First day of school...

Today was my first French class and I feel like I just got back from a two hour cardiovascular workout. It’s a group class with around ten students of varying backgrounds and the teacher (who can’t be a day over 25) does a good job of keeping things interesting by making it very interactive. The “downside”, however, is that you’ve always got to be on your toes and ready to respond if she asks you a question. Aside from the use of a couple of English words to clarify some vocabulary, everything was in French. No English “crutch” I guess, which in the long run will be a good thing.

I’m pretty sure that I placed into the level I’m in by the slimmest of margins. While I feel like I’m able to understand the majority of what the teacher and the other students are saying, it definitely seems like my speaking skills are a bit behind those for some of the others. That said, I’m glad that I placed into this class as I feel like I will learn a lot more from it than a lower level.

For Monday I’ve got my first homework assignment – watch something on tv and provide a summary for the class. Even though grad school is still fairly fresh in my mind, the concept of homework is a very foreign one for me right now that will take some time to get used to again. Regardless, I’m definitely looking forward to the class as it will provide some structure to my ongoing attempt to improve my French.

Friends Visit - Day 2 (Part 3)

After a great day on all fronts thus far, the bar was set very high for dinner. We had reservations at Le Museum, a traditional Swiss restaurant in the hills of Montreux above the train station. After a long day on our feet, we had amassed a huge collective appetite for some “real” fondue and couldn’t wait to indulge in pure gluttony.

Upon finally finding the restaurant (it looks like it an old farmhouse), it was unclear that the place was even open until we hesitantly pushed open the heavy wooden front doors and had all five senses immediately attacked by freshly scalded Gruyère and Fribourg vacherin cheese. We were definitely in the right spot and the restaurant was indeed open for business.

As seen from the pictures, the inside of the restaurant had a very warm yet cavernous atmosphere, with lots of dark wood and smoke stained walls.

I think that I’ll let the pictures of dinner speak for themselves. Needless to say, the fondue was delicious.

And as if cheese fondue wasn’t enough, we decided to get the chocolate fondue (the fruit makes it healthy, right?) for dessert.

On the food coma scale, I’d have to say that this felt like Thanksgiving dinner x 100.

Friends Visit - Day 2 (Part 2)

After arriving in Montreux, we walked around the city and decided to find a lakeside spot to take in the beautiful scenery and enjoy the sunset. In searching for our first spot we actually happened upon some sort of banquet hall that must be used for special occasions such as weddings.

At first we thought it might be a lakeside restaurant, but when we entered there was absolutely no one around. It was actually kind of weird as the doors were unlocked despite being completely devoid of anyone watching over it. Given the beautiful views, we decided to loiter for a bit and take some pictures.

We then made our way to our first true stop – the outdoor restaurant / bar of the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace hotel’s spa (same ownership as the Fairmont in San Francisco). The outdoor area was only a stone’s throw from the water and offered great views of the lake and the French Alps.

We then walked back along the lake and happened upon a very cool little lakeside bar. To be more precise, “bar” is a complete overstatement, while “little” is a complete understatement.

As seen from the pictures, it was basically a couple of tables set up lakeside with a few beers on tap. All of the patrons seemed to be best friends with the owner / server and I’m pretty sure that they were all just a group of buddies that used the bar as an excuse for lakeside property that they could use to hang out.

We decided to stay through sunset as the lakeside location offered perfect views of the setting sun lengthwise across the lake towards Geneva.

As it turned out we were actually treated to two sunsets very unexpectedly. After watching the bright orange sun completely set behind what we thought were mountains in the distant haze, it completely reappeared minutes later and then set encore une fois beyond the actual horizon. As you can see from the pictures, it was beautiful.

Sunset 1:

Sunset 2:

.

Friends Visit - Day 2 (Part 1)

We began day two of the visit with a tour of Lausanne. After grabbing coffee in a small café in the Old Town section of the city, we walked around the old university (which now houses various museums) and then headed up to the Cathedral Notre-Dame, which was constructed during the 12th century and offers great views of the city from its elevated location.

For lunch we dined at La Pinte Besson, which is the oldest restaurant in Lausanne and dates back to 1780. The restaurant offers traditional Swiss food and has a very interesting atmosphere given its history. It was initially opened by a wine merchant so he could sell his annual production (at the time “pinte” was a unit of measurement for wine that represented 0.931L).

After lunch we took an afternoon boat ride from Lausanne to Montreux, the city I’ve referenced in earlier posts that is the heart of the "Swiss Riviera" and is home to the annual Jazz festival that bears its name.

