Sleep is a Gift

Refreshed

I'm back to normal yay! I slept properly for 2 nights now, and feel so much better. I really needed it. Now I have completed all of my exams for this week and my project, which I think went well. I focused on Howard Schultz, the owner of Starbucks. I really like him now. He did an amazing job in creating a successful company.

Academics

We've been given some more projects to get started on, and I am working with Steffi and her German friend Katharina. They are both REALLY hard workers and are very much on top of everything. I think it will go well.

Weather

I also seems to be warming up! My Spanish teacher told us that it is supposed to be a very nice weekend. It's about time, really. Not much else is going on. I can't believe March is almost here. 2 days. Also, Steffi pointed out that after this academic rotation is done, next week, we only have 2 more academic rotations. So strange.

People of the world intrigue me.

What Day is it?

What's going on?

Hey everyone. I just wanted to put up something for tonight, but really have no time to do much. Accounting test, and Rooms Division Management exam, as well as logging food and doing a nutritional breakdown for Nutritions class, Doing research on how globalization affects managing employees, and looking up recipes for my mock restaurant project. So, know that I'm here just can't donate a lot of time tonight. I keep forgetting what day of the week it is. To be honest, I am amazed I'm where I am supposed to be at the right times. I know that tomorrow I have 2 exams and today I had my OB presentation, which apparently went really well. I know that after tomorrow I can relax a bit. I guess it is Wednesday. I thought it was Monday though. I need some better method of organization.

So tired. Yay university! I hate dorms.

Grumble Grumble Grumble

More?

Yah, I reallllyyyy don't understand this whole "snow" thing. It's really not acceptable anymore. There are about 5 feet of snow just chilling on the ground and it is still snowing. Makes you just want to stay in bed and snuggle with a warm cup of Ovomaltine...or black tea and honey, not do a power point due Tuesday....at least it isn't due Monday right ;P

YAWWWNNNN

So what is new, besides a new layer of white on top of the white? Well, I had a yummy bowl of oatmeal this morning, I know exciting right! That is about it. Hahaha. I am really awaiting the warmth of spring.

Summer Batch

I actually do have some things to share. I talked to Mr. Taylor about staying for next semester's summer batch, finally, and he rejected me saying that I was only 19 and didn't have enough experience and I would be at a disadvantage. I explained how I was turning 21 in June, did 9 months of service before Les Roches, and thought he was an idiot (I said that with my eyes though). He said that I could do summer batch then; I just have to prove to him my experience, and then he reccomended that I get an exemption as well. Sounds good to me.

BBA

The other thought that struck me today was where I want to do my BBA. I had Lausanne in mind, but Kendall in Chicago has been discussed by some people. I think that I will check it out and see how I feel about it.

Visuals

Pictures!

I thought I would give everyone an idea of what I'm doing and where I am living and surviving ;P















This is an early morning view from my room, yup those are clouds behind that building. That is our Poste building, and those are the Alps of Valais, Switzerland...great snowboarding hehehe!
















Here is my friend Caroline (Canadian) and me in the Sandwich outlet of our school. She is working on the breads for the roast beef sandwich, and I am prepping the ingredients to put inside of them.


















Here I am cutting Roast Beef
















I like this one! It is my chef, De Viti (Italy) and Caroline and me, all in our snazzy uniforms!
















This is our most popular sandwich, the chicken tikka panini.















Our second most popular sandwich, the roast beef. We also sell a 3 cheese on foccacia, and a grilled vegetable panini.

Catch up

I have been rather busy recently, so sorry for the lack of postings. Recently I have been trying not to drown in the massive amounts of snow that continue to fall. I finished working in CDV and PFA sandwich shop. I took my Serve Safe exam and found it SO much easier than I thought it was going to be, hopefully that means I knew the information well and not that I didn't know enough to realize that I did badly hahaha!

