European Music part 2

It's your lucky day because you get 2 posts from me. This post I thought I'd give you a taste of european music. I already posted one song Das Geht Ab in one of my earlier posts but I'd thought I'd give you more.

Disco Pogo:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p1kfs0G85I
This is from Frauenarzt which is the same group that sang Das Geht Ab. Frauenarzt means woman doctor in German. Germans go insane when this comes on.

Alors on Danse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BLJM1LG63k
By a Belgium guy. And let we dance is what it translates to in English. There's an english version if you care too. French love this.

Show me Love:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZJ29GE5DB4
There are about 1000 remixes of this but this is the closet I could find.

When love takes over:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwHmvPPmMto
This may or may not be out in the states but it has David guetta a famous french dj.

Love is Gone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHTT__uvD2E&feature=related
David Guetta again. He's pretty famous.

Stereo Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d6_5n6u2e4&feature=related
Edward Maya. He ripped off some Romainan group with this song.

Thats about all I can give right now because my ears have thrown in the towel. Not bad whenever you're 8 beers deep but they play this sober as well.

Amster......Dam

So I got back from Amsterdam last night and here are some intial thoughts.

1- The red light district is pretty cool but it is dirty as all sin. Trash everywhere and people walking around stoned or on something else. There is a church and kindergarten in the district as well as tons of sexshops and girls in the windows. Our hostel was in the heart of the redlight district so we spent a considerable amount of time there. The girls in the mornings are butt ugly but the A-team comes out around 8 or so at night and some of them are knockouts. Note though if you go DO NOT take pictures of them. We heard from multiple people they like to keep glasses of urine next to them to throw at people who take pictures. That or come outside and destroy your camera.

2- The rest of the city is pretty cool but not as beautiful as people made it out to be imo. The buildings are leaning everywhere and are all crooked. Outside of the redlight district the buildings get better and there are some nice churches but everyone kept telling me this was one of the most beautiful cities ever and frankly I just didn't see that. There are also urinals next to the canals that drain into them. You also have to watch out for cars, trams, buses, scooters, and bikes. The bikes are the worst because there are so many of them and they have their own lanes that can be mistaken for sidewalks.

3- We took a tour of the city. It was free but you could tip the tourguides whatever you wanted at the end. Very cool and informative. I would definitetly recommend.

4- Saw the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House. Skip the Van Gogh unless you're a huge fan but you have to go see the Anne Frank House. It's where she and her family lived for 2 years during WW2 before they got caught. Surreal would be a good way to describe it. Tiny rooms and an attic with a super steep staircase, and it even has her original diary on display. Must see while in Amsterdam.

Now onto the Coffe shops.

There are plenty of them around. Cafe in the dutch means a regular bar and coffe shop means they sell cannabis. Smart shops sell mushrooms and smoking accessories (bongs pipes papers etc...) The coffe shops have special rules, no screaming or yelling, no loud noise making, no dancing, etc... You walk by all these coffe shops and just see people stoned out of their mind sitting there aimlessly. Our hostel had a coffe lounge in it that also served food. Whenever you'd go downthere they had three couches that always had people stoned or sleeping from being stoned on them. Others were just staring at the TV's. Everyone else was eating doritios and candy bars, I'm not kidding this is actually what I saw the majority of the time I went down there. If you want to smoke you go up to the counter and they give you a menu of what they have. You pick what you want and they can sell it to you already rolled up or just give you a baggy of the stuff. A joint will run you about 3 euros. You can't take it out of the shop. Looking back it was actually sort of depressing.

We even took a trip to the VondelPark which is the biggest park in Amsterdam. It was a nice park but there were a lot of people (about 30%) that where just zonked out on something walking around playing guitars, kicking soccer balls at trees or we watched one guy try to re-adjust his backpack for about 5 minutes straight. Just slinging it back and forth on his back.

All in all worth the trip and would definiteatly check it out if you had the chance. Anyone under 25 would have a great time but for the older crowd I'd skip the red light district and just stick to the museums and parks. They have an Amsterdam pass but I wouldn't get it . The museums are not expensive (around 9-12 euros) and you can walk everywhere the city is pretty small.

Note to self, judo isn't the best thing to do........

after getting home from a 9 day trip with your buddies. After almost passing out during warm-ups and then getting owned by teenagers I thought it couldn't get worse, then I almost shit my pants on the mat. I managed to make it to the bathroom in time. Crisis avoided. I was debating not going because I was still recovering from the previous trip but I needed the exercise.

