Time for an update, perhaps?

Well would you look at that. November came and it left just as quickly (well, almost). Lets try and think what I've been up to the last few weeks...

On the first of November, Rachel and I took a drive to Baldegg. Its basically a high point that overlooks Baden and the other neighboring towns. Was quite a pretty sight with all of the autumn leaves changing! We climbed the lookout tower for a few pics, decended, walked around, found a farm, took pictures of a llama, then went up to the restaurant for some ice cream. I had a banana split :)

The first full weekend in November, beginning with the 6th, a bunch of us dressed up and headed to Zurich for a special event involving wine tasting in the Zurich harbor. 12 boats were docked and lashed together and then filled with hundreds of vendors giving samples of wine. We paid 20CHF each to get in and then had as much wine as we could drink. This was followed by a rendezvous with Claire and Honza at a small bar in Zurich. I met up with Rachel at the Zurich HB and brought her back there. After a drink we left to meet up with Rachel's friend Anna who was celebrating her last night in Switzerland. This led us to a bar that we stayed to until just after 2 in the morning which of course meant we missed the only train for an hour. Celia, it turned out, was in a similar situation though for different reasons so we hung out with her at the HB. We also met some very eccentric, very friendly, very funny swiss people while we were waiting....

That saturday I did some shopping with Rachel and that evening went to dinner with her Mom, mom's boyfriend, siblings and brother's girlfriend. It was fun (but interesting given language barriers..haha). Sunday was a lazy day. A lazy day indeed.

Weekend before last began with a bang. To celebrate the large number of birthdays among the canadians in November, the girls in Mellingerstrasse hosted an 'accesory' themed party. I wore a clock around my neck a la Flava Flav... Inevitably everyone got mega drunk and belligerence ran riot. The following day went into town for a few things and in the evening went to Rachel's to play poker with her, her sister Debi and her sister's boyfriend. I was WAY out of my league; fortunately we weren't playing for cash!

This past Friday, our Swiss friend Sam was kind enough to cook 10 of us a traditional wild Swiss meal. It featured venison (very tasty), red cabbage, brussel sprouts (not as bad as I've been leading myself to believe), Späetzle, chestnuts and baked apple with cranberry sauce. Very good and VERY filling. Saturday was spent more or less relaxing. Took care of some business and ended up spending the evening in with Rachel. Sunday, she and I decided to get out of the house to relax and went to one of Switzerland's many thermal baths, this one near Brugg. Despite how busy it was there and the fact that it was raining at times, it was both relaxing and a lot of fun!

This week has been uneventful so far. Today is Fellipe's apero as he will be enjoying his final day of work this friday. Rachel has also gotten herself a new job so this is her last week too! Tomorrow we'll be at Mojo's, a local bar, to celebrate.

That's it for now, the next few weekends promise to be eventful so I'll save those for next time!

Announcement

Today I ate horse. That is all.

The Last of the October Beer

October was a fun month. It kicked off with oktoberfest in Munich, continued with my birthday in Istanbul, and ended with oktoberfest in Baden.

This past wednesday, Celia was kind enough to organize a pumpkin carving night at Ziegel-D. There were some pretty impressive carvings! Rachel came and together we carved her first ever (and, thinking about it, probably my second ever) halloween pumkin (the swiss don't do it). The night continued with a pretty good consumption of beer and wine by the interns of whom a pretty good number showed up.

Thursday, went to Nouba the local shisha bar and had a couple of beers and some good (tunisian?) food.

Friday, Rachel and I planned on just going out for a drink with one of her friends who was celebrating his last day at alstom. We ended up being invited to the Baden Oktoberfest. Normally, it is required to reserve a seat months in advance and pay quite a fee to get in. As it happened, Rachel's friend had a friend inside who was able to convince the security at the entrance that there was room for us. We paid a measly 10CHF cover and proceeded to get royally drunk! There was live music, good beer, lots of drunk alstom employees, dancing on the table, funny hats - more or less just like the real octoberfest with less rules, more flashing lights, and less food. Afterwards, for some reason, we went to a bar called Lemon and had a completely unnecessary glass of wine. Then bed.

Halloween was quite modest. We had some people over for wine and shisha and some pleasant conversation and that was more or less it. I was knackered from the previous night and not many people actually wanted to go out so it ended up a fairly uneventful evening.

And thus ended October and, with it, the first 6 months of my Swiss Experience. Lets hope the next 6 are half as good!