Movember

So for those of you not in the know, over the past month I grew a moustache for Movember in order to raise funds for prostate cancer research. Thanks to the very generous pledges and donations from friends and family across the globe, I was able to raise a total of $767 CDN. It was a tough mental battle at times, but I made it through (mostly unscathed, other my inability to shave at the start of the month without losing about a litre of blood from cuts. Shaving fail). That amount of money meant that out of the 53 people who had signed up in the Zurich area, I raised a little less than 1/5 of the total money. Not too bad.

Of course, I also like to think that my moustache was also one of the very best (although there was no Movember bash here in Zürich for me to compare against others). Here's the final product:

Moustache combined with pearl snap...look out!

Over the course of the month as I posted my progress on Facebook and people noted the furry upper lip in person, a number of folks said I looked like so and so, a partial list of these is below:

Hockey Card from 1972
Straight out of 70s Porn
Out of work 70s Porn Star
Pedophile
Canadian Frank Zappa
Trucker
Dennis Eckersley (but only for a split second)

I'm sure there were more, but I can't recall them...

Last Night's Gig: Patrick Watson and the Wooden Arms at Rote Fabrik

The second great Canadian band to come through town in a little more than a week. I must say that although I know of them, I had not heard much of Patrick Watson (other than the fact the he and his band won the Polaris Prize in 2007) so I didn't really go in expecting anything, but was excited just to hear another Canadian act. Unfortunately as I got on the tram I realized that I had forgotten my Canadian flag so I didn't end up with it being signed, but to me, the music is the most important part and I was worried that the Swiss puncuality would make me late.

The opener (Anna Aaron) was pretty good (I do have a soft spot for piano-playing singer/song-writers, so this might not be a surprise) and she had a very solid voice.

Before Patrick Watson and the Wooden Arms hit the stage, we were checking out the stage set-up and it was pretty complicated with lots of different instruments and a riser set-up with four chairs (which turned out to be correctly adjudicated for a string section) and a very nice percussion setup. There was also an olde movie projector pointed at the side wall and just running blank film. Along with the music playing between sets it gave me a very cinematic vibe and the set didn't discredit that assumption. The songs were sparse, yet intricate in all of their parts, and most had a nice full theatrical feel with strings, Patrick playing the piano and excellent guitar parts. Adding to that was the exceptional showmanship and amazing lights. It was like the U2 of indie-rock bands. At first it seemed a bit of a gimmick, but after 3 songs you realize that that is the style and you really get into it.

The clincher to a great concert was the amazing encore, where Patrick, his guitarist came out into the middle of the crowd to do an acoustic song while the crowd clapped along and the percussionist played a saw and stamped out the beat on the stage. Amazing. Then they closed out with a song that they wrote the day before! Very cool. A great show and I'll definitely see them again if I get a chance.

The cover of the new Patrick Watson and the Wooden Arms album

Last Night's Gig: John K. Samson at Hafenkneipe

This almost didn't happen. I am so glad it did though, because it was easily one of the top 3 concerts I've ever attended. It was simply stupendous.

I had convinced a couple of co-workers to come and see the best Canadian lyricist in the business today with me and we decided that we would meet at the venue at 7:30 when the doors open to get tickets. The venue website said there were 50 left on Monday, but I guess they updated it prior to the show and when we arrived they told us that it was sold-out. Luckily I waited around out front and was able to buy a ticket from someone (awkwardly paying more than they wanted for it...whoops) and then Valerie managed to talk Guillermo and herself into the show as well. So it all worked out for the best.

Die Hafenkneipe was a very cool spot. Tiny, very initmate venue with a stage at the front and probably no more than 80 people that could fit inside. The decor was maritime themed including seasgulls hanging from the ceiling and portholes on the walls which added to the ambiance. The opening act was alright (although the kazoo playing left a little to be desired). John hit the stage at around 8:30, and it was just him and his guitar. I could tell it was going to be a sweet show as he opened with One Great City and then hit a bunch of amazing acoustic version of Weakerthans and I think, Propoghandi songs including A Plea from a Cat Named Virtute, Construction Site, Utilities (my personal favourite), Night Windows as well as playing his own solo stuff from his new record City Route 85. I love how his songs evoke such great Canadian imagery and feelings. I was just soaking it all up.

