An update before the italy recap

Ok, so I am typing with one hand, which means:
a) we’re back from italy (although I can type from italy too! With one or two hands)
b) I had my surgery already

Italy was really fun, but it was cloudy and rainy most of the time we were there. We only got sunshine on the Sunday (a day after we arrived) and on the Sunday we left. We ate lots of great food, and desserts, and wine, saw friends, and had a chance to visit lots of interesting places, like Mount Etna (an active volcano), and Greek/roman ruins (in Agrigento). We did have a chance to dip our feet in the sea, and I was happy about that! I will write more details later (a recap hopefully not as long as the Paris one…).

We got back to reality late on Sunday night, and Monday was a busy day full of house work like laundry and cleaning, and cooking for the week so poor Gera doesn’t have to worry about that (although, I must confess I might have done that more for myself… haha). And today (Tuesday), I went in for my 15 minute surgery. Really, that’s about all it took!. It took longer to get dressed in that awful gown (where your butt shows!) than to get “squishy” removed (yes, I named it squishy!). So I was back home and my fingers were still numb (I had local anesthesia, and by local, they really mean just the palm of the hand!). It hurts a bit now, but I am fine. I will have a few more doctor visits before I can put the memory of “squishy” behind me, I’ll tell you how that goes.

I am having...

… a cyst! Haha. I have an alien growing in my hand, so after a couple of visits to the doctor, I am scheduled to have minor surgery on Feb 27th. For 10 days after that, I will not be able to do housework, like cleaning, or cooking or doing the dishes… I am sooo sad …NOT! Gera will help a lot, and we’ll have 10 days of pizza, sandwiches, brats and other no-fuss, easy-to-cook food (probably use paper plates too! Haha)

We are sooo excited to go to Italy! Finally, its only 5 days away. As for my planning, well, I’ve been better that the last trip (to Paris), but I still have a bit more to go. I am relying on the fact that the place is smaller and will require less complex planning. So far I think we’ll go to Mt. Etna, and Syracuse, besides doing the Taormina sights (ruins and stuff). I have booked a hotel on the beach in Giardini Naxos for the last couple of nights, it’ll be great! Now I need to start packing (OMG! What am I going to wear?). You can count on being fully updated after our return.

Gera is just getting over some serious illness, something like bronchitis or something. He’s been conferring long distance via skype with the other doctors in the family (well, the other MEDICAL doctors, dad, brother and sister-in-law), and he’s way better now. I think he’ll be good as new by Saturday. Now, lets just hope I didn’t get it…

Not much else going on… ah! and you have been saved from the last Paris post! I haven’t done that part yet (and probably wont, at least not anytime soon), so just know that:
“… we said Au revoir to the city of light and were safely on our way back to Zurich. And they lived happily ever after. The end”.

SNOW

here are a few pics of the snow in Zurich.

Photos now on www.flickr.com

what? nothing new since Paris?

yes, internet. I know I have not posted anything but Paris details for the last few weeks (and I still have 1 more installment to go). It is partly because this has taken longer than expected, and partly because nothing much has happened around here since.
But just in case youi were wondering, here's a recap:
=I sent Gera to work one morning with a bag of 20+ tamales for the people in his lab to try. Not many did and the tamales were just sitting pretty in the freezer! (I know this would not have happened with the Hieftje group.) They are going to have work pretty hard if they ever want to get some tasty mexican food from me again!
=The german course is still going on. We are signed up for the next level, from feb 'til july.
=It SNOWED!! finally, some snow in Zurich! We were surprised that the city does not really clear the sidewalks or do the "salt thing". I will post some photos soon.
=The trip to Italy is coming up. We leave on Feb 17th. Sadly we will not be going to Rome after all, but I am sure we will make it there sometime soon! So, Sicily, here we come!
=I've been posting some videos on youtube.com. see if you can find me... or email me to get my username!

Like I said, not much happening.
keep on reading and dont forget to write.

Paris 5: January 1st

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

Day 4: Montmartre, Sacre-Couer, Moulin rouge, cementery piere lachaise, Dinner

January 1, 2007. The first day of the year!
We were ready to roll early (or as early as January 1st would allow), and out to our first stop of the day: Sacre-Couer. Sacre-Couer is a church on a hill in the area of Paris called Montmartre. Montmartre used to be a village outside the city full of painters and dancers and prostitutes. I think it still is, only now is not a village (haha). This is where the Moulina Rouge is, and where several parts of the movie “Amelie” took place. Anyways, getting kinda offtrack here.
We started at Sacre-Couer (sacred heart). The church is on top of a hill and you can get a great view of the city from there, but you have to pay the price: walk up a hill, and then more steps up to the church. It is on a very touristy area, and there’s people trying to sell you stuff, or to get your money. We went in the church and there was a service in progress. Mass on the 1st day of the year, in a very old church, in Paris! (with nuns in full penguin regalia singing in French!) It was awesome!. No photos inside allowed, because of the mass. Once outside, we stood in line for a bit to go to the bell tower and somewhere else inside, but after we found out it was 5 euros to get in, we ditched the bell, and went shopping!
There’s a bunch of touristy shops around the church. The kind that sell keychains and pens and that kind of souvenirs. They also had a bunch of those little French berets and I must admit I bought one! Not the cheesy kind, black with the word “paris” embedded in rhinestones. I got a very nice caramel-color mohair one. (I still haven’t worn it!).
We walked and walked around Montmartre, partly looking for Place du Tertre (where there are painters and people that draw your portrait and sell their paintings and stuff). and partly just because that’s what you’re supposed to do here. We never found the Place du Tertre, We walked until we reached the Moulin Rouge. It has a very long history, but it really doesn’t look like something extraordinary, at least not from the outside. Got a few more pictures and hopped on the metro. We had an appointment with a lizard!
Next stop was Cementery Piere-Lachaise, “the grandest address in Paris”. We got a map from a vendor outside, I had read somewhere it was worth the 2 euros, and it REALLY was. That place is HUGE! You can easily get lost in there. A French couple borrowed our map at some point, they were lost and trying to get to some tomb. We thought “You should have bought the map, dude!.” We scanned the list of famous people, and this time Gera was the navigatos. I was way too busy taking tons of pictures. I love cementeries, specially old ones. I still have to go through those pictures, I might have gotten an unexpected portrait or two… We visited several tombs, but the most memorable one was Jim Morrison’s. There was a crowd around it, so he had a fence around his tomb. The tomb itself is not spectacular or anything. I guess it is more the feeling… He had flowers and little things left by visitors, among them something we noticed right away: a bottle of tequila!
After an evening of walking among the dead, we felt pretty dead tired ourselves and headed back to the hotel for a break. After that, we just went out trying to find something to eat. We were tired of cold sandwiches, and we needed to try some authentic food. So we went to a Braserie near the hotel and ordered a bowl of French Onion Soup (in france they just call it onion soup), and escargot (snails). Gera was very surprised that I was willing to even try them! They were surprisingly delicious! With lots of olive oil and garlic, I guess they tasted like chicken! Haha

Paris 4: New Year's Eve

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

Day 3: Trocadero, Tour Eiffel, Jardin de Mars, Musee D’Orsay, Pantheon, St. Sulspice, New year’s at Arc du Triomph

Ok, so we kinda shuffled our plans around to fit whatever time we had and whatever was open. We did get to see a lot, but there were still a few things that were closed due to the holidays (like the Pantheon), or because most museums close on Tuesdays (like the Picasso Museum).

