C'est le comble!!

I learned a good expression in French class tonight - "c'est le comble," which translates roughly to "that really takes the biscuit" or some other equivalent of, a lot of stupid things happened, and that's just the cherry on top. So I ask you, what would be more sad than having to do your laundry at 11pm at the laundromat?

I know! How about YOUR CLOTHES GET LOCKED IN THE WASHING MACHINE??

I have to go to the laundro even though there is a washer and dryer in my building. Why, you ask? Because to use the washer and dryer in the building, you have to have a time slot. Between 9am and 6pm. No Sundays. Oh, and it's like YOUR slot after you sign up, so if you get 3-6pm on Tuesday, you better damn well get your washing done in that time because all the other times belong to someone else. So, since my available laundry slots are oh so conveniently located during the time that 99% of people WORK, I have to go to the laundro down the street.

I used to go on the weekends but it's a total fight to the teeth for the dryers and too many randoms going in and out with annoying children. So now I go after work or French, which can be a bit dangerous because it closes at midnight. And there is no attendant - it's video survellianced. Last time I made it out around 1150 and there was one poor sap still in there. I didn't know what was going to happen at 12 and didn't care to find out. Would all the washing machines turn into white horses and the giant industrial dryer which is 1 extra franc turn into a pumpkin?

I should have stuck around.

Tonight I was on a mission to re-gortex my ski clothes for the weekend and also wash my work clothes, as my personal responsibilities to anything but studying had been put completely on hold the past 2 weeks (and the efforts did pay off, thank you very much). The re-gortex required 1 wash to get the clothes clean with some special stuff and then another with the actual waterproofing crap in the wash. So about 1145, cycle 2 is still rinsing and my other clothes are in the dryer. I speed through one rinse cycle in order to get it onto the spin, so I can take them out around 1155. At 1155, I am over at the dryers pulling out my clothes, and thinking that I should probably open the door in case it automatically locks or something. HA! Technology techschmology. I walk back over to the dryer and was just about to then get out my ski clothes when

the lights go out.

I yelp.

A light flashes.

I freeze.

the lights go out again.

Now I am panicking, in the dark, trying to get all my clothes out of the dryer. I lose socks between taking them out of my drawer and getting over to my shoes, so I am not too pleased that I am now trying to retrieve all those little guys with only the streetlight from outside and this freaky ass light in the laundro blinking on and off like some kind of beacon on LOST.

Then it hits me. No electricity can't mean that my clothes are stuck in the washer, can it? Oh YES. What the hell?!!?! Who designed these things or triggered them so they would all LOCK at midnight. I mean what am I going to do, put a shirt in there and spin it around all night? I pulled and kicked and yelled and swore but I could not open that washer door!!! So, I wrote a terse note en francais (I realize now I conjugated 1 verb wrong), and left my poor ski clothes in the washer for the night.

I guess this is what happens when you live in a country where things always run on time. When they say closed, they mean....ferme.And now that I think about it, sitting in a wet washer for 7 hours probably totally ruins the 2 hours I spent trying to waterproof them.

C'est le comble!!!

Swiss Meteo

One of my favorite things about Switzerland is the seasons. And when you come from Chicago, where you have two seasons - winter and construction - it is nice to have four long, kinda meandering ones. I'm noticing this today because it is sunny and gorgeous, and I decided to head to the store in just a t shirt and fleece. And I was pleasantly surprised that the sun was not deceiving me - you know those days when it LOOKS nice outside, and you get outside and its not. This happens to me all the time in Chicago, most notably when I went to Cubs games two days in a row, and the first day I was hot in a t shirt and jeans, and the second day looked the same so I wore the same thing, but I was so cold that my friend Marisa and I had to buy children's sweatshirts and hot chocolate. Anyway today I stepped outside fearing deception, but it was like a nice warm hug.

Like anything in Switzerland, the change in the weather doesn't happen overnight. It kind of teases you at first and then slowly transforms itself. I always say the winter is cold, not too cold. Cold enough to ski, cold enough to get views of snow-capped mountains when walking to work, cold enough to enjoy a fondue and a vin chaud and not feel the least bit guilty. Not cold enough that your face hurts, the pipes freeze, your snot freezes, school is canceled and you can't leave the house, but can only snuggle under a blanket with a big warm Zaza (this part about Chicago winter is not too bad).

Last summer in Geneva was weird. It rained almost every day. Fine for me, bad for my unemployed boyfriend who didn't speak french and had no tv. You read a lot of books and watch movies. For whatever reason though the weekends were gorgeous (god's way of telling us to work hard during the week?) and the summer was again, hot but not too hot. Hot enough to take nice walks on the lake and get two scoops of ice cream. Hot enough to go to a water park with a slide and feel like you are nine years old, until a real nine year old slams into you going down the slide and you remember you're not. Hot enough to enjoy a crisp white wine and a fondue under a cool August sky. (who says you can only have fondue in the winter)? Not so hot that the only way to cool off is to shower in freezing cold water, your old style is warm before you even get it back from the vendor, you're about to pass out on the El platform too hot.

The days in winter get so very short, and I really noticed this when I first arrived. The sun was rising at 8:30. No joke. And it was dark by 5. But again, this didn't last long. Now coming out of my second winter, already the sun is up now when I am and sets about 20 past 6. In the summer the days are wonderfully long, lounging out in front of you and never seeming to end, just like the comically big shadows you cast walking in the late afternoon sunshine.

And spring and fall, which barely exist in Chicago? I am spoiled to have such nice even seasons. Fall is when the grapes are all harvested in the vineyards and if you recall my post about wine tasting, you know how beautiful it is out there. And there is always this smell in the air!! Like fresh fruit. I think it's the vineyards. It is powerful and delicious, and I really can't describe it other than that. You just have to visit and hope the wind is blowing the right way. Spring is definitely coming now, I can tell by the lengthening days, and by the ridiculously large Easter candy display at the grocery store (I will have to somehow take a picture of this, it is really just...a sight to see). Today as I was walking home a group of 3 little boys was skipping along the sidewalk and suddenly stopped, peering into a neighbor's garden. "Regarde, les fleurs!! Wowwow!!" I peeked in to see sure enough, some little white flowers were just beginning to emerge. Maybe I'm just romanticizing it because it's a nice sunny day but really...it's pretty darn good.

One other tiny little benefit...I have seen more rainbows (arc-en-ciel) here than I have the rest of my life put together. Especially at work I can see huge ones, going from end to end over the airport. I'm sure there's a good scientific explanation for it. This one is from my apartment balcony after a rainstorm last summer.

