Presents for me!!!

I'm now the proud owner of:
- Camper boots (it worked out so well...a sale - 22% off because it's December 22nd...and boots that actually fit my weirdo feet - stupid bunions...and Camper...swoon!)
- two fleece tops with thumbholes!

Unfortunately, the Bally store didn't have the 3000CHF bag for me to get tempted by.

Thank goodness the French train company is still on strike or else I would have missed all this good shopping fun! Although, after two attempts and now possibly not being able to ever go, I haven't experienced the Strasbourg Christmas Market.

Freakin' ostriches

Yesterday, after a day of judging in Dubendorf (chatted a bunch with Sarah Meier's mom) I went back to Zurich to wait for my train. I noticed that the stores were open (on a Sunday...gasp!!! Actually, it's just pre-Christmas shopping, so they opened the stores specially on a Sunday) so in my half hour before I had to catch my train, I journeyed down to Bally to look for a bag. I really want to buy a Bally bag sometime soon. I only saw one bag that I liked, and the total shocker was that it was on sale. Sigh, 2950CHF still isn't a good enough sale for me.
By the way, Zurich is dangerous for the shopper. Last time I was there, I went into Burberry and fell in love with a black coat that was on display. Sigh, they didn't have my size and consequently, couldn't drop a four figure amount on a beautiful item of clothing.
Oh and by the way, if you need someone to pick out the most expensive item of clothing in a store, I'm your girl. Sigh.

<happy>Sigh</happy>

Remember a couple minutes ago when I posted that I missed lights and decorations and stuff? Well, just now there was a huge fireworks display by the port and I got a great view from the staffroom window. I had no idea why it happened except for the fact that someone out there knew that it would make me happy.
I took a video of it and my batteries died before I could take any good photos, because I really wanted to share them here.
I wonder what it is, but I feel like I need evidence of everything wonderful that happens in my life. Is it because I want to share it with everyone else once I get back home? I think it's also because for some reason I think I'm going to forget about all of these things when I get older, my memories will fade and that I will need these pictures to remind myself about just how lucky I am.

I used to love a hectic lifestyle

Ok, I guess I still do, but this is a little bit bonkers. What I want right now, is to take a couple days off work and just go Christmas shopping. To see lights and trees. To drink hot chocolate in Second Cup. To visit Holts and CM and windown shop in Yorkville.
No, I swear I'm not homesick. I just need a little breather. I was the one who decided to be all crazy busy right now, but I wish I could just hit the pause button for awhile.
I hope everyone else is enjoying ther hectic-ness of the approaching holidays. Being out here really keeps that stuff to minimum, which is a little nice. I do miss those lights and decorations though. There's a huge tree downtown, but I don't get there very often. Sigh.
Just four more days of classes and then I get a day off before going to Tunisia.

Sassafraz

I can't believe that big yellow Sassafraz burned down. Thank goodness a week before I came to Neuch Laura and I went for lunch there to be "spotted".
Strange how when I told someone here in Neuch who still has a house in Yorkville that it's gone, she imeediately thought that someone had done it on purpose. She predicts that all the nice boutiques and restaurants in the area will be gone soon becuase all they want to do is build condos. She thinks maybe the mafia torched Sassafraz. I wonder.