Anyways, Part of the plan for today was to start the day at Trocadero, which honestly I am not really sure what it is. Its like a plaza with nice buildings, a big fountain with some missiles pointing to the Eiffel Tower. We got there and the view of the tower was great. From there we walked to the base of the tower thinking we would go up the the observation deck (only to the 2nd floor, because its cheaper because you climb the stairs). The lines were looong, to both the lifts and the stairs, so we quickly ditched that plan, said “Au Revoir” to Tour Eiffel and walked a bit in the gardens next to the tower: Jardin de Mars. I bet this is where people have their “picnic by the Eiffel Tower” moment. It doesn’t really look like much this time of the year.

Next we went to the Musee d’Orsay. And the line here too was looong. We were saved from it by the fabulous museum pass (highly recommend it!). We stood in line only about 5 minutes before getting in, and this was just because of the security check. We had an audiotour for this museum, and started following it at the beginning, but after we were done with the 1st floor, we were starving, so to move more quickly we just went with the book guide we had and the audioguide from the museum. We saw lots of paintings by Monet and Manet (the ones I get confused…), and Degas, Lautrec, and many others. It’s a very nice collection, some people like it more that the Louvre. It took us about 3 or 4 hours to quickly glance through the collection (at this point, I’ve lost track of time…).

The pantheon was next on our list and off we were. Sadly, it was already closed. It had closed early because it was Dec. 31, and it wouldn’t open again until Jan. 2. But since we had a veru flexible schedule, we quickly recovered and planned to go to St. Sulpice.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit thet the only reason we went there is because it was featured on “The DaVinci Code”. There’s a brass line that runs through the middle of the church that marks what was the Paris meridian (moved to Greenwich now), and it is used to determine global time zones. Anyways, the church itself has more to offer than that, like frescoes by Delacroix and an interesting architectural history. But time was scarce, and we needed to rest a bit before going out to our New Year’s Eve celebration.

Back at the hotel (around 6pm), the hotel staff had left a little box of chocolates for us with a card signed by the staff. That was a nice touch! We ate the chocolates, drank champagne, took a nap and woke up ready to party. (as ready as we were going to be at least). We headed out for a walk on Champs Elysees, and the crowd was beginning to gather up. We walked for a bit and then settled in on a spot where the Arc Du Triomph and Champs Elysees meet. There were a surprising number of police men, all dressed in what looked like anti-riot gear, with thick vests and helmets and shields. We waited there for the midnight firework show that never came. Well, at least not the official one that the city sponsors. Turns out (we later found out), this was the 1st year Paris did not have any official New Year’s celebrations, because of problems in the past (with fireworks and crazy people, I believe). That explained the police. Anyways, the Eiffel did light up, and there were some fireworks here and there, so we got to have our special kiss on the first few seconds of 2007 in Paris! (one less thing on my “things-to-do-in-my-lifetime list).

At around 1:30 am, the police started to disperse the crowd, so we headed back to the hotel (which was just a few blocks away, strategically chosen for this very moment). We were hungry (midnight munchies!), and the only thing open on the way to the hotel was a Kebab stand. So there you have it, our first meal of 2007: Pitas stuffed with lamb and a huge side of French fries (very appropriate). I did not eat the kebab, but I did eat all the fries. Yummy, soggy and greasy, just how I like them.

Paris 3: walking and walking

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

Day 2: Musee de Louvre, Notre Dame, Siene, Latin Quarter, Place St. Michelle, St. Chapelle, Conciergerie, Centre Pompidu (Museum of modern art).

We did not request a wake-up call, but we certainly got one from our next-door neighbors. They were slamming closet doors and moving stuff around and it did not help that the walls were paper-thin. It was time to get up anyways (8:30 AM). We got ready, all bundled up and headed for the Louvre (again) with a short stop at the corner bakery (conveniently placed in front of the metro stop).

We went back to the Louvre to finish looking at all that straight-from-the-art-history-books artwork. This time we had to go in through the side entrance using our Museum Pass. The glass pyramid at the Louvre was designed by I. M. Pei, the same architect that designed the IU art Museum (just throwing that out there for Bloomington folks, haha). We walked around for hours, and aided by the museum floor map and a Paris museum art book, we found most of the “must-sees” of the Louvre. Of course, the “must-sees” vary depending on who you ask, but hey! if they print it on the map and have special signage for it, it MUST be special. We had lunch at a museum café, and headed out towards the next thing on the list: Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris.

We walked along the Siene towards Notre-Dame, which sits on Ile de la Cite (an island on the river). Since that was the starting point of another one of Rick Steves’ audiowalks, we decided to give it a try. We looked at the outside of the cathedral and then went in. Inside it was very impressive, with huge walls and stained glass, and lots of people whispering in different languages. It was more “tower of Babel” than Notre-Dame. Outside, we thought about going up to the observation deck to get a view of Paris and photograph the gargoyles made famous by Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre-Dame. But discouraged by the extremely long line to get in (we calculated at least 1.5 hrs. and the Museum Pass did not provide special treatment at this location), we headed to the next sight, thinking we would come back to it if there was time later. There wasn’t and we didn’t.

We walked a bit more on Ile de la Cite, to the Deportation Memorial behind Notre-Dame (to honor the 200,000 french victims of the Nazi concentration camps in WWII). Still following the audiowalk, we walked along the Siene to the Latin quarter (name that not because of the salsa sounds, but because way back in the day they spoke latin around here because of the university). There are a lot of little shops and little streets around here. Also lots of cafes. Walking and walking we ended up at Place St. Michelle, where in 1968 students took over the square declaring an independent state (they later caved in).

Following the audiowalk was pretty fun but having no specific map for the walk made it a bit difficult. We got disoriented a few times, specially around the Latin Quarter.

