a couple of sick days at home last week, which wasn't all that bad just did some relaxing, played some guitar. pretty chill weekend, watched the movie '500 days of summer' which i really like actually, pretty cool movie i thought. on sunday went out to flumserberg for some skiing, great weather, great snow. it's about 1.5 hours away by train to the bottom of the gondola which was really convenient. i have never seen so many people walking around in ski boots either, they just wear them everywhere, for the 1.5 hours from baden on the bus to the bottom of the gondola, i don't understand how their feet are not just killing them. the skiing was great though, exponential increase in ability, i feel great now, just to hit the trees and the bumps, excited for that for sure. off-piste is also something that people do not do here, there is untouched snow everywhere. good day.
ate some cheese fondue yesterday, also made some wings the night before that which were also good. baked some shortbread cookies with some assistance also, turned out pretty good i thought. not many people at work this week, mostly just me, and my boss unfortunately. in any case it's been slow, can't wait till thursday night, hopping on a night train to vienna, from there to budapest and prague, i'm really looking forward to this christmas trip with some great company.
merry christmas happy holidays and have a great new year!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
winter
last thursday i went to germany for groceries, except for this time to familia markt which was just glorious, it's like superstore. i was overwhelmed by the selection and spent two hours in there and too many euros. yea, and ate chips and drank beer on the train home.
friday went to zurich to play in this amateur volleyball tournament sponsored by alstom. there were like 80 teams or something, we got manhandled pretty well, i don't think any swiss people got the 'amateur' memo. they all showed up in court shoes and kneepads. in any case, i thought it was really fun and now i want to play volleyball again. got a couple good hits in any case.
saturday i made banana pancakes and i will certainly be making a lot more banana pancakes in the future. took a train to basel, walked around and hung out. it was pretty cold actually - it's been snowing the past few days, just a little bit though, but even at -5 or -10 it's soo cold for some reason. hung out at the christmas market in basel, i thought it was really good. drank some gluhwein (hot wine) and checked out the decorated streets. good stuff, took the hot wine into a bank to use the bank machine. is that weird? drinking wine from a mug at an atm? i wonder how that would be received in canada. went for dinner in this restaurant that i had found on the internet, basically it's some sort of vietnamese/chinese/indian/thai/indonesian type restaurant which was actually really, really good. i got some 'beef noodle soup' not quite the same as the original or whatever, but definitely really good. there is one in zurich as well so i will be going a few more times for sure. after dinner was a chilly walk to the theatre, went to go see the nutcracker ballet performed by the madrid ballet. basically i would not want to fight a male ballet dancer. i don't understand how it is possible for people to make their feet do that also. it was pretty cool though, i liked it and i definitely want to see another one, with a live orchestra next time hopefully too. wandering around the streets at night, we stumbled into some cafe/restaurant type thing where there was a live funk/soul/jazz band playing and chilled out there for awhile, pretty cool. stayed the night in basel in the plainest hostel room ever.
next day, woke up and hit up fondation beyeler, a really awesome museum art space thing. the building itself was beautiful, and there was some really amazing art in it as well. some van gogh, monet, a bunch of picasso, giacometti, cezanne, all of those guys basically were there. my favorite was an impressionist painting of water lilies by monet. the temporary exhibit was really great too, this artist named jenny holzer and she had a bunch of led lights and some really striking pieces i thought. very very cool place.
hopped on a train to cross the border to mulhouse in france, to check out that christmas market. probably don't need to go to mulhouse is my overall impression. the market was pretty good, the basel one was better though in my mind. again, all the streets were decorated and stuff which was quite nice. ended up walking around for awhile, bought a model dinosaur, drank a bunch of hot wine, ate macaroons which were so good, tried to find a restaurant but then just ended up going back to basel to the same place as the night before. it's called lily's and it is so good. they also have really good tea.
so far this week, there was a christmas party on monday, we did secret santa and beer pong tournament as well as photo contest results - the photo contest was an idea by brittany and i to have, it turned out quite hilarious and pretty well. did a bunch of cleaning last night, and then today, i have taken a sick day. i am unfortunately kinda sick, this is terrible. oh well. so far i have played guitar and ate soup, i guess i can't complain too much.
this weekend i'm gonna rock some skiing on sunday i hope. and getting ready for christmas trip. time's flown by so fast, can't believe it's already christmas. happy holidays everyone!
friday went to zurich to play in this amateur volleyball tournament sponsored by alstom. there were like 80 teams or something, we got manhandled pretty well, i don't think any swiss people got the 'amateur' memo. they all showed up in court shoes and kneepads. in any case, i thought it was really fun and now i want to play volleyball again. got a couple good hits in any case.