Swiss Neighbors

Ok, I love Switzerland, let me make this clear. It is pretty, the weather is moderate to wonderful 365 days per year, the food is excellent, things just WORK and run ON TIME and people are generally polite and nice. Generally. But people are stereotyped as not neighborly and keeping to themselves and someone just proved em all right this morning!

This morning, when I walked out of my apartment building, for whatever reason, I fell. Completely stumbled and fell on the ground like an idiot. And this woman who was passing and was no more than 5 feet away when I fell didn't even flinch!! She just kept on walking. Now I am not sure how you do not hear a human being fall over onto the sidewalk but maybe she was deaf. Anyway, this is just an example of how "neighborly" some of the Swiss residents can be.

I am a bad ass

Exhibit A.

For those of you who didn't already hear about this, a few weeks ago I went ice climbing. 2008 brought some kind of bee with it for me, a bee which jumped in my bonnet and said "last year in Switzerland! You gotta do EVERYTHING!!" So I have gone snowboarding taken ski lessons, did the balloon thing, also went snowshoeing (super fun, I loved it, and at least I can do that in Chicago) and last weekend snow toboganning which is in huge inner tubes down enormous chutes in Leysin, Switzerland. I screamed going down all of them like an idiot, but it was fun.

A few weeks ago, I tried ice climbing with a guide who had taken me on the snowshoeing trip. The guide, Roger Fleming, is a super cool laid back guy who is also just a teensy bit obsessed with safety and caution to your surroundings in everything you do. So after meeting him snowshoeing and hearing he did an ice climbing course, I signed up.

You may know that from time to time (de temps en temps, I learned in French last week, and it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to make the "liaison") I have done my fair share of above-average sporty things. I did the Chicago Triathlon. I have done winter backpacking, rock climbing. I snowboard fairly regularly. I also complain a lot!! So while I will mentally want to push myself, sometimes my lazy body, which I think is just an average sporty body, not above average, will cry "why are you doing this to me???" Then it goes downhill. However having done these things means I can do other things, so usually I try them.

The day of ice climbing was after a particularly bad snowboarding outing - we were in big powder all day, fun for about one long run and then I was dead tired (and my legs complained a LOT). Another girl was in the ice climbing course with me, which was in Chamonix. We geared up in our 4 layers of clothes (seriously), boots, gaiters, harness, helmet. Then Roger says "we are going to hike about 15 minutes to the spot, now try not to get warm, because if you perspire, you will be cold, and you do not want to be cold when ice climbing." Of course, the hike was like a 85 degree angle uphill in ice and snow, and I was immediately sweating. And my legs were burning. I was thinking um, what the heck are you doing you idiot??!!! I was thinking about how much I did not really like rock climbing and maybe this was a bad idea. I tried to ignore it and be thinking instead on not sliding off the side of the mountain, which given the icy trek, would not have been that difficult to do. We pressed on and got to the spot, where I practically took off all my clothes, then froze and threw them all back on.

During the day, Roger and the other guide, Kursten, taught us a lot about ice and its strength and weaknesses, what makes good ice, etc. For obvious reasons, ice climbing is done in the shade, and you do spend a fair amount of time standing around, so when that was happening, I was getting pretty cold. We wore crampons and had these big ice picks as seen in the photo (both SHARP). First we learned how to use the picks in the ice. You have to really swing your arm and use the leverage to THUNK it in there. You can definitely feel when it is in good and not. At first we were just swinging like a bunch of monkeys with tools and ice was flying off everywhere! But after about 10 min, we had the hang of it.

Then we practiced going up the ice just using our feet, no arm tools. Crampons are pretty bad ass. They are like detachable cleats of destruction. Roger kept telling us to watch out for the rope or we could easily cut them. You have to just kick in your foot, then the next, and walk up like you are going up a ladder. If the ice was more soft, this was easy, but on the hard ice, it was quite difficult. You also need to not waste energy kicking and kicking at the damn thing. Maybe you just get one of the little diggers in there good, and you need to trust yourself that this is enough. I did find it a little easier than rock climbing, or maybe I just trusted my body more with all these additional claw-like appendages I had.

Finally we scaled up the thing twice (once half way and once all the way up) using the picks and crampons, and on a rope of course. The vertical ascent was like climbing a ladder against a house - not 90 degrees, in some parts a bit, but mostly I would say more like 75 or 80. The climb was very challenging, and partly because my hands were FREEZING cold. I think they just kind of formed around the picks and froze like that. Your hands are constantly for the most part above your head, so all the blood is draining away from them. And they are in snow and ice. BRRR!! But I found I was able to concentrate and get in a good rhythm and just go up, moving left arm, left leg, right arm, right leg, up up up. Hey I was doing it!! By the top I was exhausted, but feeling good and happy. We rappelled down which was fun, also really cool because Roger built an anchor my drilling a hole in the ice!!

Here was what we climbed up (that is Roger at the top, rappelling down)

I am going ice climbing again March 1, probably the last weekend of the season it will be possible, and quite possibly the last time in my life. But I am really looking forward to it.

Our group:

Me at the top of our climb!

By the way, the crazy bee is beginning to suggest I should climb the Mont Blanc this summer...more in the future if I decide to do this...

Bella Svizzera

Ciao. Most people don't klnow this about Switzerland, but it is actually like 4 mini countries in 1 country. There is the French region, with lots of cigarettes and discotecs. There is the German region, with lots of manufacturing and sausages. There is the Romansch region, which is small and I don't really know about (apparently the language is a "bastardized Latin" that is a QUOTE, not my opinion).

And then there is the Italian region, which I had been dying to get to, and finally, I am here. Buona sera.

I was fortunate enough to get whisked on a last minute work trip to Lugano. When it comes to business trips, if someone said to me "do you want to go to Iraq?," I would probably say yes. This gives you a good indication of the extent of travel fever and my willingness to go wherever. So when I heard Lugano, a place that I had actually been wanting to go for some time, in my Swss country, I was ecstatic.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to stay in a 5 star hotel on the lake. Bellisimo! I can say that the Hotel Eden is one of the nicest places I have stayed in my life. And since it is offseason, we got upgraded to a lake view with no charge. I am here with my colleague Dave. Today I spent working in our Lugano office, had pizza for lunch, and then worked more in the afternoon while watching the sunset over the mountains outside. Then we had dinner at the hotel, in a tranquil restaurant overlooking the lake. Yes, sometimes living in Switzerland is a REAL hardship.

