Where to Go?

My Midterm Break is coming up and I don't know what to do for it. It starts on Thursday and goes until Tuesday. There is a stagiere meeting on Thursday, so I have to leave, if I go anywhere, on Friday. I will hopefully be visiting Jackson Cheevers, a friend from high school, in Lugano. I was thinking that I would then dip down into Italy for a bit. I don't want to spend too much money though. I guess I will just find out when the time comes. All I need to do is buy the train tickets, so it will end up being a last minute decision. Albert is staying here in Bluche, so that weighs in too. Most people are going to Amsterdam, but that isn't on my agenda, and I don't want to fly.

CDV is extending its hours after midterm. On Friday and Saturday it will now be open until 1 am, and Sunday's until midnight. I am not really happy about this change. I realllllyyyy don't want to be getting in bed by 2 am on Friday and Saturday. I did end up getting paid the 100 chf for my special the other day, finally.

I Have Been Feeling Icky. Not feeling too well recently. Stomach aches, nausea, and this irritating cold that won't go away. According to the Dr. My stomach ache is due to stress, but I really don't understand what I am stressed about.. I don't have much responsibility. Hopefully I will figure it all out soon.

Adventuring

I Went to Laussane yesterday with Tahir. We took the train and directed ourselves irst to hummus (yumm!) and then to Starbucks!!! I was sooooo happy to have my vanilla soy latte! Starbucks in Switzerland is very diferent to Starbucks in the states. More people sit and drink there coffee, so tere are more ceramic cups. It is rather nice drinking my classic drink in a real cup. We got a briefing about fairtrade coffee in french and free caramel cookies! :) And free free trade esspresso beans. A successful Starbucks experience. I found a New York Style Cheese cake that Dave had been craving for a good while now and felt that my efforts to bring this peice of cake to Dave would be worth his joy in eating it. And so the cake traveled with us from that point on to all the places we went. These included a boutique dress store that sold Italian designer dresses with minor imperfections at discounted prices, a hemp store where we found pot infused lollipops and my favorite incense, Nag Champa, Zara, Manor, and other little shops that I cannot recall right now. In Manor, we did lose the cake for a while. I absentmindedly left it next to some boots I was looking at and wandered off to find Tahir. The shoe sales lady decided to save this morsel of delite for a later snack and off it dissapeared. Luckily Tahir confronted her and we got it back. Oh, we also ran into some people giving out lanyards with cards attached inviting people to go to the Levis store grand opening. With the card, one could get a free drink. So we followed the guy's directions and found ourselfves sipping champagne while looking at "Booty Flare" jeans for me and "skinny" jeans for Tahir. I bought mine, he was unsuccessful in his jean purchase attempt. We got some Swiss style Falafel for the train ride back, and reminiced about our day of shop scouting and Laussane exploring. I came out with the most new gear, rather needed.

Today I went on a walk. I walked with Dave to Montana Village to pick up some pie ingrediants, as the weather has created the associated pie cravings. After our store stop I introduced him to the wonder that is my special spot on the cliff. He was rather taken by it, and the view inspired some nice conversations about life and perspective. All this while munching on nuts. It was really fulfilling and nice.

Pictures on Picassa!

Returning to CDV During Off Hours

I Am Off Tonight, but I find my self at CDV. I was thinking about why, of all places, I felt the draw to CDV when I had the evening free. It is because, I realized, that it is my getaway place, at night. When I'm ff I don't have to tend to the guests, but I can still socialize behind the counter if I want to, but only for as long as I want to. No awkward moments, or extended time with people. I have to WONDERFUL ability to use the office, like I am riht now when I want absolute privacy. My room in PFB is not very accomdating to me. It feels cold and unloved. CDV feels like my living room and kitchen. PFA is my bedroom and MY home. I'm sitting here in the semi dark with my own music playing for my ears only, eating a fruit and veggie salad, listening to the banter outside by my beloved CDV coworkers, and having absolute privacy. Wonderful. I just blew my nose to hard and now it is bleeding.

We used the Stove! Tonight Albert and I cooked on our stove for the first time! We made some artichoke base pasta, mixed it with a Basilico Tamatoe sauce, added artichoke hearts, Albert added bacon and Anchoves to his, and we watched Shaun of the Dead. It was about time I watched that film since I watched Dawn of the Dead and was so scared by it that any reference to it made me uncomfortable. Albert is insistant on me getting over my scary movie phobia. We will see how much I can deal with I already flipped out after watching a few too many zombie movies in too short of a time frame. I got a full-on panic attack. HA, imagine.

A New Appliance

I Got a Stove! I invested in a double burner plug in stove for the room. This will allow me to buy more fresh, locally grown veggies and spend more time on dishes for both me and Albert. I wanted an oven too for fresh vegan baked goods, but alas, too expensive for now. I will just have to use the CDV oven for that.

