretty cool and since there was more Anglophones, we decided that this time we’d speak in English and next time it’d be French. Spent a good part of the night talking about Aussie fashion.
Friday – spent a romantic day with Juliette and yes it was every bit romantic if only we were each other’s significant others. We went for a walk along the lake by uni and then followed some tracks through forests – that’s right this is where I live. After a day of romantic strolls, we went back to mine and I cooked dinner for Julz for the first time. Jonas was home so we all decided to cook and eat together. After dinner, Julz needed to go to drum practice because even though the musical genius has only been in Switzerland for a week and a half, she somehow got involved and was now playing the drums in Julie’s Vietnamese Music Fest. Petty crazy. Me and Jonas ended up going to Allison’s which we’d planned early that week because of ‘hip hop night’ at the Loft. Allison was dying to dance to hip hop. At Allison’s we consumed some alcohol (pictures are on facebook cause Allison’s a mole and likes taking pictures- and no Jess...Jonas is not gay – I’m assuming you were talking about these pictures) and I talked to Phoebe on skype briefly.
Hurled ass out to the clubs at around midnight and bumped into a lot of people we knew on the bus. By the time we got to town it was just past 12.30 and the tickets for the ‘hip hop’ club had gone up from 12 CHF to 18... Being the poor kids we were, the 3 of didn’t want to pay so we ended up going to Darlings where all the people we’d bump into on the bus had gone. It was a great night with some creepy stories. We ended up dancing the night and I danced like quite a little slurry only simply because no girls came with us so Allison needed a dancing partner. While me and Allison were at the bar, some seedy guy in his late 20s came over to the bar next to us and brushed against me. At first I thought I was in his way so I kind of moved over a little but then he kept touching me; when I looked over he gave me a wink and proceeded to talk to me. I got a bit creeped out so I said Allison was my girlfriend and she put her arms around me but the guy wasn’t letting up. He asked me to ‘go with him’ and I asked him where he wanted to go, at which he replied ‘back to yours... your girlfriend can come to.’ BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. So exceptionally creepy. I told him I wasn’t interested and me and Allison split. A little bit later on in the night, he kept walking past us and touching me so I told him to just back off and leave us alone. Jonas left around this time and we were all going to go home together but Allison wanted to keep dancing (this was around 4am) so I ended up staying with her. The club was kind of clearing out so there weren’t many people on the dance floor. We were kind of in the middle then Allison tells me the creeper is sitting in a corner staring at my arse and it was really creepy so we moved to the other side. Within like 5 minutes he came over to us again and started trying to feel me up... Allison got in between us and pushed her hand out then the guy grabbed her crotch. It was official violation. I pushed him away and gave him a warning look then me and Allison went to the bar. The guy still followed and just stood behind us so I turned around and told him to fuck off in French which is what I should have done straight up. He got all angry and started swearing in French then walked off – no idea what happened.
After that me and Allison went and huddled in a corner waiting for 5am which is when the train started so we wouldn’t have to walk home. Somehow in that time, while we were trying to get water, Allison scored 2 tequila shots for us both from an Irish bartender who was trying to hit on her so we drank a little bit extra before we finally left the club and walked home. (We found out the train didn’t start up for another half an hour and it was just easier to walk home)
Had a nice little D n M with Allison cause it took us more than an hour to get home... we got lost and turned back about 3 times. By the time we got back to Allison’s it was already 6 so I just caught a bus back to mine where I crashed till 3 in the arvo. Finally dragged myself out of bed and did my laundry and assorted errands then watched Snatch which Jonas lent (ladies you need it to watch it for Brad Pitt with no shirt on!).
Sunday was Julz’s last day and it was also her birthday the day before! I took her to Luzern for the day which is about a 2 hour train ride from Lausanne. It’s absolutely the most beautiful city in Switzerland. It’s on the border of the lake like Lausanne but alot more picturesque and every building in town looks ancient. There are 2 cute bridges that go over the river and a castle at the top of the hill looking over the town. Me and Julz took a 2 hour boat ride out into the lake then went and explored the city followed by a romantic picnic by the lake facing the ranges – we’ve decided the entire time she’s been in Switzerland, we’ve basically been caught in romantic situation without our significant others. Quite sad really.
We left Luzern around 6 at night after I’d bought 2 cheeseburgers to snack on. I took her to Zurich but we didn’t end up seeing much of the place since it was already dark and freeze out so we just chilled at the airport. She caught a plane out to Germany at 9. By the time I got back to Lausanne, it was half past 11 – it was about a 2 and half hour train ride from Zurich to Lausanne. Love how small Switzerland is! (at the same time, hate that I was on a train for 2 and half hours squished by military men who for some reason attacked my train)
Monday was....supposedly the day I’m writing this but it’s actually Wednesday now because I’m just that slack haha! Monday night went to Allison’s for dinner and kissed her housemate Reto. So this is my first kiss in Switzerland haha!
Oh wait that’s kind of sad.
So Allison, as always, needed to talk to her boyfriend on skype so she went inside whilst I stayed outside and cleaned up after dinner. It was just me and Reto and we chatted for a bit then the other housemate, Tvisha, came out. Somehow we got to discussing political things and she asked me what my view on abortion and gay rights were. I told her of course I was for pro gay rights since I’m gay – she didn’t believe me. Apparently I’m too much of a prankster and I was pulling her leg. At this time, Reto also decided to come out and say he was gay too. She didn’t know that either so she thought we were both yanking her legs. After 10 minutes of us laughing about it, me and Reto decided to prove it to her by kissing and hence the 5 second kiss where he stuck his tongue in my mouth. I was expecting just a smack but he actually really went for it. And that was that for Monday night. Who knows what could happen haha? Bye kids.
It’s a Monday afternoon and it’s about the first time in a week that I’ve had a bit of time to myself where I’m not completely stuffed or tired so thought I’d update this thing. Back all the way to last Tuesday, I think, is where we left off.
I had French litt in the morning with Allison but I think we were both to stuffed from Fasnact so we both ended up missing it. I awoke at some ungodly hour and had to do my French homework that was counted as part of my assessment. That’s right people; it’s not all fun and games in Switzerland. Jun’s actually got to do some work (speaking of which, Allison’s coming over around nowish to study but I’ll try and finish this now). Matt randomly dropped over around noon so ended up making us both lunch and then afterwards we went to the post office to pay our rents. Matt could only withdraw 500 CHF a day and he needed to pay a thousand bucks so I ended up lending him 500 CHF. I’ve now got people in debit to me everywhere. So Matt owes me 500 bucks, Allison owes me 130 cause she keeps need to borrow and Juliette owes me 400 CHF or 270 Euros. It’s about over 1000 bucks of my money floating out there; I should start my own bank. Headed into uni in the arvo and slept my way through 2 classes... I physically couldn’t keep my eyes open and it was somewhat difficult trying to hide the fact that I was sleeping from the professor but I was sneaking and made it look like I was writing with my face glued to the table.
After the last class with Krista, we went over to Matt’s for dinner and the kids were making some crazy potato fritters with mushrooms in balsamic vinegar. Yummy. Chilled out there the whole night.
Wednesday!
Slept in a bit again. Got to try and fix my sleeping patterns cause I can’t seem to get to bed at night; rolling around thinking about the most random things. Met up with Julz after I dragged myself out of bed and she wanted to do a law class (oh the crazy French enthusiasm in her). By now you should all know Wednesday is a big night for us exchange kids so I needed to get my assignment done before the sunset (unlike Allison who tried doing it whilst we were playing drinking games). I had it finished and I had to print it off at uni; half way to uni with Julz I realised I’d forgotten my USB at home so we ended up missing the first half of the class to go home and get my USB. Then I missed the second and last part of the class because it wouldn’t print and I ran around for an hour trying to get it done – success at the end but I missed the law class (I did drop Julz off so she went to the second half). Whilst on my crazy print run, I bumped into Allison and Matt drawing cartoons of our little family (I got given small eyes and an Asian hat -_-). After Julz finished her law class we all went back to my place and chilled there for a bit. Then the other kids left and me and Julz quickly got ready then headed over to Matt’s for dinner and drinking games!
Had some crazy French onion soup for dinner made by Krista.
Jonas came over to join the festivities so there were 2 more of us then usual (that includes Julz) giving us the perfect number of people to play Kings. Basically same rules as in Australia but with some added on weirdness by the Americans. Needless to say we all got somewhat drunk and it was good fun. So I got somewhat screwed and outed to Jonas because of freaking card 5 which is never have I ever – great friends I have. We played one game (dirty dirty photos are up on facebook – Warning they’re dirty!) and then headed out into town around 12. It was probably one of the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here, I dance liked quite the little slut (with Allison whose booty was shaken). There was this cute German guy who lived with Kimberly and we met him out; he kept on trying to dance with Juliette and she didn’t want to so I spend half the night trying to get in between them – I was later warned by Jonas that I almost got punched in the face lol. Europeans! Some chick also kept grabbing my arse - and this begins Jun’s violation at clubs – unpleasant! We all walked home around 4 and me and Julz crashed on a mattresses at Allison’s. I vaguely remember Dane (her boy) talking to her on Skype and me saying crazy crazy things. Apparently he got angry at her cause she was talking to me the whole time. We had class the next (well same) morning at 10 and Allison was suppose to set the alarm for 9. So I’m deep in sleep and suddenly I hear a voice going ‘Jun what time is it!!’ Allison is frantic and I get up to check my time and it was 10 o’clock. That’s right..Allison didn’t set the alarm and we woke up at the same time as our class. WE had to go because we had assignments to hand in so we hurled our asses out of bed and ran for the bus looking and smelling like brown things. We burst into class half an hour late and the goddamn lady asked me to translate something!
After class I went home to recover and half passed out somewhere. Then at night, straight back out to meet Kimberly’s tandem. We had dinner at a pizza restaurant and it was delicious. Her tandem was pretty cool and since there was more Anglophones, we decided that this time we’d speak in English and next time it’d be French. Spent a good part of the night talking about Aussie fashion.
Friday – spent a romantic day with Juliette and yes it was every bit romantic if only we were each other’s significant others. We went for a walk along the lake by uni and then followed some tracks through forests – that’s right this is where I live. After a day of romantic strolls, we went back to mine and I cooked dinner for Julz for the first time. Jonas was home so we all decided to cook and eat together. After dinner, Julz needed to go to drum practice because even though the musical genius has only been in Switzerland for a week and a half, she somehow got involved and was now playing the drums in Julie’s Vietnamese Music Fest. Petty crazy. Me and Jonas ended up going to Allison’s which we’d planned early that week because of ‘hip hop night’ at the Loft. Allison was dying to dance to hip hop. At Allison’s we consumed some alcohol (pictures are on facebook cause Allison’s a mole and likes taking pictures- and no Jess...Jonas is not gay – I’m assuming you were talking about these pictures) and I talked to Phoebe on skype briefly.