I just finished a fantastic dinner of raviolis, sea bass and vegetables with herbs, wine and prosecco, and a dessert called "harmony." Indeed, I have to say this is a very rare occassion in my crazy job where I am immensely happy I am involved with a particular project! My advice - Lugano is beautiful. Come here if you can. In fact, it is so beautiful, and the food is so good, skip visiting me in Geneva if you have to just so you can come here.

Off to bed...ciao gentle reader.

What have I been "up" to?

Hello gentle reader. Bonne annee! I have been taking a little break for the past few weeks because since I have been back to Switzerland, my life has been mad. I have been working like crazy, 12-14 hours a day which is nuts. However I am really really trying to not let work control my life so much here, because often (as it is such a huge part of my life, spending 14 hours a day there) it really can control my mood. So although I am slaving away 5 days per week, I have resolved to keep my weekends to MYSELF and no one else.


Well this weekend was the beginning of the 30th Annual Festival International de Ballons in a little area of Switzerland called Chateau D'Oex, about 2 hours from me by train. I had wanted to go to this shindig last year but couldn't for whatever reason, probably WORK. And I originally had wanted to go because my sister and I bought a puzzle a long time ago which just so happened to be a picture of this festival (we never did finish it as there was too much white). I figured blue sky, white snow, pretty balloons...should be something to go see.



Then last week I was poking around on the website and saw that passenger flights were offered. I have to say that riding in a hot air balloon is not something I have ever considered doing. And I am not really afraid of heights, but I am finding that as I get older, they are scaring me a little bit more. However, how often do you get the chance to take a hot air balloon ride in the Swiss Alps in the middle of winter? Right. So I booked the flight for the morning of today, Sunday, got up to a very early 530 alarm clock and by 630 was on the train on the way to Chateau D'Oex (pronounced "chateau doh," I will never understand why the french even bothered with putting xes on the end of words).


It was COLD this morning!! I fortunately bundled up in a layer of long undies, boots and my ski coat and my ski mittens (including liners). I had to be there by 9am, paid up and then wandered around as I was told to come to the field at 945. However around 935 the announcer paged "JACQUELYN D----, JACQUELYN D----- S'IL VOUS D PLAIT ALLEZ A INFORMATION DU VOLS" so I guess they got the time wrong. Or I did.



I was whisked off to Balloon #15 which I immediately liked because it was in the design of a big cartoon bumblebee. There were probably about 20-25 other balloons on the field all in various stages of blowing up. The male passengers were helping our pilot to inflate our balloon while me and another girl stood back and watched.





Very quickly, in about 7 minutes, it was ready. We hopped into the basket which had enough room probably for 6 passengers, but it fit us 4 comfortably. We took up about 2/3 while the pilot had another 1/3 to himself with the gas tanks. The basket came up high enough on me, a bit above my waist, and the floor was nice and cushy since we would be standing the entire time. I felt reasonably comfortable and secure. I saw other balloons taking off and knew we would be soon. I was really excited but also a little nervous. Was I insane? Well, too late now. We were pushed across the snow by some crew to a more open area. Although it was cold, the flames which the pilot would constantly shoot up and off were warm, so I was happy about that. Suddenly we lifted off the ground, and off we went!





The immediate ascent was wonderful. I was worried about my stomach dropping away, but we went up so smoothly and peacefully that I didn't feel anything of the sort. I had a fantastic view of the balloons still on the ground readying themselves and the other ones beginning to take off. We climbed very slowly, flying through the snow-covered valley. All sorts of trees (at one point we flew into the branches of one but our pilot handled it great and we just cruised right through them) and little rivers were below while blue sky and other brightly colored balloons were above us and around us. People in cars and houses below waved and we waved back. I have waved to balloons countless times in the summer in Naperville during the neighboring Lisle's 4th of July "eyes to the skies" balloon festival - it was really funny to think of myself as the person waving!





Once separated from the other balloons a bit more, we began to climb higher. I watched our little shadow on the side of the mountain ascend which was really the only way you could tell. I would describe the ascent if anything as that of an escalator rather than an elevator - it is so gradual and smooth that you really don't notice how high you get until you are there! I admit that once we were up about the same height as the MOUNTAIN TOPS which I think was close to 2800 or 3000 m, I was a little bit scared. That's really high! And I did NOT like looking down and seeing the top of another hot air balloon! I calmed myself by looking around instead of down at first until I was more comfortable. The ride was very gentle and quickly I was back to enjoying the beautiful sights all around me. There were some balloons which were realllly high and flying over the mountains but I think that perhaps these were not for passenger flights as they landed much later than we did and took off earlier. Now that we were up high, we were out of the shadows of the mountains, and the sun was shining brightly upon our brave little bumblebee and the sloping hills to our left. It was extremely quiet and peaceful. The only sounds were that of the talk of the passengers and the radio, and the gas constantly being released into the balloon.




We floated around with the mountain tops for about 20 minutes and then began to descend. Again I was worried my stomach would drop but it didn't. Still, I did not exactly watch the ground though as we were going down!! Instead I watched as other balloons went up and down around us. Sooner than I realized we were not too far off the ground, hovering above the little chalets and waving again. Our pilot directed us towards a large snow covered field and hovered, waiting for the crew to arrive.


As the crew car pulled up, the pilot landed the balloon softly into the snow. The two guys got out and helped to maneuver the balloon onto the truck bed (yes, balloon is still inflated at this point, it was pretty cool, and I am still in the basket!) When the basket was on the bed, the guys secured it and then the womenfolk hopped out.


We ran up to help the crew member to bring down the balloon, the five of us pulling and tugging to bring down the big bumblebee. After a few minutes the balloon, the balloon was mostly deflated and we helped to begin to wrap it up. I was quite surprised that the material of the balloon itself was so thin - my jacket was a heavier material. It was amazing to think that just a humongous sheet of that fabric plus a whole lotta hot air had carried five people up to 3000m! You are apparently supposed to have a glass of champagne after your first balloon flight, but apparently this was not included for us. Oh well. I can drink champagne any time! Overall it was fantastic - a little scary, but it made it exciting and I really enjoyed the beautiful views. It was such a great way to see Switzerland!


In 2 weeks my adventures continue as I am giving ice climbing a try (going with a guide, I'm not stupid enough to do something like that alone). I've put a few ballooning pictures on here but you can see the rest on my kodak gallery page link.

