sweating

Today was a humid day.

Sweaty all day. More sweaty than after my 7 hour hike I did on Saturday. My room on the third floor is I swear the warmest room in the building.

A bit on my nightly routine:
Open the window because my room is so hot
Bugs attracted to light
Bugs fly into room
Bugs accumulate to about 100000
Stare at my bug infested ceiling
Don't know what to do but go to bed
Can't close window because it is so hot
.....
Wake up to see that the bugs are all gone. Where did they go? Someone help me out.

I am going to buy a fan tomorrow.

lost in translation

Okay thought I'd share this bright part of my day with you guys. Here's an email I received from IAESTE, an organization here that brings all the international interns together for social events, trips, etc. The email is written by a very nice Japanese man that I met last week.

Dear Trainees,

Those who recently arrived, welcome to Switzerland! And those who have been our goodfriends, we have some good news for you!We will have a special Weekly Meeting on this coming Thursday, 18th of June. Westart at 20:30 pm as usual. Yes! IAESTE go singing this time! Of course, all thefans are welcome and you can bring anybody you like! Please take a look at thefollowing for the info and the map link. http://www.iaeste.ch/Trainees/WeeklyMeetings/Zurich/Lauschuli/

Ok so here's what that link brings you to:
*******************************************************

What to bring
- Money to buy one drink per person (They won't let you be there if you do not pay as you can imagine.)
- Any mood you have
- Yourself (and good people you know)

Some tips and manners to enjoy karaoke
1. You can enjoy singing the songs of your choice in non-smoking atmosphere.
2. Since you are not charged for songs you sing, each customer whoever is there should order at least one drink to cover the copyright costs for karaoke.
3. Don't get drunk before you sing! Please care for others who hear your song. As long as you enjoy singing in a normal way, there will always be someone who wants to enjoy listening to you, I promise.
4. Enjoy other people's singing. Give some hands to the effort and the courage of the singers. Learn some style. Don't even try to criticize the singers from other groups! What kind of better singer do you think you are? Do you think you are someone?
5. Don't fight over microphone! There was a very unfortunate case many years ago in Japan where two singers wanted to compete for the same song and one of them had to die.
6. Just experience the joy of singing. You will be very surprised with how nice it is to sing. There are two microphones. You can ask someone who knows the song to sing with you.

What if I am not a singer now?
No panic! There are still two ways to enjoy. First, you can be a singer anew. It is simply great. Either you pick up a microphone alone or sing with anyone of your choice. Second, if you want to take it easy, well, just sit back and relax. Enjoy undiscovered talents of your friends and the passion of some of your favorite person(s).

A brief history of karaoke
The biggest Japanese cultural contribution to the world ever, karaoke, was invented by Daisuke Inoue in 1971 in Japan. The original media was a loop of an endless 6.35 mm tape (8 track cartridge tape). 8-track was an innovation of the originally 2-track stereo tape that records 4 songs in parallel. It was revolutionary. Today, as you may know, karaoke equipments keep evolving at each of our living moment to give us even more variety of joy. Mr. Inoue was chosen as one of the most influential 20 Asian persons in the 20th century by Time magazine in 1999 Daisuke Inoue, Time magazine and awarded 2004 Ig Nobel Prize among others. Unfortunately, Mr. Inoue never properly patented his invention. So, he is not able to collect potentially 10 billion JPN per year loyalty..... (Some say he missed to collect some trillions of Japanese yen.).

Some cool karaoke stuff
Karaoke has highly evolved from the original format and spreaded its joy to all mankind. A few examples are;
Respect lovely Pomme and Kelly!
Hollow Man's perfect sky is torn!
Chinese Backstreet Boys want it this way!

**************************************************
Ok back to email

You can search your transportation schedule athttp://www.vbz.ch/vbz_opencms/opencms/vbz/english/index.htmlSinging and cheering for the singers are free of charge. Either singing or not, youjust need to buy one drink there. Bring all your friends.

Yes, I am keeping my promise. Especially the ones who wanted to do this, please doshow up and enjoy!Hope to see you all there!

************

HILARIOUS

Swans

It's 10:16pm and I'm thoroughly enjoying this Wednesday evening, excited to sleep in tomorrow! It's a holiday tomorrow in, would you believe it, Baden only (Zurich and the rest of the country as far as I know still goes to work mehehee), so I've got the day off tomorrow to relax. I think I will probably to explore my new house! I moved in to a new womens' residence recently on Saturday and I've had the chance to meet some lovely ladies from all over the world, especially a new German roommate. I've got a bigger room than the one from home, the world's largest pillow, and a billion keys for the many things I have to lock here. It's pretty cool, although I'm not a fan of the six flights of stairs I have to walk up and down every day.

