einen blog

Euro Cup

2008-06-17T23:14:00.002+02:00

being a host city for the 2nd largest sporting event in the world (the 1st being the Wold Cup), means many things. public transportation is crowded, you can buy bratwurst on every street corner, and the hair salons offer flag face painting as a service. and one of the advantages (?) of being in a multi-cultural city is that all the countries are represented by ex-pats, so every match has thousands of fans in every neighborhood. and when a team wins, they rock the city all night with horns, singing and general tomfoolery.

Tonight Italy finally won a match, and while I'm inside with my swiss noise-proof windows closed, I can hear every word of the Italian national anthem on constant repeat. The swiss are way better behaved, when they won 2 nights ago, they were in bed by 10:30 so as not to wake the neighbors...

America's 25% off sale!!

2008-03-15T00:44:00.001+01:00

When I moved here, the dollar was trading at 1.25 swiss francs, today <1 CHF

are Canadians no longer accepting US quarters now?

my mom has a blog!

2008-03-03T23:30:00.001+01:00

and you should all check it out. She loves her RV and her dog......

spam...so funny I had to share

2008-02-18T22:27:00.003+01:00

Somehow the google filter missed this one, but I'm almost happy it did:

Dear Online Reader:

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Think about it…LL Cool J is constantly on the road, in the studio, performing, acting and making public appearances. Which means he probably has even less free time than you do. Yet he has managed to maintain a stellar body for years, all by using the smartest, most innovative workout possible.

To learn more about what makes LL’s moves so special, just click here. And then try this amazing new workout book for yourself, right in your own home, free for three whole weeks. Just click here to get started.

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If I only I weren't a woman, I could take advantage of this enticing offer....

the election is already driving me crazy!

2008-02-18T21:49:00.002+01:00

There was a time that I longed for the days when I could escape the American election season, mostly because of the constant commercials. But, being in europe for this "event" is weird and carzy. Everyone here wants the inside scoop on what's going to happen. Apparently my NH-MA-NY-CA accent gives me special abilities to communicate with 50 million people about how they're going to vote! But, I understand, they have serious Bush fatigue (don't we all?) and the longing for change (no Obama plug, I swear) is palpable. Anyway, as my former roommates will attest to, I have an addiction. I have to see all the election night results come in live. Girl on the Rocks had to pry the remote out of my fingers and send me to bed during the 2004 elections. And do you know what the time difference is between here and Maryland? even worse, Washington ? Super Tuesday I went to bed at 9 so I could get up at 5:30 to see the California results come in.

Do they have rehab for this?

Instructions for my mom: how to post a blog and add pictures

2008-02-18T20:40:00.014+01:00

In this post I am explaining to my mom, 5000 miles away, how to add pictures to her blog from her computer, or from flickr. Okay, first let's start a new post:

(we'll pretend like we can't see that I'm severely impaired when it comes to maintaining up to date posts)

next step, add some text (shown here), and a new picture.

To add the picture, click on the button to the right of "ABC".

A new dialogue box will appear.

If you choose to upload your pictures from the hard drive, choose the picture from your file directory, then hit "Upload images".

Wait for the files to upload (this can take a while with a slow connection, or large files).

click "done" and repeat, until you have all the text and pictures you want uploaded. You can move pictures by simply copying and pasting around the text (using the "Compose" window) . Then hit Publish Post.
OR, you can direct Blogger to upload pictures directly from flickr. I will show you how to do this next time (I'm tired of taking pictures of my screen and waiting for them to upload !)

Americans aren't at fault for everything.

2008-01-26T09:28:00.000+01:00

The real reason I wanted to post! Being an American in Europe means that we get blamed for everything: the war, outrageous capitalism, world hunger, Windows Vista, etc. And we take it, because the truth is we did elect Bush. Twice. But this week in the midst of yet another giant American problem apparently bringing down the rest of the world (subprime lending...markets crashing), we find out that we can blame at least some of the financial drama on the French instead. This blog has a great take on the whole mess. And while Europe is happily skewering the French for this disaster, the Americans should be thanking Monsieur Kiervel for forcing the Fed to cut interest rates.

No. 1: Middle of Europe

2008-01-26T09:15:00.000+01:00

The absolute best reason for living in Zurich is that its close to every place I want to visit in the rest of europe....by train: crepes in Paris in 4 hours, tulips (or Doug) in Amsterdam in 8 hours, olive oil in Florence in 7 hours, beer in Munich in 3.5 hours. And by plane? All less than 2 hours:

No. 2: Largest Climbing Gym in the World!

2008-01-26T09:04:00.000+01:00

Hah! bet you thought I was never going to post again. But, it turns out that I really wanted to post about something else and it seems fair that I should finish the list first....

So, here it is, the largest indoor climbing gym in the world, found inside a converted gas transfer station:

In addition to the fantastic routes, easy climbs for beginning lead climbers, and an inventive system for top-roping without a belay partner, there is a coffee bar that serves delicious espresso and cornettos.

Number 3, Hair Care at Time Tunnel

2007-06-27T23:37:00.000+02:00

One of the most important aspects of finally enjoying living here was finding all of the things that make it feel like home: the store that's open until 11 pm, the bike shop that carries round allen head screws, and, for person with big hair, a stylist that knows how to take care of those large locks.