Guten Tag!

Greetings from Zurich! I left this morning at 830am to go to the normally calm Geneva airport. But what is holiday travel without a ginormous flock of people at every airport in the world? I waited in line to check in for 45 minutes and when I got up to the front, my check in woman appeared panicked as she ran my passport through, especially as my flight had started to board while I toiled in line.

"Oh la la madamoiselle!" she clicked and got out a small little book to find a special phone number. (Incidentally, I love being called "madamoiselle," I find it charming and much better than being called madam). I understood enough French that the computer was claiming there was no boarding pass for me to Chicago. Quoi?? When she was off the phone, she sadly told me that my flight to Zurich (now leaving in 20 minutes) was fine but my flight to Chicago was delayed until 17:45. Seventeen?!! It was supposed to leave at 12:55. Flights that leave at 17:45 are not supposed to fly 9 hours away!! Anyway she was so sweet and felt bad for me that my lunch voucher was only 20 CHF, she told me to lie and say I hadn't gotten one so I could get a better lunch. Ha!!

So, as I have still over 3 hours to kill, this post will be quite random and wandering.

I went to the ATM which is great because the UBS atms can also dispense Euros, Pounds and dollars. If you are a worldly girl like me, you might have noticed that the exchange rate on the dollar is not so good these days. Well, that's good for me, because I get a lot more Francs than I ever got dollars. I have been too lazy to actually make a transfer of funds but I needed to do all my Christmas shopping at home still. So I hit the ATM very very hard to get my dollars needed for 2 weeks of partying and shopping. I got 800 dollars (we got paid a week early for Christmas, isn't that nice??). Except they only come out in 20s....oops. If anyone sees my wallet, they are going to either rob me or turn me into the poliezi!!

I landed in Zurich and used my lunch voucher. I calculated that my lunch was 23CHF (15CHF pizza plus 5 CHF salad plus 3chf coca light) so I was preparing to pay more. Instead, the woman at the counter asked me if I wanted a free Tobelerone. Um, what?? OK!!! Maybe my little friend back in Geneva made some calls for me.

I read about 200 pages in my book and did a little shopping and now I am at a weird internet cafe. The first computer ate 5 francs and shut off after 3 minutes, which is total crap. This one seems ok.

NOW, let's talk about airports. And the Europeans that are in them. And why I don't understand.

1) MOVING QUICKLY. No one over here understands the concept of moving quickly. I mean WALKING. I was running through the airport to make it to my flight, literally running and I get behind Shuffling Sham and Sharon and cannot get around them. MOVE people! Or don't take up so much room! I don't even understand how you can even move that slow. Then, I was running through the security line (still behind Sham and Sharon) which was thank god empty except for me and them and they would NOT move to a belt or take their bags to go somewhere or anything. They both just stood there in my way, turning around in a daze and not attempting to move through the line. The kicker is I knew that they were on a flight to Helsinki which also left at 1020, same as mine (it is now 1005). Are you high?? (actually, I did mutter this under my breath, because I saw NO WAY that any person whose plane was about to leave would act like that, unless they were high)

2) QUEUEING. Be proud to know how to wait in line, my fellow Americans. We may grumble and crowd but we are NO cutters. It must be because we are raised so well - "No cuts no buts no coconuts" and taunts of "she CUUuuuuuuUUUUUt!!!" from a young age. I first learned about this phenomenon when I was in India in 2006. However I figured there are a billion people in the country and they are probably used to having to fight crowds everywhere and it is just natural. So, you would imagine my surprise in orderly, orderly Switzerland, that there are just as many cutters here!!! And unlike Indian cutters, Euro cutters are RUDE and think it is their birthright to cut you. I got in the back of a super long line to check in at the airport and this entire family suddenly pulls up next to me trying to get in front of me. I shot the woman a totally dirty look and she ignored me, but she had to answer her phone or something so I reclaimed my proper place in line. heheheh. But later while I was checking my phone, I was cut again by some ipod wearing jerk who ignored my cold stares. Why do you think it is ok to cut?!! I saw it happen at least 10 times. Forget, incidentally, about skiing or getting a drink at a bar, those places are 100 times worse than the airport. But checking in at the airport is generally such a miserable experience that it would really be doing humanity a favor if these people would learn not to cut!

Well. I'm down to about a minute here so I'll post this bad boy and go. Its now 230. And they don't sell english books here. Off to make some fun for myself in the Zurich airport and hopefully hopefully see some of you soon!

And of course gentle readers, Happiest of Holidays and New Years to you. Looking forward to more adventures in 2008!! Aufwiedersein Au Revoir and goodbye!

More Happiness!

Another post about les animaux. I have included some kitty photos below! I am sure some people think I am weird because I get so obsessed with animals. I am sorry, but when you study ALL day and two little furballs sleep at your feet to keep you company, or when you close your door to get some sleep and they open it and come nuzzle right next to your face, or when they have a perfectly good bowl of water in the next room but prefer to drink out of YOUR glass...that's cute. I never had pets growing up and after getting Hiccup and Rookie, I learned why people get so obsessed with their animals. They are so loving and generally hilarious. So since I missed out on getting to know pets for the first 25 years of my life, I think that's why I get such a kick out of them now.



Another thing that is great about animals here is they are bilingual. Seriously. I know a lot of people who give commands to their pets in English and French and they LISTEN. A little sad that the canine population of Switzerland probably has a better grasp on a second language than a majority of Americans? Also dogs are welcome everywhere, as I have said before. I have actually never seen an animal misbehave when I am out and about so I guess it works. I don't know if I would take my dog to IKEA but in Switzerland it is your prerogative to do so.



Here are some pictures of Pat and Fleur, my weekend guests. Thanks to Karen for letting me see them when they were babies, and to Geoff and Severine, to whom these little guys actually belong to!



To be honest I'm not 100% positive this is them...but I think so. There were 4 and 2 were all grey (the girls) and both boys had a little white face. This is from when they were born in May. Pat has the white face.






















I love this picture! C'est trop chou!!


Here's Justin with Pat at the end of July when we went to watch them. Check out how fuzzy he is (Pat, not Justin).










Ok then I took a few more funny ones this weekend...generally all in various stages of napping or waking up.



Santa?




Pat feels the same way I do about reading Circular 230




Snuggles!!!

Oh Tennanbaum oh Tennanbaum...

What the heck is a "tennanbaum?" My sister and I sing O Christmas Tree this way when we like to be "jerky" as my mom would say.