Hurled ass out to the clubs at around midnight and bumped into a lot of people we knew on the bus. By the time we got to town it was just past 12.30 and the tickets for the ‘hip hop’ club had gone up from 12 CHF to 18... Being the poor kids we were, the 3 of didn’t want to pay so we ended up going to Darlings where all the people we’d bump into on the bus had gone. It was a great night with some creepy stories. We ended up dancing the night and I danced like quite a little slurry only simply because no girls came with us so Allison needed a dancing partner. While me and Allison were at the bar, some seedy guy in his late 20s came over to the bar next to us and brushed against me. At first I thought I was in his way so I kind of moved over a little but then he kept touching me; when I looked over he gave me a wink and proceeded to talk to me. I got a bit creeped out so I said Allison was my girlfriend and she put her arms around me but the guy wasn’t letting up. He asked me to ‘go with him’ and I asked him where he wanted to go, at which he replied ‘back to yours... your girlfriend can come to.’ BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. So exceptionally creepy. I told him I wasn’t interested and me and Allison split. A little bit later on in the night, he kept walking past us and touching me so I told him to just back off and leave us alone. Jonas left around this time and we were all going to go home together but Allison wanted to keep dancing (this was around 4am) so I ended up staying with her. The club was kind of clearing out so there weren’t many people on the dance floor. We were kind of in the middle then Allison tells me the creeper is sitting in a corner staring at my arse and it was really creepy so we moved to the other side. Within like 5 minutes he came over to us again and started trying to feel me up... Allison got in between us and pushed her hand out then the guy grabbed her crotch. It was official violation. I pushed him away and gave him a warning look then me and Allison went to the bar. The guy still followed and just stood behind us so I turned around and told him to fuck off in French which is what I should have done straight up. He got all angry and started swearing in French then walked off – no idea what happened.
After that me and Allison went and huddled in a corner waiting for 5am which is when the train started so we wouldn’t have to walk home. Somehow in that time, while we were trying to get water, Allison scored 2 tequila shots for us both from an Irish bartender who was trying to hit on her so we drank a little bit extra before we finally left the club and walked home. (We found out the train didn’t start up for another half an hour and it was just easier to walk home)
Had a nice little D n M with Allison cause it took us more than an hour to get home... we got lost and turned back about 3 times. By the time we got back to Allison’s it was already 6 so I just caught a bus back to mine where I crashed till 3 in the arvo. Finally dragged myself out of bed and did my laundry and assorted errands then watched Snatch which Jonas lent (ladies you need it to watch it for Brad Pitt with no shirt on!).
Sunday was Julz’s last day and it was also her birthday the day before! I took her to Luzern for the day which is about a 2 hour train ride from Lausanne. It’s absolutely the most beautiful city in Switzerland. It’s on the border of the lake like Lausanne but alot more picturesque and every building in town looks ancient. There are 2 cute bridges that go over the river and a castle at the top of the hill looking over the town. Me and Julz took a 2 hour boat ride out into the lake then went and explored the city followed by a romantic picnic by the lake facing the ranges – we’ve decided the entire time she’s been in Switzerland, we’ve basically been caught in romantic situation without our significant others. Quite sad really.
We left Luzern around 6 at night after I’d bought 2 cheeseburgers to snack on. I took her to Zurich but we didn’t end up seeing much of the place since it was already dark and freeze out so we just chilled at the airport. She caught a plane out to Germany at 9. By the time I got back to Lausanne, it was half past 11 – it was about a 2 and half hour train ride from Zurich to Lausanne. Love how small Switzerland is! (at the same time, hate that I was on a train for 2 and half hours squished by military men who for some reason attacked my train)
Monday was....supposedly the day I’m writing this but it’s actually Wednesday now because I’m just that slack haha! Monday night went to Allison’s for dinner and kissed her housemate Reto. So this is my first kiss in Switzerland haha!
Oh wait that’s kind of sad.
So Allison, as always, needed to talk to her boyfriend on skype so she went inside whilst I stayed outside and cleaned up after dinner. It was just me and Reto and we chatted for a bit then the other housemate, Tvisha, came out. Somehow we got to discussing political things and she asked me what my view on abortion and gay rights were. I told her of course I was for pro gay rights since I’m gay – she didn’t believe me. Apparently I’m too much of a prankster and I was pulling her leg. At this time, Reto also decided to come out and say he was gay too. She didn’t know that either so she thought we were both yanking her legs. After 10 minutes of us laughing about it, me and Reto decided to prove it to her by kissing and hence the 5 second kiss where he stuck his tongue in my mouth. I was expecting just a smack but he actually really went for it. And that was that for Monday night. Who knows what could happen haha? Bye kids.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
FASNACT CARNIVAL: BASEL STYLE
Monday 2nd March!
So we met Allison at the train station and the three of us hopped onto a train for Basel; which would have cost us 30CHF one way but thanks to our beautiful Voie 7 (which we freaking paid 250CHF for) we get to travel for free in Switzerland after 7.
The train ride took about 2 hours but we found ways to amuse ourselves with photos and chit chat. Allison said the ride would have been amazing if we had taken it during the day because the countryside between Lausanne and Basel is beautiful. Guess that’s what saving 30 bucks cost us. When we got to Basel, Allison was the only one with good enough German to actually help us find our way around the place; but since Swiss German and real German is completely different and Swiss Germans hate speaking in real German– Allison was petrified to talk to them because apparently they ‘just look at her and want her to die’. Haha.
We somehow found our way onto a Basel tram which took us to Jonas’s and he picked us up at the station. We crashed at Jonas’s on Saturday night and decided we were in love. When we arrived, he showed us his house and then took us to a room where he’d prepared mattresses and sleeping bags; there was a computer, TV, DVDs. He then showed us the bathroom, got a hairdryer for the girls and told us if were hungry we could go to the kitchen and have whatever we liked. Basically the perfect host. We basically spent the rest of the time before we went to bed discussing how great Jonas was and how both girls had boyfriends so they should both stop discussing how great Jonas was. We eventually fell asleep.
We woke up pretty late Sunday morning and had delicious cheese and bread at Jonas’s for brekkie. He then took us for a walk just to show us a bit of the outskirts of Basel and we ended up in Germany! I love Europe! So for those who don’t know, Basel is a Swiss city on the border of Germany and Switzerland – oh and also the language Swiss German (spoken in Basel) is very different to High German (Spoken in Germany) – to a degree that they’re basically differently languages spoken out loud (oo like Cantonese and Mandarin). We went back to Jonas’s place for lunch and his family were awesome. They made us some crazy traditional Swiss food which was both delicious and satisfying. Jonas is half Swedish and so his family has all these Swedish things around the house and I’ve decided that I now love Swedish people who not only invented IKEA and Swedish meatballs but are tall, blonde and blue eyed and have the coolest dispositions (big word!) I am therefore going to marry a Swede or at least have a fantastic European fling with one... and no. Not with Jonas -_-
After lunch, me, Julz and Allison went into the centre of Basel to further explore the great city. Basel is like a big city crossed with a small town. There are no skyscrapers but there are shops and restaurants somewhat similar to Queen St mall, but then at the same time, there’s little alley ways and streets with olden day houses that looks like it should be on the movie set of something set in the 1100s. The best thing about this town and especially for Carnival is that it actually feels like you’re in a Roman carnival running down alleys and going down mini walks with stone walls and to either side. The city was preparing for the Carnival that starts on Monday morning (so we’re currently on Sunday afternoon) There were people selling Plaggedde which is a Fasnact (name of the Carnival) badge that everyone has to wear during the Carnival. It’s the only way that the Carnival is funded and it comes in bronze, silver and gold. Being the poor students that we were, we each bought a bronze one in preparation for the following day. Allison said that people who are seen during Carnival not wearing a badge gets the confetti stuffed out of them...we had badges... we still got the confetti stuffed out of us! Around 6 we went back to Jonas’s and had dinner (cheese and breadJ) with him. We bummed around his place until about 8.30 then we left to go meet up with the other kids (Matt, Kimberly etc and my parrain Tobias who’s place we were staying at on Sunday night). Jonas went home on Sunday night because he had class the next morning and he’d been to Fasnact countless times already.
We met up with Tobias and the others at the train station and there was like 9 of us cause he had some other Japanese friends who were going to stay with him...that’s where the trouble began. We went to his mum’s house and she was a really nice lady. Very big house! It was like aristocracy, all the furniture in the house were more than 200 years old and the china which she used to serve us tea were like designer cups covered in beautiful patterns etc. We were peasants in a noble’s house. Now here was the problem, when we were all going to sleep (there were definitely enough room) she asked me and Matt where our quilt coverings etc were. We were like...um we didn’t bring any. She was obviously very proper so every bed we slept on needed quilt coverings or at least sleeping bags and none of us had brought any so she got really angry because she had to use her own covers– the anger was directed at me and Matt whom she was talking to - she did not want to have to do laundry for 9 people. The girls were quick on their feet and pretended they all brought stuff so she was just pissed at me and Matt. Obviously the girls didn’t bring stuff so we were all kind of scared cause we were in this angry woman’s house and we couldn’t sleep on things without the appropriate covering. 5 of us huddled into one room and on one bed and kind of just stayed awake the whole night in fear. Very pleasant evening. It was our fault and I completely understand why she was kind of annoyed... I wouldn’t want to have to do laundry for 9 people so we all felt really bad and bought her chocolates the next day to say thank you.
Now finally for Carnival!
We got up at 3 in the morning... well didn’t really sleep and headed into the town. There were people everywhere and the weather was shit...it was raining. Swiss rain which means it was just drizzling but still cold and miserable! Everyone gathered in the town square and at exactly 4 in the morning, every light in the place went off plunging us into total darkness. Then the flute and drums started and we were told it was the music armies use to march to whilst going to war. People in masks holding lanterns marched across the street and just dispersed all throughout central Basel. We spent an hour just running down the alleyways following marchers playing the flute and drum. It was definitely an experience. I just remembered thinking how like a real Roman carnival it felt. Phoebe will appreciate this cause we both did Carnival as a subject for a semester last year but it was actually exactly like the way Veronica described and it was so weird to actually know theory behind the whole thing haha. The parade went for an hour and stopped at 5 at which time we all went and got coffee and breakfast. Afterwards we all went back to Tobia’s mum’s place and squeezed back into the one room. We decided we actually needed some sleep if we wanted to keep going during the day so 2 people sat on the couch and fell asleep and 4 of us got into a standard queen size bed and squeezed. It went Matt, Allison, me and then Julz. We physically couldn’t move, we were all our sides in our jeans inside the cover and it was like a 1000degree oven for me and Allison – meanwhile her ghetto booty haha was all up in my space... just jokes Allison! Apparently the two kids on the side got cold cause me and Allison hogged the blankets while me and Allison were dying of heat and kept trying to push the blankets off. It’s not an experience I want to have again too soon. But we did manage to get some sleep and got up around 10 in the morning. Tobia’s mum made us coffee and we all sat around the posh table sipping away. She turned out to actually be really cool and nice and told us all about Basel history and the things that you can do in the city and in Switzerland. She’s well into her 50s and still goes to Uni to just keep learning new things. We actually all ended up really liking her and talked till past noon. We left her place and went back into the town to grab some lunch – chocolate bread – but she let us leave all our bags so we didn’t need to carry them around all day. The afternoon parade didn’t’ start till 2 so we chilled in a cafe and also went to see the Basel cathedral. It was huge and ancient; designed in the Gothic style. I can’t really imagine ever going to a church in a building like that cause it has such a ghostly feeling and it’s just huge!