Sierre Visit

Today is Carnival, where people get dressed up in costumes (like Halloween) during the day, throw firecrackers around, and have a parade. Tahir, a friend named Alan, and I went down for Thai lunch and watched the antics of Carnival. I randomly ended up at a hockey game, then the little chocolate store, where I got some dark chocolate truffels, which I enjoyed with Tahir over tea after grocery shopping. I also picked up some B-complex vitamines, and rice milk! Yay!

Now I am just relaxing in CDV before starting on a project, then dinner and a movie and an early night, much needed!

Hi and Bye

I'm so tired. I wanted to leave a hello and let you all know that things are going well over here...BUT IT IS SNOWING AGAIN!!!! Like I went to the gym fine and when I left the snow was covering my boots....so much snow. I've been working in CDV!!! wooo!! Chef Roselli was just like "Lia will help any of you who have quastions...she REALLY knows how this place operates." I felt pretty cool, especially since I thought he hated me. I have a bit if free reign, which is pretty cool. I got to make dessert today, and decided to make "American Style" Apple Pie!! SO Good! I made it with a lattice top. I should get a picture tomorrow for you. It was alll gone by the end of the night. I also got to make staff meal with one of my classmates. We decided on fried rice. I was in charge of the vegan one and she was incharge of the regular one. There is still some left over, so hopefully I can eat it tomorrow too. It ended up more like an "asian" curry version of fried rice.

Time for bed!

Peace and Quiet

The Stress

For some reason I feel like this past week has been very hectic for me. I felt completely not in control of what was going on. I was very stressed out. I think it just had to do with my schedule and exhaustion after working so many hours, a DETAILED food sanitation test coming up on Friday, renewing my passport and B-Permit, trying to get a response about moving straight to summer batch, worrying about looking for an apartment for summer batch, and a project which part of it is due on Weds., and some other stressy things. I am amazingly not too socially stressed out, probably because I know that social stuff is not supposed to be stressy, so I simply don't embrace that aspect of it anymore. Phew! This week will be better I believe, since I will be working in a VERY familiar place, CDV!! I am actually quite excited to be returning to the CDV kitchen. :D I will also have my afternoons free without having to wake up at 5 am.

The Peace

I decided to keep this weekend pretty peaceful. I did want to go out dancing last night because I had WAY too much energy, but I suppose I should thank Tahir and Mitali for "calming me down" because I'm glad that I am refreahed and early this morning, ready to accomplish some stuff and get more of my unneeded stress out of the way. I'm meeting Christa at Main Building to get some work done, then off to the gym to get more of my excess energy out.

V Day

I hope everyone had a nice Valentines Day, whether it was spent with a significant other or just used as a day to relax alone or with the family. I did make Banana Walnut Pancakes with Steffi, Tahir, and Mitali. They were really good! I also got to hear Albert's voice and had a nice chat :D I was kind of hoping for a package from KLHT, my high school, but I guess they don't do that anymore, haha oh well.

It is a beautiful day in the Alps by the way!! Steffi went skiing, so I have free reign of the room.... to clean it up hahaha!

Mari's Visit

My high school friend, Mari, who is doing a semester of study in London, came to visit me this Thursday. I had work and stuff, but was able to reorganize enough to get her in the right places. Thursday I picked her up from the train station and took her straight to a Chocolaterie, which I loove! She liked it too! YAY! Then we just got some tea and chatted. I took her to my school's main dining hall for dinner, and she got to see the place. In the morning we went for breakfast, pastries and all the good Swiss things made her really happy, so that was good! Then, I was supposed to have planned this perfectly and go snowboarding with her for a few hours before my work started, but we ended up cutting it too close, so I had to send her off on the lifts alone, which I felt really bad about, but she seems to have enjoyed herself. AND since I worked dinner, I some how managed to get her a seat in our fancy a la carte restaurant with a friend of mine, Nazih. She liked that, which made me feel better about ditching her on the mountain. Then we just chilled in CDV, thinking about going dancing, but then deciding that sleep was a better idea :) ! Today we are going back up to Montana to get a few things done, maybe some breakfast, and then she will be heading home around noon. Overall, I think I supplied her with a good bit of what Bluche had to offer, and I really hope she enjoyed it. I, of course, woke up at 7:30 and have been killing time until 9:45, when we were all supposed to wake up. 15 minutes left haha, she and Steffi are still fast asleep. I couldn't even go the the gym since it opens at 10. Oh, well.