Speaking of the trip it was good. I don't have any pictures because I lost my camera at Dc's wedding. Ask him or Kevin about it they will be more than happy to tell you the story. Anyway London was good, the wheather sucked but thats typical London. First day we went to Picadilly circus, Trafalger Square, Big Ben and Houses of Parliment and then Westminster Abby. Second day we went to Tower Bridge and then Tower of London to see the crown jewels. Or maybe that was the first day whatever that's not important. Crown Jewels were cool to see. Saw changing of the guard at Buckingham and then went and saw Kensington Palace and Hyde Park. We went to the British museum and saw the Rosetta Stone and then wondered around while looking for the Magna Carta which Kevin insisted was inside. Because Kevin is to pussy to ask for help we left without finding it. The next day kevin told us it was in the basement. We went back to find it was not in the basement. So we walked to the train station to catch the train to Paris and while we were walking there we passed the British Library, where the Magna Carta actually is. Of course we didn't figure that out until we were actuallly in the train and it was moving. Go figure.

Paris was great. We nly had 2 days but we hit all the big sights. Eifel Tower, Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame and the Lourve. The Lourve was great excpet I still don't get the fascination with the Mona Lisa. The painting directly across from it takes up an entire wall and everybody is crammed around the Mona Lisa which is the smallest painting in the room. It's just some lady half smiling. Thats why I'll never be a big art guy. The funniest part though was when we were in Paris and we got to our hotel and turned on the tv. Dan and Kevin wanted to watch some of the french open which is played in Paris. Before this we were walking in the rain for almost an hour looking for our hotel. Kevin turned on the Tv and saw the French open was on a rain delay and said in a deadly serious tone "god it must be raining in Paris" or I wonder how hard it's raining in Paris or something to that nature. Considering all he had to do was turn his head to the right as he was in Paris and was sitting next to a window and was soaking wet from walking around in the rain

Rome was awesome. Went to the Pantheon the first day. Vatican and Sistine Chapel the second day which if you like art you must go to the sistine chapel. The artwork on the ceiling blew me away and I am not the biggest art fan. Then we entered St Peters Basillica. Good god almighty that place in huge. If you're in Rome you need to go see it. Next day was the Colisseum and Forum. The history of this place is amazing. So many old structures still standing and in relatively good shape.

Along the way we may have had an adult beverage or two. The last night we decided to bust out some karoke at the irish pub in Rome and tore that place down thus cementing my place as a karoke legend. They probably bronzed the microphone and put it on a plaque after my use.

World Cup starts this Friday and I will be watching it while talking smack to all the europeons around me. I already got a plastic horn I got from a six pack of beer and they are playing the games on a big screen in a big park in town. Sunday I will rest up because Monday I leave for........ Amsterdam.

Munich since I have some time

So me and my German friends decided to go to Munich for Friday and Saturday. Let me just start out by saying that we didn't see close to 40% of the city. It is massive and if you want to visit I suggest 4 to five days. Anyway we left Winterthur and traveled through Austria and then got into Munich at about 1 in the afternoon. We checked into our hostel and then took a train into the heart of the city. Munich is beautiful to say the least. All the buildings are old, there's tons of churches and plazas to see. I got to work on my German skills as well. I am now what I call childlike meaning I can hold small simple conversations. So we walked all through the city and I was amazed how many parks Munich had. They were massive to, not some small plot of land. So we walked around and then went back to the hostel to shower and go see one of my friends buddies at a small German style pub. First off when you enter the pub there are long benches, no individual tables so you just have to walk up and sit down next to some strangers. Took a little getting used to but it wasn't a major concern after about 15 minutes. So we ordered some beers and then my friends suggested I get the Hacksen. It is the piece of meat you see me with in the pic. Jesus skateboarding christ that thing was massive. It also came with some potato looking thing and a sourkraut salad. All that for 13 euros or about 16 dollars. I ate what I could before my stomach ripped in half. Meanwhile we kept drinking beer. Then after dinner we sat around for about 2 hours just drinking some more. Then went out to the club district. It was cool cause they had an old industrial plant/complex that they converted into clubs restuaraunts and bars.