The afternoon carnival was so much fun! Unfortunately it was still raining as you’ll probably all see from the photos hence we all look like drowned rats but god it was amazing. When the parade started the flutes and drums came back on and people in all sorts of crazy masks marched but there were also giant floats where masked people threw confetti and assorted goods into the crowd. Some of them threw candy, flowers, some threw vegetables and fruit and others threw out plush toys etc. We collected about 20 mandarins, 2 cloves of garlic, a cucumber, and alot of candy! The girls also got about 6 or 7 roses. The funny thing is these guys trick people too so they’ll hold out a flower from the float and when people reach up to grab it, they grab the person’s arm and won’t let go then they stuff confetti all down the person’s clothes. All the girls had confetti down their bra haha. The best bit was when Allison got grabbed and they actually pulled her onto the float and went home with the confetti. She was absolute covered! I got confetti punched in the face a couple of times so I didn’t get off any better. By the end of the parade we were all wet and covered in assorted colours of confetti but we loved every minute of it. Around 6ish we started to walk back to Tobia’s and just followed the parade and everyone going crazy. The entire city floor was covered and apparently all during carnival, the confetti can come up to your knees but at the end of the carnival, the Basel cleaning team cleans the entire place up in the early morning like schoolies and Basel goes back to being completely clean.
We had coffee with Tobia’s mum again after we got back just to warm ourselves up before we went and took a train back to Lausanne. The Carnival goes for 3 days but we all had class the next day and we didn’t have anywhere else to stay so we all went back early. On the train, we emptied out our pockets and bags and covered our train in confetti J That’s Carnival for you kids.
So we met Allison at the train station and the three of us hopped onto a train for Basel; which would have cost us 30CHF one way but thanks to our beautiful Voie 7 (which we freaking paid 250CHF for) we get to travel for free in Switzerland after 7.
The train ride took about 2 hours but we found ways to amuse ourselves with photos and chit chat. Allison said the ride would have been amazing if we had taken it during the day because the countryside between Lausanne and Basel is beautiful. Guess that’s what saving 30 bucks cost us. When we got to Basel, Allison was the only one with good enough German to actually help us find our way around the place; but since Swiss German and real German is completely different and Swiss Germans hate speaking in real German– Allison was petrified to talk to them because apparently they ‘just look at her and want her to die’. Haha.
We somehow found our way onto a Basel tram which took us to Jonas’s and he picked us up at the station. We crashed at Jonas’s on Saturday night and decided we were in love. When we arrived, he showed us his house and then took us to a room where he’d prepared mattresses and sleeping bags; there was a computer, TV, DVDs. He then showed us the bathroom, got a hairdryer for the girls and told us if were hungry we could go to the kitchen and have whatever we liked. Basically the perfect host. We basically spent the rest of the time before we went to bed discussing how great Jonas was and how both girls had boyfriends so they should both stop discussing how great Jonas was. We eventually fell asleep.
We woke up pretty late Sunday morning and had delicious cheese and bread at Jonas’s for brekkie. He then took us for a walk just to show us a bit of the outskirts of Basel and we ended up in Germany! I love Europe! So for those who don’t know, Basel is a Swiss city on the border of Germany and Switzerland – oh and also the language Swiss German (spoken in Basel) is very different to High German (Spoken in Germany) – to a degree that they’re basically differently languages spoken out loud (oo like Cantonese and Mandarin). We went back to Jonas’s place for lunch and his family were awesome. They made us some crazy traditional Swiss food which was both delicious and satisfying. Jonas is half Swedish and so his family has all these Swedish things around the house and I’ve decided that I now love Swedish people who not only invented IKEA and Swedish meatballs but are tall, blonde and blue eyed and have the coolest dispositions (big word!) I am therefore going to marry a Swede or at least have a fantastic European fling with one... and no. Not with Jonas -_-
After lunch, me, Julz and Allison went into the centre of Basel to further explore the great city. Basel is like a big city crossed with a small town. There are no skyscrapers but there are shops and restaurants somewhat similar to Queen St mall, but then at the same time, there’s little alley ways and streets with olden day houses that looks like it should be on the movie set of something set in the 1100s. The best thing about this town and especially for Carnival is that it actually feels like you’re in a Roman carnival running down alleys and going down mini walks with stone walls and to either side. The city was preparing for the Carnival that starts on Monday morning (so we’re currently on Sunday afternoon) There were people selling Plaggedde which is a Fasnact (name of the Carnival) badge that everyone has to wear during the Carnival. It’s the only way that the Carnival is funded and it comes in bronze, silver and gold. Being the poor students that we were, we each bought a bronze one in preparation for the following day. Allison said that people who are seen during Carnival not wearing a badge gets the confetti stuffed out of them...we had badges... we still got the confetti stuffed out of us! Around 6 we went back to Jonas’s and had dinner (cheese and breadJ) with him. We bummed around his place until about 8.30 then we left to go meet up with the other kids (Matt, Kimberly etc and my parrain Tobias who’s place we were staying at on Sunday night). Jonas went home on Sunday night because he had class the next morning and he’d been to Fasnact countless times already.
We met up with Tobias and the others at the train station and there was like 9 of us cause he had some other Japanese friends who were going to stay with him...that’s where the trouble began. We went to his mum’s house and she was a really nice lady. Very big house! It was like aristocracy, all the furniture in the house were more than 200 years old and the china which she used to serve us tea were like designer cups covered in beautiful patterns etc. We were peasants in a noble’s house. Now here was the problem, when we were all going to sleep (there were definitely enough room) she asked me and Matt where our quilt coverings etc were. We were like...um we didn’t bring any. She was obviously very proper so every bed we slept on needed quilt coverings or at least sleeping bags and none of us had brought any so she got really angry because she had to use her own covers– the anger was directed at me and Matt whom she was talking to - she did not want to have to do laundry for 9 people. The girls were quick on their feet and pretended they all brought stuff so she was just pissed at me and Matt. Obviously the girls didn’t bring stuff so we were all kind of scared cause we were in this angry woman’s house and we couldn’t sleep on things without the appropriate covering. 5 of us huddled into one room and on one bed and kind of just stayed awake the whole night in fear. Very pleasant evening. It was our fault and I completely understand why she was kind of annoyed... I wouldn’t want to have to do laundry for 9 people so we all felt really bad and bought her chocolates the next day to say thank you.
Now finally for Carnival!
We got up at 3 in the morning... well didn’t really sleep and headed into the town. There were people everywhere and the weather was shit...it was raining. Swiss rain which means it was just drizzling but still cold and miserable! Everyone gathered in the town square and at exactly 4 in the morning, every light in the place went off plunging us into total darkness. Then the flute and drums started and we were told it was the music armies use to march to whilst going to war. People in masks holding lanterns marched across the street and just dispersed all throughout central Basel. We spent an hour just running down the alleyways following marchers playing the flute and drum. It was definitely an experience. I just remembered thinking how like a real Roman carnival it felt. Phoebe will appreciate this cause we both did Carnival as a subject for a semester last year but it was actually exactly like the way Veronica described and it was so weird to actually know theory behind the whole thing haha. The parade went for an hour and stopped at 5 at which time we all went and got coffee and breakfast. Afterwards we all went back to Tobia’s mum’s place and squeezed back into the one room. We decided we actually needed some sleep if we wanted to keep going during the day so 2 people sat on the couch and fell asleep and 4 of us got into a standard queen size bed and squeezed. It went Matt, Allison, me and then Julz. We physically couldn’t move, we were all our sides in our jeans inside the cover and it was like a 1000degree oven for me and Allison – meanwhile her ghetto booty haha was all up in my space... just jokes Allison! Apparently the two kids on the side got cold cause me and Allison hogged the blankets while me and Allison were dying of heat and kept trying to push the blankets off. It’s not an experience I want to have again too soon. But we did manage to get some sleep and got up around 10 in the morning. Tobia’s mum made us coffee and we all sat around the posh table sipping away. She turned out to actually be really cool and nice and told us all about Basel history and the things that you can do in the city and in Switzerland. She’s well into her 50s and still goes to Uni to just keep learning new things. We actually all ended up really liking her and talked till past noon. We left her place and went back into the town to grab some lunch – chocolate bread – but she let us leave all our bags so we didn’t need to carry them around all day. The afternoon parade didn’t’ start till 2 so we chilled in a cafe and also went to see the Basel cathedral. It was huge and ancient; designed in the Gothic style. I can’t really imagine ever going to a church in a building like that cause it has such a ghostly feeling and it’s just huge!
The afternoon carnival was so much fun! Unfortunately it was still raining as you’ll probably all see from the photos hence we all look like drowned rats but god it was amazing. When the parade started the flutes and drums came back on and people in all sorts of crazy masks marched but there were also giant floats where masked people threw confetti and assorted goods into the crowd. Some of them threw candy, flowers, some threw vegetables and fruit and others threw out plush toys etc. We collected about 20 mandarins, 2 cloves of garlic, a cucumber, and alot of candy! The girls also got about 6 or 7 roses. The funny thing is these guys trick people too so they’ll hold out a flower from the float and when people reach up to grab it, they grab the person’s arm and won’t let go then they stuff confetti all down the person’s clothes. All the girls had confetti down their bra haha. The best bit was when Allison got grabbed and they actually pulled her onto the float and went home with the confetti. She was absolute covered! I got confetti punched in the face a couple of times so I didn’t get off any better. By the end of the parade we were all wet and covered in assorted colours of confetti but we loved every minute of it. Around 6ish we started to walk back to Tobia’s and just followed the parade and everyone going crazy. The entire city floor was covered and apparently all during carnival, the confetti can come up to your knees but at the end of the carnival, the Basel cleaning team cleans the entire place up in the early morning like schoolies and Basel goes back to being completely clean.
We had coffee with Tobia’s mum again after we got back just to warm ourselves up before we went and took a train back to Lausanne. The Carnival goes for 3 days but we all had class the next day and we didn’t have anywhere else to stay so we all went back early. On the train, we emptied out our pockets and bags and covered our train in confetti J That’s Carnival for you kids.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Julz Arrives in Switzerland!
Wednesday 4th March 2009
Before I start writing anything, I’d just like to mention a special shout out to the one and only Matt Dolan who’s awesome and definitely exists and therefore should be mentioned more in this blog.
So going back to last Wednesday when I went to Julie’s to go see the beautiful Juliette on her first day in merry Switzerland! (This may get confusing for everyone so I will refer Aussie Juliette as Julz and her swiss buddy Julie) It was so great to finally see a familiar Aussie face but damn Julz and her French ways, she proceeded to talk in French the rest of the night. As her boyfriend puts it, it’s for my own good haha. Julie’s family is really nice and they cooked me a delicious Asian meal... awww Asian food, how I’ve missed thee! We spent a good majority of the night at the dinner table talking away in rapid French
Because I went and saw Julie Wednesday night, I didn't end up going on Carnival pub night where everybody dressed up in kinky costumes, but I got to hear some great stories the next day over our Kebab lunch after my English Translation class. I've also discovered that Jonas has the perfect turtle neck sweater ninja style that would have my costume 100% ninja.