So, if you walk down the main tourist drag you come to this sign:

which points down this narrow alley:

And there

(note the cool furniture, books, and espresso machine...)

You find my hairdresser, Katja. She's more "famous" for doing hair like this:

But she also does normal. And she speaks english very well, so I don't worry that if I just nod and say "ja, ja", as I normally do if I don't understand what people are saying, I will end up with skunk hair...

Number 4, Sublime Healthcare

2007-06-25T15:20:00.000+02:00

Okay, these next four posts are going to seem out of order and possibly shallow. But, this is my list of favorite Zurich things, so while healthcare is important, its not the most important thing for me right now. Possibly I will need to re-visit the top ten list order when I'm being helicoptered out of alps after a hard day of skiing. Nevertheless, the healthcare system here is definitely one of my most favorite aspects of living here. And here's why: its affordable and convenient.

A little story: last year on the day I arrived I was really, really sick. Almost in need of hostpitalization. I asked around and the secretary suggested that I go to the doctor's office in the train station - not quite the emergency room, but you don't need an appointment. So I went, they gave me a strep throat culture, had the results back to me in 10 minutes and sent me on my way to the pharmacy next door for antibiotics in less than an hour.

(Clinic is the blue awning, pharmacy in green)

The doctor's visit, including the strep culture and without health insurance, cost me $40. Fast forward to a week ago, same symptoms, I have health insurance but my deductable is large, so I figure I will just go back to the train station clinic. I end up with the same doctor and while he doesn't recognize me, he is able to look up my previous visit in the computer (no paper chart required). He gives me a strep culture and this time negative. But instead of sending me home with "hot tea" advice, he does a blood test. I thought it would take at least a day to get the results...no, 5 minutes. Turns out, I have another bacterial throat thing, so he gives me antibiotics and a nice goodbye in which he says he'll "see me next year at the same time". This time the doctor's visit including throat culture and blood test, without health insurance paying anything yet: $42. And 2 hours for a full diagnosis. No hassle healthcare.

Number 5, Zurich recycles

2007-06-24T18:32:00.000+02:00

It seems like you can't walk two blocks in Zurich without stumbling over one of these cute little recycling centers:

(actually not so little, beneath each receptacle lies a giant cavern)

There is also this, the online personal recycling calendar so you can look up the days your paper, cardboard, old clothes and shoes, compost and electronics get picked up for recycling. Even better, because we pay for trash by the bag instead of a big bin for the building, most people are obsessive about recycling anything that can be recycled. This has resulted in a 40% decrease in garbage production for Zurich since 1992. And our recycling rate is over 90%. Its funny how something so simple makes you feel like you're experiencing an enlightened quality of life.

Number 6, BBQing at the lake

2007-06-23T18:05:00.000+02:00

The only thing better than drinking the glacial water is swimming in it once it gets warm enough.... Now that its summer again, we're spending our long evenings after work hanging out at the Zurihorn, a park next to lake. There's frisbee, swimming and bbq'ing. Although euro-bbqs are a little different. And by little, I mean small:

because we come by bicycle or foot, we can't haul a large grill around, instead we buy these disposable grills that last barely long enough to cook 10 persons' worth of food before they die.

Number 7, size matters and so does public transportation

2007-06-22T18:43:00.000+02:00

Most days I ride my bike to work, and it takes me about 10 minutes. This is almost all the way across town and up a hill. If I take public transport, 20 minutes, by foot, 40 minutes. In reality, this means that late at night (after 1:30am), when the most excellent public transport

stops running, you can walk home easily.

Number 8, the water

2007-06-21T20:24:00.000+02:00

Delicious glacial water comes out of my tap. It requires no filtration and doesn't taste of treatment chemicals. In addition, this same water is available free all over town coming out of the ubiquitous fountains, these are the 3 within one block of the building I work in:

Number 9, cheap furniture

2007-06-20T10:46:00.001+02:00

When I first got my apartment, I was under the impression that in the absence of craigslist furniture I would be either a) buying everything at Ikea, or b) spending a fortune on a leather sofa. It turns out that there are a plethera of Brockenhaus, better known affectionately as the Brocki's. They can either be run by the Heil's Armee, or be independent, such as my favorite shown here. This particular one is only 3 blocks away from my house and is run by an older Indian man and his brother. The brother likes to pretend he's 20 and insists on telling dirty jokes (in perfect english). As far as I can tell he never throws anything away, so there are stacks of vinyl, cassette tapes and broken pottery mixed in with furniture taken from closed down asian restaurants. The only way they could be better is if they sold Levis and t-shirts advertising the local soccer league.

Number 10, New Point, better than McDonalds

2007-06-19T15:00:00.000+02:00

One of the things I miss the most about California is the mexican food, and specifically burritoes. The closest we have here are Doner Kebabs, sold at the multitude of kebab stands dotted acors Zurich. But, by far the best are those served at New Point, a fast food franchise more prevalent than McDonalds or Starbucks.

And I love them so much, I bring my friends there to eat when they visit. Like Ingrid, who I brought to my local New Point at Albisriederplatz.