The next day we hit an old palace, saw the stadium where the soccer team plays, toured the local university and then hit the HofBrau Haus. This place is like what you see in the movies. Huge indoor beer hall that serves 1 liter beers. Just one big massive party. The food was good as well. My friend remarked that thank god we didn''t come there yesterday like we were thinking about doing because as he put it it would have been mass murder. He was probably right. Come to think of it if I didn't eat an entire pig the night before it probably would have been mass murder as well but anyway. We had some beers there and then went to another bar so my friend could watch his favorite soccer team play. Soccer over here is insane. We were in this small back room packed with other fans. There were about 5 or 6 different games going on at the same time. There were chanting, yelling, laughing you name it. And they were drinking like fish.

All in all a fun trip and I will have to make it back to Munich in the future.

Munich since I have some time

Crunch Time/ I hate trains

So I was so close to saying something good about the Swiss culture for once. So close. See whenver I gripe about the Swiss, it's always the older Swiss I'm talking about. The younger Swiss are cool, nice, and easy to get along with. The older ones well thats a different story. The wiggle room for laws is zero. I saw two young swiss get a ticket for crossing an empty street while the signal was red. No cars in sight, yet they got a ticket and they didn't even argue.

Another example is mine. I hate riding trains here because basically you're just waiting to be fined for something ridiculous. I was going to Zurich with some friends and we bought our tickets from a small self service kiosk. Turns out I bought the wrong one. I somehow ended up buying a ticket from Winterthur to Winterthur, and not a round trip either. I didn't realize my mistake till the ticket checker informed me. I argued with him for about 10-15 minutes. He kept saying sir you bought the wrong ticket. I said I know but it was an honest mistake. Sir why would I buy a ticket from Winterthur to Winterthur that left in 3 minutes. I'm not from here I still bought a ticket it's not like I just hopped on the train with no ticket. He answer every time was youj bought the wrong ticket. Thanks for telling me man, appreciate the fact you are telling me something we both know and you cannot respond to any of my arguements as to why I bought the wrong one. See in any other country in the world if you hop on the train late, you can actually buy a ticket from the ticket checker. Oh sir I'm sorry but I was going to miss the train so I didn't have enought time to get a ticket. Ok sir no problem where are you going to. Zurich. Ok that will be 15 francs. Boom done. Not in Switzerland. So now I owe 80 francs to the Swiss transit. I thought about not paying it, but I don't want to get to the airport in Zuriich and have them tell me I can't leave because I owe Switzerland 80 francs.

The train also sucks because you buy tickets that are valid in zones. I would explain it but it makes no sense and I would just throw my computer out the window in anger. Also you have to buy a night pass if you are going to ride the train after midnight. It's 5 francs. So you have to buy your regular ticket, then you have to remember to also buy a night ticket. 2 seperate tickets. You don't buy the night pass. 80 francs. For a country that is so enviromentally conscious, they sure love to use paper at a sickening rate. It's because the people that check the tickets are from a private company and that is how they pay them. How bout you just raise the price of all tickets bought after say 8 pm or so by 5 francs? It would save you paper, ink, electricity, and frustration. The Swiss aren't concerned with logic, they are only worried about making things as expensive as they can. If you come to Switzerland do me a favor. Ride the train, buy your ticket from a kiosk, select the half price ticket option, then intentially buy the wrong ticket. Then when they check your ticket and tell you you have to pay 80 francs, laugh in their face and tell them sure you'll get your check when I arrive back in the States. USA#1 now fuck off. Whenever people tell you we should build a train system in the US, call me and I will refute every point they will ever make.

So now that that rant is over, I actually got to go to Lugano. It's in the Italien part of Switzerland and it is insanely beautiful. Mountains everywhere, a huge lake, and the builldings are nice. We rode around the lake on a boat for awhile and then went to some small villages. We even walked into Italy for a short while. It's funny because you as soon as you cross the border into Italy, it changes so much. The drivers are worse, the people are louder, and it's dirtier. Great trip and I would reccomend anyone who comes to Switzerland to visit. The picture above with the dotted line is the border of Switzerland Itlay. Above the line is Italy and below is Switzerland. It's located on a bridge so acutally I guess the river is the border but you get the idea. They also had lots of paintings and murals like the one to the right.

My next post might take a while. All my projects are due in the next 3-4 weeks so I have to hunker down and write a million papers.