Came home in the afternoon and made enough spaghetti sauce to last me a good week, of course being the fat boy I am I finished about half of it in one serving. It was the Med Ball (which is not actually a ball...just a night out clubbing but organised by the Med Students) that night and I’d planned to meet Julz and Julie at 9 outside the club MAD to get tickets. We were in line for about half an hour and just as we got up to the front of the line, the guy tells us that the tickets had just sold out. And I mean the front of the line! The next batch of tickets got released at 11.30 and I was going to take the last train home at 12.30 so I didn’t think it was really worth 20 bucks for about half an hour. We ended up going to a bar and getting a drink till 11 then the girls went back to the club and I hopped on a train home.
Spent Friday with Julie showing her Lausanne. That’s a bit of an overstatement since I don’t know this city particularly well having only been here for 3 weeks. We went to the Supreme Court of Switzerland (why it’s in Lausanne, I don’t know) which overlooked this park that overlooked the lake and the mountain ranges. It was an amazing view and there were a lot of couples around, just enjoying the sun and possible cunoodling. Me and Julie got out the camera and ended up taking a lot of photos. We also asked a few people to take photos for us; embracing the true heritage of the Asian tourist. After the Court, we went up the town (literally, it’s a steep mofo) and went to the giant cathedral which isn't half as impressive as the one we saw in Basel (wait for the next blog) followed by the Lausanne castle (which is more like a building in my opinion). This little tour around the city was also interrupted by Julie peeing in a boy’s toilette in what can only be described as the hole on the toilet floor. The memories!
Around 7, we headed over to my friends house for dinner and all the kids (Allison, Matt, Krista, Kimberly) were there. We had yummy yummy tacos, followed by interesting talks of interesting topics. At some stage of the night, Julz fell asleep – I think jet lag finally settled in.
Saturday –
Julie’s parents picked me up around 11.20 then we went and picked up Julz and Julie from sitar practice... (That’s right, Julie plays the sitar!). We drove out of Lausanne to the far north; to the region known as Gruyere which is renowned for its cheeeeese. (It's really yummy cheese, I'm a bit of a psycho cheese eater now...cheese and bread! I finally understand!) We hiked up the damn mountain and spent the day in the region seeing the sites and taking photos, don’t really know how to describe the place to you other than that it was amazing. I’ll put photos up; they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So go on facebook people and I'll caption its ass so I won't go into detail here.
We spent the whole day out and got back to Julie’s place around dinner time. I’d told Julie’s mum how much I love Vietnamese food especially PHO which I had basically eaten once a week back home and she was so nice she made it for me on Saturday night! Awww delicious beef noodle soup! After dinner, me and Julz rushed off to the train station to meet Allison and the 3 of us took a train to Basel for the beginning of CARNVAL BASEL STYLE: FASNACT.
I'll write the other blog now lol.
Before I start writing anything, I’d just like to mention a special shout out to the one and only Matt Dolan who’s awesome and definitely exists and therefore should be mentioned more in this blog.
So going back to last Wednesday when I went to Julie’s to go see the beautiful Juliette on her first day in merry Switzerland! (This may get confusing for everyone so I will refer Aussie Juliette as Julz and her swiss buddy Julie) It was so great to finally see a familiar Aussie face but damn Julz and her French ways, she proceeded to talk in French the rest of the night. As her boyfriend puts it, it’s for my own good haha. Julie’s family is really nice and they cooked me a delicious Asian meal... awww Asian food, how I’ve missed thee! We spent a good majority of the night at the dinner table talking away in rapid French
Because I went and saw Julie Wednesday night, I didn't end up going on Carnival pub night where everybody dressed up in kinky costumes, but I got to hear some great stories the next day over our Kebab lunch after my English Translation class. I've also discovered that Jonas has the perfect turtle neck sweater ninja style that would have my costume 100% ninja.
Came home in the afternoon and made enough spaghetti sauce to last me a good week, of course being the fat boy I am I finished about half of it in one serving. It was the Med Ball (which is not actually a ball...just a night out clubbing but organised by the Med Students) that night and I’d planned to meet Julz and Julie at 9 outside the club MAD to get tickets. We were in line for about half an hour and just as we got up to the front of the line, the guy tells us that the tickets had just sold out. And I mean the front of the line! The next batch of tickets got released at 11.30 and I was going to take the last train home at 12.30 so I didn’t think it was really worth 20 bucks for about half an hour. We ended up going to a bar and getting a drink till 11 then the girls went back to the club and I hopped on a train home.
Spent Friday with Julie showing her Lausanne. That’s a bit of an overstatement since I don’t know this city particularly well having only been here for 3 weeks. We went to the Supreme Court of Switzerland (why it’s in Lausanne, I don’t know) which overlooked this park that overlooked the lake and the mountain ranges. It was an amazing view and there were a lot of couples around, just enjoying the sun and possible cunoodling. Me and Julie got out the camera and ended up taking a lot of photos. We also asked a few people to take photos for us; embracing the true heritage of the Asian tourist. After the Court, we went up the town (literally, it’s a steep mofo) and went to the giant cathedral which isn't half as impressive as the one we saw in Basel (wait for the next blog) followed by the Lausanne castle (which is more like a building in my opinion). This little tour around the city was also interrupted by Julie peeing in a boy’s toilette in what can only be described as the hole on the toilet floor. The memories!
Around 7, we headed over to my friends house for dinner and all the kids (Allison, Matt, Krista, Kimberly) were there. We had yummy yummy tacos, followed by interesting talks of interesting topics. At some stage of the night, Julz fell asleep – I think jet lag finally settled in.
Saturday –
Julie’s parents picked me up around 11.20 then we went and picked up Julz and Julie from sitar practice... (That’s right, Julie plays the sitar!). We drove out of Lausanne to the far north; to the region known as Gruyere which is renowned for its cheeeeese. (It's really yummy cheese, I'm a bit of a psycho cheese eater now...cheese and bread! I finally understand!) We hiked up the damn mountain and spent the day in the region seeing the sites and taking photos, don’t really know how to describe the place to you other than that it was amazing. I’ll put photos up; they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So go on facebook people and I'll caption its ass so I won't go into detail here.
We spent the whole day out and got back to Julie’s place around dinner time. I’d told Julie’s mum how much I love Vietnamese food especially PHO which I had basically eaten once a week back home and she was so nice she made it for me on Saturday night! Awww delicious beef noodle soup! After dinner, me and Julz rushed off to the train station to meet Allison and the 3 of us took a train to Basel for the beginning of CARNVAL BASEL STYLE: FASNACT.
I'll write the other blog now lol.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Master Chef
Wednesday 25th Feb
It's bright and sunny outside and I'm waiting for my laundry to finish! No one better try stealing my 3 CHF this time. Julie's arrived in Lausanne today! Yay... I'm going to see her this arvo at other Julie's place :) Probably going to be miss Carnival Student Pub night though. I was originally going to go as a ninja, I guess the world will never witness such fantasticness.
Just a quick update on the past 2 days. Monday, didn't have class so it was all relaxation. I was suppose to go join the gym but procrastinated a little too long and then had to meet up with Allison so didn't up doing it... (so that's week number 2 - still haven't managed to hurl my ass to this gym) Went over to Allison's for lunch then we went hunting for Asian grocery stores. We knew that there was at least two down town but we didn't find either. We did however find lots of Indian stores in what we liked to refer to as the dodgy part of Lausanne where all the ethnics seem to hang out. we ended up going to Migros instead and bought ourselves a supply of food which I have to say has run out for me. I saw some pork chops on discount and it was imperative that I purchased the meat because it was cheap meat!! On principle alone, if you ever find cheap meat in Switzerland, you buy it! So decided to have Allison over for dinner where we proceeded to make the most delicious meal of all time! The pork chop was tenderly marinated in Swiss provincial herbs, garlic, onions and soy sauce - the aroma it gave off whilst being cooked can only be described as a scent of deliciousness. I then made Ratatouille which Jonas had taught me the night before. I slowly roasted potatoes and carrots in spices, chilli powder, onions and garlic on a low fire followed by assorted green vegetables and tomatoes to make a sauce. The end result of the dinner was....exquisite! (Excuse my descriptive language - the food was just that good!)
Oh yeah, it was also the day I came out to Allison and boy was she happy. As she described it, it was like Christmas had come early. I was fufilling the American dream for every girl of having a gay best friend.... somewhat like all you hoboes back in Australia. :)
Tuesday - I dragged myself out of bed at 7.30 and I still ended up rocking to class late -_- stupid 8.30 class. After class, I dragged Allison to the reception desk of the exchange office and paid for the upcoming ski trip!!!! :) It's a weekend away at a ski resort for $100, everything paid for except 2 lunches and ski equipment. The ski equipment is $50 bucks for the weekend and I can't imagin spending more than $50 for 2 lunches so that's about less than 200 bucks for an entire weekend away at a ski resort...muahahaha the excitement!! Sucking thing there was only 47 places and some of our other American/Aussie friends didn't make it on time :( and Allison said we should wait a couple of days before signing up! We're trying to organise a way for the other kids to come, it'd just be a bit more expensive for them.
Krista's also decided to plan a trip to Ireland for St Patrick's Day in 3 weeks which would be fantastic, but this would be a bit more pricey. It'd cost at least 500 CHF for the weekend and it'd be the weekend before the ski trip and the weekend after me and Julie go to Lucern. I was thinking maybe I'm going a little crazy in my spending and also just because if I'm going to pay morning to head over to Ireland, I'd want to say for a little while and do England at the same time which I plan on doing in the Summer.. so don't know if I should do this weekend. BUT! It's St Patrick's Day and it'd be a great weekend...the kids are booking flights this arvo while I'm at Julie's so we'll play it by ear and see how it goes.
We all did a Tandem program last night which is basically everyone in a speed dating context and you write what language you speak and what language you want to practice on a giant piece of paper and stick it on your chest then you walk around and try to find the corresponding person....It seriously became a speeding dating thing. There was this 60 yr old seedy man who kept talking to Kimberly and Allison and both of them were like...oh we've already got partners but he kept staring at their chest! Then a bunch of the guys whp were doing it were completely socially inept and may have never spoken to a stranger before. We all bagged ourselves a Tandem but Allison's is a sleazy guy who want to meet her for drinks tonight at 7 at a pub and we've all told her she can't go... in case of rape or further seedy contact. Only coffee.. in broad day light at uni.
After Tandem, everyone came back to mine for dinner so played host again. This time made crazy vegetables and frozen lasagne which was...still very delicious. Though have never cooked for 5 so was actually a bit short on food.
Today's laundry day! (I have no more clean underwear haha) Get to see Julz soon :)
It's bright and sunny outside and I'm waiting for my laundry to finish! No one better try stealing my 3 CHF this time. Julie's arrived in Lausanne today! Yay... I'm going to see her this arvo at other Julie's place :) Probably going to be miss Carnival Student Pub night though. I was originally going to go as a ninja, I guess the world will never witness such fantasticness.
