Florence

Here are some pictures from Florence.  Sorry that there isn't more pictures of art (i.e. The David!), but cameras weren't allowed in many of the museums. :(


http://picasaweb.google.com/Eric.C.Stewart/Florence#

Venice - Part 1

Here are some pictures that were taken in Venice:  Canals, gondolas, food, and old buildings.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Eric.C.Stewart/VenicePart1#

Pilatus, Part 2 & Final Post from Switzerland

Dear faithful blog readers-

Our summer has flown by!  Melissa and I are all packed up and ready to go on our end-of-the-summer vacation to Venice, Florence, and the South of France.  We are very excited.  However, this is not the final blog post of the summer.

Melissa and I will post pictures once or twice during the trip.  And we'll post one or two more times when we get back to the States.

For now, here's some pictures from the top of Mount Pilatus.  I was so excited, we actually got to go up to the top.  It was a great way to end the summer o' Switzerland - with mountains!

Goodbye Switzerland!  We enjoyed your beauty.

Next blog post: Italy!

Luzern Fest

Like most cities (that I know of), Luzern has a summer festival every year.  They bring in lots of bands, lots of food, and other entertainent and basically shut down the old part of town for a day.  Needing to get out of the apartment, we decided to see what the fuss was about.

They had bands (I just had to take a picture of this band's name)

Good weather (although it was pretty hot on this particular day)

Typical festival food (mmmmm, chicken curry :) )

Water skiers (I swear, the announcer said something about Cypress Gardens in Florida, but I don't know if the ski team was from there, or got training there)

Fun times!

Pilatus - Part 1

There is an imposing mountain that looms over Lucerne called Mount Pilatus.  Legend has it that Pontius Pilate (yes, that guy) is buried under the mountain and that his ghost lives there, hence the name 'Pilatus'.  Another old wives' tale says that dragons live on the mountain, which is why it always looks like there is smoke at the top.

I (Eric) have been itching to take the lift up to the top of Pilatus.  But the day that we attempted, Pilatus looked like the picture you see above.  So, given the distinct possibility of being able to see naught at the top, we decided to take the lift up only part way and hike around.

*Quick side note before I show you the pictures*  On this particular day, I was wearing one of my University of Florida shirts

Well, we just happened to run across a tour group of high schoolers and their chaperons from...WILLISTON!  No, seriously, Williston, FL!  I found out when just about every member of the group gave me a 'Go Gators!'  I was never really sure why a bunch of high schoolers got to go to Switzerland, but that little bit o' fun was one of the highlights of the day, and maybe even the summer, so I just had to share:)

On with the pictures...

World Cup

Faithful blog readers...

Switzerland has been briefly held hostage by the World Cup.  However, you might be surprised to learn that the Swiss are not as rabid of fans as, say, the Germans.  I find this to be a bit strange given the fact that Switzerland is surrounded by Germany, Italy, France, England, Spain, and Holland.  Really, the most ardent fans in the country have turned out to be immigrants.  Yes, the Swiss like soccer, but not as much as passionately as their neighbors. 

But I just needed to experience the world cup with the Swiss.  So, a couple of weeks ago, Melissa and I went to a restaurant to watch a world cup game while surrounded by the Swiss (none of whom we knew).  It was great - we sat at our table for ~2.5 hours and just had dinner and dessert.  They don't seem to mind loitering so much, in fact, I think that it's somewhat encouraged. 

Anyway, Switzerland was playing the last match of their group play and needed to win to advance.  Sadly, they tied 0-0.  We were so distraught :(

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July blog fans! We're not able to celebrate America's Independence Day as much as we would like while in Switzerland, so we're celebrating the best way we know how:

1. Truly American food!

2. All-American movies:

Happy Independence Day!

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

Eric posted about our trip to Lugano this past weekend, I think.  I LOVED Lugano - it’s Italy, but in Switzerland (the Italian border is on the other side of the lake from the town, it’s very close to Lake Como), and if you know me you know my feelings about Italian food and culture in general.  Gelato is definitely going to be in heaven, in my book.