I also managed to start a new tradition of sorts for myself. As I am very supportive of the Canadian independent music scene, I definitely plan on attending as many shows as possible of those artists when they hit Switzerland. I also happen to have a Canadian flag on my wall and I took it to the concert and then chatted with John (who didn't mind the Movember moustache) and had him sign the flag after his set. So my scheme will be to have all of the Canadian bands that play Switzerland sign the flag after their shows. We'll see how many I can accumulate while I am here.

If you get the chance to see John play live (either with the Weakerthans or acoustically) jump at it. You'll have a great time.

Oktoberfest

In hindsight this is a pretty big deal in Germany (although seemingly more for everyone except locals) although, it wasn't really on my radar as an event I had to do while I was over here. However, a group of former ultimate teammates from Ottawa had been planning a trip for over a year and I figured I was too close not to attend. I met the group at around 11 on a Friday morning on the grounds and the place was packed. Sometimes things aren't what you think they will be, but Oktoberfest was exactly what you think it will be. A packed beer hall (and I mean like sardines), beer wenches (although all of them were old), an oompapa band and loads of lederhosen. The only thing I didn't expect were raddishes being sold by the bushel. Seemed kind of out of place. The beer is obviously the big draw, but there is also a huge amusment park set up at one end of the grounds. This also seems like a terrible idea with all of the inebriated clientale (scenes from the Sandlot keep running through my head).

The atmosphere was interesting to experience, but not something I would seek out again. I think the city of Munich must also take in a lot of cash from these three weeks (I heard a cool billion), because there is a lot of drunk people everywhere. I would really like to go back to Munich though and take in the city not during Oktoberfest.

The top three tips for you if you are may want to attend in the future:

1. Get there early - the more popular tents are full at 9 AM on the weekends but you definitely need to arrive by 1 PM every day (yes, even Wednesday).

2. Pace yourself - a litre of 6% beer is not something to drink 3 of in 2.5 hours. Results = not pretty.

3. If you're with a group, stick together - at least I knew the name of the place I was staying (although I didn't really know how to find it).

Other than that, I don't really have much advice because I don't remember much (although I'm confident there were no random international beerfests that I stumbled across, speaking of which).

Swiss Coed Ultimate Champions

The ZUF team that brought home the gold.

I was just reviewing old blog posts and I realized I never made a post about the huge success that my new ultimate team (ZUF - Züri Ultimate Flyers) in Zürich had this season. I'll be the first to say that I was more than a bit disappointed that there was going to be no open team (men's team) in the city for this summer, but according to the old saying, if life gives you lemons, you make pie (or something). But whatever it was I made from those lemons, tasted like sweet victory, as we won the Swiss Coed National Championship, two weeks ago in Nyon.

The Swiss Coed Championship Trophy

I knew we had a great team and certainly we were the most experienced Swiss coed team, but when the champions from last year lost in the semis (most likely because players from their team weren't planning on coming until Sunday), I really knew we had it in the bag. We ended up playing Basel Freespeed Coed in the finals and we were in complete control the whole game. ZUF is a great team with lots of talent and it was amazing to be part of a natioanl championship (although I would prefer winning one in Canada).

And I can know confirm that alcohol does indeed taste so much better when consumed from a championship trophy!

Baschi enjoying the spolis of victory

Amusing Things About Switzerland: Part III

Part III in my recurring series has taken a while to accumulate. That might mean I'm becoming a bit more adjusted and not automatically reacting to things in a WTF manner. Probably a good thing. Still, some funny obervations:

1. Food is not orange

I'm not sure what the hell I have been comsuming for the last 25 years, but around these parts, there is no orange cheese, the French dressing is white and KD is unknown. I've adjusted nicely to the first two, I mean how does the cheese become orange anyway? But I do love KD and my parents and Emily have been kind enough to supply me with some boxes and I try and have a box monthly.

A nice piece of Gruyere (left) and Emmental (right). No orange dye in sight...