Getting to the big leagues

So, something new to this post. I judge figure skating. I may come to edit this post if I really want to leave out almost everything possible to trace my existence, but right now, I think it's pretty safe, and plus, this story is interesting enough to tell so I don't really care.
Last weekend, I was in Geneva judging the Swiss Senior National Championships. For those of you not into the skating scene, this is a BIG deal. Well, okay, I wasn't really judging. I was trial judging. By the way, this is still a BIG deal.
Ever since I came to Neuch, I tried to get into the Swiss judging system and to be able to trial judge at the Nationals is really exciting. Judging is something really important in my life right now and I hope it will be for some time to come.
Sure, it's nowhere near the calibre of Canadian Nationals, but it's pretty exciting. It was actually overwhelming at some points when all of the press decended (namely when Sarah Meier and Stephane Lambiel skated) and when the audience (amazing turn out to the competition...admission was free! Can you imagine that in Canada?) got really rowdy at times...and booed the scores for one of the skaters. I actually found it hard to concentrate on the skater's performance and was in awe of Stephane and Sarah's skates that I momentarily forgot to write stuff down on my paper. Oops. Wow, this post is making me sound like a horrible judge, but honestly, I'm so glad that I had this experience, because I learned so much from it in terms of what my future (hopefully) holds. Yes, yes, I want to make it big in the judging world...we'll see what happens with that.
In case you're wondering, Swiss Nationals are divided up into different competitions. In Canada, there are Sr. Nat's and Jr. Nat's, but here there's Nat's for every level.
For those interested, the ladies event was very lackluster. There was Sarah Meier, and then there was everyone else. Sarah was gearing up for the Grand Prix Final and was therefore in top form. She's still pretty young, but she's really developing into a great skater. She's got great spring in her jumps and a wonderful air position. Good eyes and her projection's getting much better. The rest of the girls were at best landing triple toes/salchows. What a difference.
In the dance event, there was actually a Canadian. I'm not sure why he decided to come to Switzerland...better chance of going to the next level? Who knows.
In the men's event, the big buzz was that Stephane wold be unveiling his new long program. It was incredible. He's coming off being sick (missed his last Grand Prix event and consequently the Final), so he wasn't in the best of shape and that along with the fact that it was a new program made it a really tough skate. Great artistry and passion in his skating, I think that he really needs to work on his speed. Hoepfully it's just his endurance that's down, but eitherway, he's got to work on that some more. Of course he's got great spins, but his footwork was really amazing. Great musicality and character of the music. Fabulous.
Anyway, I'm still so happy that I had this experience. The judges were really really welcoming and observing their behaviour during the competition was so beneficial. Here's to the future!

Oh, and apparently I was spotted on TV. Sitting on the panel in the background as Stephane Lambiel skated. Wheeee! I made it on TV!

Holiday trip

Last year I went to Kenya, this year, I will going to Tunisia. I know it's a little last minute to be spreading the news, but it's only because I decided rather recently about this trip (due to many reasons). Sadly it means, I won't get to see a fab girl get married in Zimbabwe and I won't get to explore more of Spain (Madrid and Seville) and see the super huge Christmas tree in Lisbon that E told me about. I guess I'm excited to go to Tunisia...part of the trip include a couple days camping (uh, oh) in the desert. I just don't know enough about this country to be excited. I have to do some more research, but I'm been so insanely busy and btw, I need sleep desperately. Sure, I'm great at falling asleep on trains, but it's taking its toll. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry, I'll probably talk about it rather soon. Obviously it has to do with skating in some way. It always does. I just love that sport so much that it's ridiculous, but when do you draw the line. When is enough vague-wishy-washy-situations enough? Hopefully I'll have the answer soon. Maybe it's a sign that I'm just not meant to be a part of this branch of the sport.

The Departed

So I guess this is what people with lives do. Go watch movies on a weekly basis. This past Friday, I went to see yet another movie - The Departed.
Apparently, this is based on some Chinese movie, which I've never seen before...except strangely enough, supposedly I flipped by this movie on a hotel TV in Krakow, Poland.
This movie is about New York cops trying to bust a mafia guy (Jack Nicholson - good at playing creepy guys) by putting in a guy (Leonardo Dicaprio) with Nicholson's gang undercover. At the same time, Nicholson's already got a mole (Matt Damon) on the force. So it's the story about who can get whom first.
It felt like a LONG movie. Many parts didn't feel like they were going anywhere and I was really really bored towards the end.
I enjoyed the part with the Cantonese speak, probably only becasue I haven't heard Cantonese in a long time. And it's always nice to hear Chinese guys yelling at each other.
I thought that there was an extraneous number of killings. People were just being shot for no reason. Lots of violence. It wasn't like I cringed at the violence, it just got too over the top and I was like, oh, there goes another guy.
Oh and the little thing at the end was definitely a groaner. How annoying when they put in things like that.