I got a "tennenbaum" this year and it is so cute. See my photos. It's real too! And amazingly only 22CHF. Cheaper than most lunches in Switzerland. I got an even smaller one for my office that was 16CHF.

I LOVE Christmas. I love the lights, the smells, the cheesy songs, the horrble sweaters, the ridiculous office parties getting slaughtered off the holiday nog. Switzerland as you might suspect, is somewhat low-key when it comes to Christmas. There are no tacky light displays. Stores are NOT open any later (I find this shocking). There are no sales. And I can't say I have learned any Swiss or French Christmas songs, although I am sure they exist. I organized a Secret Santa for my office and people had no clue what I was talking about. I explained it and you would have thought that I invented something novel and clever like Clocky. (I highly recommend this as a Christmas gift!) And when we started selecting names, the first person immediately blurted out who they chose. SECRET! I explained. The word is the same in French so I was really confused why this message didn't get through. Anyway.

Two things here that I have noticed which I find funny -

Santa apparently uses the window and not the chimney. A lot of people have little Santas climbing "ladders" up through their windows outside their apartments. I suppose the Swiss are too rational to think that someone could ACTUALLY get down a chimney and naturally you would have to use the window. I will try to take a picture of this if I see it.

The chocolate section of the grocery store multiplies like 10000 times. And it is out of control with the variety and fancy boxes and this and that. This is one part of Swiss Christmas that is American commercialism at its best. Major displays everywhere. It is the gaudiest flashiest part of Christmas over here that I can think of. Imagine it as normally the chocolate display is one plain small charlie-brown esque fir tree. And at this time of year its the tree in Daley Plaza. That should give you an idea of the proportions we are talking about!

Happiness is Pets

That's the name of a store on Ashland in Chicago, and I have to agree. There are certain things I have found when living by yourself in a foreign country that become automatic for you. For example:

1) People always assume that you don't have a very active social life and you become the designated friend. Dinner invitations, nights drinking after work, trips in town or out of town - you get invited to pretty much everything. And it has definitely been to my advantage to accept about as many of these as I possibly can because then suddenly it does fill up your social calendar!

2) People assume that you don't like cooking "for one" and always give you leftovers or other treats. You get sent home with things after parties. Most people I know are only 2 at home anyway so if they make a big meal, somehow leftovers will appear for me at the office the next day. I cannot tell you how many free lunches I have had (I know there is no such thing, but you get the idea), cookies, chocolate, etc. It doesn't hurt that I'm not a picky eater eiher. Only a gift of olives would be returned.

3) And finally, if you are an animal lover like me, you become the resident pet sitter for your office. I wrote previously about my time with the famous Java. I have watched him since then without incident (thank God) and will likely watch him a few more times. But what is great about this is you basically get the experience of having your own pet without the responsibility of having to deal with it all the time.

Also I have done a lot of cat sitting. As much as I wanted to bring Hiccup and Rookie to Switzerland, it would not have been a good idea, and I think they are much happier with my mom. Anyway, earlier this year in May, my friend's cat had kittens. Two of them went to a girl in my office and the other two went to a guy I work with as well, Geoff. Geoff used to live only about 2 blocks from me and had to go out of town a few weekends this summer, so I was called upon to watch Pat and Fleur (brother and sister). The best part about watching these guys is that I met them when they were teeeeeeny - I could hold both of them in my one hand. Ever since they have gotten bigger and more rambunctious and crazy. But they are so sweet that it's hard to get mad at them. They pretty much like to follow you wherever you go and lick your toes and snuggle you. And they trashed a lot of things at Geoff's apartment, but that is the beauty of just having to go watch them at someone else's place!

Anyway, Geoff just left for holiday and needed a catsitter for one week before another friend could take them. So now they are with me. At this moment, picture me sitting and typing in this blog...Pat is laying SPRAWLED out across me, with his head on my one arm, curled up toward my chest, sleeping, with his one leg perched up on top of my other arm, obviously ignoring the fact that I am typing about him. I mean so freaking cute. My cats NEVER do that and I think they must have had a rough childhood before we got them because they are so absolutely spoiled that would be the only possible explanation.

Oh one other thing. Pat can open doors. He leaps up one meter in the air and brings the door handle down with him. So you can imagine that I didn't get much sleep last night. I did get quite a few nuzzles though.

For now I am off to the store to get some study treats because I have another exam on Tues. But me (and Pat and Fleur) will update you on our weekend adventures.

Amer? I Can!

Ok, after that sap of a post I just did, here is a fun one I have been meaning to post for a while.

There's not much that Switzerland doesn't have that America does. There's not many things that I miss. After my first 6 months, I would say that the things I missed the most (food wise) were: buffalo wings (still stings this one), Miller Lite, Gatorade, egg and bagel sandwiches, saltines. I think some of you probably noticed a theme there...anyway, you also start missing things that you didn't obsess about, but now that you can't have them, you do. Like Doritos. Or books in English. Take out thai food for less than 10 bucks. You get the picture.

And THEN you find some of these things here in Switzerland. Not only do you find them but they are branded differently. I can't really explain it. First, you are happy to find something that is like home. And second, you laugh because it's an American thing dressed it up in a really stupid Eurotrash Halloween costume.

So last week randomly, I found peanut butter. I do kind of miss it, but not that much. But it was exciting. When I got it home, I took a closer look at the label:

So they have "Nick's" peanut butter here, at least in the local market. And I'm not sure if you can tell, probably not, but apparently as you can see on the center label, tough guys riding motorcycles are the demographic most commonly associated with peanut butter. You will see that it is also called "the Easy Rider."

And in exhibit 2, we learn that peanut butter is an integral part of "The American Way of Life." Not just for school age children. For easy riders like Nick too.

I doubled checked the back label and this peanut butter was legitimately imported from the U.S. So Switzerland can power their country without using fossil fuels, but they don't know how to make peanut butter. Interesting....

Ok, well you may like that, but the best one so far I have found was when Abby was here. I won't even introduce it because the picture is enough. Those of you familiar with this blue bag will know my little buddies below by a different name. But I will say that we were hysterically laughing at the store and of course had to buy them. Interestingly enough we found these at the train station grocery which I would assume had worse selection than the actual grocery. Apparently not. A-MAZING! I think that we should start calling them this too!!

I will keep you all posted on more of these fun "Amer-I-can" objects that I encounter in my travels. I will say that I have found "The Laughing Cow" cheese, better known here as La Vache Qui Rit, in Portugal, France and Norway, and that little laughing cow speaks a LOT of languages!