But, there are lots of other locations,

like this one, in West Zurich in the industrial section of town.

or this one

next to the Post Office

Top Ten Zurich in Ten Days

2007-06-19T14:43:00.000+02:00

okay, so I've been a terrible blogger, but that's all going to change in the next ten days because its my anniversary. Yup, I've been living here for a year and while I haven't been showing it here, I have been finding fantastic, amazing things about living here in Zuri. So, my favorite ten things about Zurich, one a day until June 29, the day I arrived.

SOLA or how I raced from Bern to Zurich

2007-05-06T21:27:00.000+02:00

as part of a relay team this weekend. I would like to use that as an excuse for why I haven't blogged in two months. It hurts to write that, I'm so ashamed. I was stuck in this downward spiral of not writing because I hadn't written in so long. But, I'm over that as long as everyone who reads this bares with me while I post my blogs in reverse chronology for the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, back to the "race". From what I understand (still not speaking swiss german so this is gleaned from my listening/comprehension skills). The SOLA is a tradition from the time there was a rivalry between ETH and the university in Bern (probably having to do with who gets to claim Einstein). And there was some kind of race between the two campuses wherein the distance is 116km. So nowadays, the two campuses race each other for 116km around Zurich. And this isn't some wimpy "just for fun" race. Its serious. 800 teams competing in a relay race where everyone's pride is on the line. Here's the map:

And here's my leg:

Pictures to come later. My team was in the top 100, which is a miracle considering how long it took me to do my leg (29 minutes). I was not last, or even second to last, but I was in the bottom 200, so I will be training in the next year....

aah, Rivella

2007-03-01T19:47:00.001+01:00

aah, Rivella, originally uploaded by einen sarah.

I finally got to go snowboarding on **snow** last weekend which was fantastic. Whilst snowboarding, we took a break at this lovely spot. It was warm (notice my t-shirt) and I was parched...so I finally decided to try Rivella, which I've been studiously avoiding thus far. The reason you ask? It is made from milk. That's right, the label says "contains 35% milk (plasma)" (actually it says, "Rivella besteht zu 35% aus Milchserum!"). The one I am drinking in this photo is "Rot" and is the original. The other flavors are "Green" (= with green tea) and "Blue" (=low cal). Apparently, once you develop a taste for it you can never go back. I remain unconvinced.

a cure for homesickness

2007-02-11T18:40:00.000+01:00

every once in a while I get this craving for american style excess - you know, a giant 7-11 slurpy in cherry coke flavor. or an In-N-Out burger animal style with bible verses printed on the packaging. today I found the solution....Top Secret Recipes. I am trying out the cherry slurpy as soon as I get my hands on some kool-aid.

airbrushed toilet seats and global warming

2007-02-08T16:59:00.000+01:00

they sell toilet seats in interlaken
Originally uploaded by einen sarah.

bunny was here in switzerland this weekend and we saw two fantastic window displays... this one to amuse anyones' bottom and this one to amuse anyones' top. it was intended to be a snowboard weekend, and we were able to do many excellent runs, although global warming is such a *&^% - there was hardly any snow which resulted in some unintended off-pisting

another Hasselhoff update

2007-02-01T17:05:00.000+01:00

http://www.waxhoff.com/

San Francisco Bay wine

2007-01-31T18:12:00.000+01:00

saw this in the grocery store and was dumbfounded....

I've been wine tasting in the Napa, Sonoma and Alexander Valleys of California, but never in the San Francisco Bay...and why is Livermore considered San Francisco Bay and not Central Valley?

the dungeon

2007-01-31T16:59:00.000+01:00

in my former berkeley life, I had an office on the first floor of the building and the lab was one the 4th floor which always seemed inconvenient....little did I know that it could be worse. in my new zurich working life, my office is in a different building than the labs, and 5 floors apart (my office is on the 2nd floor and the labs on the 3rd sub-basement). which brings me to one of my favorite swiss-isms: the floor numbering scheme is by letter instead of numerals

in this case, "A" is the bottom floor, "E" is the ground floor and "K" is the top, but this is non-standard, sometimes "D" is the bottom floor, "F" is the ground floor and "O" is the top. But two things are always true, (1) there is no "I" floor, kind of like sometimes there isn't a 13th floor and (2) you can never have more than a 25 story building because there aren't enough letters.

anyway, back to the dungeon, which is made more appealing by the decor, in particular, these doors

I live in a Yellow Submarine everyday....

how to make fondue

2007-01-08T16:27:00.000+01:00

the last month has been incredibly hectic - finishing off papers, holidays with the family, and getting data together for a conference deadline - so I'll try to catch up on my posts...

I decided to make fondue for my family when they came here for the holidays just to prove that I have learned some swiss customs. My friend Agnes just got her swiss citizenship a couple of years ago and one of the tests you have to pass is in "traditional swiss cooking", so I decided she was the perfect person to teach me.

First, the fondue pot is important, the best is heavy cast iron with porcelain enamel (like Le Creuset, but they have many brands here).

Second, the ingredients, this is the Swiss-French recipe with two cheeses in equal proportion:

100 g Gruyere (aged and salty, NOT mild) per person, grated
100 g Vacherin Fribourgeois (soft) per person, chopped into small pieces
100 mL dry (not sweet) white wine per person
2-4 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp cornstarch per person
1/2 loaf of crusty baguette-style bread per person cut into 1 inch slices

Onto the cooking

cut the garlic cloves in half and rub all over the inside of the pot, covering the whole surface (even up the sides) with garlic juice. Chop cloves and put into bottom of pot.

add wine, turn heat on to low-medium

gently warm wine, when almost boiling add cornstarch and dissolve into wine

add both cheeses and stir in figure 8 pattern

continue stirring until all of the cheese is melted, do not over heat or the cheese will separate and be gross.

