My Last Few Weeks in the CH

The week after getting back from London was mostly spent working, as I only had a couple weeks left to finish my Independent Study Project. Friday I went with Ria, Erin, and Orlando, to a Christmas market in Montreux that was absolutely amazing. We chose to go on a most beautiful day, with the sun shining and it being totally clear across the lake, so we could see all the magnificent mountains. I’ve already put some pictures up, but they had some garden sculptures from Ice Age, a Village du Bucheron (Lumberjack’s Village), and tons of little chalet booths selling stuff. We saw tea, jewelry, toys, and more. Some of the more interesting things were tea balls that opened up into flowers after steeping in water, a booth of just all kinds of honey, and of course I can’t forget the abundance of mulled wine that was available. One of my new loves from being in Switzerland is wine, mulled included. Anyway, we had fondue for lunch, took beautiful pictures by the lake, and even found a statue of Freddie Mercury, who apparently had a recording studio in Montreux.

The weekend was also rather Filipino-themed, as I made adobo for my host mom and our neighbors that turned out delicious despite the fact that they don’t have regular white vinegar here, and I ended up using the next best thing which was vinaigre aux épices (spiced vinegar). I did more work Saturday then went to a Filipino Christmas party I had heard about from the person I’m working with at the Mission. A bunch of people from the program came with me, and we got to see some pretty traditional karaoke-type performances (traditional at family gatherings, at least), children’s performances (my mom told me Filipinos like to showcase their kids), and some traditional Filipino lantern-dancing too. One of the coolest performances was of a group of hand mimers, which is basically hard to explain but you must watch the video I found of an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-WWwiUfD7M
Unfortunately the food wasn’t terribly amazing, but I did get to have pancit and some Filipino desserts. Later in the week my host mom proved to be amazingly resourceful, using the rest of my adobo sabow (sauce) to flavor pasta, cook fresh mushrooms in, and cook with lamb. She insisted that there was no reason to waste it. I was pretty amazed at how many other delicious uses you can put adobo sauce to.

This week we started our Independent Study Project presentations, so I’ve been hearing about the research everyone else has been doing while trying to finish my own paper. I had raclette tonight with my host mom and our neighbor, and I am sure going to miss Swiss raclette and fondue. My host mom likes having raclette (which is melted cheese poured over boiled potatoes) with fruit, which I thought was different but tried it and I guess it wasn’t bad, just kinda weird. Anyway, the week is whizzing by and going by slowly because we’re actually doing stuff, and I’m awaiting my parents’ arrival on Sunday!! Christmas is in just 20 days, yayyyyy!

Nearly Done

So last week I went to London, and now I’m back in Switzerland to do a large chunk of work before being done with the program. I guess, now, writing this, I realize how quickly the program really did go by, and can’t believe that I only have 3 semesters of college left! At this point, I’m really eager to be back home, to see friends and family, and have that familiarity that you just can’t get in a foreign country, no matter how much you love it.

The weekend before London was mostly one of work, although I did go with Ria and Erin to see a concert at Victoria Hall. It was only 10 CHF, and we saw the Suisse Romande Orchestre and heard some piano from Jean-Yves Thibaud. I left for London on Thursday, and within the first couple days Beza and I had done gone through all the big touristy stuff. We had lunch in Notting Hill, but unfortunately missed the market, and walked through Hyde Park. Our first day we walked Oxford and Bond Street, which are big, busy shopping streets. It was the first place I saw more American stores I could count, which was less exciting but at the same time a nice comfort. Bez and I both missed going to Borders and reading magazines in a café, so we got a relaxing dose of that when we found a Borders on Oxford Street. Bond Street had wonderful Christmas decorations up, including some fake soap-sud snow coming down over the street corner.

Thanksgiving dinner was spent in the dorm kitchen of an American student attending the London School of Economics for the year, who cooked two turkeys!! It was an interesting mix of American and English students, who didn’t really know what the holiday big deal was but were more than eager to join in the eating festivities. One guy, Chris, was really interested in the fact that we were Americans, and wanted to know all about America. We started talking to him, and one of the first things he said was, “So, tell me about America. Fat kids.” We thought it was kind of funny more than anything, and true anyway, with all the obesity and unhealthy foods we have back home, but I guess you get stereotypes everywhere.

I myself was guilty of it, as I had to keep telling myself that I wasn’t in the middle of a Harry Potter book while in London. Since it was my first time there, my only impressions of the city came from Harry Potter and movies like Love Actually and Notting Hill, which I probably don’t have to say romanticize the city quite a bit. Either way, it was still pretty exciting riding the Night bus and getting off at King's Cross, and hearing our tour of Shakespeare’s Globe with the added bonus of a British accent. Although I must say, Beza and I felt pretty dumb when we couldn’t understand what the one kid Chris was saying half the time he was talking to us, due to his fast talking, strong Southern London accent, and arsenal of slang. It was still English, after all.

Among the other typical London things we did were Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, the British Museum, Covent Garden, Picadilly Circus, and Regent’s Street. We also walked by the Bank of England, Royal Exchange, Hay’s Galleria, London Bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, and the Imperial War Museum. Some of the stuff we wanted to do was ridiculously expensive, no thanks to the sucky exchange rate of the dollar to the pound (a pound buys you more than $2). We made sure to get some delicious Indian food at Brick Lane, complete with men standing outside the restaurant trying to convince you to come inside and offering you deals like free drinks or naan (I freaking love naan). I got to meet up with Alisha, my best friend from elementary school in Texas, as she was visiting a friend from school studying abroad there that weekend (a break from Alisha's own study abroad in Spain).

I was really hoping to see Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, but again it cost more than we were willing to pay. I blame Mr. Hight for making me interested in British history… we did go in to an Anglican mass, which was weird since I’m used to doing things the Catholic way. Can’t forget going to see the Queen at Buckingham palace, and getting the token London phone booth pic. We made our way to the National Portrait Gallery, but decided against going to the Tate Museum of Modern Art, which my friend Nicole described as toilet and refrigerators displayed as art. We also saw a bit of Trafalgar Square, and tried to go to the London Dungeons until we found out that it cost 20 pounds each. The Burrough market was supposed to be really good, but we missed it too unfortunately.

By the end of our 5-day trip, Beza and I had seen “everything,” and decided to watch a movie, since we both wanted to see American Gangster and really missed going out for a movie. This again shows that one of the reasons I liked London so much is that it felt close to home, with people speaking English, American stores, coffee shops on every corner, and real bagels. There were also tons of shows that I was dying to see, but I guess it’s left as my ambition to go back and see one. Not only did they have the usual Broadway-esque shows like Wicked, Hairspray, and the Lion King, but some others I hadn’t heard of like Dirty Dancing and the Lord of the Rings. Talking to some of my GW friends I saw who were studying at LSE, I saw a lot of resemblances between LSE and GW, such as the dorms in the middle of the city, expensiveness of going there, and just the experience of being in the middle of the city. Taking the tube was an everyday occurrence, just like taking the metro in DC is, except the tube in London costs a lot more and gets stiflingly full at rush hour (okay, so maybe it’s not that much different from DC in that aspect) – with the addition of the lady saying “Mind the Gap” and taking the Picadilly or Circle Line instead of the Red or Blue line.

Overall, I really liked London, and am thinking of going back to LSE in the future for grad school maybe. I found out they have a one year Master’s program that sounds pretty great to me. Oh – and I almost forgot, it didn’t rain the whole time we were there! Since I’ve been back, like I said, I have lots of work to do, finishing my research and writing a report for the program, in addition to preparing a presentation for next week and missing home more than ever. It feels so close yet so far, but I can’t wait to be back in the States. I know I’ll miss Switzerland when I get back, with it’s amazing chocolate, cheese, and tranquility, but it’s just all the more reason to come back one day :-) See you all soon!

Markets and Pumpkin Bread

The weeks have become rather unexciting, with days spent mostly in the library doing research or at least pretending to half the time (the other half of the time I actually am working). I went to a conference at the UN that, in conjunction with my research in services trade, has somewhat put me off to working with big organization. I suppose every business has its territory of jargon that you eventually get used to, but it seems more and more like all people at big international organizations (and sometimes even small organizations) do is talk and talk and research and have seminars and discussions and write policy papers but never actually do anything. A lot of my service research has been centered around the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), which is all about negotiations and commitments and disputes and for someone who went into it not knowing anything about it there sure is a lot of legal jargon and many other things that don’t translate into English at all for me.