Next stop was St. Chapelle, a very old church located in the courtyard of France’s supreme court, so we had to pass through security to get it. The museum pass saved the day here as well, putting us in front of the line and keeping us out of the rain. Here’s a bit of history for you: this church was built in 1248 for Luis IX, and it took only 5 years to build (very quickly for the times). It has 2 floors, so we had to climb more stairs (we were alredy very tired at this point). On the inside of the top floor, the walls are full of stained glass windows depicting stories from the bible from the creation to the coming of Christ and the end of the world. It was quite impressive! It was a shame there was almost no light outside to get a proper view.

Right next to St. Michelle is the Conciergerie, a prison where people sentenced to the guillotine were kept, including Marie Antoniette. By the time we got there, they were not letting more people in (it closed in 1/2 hour), so we peeked through a window and decided to come back to it. We did, but again, it was closed, so it must have been fate.

The tour ended at Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris, and that is an accomplishment in a city where everything is old!). so we planned our next destination on our own (and based on what is open late). So the clear winner was Center Pompidu (funny name, haha). It houses the Museum of modern art, and a few other temporary exhibit galleries. Free entry with the museum pass. Great!. Getting there involved more walking, so after looking for it walking in the rain, we had to warm up and do another Paris “must”: sit down at a café and have, well, café (café au lait, to be precise). We did, and threw in some sweet crepes (by the way, the coffee was more expensive that the crepes). Armed with more energy and a bit warmer, we were ready to keep looking for the allusive Pompidu, which happened to be just around the corner. Part of the permanent collection area was closed, but we got to see a big amount of modern artwork. The building is huge and very modern itself, with glass walls, and the escalators running inside clear tubes through the outside front of the building. In the “museum timeline”, the Pompidu sits in the end (Louvre, d’Orsay, Pompidu).

We called it a day after Pompidu, headed back to the hotel and ate some carry out Chinese food (from around the corner near the hotel). We had big plans for the next day. the last day of 2006.

Paris 2: Our first taste of Paris

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

Day 1: airport, arrival, hotel, Arc du Triomph, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde, Jardin des Tullieries, Palais Royal, Musee du Louvre

Getting to Paris was easy. We traveled by plane and it took us longer to get to the airport and wait for boarding than it took to actually get there (1.5 hr). We arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport about 1 hour later than expected (it was quite foggy in Zürich, so there were delays). Thanks to my handy dandy research, we knew we could buy the metro pass and the museum pass at the airport, so we headed towards the tourist info office. They had network problems so we could not buy the museum pass, and the metro pass had to be purchased at the metro ticket counter. There we waited for about 20 minutes, requested the metro pass (for 4 days) and getting ready to pay, we each got money our of our wallets, and the guy at the counter said to Gera (in a thick French accent) “Here men pay for everything, don’t let her pay again!”, half kidding, half serious. Our first impression of Paris. (fnny). We hopped on the RER and had to transfer at a station so we could get to the hotel. Of course, at the transfer we got on the metro going the opposite way we wanted to go, and then had to transfer again, and the second time we got it right. As we exited the metro station, our first sight of Paris was waiting: the Arc du Triomph stood there, triumphant and colossal, it was amazing!

We started walking in the direction of the hotel (located not on Champs Elysees, but on the opposite avenue). We walked for a few minutes when all of a sudden Gera and I stopped and simultaneously smelled the air: fresh baked bread! We both turned and the bakery was just behind us, on the corner. We got a couple of croissants and a couple of pieces of some sweet-flaky-chocolaty pastry (what would become our usual Paris breakfast). We continued walking for a few more minutes until we started to realize that we must had passed the hotel already, so we turned and headed back. Turns out we were supposed to turn on the same corner where the bakery was. It was fate saying “Look here!” with the sweet smell of carbs, but we did not listen.

The hotel was small with paper-thin walls, but very nice and clean (I will be writing a review for it later at tripadvisor.com). They gave us a room (strangely, there was no sign-in protocol) and a few minutes later called us to very politely ask us to go back downstairs with our luggage. They had given us the wrong room!. The 1st room was tiny, and we were sure they would not give us a bigger room, so we were scared to see what our actual room looked like. It WAS actually bigger than the first! The downside: it was on the 4th floor, and on the 5th floor they were renovating or something, so the construction noise woke us up early in the mornings. That and our VERY noisy next-door neighbors.

Once we were settled, it was already past 4pm, so we headed out towards the nearest attraction, ready to start crossing things off our list. We walked towards the Arc de Triomph, crossed the roundabout (through an underground tunnel) where 12 major avenues meet, and waited in line to buy the museum pass. There is no elevator to go up to the observation deck, only 280+ steps. We started climbing and I “almost” made it to the top without stopping, but when we had to stop, we HAD to stop. My heart was racing and I couldn’t breathe. Gera kept saying “we’re almost there”, but my boots felt heavy and he quickly quieted down once I told him “the batteries on the camera are dead!”. (haha) There were not exactly dead, but very very low, so we only got a few shots from the observation. We bought expensive batteries at a little store on Champs Elysees, and I never forgot to pack fresh batteries for the rest of the trip.

We kept walking on Champs Elysees, and walked, and walked. It was long, specially because we were so tired from climb up the arc. We eventually (finally!) reached the end of the avenue, at Place de la Concorde, where the big Egyptian obelisk is. We stopped, enjoyed the view and continued walking. We still had to cross a big garden (Jardin des Tuileries) to get to our next destination: Musee du Louvre. Across from Place de la Concorde there’s a huge ferris wheel and some food stands. We went on the ferris wheel and bought some crepes and some churros at the food stands. We continued walking and finally got to the Louvre, which is open late on Fridays.

We figured we should get the Monalisa out of the now, because it wouldn’t be so crowded so late at night (we were right). We went in through the glass pyramid (no line) and headed straight for La Giaconda. Walked across grand halls full of spectacular statues; magnificent stairs, and painted ceilings, the building is an artwork by itself. We finally found her, swimming in a sea of tourists. There were guards surrounding her and they seemed to be very angry at everybody. They kept shouting “NO PHOTOS! NO PHOTOS! MONSIEUR, NO PHOTOS!” and people kept ignoring them and snapping shots here and there, which explains their temper. I was good and did not snap a single shot, but there were some very bad people who even committed the museum capital sin: flash photography!

We tried to follow Rick Steves’ Louvre tour on the MP3 player, but it was a bit frustrating because we kept getting lost, so we gave up on that (note to self: next time print the maps that go with the guided tour). We saw some more art, like the Venus de Milo and old roman statues and we were ready to call it a day. And what a day it was, our first day in Paris.