Bern Baby Bern

So since it was Easter weekend and the majority of the people in the dorm left, me and one of the other students decided to take a day trip to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. After about an hour and a half train ride we arrived in Bern. Didn't really know where to go first so we just picked a direction and started walking. The beauty of these small Swiss cities is that they are the perfect size for day trips. We literally saw the entire city in about a little over 2 and a half hours. We were taking our time and weren't rushing anything. The city itself is beautiful. Lots of old buildings and it slopes downward towards the river, giving you plenty of breathtaking views. We went to Albert Einsteins old apartment where he did the majority of his work in the theory of relativity. Very small but it was surreal to think that one of the greatest scientific discoveries of our time was discovered in that small room. He also did it when he was 26, my age. My world changing scientific discovery is coming later.

So we walk around some and found this bear park. Not really a park but an enclosure under a bridge that housed 2 adult bears and two cubs. The male and female bear were seperated by a metal fence. After walking around we stopped and ate outside at an Italian restaurant. Very good food and we drank some wine. We ordered water and I forgot that when you ask for water here you have to ask for "stilles" water. If not your water is going to be carbonated. Without thinking I took one big gulp and almost spit it out all over the table. Damn European drinking water. Anyway after that we walked around and took some more pictures and then found some pub and drank a beer or two before departing the city. All in all a good day. Next stop is either Geneva or Lausanne. We'll see.

Clubs Suck no matter where you are

So I think it's safe to say that anyone who knows me knows I cannot stand clubs. They are overcrowded, too expensive and in general just plain suck. However since everyone in my dorm wanted to go to a club in Zurich I figured hey why not. So we go to this club, which everyone said was suppossed to be one of the best clubs in Zurich, a sure sign it will suck. After some pre-gaming we hit the train and got to the club. At the door there was a line, another sign a club sucks. I hate waiting in line to enter some place with an illogical passion. While in line I tried to see what other bars were around. There were none, I was trapped. So we enter and we get the privilige of paying the cover, which was 30 francs. Pissed off would be an understatment, but hey everyone wants to go in so let's just try to forget about it. then we need a coat check. Go ahead and add another 4 francs to that total. I need a beer so bad to soothe the absolute sheer rage that is brewing inside me right now. I get a beer and guess what, the beer is 10 francs. And it's a Heinekin. I hate Heinekin. So lets add up the total so far. 44 Francs and a total of 1 beer. I wanted someone to bomb that place out of existence. I was thinking maybe I should do it and as my last act alive I would spare planet earth from this miserable wasteland of a club.

To add to this the place is so crowded you can barely move and it is hot as hell. The only good, and that is a relative word here, thing about this place was at least the music was good. None of that europeon electronic mind numbing music. It was all hip hop, R&B, and American pop. I soon found out why as Redman, a rap artist from the US, was in the DJ booth that night. What was also funny is there was a decent amount of people just smoking Marijuana in the club. Like smoking it out in the open and no one seemed to care. It was like it was the normal thing to do. I even see people chiefing up in the local park in front of kids and families.

We leave the club, oh thank god, and head back to Winterthur. The next day people asked me what I thought about the club. They were surprised to hear I hated it. They seemed to love it. I explained that along with not really being a club person, paying 30 francs to get in and 10 francs for a beer cannot nor will it ever be a good club. Their response was well the music was good. My response was if the only reason you liked the club is because they played good music then I will hook up my ipod in my room and charge 20 francs to get in. My music selection can not be beat. Along with that good music shouldn't have to cost 60 francs for 2 beers, being squished while I am in there, and the women in there weren't even hot ( A mortal sin if you are going to charge that amount of entrance fee. There should be a plethora of scantilly clad supermodels packing that place to the ceiling for that entrance price.) We agreed to disagree.

Hopefully I will go to Genevea this weekend, we shall have to see. If I do go I will post as many pics as I can.