Just a quick update on the past 2 days. Monday, didn't have class so it was all relaxation. I was suppose to go join the gym but procrastinated a little too long and then had to meet up with Allison so didn't up doing it... (so that's week number 2 - still haven't managed to hurl my ass to this gym) Went over to Allison's for lunch then we went hunting for Asian grocery stores. We knew that there was at least two down town but we didn't find either. We did however find lots of Indian stores in what we liked to refer to as the dodgy part of Lausanne where all the ethnics seem to hang out. we ended up going to Migros instead and bought ourselves a supply of food which I have to say has run out for me. I saw some pork chops on discount and it was imperative that I purchased the meat because it was cheap meat!! On principle alone, if you ever find cheap meat in Switzerland, you buy it! So decided to have Allison over for dinner where we proceeded to make the most delicious meal of all time! The pork chop was tenderly marinated in Swiss provincial herbs, garlic, onions and soy sauce - the aroma it gave off whilst being cooked can only be described as a scent of deliciousness. I then made Ratatouille which Jonas had taught me the night before. I slowly roasted potatoes and carrots in spices, chilli powder, onions and garlic on a low fire followed by assorted green vegetables and tomatoes to make a sauce. The end result of the dinner was....exquisite! (Excuse my descriptive language - the food was just that good!)
Oh yeah, it was also the day I came out to Allison and boy was she happy. As she described it, it was like Christmas had come early. I was fufilling the American dream for every girl of having a gay best friend.... somewhat like all you hoboes back in Australia. :)
Tuesday - I dragged myself out of bed at 7.30 and I still ended up rocking to class late -_- stupid 8.30 class. After class, I dragged Allison to the reception desk of the exchange office and paid for the upcoming ski trip!!!! :) It's a weekend away at a ski resort for $100, everything paid for except 2 lunches and ski equipment. The ski equipment is $50 bucks for the weekend and I can't imagin spending more than $50 for 2 lunches so that's about less than 200 bucks for an entire weekend away at a ski resort...muahahaha the excitement!! Sucking thing there was only 47 places and some of our other American/Aussie friends didn't make it on time :( and Allison said we should wait a couple of days before signing up! We're trying to organise a way for the other kids to come, it'd just be a bit more expensive for them.
Krista's also decided to plan a trip to Ireland for St Patrick's Day in 3 weeks which would be fantastic, but this would be a bit more pricey. It'd cost at least 500 CHF for the weekend and it'd be the weekend before the ski trip and the weekend after me and Julie go to Lucern. I was thinking maybe I'm going a little crazy in my spending and also just because if I'm going to pay morning to head over to Ireland, I'd want to say for a little while and do England at the same time which I plan on doing in the Summer.. so don't know if I should do this weekend. BUT! It's St Patrick's Day and it'd be a great weekend...the kids are booking flights this arvo while I'm at Julie's so we'll play it by ear and see how it goes.
We all did a Tandem program last night which is basically everyone in a speed dating context and you write what language you speak and what language you want to practice on a giant piece of paper and stick it on your chest then you walk around and try to find the corresponding person....It seriously became a speeding dating thing. There was this 60 yr old seedy man who kept talking to Kimberly and Allison and both of them were like...oh we've already got partners but he kept staring at their chest! Then a bunch of the guys whp were doing it were completely socially inept and may have never spoken to a stranger before. We all bagged ourselves a Tandem but Allison's is a sleazy guy who want to meet her for drinks tonight at 7 at a pub and we've all told her she can't go... in case of rape or further seedy contact. Only coffee.. in broad day light at uni.
After Tandem, everyone came back to mine for dinner so played host again. This time made crazy vegetables and frozen lasagne which was...still very delicious. Though have never cooked for 5 so was actually a bit short on food.
Today's laundry day! (I have no more clean underwear haha) Get to see Julz soon :)
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Enough Pasta!!!
Sunday 22 Feb. 09
It is absolutely amazing outside right now! It’s been snowing all morning and it’s rekindled my love for the snowJ. It’s so white outside!
Hopped over to Allison’s last night around 6, then proceeded to pack up half her kitchen because Krista doesn’t have cooking utensils. We bought over half the ingredients and plates and cups and forks with help of Kimberly and Matt to Krista’s where we made spaghetti Bolognese again! That is 3 times in one week, I’m beginning to really dislike pasta. Having said that, me and Allison whipped up a damn good sauce with some turkey meat (couldn’t find chicken) and it was... Jess level. The meal was actually great cause we had pasta, salad, bread, cheese and wine. What we like to call our first dinner party in Switzerland. The 5 of us sat around Krista’s communal kitchen for about 3 hours before we went back to her room so that me and Kimberly could show the Americans ‘Summer Heights High’ and what Aussies are like haha.
At some point in the night, we all started paying out on Asians; Krista described to us what the yellow people were like back in the States. I love that I have this effect on people; I can always bring out the racism towards the yellow kind no matter what group I’m in haha. The other funny thing is, and I won’t say it... but the ‘n’ words for African Americans which has never really been that tabooed in Australia was absolutely scandalous to the Americans. Me and Kimberly said Negro (so not even the other n word) and the two girls were like... Holy shit... whoa. Allison couldn’t physically bring herself to say the n word. Amazing culture differences! I popped on home around midnight so I could catch the last metro back to mine (the alternative was the walk in the cold... and remember it’s snowing right now).
Been somewhat productive this morning; did some of my homework, got up at a decent hour, set up this gay blog and had lunch with Jonas. I’m going to go be a tourist and run around in the snow soon. I just wish Kelly was back from Venice so we can be hoons together. She’ll be back tonight to show me photos. Peace kids.
It is absolutely amazing outside right now! It’s been snowing all morning and it’s rekindled my love for the snowJ. It’s so white outside!
Hopped over to Allison’s last night around 6, then proceeded to pack up half her kitchen because Krista doesn’t have cooking utensils. We bought over half the ingredients and plates and cups and forks with help of Kimberly and Matt to Krista’s where we made spaghetti Bolognese again! That is 3 times in one week, I’m beginning to really dislike pasta. Having said that, me and Allison whipped up a damn good sauce with some turkey meat (couldn’t find chicken) and it was... Jess level. The meal was actually great cause we had pasta, salad, bread, cheese and wine. What we like to call our first dinner party in Switzerland. The 5 of us sat around Krista’s communal kitchen for about 3 hours before we went back to her room so that me and Kimberly could show the Americans ‘Summer Heights High’ and what Aussies are like haha.
At some point in the night, we all started paying out on Asians; Krista described to us what the yellow people were like back in the States. I love that I have this effect on people; I can always bring out the racism towards the yellow kind no matter what group I’m in haha. The other funny thing is, and I won’t say it... but the ‘n’ words for African Americans which has never really been that tabooed in Australia was absolutely scandalous to the Americans. Me and Kimberly said Negro (so not even the other n word) and the two girls were like... Holy shit... whoa. Allison couldn’t physically bring herself to say the n word. Amazing culture differences! I popped on home around midnight so I could catch the last metro back to mine (the alternative was the walk in the cold... and remember it’s snowing right now).
Been somewhat productive this morning; did some of my homework, got up at a decent hour, set up this gay blog and had lunch with Jonas. I’m going to go be a tourist and run around in the snow soon. I just wish Kelly was back from Venice so we can be hoons together. She’ll be back tonight to show me photos. Peace kids.
Vodka = $10
Saturday 21 Feb
I evidently hate writing blogs... or diary entries J I keep find ways of putting it off so Bindi may be right, I may give up after a couple of weeks but for now I’ll persevere on since I just got off Skype with Jess and she was insistent I write something. It’s Saturday arvo so I’m going to skip back to Wednesday.
Got up bright and early for class but still ended up rocking up late. I had some really cool classes that morning. The best was, of course, the theatre improv class. It’s so weird doing drama in French especially since I’ve been doing it in English for the past 10 years. Thinking on your feet and thinking in French and responding to people talking to you in French is not easy, but theatre will always be fun. It’s probably the only class where I’ll actually practice some French since speaking is mandatory. After class, met up with Tobias, my Swiss Parrain for lunch but took him home because I’m pov and cooked what I would call a delicious lunch. Like I was saying to Jess just then, I’ve actually been able to concuss some interesting things which are both appetising and nutritious. And to those of you who thought I’d eat instant noodles for the next year! ... Well I would have if one packet here didn’t cost 2 Francs!
After Lunch, I went back for one more class which was blissfully filled with Anglophones so after class we gathered outside the classroom and pointed to the many differences between what Aussies say and what Yanks say. Stuck around for about an hour then went home to my wonderful book, Harry Potter which I’m proud to say I spent all of yesterday reading and have finally finished! Yay Harry! Wednesday night, went to Allison’s for dinner and made only the most delicious spaghetti ever made by non-Italians which was meant to last her for the rest of the week but which we ended up finishing... felt a bit fat afterwards. We down half a bottle of vodka and went to the party across the hall where we met up with some English speaking friends. So we have: Kimberly and Matt from Sydney, and then we had Krista from the same university as Allison in Michigan. Kimberly and Matt had more vodka on them and here is where my memory of the night becomes somewhat fuzzy. I vaguely remember drinking apple juice and vodka mixed by Matt which me and Allison later suspected was really just vodka with a dash of juice. Then somehow I ended up with a bottle of vodka in my hand and I was on a rampage of French to some random French guys... I think one of their names was Viktor. But isn’t it great that my French improves in a state of drunkenness. Around midnight, everybody started to head out to the foreign student pub night which you’ll all remember from last week as the time I almost froze to death walking home. We all decided to stop over at Kimberly’s for another drink but somehow we ended up on her couch discussing important social issues like abortion and American politics. I stood proud as a would be Democrat against Krista who was Republican... (who would be Republican! Honestly!)
Somehow we did manage to find our way into the town centre and the club at around 1.30. Me and Krista continued our discussion on American politics. We bumped into Magnus at the door and he was leaving with his new German friends. (Me and Allison feel somewhat ditched and have decided we need to stalk him so we don’t lose him as a friend). We danced the night away and there are pictures on face book... ugly ones if you guys want to see what we looked like. There was a crazy Spanish guy who kept on hitting on Allison and didn’t get the hint she wasn’t interested. So I remember spending a good amount of time protecting her and taking everyone to different places on the dance floor... but every time we turned around, he’d be standing there again looking. Creepy! I also remember Allison burning me with a cigarette. The current scar is quite ugly. I’d forgotten about it and the next morning when I saw it, I thought... wtf is this? We left the club around 3 and proceeded to walk home but being all of our first week in Lausanne, we all got lost. Ended up in some industrial part of town which Jonas (my housemate) later told me was where prostitutes hanged out. Fun times. After about 2 hours and some injuries suffered from slipping on ice, me and Allison said goodbye to the other kids and got back to hers. Pulled out a mattress and crashed. Half a day later at 2pm, we woke up and realised we’d missed all our classes that day. Promised it won’t happen again. :P
Made some scrambled eggs and by some, I meant 8 between the 2 of us then ate it with tomato sauce as the ultimate hang over meal. By the time I got back to mine, it was about 5.30 and I had to go meet an Italian friend so hopped in the shower and got pretty then got out of there. My Italian friend Klod is the first gay friend I’ve made in Lausanne and he’s only just got there from Italy so he doesn’t really know the place either. We went to an Irish pub which I’d seen walking through the streets of Lausanne and found ourselves in a pub you’d find back home. Except the waiters were wearing kilts (I don’t know if they realise kilts are Scottish and not Irish) but basically the pub was a mixture of English, Irish, Scottish and Aussie things. Pretty cool. The coasters had little kangaroos on them! We didn’t stay out for too long cause I was buggered so went home around 9.30. I bumped into Kelly on her way to Venice for Carnival. Aww the lucky girl. I was originally going to go with her but decided that trip down was too expensive on too short of a notice and because I’m going to the Swiss Carnival next weekend. Stayed with her till her train came then went home and crashed.