Paris 1: Planning

ALL PARIS PICS CAN BE FOUND HERE
and picture album that contains pics of paris not included above is found here

The planning: audioguides and passes

Gera named me the “official travel planner” of the household. I am usually pretty good at researching our destination and finding out places to go, visit, eat, etc. This time I was not so good. I left everything ‘til the last minute (or rather last 2 days). I was in a “planning” frenzy on dec. 27 and 28th. Where’s the hotel? How do we get there from the airport? Do we take a cab? Metro? Do they have metro passes? Do they have tourist passes? What are we going to do once we get there? This and a whole lot of other questions had to be answered, and I only had 2 days.
So I started just figuring out the basics, and it all came together in the end. I found out about the Museum Pass, an awesome pass that allows you entry to over 60 museums and monuments (including the Louvre), and it cuts you to the front of the line (very useful!), We also decided to buy a Paris Visite card, for unlimited use of Metro, Bus, and RER (train), so we could hop on and off without having to buy a ticket first. In retrospect, a couple of 10-tickets packs would have been enough and cheaper, but this worked too.
The other great find was a collection for Audioguides from Rick Steves’ website. They are downloadable (free!) and it’s like having a personal tour guide in the streets of Paris. There are other mini-guides on the internet, so I got a bunch, but most were just short descriptions of some monuments and stuff. Having an iPod would have made things easier (on the screen you get a picture of what the guide is describing, and you can view maps that way too), but just a regular mp3 player worked ok.
So armed with a couple of maps Gera printed, and some printouts from internet guidebooks we were on our way to paris (bright and early, as usual).

quick update

Christmas photos here!

The Holiday season is over, and it all happened so quickly. One minute we were wondering what to have for dinner, thinking how sad it was we were all scattered about, the next thing I know, its January 4th!
We had a great xmas dinner, watched a couple of movies, opened presents and voila! christmas was over. Then we headed for Paris for the New year celebration. That was a quick trip, and is suddenly all becoming a blur (better type up the blog for that before it becomes too blurry!).
Now we just go back to the usual routine, but with a few new year's resolutions in mind.
I am still working on the blog for the paris trip, I will probably post it in istallments, since its turning out to be too long! Pics will be coming soon too.
Happy new year!

feliz navidad!

merry christmas everyone!
have a great dinner, eats lots of food, and enjoy the company of friends and family (dont take it for granted, hehe). big hughs to all! ** jazi&gera

nochebuena & tamales

find pictures HERE

Ok, so I have been kinda busy, so no posts in 2 weeks, sorry (if anyone noticed…)
Tomorrow is Nochebuena (Christmas eve), and I’ve been getting ready for it. We’ll be eating tamales!! I just finished making them today (yes, ahead of time, because they take long to make, and wanted to have everything ready to just chill out during the day). I made some corn tamales (my own recipe that I kinda just threw together), nothing like my mom’s, but pretty close!! They are my favorite, and now I can have them whenever I want. (mmmm, corn tamales, with cheese, cream, and chiles). For desert we’re having pumpking roll (Adri’s family recipe!). I had a hard time finding canned pumpkin but finally found it at a “gourmet store. I will post pictures and stories about our holiday dinner next time.

We had a great time at Gera’s lab holiday party. It was a potluck and I brought flan. Everybody liked it a lot! We had to walk all the way back home (for an hour and a half!), at 2 in the morning because the night buses only run every hour, and we never caught one. It was super cold too. I slipped on an icy sidewalk, fell and scratched my knee pretty good (more like pretty bad). I was ok though; no internal bleeding or anything (haha).

This past week we’ve been hanging out with Claudia (Gera’s cousin who’s visiting for the holidays). We’ve been walking around and trying to show her what little of Zürich we know (she’s our test run for upcoming visitors, hehe).

I’ve managed to watch the whole season of survivor on Youtube.com. I haven’t had time to look for something else to watch, but I did find a few episodes of Gilmore Girls and How I Met Your Mother.

We’ve managed to visit the Grossmünster when it was actually open, so we got to climb up one of the towers. You can see the pics postedin the album linked above.

It’s December 23 and still NO snow. In fact, it was actually sunny yesterday and today. So there will not be a white Christmas for us. I can only imagine how bad it’ll be once it really starts to snow around here. For now I plan to enjoy the weather that’s not very bad at all.

the churches!

----proximamente disponible en español--------


Find photos for this weekend here


Another week has come and went (or is it gone?), whatever… point is: time flies.
I got my Christmas gift from gera early this year (well, actually, every year). He ordered more memory for my little 12” PowerBook G4 (that had been struggling to keep up with updates and new software and what not). It works much better now. Thank you Gera!
I managed to put some packages in the mail with a non-english-speaking clerk. Nothing major really, but an accomplishment in my book.

I got my secret-santa gift in the mail (I mentioned something about this last post). The site that organized the swap offered another henna-related gift when you signed up, and I got BOTH my henna gifts in the mail the same day. Of course I was not going to wait ‘til xmas to open them. From my secret santa I got a bunch of little henna-related things, like a small henna design book, and some henna powder, a marker-tattoo kit, bindis, some incense, lavender soap (what does that have to do with henna?, beats me!). Anyways, the incense had to go outside almost immediately! It was stinking up the place, Waaay too strong (it was some of those blue boxes with red letters that are sold at “international” markets). The rest of the stuff was ok. From the henna elf (the swap organizer) I got several goodies too! A CD with designs (I contributed one design, and it was used for the face of the CD! Awesome!), some crystals to beautify the henna, some henna powder, applicators, and glitter. It was a great day full of little presents!

We have almost done all the “touristy” things available around the city, except “the churches.” We decided we should do that on Saturday, so we armed ourselves with an umbrella and headed out. Our first stop was Augustinerkirche, and it was closed. We then headed to the Groomünster, that had just finished service and was very crowded. We couldn’t even get in, and the tower we wanted to climb was closed due to the services. (special services.. we could’t figure out what religious holiday was being celebrated… something to do with advent?) so once again we were disappointed by “the churches.” We moved on to St Peters Kirche, a church with a clock with a face that is 8.7 m in diameter (28 ft), the largest in Europe. That one was open, and there was a choir rehearsing, so we got a mini-concert for free! It was beautiful. As we were sitting there, listening to the music, our friend Carmen recognized us. What are the chances! We met her in Bloomington, she’s from Germany, and was on a day-trip in Zürich with her sister. We went for coffee to (once again) a Starbucks (hey! they are everywhere).

I finished watching ANTM, and moved on to the Amazing Race (AR). Today I just finished with AR (season 10), so now I'm looking for other shows. youtube rocks! Do i need to say that once again my reading has been reduced to zero? think not.

Other mini-notes: Gera’s cousin from mexico (whom I haven’t met) is arriving on thursday (tomorrow). I still haven’t decorated our home for xmas. Maybe by the time I get around to it, it’ll be easter! Gera’s lab xmas party is on Friday, and I am bringing flan. What else? Well, I’ve been thinking about new year’s resolutions… exercise it at the top of the list! What is on yours?

