CARNEVAL!

This is how I ended my day at the Carneval at Basel:

confetti strewn over everything, oranges and candy bulging out of my pockets... and a turnip in my backpack.

How did this happen? Let's go back to the beginning:


I woke up earlier than I've woken up EVER in Switzerland: 6:45!
And saw this sunrise out my window, and was so shocked to see the sunrise that I haven't seen yet here that I took a picture.

I didn't know what to expect from Basel. Kayla was apprehensive about the clowns that would be involved. (She is on the lookout for clowns in this picture. Of course, she also seemed torn between her instinctual fear of clowns and her desire for the flowers they were handing out...)


As well as flowers, they were also throwing fruit and candy. Mostly oranges, which actually seems a little dangerous... my french teacher got hit in the head by one!

And there were the occasional vegetables.

At one point, a Swiss stranger in the crowd came up to me and said something in German. I stood staring at her blankly and before I knew what was happening, she was unzipping my backpack and holding a turnip. I didn't know if I was being robbed in a very friendly way or given dinner. And in my language-barrier paralysis, I pulled another "roadrunner" like at the store in Zurich and simply didn't react. Maybe it was also my carneval- induced joy and trust in all humanity. At the end, she saw that I was troubled and switched to English, bothering to give cooking instructions, so I knew it was safe.

But like Kayla, I had had my reservations about Carneval. I wasn't expecting much because I am the kind of person who hates parades and skipped every rally in high school.

Maybe this is because the only couple of parades I've been to have been bad experiences... the first was a county fair parade I went to when I was about 5. I hadn't been plannning on going, but my parents found out at the last minute that I could be part of our landlords' float (they had a float because they had one of the few businesses in my small town, selling produce from their farm... and maybe showing some of their llamas? For those who don't know, I grew up on a llama farm because my parents rented the bottom floor of their farmhouse).

Anyways, long story short, they thought it would be a brilliant idea for me to go as a bumble bee and commenced to cover me in strips of yellow and black duct tape... I have a very traumatic memory of having to go to the bathroom all day and being stuck in this impenetrable suit of tape...

The only other parade I can think of offhand that I've been involved in was the Memorial Day Parade, in which I played trumpet. But one of the two years I did this, I somehow forgot my mouthpiece and found myself stuck in the center of town, after the roads had closed to cars, with a trumpet and no mouthpiece... someone ended up sacrificing one for me or having an extra. I sort of forget how it worked out...

But before Carneval, I really thought parades were just a source of stress, the benefits of which were nil.

Let me say I have changed my opinion. In spite of the unsettling clowns:


There was some really fascinating, beautiful architecture in the city of Basel as well, as we walked around beforehand.





And then, the festivities themselves just blew me away. Most of the themes were really clever, witty plays on political ideas. The costumes are made a year in advance, so they pertain to pressing issues of the past, but are still relevant, like the references to BP and saving the oceans. There was one group of military posters that had a really rousing, and chilling demonstration. But not all of them were political, such as the army of Shreks, or the monkeys, which I didn't entirely understand. Maybe some of them were also specific to German culture... Every group had handouts/ written up explanations, but of course

This was part of the anti-military demonstration:

Sweeping up for the environmental campaign:


One I didn't really get:
The clowns give and they take:




And all the while, all these pipers were coming... pat a pat pat, tut a tut tut, tut a tut pat, tuppete tappeta pat, pattepa pattepa tut...





All in all, I just loved the celebration. and honestly, as stupefied as I was about the turnip, after that incident, standing in the sunlight, hearing the music, catching oranges, feeling like I was part of some medieval village celebration... I hit euphoria. Carneval was definitely a great memory for me, one of those days when time just time just stops for happiness.

It was also very thrilling to run through the crowds as a group and enter the train just before it took off, in a shower of confetti...

Zurich!

Ready for another lightning-speed, skipping details catch-up blog?

This is Zurich, which someone told me today is actually the largest city in Switzerland. Which surprised me because I'm not a city person, and even i didn't think it was all that big.



A lovely Old Cathedral.

"Pizza Go Home" This is either a failed attempt at "we do delivery" or "our pizza tastes homemade" or else some strain of anti-pizza sentiment rampant in German-speaking Switzerland.

Ah German Speaking Switzerland... I have never been in a country before in which i knew absolutely NONE of the language. I tried to learn the word for "excuse me" from Anne, who live in Zurich for 3 years of High School, but whatever she said sounded to me like a 4 syllable sneeze. So needless to say, in every crowded store we went into, I was reduced to waiting to get around people and smiling apologetically like a mute if I bumped anyone.

I tried to buy post cards, thinking I could just hold out the money and leave... but the woman behind the counter actually said something to me that sounded interrogative and I panicked, totally frozen. I didn't even reason that I could try French or English in this very multilingual city... I just stared blankly at her, like Road runner staring up at the anvil crashing down on him.