Our day hiking in the sunshine on Friday was wonderful, especially in contrast to all the nasty weather we’d been having in Luzern, but my favorite was Friday evening, which officially was the best date night EVER.  I challenge any husband/boyfriend out there to top it for your lady, because it included:

1.  Risotto with fresh porcini mushrooms, with molten chocolate cake for dessert, outside on a beautiful piazza at dusk in perfect weather.

2.  A dancing brass band.

3.  A walk next to a lake in the Alps at sunset.

4.  A live jazz band.

5.  Giant boardgames.

6.  A live symphony orchestra.

7.  Everybody around us speaking Italian and making animated hand motions to go with their conversation, which is always really fun to be around and guess what they’re saying so passionately.

So Eric, well done sweet husband, I’m sure you personally arranged for there to be a music festival the night we were there... 

Lugano

So last weekend Melissa and I headed south to the Italian region of Switzerland, Ticino.  We pretty much hadn't seen the sun in Lucerne for two weeks (kind of like Seattle) and we'd heard rumors of cloudless skies to the south.  Melissa will post more details on the awesome evening we had the day we got there, but here are some pictures of the trip.  I should note that the city we went to is called Lugano.

See, good weather!  And of course, if you go to an Italian area, you must get gelato.

Here's some scenery and pictures from around the town

The cafe is fairly old and very delicious.  We just had to eat there.  And the frescos (paintings) are 'only' 400 years old.  Surprisingly, the church in which the paintings were located was literally empty.  It was hard to believe that people just don't care about these treasures.

Some Pictures

We've been inundated with requests to share more pictures.  I (Eric) am a populist blogger, I only want what the masses want.  So, here's some pictures from our trip to Lausanne and some pictures of our trip with the Swiss on the Surf excursion.

Lausanne Pictures

Surf Excursion Pictures


Have fun!

Bunch of Mountain Goats

Faithful blog readers...

Two weekends ago, Melissa and I were able to go on an 'excursion' with her work group, Surface Research.  So, for shorthand, the Swiss called it the 'Surf Excursion'.  I'm sure you can guess as some of the images that came to mind as we tried to figure out how we were going to surf in this country.

An excursion basically consists of the following: the group goes to some region in Switzerland.  They hike around some, get an expert to explain something scientific about that region, then they hike around some more the next day.

We went to the Wallis/Valais(German name vs. the French name) region of the country where they are famous for two things: speaking French and making wine.  While there, we learned about 'debris flows' (sort of a mixture between floods and rock slides) from an American (thus, spoke English and I understood what he said) geologist working in Switzerland.

And here we are walking through the channel that debris flows are funneled through. 

But hey, it's not like we were in any danger or anything.  Rocks weren't going to suddenly start flowing down.

We really were ok.  It hadn't rained in a while and rain is what triggers the flows.

We then hiked around some more and explored the geology.

 If you ever get the opportunity to go on an excursion with the Swiss that you definitely should.  However, please be warned that they are like a bunch of mountain goats.  There is a reason they get a reputation for being a hardy folk.  There was a woman there probably 7 months pregnant with all of her clothes, food and other gear on her back, hiking circles around Melissa and me.  I've never felt so inadequate in my life.  It was both awesome and embarrassing.

We then were shown an underground lake by a Swiss geologist that spoke French (thus, I had no clue what he was saying the whole time). 

The next day saw us hiking in the mountains around the town of Sion.  While up there, we saw one of the most unique things I've ever heard of - cow fights! 

So, what they do is stick a bunch of bulls into a fenced-in area and let them get all of the testosterone-filled aggression out of their systems by fighting it out.  Whichever one comes out as the alpha cow gets to lead the herd up to higher pastures.  It's kind of a big deal in this area.  We actually saw posters advertising the next cow-fight day.  (If the Swiss have rednecks, I'd say this is a redneck thing to do.  I saw many empty bottles of beer lying around the outside of the fence.)  Don't worry, animal lovers, the cows don't hurt each other - they just push against each other's heads until one of them yields his ground.