Transfer pot to fondue rack with heating element (gel packs are best), serve to family and start eating immediately. The Swiss-german way has people using pre-chopped bite-sized bread cubes, but the Swiss-french just slice the bread and people tear it themselves so they can self-determine a bit sized piece.

german

2006-12-17T14:16:00.000+01:00

I am a very bad student. I never do my homework and I doze off during class. I would feel more guilty if my classmates were the opposite, but they are the same. we are all bad students. In my defense, the class is boring - Jan is a mechanic, he is from Bern and can speak french, german and swiss-german. Yawn. This (mygermanclass.com) is much better, and I am addicted. Hier ist meine mutter und sie mag Heavy Metal. awesome

christmas season in Zurich

2006-12-14T10:50:00.000+01:00

christmas tram
Originally uploaded by einen sarah.

so much of swiss city life in Zurich is characterized by the trams - they're timely, frequent but slow, the tracks are logically organized and people use them as their primary means of transportation. and now they personify swiss christmas....this special addition tram is driven by Samichlaus (St Nicholas) who is accompanied by angels. The whole idea is sweet in that Christmas Story sort of way. Which is the opposite of one of the more traditional swiss christmas customs: the chasing of Samiclaus on Dec 6 who is accompanied by Schmutzli, a coal-dust covered man who beats and kidnaps children if they are bad. Coal in the stocking no longer seems so bad.....

lawrence gets plucked

2006-11-29T00:23:00.000+01:00

I had a very exciting thanksgiving - an old fashioned american thanksgiving in england, complete with long weekend. first, wednesday, to london to see an old friend who took me out for a traditional pre-thanksgiving curry. then a train ride to oxford on thurdsay morning where I got to help out with putting the finishing touches on thanksgiving dinner, including the time-honored tradition of plucking the turkey with tweezers (in honor of karrie, we named him....lawrence):

dinner went 4 pm until midnight, and while you may think it was all partying, the reality was that we were so full we couldn't move (pictures here).

the best part of the weekend was that it didn't end there....we went (back) to london friday where we slid down an enormous slide at the Tate Modern Art Museum, went to a bar frequented by members of parliament, ate korean food, saw the seven dials and ended the night at an art gallery opening that featured a painting of a giant pink donut covered in jimmies. saturday found us shopping at the outlet mall...most of the shops we couldn't afford, like versace and jimmy choo (think Sex and the City), but we did all splurge on some nice camper shoes

thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!

things that never happen

2006-11-15T10:45:00.000+01:00

in Switzerland you can count on two things: the trains are on time and the shops aren't open on Sunday. Until today, when the tram system came to a standstill for about 2 hours because this one blocked both tracks and intersection after its wheel broke during a collision with a car....

rome and fondue

2006-11-09T18:12:00.000+01:00

I've had a busy week here, working, going to rome, then working some more. yup, that's right, I went to rome this past weekend with friends. actually, friends that are complete hams - lots of good pictures of them standing in front of things, like Doug in front of the 2nd scariest window display:

one of the best aspects of the trip (for me) was that I got to take a train to rome: nice sleeping compartment, waking up to croissants and fresh espresso, and (!!) no flying! as some of you know, I don't like to fly which has resulted in my looking up things like Ask the pilot, and that nice tag on the side of this blog which is a turbulence tracker. anyway, another excellent bonus was that I got to return to the best deli in Rome, right next to the Vatican Museum Metro Station, it is called

La Tradizione, the address is Via Cipro #8

they let you try all of their prosciuttos, salamis and cheeses, even the ones that sell for 200Eu per kilo. unfortunately they keep italian hours (10-12 and 4:30-8:30) so you have to put them into an itinerary.

but, there's more! last night I had my first made by a swiss person for at home eating fondue. it was excellent, and because it was at home with experienced fondue-ers, I got to learn the "secrets", like you have to make a wish on your first bite, that its bad luck to drop your bread into the pot, and that the swiss-german fondue has three cheeses while the swiss-french only use two.

speaking german and swiss politics

2006-11-03T09:04:00.000+01:00

I have now had 2 german classes (1/week). The class is called "survival german" so I'm supposed to be learning how to communicate well enough to live here like a native. In the first week we learned how to ask someone's name, where they live, and for phone numbers. In the second week (yesterday), we learned to ask if people are sad, happy, married, single and/or drunk. So, as far as I can tell, we've learned how to pick people up at a bar....

which didn't help me this week when we got about 10 email messages in german from the president of the university. As it turns out there has been a big political controversy here, resulting in the president refusing to resign, then resigning. It hurts my information-addicted (gossipy) soul that I can't understand much of the background, but my friends tell me its a little bit like the harvard president controversy except in this case it didn't take over a year for the resignation to take place.

in other news, knitting has grown to 10 people, and they have taken to calling it the "knitting club" which makes my head hurt. last week I forgot to bring extra needles for teaching and ended up having to teach someone to caston on chopsticks.

oh, and my homesickness abated when I saw my mom last weekend - she brought me chocolate chips and brown sugar so I can make proper cookies. and dvds of american television. she totally rocks.

heat wave

2006-10-23T15:16:00.000+02:00

we had some incredible weather this weekend (18C) and I was able to escape the lab for about 4 hours on Sunday to take advantage of these last warm days of the year. some friends and I went up to Boppeland (no joke) then hiked up this cool limestone ridge, the last of the Jura Mtn range, which had a nice view across the Zurichsee valley to the alps, you can almost pick out the Eiger and Jungfrau....

big mountains, small country!