2. Paprika Chips

Salt and vinagar? Nope. Ketchup? Are you crazy. Dill Pickle? On a chip. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I might find a couple of these flavours that of course everyone in Canada think are ubiquitous. But here in Switzerland there seem to be two falvours. Nature and Paprika. Not quite the same as BBQ, but not too bad.

3. Birthday Tradition

I've been to a couple of birthday celebrations and I might hold my own in Canada because here, you have to buy the drinks. Or bake your own cake and then share it. It took me aback at first, but when I think about it, it actually makes some sense.

4. Money

50, 100 and 200 CHF bills that are used with regularity at any and all stores.

All over the place in Canada you can't do anything with $50 and $100 dollar bills. I guess there is way too much counterfitting that takes place. Good luck if you want to try and spend one of those in the grocery store. In Switzerland, they wouldn't even look twice (such as at the cafeteria at work, paying for a 9 CHF lunch with a 100 CHF bill). In fact I would say that the 100 CHF note is the most common one. Maybe it's the money culture (especially in Zürich), but it's very different and interesting.

Last Night's Gig: The Hives at Alte Börse in Zürich

Finally had a chance to take in a band I've been wanting to see live for about 6 years.

I first heard the Hives on their breakout Vini Vidi Vicious album (which I bought at one of those great HMV 2 for $20 sales) and since then I have been a fan. They are from Sweden but on the back of some great garage rock sounds and a great live show they are pretty popular across Europe and North America. Although they have toured in Canada before it has always been one night stops in Vancouver and Toronto, both a bit out of the way for me. So when I saw they were playing Zürich, I bought a ticket right away. It was a bit pricey (59 CHF) but when I considered what it would have cost to go to Toronto to see them play, it wasn't that bad.

The concert was interestingly scheduled to begin at 7:30 PM and I made the mistake of thinking they would be late starting. Never assume the Swiss will be anything but punctual. So when I rolled in at 8:30 PM, the bar was packed and about 5 minutes after I arrived the Hives took the stage. So I missed the opener, but thankfully didn't miss any of the Hives set.

If you know the Hives, then you know most of their songs aren't much longer than three and a half minutes, so the just under two hour set was pretty good. The band all dresses up in the same suit type black and white clothing which looked very cool. They played all their big hits (satrting with Here We Go Again) and the lead singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist has stage presence to spare. He really interacted well with the crowd and had everyone yelling and screaming and clapping their hands. They finished with Tick Tick Boom in their encore and the place was going nuts...wish I could have been closer to the stage, but my late arrival prevented that.

The only complaints I had about the concert were due to the venue. The concert was at about 10 PM (way too early) because the place becomes a club afterwards. As well, the smoking inside is terrible. Once again, I came out smelling like an ashtray and at leats a year off my life expectancy because of second-hand smoke inhalation.

Great show though and if you get a chance to see them live, go for it. You won't be disappointed.

6 Months in the New Land of Red and White

It's been 6 months since I left Canada for Switzerland. I can't believe the time has passed so quickly. Simply amazing.

Last weekend I decided to take advantage of my new (as of August 13th) GA (General Abondement). The GA is an annual pass available to Swiss residents that allows you to take any bus, train or boat at any time, in the entire country. Pretty sweet and definitely worth it for someone who plans to get to know his new surroundings well. My first free weekend I decided to take advantage of it and head to Thun to take in some of the World Kayaking Freestyle Championships. I managed to make it down for a couple of runs in the junior men's and women's semi-finals (toting along my big ol' Canadian flag for waving) as well as catching the Big Air qualification event. Overall a pretty sweet event and it was a nice to see Canadian Nick Troutman (from the Ottawa Valley) come out on top in the K1 competition. Here are a few of my best photos:

An overview of the site. They had shut the dam on the Aare and created a nice standing wave that the athletes had 45 seconds to perform their best tricks. The stands actual extend over the water which was cool.

My best photo of the day by far. Junior girl coming up after her flip move.


Slacklining exhibition by Stefan Siegrist. It was pretty cool, because that water was a) moving pretty quick, thus preventing focusing and b) was damn cold (see next pic)


Lost balance = cold shower


Yes, that is a C1 whitewater upside down. The coolest event of the day was the Big Air qualification. 8 m jump over the river with lots of acrobatics...