Trip to Lucern

So we decided to take a day trip into Lucern, spelled Luzern in German. After about a hour and a half train ride we arrived into Lucern at about 10. We first went and walked across the 2 original bridges that have been in existence since the town was first established. They are old, wooden and have various painting hanging from the cieling. Those painting are from around the 16-17th century and are the originals. Amazing to think that that something that was built so long ago still stands today. After that we went to the famous Weeping Lion monument. It is a statue carved into the side of a mountain. Very impressive. Then we went into some tourist complex. It had an old glacier, museum, a tower that offered amazing views of the city, and the most fun exhibit the house/maze of mirrors. Spent an hour in the maze mostly taking pictures, some of them looked photoshopped. Went and ate lunch after that. My meal was basically a huge portion of hashbrowns covered in cheese bacon and ham. It was good. The other girls had fondue. After that we went to a museum. It was basically a huge warehouse with various things scattered about. Everything had a barcode on or in front of it and you used a scanner that read the barcode. It was pretty fun. After that we went to a church and then went and got some pints at a pub along the river to end the day. While there one of the girls pointed out that in Europe you see just about every man pushing the stroller or carrying the baby. Literally everyone of them the man pushes the stroller or carries the child while the woman walks beside. They both commented on the fact that that is how it should be. I kept my mouth quiet, mostly because I was outnumbered. Gotta pick your battles. Left at about 7. All in all it was a fun day.

Hey! Das geht ab

So I have noticed that whenever this one song comes on when we are in a club, every german goes ballistic. The name of the song is Hey das geht ab, which translates to hey that's awesome. Literally every person of german orgin runs to the dance floor and starts pumping their fists in a way that the cast members of Jersey Shore would be envious of. It's funny to watch. So if you ever find yourself DJing a party made of of primarily germans make sure you have this song on repeat, you cannot fail. Heres the link to the video with the lyrics in german.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Irv0vklcz4&feature=related

This brand dominates my existence

So this is the cheap stuff here in Switzerland. This brand is from the store called COOP. COOP sells everything, literally. They even have their own bank. This is the only stuff I can find that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. The chocolate for example cost 80 cents. The red bull rip off costs 5 franks for 6 drinks. They even have their own beer that costs 60 cents, but it's a tall boy somewhere around 22 ounces. If you're keeping track that means the beer is actually cheaper than the chocolate. You'd think that the beer would be terrible, and to an extent it is, however it is better to pay 60 cents for this brand than 3 francs for the other. The one thing I have noticed about Swiss beer is that it all tastes the same. I'm not kidding, it literally all tastes the same. I'm starting to think they just bottle it all in one large plant and put different labels on it.



So anyway we go tho this club last night and it broke the bank on absolute bull you know what. So when you go in they give you this pay card. It looks like a credit card with a chip in it. Everytime you buy a drink they put this card into a machine and then show you the screen. Problem was the screen was in swiss-german and I couldn't figure out what the price was. So you do not pay anything until you leave. Right before the exit is a guy with a computer who takes your card, inserts it into the machine and then you recieve your total. So it's like a surprise waiting for you before you leave, but not a very fun surprise. So you don't know what anything costs until you get too the register. It is absolutely absurd. I bought 2 beers and one time the machine showed a 10 and then the next time it showed a 12. I get up to the register guy, and my total was 18 franks, so 9 dollars for some crappy mexican lime infused beer. Not a very fun surprise and the reason I will never step foot into that bar/club ever again. After that we go to this place called the Archbar. This bar is actually very fun. They play a mixture of american club music and the europeon brain numbing techno. Beers are 7 franks but that is cheap in these parts. Archbar I have to say is by far my favorite place here. Everyone always has a good time and it is a five minute walk from the dorm. Now if the Prix brand would only open a club so I don't have to apply for a small loan everytime I want to go out.

Let's Do Some Swiss E-Banking

So this is my Debit card. I got it last Friday. Alright lets check my balance to see if my wire transfer from America made it.








Alright, I've logged into the e-finance website from my bank. Enter user name, sure will. Alright now I need a challenge code. So we'll go ahead ands use this thing. No it is not a calculator.

See look it has a slot in the back for my debit card.

Alright I need a challenge code. Ok so I insert my card into the reader as shown and it says to enter the challenge code from the e-finance website. Sweet it looks like I am almost there.

Oh looks like there is one more step. I need to enter my pin code for my debit card. Awwww man. Well alright just one more step. Now what did I put down for my pin-code. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe I put it in my bag.......Up no not there. Maybe I wrote it down somewhere. Okay lets see, school schedule, map of Winterthur, notes from class,..... oh

here is something from the bank about my debit card maybe I wrote it on this sheet.

