Trip to Lucerne

Nothing much to write here, the pics will do all the talking.
Breathtaking views, speechless me, drained batteries, limitations of camera, romantic settings, boy for company (Nothing personal, Sushant, love travelling with you, but I am sure you would understand, after all, you also endured my company)... some of the features of the trip.

Just some trivia about the Bourbaki museum (you will find loads of pics from there).

The period is just after the Franco - Prussian war and the French Army under General Bourbaki has been defeated. So, the army is returning and bringing back the wounded. They happen to pass through Switzerland where the Swiss people take their arms, tend to the wounded before they resume their journey. This was the birth of Red Cross.
About the panorama, simply amazing, transports you back to the scene with you being at the centre of a 360 deg, 10 m high, 112 m long painting with all sound effects. Check out the official site please to get the feel and also the pictures from my album.

The second part of the trip was to Mt. Pilatus. Words, cameras (except a DSLR with a wide angle lens maybe) fail to capture what we experienced on the top. The views, the fog, the snow, the chill in the air, the dizzying heights, the choughs, the silence, the lack of company, ah, the experience. Again, the pics would say more. Unfortunately, batts gave up. So check Sushant's orkut album for views from top.


Some quick observations about myself

• love shooting animals and birds
• like silence and lonely spots
• love shooting closeups
• not in favour of scenic shots, because cam never captures what I see.
• hate shooting people, very boring
• above point includes taking my own pictures, even more boring - result, not one photo of myself so far.
• am generally happy in life, almost in all situations
• have learnt to adjust easily to conditions
• find India way better than Europe
• love european girls, too snooty, just as the doctor ordered.
• have bouts of laziness and over activity. (notice the frequency of blog entries)
• love exploring new places alone, taking risks, talking to random people

Thats it for this round of introspection. Will elaborate on some of these later on or mostly wont. Have fun reading. Comments are most welcome.

This weekend, we go to Lausanne and Geneve. Pics will be up shortly on multiply and orkut album.

Blog entries coming up
1. Food here and how much I am liking it.
2. Cycle trip to zoo.
3. Official trip to Bern.

S'long then...

Kya fondue dinner tha!

Long time since I blogged. So quite a few things happened.
Last friday, we had been invited by our prof. (that's not quite correct, but we wont get into technicalities), Dr. Floris Tschurr for dinner at his place.
We had just happened to mention that we would like to try some authentic Swiss cuisine and being the friendly person he is, he offered to cook cheese fondue for us. So, last friday, we trooped to his place for dinner. He lives with his wife, Anita.
Now, fondue is simply melted cheese and maintained in the molten state. You then have to dip small pieces of bread in it with special fondue forks and eat it. So it is a very heavy meal. But then, I, who is used to asking Domino's people to add extra cheese, loved it. Along with that, we had salad.
And, of course, as I have mentioned before, following swiss customs has always been to my benefit, it is customary to have wine with the fondue (for those who still want reasons, it is supposed to help the heavy cheese to be digested; I never question customs anyways).
It was white wine and it was amazing! I, who have hardly drunk alcohol before, found it difficult to say no to a third glass. (Ma, I am being honest here, it was only two). Good Floris had even prepared some pasta in case some of us found the cheese too heavy for our liking. Others had some, I couldnt.
It was then followed by simply-out-of-the-worldish pudding and strawberries. And if that wasn't enough, next came hot strong coffee along with dark chocolates and chocolate crackers. I was slightly high (dont know for sure, but makes me feel happy thinking that way). I was simply wishing the meal wont end, while the others continued talking about mundane earthly matters like higher education and god knows what.
But it ended. We thanked the gracious couple and went home.
I love the swiss people. Floris even hinted that we could have something similar sometime later on during the stay. God bless him.

P.S. Fondue is not generally had in summers. Its a winter dish but our stay here is only till July. Hence, the reason for this blog.

P.P.S. Images up on album (Nothing to do with the dinner but just spreading the news).

World's a small place...

a. I live in a hostel which houses people from all over the world.
b. I am just coming back from a weekly meeting of IAESTE trainees. These are people like me who have come to Switzerland to study or work. IAESTE helps with the immigration and accommodation issues.

