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 :)
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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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