I had an interview with someone I met while at a WTO conference, a British ex-pat (I know appreciate the concept of ex-pat much more after having lived abroad for a few months) married to an American and living in Spain. He’s an independent consultant specializing in the GATS and basically helped me understand what I’m researching in a bit more human terms. We talked at a café and ordered hot chocolate and a snack, and since I requested the interview I tried to pay at the end but he insisted since “a lady never pays.” I was pretty excited about the whole British way of talking and his own sort of charm and the whole accent and “chap” sort of talk… at the Christmas Market we went to today it was at an English church and everyone there was from the UK, being surrounded by all the British accents made me pretty excited to go to London on Thursday!!

Yesterday night Ria, Erin, and I made pumpkin bread with the canned pumpkin they had each received from their parents. I used a Mihalik recipe and Erin had her own as well, but I didn’t know that my recipe made massive amounts of batter (supposedly two loaves but it seems those must be pretty big loafs) – all in all we made maybe a couple dozen muffins, a loaf, and also filled a heart-shaped cake pan with batter to make some pumpkin bread-cake. It was pretty amazing, let me tell you, and afterwards we watched Blood Diamond since Erin’s dad brought her movies when he came to visit.

One of the things I love about my host family is how I get the German and Swiss culture – my host mom was born in Munich (I think), and is half-Swiss, half-German. So she knows all these German and Bavarian specialties that I get to try in addition to the Vaudoise (cantonal) and French specialties. All in all I’ve had everything from knodel and spetchzli (German) to Cordon blue, raclette, fondue, a number of different sausages, and a bunch of fruits and vegetables I haven’t heard of. I wonder whether my mom thinks in German or French. I would speculate German considering her phone and washing machine are in German, we usually watch German TV (just now there were some people playing music and in like full out lederhosen and other German things), and the other night when she was making a cake she was talking to herself in German about what to do next even though the recipe is in French!

I know going to be an utter failure at keeping my posts short, but considering I only write them once or twice a week I figure it makes up. Today I went with Erin and Ria to the marché au puces (flea market) my mom’s been working at preparing all week, and wandered around the outdoor market that had been set up in Nyon as well. Then we went to Geneva for a Christmas market I had seen a flyer for, hosted in a church as well by a British community. There was mulled wine (delicious stuff, very spicy and wintery/fall-y), cakes, and English books galore (I bought 4 for 12 francs, it was pretty exciting). Downstairs they had tea and cakes and lunch plates of South Asian and African food, which we had for lunch and tasted delicious. Alas, I stop here to watch little German kids singing on TV, kids who speak other languages are cuter for some reason. Je vous souhaite une bonne journée!

Shorter by demand

So I’ve been getting feedback after practically begging for comments, which people aren’t leaving primarily because my posts are apparently too long (as Boris said, “You like to include every detail”), and because you have to log in to leave one. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve done much this week since getting back from Barcelona, mostly relaxing and researching.

I’ve obtained a research assignment with the Philippine Mission to the WTO. I emailed the person I talked to for my cultural drop-off asking if I could do interactive research with him, so now I’m working on profiling different industries within the services sector. I’m not sure how interested I am in services but I took what I could get, and at least this way I’ll learn whether or not I want to work in it. It seems like a sector that’s been growing a lot recently, as it apparently makes up 2/3 of the world’s economy and is pretty important to development, since it encourages education and training of employees.

The weekend was pretty uneventful, after attempting to go out in Geneva Thursday night with friends and, in short, failing miserably, I’ve been pretty discouraged against going out. Current cravings are Movenpick pistachio ice cream, cucumber salad, and a nice long relaxing bath (with Lush bath bombs!). Tonight I invited my friend Ria over for dinner; my mom made potatoes au gratin served with ham, yellow pumpkin, and salad. For dessert we had coupe Danemark which was amazing (vanilla ice cream served over homemade chocolate sauce). It’s been kind of trying not seeing people every day, but so far I’ve had human contact with at least one or two other people from the group on the train or at the UN library.

I’m hoping and thinking that the month will pass quickly, as I only have about a week and a half before leaving for London over Thanksgiving break. After that we have a week to finish our papers and a week of presentations, and my parents are coming! I’m definitely going to miss speaking French, hanging out with my awesome host mom, and the amazing views all over Switzerland, but I can’t wait to be home and see everyone again. A bientot!

Mas Aventuras a Barcelona

Monday we spent exploring Barcelona since we hadn’t seen much of it and that was our last day there. In the morning we stopped in a bakery and I got some fresh squeezed orange juice – probably the best fresh OJ I’ve tasted ever! I noticed that OJ presses were pretty common in bakeries though, which I thought was pretty cool. There was a market we checked out right off of Las Ramblas called Mercat de Boqueria (in Barcelona they speak Spanish and Catalan, which is I guess a dialect of Spanish but sometimes Orlando would talk to people in Spanish and they wouldn’t understand him because I think they spoke Catalan). It was a really cool find, and they had fresh squeezed juices and meats and fruits and veggies and candy and dried fruit too. I tried a juice made from cactus fruit and coconut that looked interesting… it was sweet but while I was drinking it I couldn’t decide if I maybe had a little bit of an allergy to the cactus fruit.

After that we made our way over to the Barria Gotic (Gothic Quarter), saw some pretty buildings, and went into the Catedral, which is by far THE most beautiful church I have seen in my life. It even topped Notre Dame. The part where we walked in was kind of a courtyard, with palm trees and a garden in the middle. Then I went inside the church and walked around with my mouth hanging open. I don’t even know how to describe it… they have a massive organ, and these beautiful I guess altars around the sides in gold and painted and just… amazing. We caught the end of a Spanish mass in the chapel, and I decided to get Communion. Afterwards I kneeled down at a bench and saw Beza had followed me, and I was really confused at first because I knew she wasn’t Catholic and didn’t know why she got Communion. She said she was still spiritual and could pray, which was of course true, so we stayed till the end of the mass and were leaving when a nun stopped her and started talking to her in Spanish. Beza of course doesn’t know any Spanish, so Orlando came over and we found out that Beza had forgotten how to ask for just a blessing and had taken a piece of the host and not eaten it. The nun wasn’t really mad, just concerned that she had taken it, and brought us up to the front to return it to the priest.

We left the church and walked to the Arc de Triomph, took some pictures and walked a bit further. Beza had been craving empanadas, but we’d had trouble finding them because I guess they’re not all that native to the region. Well when we walked by a store that said it had empanadas, we went inside and all got some for lunch. They were delicious… After lunch we walked to the Sagrada Familia church, which is still under construction so when we got there there were cranes everywhere, but it still looked huge and amazing. We sat down in a nearby park to figure out our next plan of action, and while we were consulting the map some lady walking her dog started yelling Bolso! Bolso! Orlando took off running and Beza and I weren’t sure what was going on since it was all happening so fast. We both thought something dangerous was happening like a drowning baby or a bomb and that Orlando had run towards the danger to save someone, but it turns out the lady was screaming Bag! Bag! because someone had snuck behind Orlando and taken his backpack. Luckily with everyone screaming at him and watching the thief left the bag and walked away, and Orlando got all his stuff back. Lesson learned though, even though I had been warned before going to all the big cities – Paris, Rome, Geneva – about pickpockets, Barcelona turned out to be a place that truly is a dangerous pickpocketing zone. So beware! Now we’re all pretty paranoid about it, and from then on we had someone watch guard every time we consulted a map or something similar.

We continued our adventure of churches, thievery, and sightseeing towards Les Punxes and La Perdera, hoping to see some Gaudi artwork and architecture. Les Punxes turned out to just be a pretty building, which you couldn’t really go inside because people lived there. La Perdrera was really cool looking, I’m not sure what the style of art is called but I really liked it. We didn’t go inside because it cost money, but we snuck into the gift shop to look at pictures and snapped a couple of shots from the window. Casa Batilo was also nearby, this building covered in mosaics, but again it cost money so we just took pictures and didn’t go inside. From there we took the metro to Porta Olimpica, and saw some pretty fountains and sculptures and the beach of course. I liked feeling sand between my toes again, although unfortunately we arrived at the end of our day again and it was pretty dark and cold.

