Uf Wiederluege mitenand!

So, this is the 79th and last entry that you will recieve from the alpine:penguin. It's been at once a long and a short year. It's gone incredibly quickly, looking back on it. I have met some amazing people, been to some amazing places and drank an amazing amount of Oettinger. I started the year with vague plans of what to do after it, and am finishing about to move in with the boyfriend and start to study an MA in German and Dutch C20th literature.

Switzerland is a strange little place. Before I arrived I only had a vague knowledge and little understanding. Whilst my knowledge has vastly improved, my understanding hasn't; it seems that here you solve one mystery whilst unravelling a dozen more.

If you wish to keep reading, you'll find me over at heretu.wordpress.com

Adieu.

Fast am Ende

The Birsköpfli

My time in Switzerland is almost up, dear readers! However, that hasn't really inspired me to travel the length and breadth of the land to see as much as possible before I leave; rather it has made me remain largely in Basel to enjoy the city as much as possible before I leave. And temperatures in the mid 30s has helped this a lot.

I did go to Vaduz, though. There isn't much to do there, and it rained so much I didn't dare take my camera out of my bag, so no photos from then.

However, I do have photos from Neuchatal, where Matt and I went last Friday. It is down in Romandie and is apparently the most-French town in Switzerland. It had a lovely, relaxed atmosphere and the buildings are a beautiful, golden colour. We lazed by the lake, explored the Old Town and soaked in the atmosphere. It was a lovely day.

The Lake at Neuchatal

Inspired by being in French-speaking areas, and forced to be by my mentor teacher, I cycled from Mulhouse to Basel on Saturday. It's only 25km, I know, but I am not a big cyclist and am, well, quite inactive, apart from the odd hike here and there. But I did it, and the route was quite nice- along a canal and then the Rhine down into Basel. We passed farmhouses and canal buildings and some lock gates designed by Le Corbusier, which was fun.

Gonzen

The Rhine Valley, as seen from Gonzen

Gonzen is a mountain that looms 1,830m above the town of Sargans, in eastern Switzerland. As I was there for a party last evening, me and a friend decided to go for a hike around the town during the day, and ended up walking about half-way up the Gonzen, to a height of 1,100m, through the forest.

I'm not going to lie, it was hard work. The first section was ridiculously steep and very very hot; we had to take a bit of a break on a bench and watch numerous older people tackle the path with ease whilst we floundered. But once we got further up, the path levelled out a bit and took a steady route upwards, curling around the west side of the mountain, giving us views over the Rhine valley and down over Vaduz and into Liechtenstein.

Fortunately the weather was good the whole time, neither of us burnt and so far neither of us has found a tick. Good times. However, we have both been bitten by the Wanderung-tick, and are heading back to them there hills tomorrow to tackle another hike.

Kanton Jura

The town hall in Porrentruy

Jura is the youngest of the Swiss cantons. It was only founded in 1979. Originally, it was made part of Bern by Napoleon, but the people of the Jura were unhappy with this, being Catholic and French-speaking, whereas the Bernese are German-speaking and mainly Protestant. Leading up to the end of the 70s, there was an independence campaign that included some arson attacks, and the country voted in 1978 on whether to create a new canton.

The view from the chapel we walked to above Delemont

This weekend I had a visitor, and on Sunday we decided to take his car out for a drive, first to Delemont, the cantonal capital, and then on to Porrentruy, another town close to the border with France. It took us about forty minutes to drive from Basel, and we went for a walk up a hill to a Church above Delemont, and then in Porrentruy we wandered around the town and then checked out the castle. It was very nice, very warm, and very French.

Chillon

Lake Geneva as seen from Ouchy

Ok. I know that this is a hugely delayed post, but I haven't really had the inspiration to update this in the last week or so. Matt is now back home and the weather is still baking hot. Whilst he was here we spent most of our time sunning by the Rhine, drinking beer and reading / doing crosswords. It was really nice. People have now started swimming in the river again, and on Friday I bought a pair of swimming shorts. There is a plan with my flat to go and barbecue on Thursday by the river and perhaps go for a swim. We shall, because it's raining and a chilly 21c today (yesterday it was just over 30c...).

