Arriving here on thursday morning slept for a bit and then went out to buy groceries - they're pretty expensive but not completely unreasonable, though i am looking forward to going to germany for food. friday, i went out and wandered around baden for essentially the whole day, did all my paperwork and opened a swiss bank account. that night we all went out to zurich, but getting home was just a mess. luke and i didn't have the right train tickets, then went and tried to get some from the machine, then missed the train by 10 seconds, then had to wait for another hour until 2 in the morning. at which point, when we got on the train, they checked our tickets and it turned out that we still didn't have the right ticket, but the lady let us off easy, probably cause we looked so sad and tired.
saturday, we all went out to the schwimmbad, which is a super cool park/pool place a 15 minute walk from the house. there are some big fields for lounging/playing sports, volleyball courts, a wave pool, a swimming pool and diving towers, and the best part, a metal waterslide. let's just say that there may or may not have been one or more waterslide accidents. after the swimming we played ultimate for awhile which got kinda intense.
after the schwimmbad we walked home, i decided to go through the forest - there's an awesome running trail that has stations every 500 meters or so where there is exercise equipment set up - i.e. chin up bars, box jumps etc. which i'm going to try in the next little while here. there are also so really cool old war bunkers hidden in the hills that are literally invisible from the air. on the way home though, it started raining pretty hard. the route that we took led to my friends' apartments, so i ended up walking for ten minutes home in just pouring rain...it was really nice though, i was soaked but it was nice and warm.
the next morning we took a train to kandersteg, past interlaken by the swiss alps, rented bikes and went for a bike ride. it was incredible, going through the mountain valleys, full of meadows and flowers, cows with big bells around their necks. villages where the bike path was the road, people hanging out having a sunday picnic...life should be like that. one thing that i have found so amazing, is that there are fountains everywhere, and the water you can drink. basically just a bunch of cool water fountains that you can fill up your water bottle in, it's such a simple idea but it's so incredible, there is nothing like that ever in canada.
after the bike ride we took the train back to berne, where we grabbed some food at the local coop in the train station. another thing, the train stations are pretty much the greatest things that exist, they're big and open, there's everything you could ever need in them - restaurants, cafes, shops, grocery stores on and on. had the typical backpacker dinner, bread, cheese and sketchy meat - but sitting on the corner of an old swiss street and eating that is better than any five star meal i think. walking around berne was really cool because that's the capital city, and the parliament building was just incredible. you can't help but think about how long that has been there. wandering around the city, we ended up by the river, and then on top of a big hill that had an incredible view of the city, as well as a very large chess set, which of course we had to play with. on the way home we missed our train transfer and ended up in basel, and then had to take the extra little while to get home. it was a really good day.
first day of work was quite good, all the people there are really helpful and everything, the job itself seems pretty neat actually, thermo and fluids and heat transfer stuff mostly which i think i'm pretty good at and i like. i am getting sick though, which sucks but was probably a byproduct of having such a good time on the weekend. i'm working in the power tower, whcih is just such a sweet name for a building. it's good times i'm working with bianca and luke, which is interesting because i've gone to school with them but work is such a different environment - the meetings are sure gonna be a good time! anyhow, i've gotta get some rest, i'm sick and tired, just made myself some delicious chicken soup and i'm feeling a bit better. i'm glad i can make myself things like that.
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