Some not ending so well. Ouch..

August Vacation Recap

A lack of posts in August, both due to being a bit lazy and being on vacation for a solid 2 weeks. I don't have any pics to add to this post but you can see the photo journey on my Facebook page.

Emily came over for a visit from the 14th of August to the 28th of August. After 5 months of being here, it was great to have her come and visit and see how my life in Zurich is playing out. I must note that according to everyone here, the summer has been rather rainy, but for the entire time Emily was here, it was absolutely brilliant outside (no rain and lots of sun). Maybe a reflection of my mood for entire time she was here.

*Travel Tip*

Em was able to secure a very cheap flight with AirTransat that flies from Montreal to the EuroAirport in Basel, CH for less than $700 taxes in. That's a pretty sweet deal and even if you aren't coming to Switzerland, the airport is on the border with France and Germany. The only downside is that they only run 1 flight a week and it runs from May to October only.

**

We hung around Zurich for a couple of days so that Em could deal with the jetlag. Unfortunately, my lack of planning prevented our participation in the Limmatschwimmen (an annual 2 km swim/float down the river in the middle of Zurich). To make up for it, we took a boat trip around part of the lake and had an excellent picnic lunch on the lake. On the Sunday, we went to Luzern for the day. After touring the town, we took a cablecar up Mt. Rigi, took some photos and had a beer on top (a nice feature of Swiss mountains), and then took the cogwheel train down the other side of the mountain, catching a of course prompt train to egt us back to Zurich in time to catch the Women's final between Lotus and Stella from the CUC. Perfection.

On Monday we took off in the afternoon for a trip to the Lötschental where my research is based. We camped on the mountain after a brisk hike as dusk closed in. Did my field sampling in the morning (I'm such a romantic) and then hiked to the glacier at the end of the valley (running into numerous cows along the way). Not all that strenuous, but great views. On Wednesday we made a trip to Lausanne to visit a couple of museums that the Lonely Planet thought would be good (La Musee De L'Art Brut and the IOC Olympic Museum). Both very enjoyable and recommended to any visitors. We also managed to go for a swim in Lake Geneva which was a nice cool down after a warm day. Thursday and Friday were spent in Zurich cruising around to a few of the sites and seeing a couple of museums in the city.

Friday night we took a night train to Slovenija (j is pronounced as a y in Slovenian) for the best part of the time Emily spent here. I was in Slovenija for a conference in April (blog post here) and loved the country and made a promise to come back. Em was also intrigued so we decided this would be our trip outside of Switzerland. We arrived in Ljubljana on Saturday morning, but right away (after morning coffee) took a train/bus to Piran on the coast where we spent our first day/night. A very hot day so we ented a peddleboat and swam in the Adriatic, then toured about the small town that feels very much like Venice without canals, ate dinner and then were able to watch a spectacular lightning storm as it crossed the Adriatic and then moved just north of us. It was windy, but no rain fell on us. The next day we bussed to Divacja and spent the day exploring the UNESCO Karst caves at Skocjana. Very impressive. The local museums that we toured afterwards were also very nice and offered great contextual information about the archeology and history of the area. we stayed in Ljubljana overnight and then caught a bus to a new top 10 town for me, Bovec (pronounced Bovets) in the Soca Valley. It's basically the smaller Slovenian equivalent of Canmore as outdoor sports rule the roost. Emily and I had a chance to partake in some white-water kayaking on the Soca, which was great, despite the low water levels at the end of the summer. I wa simpressed with Em as she had never been in a kayak before and handled it with perfection not having to wet exit in the river once (although we did have to practice before taking off with our guide). The next day we went to Kobarid where WWI played an important role and checked out the museum dedicated to this theme and the trail they have designed in the area. Then on our way back to Ljubljana to catch our train to Zurich we stopped for a couple of hours in Bled to admire the scenary.