Dearest Dad: if I buy earplugs I cannot hear my alarm go off.

Early Morning or Late Night?

ZZZZ

So I just wanted to share that I have been waking WAY before the crack of dawn (aka 5:15 am, as in the time a lot of people go to sleep after partying) since Monday. This is due to my being on the breakfast shift in the kitchen. My last day is tomorrow, then I get to start Commisary (aka "vegetable cutting" station) which starts at 12:30 and ends at 8 pm. I'm gonna be so messed up because right now I am sleeping at 8 pm hahaha! What I am saying is that I am extremely tired. I do LOVE breakfast shift. I really do. I like being up early and finishing early, and I wouldn't mind the time I have to sleep, but I live in CDV, where everyone chills after classes. They play music in the Cafe and it echos into my room. That and the walls are WAY too thin, meaning that my neighbors share thier conversations with me and my roomy...if only we spoke spanish...

I was runner today, which meant that I got to bring new GN containers full of food to the buffets when they ran out. They are heavy and VERY hot, since I take them straight out of the oven or steamer. Got some fashionable hands after all that hot metal. Tomorrow is my last early morning, which I actually took by choice from someone else in order to be able to have Thursday afternoon free to pick up my friend Mari. She is a highschool friend from CT who is doing a semester in London. I donno how functional I will be tomorrow night, but Friday we plan to snowboard before my afternoon shift starts. I'll be bringing her to Market Place to see what we do there and feed her some Les Roches goodness....I really hope they cook some good stuff.

I'm off to bed...at 7 woohoo!

GRRODDDGGJJJ

You know when you have to wake up early and go to bed early to prepare for that early morning? And you know when you just can't fall asleep no matter what you try to do? EVEN if you do what has never failed you, like listening to track one of my Soymix 2 CD...well that was me, and I went to bed at 8:30, and fell asleep around 11/11:30. Still had to get up at 5am though. Breakfast shift went well though. I was rediculous at the begining! First I was stupid and balanced a glass container of chocolate syrup badly and it fell and broke, fun clean up job. THEN the chef asked me to transfer some strawberry syrup from one glass container to another this time without breaking anything, and I broke it hahaha!! I honestly just laughed so hard when this one broke because I picked it up and the handle broke off and syrup spilled on the counter. The chef just looked at me as if he was saying "honestly? REALLLLYYYY?" hahahaha it was quite funny actually.

I'm dead so I'm passing out and will hopefully be successful this time. G'night!

Solo Boarding

I went snowboarding this morning alone!  I've never gone alone before.  I really liked it, maybe even more than going with people...maybe.  I was supposed to meet a friend, but I think she was still sleeping when I woke up so I just went anyway and had a good time.  I should have gotten the half day pass, but was a bit too ambitious.  I had some hard falls that made me lose my initial excitement.  I did get in a good 3 hours.

For lunch I went to the restaurant at the bottom of the mountain, Violettes Restaurant, and the only available table was for 4, but I sat there anyway.  A group of Italian men ended up joining me.  They spoke no english or french so I wasn't really able to communicate.  They gave me some wine that they brought and I found out that one of the guys actually made it!  It was really good.  A chardonnay.  Then I think one of them wanted to pay for my meal but the wine maker was like "Don't be silly.  She isn't asking us to pay for her, let her pay, she'll probably be weirded out."  That is what I gathered.  There seems to be a closer relationship between spanish and italian than french or english, so I was actually able to understand a bit more than expected. Yah, the spanish that I learned last year, that I thought I forgot, actually came back and STUCK!  It wasn't "stuck" last year, but suddenly...there it is.  Chilling in my head.  So woohoo!