Well thats weird it says that I have recieved my card, but that they will send my pin code later. Awesome so here's how this works. You first recieve your debit card. Then some more mail about your on-line banking. If you look at the bottom of the letter that came with the debit card it says that for security concerns they mail my pin code seperate from my debit card. Usually takes about 2 or 3 days. The card came on Friday. So I assume I will get my pin code tomorrow or Thursday. So I have this card that allows access to my bank account so I can withdraw money. Money I need to live in one of the most expensive places on earth. Money I can't reach until the bank sends my pin code later. So I have a card that is useless until another piece of mail arrives days later. That's okay I don't need money where cans of pringles cost 3 francs, or small microwave pizzas cost 10 francs, 1lb of meat is about 12 francs.. No don't need it. At least I can change my pin code when it arrives.

1st week of school

So I had my first week of classes. So far everything is going good. The funny part is that each class is divided into 45 minute lectures. Then a bell rings, yes like a high school bell, and you get a 5 minute break. If your class is 2 ects, their system of credit hours, then you stay for 2- 45 minute lectures, 3 ects you stay for 3- 45 minute lectures and so on. All classes are only once a week. First class I show up to is an 8 am class. We sit around for half an hour and the teacher never shows up. Awesome so I woke up early for no reason. Also most of the classes do not have exams, instead you write a paper at the end. This one guy wants the paper to be 10+ pages, okay cool no problem however he wants you to have 5 books refernenced twice, along with 12 other references from periodicals as and a couple of more from peer reviewed articles. I had 2 classes with this guy so I dropped one. Mind you this class is worth 1 credit hour back home. If you do have an exam, be prepared. There are no tests during the year, just one final. It feels like law school. Also they give you only 1 hour to take it. This should be fun.
I also want to punch the IT guys here in the face. Printing is an absolute nightmare. Normally in america they have a computer room with one of two printers. You hit print on your screen and it sends the work to the printer and then you go and pick it up. Not here. There is a computer room, okay so far so good, it has two printers, okay even better. However when you press print you have to select which room you want the document to print in, thats if you make it that far because all the directions are in German. Or swiss german which is a mashup of French, Italian and German. Seriously more people say Merci for thank you here than the german Danke. Anyway you select the room and then which printer. Now if I am in the computer room wouldn`t it make sense that if I hit print I would want the document to print in the same fucking room as the computer from which I have sent it from? Why would I send it to the upstairs printer or another printer all the way across the building. How about if I hit print you just print the fucking document like any other computer on earth. As you can see this really pisses me off. I tried to print twice but to no avail. Also you have to pay for your paper. Not much but if you want to put money on your student card to pay for it you cannot put anything less than 10 francs on it because the machine only accepts paper bills. 10 cents for black and white, 1 franc for color. You can probably guess which option I am going to use. Compounding this problem is the fact my laptop will not connect to the internet. So I will have to go and drop it off at the IT department which is open 1 hour a day.

All in all not bad, as you can see I am just getting adjusted to the new way of doing things. In about a month I will know how to do all this stuff in my sleep. All my teachers are nice and the workload is manageable. I am taking a course to learn how to speak German. Its 4 hours long however the teacher is good. He only speaks in German and is really helpful. My intercultural mangment class is fun and the others are not that bad either. Most of the international students are taking the same classes so it`s nice to see people you know in the classes. Off to play soccer with the guys from the dorm, I opted to play goalie. If there are a lot of spelling errors I am sorry but I am typing on a german keyboard and they are really weird. For instance the z and y keys are switched. Later

Carnival!!

So Sunday was carnival in Switzerland and truth be told it was a lot of fun. I guess this is like their Mardi Gras celebration but more towards a family atmosphere. A couple things did stick out, and I know this is a carnival in a small town however these critiques I think are warranted.

1- Instead of thorwing beads, candy, plastic cups, moon pies etc... ( you know stuff people would actually enjoy to catch) they throw confetti here. Just plain old punched out pieces of what looked like construction paper. I thought it was wierd that a country so proud of their enviromental record would let tons and tons of paper just be tossed into the streets for fun. One of the german girls I was watching the parade with commented that she was at a carnival in Cologne and they where throwing chocolate, beads and other cool stuff. But whatever, everyone was having fun.

2- Young children are actually encourgaged to throw confetti at the people in the parade. So as the people in the parade are marching they are being pelted with vast amounts of confetti. I commented that it must be insansely difficult to play and instrument while being showered with confetti. I guess thats what you get when you don't throw candy and other cool stuff at the parade. After the parade the adults would throw confetti at each other. As we are walking back to the dorm we are getting confetti thrown into our faces and backs at almost point blank range, including one of the girls getting a considerable amount of confetti thrown into her mouth. It was fun for the first 2 times it happend then it just got annoying, like really annoying. The parade was alright but instead of throwing confetti, I would suggest they throw these instead:
















That would be awesome.