We looked for dinner and Orlando needed to get cash at an ATM (PS in the future traveling with traveler’s checks is a hassle because you have to find a place to get change, and then they charge you up the wazoo to make a commission… I found one “Exact Change” place but I couldn’t tell if they just jacked up their rates to make a profit, and also an American Express official dealer that only charged a flat rate of 5 euros for change… so I don’t know if it’s better to pay the bank fee and conversion fees or have to look for places where you can exchange traveler’s checks! The only advantage about traveler’s checks is they’re protected by your signature but debit cards are protected by your pin). Anyway we found an ATM on our search for dinner and someone had left 50 euros!!! I figured that kind of sort of proved that I had good karma coming to me from being robbed, even though I lost 100 euros and Beza insisted on claiming the money since “she found it” (we were all together). She agreed to buy us dinner with it though, so I got some yummy paella and sangria again without having to pay. Later though we went to Hard Rock Café because Bez didn’t want paella, she wanted to go back there, and I ended up buying some Hard Rock shorts. I was on the edge about getting them until I found out that with my coupon and 20 euro or more purchase I got a free guitar-shaped shaker! LOL anyway Beza got dinner at Hard Rock and then we headed back to the hostel to call it a night. The flight back to Geneva was happily uneventful, mostly I was glad to hear French again and to come back to my bed in Rolle. My host mom made pumpkin soup for dinner served with an omelette and veggies. It’s interesting how they don’t really eat eggs for breakfast, but as a lunch or dinner… I’m also really starting to like vegetables, which I figure is really good for me. That’s all till tomorrow, folks! Don’t forget to leave a loving comment ;-)

Todo es possible en la vida

Sunday morning we set out to go to Montserrat, but I first got robbed. We went to the Metro and Orlando and Beza got gypped by some guy into paying 3 euros for a Metro ticket, but I was smart and bought mine at the machine for only 1.25. Then, somewhere in between looking at the Metro map and walking to our train, my little purse-wallet went missing! We backtracked and I hadn’t left it anywhere, so my conclusion is that someone took it from my bag. Luckily I still had other valuables like my phone and camera, but I had forgotten to leave some of my newly changed euros in the room and ended up losing about 100 euros and a credit card. I filed a report with the police and we continued on to Placa Espanya, where there was supposedly a train that could take us to Montserrat. The worst part of being a foreigner is not having simple things you’re used to having. After I got robbed it was hard calling home because my phone wasn’t working – I had refilled my Swiss SIM card before leaving, but it didn’t go through immediately and after I went negative the account was frozen. I tried using Orlando’s phone, but it didn’t work, and I tried using Beza’s phone card, but first had to find a public phone, which isn’t as easy as you’d think it would be. I finally ended up calling collect and woke my parents up at 3 in the morning to tell them to cancel the credit card, and had to borrow money from friends the rest of the day.

Montserrat is a mountain about 60 km outside the city, with a monastery at the top and a famous boys choir and the Virgin Negra. Before going there we passed through a town on the outskirts of Barcelona, which was very nice and local too. Beza and Orlando got lunch at the Pizza Hut, and I got a chorizo sandwich at a restaurant nearby. We took another train to Montserrat, then a bus to get to the actual mountain part. The church was one of the most beautiful ones I had seen so far, and the view from the mountain was amazing as well. We took a cable car up to the top, which was kind of unnerving because it was just one little car going up a cable from the base to the top of the mountain. Since we had spent some extra hours searching for my lost purse, we missed the 1pm showing of the boys choir, and the 6pm showing coincided with our last cable car to the bottom, so we didn’t get to see the choir boys.

For dinner we went to Hard Rock Café for some good old American rock music and some good old cheeseburgers, BBQ, and steaks. Afterwards we chilled at Las Ramblas for a bit and Beza and Orlando started talking to some Gambian people, which kind of sketched me out since I’m very anti-talking to strangers but we learned about how they were migrants and had worked all over Europe. When we got back to the hostel I got some computer access and went to sleep. The three of us were staying in a mixed room (ie, coed) with a couple of girls from Paris. It was really weird how hearing French was familiar and nice after walking around all day and only hearing/speaking Spanish.

I’ve also noticed that Barcelona was by far the most “globalized” city of all the ones I’ve been to so far. Paris had its share of McDonald’s and commercial stores at the Champs-Elysees, such as Niketown and Zara. Rome had McDonald’s on EVERY corner, as bad as Starbucks are in major US towns. Every city of course has its token Starbucks – Geneva only has one, and my host mom hasn’t even heard of it. But in Barcelona, we saw not only Starbucks and McDonalds, but also Pizza Hut, KFC, and Burger King. Not to mention a few other US companies like Mail Boxes Etc. It was cool though to see the links between Filipino and Spanish culture, since Spain ruled and influenced the Philippines during a large part of its history. You could already see it somewhat just in the language. I don’t know much Tagalog, but I do know there are some words that are similar if not the same, such as maiz and when my dad would say “Ven aqui” to my brother and me when we were children. But I noticed the connection even more so in Spain with the food! They have their version of embutido, flan (actually the flan was exactly the same), chorizo, adobo (not in Spain but I’ve heard of it in Mexico), paella, empanadas, ensaimada… just talking about it makes me hungry.

Playing Tourist

I got home on Wednesday and didn’t do anything much, mostly just relaxed because I was starting to feel like I was getting a cold. Thursday Erin and I played tourist in Geneva because we didn’t feel like starting on our papers and hadn’t explored Geneva yet. We met up with Orlando for a lunch of Chinese food then went to the Musee Ariana, museum of ceramics and pottery. They had a cool temporary exhibition known as the forêt du verre, forest of glass with trees and schools of fish and sculptures all made of glass. Took the train home and had dinner, which I think was sauerkraut traditionally eaten with a peace of smoked ham and a piece not smoked.

Friday morning I went into Geneva and found Beza, who had left her camera at a restaurant the night before and was back to get it. Didn’t do much else that day, mostly stayed at the library to send emails and catch up on TV shows. Beza and I had a delicious kebab lunch, and I went back to the library some more. We did buy our tickets to London, and will be there Thanksgiving weekend! I’m excited because I’ll get to see a friend from GW and my best friend from Texas, who I haven’t seen in years and who will be visiting the same weekend.

Saturday Orlando, Beza, and I left for Barcelona! Once we got off the train and were walking into the airport we came upon a group of people standing around and a policeman, and he suddenly (quickly) said something to the effect of “Cover your ears!” and everyone covered their ears and cringed, and it was really scary because we had no idea what was going on. Beza dropped her stuff and ran into the nearest shoe store, and Orlando and I froze and covered our ears, then we heard a quick gunshot-like noise. Afterwards we were waiting to see what happened and Orlando was quick to go to the front and see what happened, but Beza and I stayed behind until we knew it was safe. Turns out someone had left an unattended suitcase, so they roped off the area and shot at the bag in case it was a bomb. I didn’t really understand how shooting at a possible bomb was a good idea, but I guess it’s somewhat controlled, even though you don’t know how strong the explosion could be. We again learned the wonders of having a US passport, as people would look at it and know to talk to us in English, and we had to wait while officers looked more closely at Orlando’s Costa Rican one. Flying sick is never a good idea, and my ears failed to pop after landing until two days later.

We got into Barcelona around 5:00pm, and took a bus from the airport to the center of the city. Our hostel was located off of Las Ramblas, a big pedestrian walkway with stores and vendors and trees covering the whole thing like a canopy. We found a place for dinner after settling in and got paella and sangria, which was delicious but apparently somewhat touristy, since all the restaurants off of Las Ramblas had “Menus Turisticas” of paella and sangria for a combined price. Then we walked to the beach and walked along the Mediterranean Sea, but it was nighttime by then so there wasn’t much to see beyond the beach.