'tis the season

--- aun no esta disponible en español----

check out the pictures for this post here

Not much happening on this side of the world. Its been 2 months since I got here (wow! Two months already!). I got a big burn on my hand when making flan (not happy about that, so I’ll just get it out now). Stupid oven doors, why do they need to get so hot?! Nothing serious, it will just leave a very bad scar. I’ve created a new blog just for my book reviews (can I really call them that? Think not). You can find the link on the menu at the right, just below Abril’s blog link. Now I will not have to submit unwilling souls to the torture of my reading habits. I think I will also make a separate blog for entries in Spanish, but maybe later.

Lately, I have been enjoying the pleasures of youtube.com, watching ANTM like there’s no tomorrow! (America’s Next Top Model is a model reality show, for those of you who live under a rock OR have a life… whatever fits you best). I am now fully up to date with the who-is-who situation, I’ve got a favorite and now I am just waiting for this user to post the season finale (happening sometime this week I think). Anyways, I was thinking… is this legal? I mean… to publish videos from a network? What about copyright issues? Nah! Screw it! I can now watch regular American TV shows! Haha! I’ve also kept up with reading all about Gilmore Girls (at televisionwithoutpity.com). Now if I can only get GG and Survivor at youtube.com… now we’re talking. Will look into that.

Eragon (the movie about dragons) is coming out soon (dec. 14th here) and we’re ready to hit the movie theater for the first time in Zürich (we haven’t been to a movie in so long!). Also looking forward to a couple of other movies Gera keeps mentioning, but I forget the names. One’s about a labyrinth and one’s about Vikings (I think). I’ll report on that later.

Christmas is coming up and we’re trying to decide what we’re doing. This will be the first Christmas we spend by ourselves. I think I will make tamales instead of turkey (A) we ate turkey at a Mexican xmas dinner last week and B) I don’t know how to cook turkey). Gera’s cousin from Mexico is traveling around Europe, and she’ll be stopping by around those dates (she will be our first house guest!). Gera already got me my Christmas present: memory for my computer! I haven’t gotten anything for him yet. I haven’t put up any Christmas decorations either… I just haven’t gotten into the spirit.

We went Christmas shopping this past weekend and got some goodies for our family in Mexico. They will be spending Christmas apart as well for the first time since we became one big happy family 6 years ago (camp Molina will be in Juarez and camp Gamez in Dallas). [[Abril says its 8 years and not 6]] That means this will be the first Christmas Abril and Roberto spend apart (that suck more than my xmas situation!).

The pictures I posted for this week are mainly of our day of shopping. We walked all the way from home to the main central (like 1.5 hours), and then did all our shopping in one afternoon. The weather was awesome! We’ve heard from several different sources that it is unusually warm for this time of year. NO SNOW yet! Not even a hint! I already broke out my new snow boots though. I didn’t want to get them all dirty with muddy snow the first time I wore them so I am wearing then BEFORE the snow (clever girl, huh?).

There are also a few pics from a Christmas dinner we went to on Monday of last week. It was hosted by a group of Mexican women (and a few men) that get together about once a month to cook and eat and talk. We were invited very last minute, but it was very fun and we met a bunch of mexicans (most are permanent Swiss residents), and ate delicious turkey. They had a gift exchange and I got a Santa mug and a set of scented candles (sticking to my secret-Santa philosophy of “always give something you would like to get yourself”, I gave a pair of Alpaca gloves). I am also signed up on an “international” henna community gift exchange. I will be sending something henna-related to someone in France. I am really anxious to see what I get.

We also went to a Zürich city welcome session, where we got a mini-tour of the downtown area, a brief explanation of the services the city offers AND some food and wine. We were divided into “language” groups and we went with the Spanish-speakers. We met people from Chile and Brazil and other places (yes, I know Brazilians speak Portuguese, but these Brazilians spoke Spanish). The pictures of the event were posted here (latino.ch), but I’ve added them to the photo album liked above).

As always, don’t forget to write and say hello! And remember to make plans to come visit!

more flantastic stuff

more pics here:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/320314/index.html
(copy/paste)

**Version en español proximamente! Si no quieres esperar, ve a www.babelfish.altavista.com para traducir.**

Last Friday we finally got all our furniture shopping done (at least the big items, hehe). We rented a van and headed to ikea. We picked up our wardrobes first at another furniture store right next to ikea (the ones we bought like 6 weeks ago but had to be ordered), and we parked the van there (we didn’t think the tall van would fit in ikea’s underground parking). We got a big (nice and comfortable) sofa–bed (it’s a double bed!) so we’re ready for visitors! (who’s going to break it in?). We also got a bunch of other “smaller” stuff, like a desk (we kept our previous desk/table as a dinning table), a bookshelf (with all those books, we ended up needing one), some frames for the great artwork my friend Adrienne sent me for my bare walls (thanks Adri), lamp shades, wine glasses, hangers, among other things. I think we’re set in the furniture department. Getting the sofa off the van and inside the apartment was a bit of a nightmare. It was very heavy, and it almost didn’t fit through the door (that would have been funny. Not really). We ended up removing the little legs (more like plastic bottle capas), and without that half inch they made it in just fine.

Saturday we spent the entire day assembling our newly acquired pieces, and rearranging the layout of our living room (as much rearranging as one can so within limited space). We put curtains up, installed a coat rack on the wall with a shoe trunk under it (we’re a “take-your-shoes-off-at-the-door household now), and FINALLY got our clothes in hangers and in the wardrobes! (can you imagine that we had been living out of a suitcase since we left Bloomington on July 24th??? We had, and it was driving me nuts!). We also stored away our suitcases (we have a bit of basement space in a communal area).

Sunday was a lazy day as well. We went to the main station, to walk around a “holiday market” they have set up. With varied items (food, crafts, jewelry), we were looking for a gift to take to a Christmas Dinner gift exchange today (Monday). More on that below. We walked around and bought something and returned home. We were exhausted! (with bruised and sore muscles from the furniture-carrying ordeal). We talked and chatted with family, and I made a delicious FLAN (Abril’s recipe, of course).
Today we’re going to a Mexican Christmas dinner. We were invited by a person Gera met at a Sept. 16 party, and since we don’t really have other plans and want to meet other people, we’re going. Also, the menu promises to be yummy (corn crème, mushroom-chipotle stuffed turkey, and dessert). I’ll tell you more about that next week.

Books: I finally finished reading “Lost Girls”. I am not too thrilled about it. It was long and depressing, supposedly scary, but not scary enough to make up for the hard-to-follow sequences. I decided a “fresh and funny” story is now needed to make up for the last week and a half of a not-quite-my-taste novel, so I picked up “Simply Divine” by Wendy Holden. Just started reading last night, we’ll see how it goes.