3- Almost everyone in the parade wore masks similar to the one in the pic above. They actually looked really cool.

On a completely different note the dryers here suck really really bad. I had a load dry for an hour and 20 minutes and the clothes were still wet, not damp, but almost like they were never in the damn thing. So I had to finish them off on the radiator heater in my room. This is one instance where I will be violently patriotic and state that American clothes dryers absolutely blow Switzerlands off the planet. Okay small rant over.


All in all not a bad day. Had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone enjoying the days festivities. I start school tomorrow so the blog will probably be updated once or twice a week. Going to suck going back to school, but at least I don't have any Friday classes.

In Da Club

So a group of us went to one of the supposedly hottest clubs in Zurich. After a 20 minute train ride we got to the train station and then after a 10 minute walk we arrived at the club. Because we were with the student group we didn't have to pay the cover. The cover was 25 francs. Then after you get in they have a coat check. So you're probably thinking that after you have already paid this 25 franc cover that they would at least give you a free coat check. Well you have obvisiously never been to Switzerland if you think that. Switzerland just has a small way of just bleeding you dry. Pay your 3 franc coat fee and then you are in the club. For those not doing the math, thats 28 francs you have spent before you even enter the actual club. Now the awesome thing about Europe is that they, like america, have the concept of "pre-gaming" before they go out. We got some beers and went to one of the students apartments and drank before we left. We just sat around the table and talked about our countries. I showed them a video of me and my friends playing flip cup and everyone thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. "Why on earth do you play this?" " What is the point of this game, it makes absolutely no sense?" So we sat and laughed about it till we had to leave for the train station. During the pre game I watched 2 germans polish off a bottle of vodka in about an hour. And they weren't even fazed. Once we were at the bar in the club a couple of the german girls went up to the bar and found the cheapest beer they had, 7 francs. Not good, but defineately not terrible either.


The club scene takes a little getting used to. First off is the music. It's pure techno. Second no one really dances and when they do it is by themselves sort off. Me and one of the germans solved that by pullling some of the girls we were with onto the floor. Yes I was pretty drunk at the time. Anyway after about an hour everyone was on the dance floor balling it up and dancing with each other. Germans dancing with french, polish with spainish, amercians with asians etc. No body really hung out with just the people from their own country which was really nice. We sort of formed a dance circle and just basically had a soul train dance off for about an hour or two. I found out how to say cheers in about 6 languages.


A funny thing I found out was is that the German girls always drink this concoction of white wine mixed with a small amount of sprite. Before we left the train station they were all drinking out of a 2 liter sprite bottle, which of course was the white wine/sprite mixture. They order it at all the bars and clubs and it is usually garnished with an orange slice. It's not bad but a little to sweet for my taste.


On another note this goat can read your soul. This is the same goat that constantly stares me down every time I walk past him. Read the earlier post for an explanation of why there are goats where I live. I also uploaded some pics from the club to the snapfish account so check it out. Email me if you need a link again.

Willkommen in der Schweiz

So today we had a little intro class about Swiss Culture and culture shock. It was fun. We got to learn about stereotypes and did an exercise where everyone from the different countries got to tell what their sterotypes where about other countries. French were wine cheese, rude, smokers. Germans were beer and scary, and Americans were fat, fast food, spend to much money. After the stereotypes where announced the people from the countries got to go up to the front to defend their homelands. Very fun and got to know some more about the different people. Everyone was laughing about their sterotypes and it was all in good fun. I opened up a bank account and got a phone yesterday. opening up the account was challenging because I speak little Deustch and the woman at the bank spoke very little english, but we got it done.

Doing laundry is fun to. Instead of just going down to the washroom and putting your clothes in a machine and paying, you have to reserve the entire washroom. It varies in cost depending on the time of day you reserve it however you get the entire room, which consists of 3 washers and 2 dryers. You go up to the desk in the dorm and ask to reserve the room and then the lady pulls out a datebook and proceeds to schedule you in. Small, small machines but I was expecting that. On the plus side the dorm has a small herd of goats outside that is pretty fun to watch when you are waiting for the wash to be done. I'll post pics later.