While Montreux is less than 30 minutes from Lausanne by train, the boat ride takes about an hour and a half. Given the beautiful sunny weather and the calm conditions on the lake (I can’t remember ever seeing it so calm), it made for a perfect afternoon cruise.

Visitors Welcome

The one obvious downside of living in Europe is being so far away from close family and friends. As a result, whenever I have visitors in Lausanne it is a very exciting time. Today Garrett (one of my best friends from college) and his wife Paige arrived for a two day visit to start off their European vacation.

After a tour of the new apartment, we headed down to the lake. Though it had been overcast for most of the day, we were fortunate as the sky finally cleared, which made for a very nice afternoon. We stayed until around sunset before heading back.

Before dinner we went to the White Horse Pub, which is a couple of blocks from my apartment. It’s a nice spot to grab a drink and has outdoor seating that is perfect for when the weather is nice.

For dinner we went to the restaurant at Chateau D’Ouchy. Construction on what ultimately became the chateau began in the 12th century, and over the years it has served as a fortified residence, a prison and, most recently, a hotel. The dinner itself was very good and the ambiance provided for a nice atmosphere to spend time with friends. Here’s a picture of the chateau at dusk.

Street Musician

While running errands this morning, I came across an interesting street musician that I've seen before a number of times at the train station. As you can see from the picture, his instrument is quite unique.

It looks primarily self-made and sounds somewhat like mix between an electric guitar and a harp. He runs it through a regular guitar amp and gets a very clean tone that is altered by a hint of reverb and delay.

The guy plays some pretty cool songs that I assume are his own. While a lot of the other street musicians play covers of well-known songs, I would expect him to play something he actually wrote given the investment of time he presumably put into the instrument itself. I just can't imagine him going to such great lengths from a creativity standpoint and then phoning in the songs themselves through covers.

Like Canada, but with four...

For those unaware (I was before moving here), Switzerland has four national languages: German, French, Italian and Ramansch (a descendent of Vulgar Latin that’s somewhat similar to French and Italian). This leads to some peculiarities unique to Switzerland, such as its four official names:

- Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (German)
- Confédération Suisse (French)
- Confederazione Svizzera (Italian)
- Confederaziun Svizra (Romansh)

The primary language of use depends on the canton (effectively a “state” in U.S. nomenclature) that you’re in. As I’m living in the canton of Vaud, French is the language of choice. However, the majority of cantons (particularly those in central and eastern Switzerland) are primarily German speaking. Not surprisingly, Italian is spoken primarily in the South. Romansh is spoken by less than 1% of the population and is found mostly in Eastern Switzerland.

Settling in...

Thus far the process of getting settled in to the new apartment has gone relatively smoothly. I’ve still got a lot of random stuff to buy, but the place is indeed coming along. Here are some misc. observations based on the first week…

There’s a clocktower nearby with a bell that chimes every 15 minutes – one “ding-dong” at a quarter past, two at half past, three at three-quarters past and four on the hour. Additionally, on the hour there is also a subsequent sequence of “dings” that indicate the hour itself (e.g., ten dings at 10am / pm). Though the chiming is nice, I guess it’s best that the clocktower doesn’t follow military time.

This morning I found the exact source – it’s at the top of a lakeside hotel a block or so from my apartment.

Along with the main keys to my apartment, I also received individual keys to all the internal door locks. As you can see from the picture below, if I were to put these on my key chain it’d probably resemble that of a medieval jailor. It is worth pointing out that the keys function from both the inside and outside (i.e., there are no internal hand locks), which leads to some interesting issues.

For example, if you want to lock the bathroom when in use, you’d have to use an actual key from the inside rather than simply turning a latch. Additionally, you effectively could be locked in a room with no way out (since there’s no internal latch) if someone were to lock the door from the outside while you’re inside. I’m not really sure what these locks are for (my temporary apt had similar locks, though no keys) so I think I’ll just pack the keys away.

A couple of days after moving into my apartment, I received a copy of “Les Pages Jaunes” (The Yellow Pages). Of all the things that I didn’t necessarily expect to come across in Switzerland, I’d have to say that the Yellow Pages were probably one of them. I guess the Yellow Pages know no boundaries, be it geographical or cultural.