Milk, Yogurt, and Cream Cheese

Monday was a really busy day. We met at the train station at about 8am and took the train to Bern, where we had an organization visit then 3 hours free before our train to Luzern. In the morning before leaving I met up with Erin and Ria at this bakery that we love in Rolle, and I got myself a sandwich for lunch. They only had cheese and foie (liver) sandwiches so I went with the cheese. Turns out it was a sandwich with slices of brie I think and lettuce and tomato and it was really, really good. We sat and ate our lunch in Bern watching some old Swiss men play life-size checkers, then wandered towards the bear pits. We passed Münster, this famous church that was pretty magnificent, but it wasn’t open to go inside. We had to cross the river to get to the bear pits, and luckily for us it was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies, and the trees all around were turning colors. Erin thought we should be able to see the mountains but it was kind of hazy and unfortunately we couldn’t. Then we got to Bern’s famous bear pits – bern means bear in German, and the pits have been there since 1513, when the “victorious Bernese soldiers brought a bear back from the Battle of Novara,” according to my Switzerland book. They were kind of sad because it was a couple of bears literally living in a pit with some dirt and trees, and people can buy “treats” of fruit and feed them. The bears were really cute though, we wanted to cuddle with them except for the fact that they had giant scary claws.

Walking back towards the train station we stopped in this cool store that is sort of like a wine bar in the U.S. but it also had olive oil tasting and a bunch of homemade alcohols like crème liquors and cognacs and whiskeys and kirsch and grappa, which I learned is made from distilled grapes. It’s not wine because of the distillation process (according to the girl I talked to), since the grapes aren’t pressed. Anyway you get to taste whatever you want and then if you want to buy anything you pick your size and type of glass container and they fill it up and cork it right there for you. I ended up getting this chocolate cream liquor that was basically like chocolate syrup, and I’m sure would be delicious on like ice cream sundaes or in baking maybe. We also saw Einstein’s house, but didn’t take a tour because it cost 6 Francs and we didn’t really have time. Finally we went to Merker, this amazing chocolate store that I think is a chain in Switzerland but it’s like this amazing giant store of chocolate! Erin and I joked about how our goal is to visit all the Merker stores in Switzerland, which we’ve already done so far in all the cities we’ve been to.

Then we hopped on the train to Luzern, took a bus to our hostel, and checked in. Afterwards we grabbed dinner, and really wanted to try some German food like spatzli and schnitzel and streudel. Well we didn’t find a ton of German restaurants in Luzern, and the few we did were often not in our price range. Originally we were going to go to this restaurant place that does folklore performances with the costumes and traditional music and dancing but knowing our timing it was closed until the day after we left. We ended up finding this place called Pinocchio’s restaurant run by this lady who took our order and cooked our food in the small kitchen right next to us, but the place was very cozy and named after her dog and there were all these Pinocchio puppets and decorations on the wall. We all got pork sausage with roasted potatoes, and it was very German and very delicious. For dessert we went to the Mövenpick restaurant we found – Mövenpick is one of the main brands of ice cream here and it is freakin delicious. I got this sundae with a scoop each of pistachio, hazelnut, and maple ice cream, and it was so so yummy. I decided I have quite the love for all things hazelnutty or amaretto, which works out well since there are a lot of praline/hazelnut-flavored things here in Switzerland. We hung out there for a while and just talked, then were tired from our long day and went back to the hostel to watch the new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy I had downloaded to my computer

I was pretty much in love with Luzern from the night we spent there, even though I hadn’t city yet, and even though I don’t understand any German! The city is really beautiful and peaceful, situated in the heart of Switzerland by a lake and right next to the Swiss Alps and Interlaken. Tuesday we got a tour of the old city, where we learned about how the frescos on some of the older homes and buildings were symbols of wealth and also often advertising, such as for jewelry-makers, or they would show what the owners did such as being soldiers or their handiwork. We also saw this pretty, old Jesuit church and I learned that 70% of Luzern is Catholic and that there were lots of weddings there such as one this summer during which the whole place was covered in sunflowers, and I took both of those as signs that I had to come back and see and live in Luzern. Unfortunately again our timing sucked as it was raining the entire day, and during our whole sojourn in Luzern we didn’t see ANY alps. For lunch we searched for cheap food at the train station, and I just got a quiche and potato salad. We went to the train station because we wanted to plan our trip to Interlaken, but then we learned that the weather wasn’t looking too good and we didn’t want to waste a trip to Interlaken if we weren’t going to be able to see any of the amazing views. However after hearing about the snow in the mountains and visiting a sports store during our shopping I really wanted to go skiing!

We saw the famous Chapel bridge and market that was required for Luzern to be constituted as a city, as well as a little bit of the city fortifications from way back when. Most of the afternoon was spent shopping since it rained and was freezing cold all day, but Luzern was a pretty good shopping place, especially in the main part of town. I mostly got souvenirs, as well as a few things for myself since I found a LUSH store!!! They have these new solid products like solid shampoo and solid perfume which were created with the concept of being easy to travel with. I bought some of the shampoo and it was really cool, it’s like a bar of soap but you rub it on your hair then lather it and it actually foams, which I didn’t expect. It was cool, plus everything from Lush smells delicious. This time Orlando joined Erin, Ria, and I, and he wanted to go to Pinocchio’s so we went back there for dinner and this time I got Viennese sausages which kind of tasted like hotdogs but with tougher skin, and homemade potato salad. We also went back to Mövenpick for dessert because it was so amazing, although we felt slightly lame for doing the same thing two nights in a row. It’s okay though, the food was good both nights, this time I got a Passion-fruit Mango Lassito, which is sort of like lassi – it had 2 scoops of ice cream, yogurt, and buttermilk blended together. We left this morning on our way back to the Geneva area, and it was disappointing that we never got to see any mountains which look so amazing in the pictures, but I think I would have been upset if today was a nice day and we had decided against going to Interlaken. I hope to go back anyway when my parents come, and do some skiing even in the Swiss alps!! Anyway, I absolutely fell in love with Luzern and can’t wait to go back… hopefully with the prospects of better weather! Fall in Switzerland is absolutely beautiful, we have been passing these hills covered in red, gold, and orange trees and I think now we are pulling out of Bern. I can’t believe it’s already going to be November… I only hope it isn’t too lonely since we don’t have classes together so we might not see anyone, but I think we’re going to try and make plans to do library trips together and get lunch and stuff during the day so we aren’t all alone. I’m home for a couple of days then I leave for Barcelona!! Auf wiederschen!

A Cultural Week

I’m sitting on a train back to Geneva, leaving the clouds and the invisible mountains in Luzerne. Let’s see if I can remember what I did last week. Monday we had a briefing with UMSCO, a government-funded program in Geneva that provides health services to people in “precarious situations,” ie migrants without papers or status, without asking questions. In the afternoon I had my French written final examination, which wasn’t hard because we’d been doing work above the level we’d tested into all semester. Tuesday morning was open for us to work on our cultural dropoff, which I’m pretty sure was only semi-useful since wandering around Geneva looking for interviews is by nature not always successful. In the afternoon our French class had a little party where everyone brought food since it was one of our last classes, and we played Taboo in French which was rather difficult. I kind of felt like it’s what we’d been doing all semester learning vocab because we have to describe a word without knowing what it is, then our teacher will help us figure out what the word is in French. Wednesday was a free day, likely spent working on the cultural dropoff some more and trying to get all my interviews in. Thursday class was relatively unexciting, and I took my French oral exam which I think went pretty well. It was definitely weird taking finals when everyone back home is taking midterms, but we’re done with formal classes now and have all of November to work on our independent study project. Friday we had to present our cultural dropoff, which was also pretty boring to hear about everyone else’s week, especially since some people talked for a full half hour even though it was only supposed to be 5-8 min long.