Anyway, while Matt was here we also went for an overnight stay in Lausanne, down on Lake Geneva. It rained a lot on the Saturday so we sheltered in bars, but on the Sunday it was mostly nice again so we went down to the Lake for a wander and visited the Olympics museum, which was actually very interesting.

Then we got the train to Montreux and from there a boat to Chillon, which is an amazing castle perched in the lake. You may have heard of it because it inspired Byron to write the poem "The Prisoner of Chillon", and one of the pillars in the dungeon has his name carved into it. Whilst we were looking round there was a thunderstorm, which added to the atmosphere perfectly.

Chillon, as seen from the ferry

Zermatt

The weekend was more awesome than I expected. I got the train over to Sargans on Friday night and stayed over at Becky's house and had a catch-up and drank some wine before going to bed. Saturday morning we got the train to Chur and then got on the Glacier Express to Zermatt. The whole point was the journey, and it was amazing. We started by going through the Rhine gorge, following the river as the altitude rose; then we had a break at Disentis before travelling on to the Oberalppass, which is at 2033m- there was still snow everywhere and the lake that is the source of the Rhine was still partially-frozen. Then we descended through the Rhone valley to Visp before climbing back to 1604m to Zermatt where we stayed over in an amazing hotel.

This morning we got up and ate breakfast, then tried to go up to the Klein Matterhorn, but because of cloud decided to go up the Gornergrat on a cog-wheel railway instead. It was quite scary to go over bridges over gorges that dropped hundreds of metres below us, but on the top it was amazing. Glaciers and snow and views across to the Matterhorn .. I can't describe how cool it was to be sat up there at 3100 metres and drink a beer...

Terug

So I'm back from my jaunts around Western Europe. Is the world a better place because of this? I'd like to think so.

First stop was Brussels, where my time was spent drinking, dancing, attempting to speak Dutch, lazing around in parks and having a good, ol' Sheffield-style weekend. It was immense. Perhaps it was made even better by the fact that I've been to Brussels before and that we did nothing touristy at all; in fact, I think you had to have a local with you to find some of the places- they were literally just doorbells next to unmarked doors with clubs behind them. Drag queen clubs.

Then I got the eurostar to London and spent a wonderful week there, too, marvelling at the flags strung up on Regent Street and avoiding the wedding like the plague (we went for coffee during the first showing, and got drunk during the second) ... wish I'd known about the republican street parties!

Vorwärts!

Since the last time I posted, I have done very little, aside from melting and whimpering in the supermarket because the air-con is on. I hope this is a blip OR that I will get used to the heat before the summer starts.

I also finished reading the book Stiller by Max Frisch. It was a little bit good, and finishing it means that I can start a new one on the train tomorrow...

... which is when I go to Brüssel and then to London. VERY excited.

See you afterwards!

Osterkuchen

After the success of the countless cupcakes and the Christmas cake, I thought I would also turn my hand to making a simnel cake for the flat. Of course I knew that cooking a whole simnel cake would take hours and, unlike the welcome fug a Christmas cake makes in the winter, the weather's been too hot to have the oven going for hours. So I baked cupcake-sized simnel cakes (minus the traditional decoration, because I couldn't be bothered and the Swiss don't know any differently...) I'm pleased with the results.

In other news I didn't get my fees-thingy from Sheffield so will have to pay 4.2k for my masters next year. I made myself better by going for delicious vegetarian food at lunch time, buying wine for with dinner and listening to Adele on repeat...

Eine Wanderung

Two of my fellow Sheffield alumni (one a former house-mate) have been visiting Basel this weekend and I've had some time to hang out a little bit with them yesterday and this evening. Yesterday we arranged a little walk- nothing too strenuous and also close to Basel. We headed to Frick (lols) and walked up the Thiersteinberg, all 750m of it... which seems more impressive to an English person than a Swiss. Still, rolling hills, views to the Black Forest and Rhine to the north, and time spent in the fresh air. I took some pictures, and look like a lobster. It was an afternoon well spent.