Tuesdays..knitting and voting

2006-10-20T22:51:00.000+02:00

knitting in a bar is strangely seductive, even to the europeans. First they wanted to learn how to knit because "it will be too embarassing to learn to knit in a bar"....so, tuesday night found me teaching knitting basics, resulting in some fine non-absorbant, heat-conducting, not-square knitted objects. Pictures from the evening and the objects can be found here. I also got my absentee ballot in the mail on tuesday and immediately filled it out and put it in the mail so that I voted on the election day of the week even if not voting on election day...

Aren't I patriotic doing my civic duty? Now I will completely negate that sentiment by admitting that the only ballot initiative I had any clue about was the oil tax and only because its being covered extensively by the international press.

homesick today

2006-10-17T14:04:00.000+02:00

today I miss jon stewart, chocolate chip cookies (made with proper chips and brown sugar), tom's of maine toothpaste, cheap movies, being able to buy just-released cds, and not podcasted editions of wait wait don't tell me.

some things are not universal

2006-10-15T17:41:00.000+02:00

much like the pirate movie, some things amuse me more then they should....like how road signs are not universal. in particular the "forbidden" sign is not a red x over a white circle, but an open circle. every day I look at this sign on the tram

some things I love about this sign are that it looks like you aren't supposed to where studded shoes, or saw into the seats. pretty much everyone obeys these rules, except for the no guitar playing. almost every morning I am serenaded by "que sera sera". and yesterday an opera wannabe started in on some piece from verdi. although he didn't have a guitar.

there is also this, the thrift store operated by the salvation army, which translates into Heil's Army, which sounds alot like...you know the opposite...

go see riverrocker's pictures

2006-10-10T18:12:00.000+02:00

I think everyone should go take a look at this picture

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56496242@N00/265272041

a party, yoga, the fog, and a David Hasselhoff update

2006-10-09T20:24:00.000+02:00

not blogging regularly put me into a bad position - I end up having so much to write about that I don't want to, because it will take too long! so I'll try to get up-to-date here. first, as riverocker said, we met up in oxford (england) for a couple of days - I saw one of the 10 strangest statues in the world, got to see some shrunken heads, and bought tortilla chips for my housewarming party. It may seem silly to go to england and bring back tortilla chips, but I had grand plans for this party: fresh salsa and guacamole. the only thing I miss more than being able to read in my native language is mexican food. in particular, cancun burritoes. anyway, tortilla chips are $7 a bag here, and that's if you can find them. meanwhile, oxford had "plain" doritos for less than a dollar, so I bought 8 bags and carried them on the plane in a giant Sainsbury's bag. Are you paying attention? because this part is hilarious:

I put them in the overhead compartment, failing to take into account the change in pressure. when we landed, the nice swiss man that sat next to me pretended not to notice when I opened the compartment and rained broken tortilla chips upon myself. Fortunately, most of the bags in the bottom of the shopping bag remained full even if the seals broke.

The housewarming party was super, and my landlords put my name on the door, buzzer and mailbox just in the nick if time - only 3 hours before people arrived.

Some more pictures of my house and neighborhood on my flickr page...

Okay, so another story. I love yoga, or at least I loved yoga at Ironworks - they had good instructors who didn't make you ohm or chant incessently. So, now that my home is settled, I thought it would be a good time to put away the videos and go get some in-person direction. You know, guidance for my chakra. And ETH (my employer) has a sportscenter with classes. Unfortunately, it was in swiss-german, so I was down-dogging when I should have been shi-vasyin-ing, facing the wrong way. I couldn't even tell my right from my left. ARGH. not relaxing. And before you think I'm dense for not thinking it would be in german - all of the university classes are in english, because its an international institution.....

and finally, the fog. not the semi-blustery coolness of SF-Bay fog, but the stepped into a freezer fog, kind of like this

except not polar. yup, the winter is upon us, the trees have lost most of their leaves and I am learning to remember a hat, gloves and scarf when I leave in the morning. scary, considering its not even the middle of october. In the midst of all of these adventures, in keeping with my semi-swiss citizenship, I have listened to the new David Hasselhoff single (albeit indirectly from my office-mates radio). It is catchy and the last time I checked, was number 3 on the UK charts.

flaming baby pig

2006-09-28T15:23:00.000+02:00

otherwise known as a "spannferkel", which is what I ended up eating on Saturday night with a large biker gang from Stuttgart. A friend of mine came to visit for the weekend and we planned a low key weekend hiking in Davos - mountains, glaciers

and, apparently, vacation destination for the Schwaben...

as you can see, my camera finally died, so I'm surviving on my phone and low quality disposable cameras...