Random Story about the housekeeper today. Albert drinks beer with his meals sometimes. We bought a 24 pack of a really nice beer that he has been savoring for a good loooonnngggg while now. The empty bottles are collecting in a little bag next to the door. And we just figured we would put all of them into the glass recycling across the way when they were done. The housekeeper gives us a worried look every time she sees them and asks Albert to take them away. It's been maybe 3 weeks that this bag has been accumulating bottles. Today she couldn't take it anymore I guess because she told him "Today is the last day!" in french with her russian accent, so it sounded kinda intense. Then she proceeded to tell us that we couldn't have my mini rice cooker either, but she didn't see the stove yet....

A Day Off

I Was Sick, very sick, on Saturday. I went into work in tears feeling rather horrible and asked if I could go home. Dave was kind enough to tell me that he didn't want to see my face, so I scurried back to bed where I laid for about 6 hours. During that time I munched on rather unhealthy food and moved minimally. I felt rather gross. I'm sure that if I had eaten well, I would have felt cleaner and healthier instead of ickier. That led to me eating badly the next day when I did go to work, feeling worse than I would have otherwise. I am getting better and more consistent with eating well, but sometimes I slip up. I used to beat myself up about it, but no longer! I just look to tomorrow for a better day. My desire to have a healthy lifestyle is slowly winning over the personal obstacles I have placed in the way over the years. I find that when I exercise regularly and eat healthily, I feel wonderful and have less ailments. My mood is much better too. Most people can solve their health problems with a better diet and more exercise. Most people just don't REALLY believe it. It is one of those pieces of information that a lot of people logically know but don't actually believe makes any difference. That makes me sad.

Olivia, Koi, and Bishaka Visited Bluche. That was fun. I was rather sick when they visited, so not much fun, but we hung out in CDV for a bit and they said hello to Albert. I was able to get them into Sunday brunch no problem. Usually you need little slips of paper that you pay for in order to eat at school when u r visiting. Mrs. Rachney, one of my favorite teachers at school, was more than willing to let them in. We spent a good amount of time discussing the differences between summer and winter batch etc. It was a nice little reunion.

I Will Hopefully Be Buying a Stove! I found a rather cheap portable stove for sale and am considering adding it to my mini kitchen. There is also one built into a toaster oven. I would really like the oven to bake little vegan things, but I'm trying to be realistic about which I will use more, and if it is worth the money.

MY MOM'S BIRTHDAY!

TODAY IS MY MOM'S BIRTHDAY!!!! This is a birthday wish to her. May she be loved and cared for on her birthday because of the love and care she freely donnes out to those who ask, and more often than not, those who don't ask. The best gift one can get on one's birthday, and especially someone like my mommy, is care. We all want to be cared for, and when one recieves care, they know that thier happiness has value to those people. When all who know her think about their lives without her, they cannot help but realize just how positive an influence her presence has had. That's how I feel anyway, and what I've heard from her friends and associates who chose to confide in me. So, to my mom: I love you and cannot wait to better show you my appreciation for all you have done for me and the care and love you have shown me. Your life is valued by more people than you know. Happy Birthday.

Time Gone By

The Weather has changed from hot sunny summer to tempermental Fall. The smell of Autumn brings me home so often these days I feel like time is intertwining, bringing the past and folding it into the present. I can imagine my family at home making fires, and piles of dried leaves in front of our house. People are starting to think about Halloween and pumpkin carving, what costume they will chose this year, and how to make the Thanksgiving Turkey, or pumpkin pie, more special than the year before. That is what the smell reminds me of anyway. It makes for very pleasant walks through small town Switzerland. I hope to introduce Albert to pumpkin carving as he has never had the experience. Montana-Village is harvesting more and more of its crops now. I just watched them put piles and piles of potatoes from dirt to crate. Very pleasant to witness and I'm sure even more rewarding to partake in. On my walk with my winter batch room mate, Steffi who visited for a couple of days, I ate more fruit than ever before here. The raspberries that hadn't been picked from the summer harvest were hanging deep red and so sweet. The same went for the finger-staining black berries, AND the plums were ripe!!! We picked plums right off the plum tree and became rather full right before we were going to the a la carte restaurant. :)

Steffi's Visit comprised of a trip down to Sierre and cafe catchup. We surprised Dave with her presence. He was really quite pleasantly surprised, though a little foggy since we woke him up from his midday slumber. We then went on the walk mentioned above wher eI took her through the village and to that beautiful spot on the cliff. We then went home changed and prettied ourselves for a nice dinner. It was almost like old times. We were missing our 4th diner, Andrew, who is now in NH working, but Tahir ended up joining us instead, rather random, but pleasant none the less. Due to the rumors that San Nick, the bar in Bluche, will be bought by the school and closing after midterm, we decided to have one more San Nick night together. Though we had no intention of going up to a club in Montana, we did find ourselves there and had a great time dancing. We ended our adventure with a dark and muddy walk down the mountain back to Bluche. It was great! She left the next day after joining me to the gyno and crepes in Montana rather eary in the morning, followed by lunch at the PFA sandwich shop. I will hopefully be going to Zurich to see her next week with tahir. I might actually buy some new clothes as, for once in my life, they are much needed.