Schon Wieder Da

I'm back in Switzerland after a wonderful weekend in Sheffield. I was attending a wedding and spent that day basking in the sun, drinking champagne and devouring food from a double Michelin starred restaurant, washing the whole down with lots of wine. The day was really nice, and everything went perfectly (and wasn't at all hindered by my help; I had to dry the flowers...).

On Saturday I also got to see Jules and Big P (Hello!) and Elaine and Belino (Hello!?) for some drinks and food. It was great catching up and having things paid for. The evening M and I did a mini pub-crawl through some of Sheffield's less well-known but still good establishments.

Sunday we went for a drive and lunch in the Peak District, and then dealt with separation anxiety.

Back at work for this week though Easter holidays start on Friday- two fellow Sheffield allumni are coming for a visit and to go for a hike in the countryside around Basel. I also think I am cooking for them. It should be nice. Otherwise, trying to think of a way to spend the early part of next week, before I train off to Brussels!

Kreuzworträtsel

My bag is packed full of books and Ricola and Swiss fizzy sweets. In about twenty minutes I need to leave the flat to catch a train to take a plane and then a train to Sheffield (check out that metre) for the weekend; I'm heading back for a wedding, and hopefully to see a couple of Sheffield people (legends?) at the same time. It'll be nice to be back (I just hope the weather's as nice as it is here).

Thought I'd also take the opportunity to share with you my new hobby: cryptic crosswords. This isn't too bad considering I hadn't got a clue what they were getting at on Saturday. Gäll?

SVP Dummheiten

Today in the Tages Anzeiger:

Wie ernst die Parteien Fukushima heute nehmen, zeigt sich daran, dass unterdessen sogar die SVP das Thema auf ihre Mühle umzuleiten versucht ... Ohne die Einwanderung der letzten Jahre, so geht Ihr Argument, könnte man Mühleberg abschlaten, dessen Strom würde nicht benötigt.

That the parties are taking Fukushima seriously is evidenced by that fact that even the SVP has tried to turn it to their advantage ... They claim that, without the immigration of recent years, one would have been able to shut down Mühleberg [the oldest Swiss power station, which was built in the late 60s], because the electricity it produces would not have been needed.

What a load of bollocks.

Kuchen mit Schoggi-Frosting

We got two new flatmates today and as part of making them feel welcome I thought I would make some cupcakes. My go-to recipe at the moment is the very simple vanilla cupcake recipe found in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Don't let the word vegan put you off, though; they are light and fluffy and you can really taste the vanilla in them. Sometimes, though, a mound of American-style "frosting" can prove to be a little bit too much- it's very very sweet. So yesterday I decided to tone it down a little bit and mixed a good quantity of cocoa powder in with it. It worked, and they were a success this afternoon.

In other news, Spring is now here in full-force. There are blossoms and flowers and countless magnolia trees everywhere. Today I saw a bee. And a butterfly. It's nice. It has also inspired me to start on a summer project: operation cryptic crosswords. So far I still have no clue, but persevere I shall!

Kernenergie

Whilst the crisis at the Fukushima station in Japan continued to rage on the other side of the globe, two elections took place close to Basel: one in Basel-Land and one in the German state of Baden-Württemburg. In the former, the Green party places a representative into the Cantonal council, beating the SVP. In the latter, the Greens are now in position to be the leaders in a coalition alongside the Social Democrats, after 60 years of Christian Democrat rule.

Here in Switzerland many are pointing to the Japanese disaster as the reason behind these Green victories, rather than a sea-change in the political views of the voting public. This is probably the case, and no doubt the pan-European Anti Nuclear movement will gain more momentum before the storm clears in the Far East.

I get the feeling that, back in Britain, nuclear is at best a non-issue, at worst the lesser of two evils (the greater being the great, dirty coal-fuelled stations). Being from Hartlepool and having a parent who works in the power station (as well as my own previous employment there) I feel largely indifferent to the whole thing. At present, and at least until we invest enough in renewable sources of energy to make them a viable alternative, nuclear is the best we have. Much more important, in my opinion, is ending our reliance on foreign energy supplies.