Thankfully, she must have been used to this kind of behavior and immediately said, in a perfect accent, "English? Do you want stamps?"

It really made me reflect on how foreigners feel who come to live in a place as monolingual as America.


Some more pictures:

This is a great statue, but I just realized that this angle sort of makes it look like a terrible story of abuse.


pretty!

So yes, most of the day was spent walking around, seeing Anne's old house and school, trying to understand the significance of a mysterious company building with a sign on it that said "Hebert the Nose"... and shopping/ generally sightseeing.

Also, in the more suburban part of Zurich, farther from the city center, we found this incredible slide. It was definitely a highlight of the day for me.

Gruyeres

Once upon a time, a group of girls set out who were tired of Museums. They wanted to see a little village in the country in Switzerland, a happy land named for its famous cheese. or perhaps the cheese was named for the place. But in any case, off they set in search of this magical place.



They did not know that they would actually find themselves in NARNIA. Yes that is the self-same lamp post that Lucy Pevensie stumbled upon - (and not "stumbed upon" as in the online phenomenon of being led to a random webpage... stumbled upon in the flesh) - the day she met Tumnus the Fawn and began her second life. It was a little like that, with a little Julie Andrews in the mix for good measure just in case it wasn't happy enough.

Also they did not travel through a wardrobe, but by train. But it is highly possible that there was magic involved in the journey because, as has become tradition, the moment they arrived on the train, they all opened Kinder Eggs. Kinder Eggs have a way of bringing magic with them. As you can observe in the pictures below:




But the moment they got out of the train, they noticed that they had arrived at the very doorstop of another museum! DA DA DUNNNN....

Yet this museum was not like others they had experienced. It was not a museum of history, natural history, Rousseau, art history, ancient Baths, church ruins, or watch-making. It was a museum... of CHEESE.


a trilingual museum of cheese no less. At first i thought "Cave" was the English translation haha

... and something else was different about this museum too. The audio guide was not a distinguished deep-voiced gentleman, but an uppity British Cow. In the video here, it is hard to make out well, but she informs the public:



"...Man had the idea of turning my milk into cheese
so that he could feed himself in winter
And he’s still pleased with himself
As Man said, “my cheese”
But its not true! It’s MY cheese! (here she sounds a bit sadistic while remaining cheery)

... We're superior to humans.
They only have one stomach.
But my girlfriends and I have four each!
Okay so we can ruminate, but at least we aren’t chewing over our past…
We chew the cud to turn grass into milk.
Say whatever you like, but it’s magic!"

As if our day wasn't full of enough magic already!


(kayla looks skeptical of this "magic")


Another magical thing happened: I smelled! You may know that I have an extremely weak sense of smell. My cousin Heather can relate, but only because she fell on her head. So she has better reasons. When I saw her at new years, we were in Bath & Body works trying in vain to smell the difference between "clean cotton" and "water" and "grass" or to smell anything at all... But somehow, at this museum, the concentration of scent in these things was high enough that I really felt like I was out in a meadow, ruminating with Cherry, smelling all the subtleties of the fields and flowers. A miracle!


This picture is from a trivia slide show in the museum. Cherry can be so cheery, but she has a sadistic side that comes out if you A.) think humans are superior to cows, B.) think cheese belongs solely to humanity or C.) answer one of these questions about the process of cheese-making incorrectly.


After the magical museum with its magical free samples, we went to a magical CASTLE!


In the magical tourist town:







And from there is was sort of too beautiful for words.

Also, they ate fondue. and lived happily ever after, only with mild indigestion.

The END!

Bobbie

No you're not hallucinating. That is a rabbit. It's just hard to tell because he's pretty sedentary.

If you were to enter my apartment building, walk past the elevator and turn left, you would see Bobbie, the resident rabbit.

Or I have been told this is his name, and in the same breath, that the name connotates stupidity.

I look at this picture and think "one of these things is not like the others/ one of these things does not belong..." And I wonder, is it the ceramic parrot, the coat hangers, or the rabbit itself?

I know if I lived in a veritable Tupperware container in a triangle of glass between an elevator and an office, beneath a curious assortment of what do seem to be coat hangers, and my only companion was a ceramic parrot, I might be too perky myself.

This is the most enthused I have ever seen Bobbie. I think the flash startled him:




One of my projects this semester will be to cheer up Bobbie. And I may continue putting updates here about how Bobbie is doing from day to day.

Suggestions for cheering him up are welcome. So far I have just made an effort to stop and greet him and channel positive energy. Sometimes I also pet him if the office is open and I can get in.

If I were the owner I would at least TRY to deceive him into thinking he's in the country - some large leaves, pictures of fields... a bonsai... something! Even I had to get pictures of nature for my room, to remind myself of the country and I am not

a. a field animal
b. living isolated (with a parrot) in Tupperware.

Let's all take a moment to consider the well-being of those unnoticed around us who might need cheering up... they are there, just around the corner. Or around the elevator in this case...