Otherwise CDV is still going well. We, the stagieres, talk often about how we will miss each other when midterm roles around. We are planning some kind of end of "togetherness" event, though have not yet agreed on what or when. I have a nasty cough cold thing that is keeping from running around in the cold and playing in the mountains like I would love to be doing on the sunny but brisk days of Swiss Fall. Three of my winter batch friends will be visiting today and tomorrow, Olivia, Koi, and Bishaka. I work those days, but hopefully I will spend a fair amount of time with them. Also, I'm reading Everyone Worth Knowing from the author of The Devil Wears Prada. It keeps me entertained on slow days at CDV.

The Special

My falafel wraps were a big hit and I earned myself 100 chf! I believe we sold more than 100 chf worth of falafel, but my bonus is just 100. The pitas never did come because the supplier doesn't have any, so I just used tortillas. I ended up watering down the "hummus" into a tahini dressing for the wraps. I have plenty of falafel left to make for myself and others for the rest of the week. I'll have to make more sauce though. I wonder what I'll do next time....

This weekend I was supposed to go to Bienne with a bunch of friends to this concert, but wasn't feeling up to it. I ended up having a great time with Tahir, and this morning I taught him some simple gymnastics stuff and practiced some stuff myself I seem to have retaned and actually increased my flexibility since cheerleading. Rather interesting. So I was able to go straight into a back bend much more easily than before, and my cartwheels and roundoffs were cleaner. I was also able to stay in a handstand which I was never able to do before. Pretty stoked.

The Wine Festival was this weekend too, so CDV opened later, and many students were rather red in the face for the day. It was in Sierre I believe. Ah, Switz.

CDV News

Friday's Special is going pretty well.  I have made two batches of falafel, and both have been successful.  I need to add more garlic and more salt though.  They were big hits with the people I had try them.  The first batch went to random guests who liked falafel, and one who had never had it before (he loved it).  The second, slightly modified batch was put in a tortilla (I'm still waiting on the shipment of pitas), with the Tahini dressing, tomatoes, and lettuce.  They loved it!!  Albert added ham, sort of contradictory to an arabic dish, but he enjoyed the sandwhich more, which is the important part.  My attempts at the Tahini resulted in a thick paste instead of a light watery one.  I put lemon juice in it and that reacted with the Tahini and made it thick, but it doesn't taste as good without the lemon.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  I then tried to make hummus.  This was a very frustrating exeriment.  I've made it at home before, no problem.  I boiled the soaked chickpeas, but they stayed hard, even though they were boiled for about 45 minutes.  I had issues with the blender so I just used the food processor.  It was also way to thick.  After adding too much oil, lemon jiuce, garlic, and plenty of water, it started getting to the right consistency.  It still doesn't taste quite right, and it is too oily.  I may just water it down more and use it as the Tahini dressing for the Falafel instead of trying to make hummus.  That can be my next "special" or something.  I don't need a whole menu, just one special.

I will be staying in CDV for the whole semester.  It is all done and decided.  I'm actually quite happy with the result.  I get to do plenty of experimenting, and I get paid more.

Winter vs Summer

I've been asked by many people what the difference is between Winter batch and Summer batch. I'm sure you're curious too ;) For those of you who don't know, I am a winter batch student, meaning I attend Les Roches as a student between the months of January and June. Then I have 6 monthes off to pursue an internship at my destination of choice. Summer batch students arrive in July and study until December, then they go off to apply what they learned. Each batch has it's own culture and personality, and the atmosphere of the school is very different.

I'll start with the absolutes. Summer batch is much larger. There are a little over 1000 students attending school this semester. Winter had only about 650. People are not as involved in each others lives during summer, and everyone does not know or talk to everyone else. You can not recognize faces during summer. During Winter, everyone pretty much knows everyone else, and all faces are familiar. CDV is busier during summer. San Nick, the local bar, plays more hip hop during winter. The summer batch students, for some inconceivable reason, love house music. Winter batch danced when hip hop came on and stopped dancing when house music came one. It has switched now. Weird. 97% of Management students live in Montana, so the campus is populated mostly by HOIs and HOIIs. Summer batch is louder, a lot louder. It is warmer, hehehe, well it is. The gym doesn't seem as busy because people do stuff outside. The pool is still icy though....

On to the intangibles. Summer batch students seem friendlier and happier. Not to offend, but I've found there to be more capable and intelligent people attending summer batch, but that may just be from the fact that there are more people generally. It feels more mysterious in a way, due to the fact that you don't know what is going on in everyone's life. It is more like living in a larger town than a tiny village (winter batch). I guess it is more like the real world, socially, during summer. I do miss the close knit aspect of winter batch at times. I worry that they will admit a lot of students into winter now that they have all this new accomadation and a new part of the main building for classes. I like the differences.