Here in Switzerland the public and country are in a much better position to end the use of nuclear energy: the population is lower and the country needs less energy than Britain. There are plentiful alpine rivers waiting to be tapped as hydro-electric sources. Two of the cantons (Basel-Stadt and Geneva) have even included in their constitutions a ban on energy from nuclear sources- Basel is home to an impressive hydro-electric station that straddles the Rhine just to the east of the city. Finally, the people here have an option to actually do something about their relationship to nuclear energy.

I guess time will tell if Fukushima really has been the signal for the end of the atomic age.

Schwule in der Politik

It will come as no surprise to may of my faithful readers that I am gay. This is perhaps why I went for the monochrome of the penguin, it's classic style, rather than the flamboyance suggested by, say, alpine:flamingo. Not to mention that the penguin is my favourite animal. The mysterious, oft-mentioned M is also a boyfriend of almost nineteen months.

I knew that being in a relationship for so long was good for me, which is why I couldn't help feel a little bit smug amongst all of the anger when I read a story in the Tages Anzeiger today. According to the article, a memo amongst various members of the SVP over in Luzern which was penned by Emil Grabherr stated that homosexual men (no mention of women here) fit into three categories: die im ordentlicher Partnerschaft lebenden (those in a stable relationship), die männlichen Huren (male whores) and die unter keinem Titel akzeptierbaren Bubenschänder (paedophiles).

Thank God I'm in a relationship, eh?

Being in a country where the right has so much clout, it is often easy to feel smug about the situation at home where we haven't banned minarets and where we don't expel foreigners who commit crimes of any nature. Yet when it comes to gay rights and the current government, can we be so smug?

I glaub' net

Whilst the brief glimmer of same-sex marriages being legalised was left in turmoil last September, we should not let it cloud the fact that the current "progressive" government is largely made up (or should that be wholly?) by a party who carried Section 28 on high (prohibiting amongst other things, the promotion of homosexuality as an acceptable family model). Let us also not forget that our Equality Minister voted consistently against gay rights before receiving her current post. Nice gal.

Mailand

The Duomo

Did you know that there is a world south of the Alps? The Alpine Penguin had heard rumours that there was, so he decided to check it out along with M after the hectic days of carnival. So he got on the 11.30 train bound for Mailand (Milan) and arrived four or so hours later after a journey through the high-alps and along beautiful, Italian lakes.

Milan was a change after London and Basel. A new place, dirty and hectic in a different way, warm and humid(ish) and a language that was completely alien to both of us. We spent three nights there.

Castello Sforzesco

On the Friday, our first full day, we walked into the city, through the arcades and onto the huge square that stretches out before the squat duomo. We climbed the steps for views across the city. We walked along to the Castello Sforzesco and around the massive park behind it. We hunted (in vain) for a supermarket and instead plumped for delicious salads for lunch in the afternoon sun. We found the Scala opera house and walked along the streets of the "golden quarter", window-shopping from Prada, Dior, Armani.

On the Saturday we woke up and got into town at about eleven. We went first to the castle, because it housed a variety of museums (most shut), and we got to see some cool castle artefacts and a room that was painted by da Vinci himself. After a lunch of pasta we went first to an exhibition of Archimboldo (you know, the guy with the portraits made up of fruit and fish?) which was really interesting, then wandered more around the city. We had a couple of beers before heading back to the hotel where we waited out a giant thunderstorm.

It was still going on when we went out for a meal in a restaurant not too far from the hotel, on the Corso Como. It was our treat meal, and the food was excellent. A starter of home-made chicken live parfait on rye bread was followed by a wild boar stew served over creamy polenta. On the other side of the table this was mirrored by braised artichokes and olives and, sliced steak covered by a mountain of rucola and grana padano.

A view from the afternoon

The next day the weather had turned again, but it didn't matter- the views up and over the mountains and the tunnel under the Simplonpass were beautiful.

Fasnacht

So, die drie scheentste Dääg have been and gone in Basel. Waking up after the Morgestraich to bright, blue skies and a warm temperature certainly put us in the mood to spend the afternoon watching the first parade. We got a good spot on the Wettsteinbrücke and watched the crowds assemble. At half-one the piccolo and drums started up again and for four hours we watched the cliques parade past. The Sujet included such diverse topics as Lady Gaga, Women in Power and the Burkha-isation of Switzerland.