I start breakfast shift in the kitchen tomorrow, bright and early at 6 am!  I'll be sore from today that's for sure!

Winter Day Ramblings

Okay, so I am fond of tis place.  I really am.  For some reason, when I was in the Funi yesterday, I say a mother with her baby and it was all bundled up and snuggly and I just wanted to do that with my kid if I had one.  Put it into all the warm layers and stuff.  Switzerland is a really nice place to grow up and raise a kid I think...even though it is cold.  If you lived near the italian part your kid would learn 4 languages.  French, Italian, German, and English.  How awesome is that?  And they would be peaceful and happy.  Maybe.  But I mean who wouldn't be if they grew up here?  I guess I could deal with living in the cold here when it is so beautiful.  Though right now it is kind of slushing and foggy outside.

Another realization of mine is that I never really knew how stressed I was/am on a regular basis until I actually relaxed, and realized that I was relaxed.  It is so nice to have that.  I was so happy inside, not that I am unhappy now or anything, but I am just stressed and I can feel it more because I am aware of what being relaxed is like.  One thing that came back is my tummy problem, so I guess it is stress related.  I kind of want a job.  I feel like it would calm me down for some reason, and I would be earning some money, which would be nice.

The vegan thing is going really well.  I seem to have options wherever I look now.  I helped CDV yesterday to make the falafels that they are adding to the menu.  We made a bunch and are freezing some because there are so many!  Proceeding to summer batch is still in process as Taylor has yet to respond and give me the okay.  I think it will be fine though.  Then I can start looking for an apartment yay!

Vegan Summer Batch Student?

OKAY! The vegan situation is sorted out. I think it would have been simpler to just give me half-board, but they gave me food instead. The chef will be preparing an individual plate just for me that I ask for at each meal. Today was the first day of this and it worked really well. I got what I needed. I thought they would stuff me with rice and pasta but instead I got a HUGE plate of veggies!! STEAMED too! So good! I ate my dinner portion with rice and soy sauce. I was very happy, and still am. I finally get my veggies! I also met another vegan girl from HOI. I let her know about all this stuff and now she gets a plate too. I feel good!

I am applying to postpone my internship and finish my Les Roches career next semester. I have to get 2 letters that say "yes" I got my first one today. Now Mr. Taylor has to give me the okay. I have to meet with him though, and apparently he is super busy this week. The receptionist told me to try tomorrow and catch him during my 20 minute break.....right. She said it is too difficult to make an appointment right now. Hopefully he will be all for it! Then I will be looking for an appartment. The sooner the better, and the cheaper.

It's windy and cold. That's about it.

OB

I have a class called Organizational Behavior. I have a teacher in this class. He claims to know the subject so well that he freaks people out by how well he can read them and how socially savvy he is. He is soooooo overestimating himself. This does not follow the conservatism principle we learned about in accounting where you should never overestimate your assets. Anyway, he has continually made snide remarks about women and I finally talked to him about it. I wouldn't mind so much if both men and women were made fun of, then I would take it as humor. I was so irritated I almost called him out on it DURING class, but decided to tell him semi-privately, but since he is partially deaf I had to speak pretty loudly anyway. He said he was just looking for reactions, but never got them...yup, really great at reading people....anyway, he apologized and won't do it anymore. Cool.

Otherwise things are still super. I helped Christa meet her new studio. It is really nice! Kinda out of the way, but definitly a good place for one or even two people. I am excited to start looking for a place if Taylor approves my request to be summer batch. I really want my own appartment away from the noise of Bluche. Christa and Matt said they are potentially still looking for a place for summer batch and I might be able to join them in a larger appartment, which would be ace!

I am FINALLY doing laundry. I haven't since I left the states hehehe!! So since Jan 11th. Almost a month! I know, I know, but hey I'm in college right?