Friday was spent as probably the laziest day in the history of 2 day hangovers. I did absolutely nothing even though I’d planned to do grocery shopping, finish this gay blog, go get a gym membership and go out with Allison. What I ended up doing was read Harry Potter, facebook, grocery shopping (which was only cause there was nothing left to eat) and more Harry Potter. Did absolutely nothing. And for dinner I made spaghetti again for like a week and ended up eating half of it, gave the other half to Jonas. So felt a bit lazy and fat... Hope this will not become a weekly habit J
Was suppose to go to Carnival in Bulle today with my housemate Jean (John) but one of the American girls had invited me and Allison to dinner and I didn’t know; but in the effort of unity, I’ll go to dinner instead since we’re going to Carnival in Basel next weekend. Alright... how’s that for writing a whole heap of junk, going to dinner now! Rarrrr.
I evidently hate writing blogs... or diary entries J I keep find ways of putting it off so Bindi may be right, I may give up after a couple of weeks but for now I’ll persevere on since I just got off Skype with Jess and she was insistent I write something. It’s Saturday arvo so I’m going to skip back to Wednesday.
Got up bright and early for class but still ended up rocking up late. I had some really cool classes that morning. The best was, of course, the theatre improv class. It’s so weird doing drama in French especially since I’ve been doing it in English for the past 10 years. Thinking on your feet and thinking in French and responding to people talking to you in French is not easy, but theatre will always be fun. It’s probably the only class where I’ll actually practice some French since speaking is mandatory. After class, met up with Tobias, my Swiss Parrain for lunch but took him home because I’m pov and cooked what I would call a delicious lunch. Like I was saying to Jess just then, I’ve actually been able to concuss some interesting things which are both appetising and nutritious. And to those of you who thought I’d eat instant noodles for the next year! ... Well I would have if one packet here didn’t cost 2 Francs!
After Lunch, I went back for one more class which was blissfully filled with Anglophones so after class we gathered outside the classroom and pointed to the many differences between what Aussies say and what Yanks say. Stuck around for about an hour then went home to my wonderful book, Harry Potter which I’m proud to say I spent all of yesterday reading and have finally finished! Yay Harry! Wednesday night, went to Allison’s for dinner and made only the most delicious spaghetti ever made by non-Italians which was meant to last her for the rest of the week but which we ended up finishing... felt a bit fat afterwards. We down half a bottle of vodka and went to the party across the hall where we met up with some English speaking friends. So we have: Kimberly and Matt from Sydney, and then we had Krista from the same university as Allison in Michigan. Kimberly and Matt had more vodka on them and here is where my memory of the night becomes somewhat fuzzy. I vaguely remember drinking apple juice and vodka mixed by Matt which me and Allison later suspected was really just vodka with a dash of juice. Then somehow I ended up with a bottle of vodka in my hand and I was on a rampage of French to some random French guys... I think one of their names was Viktor. But isn’t it great that my French improves in a state of drunkenness. Around midnight, everybody started to head out to the foreign student pub night which you’ll all remember from last week as the time I almost froze to death walking home. We all decided to stop over at Kimberly’s for another drink but somehow we ended up on her couch discussing important social issues like abortion and American politics. I stood proud as a would be Democrat against Krista who was Republican... (who would be Republican! Honestly!)
Somehow we did manage to find our way into the town centre and the club at around 1.30. Me and Krista continued our discussion on American politics. We bumped into Magnus at the door and he was leaving with his new German friends. (Me and Allison feel somewhat ditched and have decided we need to stalk him so we don’t lose him as a friend). We danced the night away and there are pictures on face book... ugly ones if you guys want to see what we looked like. There was a crazy Spanish guy who kept on hitting on Allison and didn’t get the hint she wasn’t interested. So I remember spending a good amount of time protecting her and taking everyone to different places on the dance floor... but every time we turned around, he’d be standing there again looking. Creepy! I also remember Allison burning me with a cigarette. The current scar is quite ugly. I’d forgotten about it and the next morning when I saw it, I thought... wtf is this? We left the club around 3 and proceeded to walk home but being all of our first week in Lausanne, we all got lost. Ended up in some industrial part of town which Jonas (my housemate) later told me was where prostitutes hanged out. Fun times. After about 2 hours and some injuries suffered from slipping on ice, me and Allison said goodbye to the other kids and got back to hers. Pulled out a mattress and crashed. Half a day later at 2pm, we woke up and realised we’d missed all our classes that day. Promised it won’t happen again. :P
Made some scrambled eggs and by some, I meant 8 between the 2 of us then ate it with tomato sauce as the ultimate hang over meal. By the time I got back to mine, it was about 5.30 and I had to go meet an Italian friend so hopped in the shower and got pretty then got out of there. My Italian friend Klod is the first gay friend I’ve made in Lausanne and he’s only just got there from Italy so he doesn’t really know the place either. We went to an Irish pub which I’d seen walking through the streets of Lausanne and found ourselves in a pub you’d find back home. Except the waiters were wearing kilts (I don’t know if they realise kilts are Scottish and not Irish) but basically the pub was a mixture of English, Irish, Scottish and Aussie things. Pretty cool. The coasters had little kangaroos on them! We didn’t stay out for too long cause I was buggered so went home around 9.30. I bumped into Kelly on her way to Venice for Carnival. Aww the lucky girl. I was originally going to go with her but decided that trip down was too expensive on too short of a notice and because I’m going to the Swiss Carnival next weekend. Stayed with her till her train came then went home and crashed.
Friday was spent as probably the laziest day in the history of 2 day hangovers. I did absolutely nothing even though I’d planned to do grocery shopping, finish this gay blog, go get a gym membership and go out with Allison. What I ended up doing was read Harry Potter, facebook, grocery shopping (which was only cause there was nothing left to eat) and more Harry Potter. Did absolutely nothing. And for dinner I made spaghetti again for like a week and ended up eating half of it, gave the other half to Jonas. So felt a bit lazy and fat... Hope this will not become a weekly habit J
Was suppose to go to Carnival in Bulle today with my housemate Jean (John) but one of the American girls had invited me and Allison to dinner and I didn’t know; but in the effort of unity, I’ll go to dinner instead since we’re going to Carnival in Basel next weekend. Alright... how’s that for writing a whole heap of junk, going to dinner now! Rarrrr.
Meeting More Americans!
Tuesday 17th Feb
I’m watching the snow fall! It’s not as exciting as the first day and it’s getting to be a little bit of a hindrance. It’s extra cold outside, the ground turns to slush and your hair gets soaked... but still beautiful. I’ve just got back from my first real class and am in the process of making lunch; or putting a frozen pizza in the oven and waiting for it to cook (and it burnt L, I forgot to turn the temperature from the preheat temperature! Damn all you Australians!)
Uni started yesterday and I was up bright and early at 8 in the morning. Went to a language interview at 9 to assess what classes I can take; I get to take any class I want in my faculty J
After the interview me and Allison went into town and just walked around a bit. Did the tourist thing. A guy approached us and asked for money, he gave us a little paper saying he had to support 2 kids and don’t have anything to eat etc so I gave him all the coins I had on me. As soon as he saw we weren’t going to give him big money, he got quite rude and walked off. I had the strong suspicion that he was probably faking because later we saw him and a bunch of other guys walking around asking other people... not to be a dick but they looked like a bunch of druggies. Plus... are there homeless people in Switzerland?
We headed back to uni around 1 to meet Magnus for lunch but half way there he called and said he was in town getting his residence permit, so we had to hop off and go back. That’s the one great thing about Switzerland. Amazing public transport. Trains come every 5 minutes and they’re always on time and since I have a monthly ticket for the cheap price of 41CHF, I ride that train back and forth 10 times a day. We ended up eating in town which turned out not to be too expensive because we got a student discount. After lunch, Magnus dropped us of at Allison’s (in his car!) and went back to his to do stuff for his permit. Me and Allison went grocery shopping and then headed into uni for our first real class; Swiss French Literature. Very boring. We ended up drawing maps all class and locating our home towns on our very well drawn little atlas. I’m not going to take the class and neither is Allison. The course here is really flexible, we can basically take any class we want, so the next 2 weeks we get to just drop in and out and see which ones we particularly like. Swiss literature is definitely a no go. The good thing that came out of the class is we met another American girl named Rachel and ended up going back to her place with Allison for dinner. Magnus dropped over after dinner; for some reason he won’t come during dinner, it’s almost like he doesn’t trust me and Allison to cook so he’s always got to eat at home (he can’t cook either). Now he’s a funny fella and the best way me and Allison could describe him was as a douche. Every time we see him he tells us the 30 new French words that he’s revised that day but then 10 minutes later he’s talking about how to chat up girls. He is definitely a European douche that’s nonetheless hilarious. The four of us just spent the night talking, discussing why capsicum should not be called peppers and why Australian accents are not funny and therefore should not be laughed at. I’ve found that Americans have a hard time understanding me. Don’t anyone dare try to say it’s cause of an Asian accent. But the first couple days with Allison, everything I said she asked me to repeat because she couldn’t understand what I was saying. Now it’s all good. But with Rachel, the same thing happened. I’d say something and she’d ask me to repeat, except now Allison will jump in and say, he said... It’s like I speak a foreign language!
Onto today (Tuesday). Had 3 classes today. The first 2 were pretty boring. French language and French phonetics. I feel like I’m doing Speech pathology and realised how boring the girls’ classes back in Aus must have been. I basically tried to sleep through the first two. The 3rd and last class of the day was French Linguistics. It was at 5 at night and it went for 2 hours so I’d already made up an excuse and told the teach I had to leave an hour early; I just wanted to check out the class first. Surprising thing was I actually stayed for the whole thing because it was pretty cool. Also spoke to a couple of the exchange girls I’d met randomly. Party tomorrow night at one of their houses and it is suppose to be big so organised to eat with Allison at hers since she lives in the same complex.
Came home and made my signature dish, vegies and tuna blend. I know that doesn’t sound appetising but it’s actually surprisingly good with some mashed potatoes. Yes... I can cook. Did my laundry tonight with Jonas’ help but I screwed someone else’s laundry up. The way our system works is you pay with a prepaid laundry card. When you begin the wash, it charges you 5CHF and when you finish, you’re suppose to put your card back into the machine and it’ll refund you 3 CHF; making it 2 bucks to wash cloth. Don’t ask why they don’t just charge 2 bucks straight up. Anyway, I put my clothes in and went upstairs to make dinner cause it took about an hour to wash. I went back downstairs a bit late and someone had already taken my clothes out and put theirs in. This means I don’t get my 3CHF back. When I got back upstairs, Jonas told me I should just try to see if I can still get the money back so I tried. I got the money back but the other guy’s washing stopped midway. I think I ended up taking his 3CHF that he was meant to get after he finished. Felt kind of guilty but it’s a dog eat dog world in Switzerland. Happy day kids. It won’t stop snowing.