There were also several groups of Guggemusik performers - deliberately out of tune brass bands with drums and xylophones who marched with the more traditional groups. Some of their instruments looked very heavy.

Special mention should also go to the Waggis. Waggis was originally the word used for the people from Alsace who came to Basel to sell fruit and veg at market. Now it is more about the character that is based on them: he has a big nose, wild hair and giant teeth; he throws sweets or oranges or flowers to the crowd if he feels in a good mood; if not he throws confetti at them. My best "gift" was a glass of wine; a woman next to me was given a chicken leg (raw, de-feathered and complete with foot).

On the Tuesday there wasn't an official parade, but many of the groups took part in gassle, which is the meandering through the alleys of the Old Town playing music, followed by groups of people. Children were also dressed up to take part, and gave out sweets and confetti like the Waggis the day before. We had a lucky escape- only once were we confetti'ed.

By Wednesday the weather had turned for the worse so we gave the second parade, in similar vain to that on the Monday afternoon, a miss, though they were still going strong when we ventured into town for a beer later in the day...

Morgestraich

I arrived back on Swiss soil last night after being in London for the first nine days of the Fasnachtsferien. Rather than getting a night's sleep like I would normally have done, I ate dinner with my housemates a 11.30 pm before spending the next three hours playing cards and drinking wine and coffee. But why? Well, this morning at 4am Basel's Fasnacht started with a parade of the Cliquen (carnival groups) through the Old Town. As the clock struck four the city's lights were all extinguished and the parade was lit by hundreds of large lanterns representing the sujet (theme) that the group had chosen for this year, and countless individual lanterns mounted on top of the masks worn by the drum and piccolo players of the groups.

For the next seventy-two hours it's Fasnacht in Basel.

Fasnachtsplakette

Not much has been going on this week to report- as of Friday the school is on holiday for two weeks and everything is winding down (in one lesson today we learnt about sushi and then made it; tomorrow I am giving a presentation on Hartlepool). Thing are gearing up in the city, though. A week on Monday is the first day of Basel's Fasnacht, or carnival. It's a big deal here.

The first Fasnachts curiosity I would like to present you are the Fasnachtsplakette. They're small badges that represent the theme of the year's carnival, and are made in various metals and sold to the public to raise money for the carnival. If you are wearing one during the carnival, I am told, then you are less likely to be covered in a bucket of confetti or have fruit thrown at you from one of the floats.

The theme this year is Zämme fägts, and (very) roughly translated it means that whilst each individual takes part in carnival, they also form part of the whole, hence them being shaped like a jigsaw piece. What a lovely image. According to this article in the Basler Zeitung, it can also be seen as a call to the governments of the two Basels or to the federal government, aimed at working together more. As this was published in December last year, they seem to be much better at political commentary than I am. It is also where I found the picture of the badges.

I have two pretty little badges on my shelf, waiting for carnival. They're also a nice souvenir.

More Fasnachts-tales will be winging your way over the next two weeks or so, even though the Penguin is off to the motherland on Friday.

Im Kino

The weekend was spent in Sargans with Becky. Or rather, Saturday afternoon was. The weather was beautiful when I walked from the station to her house, and they had been lazing in the garden on an inflatable matress until the sun went behind the mountains (at 3.15, such is life in the Alps). We cooked and chatted and drank beer. It was nice.

Yesterday I wasn't prepared to pay the price of the fare home, so decided to go to Zürich and spend the afternoon there with Becky, and then take the train back home after 7, when it would be free. The weather was grim. Drizzle, fog, freezing cold. On the walk back to the station the rain turned to sleet to snow, and seems to have followed me to Basel today. We went to our favourite café and considered our options over coffee: museum or cinema. There is little else to do on a Sunday.