saturday i made banana pancakes and i will certainly be making a lot more banana pancakes in the future. took a train to basel, walked around and hung out. it was pretty cold actually - it's been snowing the past few days, just a little bit though, but even at -5 or -10 it's soo cold for some reason. hung out at the christmas market in basel, i thought it was really good. drank some gluhwein (hot wine) and checked out the decorated streets. good stuff, took the hot wine into a bank to use the bank machine. is that weird? drinking wine from a mug at an atm? i wonder how that would be received in canada. went for dinner in this restaurant that i had found on the internet, basically it's some sort of vietnamese/chinese/indian/thai/indonesian type restaurant which was actually really, really good. i got some 'beef noodle soup' not quite the same as the original or whatever, but definitely really good. there is one in zurich as well so i will be going a few more times for sure. after dinner was a chilly walk to the theatre, went to go see the nutcracker ballet performed by the madrid ballet. basically i would not want to fight a male ballet dancer. i don't understand how it is possible for people to make their feet do that also. it was pretty cool though, i liked it and i definitely want to see another one, with a live orchestra next time hopefully too. wandering around the streets at night, we stumbled into some cafe/restaurant type thing where there was a live funk/soul/jazz band playing and chilled out there for awhile, pretty cool. stayed the night in basel in the plainest hostel room ever.
next day, woke up and hit up fondation beyeler, a really awesome museum art space thing. the building itself was beautiful, and there was some really amazing art in it as well. some van gogh, monet, a bunch of picasso, giacometti, cezanne, all of those guys basically were there. my favorite was an impressionist painting of water lilies by monet. the temporary exhibit was really great too, this artist named jenny holzer and she had a bunch of led lights and some really striking pieces i thought. very very cool place.
hopped on a train to cross the border to mulhouse in france, to check out that christmas market. probably don't need to go to mulhouse is my overall impression. the market was pretty good, the basel one was better though in my mind. again, all the streets were decorated and stuff which was quite nice. ended up walking around for awhile, bought a model dinosaur, drank a bunch of hot wine, ate macaroons which were so good, tried to find a restaurant but then just ended up going back to basel to the same place as the night before. it's called lily's and it is so good. they also have really good tea.
so far this week, there was a christmas party on monday, we did secret santa and beer pong tournament as well as photo contest results - the photo contest was an idea by brittany and i to have, it turned out quite hilarious and pretty well. did a bunch of cleaning last night, and then today, i have taken a sick day. i am unfortunately kinda sick, this is terrible. oh well. so far i have played guitar and ate soup, i guess i can't complain too much.
this weekend i'm gonna rock some skiing on sunday i hope. and getting ready for christmas trip. time's flown by so fast, can't believe it's already christmas. happy holidays everyone!
Monday, December 7, 2009
skiing
last week i saw people carrying umbrellas in the snow, i didn't really realize what was going on but then i realized that it would be so weird if i was carrying an umbrella in the snow at home, so i put it away and put a hat on.
the weekend was pretty good. it was a very long train getting to this ski resort, les diablerets, close to lausanne and lake geneva in the french part of switzerland. carry skis boots and pole and a massive backpack for 4 train transfers was not that fun really. makes me appreciate throwing stuff in the car and driving 45 minutes to the closest ski hill. in any case. there were like 70 people on this iaeste organized ski trip, rented out a whole chalet so that was good. beers on the long train ride, hot wine at the chalet, hung out for the rest of the night more or less, flip cup and stuff. also ran outside and slipped and smoked the back of my head soo hard on the ice, but all it well and i have used my regenerative healing ability to heal it within 2 days. funny thing is that was the only time that i needed a helmet.
walking in ski boots is not that fun either, the walk to the bus station, the bus, and then two gondolas before getting on the glacier was not really appreciated. the gondolas were 150 people jamming into small boxes, not even close to being as good as the 8 person gondolas at home. in any case there were only like 5 runs open at this place on the glacier so i will reserve my judgment of skiing here for a while longer.
so i have never put skis on before, so more or less i looked like a new born baby deer for about half an hour until i got my life together. in any case by the end of the weekend i was throwing down some decent turns and from now it's basically just hitting bigger stuff and getting better, pretty excited, i love learning new things. also i had a pretty awesome teacher that helped me out a lot. good thing is that dave is the exact same size as me somehow and he's going from skiing to boarding so we can switch it up whenever basically so i hit a couple runs on the board and that was fun too.
i guess there was a lot of debauchery the ensued at the chalet, as can be expected from any regular ski trip. i brought speakers and the laptop to start a party, and that certainly happened. ate some cheese fondue which was delicious, washed some dishes, took some showers, good weekend overall basically.
train home, took a long time, more carrying of skis on transfers, went through lausanne. from what i saw of lausanne it is quite pretty (i.e. the train station and the street outside the train station haha) basically just everywhere is decorated with christmas lights and stuff now, even just here in baden it is very very nice in the station and in the old town. i got an advent calendar it is awesome.