So now that the cat’s out of the bag, I am free to tell you that Abril and Roberto are moving back to Juarez! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the “Gemz” will no longer inhabit the Midwest (“Gemz”: sort of an inside joke, sorry). So if you’re in Btown, make sure you say your goodbyes soon, for they leave before Christmas. And if you’re somewhere else, email them to wish them good luck, as they too (like us and a bunch of our grad-school friends), move on to bigger and better things!
(read about it in Abril's blog: http://www.knitting-en-spanish.blogspot.com/

new year's plans, and views from above.

EN ESPAÑOL MAS ABAJO

**weekend photos posted here: (copy/paste)
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/319658/index.html


We got another Mac.
We went to the highest point in Zürich.
We went to Kulturama.
German language is hard.
We’re going to Paris.
I read another book.

Oh! You want details? Well, here they are:
Gera’s lab updated equipment, they were giving the computers away, so we got one. It’s a G4, I’m working on the software updates to have it top shape. Why do we need 2? Well, we can use it for music… I don’t know, they were free. FREE. You cannot pass that up (haha). Carrying it home was hard, but that was the day’s workout.

On Saturday we took a train up a mountain (actually, the mountain that’s right behind our house) to take a look at the city from high above. The view was awesome, better than anything we’d seen so far around town. There’s a hotel there, and a viewing tower. We got to see the sun set, it was all very beautiful (and romantic). (check out the pictures).

On Sunday we went to a children’s history museum (and contrary to the nomenclature, they don’t showcase the history of children, haha). It was honestly disappointing, I guess we were expecting too much, and it doesn’t help that we are a bit older than their target audience (but we usually have a blast at children’s museums!). Anyways, it was just ok, but not what we were expecting. Basically, two floors of timelines, fossils, and bones, and two floors of human-history-and anatomy interactive stuff. No English subtitles anywhere.

Our German classes are twice a week: Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We get homework (Hausaufgaben) and everything! I’ve decided that grammar and conjugation is hard in any language. I know the numbers now, and we’re trying to learn what things are “feminine”, “neutral” and “masculine”, because like in Spanish, objects have “gender”, but unfortunately, not the same gender as in Spanish. So we keep on learning!

We finally booked our trip to Paris! I am so excited! We’ll be there for New Years (from December 29, ‘til January 2). We got a nice hotel near the Arc du Triumphe (or however that’s spelled), because that’s the place to be when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st (and the metro is not running after midnight, so proximity to the party scene was a must! Hey, I did my research!). Of course we’re doing all the “musts” as well, and we’ll take lots of pictures to share! (Do I need to mention this is our first time in Paris? Well, it is, so if you have any tips, please do share).
Our February trip to Italy (another first) is also coming together, with our dearest friend Kate offering her place for us in Rome (thank you Kate!), we’ll have a base to explore the surrounding area. And since we’re on the land of skiing, we’re also looking into a weekend skiing trip. I will keep you posted on the travel plans.

On the “jazibe’s bookclub” front. I finished reading “The Death Collectors” by Jack Kerley sometime last week. It was ok: entertaining, and with a sufficient amount of mystery and twists, but nothing more. Now I am reading “Lost Girls” by Andrew Pyper. I am not too sure about it yet. I’ve found it harder to read that the previous books (so that must mean it’s good, no? haha), and I haven’t gotten to the part of the book where you just cant stop reading. Oh! The joy of free books! Gotta love it!

-------------ESPAÑOL------------(traducido con ayuda de altavista.com, asi que puede que suene medio raro, jeje)

**fotos en:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/319658/index.html

Conseguimos otra mac.
Fuimos al punto más alto de Zurich.
Fuimos a Kulturama.
El aleman es dificil.
Vamos a París.
Leí otro libro.

¡Ah! ¿Quieren detalles? Ok, ahi les van:

Actualizaon el equipo del laboratorio de Gera, y estaban regalando las computadoras usadas, así que conseguimos una. Es una G4, y le estoy actualizando el software y todo para dejarla como nueva. ¿Por qué necesitamos 2? Pues, podemos utilizarlo para la música... No sé, es que era gratis. GRATIS. Y una oportunidad asi no se deja pasar. Cargarla hasta la casa estuvo pesado (literalmente), pero ese fue nuestro ejercicio del dia.

El sábado tomamos un tren para subir a una montaña (la montaña que esta detrás de nuestra casa) para ver la ciudad desde arriba. El paisaje era impresionante, mejor que cualquier otro que hayamos visto de otro punto alrededor de ciudad. Hay un hotel allí, y una torre de observacion. Vimos el atardecer y todo fue muy hermoso (y romántico).

El domingo fuimos a un museo de la historia de los niños (y contrariamente a la nomenclatura, no muestran la historia de niños, Haha). Honestamente decepcionante, a lo major esperabamos demasiado, y no ayuda que somos un poco mas rucos que su audiencia general (pero usualmente nos divertimos tanto en los museos de los niños!). De todas formas, era apenas aceptable, pero no lo qué esperábamos. Básicamente, dos pisos de timelines, fósiles, y huesos, y dos pisos de material interactivo de la anatomía. Sin subtitulos en ingles.

Nuestras clases alemanas son dos veces a la semana: Martes y miércoles. ¡y hasta nos encargan tarea y todo! He decidido que la gramática y la conjugación es dificil en cualquier idioma. Ahora ya me se a los números, y estamos intentando aprender qué cosas son "femeninas", "neutras" y "masculinas", porque como en el español, los objetos tienen "género", pero desafortunadamente, no el mismo género que en español.

¡Finalmente reservamos nuestro viaje a París! ¡que emocion Estaremos allí para Años Nuevos (de diciembre 29, hasta enero 2). ¡Conseguimos un hotel agradable cerca del arco du Triumphe (o como se escriba), porque ése es el lugar donde estar cuando el reloj de la medianoche el 31 de diciembre (y el metro no está funcionando después de medianoche, así que la proximidad a la pachanga era obligatoria)!
Nuestro viaje de febrero a Italia también va bien, con nuestra querida amiga Kate que nos ofrecio su casa en Roma (gracias Kate!), tendremos una base para explorar los alrededores. Y puesto que estamos en la tierra del esquí, también estamos viendo hacer un viaje de esquí algun fin de semana.