Some (much needed) Americana

Tomorrow is Jeûne Fédéral; a public holiday in much of Switzerland. Since we have the day off from work, I went to Geneva tonight with friends to get our fix of some much needed American culture: football. Generally I don’t get to see very much live football given the time difference and the fact that very few places actually show the games. Fortunately, there’s a British pub in Geneva that shows them (Mr. Pickwick), so the day off tomorrow provided the perfect opportunity to make the 30 minute trek.

We ended up watching the Saints play the Eagles and it turned out to be a blowout. It didn’t really matter to me, though, as it was just nice to see a football game again. For the most part, it was just like watching a football game in the U.S., except for one thing – while the play-by-play commentators were the same as for the U.S. broadcasts, the “in-studio” analysts during the breaks / half-time were not. They were instead from the British channel that was broadcasting the game in Europe and a few of them had thick British accents, which definitely was weird to hear in the context of football commentary.

The best part of the night turned out to be the food. We had heard that Mr. Pickwick was known for burgers and it definitely lived up to the hype. For the most part, the burgers that I’ve had outside of the U.S. have been average at best, but the one that I had tonight (cheeseburger with bacon and mushrooms) was great. The burger alone is worth a return trip.

IKEA

Today I headed to IKEA for some apartment-related purchases. IKEA furniture has been a staple of my apartment décor for the past eight years, so I figured I might as well keep that ball rolling. Plus, it turns out that Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, has a home in Lausanne, so perhaps that’s a sign in itself that I should stay loyal to the brand.

As you can see from the picture, the standardized format of IKEA furniture extends to its store design as well. If there weren’t the welcome sign in French, this probably could have easily passed for a picture of an IKEA in some U.S. suburb.

Given that I don’t have a car, the trip home was definitely a workout. Carrying two bulky IKEA packages made for an awkward journey. Fortunately the IKEA is adjacent to the train station and I didn’t have to cover a ton of ground on foot at any point.

A bolder man than I...

As I was walking to the store after work today, I saw perhaps the most stunningly beautiful woman that I’ve ever seen in person. Which made me think: what does one say to initiate a conversation with her given the number of guys she probably has trying to get her attention?

Apparently the middle-aged Italian guy to my left was thinking the same thing, but did not have a filter between his brain and his mouth and shouted at her without a moment’s hesitation. Though I don’t speak Italian, I think I was able to pick up on his general message, which included the following: “Oooh la la! Ciao bella! Ti amo !”

Chez moi

Today I finally made the move to my new apartment. Following an early-morning walk-through with the leasing agent, it was officially mine. Though I had previously been through the apartment twice, I was pleasantly surprised by a couple things. First, the interior was much newer than I recalled (apparently it was completely renovated in 2007). Second, there was much more space than I remembered (it seems the previous tenants had a ton of stuff that took up a lot of room).

My furniture and other belongings arrived around noon and were delivered by an interesting duo: Marcello – a lanky and loquacious Italian – and Ivan—a native Swiss who seemed to be a big fan of the American ‘tween pop music that blasted from an apartment nearby. For better or worse, my worldly possessions fit into a relatively small moving truck that Marcello and Ivan were able to efficiently unload in 30 minutes flat. I guess I’ll take comfort in not being burdened by having too much stuff.

As my French was better than Marcello and Ivan’s English, the unpacking / furniture set-up process definitely tested my speaking proficiency (not to mention their patience) and ultimately required a fair amount of pointing and gesturing. Fortunately, everything worked out and by the time that they left the apartment it was actually looking somewhat like a home. That said, a number of boxes remained that realistically won’t get unpacked until the weekend.

All in all, I have to say that I’m pretty excited about the apartment. Though I really enjoyed my temporary one, it’s nice to finally be reunited with my stuff and have a bit more of a permanent feel with my accommodations.

Sans billet, monsieur ?

Today I had a bit of a scare on the Metro. While I have a monthly metro pass that provides unlimited rides, my pass had expired yesterday. Since you have to renew your pass in person (at least to my knowledge) and the related office is only open during the week, my plan was to do so tomorrow before work. One problem…in rushing for the metro, I forgot about my lapsed pass and the resulting need to buy a single use ticket.

Typically this wouldn’t be an issue. As I’ve written before, it is very rare to actually get checked for your ticket. Those who typically do get caught riding sans billet (and have to pay the related fine) are generally those that repeatedly try to game the system. However, during stop number one of my two-stop journey, guess who boarded the train: the metro “police”. Since I didn’t notice until the doors had closed, I now had to survive one stop (about a minute) without being asked to show my ticket.