We decided on the cinema, and half an hour later were sat in the front row (the rest of the seats had been taken- seems everyone had the same idea as us) about to watch The King's Speech. I really enjoyed it. The film itself was beautifully shot and was wonderful to watch on an aesthetic level. But the actual film, the plot, was brilliant, too. Rush and Firth played brilliantly, as did the supporting cast- Timothy Spall as Churchill was a particular treat. But the way they were able to show how much having a stammer can affect a person, force them into a box of fear, and how Albert didn't want to become King was, well, fantastic.

I would see it again, and reccommend you see it yourself.

Beide Basel

As predicted, the Swiss decided not to adopt the Waffeninitiative on Sunday. I mean, taking your gun to an arsenal would completely undermine the Swiss state and bring about a disintegration of the nation, probably leading to Libya invading and splitting the country up. How stupid was I not to realise this? Suprisingly, though, Kanton Zürich voted for the initiative, joining a camp that is usually only filled with French speakers and Basel-Stadt (sometimes Tessin joins the party, too). It's a nice, little, liberal camp. They seem to like foreignors here, and minarets...

Here in the north west there were several other votes, too. One in Basel-Stadt about Tagesschulen (all-day schools, rejected) and one in Basel-Landschaft about subsidies to the theatre here in Basel. Rejected.

But this has raised an interesting situation. Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft are two half-cantons, which were united until 1833, when BL left the original Kanton of Basel. It still isn't recognised in the constitution of Basel Stadt. Together they recieve the same representation in parliament as, say, somewhere as small as Zug. It makes total sense. The interesting situation is this: one of the Gemeinde in BL voted to keep paying subsidies, and apparently votes almost consistently with BS, to which it is physically but not politically joined.

In the papers today and yesterday there were several articles about the possibility of it joining BS, and whether there should actually be two separate cantons anyway. There was a referendum back in the late 60s, which was rejected by the people of BL. Could there be another on the way?

Viele Billete

Now that the Spring semester is finally here I have been given time off work in a string of holidays that start in two weeks' time and last until Easter. Some of the other assistants may think this is unfair, but having only had four weeks off since I started in September (some of them had three weeks off within six weeks of starting...) I don't see the problem here.

Being on some kind of I should probably do something to counteract all of the flights I've taken to limit my carbon footprint and protect that environment thingmy bent, I have booked a lot of train tickets in the past week. I am excited.

After being in London for ten or so days at the start of the Fasnachtsferien I am coming back to Basel for Fasnacht itself before I journey down to Milan for three days with M, on a train journey that promises alpine views and tunnels under mountains.

On Good Friday, the start of my Easter holidays, I am taking three trains on a seven hour journey north-west to the capital of the EU, to stay with Dave in Brussels, before getting the eurostar to London for five days and flying back to Basel from there (perhaps I don't really care about the footprint after all).

Not as action-packed as the Eurotrips of yore, but very exciting nonetheless.
Just need to remember Dutch before I get there, somehow.

Sunntig

Last night Becky came to stay in Basel. Plans of going to Eoipso for cocktails were, however, dashed by too much beer and red wine over dinner (which was, as usual, curry). Today we slept in late, brunched and "did" coffee. Which is basically all you can do here on a Sunday (have I said this before?) unless you go to a museum. Which we didn't. So I came home after she headed back east and spent some leisurely time with the eurostar website and D.H. Lawrence.

Kuchen

Today I put my rested baking talents to use and made some (vegan) vanilla cupcakes with lemon buttercream icing. All because Becky is visiting tomorrow and I wanted to be able to offer her Kaffee und Kuchen, or tea, 'cause I don't think she likes coffee. I think the word for bicarbonate of soda (which is Natron in German but also has the French bicarbonate de sodium on the lable so I was just being stupid when I couldn't find it) is one of the most important words I have learnt. Without it these badboys wouldn't have been possible.

Plättli

Plättli is one of the Swiss words I have learnt since moving to Basel. In High German, it's Kacheln. In English, tiles. Many who have been to Switzerland or have seen photos from here know that many, many design choices (in the broad, general population) were made some point in the early 1970s. Many chose their haircut then, for example. Actually, that's not fair- many have blatantly copied Dame Bonnie Tyler's look in Total Eclipse of the Heart, and are proud that, every now and then they fall apart.

