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.