Then the weekend began and it was quite fun. Friday night Erin and I went to Ria’s house for raclette. Ria had requested it and her host mom had accidentally bought too much, so they had us over along with one of her host mom’s friends. Her mom is from America but has lived in Switzerland for a while; she was really nice. Raclette is also amazing, it’s kind of like fondue. You get a slice of the special raclette cheese and put it in a little shovel type thing and let it heat up and pour the melted cheese over boiled potatoes. After dinner we had the amazing chocolate torte-like dessert that Erin had once bought from the train station. They were saying it’s actually a Viennese specialty, I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s in all the patisseries and is basically this chocolate cake with raspberry filling covered in hard chocolate. Then her mom’s friend was making coffee and suggested having a drink with it so she like was suddenly whipping out this stash of alcohols she had, including some kirschsInterlaken trip but we were watching and I was curious if Ria’s mom had had Limoncello before and suddenly her guy friend had poured me a glass, so Ria had some too and Erin tried the kirsch. I think Limoncello is yummy, it’s like candy with a kick. Then we went up to Ria’s room to attempt to plan our trip to Interlaken after Luzern but we were really tired and spent a really long time looking at stuff to do in Interlaken without actually planning anything. that her like grandfather had made from scratch. Kirsch I guess is like a flavored brandy but it’s not really all that flavored because I accidentally bought it once thinking it would be like 99 Apples since I saw a picture of apples on the front but it was not sweet at all! Well us girls we planning on just going upstairs to plan our

Saturday was spent in the library doing my 3-hr final exam of 3 short essays, which was pretty gross because the questions didn’t actually make sense and I’ve never sat for 3 hours and done straight work, lol. That night I went with my host mom to this dinner her friend put on for Burkina Faso, and learned more about why my host mom is this really amazing person. The lady who organized the dinner had been in the paper in Rolle because she like built a school in Burkina Faso, and the dinner was kind of for the same cause. Anyway, I asked my mom what she meant when she said she sold grapes “for the missions,” and she explained how she met some nuns a few of years ago at her church who were from Tchad and did stuff like build schools and helped build the country, so she and some other Swiss friends of hers have been selling jam and doing little fundraising projects to go towards the missions in Chad. Anyway, dinner was delicious, I tried tabouli (?) for the first time (the small couscous like stuff with like vegetables), and also had this amazing potato salad with like peas and tuna and potatoes and orange peppers and I don’t know what else, but it was delicious and I’m definitely gonna try and recreate it when I go home. The wine we had with dinner was also delicious, and I bought a bottle as a souvenir before we left. I thought it was all the more appropriate because it was even made in Mont-sur-Rolle.

After dinner I went to a Halloween party in Nyon that one of the girls in the other group was hosting, which was really cool because they had it in a freakin barn! LOL but it was good because I got to see Erica, who is in the other group but also goes to GW and I had known her before I got here, and hadn’t gotten to really hang out with her until then. Sunday I wrote my cultural dropoff at Beza’s, for the company and because she has Internet I can use. That night my mom made a pumpkin soup with coconut milk I think and then also with sausages. It was different but I liked it… it was funny because she asked if I liked it and I did and she was like you’re so easy, I don’t even have to ask if you like the food I make because you like everything! Anyway, that was my last night before our next excursion, so I packed after that and went to bed.

A Redeeming Weekend

Thursday was relatively unexciting, another day of classes in Nyon. Friday morning we had a lecture from someone who works with hospital home care in Switzerland, which was interrupted when one of the girls from our program came in after having been in a car accident while on her bike. She was pretty shaken up, but luckily has nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises. I was really excited that our schedule of classes for next semester was finally posted, so after class I was using class to figure out my spring schedule. Around noon, Earl, our academic director, came in and basically kicked us out, saying that today was a day meant for research “in the field,” and that we were not to be using it for wireless. He really just doesn’t understand how we need internet, especially since a lot of us don’t have any in our homes and barely get access otherwise. It also annoyed me because his perception of “in the field” basically was wandering around Geneva, walking up to receptionists of large organizations and hoping to talk to people. In fact, for many of us “in the field” just translated going to a different library to get some wifi access anyway.

After having lunch with Erin, I first went to the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IEUD), and after waiting 30 minutes for the receptionist to get back from lunch, learned that a certain professor could help me, but he wasn’t in the main IUED building. I wandered down the street towards the street address and luckily it wasn’t very far away. When I went upstairs, the lady there told me that the professor had been in some kind of accident and was sick and they weren’t sure when he’d be back, but I could try going to IEUD to see if anyone else could help me. I go back to IUED and get the name of another professor who wasn’t there either, but the receptionist gave me their email addresses. Then I stumbled upon the Philippine Permanent Mission to the WTO, and decided I would give going up there a shot, sheerly due to the fact that I myself was Filipino. When I got up, I told the receptionist that I was a student doing research on development and public health and asked if there was anyone who I might be able to talk to for a few minutes. He replied that most of the people there were busy (as I expected), but said he would see if he could find anyone who could help me. Luckily, he came back with someone who was nice enough to talk to me about development in the Philippines, but I felt like such a bad interviewer since I hardly had questions prepared and hadn’t done any background research since I certainly hadn’t known I’d be going to the Philippine Mission that day. Then, I went to a lecture given by IEUD on UNHCR and the Cold War that I’d seen posted at IEUD and that happened to be going on that day. The first half of the lecture was in French, so I didn’t really get a lot from it, and I tried talking to the second lecturer (who spoke English) afterwards but he only gave me a website I could use then moved on to talk to other people.

So Friday was semi-productive in terms of my “field study,” but was still kind of annoying. That night a bunch of us went to Sara’s (the girl who had gotten hit by a car) for a taco night we had been planning and to celebrate her birthday (which was the next day). We made tacos and watched Man on Fire, and it was a very good night. Saturday I went to Lausanne with Erin B, Erin L, Nadia, Ebun, and Ria, for a day of shopping! I ended up spending much more money than I had planned (that is, I hadn’t planned to spend any), but I bought a calendar of some really cool photomontages, 2 dresses for 14.50 CHF each (about $10-12), and a tank top for 5 CHF. Went home for dinner of fish – still can’t believe I’ve been eating fish here! During the night I went out with Beza and Sara for drinks in Geneva and for Sara’s birthday again, I had a yummy Mango daiquiri which made me appreciate being a girl and being allowed to order girly drinks. I slept in till noon today, which I hadn’t done in months, so that was really nice! Later I’ll be meeting up with Erin to study French, as we have our finals already this week! The next week we’re going to Bern and Luzern and then we’ll only have one month left abroad, doing research and visiting Barcelona and London! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

My Love-Hate Relationship with Switzerland

I didn’t expect my host mom to return until Monday night, but she got back early Sunday night and we had dessert together since I had already eaten. We had some coupe de Danemark, which consisted of a bar of dark Swiss chocolate melted in a saucepan with a little bit of milk, poured over two scoops of vanilla ice cream until the ice cream is swimming in sauce. It was très delicieux. Monday’s class consisted of Earl telling us for an hour a half what was expected for our Cultural Drop-Off assignment and Independent Study Project. For the cultural drop-off, we have to interview 5 people in the next week to gain a Swiss perspective on our topic of choice for the independent study project. The interviews don’t have to be in a formal setting, but that doesn’t really make it much easier to think of a relevant place to go, as I have to find something Swiss that has to do with pro-poor development and public health? I don’t know, I really love that the program is relevant to my major and I can study whatever I want, but at the same time some aspects of it seem really awkward and almost pointless. We’re pretty much expected to walk up to random people, tell them we’re students doing research, and hope they’ll talk to us a little bit about our topic. That afternoon I was pretty bummed out from falling asleep in morning class and dealing with all the work we had to do after getting back from Rome. Not to mention I was feeling really homesick, I don’t know, after being in Rome and Lugano and relaxing like I was on vacation I was ready to go back home.

It’s really just the little things that I miss, the things that are familiar and that we don’t really think about. Errands that should be really simple aren’t – for example, I ironically misplaced my check card in Paris after purposely putting it aside so I wouldn’t lose it. I called my bank and had no problem requesting a new card. Two weeks later, I still haven’t gotten the card, when they told me it would arrive by the end of the week. So I call the bank again, using what little was left on the phone card I had since for some reason I can’t get through when I dial a 1-888 number on my cell phone. For some reason, my pin number didn’t work when I put it in, so I got put through to a person who said she couldn’t verify my identity since there weren’t any recent transactions on my card, and I shortly afterwards got disconnected since my minutes ran out. They don’t exactly have CVS’s here, so I had to go to a couple of places until I figured out where you can buy another phone card, and when I finally called my bank back again, the woman asked for my last transaction again, which I didn’t have with me. Then when I tried to sign on to view what my last transaction was, I wasn’t able to because apparently my online banking had been suspended with my telephone banking. I called again for the third time today, this time using my checkbook to report my last transaction, which apparently doesn’t match with what’s on their computer. The woman suggested writing a check somewhere so I had a recent transaction I knew of, so I went to the bank to try and get my check (written in dollars!) changed to Swiss francs, but the freaking banks close at 4:30 and 5:00. Even when I do get the check written, assuming I find a place that takes American non-traveler’s checks, I’ll have to wait another week before calling the bank so I know it went through. I can only hope that the case isn’t that my card didn’t get properly cancelled, someone else found it, and is spending my money. That would be true hell.

