New blog. Follow me!
Hello tumblr fraandz! Please follow my new blog (to differentiate it from my JYA blog).
Here is a purple potato for yer troubles.
81ack81rd-deactivated20120321 asked: Hey there - stumbled upon your Tumblr while searching the Migros tag to find a photo of Migros' Ice Tea to reblog, haha. I got caught up in reading your posts, because Geneva is my hometown, and I just want to say: don't worry, everyone I know from there grew up to leave immediately and only come back to visit. I say with, say, 75% confidence that the fact that you have to be older and wealthier to fully enjoy it there is an objective fact. But yeah, just thought I'd leave a note. :)
Waking up to this made me so happy on two counts: 1) Migros Iced Tea bridging boundaries, 2) validating my experience with Geneva. Thank you for your thoughtful message!
"Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I love cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved. Those three things haven’t changed from my childhood. I know what I love, still, now. That’s a confidence. If you don’t know what you love, you are lost."
— Haruki Murakami, interviewed in The Guardian. (via robotnic)
(Source: thebronzemedal, via theatlantic)
Peace out Switzerland
T. Stuij takes stalker photos after our last Sunday brunch on THE MAGICAL PORCH aka my real live entertainment screen.
I miss all the things present in this photo, including the person behind the camera.
Zurich Street Parade
Every second Saturday of August Zurich loosens its prim hair bun and lets her freak out in the form of the annual Zurich Street Parade. For the Smithies reading, imagine Convocation but city-wide, co-ed, drunker, and on hallucinogenic drugs. Now mix in lots of sixteen year old girls in fishnets and bikini tops peeing in the street and teenage boys in smurf costumes dancing to repetitive techno music. That is Zurich Street Parade. Millions of people, mostly from Germany and Italy, flock to Zurich on this day and fill its usually impeccably clean streets with beer cans, piss, and wild times. I could say more, but I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Parade float crossing the bridge.
Random outings in Zurich
I thought I would dedicate an entire post of my favorite spots in Zurich: the bathing areas around the Limmat River and the mountains. I mentioned the bathing spots in an earlier post, but Zurich is littered with them and you never really know when you’ll stumble upon one. On one such outing, T. Stuij and I followed the faint music of Tegan and Sara and found a nearly empty pier blasting music and serving drinks with a very similar set up as the other bathing area we found.
Caux with M. Walsh
By midsummer the pangs of Smith life worsened and I really (like really, really) missed Talbot so much. Luckily, M. Walsh ‘11 interned in Caux, which is right around the lac Leman region. It was so refreshing to see a familiar face and talk about Talbot life amidst this beautiful setting. To basically sum up how beautiful this place was, I’ll just give you this little fact: Snow White’s castle is based off of Caux. And I should mentioned that M. Walsh lived in a tower, as in a castle tower. More importantly, however, the program just sounds so, so amazing and includes everything I find important (communal living, intercultural dialogue, diplomacy through person-to-person relationships, among other things).
The view outside M. Walsh’s room. Mountains and a lake. It was so beautiful that I had to close my eyes a little.
Miscellaneous photos
…because no one has an organized memory. Also classes started, therefore my motivation to write plummeted.
Making fruit tarts and watching bizarre Japanese horror films about dead girls that just won’t die, a Scottish hit man, the hit man’s Japanese interpreter, a woman who talks into a tape recorder when she gets advertising ideas, and eyes. Lots of eyes! Don’t remember the name, but clearly I’ve got vivid memories of this bizarre film.
Geneva and the beginning of my summer
Everyone says summer in Geneva is the best time of the year to be in the city. I am inclined to agree, but I would be more inclusive and say summer in Switzerland in general is the best! See pictures below for the earlier weeks of my summer in Geneva.
My French professor, Mme. B. Awad, invited the beginner’s French students (composed of three students including me) to dinner at her house in the Pâquis overlooking Lac Leman and the Jet d’eau. This dame is the lady peeking behind my shoulder and D. Broome, a fellow student, is holding the appetizers. (Photo courtesy of G. Kim, the other student in our class.)