Today I found out a little more about what I do for work. (For those who don't want to hear any more engineering talk, skip to the next paragraph.) SO, like I said before, gas turbine development, where I'm involved in the R&D Core Team that develops upgrades for a 180 MW turbine. But specifically, I've been given the task to perform a Life Cycle Environmental Analysis on the turbine, so analyzing the effects that this turbine has on the environment (mainly emissions) from the beginning when it's built to when it's taken down 25 years from now. Pretty cool eh? Haha well I think it's awesome because Energy and Environment has totally been what I've been specializing in at school! Oh yes and I can wear jeans to work. How amazing is that.

And also can't forget to mention what I did on the weekend! I had my first visit to the Schwimmbad, an AWESOME outdoor rec place that I think I'll be at everyday for the rest of this summer. It's got everything! Waterslide, giant grass field for shoeless soccer and tanning, beach volleyball courts, ping pong tables, wave pool, lane pool, deep pool with diving board and platforms up to 10m, did I mention waterslide, children's park, and sand pit! It was so great I went back again two days later. Saturday, I ventured into Zurich just in time for EuroPride 09. Quite a sight to see, there was fantastic music and costumes and food and people from all over Europe. Check it out:

I put the swans up because they happen to been everywhere that I've been so far and I'd like to point out that they are HUGE. Anyways, I definitely have to go back to Zurich, I only spent a few hours there because of a giant rain storm and had to leave. Luckily it's only fifteen minutes away!

Well, anything else I can tell you guys...oh I am heading to Luzern this coming weekend. Check back in a few days and I'll update!

random photos

Ok gotta get these out of my system before I forget

Random photo #1: BIGGEST WASP EVER

Caption: I think this is self explanatory.

Random Photo #2: Best Swiss Breakfast Yet

Caption: Ok so it's not swiss cuisine but nevertheless the tastiest break fast I've had to date in Switzerland. Please note the applesauce, Canadian blueberry syrup, nutella, yogurt, bananas, Disney brand honey as french toast toppings, and of course, the swiss army knife.

Random photo #3: Bike Parkade

Caption: They take biking seriously here.

Guess what

So today I found a small notebook that I had brought for scrap paper. Went through it and found a list of "Things I want to do before I die" that I had made two years ago on a camping road trip. And would you believe it...

Things to do before I die:

"Do my internship abroad, like Switzerland"

Check!

Willkommen in der Schweiz!

SO I have finally made it, after a three movies on a plane and not very much sleep. I'd like to think that I've been off to a good start by going out with some interns here on my first night and going to France two days after. Haha yessss

I guess here are the basics if you don't know already: I'm living in Baden, Switzerland, which a beautiful little town with very friendly Swiss people and suprisingly, a lot of international people who have all come to work for ABB or ALSTOM. I'm with ALSTOM, and I would tell you what I'm doing but after my first day of work I still don't know. Uh gas turbine development.

Spent Friday exploring the town. I live in a place where:

- Everyone bikes everywhere! And also leaves them everywhere where it is pretty much guaranteed to not be stolen. I am so excited. Did I tell you I have a bike here?
- Kids ride motorcycles and can drink more that me
- I can't read anything :( But hey I found out today that my company offers free German classes
- A tall Starbucks Frappacinno costs 7.80 CHF (8 BUCKS!)
- I walk by a giant Bratwurst everyday

That is all that I have for now. Give me a few more days and I can tell you more.

On another note, I went to France over the weekend. Yup, just like that. It's incredible how long I've wanted to go to this country of wine, dining, and art and now I can just go there - like that! It was the last long weekend here before Christmas so I might as well holiday right...? That's right, I thought so. Haha so my friend Bruce and I headed to Strasbourg, France where we spent the weekend exploring a very pretty city centered around an island in the Rhine. Saw some mind-blowing, even frightening contemporary art, parlais un peu de la Francais, tried to kick fat pigeons, admired the family-oriented, relaxed Europeen lifestyle, and of course brought back some Alsacian white wine.

Did I mention that I went to France over the weekend?

Anyways, it's a fine Tuesday night, post pork chop dinner. Maybe I'll go for a walk in a bit.