But back to the tiles. Yesterday I moved into a new room in the flat and I was taking a couple of pictures of it earlier today and thought I would take one of the oranges Bad, too. It's the one the boys use, and is so-called for the reason you can see above. Maybe if you showed this picture to your nan she would have flashbacks of your granda holding her hair back in a room that looked very similar...

But all I can say is this: they grow on you. I would love tiles like this next year in Blighty, too.

Waffeninitiative

As we know from past minaret and foreign-criminal experience, the Swiss like to vote for things. It is, after all, their right to start an initiative, collect the signatures and give it to parliament for the whole country to vote on. This time, however, it wasn't started by our friends at the SVP (think halfway between the BNP and the Tories, but just as powerful as the latter). But what is it that the oath-comrades are voting on, I hear you (probably not) ask.

It's like this. When a Swiss man completes his military service, which is obligatory, he's allowed to take his gun away with him and keep it at home, for future use in the army. The initiative wants to put an end to this, and to say that without special license, all weapons must be kept in a military arsenal. Seems simple and sensible enough to me. It is, after all, the Volksinitiative für den Schutz vor Waffengewalt- the initiatve for protection from gun-violence. The opponents see things otherwise, and believe that the whole thing is a leftist attack on traditional Swiss values (which is their typical reasoning).

The vote's on Sunday. We shall see how things turn out.

Nächstes Jahr

This penguin can't stay in Switzerland forever- his L Permit won't let him, you see. So, he's been thinking about the future and what he should do with his easily earnt francs... But what should he do? Left-wing terrorist to bring down the Tories? Buy a lot of cake and get really fat? Internationale prostitutie-spioon? Oh no, none of these, he's jumping back on the studying bandwagon, in none other than Sheffield, South Yorks.

WG-Party

At the weekend we had a party in the Wohngemeinschaft to mark the end of exams and also because one of my housemates moved to Paris yesterday for a semester... I only took three photos, but today at the recycling point we found we'd consumed over eighty cans of beer and over fifty bottles of beer, wine and spirits... it was a bed day yesterday, fo'sho.

99 Luftballoons

Sunday rolled around again last weekend and only one thing could be done: we headed to the mountains. This time, however, we refrained from throwing ourselves down icey roads on bits of wood. This was much more refined (we were, after all in the French bit). We were at the annual hot-air balloon festival in Château-d'Œx. It was cold, but there was vin chaud to warm us, and the sight of dozens of balloons floating over the valley and alps surrounding the village.

Käse

As many of you know, Switzerland is famous for several things: banking secrecy, direct democracy, chocolate and cheese. We indulged in the latter on Friday night. A big, bubbling pot of the good stuff melted down with wine and garlic (borrowed from the neighbour) in the pot, swirled around with bread so it doesn't stick. Since being here in Switzerland I have been able to try a range of traditional culinary delights, and fondue is up amongst the best of them, though that might just have been because of the copious amounts of white wine that were drank as an accompaniment. Just so the cheese doesn't give you a bad stomach, of course.

Rodeln in den Bergen

Whilst waiting for dinner to cook (onion soup), I was going to tell you all a little about the weekend, which included such things as beer in Bern, Croatian authors, lots of ham, sniffer dogs, mountain trains, mountain vistas, sledging, snow, apres-ski and falling for Switzerland all over again. But then I thought I would let a couple of pictures do the talking.

The village of Bergün, perched at 1366m, high up in the Canton of Graubünden

We decided to do something active, can you tell what it is yet (from Becky's photo)?

The 6km long toboggan run between Preda und Bergün, descending 400m from start to finish.

Vögel Gryff

Today, something was afoot in Klein Basel. Today was the festival of Vögel Gryff, which dates back to the middle ages. It starts with the Wild Maa, Wild Man, sailing down the Rhine on a raft to the sound of cannon, whilst dancing to a drum march with a pine tree sapling. Then he is met by the Leu, Lion and Vögel Gryff, a griffon, and at noon they danced a fertility dance on the Mittlere Brücke to the sound of drumming, before heading into Klein Basel and repeating the thing again and again, until 11pm.