Tuesday we had an organization visit and class, there isn’t anything exciting that happened that I remember. Wednesday was another waste of most of my day, and frustration with being foreign and with the Swiss way. I arrived in Geneva around 9am, and went to a library in Old Town that had wifi, only to discover that it didn’t open until 10am. The next closest wifi venue on my list was Palladium, so I went there not really knowing what it was or if it would even be open. It wasn’t of course, so I decided to go to a place I had been to before and knew had wifi, at the Parc de Bastions. Well the bust stop I was at was a major stop for different lines, so there were actually three or four bus stops scattered around the block, and it took me longer than should have been necessary to find mine. I get to the Parc and decide to check out the University of Geneva library, which is right there, only to wander around three floors of classrooms. I walked back outside and found the actual library, then spent another 15-20 minutes trying to pick up a non-secured wifi, then finally finding out that the login and password for the library were posted on the wall.

I met up with Beza for lunch and we vented about how the group dynamic has become clique-ish, which in a way makes life more miserable but isn’t that big of a deal since I know I have friends in the group that I can depend on even when other people are being stupid. Then I went to a seminar I read about at the Univ. of GenevaAnalyse Économique de la Production Educationelle. I took the bus to the address indicated on the flyer and found myself at the actual University of Geneva, which was pretty cool but kind of intimidating because I always got the feeling that people could tell I didn’t belong there, but whether or not that’s true or it was just in my head I’ll never know. The event started at 16:00, or 4:00pm, which somehow in my head translated into 14:00 or 2:00pm, so I first off showed up at the classroom early and walked into a class that was in session. I went to the Econ department to try and find a professor I could interview for my cultural drop-off, only to be informed that I could not be helped I was not enrolled in the university. At the seminar, I walked in and felt that the entire room knew each other, and wasn’t really sure if I was supposed to be there. Turned out the seminar was a student presenting her thesis, and it was open to the public including her family and friends I’m guessing, and four professors sat at the front of the room taking notes and giving comments afterwards. The whole thing was in French, another challenge, but I got some information from the fact that her PowerPoint was written out and displayed. library titled

I guess the crisis more than anything for me is not feeling a sense of belonging, especially from not being familiar with how the simplest things are done sometimes. On the one hand we are learning – the first week or so we tried to buy produce and didn’t know that you’re supposed to weigh it and print out a little sticker with the price, and the cashier couldn’t ring it up without that. Now I know how to buy produce in Switzerland. But that’s not to say there aren’t things I still love about Switzerland – as the days get shorter, the sun is just setting when I’m taking the train home, and the mountains look absolutely magnificent. I now know (ironically) why our national anthem speaks of “purple mountains majesty,” as the mountains across the lake are purple set against the sky turning all shades of pink and blue. Mont Blanc looks really cool too, with parts of the snow shining pink and others in the shadows a light blueish purple. Not to mention that I can always look forward to my host mom’s cooking, including rosti and cordon bleu. Right now we have new neighbors moving into the flat upstairs, they’re Korean and don’t know any French! The husband told me that they lived in the Philippines for 3 months, and that he’s a plastic surgeon. LOL, my host mom is explaining the washer/dryer to them but since the last tenant upstairs only spoke English and German they bought a German washing machine. Oh, the international world. But anyway, that’s my life so far, my frustrations with and my continued love of all things Swiss… à bientôt, with love from Mont-sur-Rolle!

Some of the best food I've had in my life

Saturday morning we started our day at about 9:30. First I wandered around the train station trying to find the office where I can change my reservation, since I decided I definitely wanted to be in a sleeper car on the overnight train back to Lugano that night. We headed back to the Sistine chapel, only to find a line that was at least 4 or 5 blocks long. I presume this was because it was a weekend and because the Vatican museums closed at 1 that day, but we decided against waiting 2 hours in line for places that, according to my Australian friend who had been in Rome for a week and seen a lot of pretty churches already, were not that amazing anyway. She said the Sistine chapel was “underwhelming” and that the Vatican museum was not worth seeing, although if there wasn’t a giant line I still would have wanted to see the chapel and Michelangelo’s work inside. Next we headed to Ancient Rome, and came upon the Palatino and Roman forum first. We stood in line to buy tickets for the Palatino and Colosseo, and found out that they were closing the Colosseum at 2 that day for “security reasons.” We decided to come back to the Palatino and check out the Colosseum before it closed, only to find out that they weren’t letting people in, but I don’t know why. I heard a couple of ladies yelling at the guards in Italian, showing them their tickets and demanding to get in. One tour group was standing near the front, and the guy was looking at me and saying how their tour guide had the hook up and that they would be able to get in, too bad for me. Well whether or not it was due to her, they started letting people in. I tried to get in with the group in case they were only letting them in, and the tour guide, this older lady, shoved me aside (she was pretty strong) so that the rest of her group would stay together! Bitch. Anyway, they let everyone else in, and Orlando and I walked around the Colosseum, mooching off of tours and learning a little bit about what we were seeing.

Afterwards we decided to look for lunch, and found a trattoria with really fast service. The food was pretty good, I had lasagna with a really creamy cheesy sauce, and we got wine again (half a liter for 2 euros! Talk about cheap). We got delicious tiramisu for dessert then headed out for more sightseeing. On the way I bought gelato even though I was really full, and it was most certainly the best gelato I have ever had. I was really excited because they had Zabaione, which is probably closest to egg nog flavor, but it is my favorite gelato flavor and it was so amazing. We saw some of where the senate used to be (all that was left pretty much were the columns), and explored the Palatino. It was weird because they had bits and pieces of columns left, and remains of brick walls, but it was hard to imagine that there used to be entire buildings and marble floors where we were walking in the dirt.

When we left we saw people with flags walking down the street, apparently protesting something. There were tons of Italians walking and chanting and holding banners that appeared to be from different places and circulos in Italy, but Orlando and I couldn’t tell what they were protesting except to say that the flags said Allenze Italiano (Italian Alliance?), anticommunisto, and had pictures of the same guy on it that we’re guessing was the president or prime minister. There were police and police cars blocking off the street where they were walking, and the end of the procession was followed by policemen and a small fleet of really nice Range Rover police cars. The police and their uniforms were kind of intimidating, but the protesters were very peaceful and Orlando and I made sure we had our tourist books in hand and were also walking against the crowd. We ended up getting lost and walking ourselves off the map, but the good thing that came of it is that we got away from the tourists and into a street with locals and real Italian restaurants and pasticcerias. The first place we walked into I bought some pizelles (wafer-like cookies with a waffle print that are kind of like ice cream cones) and cookies with zabaione, which I have yet to try. I had a little bite of the pizelles and they were pretty good. The lady there gave Orlandopasticceria (pastry shop, I think), and I bought some amaretto cookies. I ate one to make sure it actually was an amaretto cookie, and it turned out to be the most delicious amaretto cookie ever. I seriously wish I bought more. directions in Spanish. We kept walking then found another

We finally got to San Giovanni, the church we had been looking for, and saw the steps were Jesus was allegedly taken before Pontius Pilate!!! We went inside the church and caught the last half of the mass. This is the church were the diocese of Rome is actually located. One of the cool things about how Catholicism is pretty traditional and standard is that you always know what’s going on. Even though they were speaking in Italian I knew when they were doing what, and I got a copy of the little booklet which had the Apostle’s Creed in Italian, and I could identify which words translated into what in English since I know the creed in English. When mass ended they were setting up for an event later that night, so we hung around to see what was going on. A choir up front was practicing, and singing beautifully. People started filtering in, but Orlando and I were getting hungry and decided not to wait too long. We heard a good portion of their practicing, which was a good thing since when we left we found out that it was the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra playing Bach that night!!! We went back towards the Colosseo to look for a restaurant that Orlando’s book recommended, and passed the protesters leaving it. For dinner I got soup with tortellini in broth that was very yummy, and Bocconcini di vitella con pure, veal in white wine sauce with mashed potatoes. When I tasted it I pretty much loved Orlando’s tour book, because it was pretty amazing. The veal was soft, the sauce was tasty, and the potatoes had some kind of delicious cheese, I’m not sure if it was parmesan but they were really amazing mashed potatoes. Then we walked back to our hostels to pick up our bags and met up at the train station for our train which left at 11pm. I’m glad I got the sleeper car because I slept the whole way to Milan and got to stretch out, although it was pretty hot inside. We switched trains at Milan at 7am and I’m now on a train going to Lugano, where we will meet Earl and other people in our group to take another train back to Nyon. I’m by myself for the night since my host mom doesn’t get back till Monday (assuming everything goes well with her train!), then we have two weeks of classes until our next excursion to Bern and Luzerne.