First Night Out and Assorted First Week info
Saturday 14 Feb
A quick rundown on what’s happened since Wednesday. So Thursday was my first day in Switzerland with snow. It was absolutely beautiful. The one thing I do love about this country is how picturesque it is. I went down to the lake by the uni and watched snowflakes float onto the water, there’s nothing like it. Granted I did this because I have no friends and am all by my lonesome self but it does lessen the homesickness just a little. I finished up everything that needed doing on Thursday morning, so had the bank account opened, the residence permit done and money all sorted. I bumped into Kelly and ended up going home with her. The lucky thing is she lives just next door; I’ve been popping in and out alot over the past week. It’s strange that it’s only been a week, feels like I’ve been gone for months. I spent the afternoon at Kelly’s, leeching and hanging all at the same time and then went home to Harry Potter. Made my first dinner that night, spaghetti and Bolognese/tuna instead of mince. Mince is not affordable. Actually turned out really good! Ate with my housemate Jonas who I’m beginning to think look more and more like Ian Thorpe. One day when I finally get around to taking photos, you’ll see... on different angles and when he makes certain facial expression, I swear it’s like talking to Ian Thorpe! He’s an awesome guy and really nice, lent me my blanket and pillow and currently, the laptop charger that I’m using cause I have no adaptor -_-
We just chilled the entire night and talked about alot of funny crap, then went on youtube to look up more funny stuff; thank God I’ve actually managed to make friends with the guys I’m living with!
Friday was orientation day. Magnus, the German guy I met on the first day here gave me a buzz so we ended up going to the orientation together. Orientation was good, I met a whole bunch of people, did my ‘prey on those with no friends’ trick that I love to do. Bumped into Alison the American girl I met on Wednesday as well. Afterwards, we all went for coffee, me, Magnus, Alison, her American friend Krista and Magnus’s roommate Tracy. A bunch of French Canadian girls I met during orientation had invited me out that night so I recruited the rest to meet at 9.30 that night before we parted ways and I went home to get ready for dinner with Julie, Julz’s Swiss friend.
Now Julie is fantastic! We had Mexican for dinner and she was so easy to get along with. For some reason I had the idea I was going to be meeting a replica of Julz but the two are definitely different; they do however share one thing in common. They’re both so genuinely and sincerely nice that it’s almost impossible to not love them straight up. Julie and I ended up speaking in French the entire time and somehow I managed; surprise of the century. We were suppose to go out together afterwards but ended up separating; I went off with the Canadians and a whole bunch of other exchange kids and she went to her friend’s place. We foreigners marched ourselves to a bar called Darling. I forgot how much Swiss clubs suck. Everybody smokes, so by the end of the night, you completely reek of cigarette smoke. The music’s terrible, they keep playing random songs...and the Swiss don’t dance. They just all stand on the dance floor and maybe bop their heads; me and Allison were not impressed. We needed to get the hip hop on. We ended up leaving around 1 but unfortunately we’d missed the last metro home so we had to go catch the pyjama buses: the nightlink equivalent. As fortune favours me, it seems I’m the only person whose residence is not visited by the pyjama bus. It goes everywhere... except where I live. There was no way for me to get home and I’d already turned down 2 offers of crashing on the couch, so I thought I’d take the bus with the Canadians back to their dorm and walk back to mine which was about 25mins. Then I realised I’ve only been in the country for 4 days! I don’t know how to recognise streets. I was sure that my frozen body would be found in the morning. Luckily, a guy from Paris got on the bus and needed to go my metro station so we ended up asking him for help and he agreed he’d take me to the place. When we got off the bus, we were about 20 mins by walking from where I lived. And did we walk! It was about -5 degrees and for half the time we walked alongside fields with animals...So kind of like the country. I felt like refugees escaping through the country s. Maybe not worth going clubbing in winter! I got home around 3 am, crawled into bed and slept the day away.
Got up and caught a train out to Renens where Julie picked me up with her dad and took me grocery shopping. Good old Aldi! When I went in and saw the prices of mince, I openly wept – perhaps not so badly. It was 5 bucks! I could actually afford meat again. Everything in Aldi is actually affordable... I may be able to see chicken again during my year in Switzerland. It was an occasion to celebrate!
As soon as I got home, I popped around to Kelly’s to celebrate the finding of a place where we can buy cheap meat! Hanged out there for the arvo then had Magnus and Alison over for dinner and drinks. The 3 of us are becoming a little trio, we generally do everything together. So a quick down on these new people in my life: I find Allison to be your typical American girl next door; she begs to differ. She’s got a boyfriend back home in Michigan, Ann Arbor and she’s really nice. Magnus is a hoot! Haha. It’s difficult to actually describe these people so I’m going to give up J We just ate together and then drank half a bottle of vodka whilst discussing intellectual things... maybe not.
A quick rundown on what’s happened since Wednesday. So Thursday was my first day in Switzerland with snow. It was absolutely beautiful. The one thing I do love about this country is how picturesque it is. I went down to the lake by the uni and watched snowflakes float onto the water, there’s nothing like it. Granted I did this because I have no friends and am all by my lonesome self but it does lessen the homesickness just a little. I finished up everything that needed doing on Thursday morning, so had the bank account opened, the residence permit done and money all sorted. I bumped into Kelly and ended up going home with her. The lucky thing is she lives just next door; I’ve been popping in and out alot over the past week. It’s strange that it’s only been a week, feels like I’ve been gone for months. I spent the afternoon at Kelly’s, leeching and hanging all at the same time and then went home to Harry Potter. Made my first dinner that night, spaghetti and Bolognese/tuna instead of mince. Mince is not affordable. Actually turned out really good! Ate with my housemate Jonas who I’m beginning to think look more and more like Ian Thorpe. One day when I finally get around to taking photos, you’ll see... on different angles and when he makes certain facial expression, I swear it’s like talking to Ian Thorpe! He’s an awesome guy and really nice, lent me my blanket and pillow and currently, the laptop charger that I’m using cause I have no adaptor -_-
We just chilled the entire night and talked about alot of funny crap, then went on youtube to look up more funny stuff; thank God I’ve actually managed to make friends with the guys I’m living with!
Friday was orientation day. Magnus, the German guy I met on the first day here gave me a buzz so we ended up going to the orientation together. Orientation was good, I met a whole bunch of people, did my ‘prey on those with no friends’ trick that I love to do. Bumped into Alison the American girl I met on Wednesday as well. Afterwards, we all went for coffee, me, Magnus, Alison, her American friend Krista and Magnus’s roommate Tracy. A bunch of French Canadian girls I met during orientation had invited me out that night so I recruited the rest to meet at 9.30 that night before we parted ways and I went home to get ready for dinner with Julie, Julz’s Swiss friend.
Now Julie is fantastic! We had Mexican for dinner and she was so easy to get along with. For some reason I had the idea I was going to be meeting a replica of Julz but the two are definitely different; they do however share one thing in common. They’re both so genuinely and sincerely nice that it’s almost impossible to not love them straight up. Julie and I ended up speaking in French the entire time and somehow I managed; surprise of the century. We were suppose to go out together afterwards but ended up separating; I went off with the Canadians and a whole bunch of other exchange kids and she went to her friend’s place. We foreigners marched ourselves to a bar called Darling. I forgot how much Swiss clubs suck. Everybody smokes, so by the end of the night, you completely reek of cigarette smoke. The music’s terrible, they keep playing random songs...and the Swiss don’t dance. They just all stand on the dance floor and maybe bop their heads; me and Allison were not impressed. We needed to get the hip hop on. We ended up leaving around 1 but unfortunately we’d missed the last metro home so we had to go catch the pyjama buses: the nightlink equivalent. As fortune favours me, it seems I’m the only person whose residence is not visited by the pyjama bus. It goes everywhere... except where I live. There was no way for me to get home and I’d already turned down 2 offers of crashing on the couch, so I thought I’d take the bus with the Canadians back to their dorm and walk back to mine which was about 25mins. Then I realised I’ve only been in the country for 4 days! I don’t know how to recognise streets. I was sure that my frozen body would be found in the morning. Luckily, a guy from Paris got on the bus and needed to go my metro station so we ended up asking him for help and he agreed he’d take me to the place. When we got off the bus, we were about 20 mins by walking from where I lived. And did we walk! It was about -5 degrees and for half the time we walked alongside fields with animals...So kind of like the country. I felt like refugees escaping through the country s. Maybe not worth going clubbing in winter! I got home around 3 am, crawled into bed and slept the day away.
Got up and caught a train out to Renens where Julie picked me up with her dad and took me grocery shopping. Good old Aldi! When I went in and saw the prices of mince, I openly wept – perhaps not so badly. It was 5 bucks! I could actually afford meat again. Everything in Aldi is actually affordable... I may be able to see chicken again during my year in Switzerland. It was an occasion to celebrate!
As soon as I got home, I popped around to Kelly’s to celebrate the finding of a place where we can buy cheap meat! Hanged out there for the arvo then had Magnus and Alison over for dinner and drinks. The 3 of us are becoming a little trio, we generally do everything together. So a quick down on these new people in my life: I find Allison to be your typical American girl next door; she begs to differ. She’s got a boyfriend back home in Michigan, Ann Arbor and she’s really nice. Magnus is a hoot! Haha. It’s difficult to actually describe these people so I’m going to give up J We just ate together and then drank half a bottle of vodka whilst discussing intellectual things... maybe not.
Starting to settle in!
Second Day 11/02/09
Second day was somewhat different. After writing about the first day and eating my not so delicious cereal, I left the apartment and went to the commune police to register and get my residence permit. I unfortunately got there a bit too late (they closed for lunch break) so I ended up coming home and headed into uni to give Olivier my bank details. Outside Olivier’s office, I met a girl named Alison from America and her parrain Alan. It seems Olivier’s office is the place to meet other exchange students. We talked for awhile and Alan told me about an exchange pub where all the foreign students went on Wednesday nights to meet people. We all agreed we might make an appearance that night. After I got home, decided to pop into Kelly’s and see if she wanted to go out for lunch, being way too lazy to actually cook for myself... that and I had no food to cook. Kelly wasn’t home but I met her roommate Becky who happens to be from China and a Singaporean girl from next door; Jessica. It was an Asian congregation. Took the two of them over to mine and they met Jonas. Becky left after a bit but Jessica stayed around and we ended up chatting the arvo away and I forgot to go back and get my Residence’s Permit.
Me and Jessica ended up braving the unknown and went grocery shopping in the afternoon at Coop (Swiss equivalent of Coles, we’ve been told we should shop at Migros instead – Woolworths...It’s cheaper –figures). Neither of us knew how to cook very well so we really had no idea what we were doing and with everything being so expensive; we were trying to budget hardcore. We also had to consider getting the food home by train so the dilemma that faced us... intense! It also turns out the Swiss don’t give you bags with your grocery; either you bring your own or you buy green bags (well these weren’t green, they were red with strawberries). We both ended up buying the strawberry bags but didn’t actually buy that much food, however I am now stocked up on pasta and bread. I went a bit overspending and brought some ham and salami just because I miss meat!! Steak was obviously out of the question, 30 bucks a kilo my ass! Hate this country.