Out of Order Travel (III): Murren

2006-09-21T12:28:00.000+02:00

the second month I was here, I did in fact go visit the alps - as an earth scientist (and a human), I enjoy mountains and glaciers....

Aren't they beautiful?

On this trip, I did some fantastic day hiking which brought me by an alpine dairy where I got to taste freshly made yoghurts and cheeses. the second day, I hiked up to the Schilthorn. It was covered in rainy fog, but I had to go up just to say I saw two movie sets in one day: In Her Majesties Secret Service, and The Eiger Sanction. nothing much exciting happened (no assasins or stolen artwork), but it was refreshing finally getting out of the city and into the mountains. more photos here

Back from Oz

2006-09-12T18:02:00.000+02:00

I think I forgot to post about my going out of town, but I think most people that read this knew already. I went to Australia for a geochemistry conference. There was networking and handshaking and general being on best behavior. Then I spent some time traveling around for a week with various friends, you can check out my photos here. Lots of fun. And I got to buy 25 pairs of my favorite underwear. Someday I will write a proper ode to Bonds, but today I'm tired, so just pictures....

the fruits of the knitting train

2006-08-20T21:57:00.000+02:00

with all the travel lately, I had enough time on trains to finish the clapatois. I think the old knitting group would be proud that I finally finished another big project:

swiss cow of the week

2006-08-20T21:52:00.000+02:00

the swiss love the cows, love that other countries view the swiss as cow-loving folk and love gimmicky cows. in an earlier post I showed a picture of one of the more prevalent ads, so I think I'm going to post once a week (or so) with a new swiss cow in action. and since I'm lazy, in the future it may just be a picture....

out of order travel (II), Zurichsee

2006-08-20T21:44:00.000+02:00

last week we (ETH) hosted a conference and somehow I was volunteered to help with registration and sightseeing even though I (1) have little experience with conference registration software and (2) have only lived here for 2 months. anyway, the conference was uneventful (ie, I didn't mis-register anyone or accidently refund everyones money) and the sightseeing ended up being quite nice - we took a boat down to other end of the Zurichsee (Lake Zurich) to the olde towne of Rapperswil. only two pictures, one from the boat looking back at Zurich and one ridiculous one of me that one of my charges insisted on taking -

since its going around, kind of like one of those chain letters

2006-08-19T14:26:00.000+02:00

I figured since everyone else's blog had one, I would too. if only we could turn this into a really good underwear pyramid scheme.....

the knitting round meme, the ones I've done in bold:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink the post QE beer counts
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise cross-country Amtrak without a sleeping car, Columbia River Valley
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
go A's
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg, lots of glaciers, no icebergs
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can, go A's again
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them, happens to me all of the time now....
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow, but I have milked a goat
56. Alphabetized your cd's
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie, A Thai movie: The Sun, The Sea and The Flower
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage, I was the cat in "Cinderella"
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror.
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country and my sister may never forgive me....
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over, er, I think that's what this blog is all about
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents...soon
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat, see 124
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream (every day)
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head, I had to wear a hat for my school photo so my grandmother wouldn't find out
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life

some irrational fears

2006-08-12T19:26:00.000+02:00

I've lost 20 points off my IQ and and all sense of correct american cynicism and taste. One of the problems in not knowing the language is that I'm always slow...like last weekend when the tram system was disrupted due to construction and there was a PA announcement every 10 minutes that instead of taking the #3, I should take the #9 and transfer at paradeplatz. it took three #9's stopping and leaving before I figured this out. or that the 3 prices at the ice tea machine are (1) small, (2) large and (3) large plus you buy the glass. the "buy the glass" option means that you get the glass that is in front of the ice tea machine, the other options' glasses are near the water fountain. I bought 2 glasses and put them back through the cafeteria system before this was pointed out to me. and then there's the trash, which I've had to store on my balcony for 2 weeks because I couldn't figure out my trash day. I went to see the Pirate movie and thought it was fantastic - everyone was laughing, I was laughing. and then I asked myself, it got poor reviews in the states, what does me + swiss laughing at the same movie mean? the europeans love Home Improvement (the bouncer at a club I walked by was wearing an "authentic" t-shirt, tool belt and workboots...at a dance club). will I soon adore Home Improvement, or even worse, The King of Queens?

am I mere weeks away from re-discovering Knight Rider on iTunes and developing an obsession with David Hasselhof?

out of order travel (I) Praha

2006-08-04T13:26:00.000+02:00

I finally made it to the alps for some real hiking and glacier viewing. and in true sarah fashion forgot to charge my battery camera and had to buy a disposable. while waiting for the film to be developed, I went on another trip, to Prague. It was great fun and I took lots of pictures, just a preview here, the rest are on my flickr page.

home!