Fortunately, I played things exceptionally cool by immediately turning beet red and probably looking like Newman during his interrogation of Seinfeld in the mail fraud episode...

Put in proper perspective, the worst case scenario wasn’t that bad – I’d simply have to pay a CHF 80 fine (effectively $80). However, from my internal response you’d think that I’d committed some capital crime and was now a fugitive running for my life.

As the officers came closer and the metro seemed to inch forward at a molasses pace, my fate seemed to be sealed. I felt like the officers had their sights focused squarely on me. With each person that they checked I hoped that they would come across someone else who hadn’t paid. But no “luck”. I was the only freeloader, it seemed. And then my savior…a bulldog puppy that couldn’t have been more than a couple of months old.

Less than six feet from my certain apprehension, the two officers were distracted by the puppy and in the thirty seconds they petted and played with it, the metro eased into the next stop providing me with the long awaited opportunity exit the train and walk briskly to my freedom. Had I the time, I would have taken a picture to post here, but s/he looked something like the picture below…

iPod

In terms of life-altering inventions, I have to say that the iPod really is up there for me. Admittedly it doesn’t do anything that truly makes the world a meaningfully better place, but on a daily basis it definitely provides me with an added convenience that I would have a lot of trouble giving up if we were forced to revert back to our pre-iPod existences.

Today I bought a small stereo that is built specifically for iPods (see picture – perhaps the use of “stereo” is a bit of an overstatement, but its ability to project sound is nonetheless impressive given its size).

Such stereos have been around forever it seems, so I’m not sure what took me so long to get one. Regardless, I’m making up for lost time now as it’s getting heavy use since I’m in the final stages of packing up for my move.

It’s really great to have your whole music collection accessible beyond your headphones. Plus, it’s portable given the small size and even charges your iPod while in use. I find some amusement, though, given the fact that it comes with a remote, which happens to be smaller than a credit card, mind you. (I give myself two months before it’s either (a) “lost” somewhere in my apartment or (b) the victim of a misplaced footstep and crushed beyond repair.)

While great in theory, I’ve found the remote to be not so useful in practice. Sure, it turns the unit on/off and pauses songs, etc. However, in order to switch albums/artists, you have to be close enough to actually view the iPod screen itself to effectively navigate the menu. Thus, the primary benefit of the remote is nullified by the fact that you end up standing so close to the iPod that you might as well just press the main buttons on the stereo itself.

Rules of the Road

Fortunately for me, Lausanne is like San Francisco and New York City in that if you live in the city you don’t need to have a car. Don't get me wrong...I take no issue with driving itself – as a native Los Angeleno (Los Angelen? Los Angelan?), driving is a deeply ingrained part of my being that is as normal as eating or breathing.

That said, there are a number of particularities associated with the traffic rules in Switzerland that make me glad that I don’t have to get behind the wheel. For example, certain lights and lanes are only for buses, and the marking of the lanes in particular are not overly intuitive (perhaps I simply need to pay more attention).

There’s also the fact that certain lanes have different lights. And I’m not just talking about different lights for a “left-turn lane” and the regular “straight” lanes. Thus, two seemingly identical lanes (to me) have different lights that apply to them. And then there are the rules for where you’re supposed to stop at a traffic light. Instead of being able to simply pull up to the intersection, in some cases you have to stop a good 30+ feet behind where I would otherwise assume it’s okay to stop.

One thing that is nice about the traffic lights here is that there’s a yellow light both before and after a red. Thus, you get a little early warning that the light is turning green, which I like for some reason.

Lausanne Gare

While the transition from New York City to Lausanne has been an adjustment given the relative daily pace of life, there’s one place that always seems to provide a reminder of the frenetic pace of the Big Apple: the train station.

No matter what time of day or night, it always seems to be a hotbed of activity: there are the countless people scurrying to catch their trains, the myriad street musicians who have staked their claim to the choicest high-traffic properties, and the ever-present groups of teenagers who seem to consider the train station their local hang-out.

Also to similar to New York, the train station provides a glimpse into some of the more, how shall I say, “interesting” people that call this world (and quite possibly other worlds, for that matter) their home. From a people-watching perspective it’s unparalleled, and you definitely leave with more questions than answers with regard to those who cross your path.

Summer’s hanging in there

After a relatively cool week, it was nice to have the sun and warm weather return for the weekend. Here are some pictures that I took down by the lake.

The pedal boats in the shots below are definitely touristy, but they actually look kind of fun…