Am compiling a list of people I have met over the last 10 days. More a reminder to me than anything. Just take a look at the varied nationalities.

Finland - Juho (working)
Ireland - Bryan
Sweden - Tomas (working)
German - Roger (working)
Poland - Carolina (doing masters)
Swiss - Paul, Robin, Claudia, dearest Angela, Denise, Evelyn, Deborah
Holland - Marcha, Ester (sisters doing an internship in microbiology)
Iran - Ahmed (works)
Cameroon - Regis (doing masters here)
Tokyo - Hishashi (god knows what he does, but an extremly talkative lovable person)
China - Jimping (working)
Thailand - Tham (studying music here)
India - Anand, Chitra (from good ol' Kolkata), Hrishikesh, Varun, Rishi, Raj, Sandesh.
Peru - Alonso (looks almost like Sachin Tendulkar, will try to get his pic at next's week meeting)

Most of them working here, others studying, all for 8 months to a year.

Love meeting new people, talking to them, studying their reactions to Indians and India. Will write my observations about all these later. In the meantime, will keep meeting up more people.

Keep wondering what to post next. Lots of interesting things keep happening. Wish I could write them all. Europe is strange, interesting, fun to discover; so my initial observation wasnt entirely true.

By the way, the swiss people have their own keyboard, with the Z and the Y interchanged. This is the only change in the letters but a whole lot of symbols inserted, and so they have 3 layers of symbols on some keys (like we have two and use shift to use the upper ones). They have a special key AltGr for that.

Some samples of sy.mbols --- ²³öäüߧ°ç¬|¦¢`èàé.

Till next posting, have fun :)

Freaking cost of living...

Rule one when coming to Switzerland : Forget the exchange rate and/or the prices back home. If you start converting the prices and comparing, you will end up buying nothing.

Just to give some idea, the prices are as follows:

• Lunch at mess for student (discounted rate) --- 6-9 Francs = 220 - 330 Rs.
• A slice of pizza - 6 Francs = 220 Rs
• Cheapest McD Burger --- 2.5 Francs = 90 Rs
• Full meal at McD --- 10 Francs = 370 Rs
• Bananas --- 3.7 Francs a kg = 140 Rs

You get the idea, I am sure. So we deviced some ways to work our way out.

Axiom 1 - We are rich.
Axiom 2 - Nothing is free.
Axiom 3 - We have no previous standard.

Since then we have been happy. I have been spending a lot on food and travelling. Everyday, I get to taste new meat dishes at the mess which is like proper European cuisine. The poor veg people, have got no options here, and generally get the worst part of the deal :D.

There was this one memorable meal at the main mensa (that's what the call a mess). It was out first day, we had forgotten our letters which got us the students' discounts (almost half the price), and the way we are, decided to try our luck at it without the letters.
Now, with a long line of hungry swiss people behind you and all menu written in swiss german (average words have 10-12 letters) and with the mess helpers asking you what you would like in rapid, rude german, you tend to say yes to everything quickly. Atleast thats what we ended up doing.
Result - plate full of food which were not part of original menu but was supposed to be extra, charged at normal rates, (ignored my helpless, innocent look), we ended up with a meal of almost 15 Francs each.
Thats a whopping 550 Rs for a meal. But we found the funny side to this also. Thought that now treating people at Pizza Hut for 1500 Rs would be trivial. :D

Now we have either been paid or are close to it, so Axiom 1 is vacuously true. And I cant save money when faced with infinite chocolates, meat items and genuine european cuisine. And we are used to the high rates here. And the food too, which for the record is amazing, except for dinners, since I dont know how to cook at all.
I was hoping I would lose some weight being so far away from home and Indian food. But it doesnt seem likely now :((. Too much milk products and that is staple diet, so cant avoid also. Cheese, butter, yoghurt, milk, in almost every meal.
Have been invited by Asst to Prof for cheese fondue and wine tomorrow night :).Looking forward to it.

More topics coming up --- trip to Basel and some pics from there.

Happy reading till then.

How carefree (careless more like) can I be?

