Thursday, May 26, 14:11

slow annoying web version of first class, in an internet & games room.
feel like a student… 🙂

they have the coolest coins i’ve seen in my life, the swiss, huge 5 francs coins. you need them everywhere…
the office is in an industrial suburb of Zurich – I will need to hunt for a house here.
am in the center now. it’s true about the trains… it was supposed to come at 13:52, and at 13:51 & 30 sec it came, and stopped at 13:52:10 sec! was 7-10 seconds late…

thank you Suzannah, Nav-jyte and Melanie for getting me on the damn
plane… was an adventure. and the adventure had just begun, we had to
change planes…. anyway, i’m here now, in the survival business. feels
good :).
ok, i’m out of here. no internet for the first days, so…

cheers,
C

Friday, May 27, 2005, 00:25

“Teddy Summer” here in Zurich. Big Teddy sculptures everywhere, in all colors and costumes, done by different artists on a given “model”. In the past there has been a “cows” summer, and another one I don’t remember.
I didn’t remember where the name “Teddy Bear” comes from. Now I read about it – an incident with “Ted” Roosevelt, the American president. Won’t tell it here – who’s interested can google it ;).
One of the coolest things I found here, besides de divine housemaid italian icecream behind the “Globus”, is velorenting for free… theres some action for protecting environment thru reducing traffic, and they rent bicycles, skateboards and scooters for free – I left a deposit of 20 F + passport and strolled for 2 hours with a miniscooter. At the beginning I didn’t like it, coz it was hot and it required effort, but it was convenient (took it with me to the internet café) and when I came out weather was cooler, and a pleasure to ride.
Tomorrow I’ll get a bicycle from the hotel, to take me to the local railway station and then to the city… many ppl with bicycles and motorcycles… looks promising.
Tomorrow – busy day. And I stood up SO LATE!! I watched the champions league final – cdnt help it, they replayed it on Eurosport (another “nice to see you again” ;), and it was a fantastic final… Milan had 3-0 at the break, Liverpool came back in 6 minutes in the second half for 3-3, and won at penalty shootouts after 120 minutes… unheard of!! Great game. Soccer at its best ;).

10:03

It’s good I came early. Adjusting to the German language environment takes some effort. People here have a funny accent – the Swiss German is sort of a Georgian Enlgish… I find it very hard to understand, have to “assume” lots of things. Anyway… lets get going. Housing, bank, lots of stuff today. Seeya!

22:04

The day was good and bad… good because I took a bicycle from the hotel and explored the city by byk – loved it. Bad, because the business I was supposed to take care of today didn’t work out… I didn’t find a house, the agency I went to didn’t have anything, plus the fees frighten me – they ask for 2000 francs deposit!!! Are you crazy?! So then I tried to get individuals, using another website, and I have an appointment for Monday, but its expensiiiive… and now the weekend is here, noone works… I’ll have to painfully wait till Monday. That’s why I decided, since I don’t have much to do, why not go to visit some place. And I’m thinking either Lucerna, Basel or Konstanz, in Germany. The German thing would be good for the bank – I cannot open a Swiss Account L. BofA doesn’t exist outside the States. They have an alliance with Deutsche Bank in Germany, but not in Switzerland. So from Germany I cd get money out without fee, from the bancomats. Don’t think its worth it, though. It is good as an excuse to see the Bodensee and all ;). To Germany a backandforth ticket is 58 francs… hmm…

Pics from Zurich – here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=jml3aap.3zpeg2t1&x=0&y=-27ayl7

Saturday, May 28, 2005, 09:50

Just had breakfast. Am not going to Konstanz today – one, I cdnt wake up, snoozed for 2 hrs from 6:30 to 8:30, but at least I had a long sleep… and two, I’d rather stay in switzerland so I can call for houses, although hopes are low for the weekend.
So I’m going to Luzern (Lucerna) right now. Am in exploratory mood again…

Sunday, May 29, 2005, 00:16

Today (Saturday) was a day like old times… tourist 100%. left at noon for Luzern/Lucerne/Lucerna. I spent the whole day roaming around… enjoyed it a lot.

Desi tourists everywhere :). Funny, I feel like telling them “namaste, awara, kaise ho?” – but then I stop – who knows, they might react less friendly than a Vivekananda or Me-here Shah.
I visited the medieval towers, which reminded me much of home… then I went to a Picasso exhibition. Paintings and photos of him. Impressive. I didn’t use to like Picasso at all. Thought he was mocking the viewers with his nonsense. But there is SO MUCH difference between what you see in pictures / albums and live… he is actually very expressive… in all that mess u can see / feel that he is actually trying to communicate something… he worked hard on those paintings! Was a great experience.

Before going to the exhibition I made a phone call for the house… and forgot the phone card in the phone… remembered when I entered the museum… ran back… found an elderly man in the booth, was right about to put the card in his bag… I said I left a card behind… he gave it to me with a puzzled face :)…

Pics from Lucerne here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=jml3aap.2w9f5e0d&x=0&y=manl5g

Sunday, May 29, 2005, 12:18

I’m not going anywhere… I cdnt wake up in the morning, didn’t feel much like it either. So I decided to hang around here today, chill out, and if its not raining take a bike and explore the neighborhoods, to get a picture. Some preparatory reading wdnt hurt either…
Yesterday – the first hicckup of the Swiss Railways. Our train was late 10 minutes (!!) and then stopped in some odd station, we had to change the lokomotive… they apologized ~5 times, we were late 34 minutes in Zurich… people made ironic / nasty comments… at home it would have been solved too, but in a few hours.

Sunday, May 29, 2005, 21:37

Today was a relaxing day. I took the bike and strolled thru the village I live in… it may be in Switzerland, but it’s still a village… at night I was very thirsty and tired, and decided to get something to eat in the village. There was one only place open 😛 (everything is closed on Sundays), a railway hotel and restaurant, where I had a huge beer ((!) I was that thirsty) and a calzone… funny place… people in villages and railways have something about them, u recognize them anywhere…
The village (and the ones around it) is exremely boring. But riding the bike was fun, relaxing…
I need to find a house.