2006-07-31T11:57:00.000+02:00

I finally moved into a permanent place and no longer live in a pension with 40 women. I have my own kitchen, bathroom and balcony. I'm exhausted from moving in > 38C heat. the day I bought furniture and put it in my house it was the hottest day in 146 years. not as hot as Arizona, but still.....

anyway, I love my apartment. it is right on the border between two city districts known as "kreise 3 and kreise 4" (kreise translates to circle). So I live officially in kreise 3 which is kind of posh and quiet (top picture), but I'm on the edge of kreise 4 which is roudy, filled with italians, the red light district and lots of yummy cheap eats (bottom picture). these pictures are from my balcony -

some other apartment pluses are large rooms and a dishwasher:

the building is narrow and tall, so there is only 3 apartments. it turns out this may be the best part about the place....some co-workers were telling me that in their buildings they have a laundry schedule to accomodate the large number of apartments (and small number of washng machines) and are only allowed to launder every 2 weeks!!! sometimes they go on vacation and miss their laundry day and can't do laundry for almost a month.

anyway, back to narrow and tall, here's my beautiful building -

oh babel fish, you have failed us

2006-07-19T09:37:00.000+02:00

a little pre-explanation: my new friend C. is french but speaks english and doesn't speak any german. C and I have been looking at couches at ikea and trying to figure out costs in the US, France, Germany, and Switzerland because some things are differently priced in each country. I'm pretty set on the regular Ektorp (~$700), while Caroline was set on the Ektorp 2+2 corner couch (~$1200).

Anyway, she was convinced she could find it cheaper in germany and while surfing came across this:

Bezug Ikea Ektorp 2+2 Eck- o. Eckbettsofa blau NEU 55 Euros

which Babel Fish translated to

In English:
Purchase Ikea Ektorp 2+2 hitting a corner o. hitting a corner bed sofa blue NEW

and while she thought it was too good to be true, she went ahead and made her first ebay purchase ever, signed up for Paypal (also a first) then came and told me about it. I thought it was strangely low and she would surely end up getting scammed in some way. Nope, just Babel Fish leading people astray with the two meaning words...

Bezug = purchase
Bezug = cover

so now C. owns an expensive couch cover but no couch.....

couch surfing

2006-07-19T09:25:00.000+02:00

I finally found an apartment and I get to move in another 1.5 weeks. And by move, I mean myself, a suitcase and a bicycle because I have nothing else. None of my boxes have arrived yet (still?). I'm starting to get worried that the slow boat from San Francisco sank taking my books, pillows, and shoes with it....anyway, I also have no furniture so the other new post-doc, Caroline, and I have been furniture shopping. At first we went to real furniture stores - mmm leather sofas, scandinavian designed chairs and artistic light fixtures. Here's one sofa we looked at. it only costs $10,000, and while I now have a real job, it doesn't pay that well!

So we went the opposite direction, to the flea market

Unfortunately, they didn't have much in the way of furniture. So while I can decorate with cowbells and swiss kisch, I will have to buy my furniture from ikea....

some things are the same

2006-07-19T09:06:00.000+02:00

Berkeley vs Zurich

so most of the things I want to talk about are the things that are different here, but in reality many things the same as in berkeley. There are crazy people (er, nomads) that hang out at the train station and try to talk to you. Food and drink can be expensive, or inexpensive if you know where to look. Everyone likes Indian food and the Chinese food is cheap and filled with MSG. There are bicycles everywhere. And then I saw this, and I couldn't believe I was in europe. however, it may be a better design than the hot diggity dogger......

Unilingual

2006-07-08T08:40:00.000+02:00

I need to learn to read, write and speak german! There are some practical reasons (making friends, filling out paperwork, ordering in a restaurant), but right now I am most concerned with understanding this billboard. It is everywhere and I see it about 50 times a day - anorexic cow, fat child.....

Knitting train

2006-07-03T19:17:00.000+02:00

Because I was so ill last week, I am still without any friends to have weekend fun with. So instead of sitting around the women's boarding house feeling sorry for myself, I decided to get out of town. I wanted to see some mountains, some glaciers and some castles. So, without looking anything up in the lonely planet or using Kurt's list of places, I went to the train station and got on the train that was leaving 2 minutes later. Ah, Bellinzona, I've never heard of you, but you are sure to be wonderful.....anyway, a photo for the knitters aboard the train

the little old lady sitting across from me was absolutely fascinated by the knitting and didn't speak any english so chattered away at me in german, alternately touching the yarn, petting the scarf and attempting to decipher the pattern.

this train was about a mile long and filled with minis, but I didn't manage to get a shot until the end

and Bellinzona, a city with 3 castles in the Ticino region, renowned for its merlot (very good) and food specialty consisting of thin sliced veal topped with tuna fish salad (gross). I ordered the latter after an exchange in broken italian that went something like, me: "insalata mista...", waiter: "especiale??", me :"insalata mista...", waiter: "especiale??", me: "okay, especiale....y vino"

My new bank

2006-07-01T00:14:00.000+02:00

Yes, I do have a swiss bank account now. But, which Swiss bank did I choose?

The main branches of all the banks are on this street called the Bahnestrasse, which is also the main super-posh shopping street (Cartier, Tiffany, etc). I hadn't quite figured out the tram system here yet, so I'm tooling along down the street on the tram looking out the windows at the banks: UBS, Credite Swiss, Bank Leu, when I realize the road is about to end so I get off at the next stop and see this:

I love the Rhino! I must bank here!

I couldn't take pictures inside, but it was fancy (reflection pool, all leather furniture). My favorite thing about my new bank is that when you walk in an attendant comes up to you and asks you what kind of business you will be doing today and then hands you a number. Then instead of waiting in line, you lounge on leather furniture by the reflection pool with some schmancy people with dogs not even in their purses, some of them smoking cuban cigars, until your number is called. Which was only a couple of minutes and they apologized for the delay.