And of course, during the hike, we get the obligatory gorgeous scenery, which I must put on this blog to make all of you uber-jealous :)

Next blog post: Heading to Italy (sort of)

Culture Shock

Hello all, Melissa here.  Eric wanted me to write this one.

According to reputable sources*, there are several stages involved in culture shock.  Culture shock is what nearly everybody goes through when they move into an unfamiliar culture.  This may sound obvious, especially when the new culture is radically different.  Eric and I have found, however, that it also happens in a place like Switzerland.

The first stage is the Honeymoon.  This is what you (hopefully) never come out of on a short-term trip - you are amazed by the awesomeness of the new place.  In our case, awesomeness = incredible vistas, chocolate, and cheese, and the very friendly and polite Swiss people (and sheep).  Many blog posts have already been entered from this phase.

If your visit is longer-term, you will probably reach the second Hostile stage, which I did about a week and half ago.  I’m probably going to spend more time talking about this than the others because you’ve already read a lot of blog posts that are from the happy phases. 

The first straw** was the ridiculous laundry sign-up system in our building, which is DUMB but if you don’t follow it exactly people will GLARE AT YOU with SWISS HOSTILITY which is more intimidating than it sounds.  That culture of politeness goes along with a culture of lots of rules, and if you don’t follow the rules, WOE IS YOU.  Or however you say that in the second person.

Laundry sign-up list - when signed up, you monopolize 2 machines, 2 driers, and 2 clothesline rooms.  Can you see how long people have signed up to do this?  This is for the entire 4-story apartment building.  It does not make sense, and if you miss the list at midnight on Sunday night and it fills up, too bad for you.  AND if you use a machine while no one is using it, and you are not signed up, WOE IS YOU.

The second straw was a trip to the grocery store in which we realized that everything that is not cheese or chocolate (or beer/wine) is ridiculously expensive, e.g., $7 for one chicken breast.  Do they feed the chickens cheese and chocolate?  I paid $10 for a pretzel the other day and $5 for a small Coke.  I mean, no pretzel is that good, plus you get hungry like a half hour later if you try to make a pretzel your dinner, and then you have to buy gelato to make up for it (too bad), and then you’ve spent another $7 and there goes the point of eating the pretzel in the first place, which was that it was the only thing under $25 on the menu. 

The third straw was the weather.  It turns out that summer is the rainy season in Switzerland.  Keep this in mind if you ever plan a trip here - it rains about 5 out of every 6 or 7 days in our experience so far.  On rainy days, you can’t see Alps or anything else, and I still have to bike to work.

The last straw was a work day during which people constantly switched mid-conversation to German, and I could not understand anything being said around me.  It was the same day that I realized that along with the Swiss culture of being very pleasant, social, and polite comes a culture of being easily offended when foreigners don’t know the correct etiquette rules - apparently Americans are considered rude and too direct, and that's a bias that is terribly frustrating to deal with. 

So Hostile Stage was officially on, and I wanted to go home to Blacksburg where yummy farm-fresh food is available for non-millions of dollars and I have friends that speak my language and laundry systems are rational.

What I learned, though, is that this is a phase and it does pass.  A few days later, with lots of prayer and chocolate and support from sweet hubbie, I was fine again (and so was Eric, who was going through this in parallel).  We have figured out how to eat and function in a reasonable way (bratwursts here are cheap and delicious, for one thing), and Eric has mastered the laundry system, and the scenery really is breathtaking when the sun decides to come out.  The Alps are still gorgeous and the chocolate is still delicious, and there are still coffee breaks every couple of hours at my job, which is awesome.

I think the official name for the final, happy phase is “Home,” although there are other names depending on what source you use.  I don’t want to live here permanently, but I am really happy to be here, trying to get to know the great people that I work with.  It’s an incredible opportunity to experience life in another country, especially one this beautiful. 

 Happy in Switzerland!

* Wikipedia, which has been  found to be as accurate as research journals, albeit grammatically impaired, so don’t be snooty about it :)  Other source was Caroline Crouch, who knows everything.

** Does anybody know why the expression for degrees of stress involves straws? I have nothing against straws usually.