- picture courtesy of www.thedeparted.warnerbros.com

Casino Royale

Last Friday night, I went to see Casino Royale. Starring the blonde (oooh, scandalous) Daniel Craig as James Bond, this is Craig's first appearance as 007 and the went back to the beginning of the series to introduce him to the viewers.
I haven't seen many James Bond movies (only 2 or three of the most recent ones - but not the one with Halle Berry), but I can say that I really liked this one. For some reason, I really liked the opening credits. They were really stylish and went well with the music, theme of the movie and the general "James Bond" feeling.
One of the first chase scenes was WAY over the top (the part on the construction site especially), so that was a little ridiculous, but as a whole I really liked this movie.
There were a couple lines which made me groan...but it's to be expected from a Bond movie. The incidental music was good and as always they weaved in the James Bond motif at all the right times. It's so interesting to hear what composers come up with.
Although, as I mentioned, I haven't seen many portrayals of the James Bond character by other actors, I thought Craig did a good job. He was really good at looking very cool under pressure, breaking a sweat, but not being out of breath. He had this pouty lip thing going as well which a couple of us were discussing if it was natural, or part of the character. He brought a different feel to the character (compared to Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery, I thought). More cool and less suave.
Anyway, it's not like I've read the books or anything, so I didn't know what was going to happen, and I don't know what will happen in the next movie, so I was a little confused by the ending, but I kind of liked that though. A Bond movie should be filled with crazy action scenes and some random twists.
Yeah, I'd recommend this movie for sure.

-picture courtesy of www.sonypictures.com

Babel

Last Friday night, I went to see Babel. I remembered being tipped off about the movie a long time ago when my friends who seem to surf the internet way too much or something mentioned that the trailer for the film looked amazing. I agreed. Actually, I'm glad that they're all up to date (or better) on the times...being so far away from it all means that it's nice to be kept in the loop. So yeah, it came out in the original version here in Neuch and I decided to go see it.
Where there were supposed to be subtitles, they were in French and German, so although my French is good enough that I understood what was happening, there were a couple words here and there that I didn't quite understand which I think might have provided a little bit more insight to the movie.
After all this time, I still can't really pinpoint the type of movie I like, but I can say that usually I like movies that have different plotlines which end up being intertwined. This movie was one of those movies. The trailer gave just enough away that I got an idea of what would happen, but not enough that I knew about everything.
There were three main storylines in the movie - one in Morocco, one in Japan and the other around the US/Mexico border. I think the part in Japan was my favorite. I won't get into anymore details because it's something that you should see for yourself.
I found this movie to be a little long in parts...like it was getting to a point, but taking a long time to get there. At the end, I didn't really feel like it got to a "point", but that I got a certain emotion/feeling from the film. Perhaps it is also due the some of the situations that I have been placed in recently and will continue to be in until around the end of March (if I'm lucky) and perhaps even as an educator who is doing a lot of reflecting on education. As I was watching the movie, I resolved to be a more accepting person. To reach out to others who may feel alone or in an alien environment. To be compassionate. I was reminded that there are many different ways of communicating and that communication, whether verbal or non-verbal is the key to everything.
Perhaps the "point" of this movie is to get you to think. Even though I wouldn't necessarily watch the movie again, I would highly recommend everyone to see it.

- picture courtesy of www.paramountvantage.com/babel

Persimmons

My first memory of this fruit is a flattened, dried up orangish thing that my mom promised me tasted good by I didn't really believe her. Years later, I still don't like the dried version, but if the fruit is really really ripe and super soft, I love them. If they aren't really ripe, they leave a weird paste-y feeling on your tongue. My mom told me about a different species of persimmon which was harder and apparently just as good, but like the great daughter I am, I was skeptical.
Anyway, I've seen persimmons in the grocery stores here in Europe, but have never bought one, because they were really huge and rock hard. This scared me. They were also called "kaki", so I wasn't quite sure if they were the same thing. And they were a little expensive for something that I wasn't sure if I would like (although this hasn't stopped me before). They are 5.40CHF per kilo.
This past weekend, I saw someone eat one, and so I asked her about it, what it tasted like and if it was really an Asian fruit. She cut it open, and it looked exactly the same, just less goopey, because it was harder. I built up the courage the try a bit and it was exactly the same...really tasty, and no weird feeling in the mouth! And the weirdest part is that you eat it like an apple. Skin and all! I would never usually eat the skin!

The point of the story is that:
1. Maybe the persimmons they have here are the ones that my mom was talking about
2. I've found something else to lessen my homesickness
3. My mom was right (grrr...she usually is)

Krakow, Poland (October 13th-16th, 2006)

Again, just a bunch of pictures for now...

In the centre of Krakow is the market square where the "Cloth Market" is. It's an indoor market selling lots of different things, but mostly wooden crafts and amber:


On certain hours there's a horn player that sticks his head out of the window and plays a song then stops abruptly. They stop because apparently one horn player was shot while they were playing.







This is a really old university.

Another city, another opera house.






Krakow skyline at night.