When we got back, her friends (who were also Singaporean) decided to go out for dinner so I went out with them (we were specifically warned against eating out if we wanted to have any money left). I felt like a real meal was in order; having only eaten 2 piece of toast with peanut butter and 2 bowls of cereal since I got off the plane. So 4 Asians went into town and got some Chinese food. Typical. So much for trying to avoid the Asian race in a new country; it does seem like we’re drawn to each other. And the food was so good!! Inferior compared to Sunnybank by far but when you’re that hungry, meat is just good!!! We ended up spending $15 each which isn’t too bad but obviously can’t keep that up. After dinner we decided to go to this foreign student pub by the name of Buzz. Wondered around for a good hour but never found it. And i think Jet lag hit because I just wanted to sleep so around 11 so we headed home and I got into my warm bed. Sleep was uneasy all night, kept on waking up. I don’t know why, hopefully it’ll get better soon! Woke up to a world that was snowing.
Second day was somewhat different. After writing about the first day and eating my not so delicious cereal, I left the apartment and went to the commune police to register and get my residence permit. I unfortunately got there a bit too late (they closed for lunch break) so I ended up coming home and headed into uni to give Olivier my bank details. Outside Olivier’s office, I met a girl named Alison from America and her parrain Alan. It seems Olivier’s office is the place to meet other exchange students. We talked for awhile and Alan told me about an exchange pub where all the foreign students went on Wednesday nights to meet people. We all agreed we might make an appearance that night. After I got home, decided to pop into Kelly’s and see if she wanted to go out for lunch, being way too lazy to actually cook for myself... that and I had no food to cook. Kelly wasn’t home but I met her roommate Becky who happens to be from China and a Singaporean girl from next door; Jessica. It was an Asian congregation. Took the two of them over to mine and they met Jonas. Becky left after a bit but Jessica stayed around and we ended up chatting the arvo away and I forgot to go back and get my Residence’s Permit.
Me and Jessica ended up braving the unknown and went grocery shopping in the afternoon at Coop (Swiss equivalent of Coles, we’ve been told we should shop at Migros instead – Woolworths...It’s cheaper –figures). Neither of us knew how to cook very well so we really had no idea what we were doing and with everything being so expensive; we were trying to budget hardcore. We also had to consider getting the food home by train so the dilemma that faced us... intense! It also turns out the Swiss don’t give you bags with your grocery; either you bring your own or you buy green bags (well these weren’t green, they were red with strawberries). We both ended up buying the strawberry bags but didn’t actually buy that much food, however I am now stocked up on pasta and bread. I went a bit overspending and brought some ham and salami just because I miss meat!! Steak was obviously out of the question, 30 bucks a kilo my ass! Hate this country.
When we got back, her friends (who were also Singaporean) decided to go out for dinner so I went out with them (we were specifically warned against eating out if we wanted to have any money left). I felt like a real meal was in order; having only eaten 2 piece of toast with peanut butter and 2 bowls of cereal since I got off the plane. So 4 Asians went into town and got some Chinese food. Typical. So much for trying to avoid the Asian race in a new country; it does seem like we’re drawn to each other. And the food was so good!! Inferior compared to Sunnybank by far but when you’re that hungry, meat is just good!!! We ended up spending $15 each which isn’t too bad but obviously can’t keep that up. After dinner we decided to go to this foreign student pub by the name of Buzz. Wondered around for a good hour but never found it. And i think Jet lag hit because I just wanted to sleep so around 11 so we headed home and I got into my warm bed. Sleep was uneasy all night, kept on waking up. I don’t know why, hopefully it’ll get better soon! Woke up to a world that was snowing.
First Day and Missin' Home Already
The First day in Switzerland made me miss home so much. The Swiss lack the warm friendliness that I seemed to have taken for granted in Australians. Granted the weather here is also mind numbingly cool and midday day is so gloom, you’d think it was already 5 or 6 in the arvo. That’s of course just the first impression. It’s my second morning here and the weather outside looks fantastic; blue skies, cool breeze, picturesque. My parrain Tobias picked me up from the airport at 7 and we lugged my suitcase with the broken wheels onto a train from Geneva to Lausanne. The suitcase was 26ks but after no sleep for 30 hours and then trying to carry it on and off trains and across a big city was excruciating (damn those wheels!). We spent the morning doing errands. First we found my dorm and dumped the bag off as soon as we can (we ended up taking a taxi which cost about 15bucks for 3 minutes). My other housemates weren’t home yet so didn’t get to meet them later that night. We headed into uni to see Olivier – the exchange program coordinator. We ended up meeting two other exchange students outside his office; Tracy, another Aussie girl and her housemate Magnus who drove down from Germany. Since our mutual common language is English; all our French being a bit rusty, we ended up just talking in English. So guess these 2 were the first friends I made in Switzerland; of course and my parrain Tobias who was a great help and got most of the things I had to do done. We drank a hot chocolate with the two new kids and then parted ways. Tobias and I went back to the town centre and got me a Swiss Sim Card. Good deal, very cheap to call international for me and good texting too. We went and got an adaptor for all my electronic good from a place called Fnac. Bad idea. They only sold one that matched an Australian plug and it cost 35 Francs (it was a world adaptor so it had like everything). No choice... things needed to be charged so I bought it. Got home and it freakin’ doesn’t have the 3 hole. For those of you who know Australia plugs, we have the 2 metal pieces that are slanted at the top with 1 metal piece that is straight at the bottom (that wasn’t a very good description.) But the adaptor only had 2 holes for the 2 slanted metal pieces. This means my phone can get charged, my camera... but not my laptop which unfortunately has 3 pieces of metal!!! Feel like I just tossed 35 Francs out the window and now my laptop is about to die.
Tobias took me to a grocery store as well and the prices almost killed me. I hadn’t eaten anything all day but I decided for day one, I wouldn’t cook yet so I wanted some instant noodles. Instant noodles do not exist in Switzerland. I ended up buying cereal and milk and that was my dinner on my first day in Switzerland and today’s breakfast! Somewhat depressing and definitely missing Sunnybank.
Me and Tobias parted ways after he showed me around town and I caught the metro back to my dorm. Met one of my Swiss housemates; Jonas who’s a pretty cool guy. Coincidently he’s lived in Brisbane for a bit in Fairfield, just down the road from Kim. He showed me some shops on a map and introduced me to our apartment. The guy’s easy to talk to and a good laugh but the saddest thing I ever heard him say was, everyone cook for themselves. My dreams of meeting a housemate who’d cook for me got thrown out the window. I went back to Uni afterwards and opened a bank account and emailed home. On my way back to the dorm, a freak storm (which apparently is not so freaky and quite common here) hit and the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees. I was a frozen man walking by myself; there was no one else on the street. Made me think maybe the Swiss knew about freak storms that hit around 5 and all get indoors. That walk home made me feel so lonely. I got to admit, I miss everyone back home so much; I had so many great friends and so many people around me, why the hell did I leave all that to come here with no friends. Temporary home sickness setting in. When I got home, I unpacked then went next door to see Kelly, the other Australian girl from UQ who’d arrived a couple weeks earlier. We caught up whilst I ate my cereal dinner and she told that the first week will be so lonely until you make some friends, how true. The first night in Switzerland was actually really good, met my other housemates Robert – who apparently doesn’t talk much and has a habit of disappearing quite a lot and Jean (John) who’s this cool Swiss pride guy. He bought over his girlfriend (who happens to be Australian!) and her friends; so we all ended up having a good laugh in the living room. I actually managed to stay awake until 10pm! After the other Aussies left, I grabbed a shower and hit the sack. Kept on waking up all night and I don’t know if that’s to do with the Jet lag or what but not having slept for 48 hours prior, the sleep was absolutely beautiful to me.
Tobias took me to a grocery store as well and the prices almost killed me. I hadn’t eaten anything all day but I decided for day one, I wouldn’t cook yet so I wanted some instant noodles. Instant noodles do not exist in Switzerland. I ended up buying cereal and milk and that was my dinner on my first day in Switzerland and today’s breakfast! Somewhat depressing and definitely missing Sunnybank.
Me and Tobias parted ways after he showed me around town and I caught the metro back to my dorm. Met one of my Swiss housemates; Jonas who’s a pretty cool guy. Coincidently he’s lived in Brisbane for a bit in Fairfield, just down the road from Kim. He showed me some shops on a map and introduced me to our apartment. The guy’s easy to talk to and a good laugh but the saddest thing I ever heard him say was, everyone cook for themselves. My dreams of meeting a housemate who’d cook for me got thrown out the window. I went back to Uni afterwards and opened a bank account and emailed home. On my way back to the dorm, a freak storm (which apparently is not so freaky and quite common here) hit and the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees. I was a frozen man walking by myself; there was no one else on the street. Made me think maybe the Swiss knew about freak storms that hit around 5 and all get indoors. That walk home made me feel so lonely. I got to admit, I miss everyone back home so much; I had so many great friends and so many people around me, why the hell did I leave all that to come here with no friends. Temporary home sickness setting in. When I got home, I unpacked then went next door to see Kelly, the other Australian girl from UQ who’d arrived a couple weeks earlier. We caught up whilst I ate my cereal dinner and she told that the first week will be so lonely until you make some friends, how true. The first night in Switzerland was actually really good, met my other housemates Robert – who apparently doesn’t talk much and has a habit of disappearing quite a lot and Jean (John) who’s this cool Swiss pride guy. He bought over his girlfriend (who happens to be Australian!) and her friends; so we all ended up having a good laugh in the living room. I actually managed to stay awake until 10pm! After the other Aussies left, I grabbed a shower and hit the sack. Kept on waking up all night and I don’t know if that’s to do with the Jet lag or what but not having slept for 48 hours prior, the sleep was absolutely beautiful to me.
Abu Dhabi International
Brisbane 6.07am – Abu Dhabi 12.07am Feb 9th
Just wandered around the airport here and now sitting outside my gate; the wait will be two hours. I forget how uncomfortable flying is; I’m two thirds down and got 7 more hours to go. On the plane my feet swelled up like melons so after I took my shoes off, trying to get them back on wasn’t too pleasant. I also remembered I forgot my French dictionary and grammar book. I knew I’d forgotten something! Ain’t it just the important stuff? I’m the only Asian waiting at this gate to Geneva! I knew it, there are no Asians in Europe!
Just wandered around the airport here and now sitting outside my gate; the wait will be two hours. I forget how uncomfortable flying is; I’m two thirds down and got 7 more hours to go. On the plane my feet swelled up like melons so after I took my shoes off, trying to get them back on wasn’t too pleasant. I also remembered I forgot my French dictionary and grammar book. I knew I’d forgotten something! Ain’t it just the important stuff? I’m the only Asian waiting at this gate to Geneva! I knew it, there are no Asians in Europe!
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