Con respecto a los libros: Acabé el leer "Los colectores de la muerte" por Jack Kerley la semana pasada. Fue aceptable: entretenido, y con una suficiente cantidad de misterio y de twists, pero nada más. Ahora estoy leyendo "muchachas perdidas" por Andrew Pyper. No estoy muy segura si me gusta todavía.

vino & books (pics included!)

check out the pictures here!
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/319002/index.html
(copy/paste)

After receiving 100 books last week, I’ve realized that my reading frenzy hadn’t vanished, it was just “on a break”. I’ve read 3 books from this new collection already (in 1 week), and there’s 97 more to go! Gera is very impressed by my reading speed, and thinks that I secretly skip pages just to pretend I read fast (haha). I read a couple of books the a British comedian Arabella Weir: “Does my bum look big in this” and “onwards and upwards.” The first is a very short book very a-la-Bridget-Jones-diary, the second is more of a novel about 3 friends growing up together; and they’re both very funny. The third book, which I just finished this morning, is very a-la-Da-Vinci-Code. “The rule of four”, by in Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, is very smart and very good. Its about the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (a very, very old book printed in Italy a long time ago) and the secrets it contains hidden by codes within the text (those former S250 instructors know exactly which book it is!). I haven’t yet picked my next “victim”, I’ll tell you about it next week.

We went to a wine festival Saturday night, and it was fun! Expovina takes place once a year in Zürich, and I read it the world’s largest wine-tasting festival for non-professionals (whatever that means, I suspect: “people who don’t know much a bout wine but pretend they do just to get drunk tasting a bunch of them”). Anyways, there were thousands of wines to taste from all over the world, and it all took place on board a bunch of ships all docked together (great! like feeling drunk and dizzy on land is not enough, they had to do it on water!). We made it to 38 wines in about 4 hours (with a brat and lots of bread and water in between). I think it was quite an accomplishment, and we even made it home alright, although we did forget our usual stop to change trams, but we managed alright (it was hilarious!). And to top it off, the morning after was pretty decent: no headache, no hung-over feeling. In my books it was a total success! (http://expovina.ch/)

On Sunday we went to a little Bazaar-type thing. I read about it on an expat message board, and they mentioned the magic word: henna. So we were there, pretty much just for the henna, but I was disappointed to see a nonprofessional doing it, and the whole time I was thinking “I can do this much better myself”. I did get a design on my hand, and after talking to the woman a bit, she mentioned she might need help for a gig next year, so I was glad that I at least made a “henna contact.”

We bought our tickets to go to Italy next year! We’ll be going to Sicily mid-end February. Very exciting! Will keep you posted on the progress.

3D movies, starbucks and books

En ESPAÑOL MAS ABAJO

Well, I decided that having internet is not really going to help post things any sooner (ha!). Weekdays are really not that interesting, and although I could probably write about how I went to the store and the bananas were on sale, I wont. I write too much as it is already (I don’t want to bore you). So I will keep my stories to a couple of posts a week, and the email reminders to once a week (or every other week).

This time I’ve posted some pics that relate to this weekend ahead of time, and you can find them here:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/318134/index.html
(copy/paste)

On Friday we went to a 3D film festival (ha! “festival”, that’s what they called it, but it was really more of a show). There’s a Stereoscopic Imaging class at ETH and every year the class gets to show to an audience what they did as a final project. They are Computer Science majors and it shows (haha!). Here’s a link to the site where they promote the festival, so you get an idea, but designers beware! Cover your eyes as you click!
http://www.lst.inf.ethz.ch/films/

Saturday was nice and sunny and we ditched our original plan of going to a design museum for a more outdoorsy adventure: taking a ride on the polybahn to see the views. What’s the polybahn? Well, basically it’s a funicular railway car that takes you up a mountain. Check out the pictures also (link above).
Here’s a link to more info:
http://europeforvisitors.com/switzaustria/articles/zurich_polybahn.htm

After that, we went home to eat, and then back out again to meet a friend for coffee. It was cold, and we walked around “old town”, an area around the lake where there’s lots of little shops, restaurants and cafes (very touristy). And of all places, we ended up having coffee at a Starbucks (haha!). We had some more marronis as well, they’re good!

We decided not to go to the Day of the Dead festival in Basel. It was going to start late (from 9pm-2am), and the cost to get there was not worth the amount of time we would spend. There might be other Mexican activities in the Zürich area later.

On Sunday we were invited to Gera’s new boss’s house for brunch. It was pretty nice, and informal, and the food was very good too. After brunch we went to pick up some books I got for free. Here’s the story on that: We’re signed up on an expatriate yahoo group, and they organize events, and just give general advice to newcomers. The message board is also a good place to post moving sales and free stuff. Someone was getting rid of some paperbacks in English, and I thought: “that sounds good”, so I was the first one to reply and got them! Once we got to the house, turns out they had sorted more books out, and instead of 30, there were 100 books! They asked “Do you want them all?” and I said “sure!”, so we ended up carrying 4 heavy bags full of books on 2 buses to get them home. There are some good ones, and some that are not really my style, but they were free, and when I move, I can pass them on.

We talked and chatted with family and friends. It was really nice to have a few beers with Abril and Roberto, while we talked on skype. It was almost like being there! Speking of beers, we had our fist Swiss beer: Hürlimann. It’s a local brand, and it was good (keep in mind I like light beers, so my opinion might not be all that meaningful to some, ha ha)

On a side note: we had a cat walk into our living room! How? Well, the doors to the back yard were open, and the cat just happened to walk by. Gera frantically “shushed” him away (remember he’s allergic). That was funny.

Our german classes were a bit odd this past week. Our regular teacher was sick, so she sent a sub. He was a theater person, so all his expressions were pretty funny. He even made us act out verbs, and sing the “wie ghet’s” rap (I wont get into that now). We really hope our usual teacher feels better tomorrow, I don’t think we can take another week of that teaching method.

Maybe next weekend we’ll go back to Ikea, and buy the rest of our furniture. If the big dressers are ready for pickup, we’ll rent a car again, and buy a sofa, night stands, table, and some other stuff. I like Ikea.

Keep those emails coming!

-----------ESPAÑOL-------------

Bien, decidi que eso tener Internet realmente no va a ayudar a que escriba cosas aqui más pronto (ha!). Los días entre semana no son realmente interesantes, y aunque podría escribir probablemente sobre cómo fui a la tienda y los plátanos estaban en venta, pues no lo voy a hacer. De por si escribo mucho (y no quiero aburrirlos). Asi que mantendre mis historias a un par por semana, y los recordatorios de email uno por semana (o cada 2 semanas).