We visited the Wieliczka Salt Mines just outside of the city. There were tons of sculptures carved out of salt and who whole place smelled - well, salty. You could lick the walls in the place. They were salty too. This is the Last Supper...can someone pass the salt please? (har har har)

Regardless of your belief system, try to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. It's really interesting. Just like with all of the other trips I've been on, I feel so lucky because I get to walk what I've seen in movies, read in books and has happened in history.
Auschwitz itself has very well done exhibitions. Over my career at the ROM and with all of travels, I have come to be somewhat of a museum connoisseur.



"Work will bring freedom"...(I remember this motto from Dachau)




A sectioned off area at the Auschwitz camp, away from the rest of the camp where no one would know of the executions that took place there.





"Auschwitz II", AKA Birkenau. The extermination camp.



At Birkenau, there are only ruins of the "shower rooms" and crematories because they tried to destroy the evidence:



The railway tracks just came to a stop...where the building housing the shower rooms and crematories were.






Living quarters.






Cemetery in the Jewish quarter in Krakow.







This wall is created from remains of tombstones from before WWII.



The "roof" over the tombstone is not original. It has been placed there to preserve the tombstone as much of the carving/engraving disappears over time due to exposure to the elements. Apparently Jews leave stones to show that they visited.






Looks just like in the movie. Another surreal moment.












I found it interesting that the tour guide mentioned that this impressive World War II memorial only said the number of people who died in the war but nothing
about them being mostly Jewish because they were under the Communist reign. It was only afterwards that Jew puts up a smaller memorial behind this one recognizing those Jews who died during WWII.

Helsinki, Finland (June 8th-11th, 2006)

Yes...this post is WAY overdue...here's a couple pictures for now, and I'll add commentary later if I get the chance.
All I'll say right now was that it was a FAB trip...would highly recommend.









The City Hall in Helsinki.


Jean Sibelius is a Finnish composer. This is a monument built for him:















Apparently they eat them too.








Love this store. Not really into the clothing, but the homeware and accessories are fab. I bought a BOLD bag (of course). I love it.




Church built into a rock.








Someone famous is buried here...I forget who. Oops.




On Suomenlinna, there was a group of students hanging out...I swear they looked like they were straight out of Hogwarts...it was a little bizarro becuase I doubt school children actually dress like that in Finland.





Took an afternoon/early evening trip to Talinn, Estonia (1.5 hour boat ride from Helsinki). Another country to add to the list...and a really neat visit!






There was a huge Russian Orthodox church there. I haven't gone to Russia yet (fingers crossed that I can go this year), but this church is exactly what I always thought Russian churches looked like.

Weather's changing

It's starting to get colder here in Neuch. Sure, in the middle of the day, when the sun's at its best, it feel like the summer, but other than that, it's getting colder. Oh, and the sun doesn't come up until I've started teaching. That's a little annoying coming to work in the dark. Don't forget the fact that there's rain/fog almost all the time as well.
Yup, last night, I skated in the rain. Ugh, we Canadians don't know how good we have it.

Yverdon les Bains

This past Sunday, I finally went to Yverdon-les-Bains. I've been to the train station a couple times, but have never actually been to the baths there.
I'd heard that I really needed to visit it, because it's amazing, and so finally, I had the chance to experience it for myself.
For 27CHF, I had access to the outdoor baths, as well as the Espace detente which had a hot tub on the terrasse (which they call a whirlpool), Japanese bath (a 40 degree celsius hot tub), dry sauna and the Ham-mam sauna. You could also pay to get different treatments (massages, facials, use the exercise room, etc)
The baths are located in Yverdon, because there's a natural hot spring source there.
The first outdoor pool was warm enough that I wasn't shivering (it was pretty cold outside, but the typically strong Swiss sun gave me a suntan), but I was looking forward to the next, warmer bath.
The outdoor baths are like big pools, but have water jets in them. The jets are situated at different levels so that you could massage different parts of your body. In the first one, we sat around chatting as our calves and thighs were bombarded with water and then moved on to the jets for your feet. My baby feet were too sensitive and ticklish that I couldn't stand on the jets,Ii just kind of put my feet over them a little bit until I couldn't bear it anymore and dissolved in a fit of giggles instead.
The warmer bath was FAB. It was at a super-bly temperature...I could have stayed there all day. It too had massage jets, but laid out in Swiss precision. Around the periphery of the pool, you could follow along where one side was jets for your lower body and the other side was for your upper body. Each of the jets were at different levels so that as you moves along a different part of your body was massaged. There was a light that flashed to tell you when to move onto the next jet. So organized. Apparently, we got there at a good time, because we there wasn't a very long queue for the jets, but as we were leaving there were more and more people there. In the second pool, there was also a bubble section. I have no idea how they do it, but it was just this crazy effervescing (oooh, I think this is the first time I've actually used this word as a non-persondescriptorr!) area. There were bubbles popping at every depth. It felt really really cool on your skin. One other really neat thing that I noticed was that they had different scented plants around. I would get whiffs of lavender all of a sudden, and I thought I got a whiff of verbena, but I could have been wrong. I'm sure there were other plants/flowerswhichh were there for a reason, but I'm up to date on my botany reading, so I couldn't tell you what they were. All I know is that it provided for a nice atmosphere.
Afterwards, we went up to the Espace detente where I suffered through the saunas. I got lightheaded (that'll teach me from not eating in the morning)...but I was fine. I didn't do anything stupid, like stay in the saunas too long or anything. The dry sauna was about 84 degree Celsius and quite unbearable. I loved the 40 degree hot tub...but that's about my limit I think. Even worse was the Ham-mam, because it was this crazy humid sauna. I felt like I couldn't breathe and it was so dark in there, that is was slightly iffy. Sure, it'll kill all the toxins in your skin, but it was a new experience for me, so I was a little hesitant. I'll have to go back again and give it another chance (after eating a bunch of food).
It was a great outing, and as I said before, I'll have to go back again. I'd love to go back in the middle of the winter, when it's so cold outside (hopefully snow?) and you're submerged in the fab pools. I hear there's something similar near Zurich...I should look into that...