Halftime

I know it has been a long time since my last post and I apologize. During that time I was very busy working and stuying and frankly, tired and not in a mood to blog when I was done. I was also home for Thanksgiving (more on those observations in a futue post). And I celebrated my one year anniversary of living abroad! Happy Anniversary to meeeeeee. Briefly - my top 5 highs and lows from the past year:

Lows - in no particular order (boo)
1) When I went to a work party last Feb and could not understand a word of French and went home and cried
2) One day in April when I had a really bad day at work and then promptly lost CHF 300 in the casino and went home and cried
3) The day after Justin left in Sept and I went home and saw a glass he had used the day before and cried
4) January last year in the office when I got a bucketload of work dumped on me (promised to never happen again...we will find out in 4 weeks)
5) Hearing them sing take me out to the ballgame at a Cubs game on tv...I teared up

Highs!
1) Going to the top of Mt. Pilatus with Aimee and Chris
2) Hiking in First, Switzerland with Justin (and Aimee and Chris, seperately)
3) Snowboarding in Zermatt
4) The first time I ordered delivery in French
5) Martini and Rib (and singalong) night at Dave and Lisa's

Ok, well, I wrote this list in about 5 minutes. And it took me about 4 minutes to come up with the lows and 1 to come up with the highs, and I have so many more of those highs I could list. Actually the intent was not really to say that I have sooo many more highs than lows, because believe me honey, it don't feel like that all the time. It's pretty easy to get caught up in the lows and concentrate on that - same as in your normal daily life. I mean isn't it so much easier to get annoyed with some stupid idiot who sent you an e-mail than it is to get jazzed up about a nice e-mail a friend sent you a few days ago? Or more easy to get annoyed about having to stay late at work for a week than to remember the day you skipped to snuggle with your boyfriend. But I guess I do have more highs than lows, which is good!

So anyway, I guess my point is that this past year, while at times it has been super hard, and I have complained a LOT and cried to my mom, to Justin, by myself, to guys I work with that weirded them out...it has also been as well one of the most rewarding years of my life. Being all on my own can be hard, but at the same time, all the failures and successes are pretty much entirely mine, which makes them that much harder or sweeter. An interesting year for sure. Which is by all accounts better than an easy boring one.

Well well, I wasn't planning to post about this, but I guess my writer's block is over. My goals (briefly) for the next year:

1) Improve my French where I can talk to all my friends in the office easily
2) Learn to ski
3) Visit Ireland
4) Visit Spain
5) Visit Italian Switzerland
6) Read more books on my balcony (need visitors to help with this!!)
7) Stop leaving my laundry all over my bedroom floor

That's it for now. I am sure I'll come up with more, but I think these are good for the time being.

Waves, Wind and Wine

So I am on my fourth wave or so of visitors at the moment. My friend Rosey and her boyfriend Tony stopped in about 2 weeks ago for a day of fondue and bike riding along the lake. Of course, if you read my post from a while back, you should know that this bike riding doesn't actually come for free. We wasted a while trying to get the thing fixed which was a huge pain.

Most recently my friend Marie stopped by on her way back from India en route to Chicago. I just so happen to be near a lot of major hubs, so I frequently "profit" as they say from my location. I try to do things a little differently with each different guest, since everyone has varied interests (and so I don't get bored). Fall in Switzerland is really beautiful, so I suggested we go wine tasting out in the countryside. Who doesn't want to do that??

My friends Dave and Lisa (and their famous dog, Java) live about 20 minutes from Geneva in a town of 2,000 people with 12 different "caves," or wine makers. They picked us up around 1030 in the morning on Saturday and whisked us off to the first cave to taste some reds. Now Switzerland has the bold French and smooth Italian neighbors to compete with, so while the reds are definitely delicious, they can often be overlooked. I certainly enjoy them but when I am at the store, admittedly I usually gravitate towards one of the "foreign" wines.

There is a very cool red they make here called "Espirit de Geneve." It's produced by 13 caves in the Geneva area, and they start with 50% gamay grape. The remaining 50% is a blend of whatever the vitner chooses, so each one is just a little bit different.

Even better though than Swiss reds are Swiss whites! For some reason, they are very flavorful and fruity without being sweet and gross. I used to be a red wine snob, but when I moved here I started trying some of the local whites. They are so delicious and refreshing and really difficult to find in the U.S. So I make everyone else try them. Plus, they are the best accompaniment to fondue and raclette.

Anyway Marie and I very much enjoyed the wine tasting...8 bottles purchased later (and who knows how many drank), we ate a big lunch and then headed on a walk with Dave, Lisa and Java through the same vineyards. Unfortunately, while it was a sunny day, Geneva is also suffering from cold winds at the moment (see photo of hair being violently whipped across my face). The wind which is absolutely bitter and horrible (and probably only Chicagoans can sympathasize) is called "La Bise" (the kiss). At times I felt like I was about to get blown over. It was so windy that even the jet d'eau was turned off all weekend. If that's what the Swiss consider a kiss...

So why have you never had a Swiss wine before? Almost every bottle is drunk right here within our neutral little borders; less than 2% is exported outside of the country. Luckily for me (and you if you come here), the Geneva canton and surrounding cantons are perfect for wine cultivation. Probably the biggest "wino" of them all is the Valais canton, which is also famous for something else a little bit better known outside of Switzerland...the Matterhorn!

"Java, red or white?"

The Fitness

So I have been here for almost a year now (seems weird) and let's just say that almost a year's worth of fondue, wine, cheese, chocolate, sitting around, etc etc, have caught up with me. And because I am a total foodie, I can't just say no to all of that stuff and restrict myself to eating lettuce while I am in the land of cheese. I have put on the "fondue 15."

So I finally joined the gym. And I have already gone 4 times...in one wee! Seriously I have not done that since my triathlon days! I mean I do like working out and exercising, but I'm just very busy, and very lazy, and I have a hard time getting motivated. I even bought a scale last week, and I have never owned one before. Apparently I have already lost 1.9 kilos since last week! However I think that 1.0-1.5 of those kilos was alcohol because I was out a lot this weekend (more on that later). I will keep you posted on my fitness...it's a good way to make me accountable!

The gym is connected to my office (like everything else), so it's very convenient. Observations in my first week at the "fitness:"



1) The machines are all really really nice! And they all have cable tv which is so exciting for me since I don't have tv. That alone is going to motivate me to go. The weight machines are all nice too, but I find it odd that the machines are called like "Leg Press" because the instructions are in French. Why isn't it called "Press de Jambe" or something like that?