I’m glad we went to Rome – it was a fun, adventurous time and we got to see some pretty cool sights. The only thing I didn’t like is that we only saw tourists. The fact that we went to all the big tourist spots is partly to blame, but my Australian roommate told me that Rome brings in like a million tourists per day! As a result all the places we went had people who spoke English, and I got to practice and learn a little bit of Italian but I didn’t really feel like I experienced the culture. I also feel like I could have had more authentic food (seeing as nearly everywhere we went catered to tourists) had we gone somewhere else in Italy. I’m glad I didn’t go to Florence and just saw museums, though, and I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to Rome. One day I would like to come back to Italy for its amazing food and hopefully to experience more of the culture, perhaps in Tuscany, and also I’d like to see Pompeii. Anyway, that was my week/weekend. Ciao!

Ti prego Maria

This poem was outside the Pantheon in numerous languages.

I beg you Mary
throw me a flower
so that I may scent its perfume
this is like the token of love
that made me suffer so
throw me your bouquet
not now and not ever
will I be satisfied with you

(Italian)
Ti prego Maria
gettami un fiore
fai che lo possa un poco odorare
che me ha fatto tanto soffrire
il tue mazzo gettamelo
che di te ancora e mai
io sarò sazio

(French)
Je t’en prie Marie
lance-moi une fleur
fais que je puisse la sentire un peu
c’est un gage d’amour
qui m’a fait tant souffrir
lance-moi ton bouquet
car de toi encore et jamais
ne serai rassasié

(Spanish)
Te ruego Maria
Dame una flor
Para que pueda disfrutar de su perfume
Es como un signo de amor
Que me ha hecho sufrir tanto
Lánzame tu ramo
Que de ti nunca me saciaré

It was shown in German too, but I didn’t get a picture since I don’t know any German, and also because there are a bunch of German symbols I would have been too lazy to add on here :)

When in Rome

Thursday morning lecture began with more of Earl incorrectly translating what our speaker was saying, IE just reading the PowerPoint and adding 5 minutes more of his own interjection to each point. For lunch I walked with Ria and Erin through the nearby park which was quite lovely; we found a kebab place for lunch as preceded by pictures while Erin and I tried not to fall into the lake. Then we had some more amazing gelato, partly because they had wonderful flavors including amaretto and coffee and secondly because the woman gave us GIANT scoops it was great. Then we wandered onto the floating dock/pier and sat and ate gelato with our feet in the lake and it was also rather nice. Returned for more class followed by a bit of down time, then I went to H&M with Beza and did more unnecessary shopping J Met up with Sara then had Mexican for dinner – apparently we can still eat any kind of food we want no matter where we are, yay for globalization.

Thus begins the saga of my Rome trip, which at the moment is only halfway finished. Orlando and I left Lugano around 9:30, walking up the giant hill that Ticino is with our bags and trying not to hyperventilate on the way up. Since it was night time the ticket office was closed but Orlando was sure that his email said the only thing we needed was our reservation number, so we got on the train with just that. Milan (I keep wanting to call it Milano because of Pepperidge Farm cookies, but in Italian it is called Milano so ha!) was our correspondance point so we got off there and switched to a non-Swiss train. Well about thirty minutes into the ride the ticket checkers come around and Orlando tries to give her his number but it doesn’t work. We had already used his number on the Swiss train to Milan, and it was the only reservation number we received while booking our ticket, but the lady said it wasn’t the one she was looking for. We pulled up the online confirmation saved on the computer, and she saw that we had indeed booked tickets all the way to Roma, but since we didn’t have actual tickets to give her she would have to fine us in addition to make us pay for tickets again! Luckily she was nice and found out that at our next stop we had 15 minutes during which Orlando and I could jump off the train, run to an automated machine, and get actual copies of our tickets (which we should have originally done in Milan). We got in about 15 minutes early and had a half hour to find and print our tickets, so it worked out perfectly even though the lady never came around again to validate our tickets. Anyway our train was an overnighter and we rode second class so basically it was six of us crowded into a compartment sleeping sitting up all night. Needless to say I was not comfortable and woke up at about 4 in the morning and just stretched and watched Italy go by in the darkness, but I fell asleep from 4 to 7 when our train got in.

Since I booked my hostel after Orlando I couldn’t get into the same one he was in, but both of our hostels were near the train station. We checked in; mine is basically in an apartment building and I think they rented out a flat to make into a hostel. It was very small, but had a bed and bathroom which was all I needed. I had breakfast at mine, which consisted of two cups of coffee (really it was faux coffee, it was two cappuccinos which don’t actually have that much coffee in them) and some bread and jam. Friday was probably the longest day because we started so early. From our hostel we walked towards the Spanish steps but first passed a Basilica, I think it was Santa Maria e Angelos, whatever it would be in Italian, but basically it was Mary and the Archangels. It was pretty, and then when we went outside we were in Piazza Repubblica and there was music and a whole bunch of kids right outside the church for I’m not sure what reason, Orlando thinks they were socialists. Anyway we continued walking until we got to the Spanish steps, which unfortunately were pretty disappointing. I was all set to have gelato at the Spanish steps since it seemed appropriate for Rome and Italy but there was a giant scaffolding/poster advertising the obelisk I guess they’re planning to put up there, and I guess since it’s October there were no flowers along the sides like it shows in all the pictures. We walked to the top and saw some people selling pictures/paintings, then went back down and headed for Fontane Trevy. Trevy was definitely not a disappointment, it was actually quite beautiful. We got our token pictures there, sat a while, then kept going. On a side note, one thing we noticed is that there McDonalds on literally EVERY corner – they were everywhere. Then we walked to the Pantheon, which was sort of church-like inside too, with a big dome in the middle and I think Victor Emmanuel or someone famous but who I haven’t heard of is buried there.

The next stop was St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican City. The line to get into the basilica wrapped around the entire piazza, so we got in it of course. There was video of the pope shaking hands with people, then suddenly he was walking down a hall and leaving the basilica, right in front and across the piazza from where we were standing! You could see the crowds of people congregating towards him, and we watched his car drive away. Not long after he left it started torrentially downpouring, and neither of us had brought an umbrella since it was beautiful out when we left and the forecast didn’t have rain in it. I uselessly draped my faux-silk scarf that I had just bought over my head, and then when we were practically about to get in there were signs saying that Swiss army knives were not allowed. Well of course I had the one I just bought from the Red Cross with me, and I didn’t want it taken away, so Orlando suggested I hide it under a trash can. Someone had the same idea, so I put mine nearby the trash can in a different spot and we were rushed in without them even checking our pockets because it was raining and they wanted to get everyone out of it.

The basilica was of course beautiful, we saw Peter’s tomb and John Paul’s tomb and all the dead pope’s tombs as well, and pretty artwork and chapels and whatnot. Then we left and I ran back to get my Swiss army knife, afraid that it had been found and stolen. Well it wasn’t there when I got back, just as I had worried, and I think the torrential rain might have swept it away in the mini rivers that were made. I found two Swiss army knives by the trash can, and considered taking them in exchange for the one I lost, but one was kind of grody and the other was fancier than mine and I felt bad for the person who would have lost it. It started pouring again so I had to make a decision quickly and I threw them back down near the trash can and ran under the overhang. Next we wanted to see the Sistine chapel, so we walked around the corner and were about to get in line as the rain had let up a bit but then it started pouring again. My jeans and feet were already soaking wet, as well as my scarf, and I really didn’t want to stand in the line in the rain. We were trying to decide what to do, since we didn’t know how the buses worked but couldn’t very well walk back to the hostel in this rain. A bunch of men were walking around trying to sell the tourists umbrellas, but I didn’t want to buy one when I had a perfectly good one waiting for me at the hostel. One guy was pretty insistent, but we kept saying no, and he finally opened one up and said he would sell it for us for just one Euro. We still said no, then he just gave it to us and walked away! I think it was karma for not taking the knives. We walked over to where all the buses were and found out that you don’t buy tickets in a machine but at the newspaper stands or tabacchy shops, which I thought was weird but I guess that’s just how it is. We got on the metro which took us back to the train station and near our hotel. From there I took a much needed shower and changed, as well as got my umbrella.