i think that's about it except for today is the day somehow that i have miraculously made it this far in my life, 21 years is a long time now that i think about it. good times all around, lots of great friends and great people in my life, thanks to all of you.
the weekend was pretty good. it was a very long train getting to this ski resort, les diablerets, close to lausanne and lake geneva in the french part of switzerland. carry skis boots and pole and a massive backpack for 4 train transfers was not that fun really. makes me appreciate throwing stuff in the car and driving 45 minutes to the closest ski hill. in any case. there were like 70 people on this iaeste organized ski trip, rented out a whole chalet so that was good. beers on the long train ride, hot wine at the chalet, hung out for the rest of the night more or less, flip cup and stuff. also ran outside and slipped and smoked the back of my head soo hard on the ice, but all it well and i have used my regenerative healing ability to heal it within 2 days. funny thing is that was the only time that i needed a helmet.
walking in ski boots is not that fun either, the walk to the bus station, the bus, and then two gondolas before getting on the glacier was not really appreciated. the gondolas were 150 people jamming into small boxes, not even close to being as good as the 8 person gondolas at home. in any case there were only like 5 runs open at this place on the glacier so i will reserve my judgment of skiing here for a while longer.
so i have never put skis on before, so more or less i looked like a new born baby deer for about half an hour until i got my life together. in any case by the end of the weekend i was throwing down some decent turns and from now it's basically just hitting bigger stuff and getting better, pretty excited, i love learning new things. also i had a pretty awesome teacher that helped me out a lot. good thing is that dave is the exact same size as me somehow and he's going from skiing to boarding so we can switch it up whenever basically so i hit a couple runs on the board and that was fun too.
i guess there was a lot of debauchery the ensued at the chalet, as can be expected from any regular ski trip. i brought speakers and the laptop to start a party, and that certainly happened. ate some cheese fondue which was delicious, washed some dishes, took some showers, good weekend overall basically.
train home, took a long time, more carrying of skis on transfers, went through lausanne. from what i saw of lausanne it is quite pretty (i.e. the train station and the street outside the train station haha) basically just everywhere is decorated with christmas lights and stuff now, even just here in baden it is very very nice in the station and in the old town. i got an advent calendar it is awesome.
i think that's about it except for today is the day somehow that i have miraculously made it this far in my life, 21 years is a long time now that i think about it. good times all around, lots of great friends and great people in my life, thanks to all of you.
Friday, December 4, 2009
i have been eating for like 4 people i think
okay i don't think i did that much last week. oh wait, i bought skis! so friggin excited. going skiing tonight, i have never been skiing and only snowboarding before, i am actually just so jacked to learn to throw down some switch 5's. it is gonna be a good weekend.
went to all you can eat sushi again on the wednesday, so ridiculous, it's just that the food is moving, stimulates the hunter instinct, every time i go i eat far too much, yet i keep going back. last week was american thanksgiving so this guy duane from work had a nice dinner that again i ate far too much at. it was actually good though, turkey and stuff. other than that just playing a lot of guitar and it's cold out, just started snowing last week or so, it's nice though, i like it, it's kinda a bit like home. went exploring in the forest behind the house on sunday, wandered around and somehow ended up climbing a ridge, then found that there were stairs that were just on the other side. very cool though, i'm going to miss that so very much, the fact that i have a forest and a mountain behind my house essentially. went and ate a bunch of cheese fondue as well. work christmas party a couple nights ago as well, got a guided tour of baden which i actually thought was pretty interesting. the oldest train station in switzerland in 1854 or something, the clock tower used to be a prison up until 1984, the castle used to be a fortress and there were some wars here and stuff. made the biggest burgers on record last night and watched some planet earth, pretty good.
anyways, that's about it i think. SKIING!
went to all you can eat sushi again on the wednesday, so ridiculous, it's just that the food is moving, stimulates the hunter instinct, every time i go i eat far too much, yet i keep going back. last week was american thanksgiving so this guy duane from work had a nice dinner that again i ate far too much at. it was actually good though, turkey and stuff. other than that just playing a lot of guitar and it's cold out, just started snowing last week or so, it's nice though, i like it, it's kinda a bit like home. went exploring in the forest behind the house on sunday, wandered around and somehow ended up climbing a ridge, then found that there were stairs that were just on the other side. very cool though, i'm going to miss that so very much, the fact that i have a forest and a mountain behind my house essentially. went and ate a bunch of cheese fondue as well. work christmas party a couple nights ago as well, got a guided tour of baden which i actually thought was pretty interesting. the oldest train station in switzerland in 1854 or something, the clock tower used to be a prison up until 1984, the castle used to be a fortress and there were some wars here and stuff. made the biggest burgers on record last night and watched some planet earth, pretty good.
anyways, that's about it i think. SKIING!
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