2) They don't give you towels, which sucks. However everyone brings their own and naturally, being Swiss, they keep the machines scrupulously clean and always wipe off the sweat and clean them and etc etc. Very courteous.



3) Fitness Fashonistas: You know who I'm talking about. The people who go to the gym to see and be seen but not really work out. Well I will say that most of the people so far actually DO seem to work out, but being europeans, they wear some weird outfits. Examples:

- a guy wearing denim Keds with no socks

-a guy wearing an all white tracksuit with a "Texas" bandanna tied around his head like a cleaning lady

-a guy wearing super short shorts which showed his somewhat longer but still short, shorts tan line

-several guys wearing polo shirts

-a woman wearing flip flops - like the crappy shower sandal kind

-finally a guy wearing the tightest spandex shorts I have ever seen which also (brace yourselves) were so tight that you could see his little thong underwear underneath. Ewww!!

4) Another pro - everyone is very polite. Same with everywhere you go in Switzerland, you "bonjour" and "bonsoir" and "au revoir" people until you're blue in the face. Even at the gym this is true - when leaving the locker room a lot of women say bye (now read the part about the locker rooms...)

5) Finally, the locker rooms. You've been in one with some of those people who just LOVE to be naked. And as you may have heard, Europeans also LOVE to be naked (this stereotype is 100% justified). So, the locker room in a European gym is a complete nudefest. A free for all of bare breasts and buttocks and people just unabashedly struttin their stuff.

The showers for example - the towel rack (and there is only 1) is outside of the shower stalls. So you have to leave it there and stroll in. While there are dividers between the stalls, there is no curtain and no door. So if you and someone else turn around at the same time, it's full frontal nudity. I'm not the most comfortable with my body (hence the reason I joined the gym), but it would be so much weirder to NOT walk around naked that you have no choice but to just follow (birthday) suit. So far I haven't really minded. But some of my co-workers are threatening to come with me. People who normally see me clothed I would really prefer NOT see me naked. At least not like so naked that I have to walk 100 feet before I can get clothes on naked. Anyway it's kind of funny. A bunch of ladies standing around totally naked talking in French. That's my life.

Important: Somone Else's Blog

Hi loyal readers!

I'm coming to you today with an important and easy request - to go someone else's blog.

My sister Aimee is friends with a woman in her law school class named Kim Klein. Last spring, Kim was diagnosed with breast cancer and has been very bravely sharing her story online. Her blog has been selected as a national finalist, and she is eligible to win a $10,000 scholarship if her blog receives the most votes out of the 20 finalists. Please take two minutes right now and go to her blog and then when you see "vote for me, national blogging contest" enter a vote for Kim Klein. This is a very nice, outgoing woman who is balancing a husband and two kids with chemo and law school.

Honestly, in my opinion, this woman deserves more than $10,000, she deserves a medal or sainthood!

I have read her blog and it is great. I encourage you to vote for her, and please pass this along to anyone else you know via a message on your blog or via a simple e-mail. The voting ends on October 28 at midnight.

Thanks everyone! And special thanks to Karee for telling me the link to Kim's blog wasn't working :)

Swiss Facts

Well after two rants about the Cubs, I decided to write a short post about what this blog is really about - my life in Switzerland.

As much as I miss home sometimes, I have to say that Switzerland is one of the most interesting and unique countries in the world (in my opinion). I found out two facts about my current home over the weekend that I thought were pretty cool and wanted to share.

1) Politics in Switzerland

Switzerland is the purest form of "direct democracy." My interpretation of this (feel free to make your own) based on reading up on Wikipedia is that this is total bad-ass democracy that really has the people directly involved, and also cuts out a lot of the garbage seen with officials who are just representative of the people but push their own agendas too. The U.S. is also a direct democracy, but not to the extent that Switzerland is (e.g., at the federal level).

-Any citizen can challenge a law that has been passed by Parliament after getting 50,000 signatures in 100 days;

- Any citizen can seek an amendment to the constitution after getting 100,000 signatures in 18 months.

These two things, while pretty cool, can also fall under the subheading "Things that will work in Switzerland and no where else in the world."

-The government is headed up by this federal council of 7 people. Anyone can be elected to it or run for it if they are eligible to be elected to the National Council (basically the Swiss Parliament/Senate). The council together makes decisions and serves as the executive branch and collective presidency. The council is elected collectively to a 4 year term, and the presidency and vice presidency (largely figureheads only), rotate each year. Right now the President of Switzerland is a woman, Micheline Calmy-Rey. Yeah!

2) Swissies and the Environment

Ok, I have become somewhat freakishly environmentally conscious over here. But it's so easy that you feel guilty if you don't. Recycling is a breeze and there are containers all over the place to recycle. They pick up paper and cardboard once a week. I also compost my food because they pick that up too; there is a compost bin outside right next to the trash bins. It's actually very easy and it makes your garbage not smell disgusting, so you only take out little bitty compost bags instead of huge ass garbage bags. Anyway, there is a big incentive to recycle. Why? Because it is free. Garbage on the other hand, I have to buy special bags for (supposedly they WILL go through your trash if it's not in one of those and can fine you up to CHF 1,000).

On average over 76% of things that can be recycled in Switzerland, are recycled.

Finally, Switzerland runs on roughly 40% nuclear power and 60% hydroelectric power...therefore producing carbon emissions of a big fat zero.

It's been one week...

Let's just get this out of the way.

First of all, it's 3:30 in the morning here for me.

Secondly, that was one of the WORST baseball games I have ever seen. Can we all agree on that? Was there anything positive about the Cubs performance in that game? I honestly can't think of a single thing.

Third - things I have a problem with:

1) Grounding into 4 double plays (I know for sure 2 were inning ending, I was asleep for one of them so potentially 3),

2) O for 9 with runners in scoring position. I think the stat was something like 25 men left on base overall in the series? Does that even happen to normal teams in the playoffs? Or ever in a 3 game series?

3) My supposed Cub hero, Aramis Ramirez, batted a whopping .000. The only player as bad as that is A-Rod.

4) Former Cub Augie Ojeda batted .500 and former Cub Juan "Lose" Cruz was lights out in relief.

5) You don't strike out looking in the playoffs!!! Swing the freaking bat!!!