I seem to have come with the least bit of preparation possible. All that I seem to be carrying are my passport, plane tickets, some money, toileteries and a whole lot of clothes. The funny part is that the checklist contained infy other articles.

• Passport (visa if necessary)
• IAESTE papers
• Passport photos
• Enough money, credit card, checks (You'll receive your salary at the end of the month only, and you have to pay a lot before your pay day)
• Ticket (plane, train, etc.)
• Special medicines
• Sleeping bag (necessary for most of the weekend activities)
• Warm clothes
• Your own utensils to cook and plates, spoons etc.
  
• Good shoes (e.g., hiking shoes)
• Raincoat, umbrella
• Travel guide
• International student identity card
• Adapter for your electrical equipment (230 V, 50 Hz, Swiss plug see 5.2)
• Your country identity and symbols (flag, t-shirt, food, drinks, etc.)

I am proud to announce, I come with none of the aforementioned things except ofcourse the two documents that I have mentioned. No warm clothes (except one jacket), no passport size photos (shelled out 8 Francs within 10 minutes of stepping into Switzerland) , no raincoat (it rains almost every second day), no utensils, no ISIC (thats the student card they mention), no sleeping bag, no special adapter.

Now you must be wondering how I am managing even after all this. Simple, lady luck decided to smile on me, nay I would say, broadly grinning (like the cheshire cat from Alice's land) on me. I get accommodation in a student's hostel where I get all utensils I want and more for free. I also get 200 odd people to share the hostel with who keep treating me to chinese and dutch and german cuisine.
To replace the ISIC (which is required to get discounts here at many places), I receive a signed and stamped letter declaring me to be a guest student at ETH and requesting people to give me special treatment (atleast thats what I think it reads, because it is written in Swiss German).
No raincoat/umbrella hasnt been a problem because it's only a mere drizzle they choose to call heavy rainfall. After 26th july, I dont think Swiss rains are going to bother me at all.
Add to this other luck elements. I am received by a cute girl at the airport, her name's Angela and man, is she angellike or what! Alright, wasnt really that lucky. She had come with her boyfriend, (who is from Ireland and is only studying here, so I still have a chance). And curse the Swiss people, they kissed atleast some 10 times during the two hours I was with them. I couldnt do anything but watch with a broken heart. But then, things brightened up a bit when while saying goodbye, Angi (cute nick na :D ?) told me about this particular Swiss custom of kissing each other goodbye thrice albeit on the cheeks. I was not complaining, it is a custom after all. Must do as the Romans do while in Rome.
Another bit of luck, my advisor is very friendly, gives me his spare laptop to work on till my new work station comes and I can get the lappy home. So I am online almost all day long.
Dont know about the warm clothese or sleeping bag. Might get into trouble because of them but then, who knows, lady luck might have something in store for me there also.

Wish she had smiled a little bit during the grading season also :(. But then, that's done and dusted, new beginning next sem...

First impression...

Have been in Zurich for 3 days now. It is exactly as I thought it would be or maybe, should be. It is clean and beautiful, automated and mechanized, pseud and planned.
But then, this is exactly what takes away the fun. It is springing no surprises, it is no more and no less than what I thought it would be. Not that I am not having any fun or finding it boring, not at all. I am really enjoying this stay here. Just that, good ol' India has the innate ability to surprise you, even if you have lived there all your life like me. Zurich is right out of one of those city planning games, no anamoly, no loose ends, nothing.
And the silence! Not used to it at all, so few people, so much silence, my room, my office, the silence is oppresive. People meet, say greetzie (that's swiss german for Hello, roughly speaking) and then no more. In a way, it is good. I get my space, don't need to find a quiet place to be with myself. But then, I do miss the hustle-bustle of home also.
Ha ha ha, on rereading, it seems as if I am cribbing about nothing and not liking it here. Quite contrary, am having the time of my life. Awesome work conditions, comfy room to stay.

Should be working now. Have to report to advisor.

Will post more...

1. Cost of food and living in general
2. The girls here and their stupid boyfriends and how I dont get anyone.

till then, happy reading.

P.S. Check out my orkut album pics. Some really nice ones. (if the link doesn't work, you know where to find the album, don't you?)