Speaking of culture shock. Here are some pics from the store. I know I harp on the store alot but it is so different from back home that the differences stick out the most. Note the "grocery bag" I mentioned in an earlier post. The magazine is for a reference so you know how big it is. Note the rip in the bottom right. I was carrying the mayonaise, some cheese and a jar of Nutella.

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Out on the Town

So this is the infamous bread I was talking bout. Dry, stale sort of but it can hold peanut butter and jelly. Went on a pub crawl with all the other students. Very fun and everyone was drinking it up. It was fun listening to everyone talk about their home town and asking questions about other peoples countries. I had a girl from France explain the rules of Rugby to me, a German girl ask about the different movies in America and a guy from Portugal asking which beaches in America had the hottest women, you know all the important issues.

These are the beers in Question. 6 francs for these bad boys. Now I have to go run and get a phone and try to open a bank account, this should be fun. And Dad I finally figured out how to do the laundry.

Grocery shopping 101

So I went grocery shopping today and I learned some interesting things. No where can you find a loaf of bread pre sliced like in america, I found one but it only had 12 slices of bread and it was dry as dry could be. I found peanut butter and they had about 27 kinds of jam. I selected the smallest jar I could find. It was cherry or blueberry I couldn't tell. I bought some cheese and then bought some oranges. Here in switzerland you have to select your oranges and weigh them yourself on this machine. After you weigh them it will print out a ticket with the price on it. I think I typed in the wrong code cause when I got to the register, the lady started yelling at me and them ran back to the produce section and came back with a new bag.
Another fun thing is they do not have any grocery bags. Well I'm sorry they do but they are the same bags you put your fruit and veggies in meaning it is super thin and cannot hold more than 2 lbs of food. I also found out than bank of america will not let you withdraw more than 500 frnacs a day. I went to pay for housing but found out I couldn't because of BOA restrictions. Well Jeff why didn't you just pay with your Credit card? That is because Cash is king here. 99% of places only take cash including the place where your bill is over 2000 francs. I feel like a drug dealer walking around with all this cash. After all this I went to get my residency permit. They asked my religion, thought about telling them I was muslim, but decided not too as there was an actual muslim next to me and the people at the goverment office were giving her and her husband absolute hell. I thought it was funny. I also went ice skating last night. It went well for the last hour or so but the first was hard. All in all not a bad couple of days in Switzerland. Start school on Tuesday so the updating might not happen as much, but at least I don't have any classes on Friday.

Good God

Going to make this short as I am about to go sign up for classes. But here is a couple of things I have noticed so far.

1- It`s cold
- My room is tiny but the bed is comfortable.
- Co-ed bathrooms in the dorm so its nice to know you can blast one out while some girl is taking a shower.
- it is expensive. 2 beers at the student bar will cost you 17 francs. It doesn't come with a handjob either.
- Did I mention it's cold
- dinner or lunch will take a minimum of 40 minutes.
- I have yet to find a jukebox in a bar. They probably removed them before I came over because they knew I would take over the bar scene with my epic music selections.
- United Airlines in Pensacola sucks , more on that later.

Alright got to go. Met a ton of people, mostly from France and Germany, super super nice people.

Bout to leave

Alright since I've already watched the current episode of law and order, I'd figure I'd post this for fun. For anyone who wants to study abroad in Switzerland the only thing I can say right now is be prepared to fill out a ridiculous amount of paper work and spend an ungodly amount of time at kinkos or someother copy place. Also the Swiss goverment wants just about everything notarized. Bank statements, college degrees, diplomas, bloodwork, x-rays of soul and just about anything else you can think of.

Of course these are all exaggerrated ( not really) but the visa only took about 5 weeks to process. Then I had to send an envelope to the Consulate in Atlanta, which the post office suggested I purchase a 30 dollar envelope for both ways, not that I expected anything less from the precission like USPS. With all the bitching aside I am really looking forward to being in Switzerland. I know I will have a blast and everyone I have talked to is extremely nice and very helpful. I am not looking forward to the cold wheather. Oh well can't win them all. In case you were wondering what a Swiss Franc looks like please pay attention to the pic. I've heard Switzerland is expensive so all the money in the pic is probably enough to buy a pint of milk and 3 slices of toast sans butter. Oh well at least it looks cool. I'll update this when I arrive in Switzerland. Cheers

Test Post.

This blog will tell about my time abroad at ZHAW starting Feb 12th. Hopefully I update it every so often.