Esta vez he puesto fotos de este fin de semana por adelantado, y pueden encontrarlos aquí:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/318134/index.html
(copy/paste)

El viernes fuimos a un festival de la películas 3D (ha! "festival"?, eso es lo que le llamaron, pero era realmente como una demostración). Hay una clase “image estereoscópica” en ETH y cada año la clase hace un show a una audiencia lo que hicieron como proyecto final. Los alumnos son de informatica, y se nota! ¡Aquí está un link al sitio en donde promueven el festival, para que se den una idea. ¡los diseñadores, tapense los ojos!
http://www.lst.inf.ethz.ch/films/

Wl Sábado estaba agradable y asoleado y tachamos nuestro plan original de ir a un museo del diseño por una aventura al aire libre: tomar un paseo en el polybahn para ver el paisaje. ¿quees el polybahn? Básicamente es un coche ferroviario funicular que te sube a una montaña.
Aquí hay mas informacion: http://europeforvisitors.com/switzaustria/articles/zurich_polybahn.htm


Después de eso, fuimos a casa a comer, y después salimos otra vez a vernos con una amiga para tomar un cafe. Estaba haciendo mucho frio, y caminamos por "old town", un área alrededor del lago donde hay tienditas, restaurantes y cafés (muy de turistas). Y terminamos tomandonos un café en un Starbucks (Haha!). ¡tambien comimos marronis otra vez!

Decidíamos no ir al festival de dia de muertos en Basilea. Iba a comenzar muy tarde (de 9pm-2am), y no valia la pena el costo del viaje por el tiempo que nos ibamos a pasar. Despues habra otras actividades mexicanas en el área de Zurich.

El domingo nos invitaron a la casa del jefe nuevo de Gera para el brunch. Fue bastante agradable, e informal, y el la comida estaba muy buena también. Después de ahi, fuimos a recoger un monton de libros que me ragalaron. Aquí está la historia sobre eso: Estamos metidos en un grupo de yahoo, que da informacion a gente recien llegada a suiza de otras partes, y organiza eventos y ese tipo de cosas. Su “message board” tambien es un buen lugar para anunciar ventas y cosas regaladas. Alguien estaba regalando unos libros en ingles, y pensé: ¡"eso suena bien", así que fui la primera en responder y los consegui! ¡Una vez que llegamos a la casa, resulta habían sacado más libros, y en vez de 30, había 100! Me preguntaron "los quieres todos?" y dije "seguro!. Hay algunos Buenos, y algunos que no son realmente mi estilo, pero fueron gratis, y cuando me mude, los puedo regalar tambien.

Este fin de semana, hablamos y chateamos con la familia y los amigos. Fue realmente agradable hecharnos unas cervecitas con Abril y Roberto, mientras que hablabamos en skype. ¡Era casi como estar allí! Hablando de cervezas, ya probamos nuestra primer cerveza suiza: Hürlimann. Es una marca local, y esta buena (tengan en mente que a I me gustan las cervezas ligeras, así que puede que mi opinion no sea muy significativa para muchos, jaja)

En una nota lateral: ¡Se nos metio un gato a la casa! ¿Cómo? Pues las puertas del patio estaban abiertas, y el gato paso por ahi y se metio. Gera lo corrio rapidamente (acuerdense que él es alérgico). Estuvo cura.

Marronis unveiled, Halloween and Bank accounts

EN ESPAÑOL MAS ABAJO

Ok, so I got a couple of emails on marronis yesterday, after posting that we couldn’t figure out what they were. Yes, they are roasted chestnuts. So the mystery is solved (like in a ScoobyDoo cartoon, except we don’t have a mystery machine!).

A brief pause to thank the people who are reading this blog and emailing me their comments (I really appreciate them, and enjoy reading what you think of our adventures.)

Last week we got a bank account (this time with an actual bank, and not with the post office). I will not tell you what bank we’re using, ‘cause that’s the whole point of having a Swiss bank account: secrecy! I’ll just say that the method for online banking seems like taken out of a sci-fi movie. They give you this calculator-looking thing and a card. When you want to bank online, you insert the card to the “calculator”, and type in a number they give you (not a pin, not your account number, just a number). The “calculator” will give you a pass-code to type in to the login screen (along with your account number and your password). The cool thing is that the “calculator” generates random numbers (for your card) every few seconds, and they’re always changing! Well, at least that’s how I think it works. However it works, its cool!

Today is Halloween and it really doesn’t feel like it. No costumes to prepare, no candy to buy (ha, we never bought candy anyways!), no costume party to go to (like our friend’s Adri&Dave annual Halloween bash). But we are going to a day of the dead celebration on Saturday. It is in Basel, but we can take a train to get there. I believe it’s organized by a Mexican group, and they’ll have food and music. I’ll report on that later.

We’re in the process of planning our winter vacation. We still don’t know where we’re going, but we better hurry if we want to make it! I really want to go to Paris, but maybe we’ll go somewhere warmer. I’ll keep you posted.


----------ESPAÑOL-------------
Marronis, cuentas bancarias , Halloween

OK, ayer recibi un par de email sobre marronis, después de que escribi que no podiamos descifrar que eran. Sí, son castañas asadas (roasted chestnuts). Misterio resuelto (como en una historieta de ScoobyDoo)

Una breve pausa para agradecer a la gente que está leyendo este blog y escribiendome sus comentarios (yo realmente lo aprecio, y me gusta leer lo que piensan de nuestras aventuras.)

La semana pasada sacamos una cuenta bancaria (este vez con un banco real, y no en la oficina de correos). No les diré qué banco estamos utilizando, ya que es el chiste de tener una cuenta bancaria suiza: ¡secreto! Pero si les diré que el método para las actividades bancarias en línea parece como tomado de una película ciencia ficcion. Te dan un aparato que parece una calculadora y una tarjeta, le metes la tarjeta dentro y le escribes un número que le dan. La "calculadora" te da una contraseña que escribes en la pantalla de login (junto con tu número de cuenta y tu contraseña). ¡lo padre es que la "calculadora" genera números al azar (para tu tarjeta) cada pocos segundos, y están cambiando siempre! Bueno, por lo menos éso es cómo pienso que trabaja. ¡Como quiera que sea, esta chida!

Hoy es Halloween y realmente no se siente en el ambiente. No hay disfraces que preparar, ni dulces que comprar (ha, nunca compramos dulces de todos modos!), ninguna fiesta de disfraces (com la fiesta de Halloween de cada año de nuestros amigos Adri y Dave). Pero por lo menos vamos a un día de muertos el sábado. Está en Basilea, pero podemos tomar un tren para llegar allí. Creo que es organizado por un grupo mexicano, y tendrán comida y música. Luego les cuento que tal.

Estamos en el proceso de planear nuestras vacaciones de invierno. ¡Todavía no sabemos adónde vamos, pero hay que darnos prisa si queremos llegar! Yo quiero ir a París, pero iremos quizas a un lugar mas calido. Ahi luego les aviso.

more photos!

look here
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/317437/

(copy/paste)