My housemate and I met up with her parents and tried to see it a couple of times, but always missed the start- but it was something strange and peculiar to Basel, so it was good to see what little I did. Besides, Beer is always good for breakfast...

Geburtstag

Me, Becky and Hannah in Cargo Bar

Despite suggestions that I blog about being misunderstood by an NHS telephone-machine today, I have decided to tell you a little about my birthday, which was last Friday. It was made extra-special by the fact that I happen to share it with one of my Swiss housemates.

Friday was a normal day for most of it, though work seemed to go quicker with the thoughts of the New Year's Apéro from 5pm. Once I had drank a few glasses of what turned out to be rather expensive white wine, the English department took me for an après-Apéro in Bar Rouge, which is at the top of the Conference Tower in Basel and had views across the twinkling, night-time city.

Afterwards I headed back to the flat, where enough cannelloni and wine had been produced to feed an army. We sat down, ate, laughed and drank until four in the morning. Even better, the other nine guests at the table conversed in Swiss. I could understand almost all of it.

The next day I woke up feeling slightly worse for wear, but soon recovered, because Becky and Hannah, two of the other assistants, came to visit in the evening. We had some bubbles in my flat before heading to Vapiano (where else?) for pizza and wine, then d'Bar and Cargo Bar for cocktails and beer and general merriment, also ending at four in the morning after a long walk back over the Rhine from Klein Basel.

I had a really great weekend, even if I wasn't in the best of moods to go to work this morning...

Dreikönigstag

Today is the celebration of the Epiphany, which I know to be the day when the three Kings visited the stable in Bethlehem after following the star from the East. I know this because I'm a good little Catholic. Ahem.

Rather than completely ignoring the day like we do in England, the Swiss have a little way of marking it. According to today's copy of the Tages-Anzeiger, this tradition dates back many centuries, though it died out in the C19th and was resurrected in the early C20th. Basically, it involves the Dreikönigsbrot, which is a special tea bread with almonds on top, in which is hidden a small, plastic model of a King/Queen (see photo above). The person who finds the model gets to be the monarch for the day, and doesn't have to do the dishes, gets to decide what film to watch etc.

Unfortunately, my housemates had eaten half of the bread before I even thought of taking a photo of it. Also unfortunately, I didn't find the model, Sämi did... Though, the bread was tasty, and I probably would've choked on the 2cm tall piece of plastic whilst wolfing it down.

(Apologies for the drop in quality of the photos- I got a new camera for Christmas and, whilst it is amazing, I haven't learnt how to use it properly yet).

Schon wieder da

I arrived back to Basel at 1am on Monday, to a toasty warm flat and the thought of returning to work and sorting out everything I needed to after my wallet was stolen in London. Both of these things have been tackled with and achieved. Not too much has been going on, really. Just plodding to and from lessons, standing in queues, eating and drinking copious amounts of tea.


One thing has changed, though. When I moved in to the flat, my flatmates told me that I would have until after Christmas before they stopped talking to me in High German, and would switch to Swiss. Now, those of you in the know will know how scary and incomprehensible Swiss German can seem. Ordinary German words are replaced by (often cute) little utterances that were unknown to me when I arrived in September. So, the German "Guten Tag" (Good day) becomes Grüezi, the German "Kacheln" (tiles) becomes Plättli, and the German "etwas" (something) becomes öppis, all of which I like to throw into conversation now and again.

Add to this a spattering of French words not used in High German, but used in Swiss High German (which is kind of a standard across the various Swiss dialects), and I was soon happily talking about Poulet, Billets and Velos rather than the more Germanic "Hähnchen", "Fahrkarte" and "Fahrräder".

The final casualty in this whole process was the scharfes e, or "funny b", the beloved ß of those North of the border. Apparently it's not been used since the 1930s here. I don't really miss it too much now, either.

Soon, my assimilation into the ways of Swiss will be on the road to completion, and I'll be able to whip out sentences like a pro. That is until I leave the confines of Basel and the Baselbiet, because out there in the remaining swathes of the Deutschschweiz, the dialect is a whole other kettle of fish.