I met Orlando again around 5, and by then it was pretty much too late to do any more sightseeing since everything was closed or closing soon. Orlando wanted to see some kind of show, so we walked over to the Teatro Opera to see if there was anything we could catch, but according to the poster there wasn’t anything showing until a few days from when we left. We wandered down the street and found a church were they were having people sing songs from different operas, so we got tickets for 15 euros then looked for a place to eat dinner before the show started. We ended up at a trattoria right by my hostel, and let me just remind you how much I love Italian food. There was a group of 6 Italian men sitting near us, and we watched them devour full plates of carbonara in probably less than 5 minutes, then have a meat/shrimp dish as well! I helped myself to some of the buffet antipaste, including some delicious mozzarella and tomatoes, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, and breaded fried mushrooms. Orlando and I both wanted wine, and the waiter brought us out an entire liter (probably 4 glasses each). I ordered saltimbocca alla romana (veal saltimbocca), and Orlando got carbonara. He got his pasta before me, and so did a couple of tables that got there after us, so I wasn’t very happy with the service. When my veal finally did come it was pretty good, but I tried Orlando’s carbonara and didn’t like it that much. We certainly did not finish our wine, and the guy was nice and charged us less since he could serve the leftover wine to the big group that had just come in. We headed over to the church and met a group of older ladies, one of whom actually used to live right near me in Walnut Creek! She was even the second person I’d met that day from Walnut Creek – a couple of the people we talked to at the Basilica were from there, too. I heard opera singing for the first time, and absolutely loved it. I plan on seeing a full opera with Matt when I get back to DC J That ended around 10pm, and we were pretty exhausted so we headed back to our hostels and went to bed. I met a group of students from BU that were studying in London but were in Rome for the weekend, they were nice. Three of my roommates were from Australia (but didn’t know each other beforehand), and they were nice too.

La Dolce Vita

Tuesday morning was spent booking my train tickets to Rome (40 euros round trip!), then grabbing a croissant and piece of bread to eat on the way to our meeting with SCUDO, the Swiss Italian home health care organization. The director was the first guy to talk to us – he spoke in Italian the entire time with Earl (our academic director) translating for us. I was more interested in picking up Italian than learning about the organization. The next guy spoke in French, and it was kind of cool already knowing what he had said before Earl translated for everyone else. We had lunch all together afterwards, then went back for more presentations by other people who work for SCUDO. Had a little break, then the group was invited to an aperitivo or drink in the hotel to mix and mingle, I guess.

For dinner I wandered around with Sara and Beza… Sara of course got grapes at the grocery store but Beza and I had some real Italian food J We got back relatively early since we didn’t feel like going out (and since everything closes after 6), then hung out in the fort that Natasha and Jordan had built out of their bed and curtains. It was fun, Beza’s back was really sore so we made a little massage train then watched Sex and the City and ate the 2 tons of chocolate Tash and Jordan had bought for their dinner.

Today we had talks from FOSIT, the Federation of Swiss Italian NGO’s, and a couple of the NGO’s that are in FOSIT. It was just in the hotel, which wasn’t very exciting, but we had a lunch break so we got to wander around the city a bit. Like I said before, there isn’t much new to see after you’ve wandered around the city a couple of times, but it’s still really beautiful, and during the day much more alive than at night. I got a sandwich at a bakery with Erin, then we went to this chocolate store we found to buy ourselves dessert. Current chocolate in my purse: dark chocolate Toblerone, white chocolate with strawberry crisp, Lindt milk chocolate with hazelnut, and dark chocolate with raspberry. I love chocolate.

We walked to the lake front to eat and found Erin (there are two Erin’s), Ria, Nadia, and Ebun. They left so after I finished eating I searched for some gelato, and had some delicious coffee flavored gelato. When I go home I’m SO going to Santa Cruz to get more gelato… it’s so exciting how you can get it pretty much anywhere… as well as the 2 franc bars of Lindt J The weather this week has been absolutely beautiful, which I’m really grateful for. We have another break before more aperitivos tonight with the people from FOSIT and the NGO’s – one lady that started her own little foundation to help people in the Ivory Coast and Benin is just this amazing woman. She started it to help people who have mental health problems and are shunned by society – literally chained to trees to live (or die) by their families, or this one girl that she just adopted was kept in a dog cage for 10 years because she’s epileptic. Anyway, she said she’s really interested in microfinance, and it’s the first time I’ve encountered anyone even mentioning it here, so I’m interested in talking more to her about it. She also has really interesting perspectives on field versus non-field work, and how so much money goes towards research and number crunching when what really matters is how much of a difference you make on a human level. Anyway, tonight’s my last night here, then I leave on the overnight train to Rome tomorrow night with Orlando and Beza if she gets over her sickness! More to come, ciao!

Buon Giorno!

Sono a Lugano, Svitzerra! I write to you now from Lugano, Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. We arrived here on Monday after a most beautiful train ride through the heart of Switzerland, finally seeing the amazing mountains and scenery you might think of when you think of Switzerland (given, half the time we didn’t see anything since we were going through those mountains). From the train station, we walked through what felt like the entire town to get to our hotel, which isn’t really that long given the size of Lugano. It’s very small, and by a lake of course, and très charmante, very charming. Pretty much like everywhere else in Switzerland, I think. Apparently it’s a big vacation spot for the rest of Switzerland, but I’m not sure what they would come here for since there isn’t much to do here other than eat, enjoy the lake, and maybe shop in overpriced stores that close at 6pm. I guess it would be very relaxing though, if you’re not looking for touristy stuff to do.

Anyway, after checking into our hotel, we were free for the rest of the day, so I went with Ria and Erin to just walk around and explore the city. We got some gelato which was wonderful of course, then headed back to the hotel so I could get my jacket for the night. A big group of people were about to head out for dinner, so I went with them, even though we ended up splitting up since it’s pretty much impossible to try and seat 14 people for dinner. I went with Catherine, Jeff, Pete, Sara, Beza, and Tash, and we found a restaurant where I had some delicious carbonara with white wine (btw, I’m now addicted to wine.. it’s so delicious. I probably already said that before, which just reconfirms my addiction). Walked towards the lake and met up with everyone again, then we tried to find something to do but there isn’t really much in Lugano on a Monday night at 9pm, so it ended in us sitting at a café for a bit then heading back to the hotel. Since it was still early even then we just kind of chilled and played cards for a bit, I learned how to play Rummy (it requires a lot of card counting/memorizing, I realized). That was the day.

It’s amazing how cultural the tiny country of Switzerland is – when we switched trains in Zurich there was German everywhere and my universe was thrown off track… now we’re in the Italian speaking part and not everyone speaks French anymore! I’m trying my best to learn some Italian in the one week that we’re here, but it’s hard. On the one hand a lot of the words are the same as Spanish, or not really the same but similar. I know it’s even harder for the other students because they’re used to reverting to the few words they know in French in a foreign place, but now it’s Italian that everyone speaks, so we all say “Oui” and “Merci” to the waiters instead of “Si” and “Grazi.” I have lots of fun with it though, Italian is such a fun language. Not to mention the delicious Italian food we get, and I am in love with Italian food. That’s not really saying much though since I’m in love with pretty much all food. I guess though since I have so much Italian food I’m familiar with what things are in Italian – the first night we went out to dinner people didn’t know half the things on the menu, like gnocchi and polpettes… Either way, the food’s delicious, the view is beautiful, and I wake up to the sound of bells ringing every morning. I think I’ll have bells in my house when I get one.