- photos courtesy of www.thermes-yverdon.ch

Dreamy

This past monday I was training on an outdoor rink. Apparently this is the team's home rink. Luckily, for my first time, it was a clear night and the sunset and moonlight was beautiful. I'm scared for when mother nature decides to act up. It's definitely more than a little bit distracting for me to be outdoors...I was too busy looking at all the pretty stars in the sky to be focussed on the skating. Happily, I did not aquire any more ouchies (btw, my knee is looking particularly disgusting right now).
Man...Canada sure has it good. I hope this winter isn't too stormy. It's wonderful the range of things that you learn about different places when you make the most out of the opportunities that are being presented to you.
Oh, and the outlook on the Swiss-German language situation is quite bleak.

More ouchies

My left knee is a kaleidoscope of colours! From reds, to greens and blues...to brownish tinges.

And my right thigh now sports a "whole toe pick to leg" incident. Yes, that's a full seven bloody dots. Surrounded by a bruise.

C'mon CH, jump on the bandwagon!

France is now joining a bunch of other EU places which has banned smoking in restaurants. Sure it won't take effect for awhile, but it's nice to know that they're heading in that direction. I know CH is talking about it...so just vote already and do it! (There's a "referendum" practically every month on something, it's weird.) I mean even Milano has no smoking. The Italians for goodness sakes are already doing it!

P.S. Went out for dinner last night and even after leaving my clothes out on the balcony, they still reak of smoke.

Maybe I've just been sheltered

It is normal to snort tobacco?
Every so often I seen people snorting the stuff on the train here in CH. Especially those army boys. And they've got all these different rituals that they do with it.

Desalpes (September 23rd, 2006)

It's that time of the year! Time for the cows to come down from the alps for grazing opportunities at a lower altitude!



I've had two opportunities to play these alpenhorns. I did not suceed either time. Boo.








This is different from all the other years that I've seen. Usually it's one bell per person. I guess they're getting greedy.

Fete (Sep 22nd-24th, 2006)

Always a highlight of the year...FETE!!!





The party's getting underway!







This rookie to Fete didn't know to close the windows of the apartment. No, I lie. We were all watching the Fete commence below and started egging the confetti cannons to aim towards us. At this time, the host was not present.



I got a different view of the guggenmusik parade this year. I could still hear everything clearly, but was a lot further away. Boy, does sound carry.





Confetti is so fun. But I hate when people throw it into your open mouth. Yuck. (I have practically the same picture from last year.)


Fete is the best, cause you can eat so many different things that Neuch doesn't usually have. It's pretty darn expensive, but so yummy. I think I'm starting to get used to the taste of curry now. Sure, it's European-curry (read: really watered down), but it's a start right?


I felt like this year's Fete was less crowded. All of the same vendors were there, in exactly the same spots, but I didn't have to elbow my way around as much except in the key areas that are always mayhem.



I really do love Fete. Sigh. It's hard to grow up and make decisions...