The Cubs had about 100 opportunities to not only take the lead, but just to SCORE A RUN and they wasted every single one. It was really really disappointing. I know I haven't been a Cubs fan for very long considering how long some people have been going through this, but really, this was ridiculous. At least in 2003, even though that was a horrible horrible loss, they fought hard against the Braves and advanced and then they lost in 7 games to the Marlins. They tried. I don't think they ever gave themselves a chance to win. And it really pissed me off that most of the time the players were sitting on the bench instead of up against the dugout fence all excited. It's the playoffs!! Not some meaningless late season game!

Finally, does anyone else think it's complete crap that expansion teams like the stupid ass Diamondbacks and Marlins are winning in the playoffs. I just don't think it's fair that these teams that have been around for 10-15 years already have championships and in some cases more, when you have teams like the Cubs and Phillies that have been suffering for a looooong time. I am rooting for the Indians at this point.

This is a real tough one to stomach. And where a week ago, I was wishing I was catching this all from my front deck or smashed into a Wrigley bar, I am really really glad that I am in the Friendly Confines of Geneva, as it will make it a little easier.

The only question that still remains is...Lou, do you believe us now about the Curse?!

Hey Chicago, whaddya say...

You know the rest.

Well you can all thank me for moving to Switzerland, because the Cubs would not have made the playoffs otherwise. Seriously. It's quite simple.

In the year I live across the street from Wrigley, the Cubs lose 96 games.
In the year I move 5,000 miles away, to a different country, where I cannot even watch baseball unless it is on my computer and it is a day game...

the Cubs win the Central. Had I not moved, they would not have won the Central, and you all (except Justin) would be sad, and you would have a very boring October.

To thank me, you can all contribute towards the plane ticket I will buy IF the Cubs make it far enough! I might have a bit of a tough time convincing my work that I need to fly home in the middle of a week for a baseball game.

Anyway I am very very excited about the Cubs - I slept in a Cubs t shirt last night, wore another one today (clean one of course), read every article on chicagosports.com and espn.com. And I drank a beer. I feel powerless in my ability to celebrate this historic moment, but I am doing my best.

I am comforted somewhat by the fact that there is ivy growing on the fence I walk past on my way to work. I noticed it at the beginning of September and it reminded me of Wrigley, and how cool it is there when the ivy turns red in October. You don't get to see it very often (for the obvious reason). And today when I went by the office, this ivy had also started to turn red. So I feel comforted that a little part of Wrigley is here with me in Switzerland.

I'm sure all you White Sox fans are gagging reading this. Why don't you go play your 2005 world series dvd for the 100th time and figure out how to fix your bullpen for next season, and let me relish in this glorious day in Cubbie History!!!

There's a little black spot on the sun today...

Sorry for the absence of posts, but after my excursion to NY for Jess' wedding, my laptop is still broken. I have to say the people I spoke to at HP were EXTREMELY NOT HELPFUL and although I love my computer, I am seriously going to think long and hard before I ever buy something from them again. The conversations went as follows:

1) guy at best buy in NYC told me I need to send to HP
2) call HP technician, explain problem, he will schedule the repair and after renewing my warranty, for which I paid 120 dollars, transfers me (will refer to this moment hereafter as "game changing performance")
3) instead of the other technician, I get some idiot who proceeds to ask me 10 times what is wrong with my laptop, do I have a little screwdriver so I can fix it myself (I am walking down Broadway at this point, so obviously not). Exasperated I explain to him that I have done all the troubleshooting already and it needs to be serviced, and someone was supposed to do that. He puts me on hold and comes back to inform me that my computer can't be serviced for another month because I just bought a new warranty, which invalidated my current warranty, and so I was out of warranty for a month. I mean what the hell. That makes absolutely NO SENSE!! Am I right?? Now furious at this point, I demand they cancel my new warranty, service my computer, put me on with a manager, etc etc. The moron is powerless to do any of the above (obviously due to the fact that he has the mental prowess of a jar of peanut butter) promises the manager will call me back (he doesn't).
4) Now back in Switzerland, Justin takes it to some random Swiss place to back up the data and try to fix it (fail) while I call HP 3 more times and FINALLY they agree to service my computer under the warranty. But they can't ship to or from Switzerland, and it can't be fixed here because it needs U.S. parts. So Justin, my family and Abby are all helping in transporting this from Geneva to East Bufu HP fixit world and back to Geneva, for which I am very grateful. Therefore, intermittent posting for about another month until Abby (yay!!) gets here.

So what else? Justin is leaving next week which sucks. I have been alternating between bouts of unreasonable tears and unreasonable begging him to stay or pack me in his suitcase. But we have had an amazing summer, which we never could have had otherwise. So I am thankful for that.

NY was awesome. Jess' wedding was incredibly beautiful and super fun. We also saw a ton of friends and family and the Bears opener (could have missed that...). Our flight back across the pond was fine except for the fact that they had only one movie playing for the whole plane and it was...Mr. Bean's Holdiay. I mean come on. Just because it's a new movie does not mean it should be shown on a plane! Or ever.

I've been working a lot and am going to Vienna next week for a client meeting which is pretty exciting. Then I get a slew of visitors! Rosey, Marie, and Abby are all coming to visit me in October.

Finally Justin and I saw the Police concert this past Sunday! It was so awesome. It was at a huge outdoor soccer stadium with apparently 30,000 people. It was just the 3 of them, which was cool because no one really does that anymore. They played all the good old stuff and totally rocked. And Sting is hot (and 55 years old which is pretty amazing). After the concert we went to the Pickwick pub and watched the Bears game until 2am (v. smart thing to do on a day before I have to work). Justin was yelling to the entire bar about how amazing Devin Hester was when he ran back the kickoff for the 2nd time (unfortunately that one was called back). I think everyone in the bar thought he was crazy (Crazy about the Bears, sucka!) And that's just one reason why I love him (not Devin Hester, Justin, although I love Devin Hester too, just in a slightly different way...)

Techmology

Loyal readers, I have some bad news. My laptop is broken. I don't know how or most importantly WHY this happened, as it is less than 1 year old, but it did. The screen won't turn on and it makes these horrible BEEP BEEP BEEP noise when I turn on the power.

Fortunately I just happen to be comin to America...today! Because I am flying with Justin to NYC for my friend Jess' wedding. So lugging the piece of crap 5,000 miles with me, small detour at best buy, with fingers crossed, and hopefully it should be good as new on Monday when I get back.

I will keep you all posted. I always have my work laptop, but all pictures, etc, are on this other laptop. In the meantime please excuse my delay in blogging!