First days in Zurich

2006-06-30T23:29:00.000+02:00

I finally got on my connecting flight to Zurich. Once here, I was not immediately in love as I thought I would be. The baggage carts have this weird strap across the top which I guess is supposed to keep people from overloading their carts, but also prevents loading even one bike box onto it. So, where I thought I would be mildly amusing, I was genuinely comical, pushing the cart while dragging the bike box in a weird leap frog fashion. If I understood german, I can only guess I would have been incredibly offended because everyone was commenting as I passed. Fortunately, the taxis are minivans so getting stuff into the car was no problem and the taxi driver was pleasant. At one point he told me that he enjoyed driving in NYC better than Zurich because the one-way streets made driving around easier (!).

Now in my temporary housing, a “women’s pension” I was quite happy. My room is small but bright and faces a small street with lots of trees:

Across the street is an old church (the outside says 1512 which isn’t that old because the church in “old Zurich” is 13 something). I thought it was charming until it started chiming on the hour and half-hour all the way through the night. I can see old Zurich and some of the alps from the roof of my new home which is also a garden terrace.

At this point I slept for about 20 hours waking up only for this

and then went into work for the first time. Everyone in Berkeley will enjoy this:

Are you noticing the large crane? That’s what they are using to construct the new building next to my building. Now I won’t get homesick….

I managed to stay at work for a little while, but I was still feeling kind of ill. My throat was sore and I thought it was because the flu medicine wasn’t working very well and I just needed more sleep. At this point I also hadn’t eaten in about 48 hours because I’m never hungry when I’m sick and my throat just hurt, so I continued along this dangerous path….Next morning I woke up feeling pretty good, checked my email and saw that Karrie was giving me a hard time because I hadn’t posted yet! I wrote back and said I would post right after breakfast.

Skip this part if you have a weak stomach. The Pension provides breakfast foods, so I got myself some cereal and yogurt, coffee and orange juice. Start chewing, I am really hungry, so take another bite, realize that I can’t swallow. At all. Nothing is getting past my tonsils. So now I have two giant bites of food and nowhere to send it. I think, “maybe it just needs to be chewed some more with liquids”, so I add a sip of orange juice and chew. Some liquid manages to seep down my throat but nothing solid. After about 5 minutes of this I give up and go to the bathroom where food that should be in my stomach goes into the toilet.

Second day in Zurich and I am seeing a doctor. For future reference, there is a fully staffed office on the first floor of the main train station. Right next to the pharmacy. Efficient. They don’t take appointments, but you take a number and wait, it took about 1 ½ hours. The doctor did a strep test and had the (positive) results back in less than 15 minutes. Efficient. I got yelled at (politely) because if I waited much longer to go in I could have permanently lost parts of my voice box. Lovely. Anyway, now I am on a large dose of antibiotics, pain-killers, and prescription lozenges.

Oh and Germany and Italy won their world cup games today, so the Swiss are going crazy with the car-honking and flag-waving (?!?).

Leaving the US

2006-06-30T23:28:00.000+02:00

Even after disposing or shipping many of my belongings, I still had a large duffel bag, a small suitcase, my laptop bag and my bike box to get on the plane. And it wasn’t one of those “overnight duffel bags” that you can just throw over your shoulder. This bag was 0.8 kilos over the 32 kilo limit set by British Airways and it doesn’t even have wheels, like it should:

Karrie said she would take stuff back to Berkeley and eventually to Australia where we are meeting for Goldschmidt, so after taking out a rock (what kind of geologist doesn’t bring any rocks with them to a new job?), some contact solution and a towel, I was safely under the weight limit by 0.2 kilos and ready to go. I would like to note two things here: (1) Karrie said I could pick up another towel when I got to Switzerland and (2) I was starting to feel a little under the weather but chalked it up to not getting much sleep the night before and my adrenaline finally running out.

I love British Airways. They didn’t blink at my large, excessively heavy baggage (did I mention that I ended up packing a bunch of tools into the bike box so it weighed almost 30 kilos?). They checked my bags all the way through to Zurich even though I bought two separate tickets (San Francisco – Heathrow and Heathrow – Zurich). The flight attendants were actually pleasant, speak 4 languages, and brought around beverages regularly. I wish I could have enjoyed it more because for most of the flight I was either feverish or having chills. I couldn’t work up the energy to turn on my in-seat television (one of the reasons I chose BA over Lufthansa) nevermind work on the knitting project I brought along. By the time we arrived at Heathrow I was quite a mess, and after waiting in the “transfer” line for more than an hour I barely made it to the pharmacy for some flu meds. This got my fever under control and brought me a (false) sense of security that I was on the mend.

1st blog

2006-06-06T02:25:00.000+02:00

this is my blog. a blog to celebrate my move to Zurich. and document my general cluelessness about all things swiss.

right now I'm 99.99% done writing my thesis and packing at the same time. my advisor finds this ludicrous, his exact words were: "I think it is not really a good idea for you to be trying to write and get ready to move at the same time. But we are stuck with the situation now."

so this weekend I finished chapters 1,2,3,5,6 and packed the remainder of my belongings, cleaned my empty apartment and started couch surfing. I'm surviving on coffee and ibuprofin.