Keeping up with TV land

Ever since I arrived to Neuch, I’ve scoffed at the students who are addicted to their TV shows. Most don’t have access to TV at their pensions, so to entertain themselves here there and everywhere (what ever happened to making conversation or just reflecting about life to pass the time?) before EVERYONE got an i-pod and the “youtube” frenzy, DVDs were the hot ticket item.
In first year, it was the OC and Sex and the City. Second year was One Tree Hill and Desperate Housewives. This year, it’s more diverse…24, Prison Break, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy, among others.
I personally, have a TV at my disposal and use it quite often. While I’m watching most of my shows in different languages, I have to admit that most of the time, the TV’s on just to have background noise. I didn’t have a DVD player until recently, so the plethora of DVDs that all my students had did nothing for me.
This year, started out the same. I made fun of the students (and now other staff members) who couldn’t go another day before seeing the next episode and were desperately trying to find a good internet connection to download this show and that movie…and then came Tunisia. One night, when we had nothing better to do, I decided to join the kidlets watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. I was mildly interested.
Now the mild interest has turned into a full blown liking for the show. I’ve just started Season 2. The thing about being this far away for this long, is that I don’t actually know how far ahead the real show is on for, and I’ve been gone long enough that before I left I didn’t know anything about the show. This works out perfectly, because I can start watching the show right from the beginning without knowing what’s to come – except for the fact that I saw the “bomb episode” in Tunisia and they had to fill me in a little bit about the characters, so I knew about the main things that were to come by the end of the first season, which meant that the season finale wasn't too much of a shock (although the rest of the episode was quite funny). I’ve recently been told that they’re actually at around Episode 12 of the 3rd Season, so I just have to make sure that the students (who are up to date on the show) don’t ruin anything more for me.
I have to admit that it’s a pretty good show. I like the medical stuff and the banter and wise-cracks that some of the characters come up with. I don’t really feel a strong connection to the Meredith Grey character for some reason…but some of the other characters are pretty amusing.
One of my students thinks I’m very much like one of the characters on the show (which is actually how I’d heard of the show for the first time). Feel free to guess which one. I’m not sure if it’s a compliment or an insult. When she first described the characteristics of the character that reminded her of me, I was a little taken aback, but after watching the show…well, I see the similarities, although for a slightly different set of reasons. Or not. Whatever.
Bottom line, if you’re a Grey’s Anatomy fan, “woot woot!”, but don’t tell me what’s to come. Let me find out for myself…just a year after everyone else does.

Finally

Today was the first day that it snowed in Neuchatel. It was a light dusting, not too cold and very pretty. That's all I have to say right now because it's "marking madness".

Yummy yogurt

Before I came to Neuch, someone raved about Swiss yogurt. I was confused, but upon arrival, when trying the yogurt I did agree that it was good. Then again though, I didn't really remember what Canadian yogurt tasted like, so I didn't know if I was actually eating something that tastes better or maybe it just tasted exactly the same.

I would suppose that most people find Swiss yogurt better because apparently it is creamier. Would make sense, as the milk here does taste different than in Canada. I don't even drink the milk here. When I first got here, I tried a lot of different types of milk, but they all just tasted bad. In Canada, I drink skim milk...which is...I don't know, whatever percent. Here, the regular milk is 3.something percent. I think their "skim milk" equivalent is 1.something. Still tastes gross. Due to the "grossness" of the milk though, other products have greatly benefited. Ice cream and yogurt are just two examples of such products.

The yogurt is quite creamy, although recently I bought the "slimline" brand yogurt (it was on sale and other people have raved about it) and I really don't like the taste. I guess there's not enough fat in it to make it taste yummy.

Another thing I love about yogurt here in Switzerland is that they have amazing flavours. We're talking about mixed yogurt here. No fruit on the bottom grossness that they often have in Canada. They have so many different and unique flavours, I'm always trying something different and slightly surprised at how good the weird combinations are.

Along with the regular fruit varieties that you often see in Canada, here are some examples of "different" flavours:
- chestnut
- coconut/chocolate
- chocolate/pear
- hazelnut
- mango/apple
- orange/starfruit
- banana
- caramel/pear
- mango/passion fruit
- blood orange
- lemon
- plum

Yes, in Canada, they have pieces of the fruit in the yogurt, but here they have huge chunks of whatever it is. Can you believe that they have shavings of coconut in the yogurt? It's amazing!

I really am going to miss Swiss yogurt.

<sad>Sigh</sad>

Well, I'm not totally sad, but I'm really overwhelmed right now. I've just come back from a fabulous trip to Tunisia, but I've had to close a door in my life and I'm falling behind in a bunch of things and I promise I'll try to write more soon.