Once back in Zurich on the 27th, we spent some time doing souvenir shopping for Em. On the 28th we took the train to Basel and I had to say goodbye until the next time she can make it over. It looks like December will be the next time we will see each other in person when I fly back to Canada for Christmas. It seems like a long haul, but I'm sure the time is going to fly by (I mean, it has already been 2 weeks since she left).

Overall, it was a great time and I was glad she was able to come and visit.

Out of My Element

I have officially started taking German classes here in Zürich. What a frustrating experience (yet somehow as times passes it becomes more enjoyable).

I'm sure it is always the same thing when you begin learning a new language, but I basically felt the same way I did walking into Grade 7 to begin French Immersion at Astral Drive and not knowing how to put a sentence together. The instructor wants you to speak in German but you just can't express yourself properly. The most interesting thing is that when I become stuck I know I'm not supposed to speak English, so instead I find myself throwing in French words.

I suppose the second language centre of my brain needs a bit of organization...

For those who enjoy good music

Many people who know me, probably know that I espouse Canadian independent music any time I possibly can. While, here I go again...

For those who don't know, the Polaris Music Prize is the name of the prize given annually since 2006 to the best Canadian recording of the year based solely on creative, artistic merit (Junos = farce). Irrespective of sales or genre. Most importantly, no Nickleback.

Every album over 30 minutes/8 tracks in length released during the calender year between June 1 and May 31 is eligible. A jury of 180 members made up of all sorts of canadian folks who review and program music both profesionally and in their spare time vote for their top 5 albums. These are tallied and a long list of 40 albums is released. The same process happens again and a short list of 10 albums is named. Finally a subset of 11 jurors are selected and during the night of the Polaris gala, are sequestered in the back room and duke it out until they select the winner. Wicked.

Of course, it's not junt an honour, but there is a $20,000 prize that goes along with it. Not bad for independent musicians.

The short list was released on July 7. I'm ok with the nominated artists, although a couple of my favourites didn't make it from the long list. I'm still listening to albums, but I'd love to see Hey Rosetta! or the Great Lake Swimmers bring the prize home.

Below, courtesy of CBC Radio 3 (my link to all music Canadian while here in Zürich) is a track from each of the nominated albums from the short list (skip forward or backward or...gasp...stop the music with the miniplayer). Listen at your lesiure and I hope you find something you like (if you do, head over to Radio 3's website for even more content).

Enjoy.

Auction (with video) and Bern

Found out last week that my flatmate has decided to move to another spot down the street for cheaper rent. Although perhaps a long-term goal had been to have a place of my own, right now it isn't really possible with the francs on hand. So that means I've been elevated to landlord status. This city is truly in flux at all times. I didn't even have to post an ad to get 4 people to contact me and see the place. After fielding visits on Friday and Saturday evenings, I decided upon a new flatmate who will move in August 1.

The other cool events from the weekend were going to a lost and found auction at one of the local malls (Letzipark) and then spending most of Sunday in Bern touring the old town.

The auction was an event on my calender for a couple of weeks. Basically, everything that is lost and not claimed on the trains, buses and trams of Switzerland (or perhaps just in Zurich area?) is then sold off cheap at a store in the city. However they also hold a couple of auctions each year for some of the more expensive (laptops, iPods, handys) and unusual (boomerangs, piccolos and unopened suitcases from the airport) objects. It was also great German practice for my numbers. I bid on a couple of items, but didn't win anything. The best story was the mystery bidder who bid and won each of the unopened suitcases.

Video of the bidding for the third and final unopened suticase

The best part of these is that they open them immediately for everyone to see once the winning bid is accepted. This guy spent 1380 CHF on three suitcases. The first had women's clothing in it (with a couple of Luis Vitton purses), the second had a bunch of men's clothing (with some Armani suits, although they looked too big for him) and an expensive pen, and then the third had some diabetic's medicine...whoops. Hard to tell from his face if he was dissapointed or not, but how couldn't he be. Although, as a consolation prize he did mange to win the piccolo...

I'll link to a video of the bidding action when I figure out where it is online.

On Sunday, I took the train to Bern to see Ben and Cornelia get a tour of the old town. We met at the train station and then walked through old town, enjoyed a Rivella in the Rosengarten (Rose Garden) at the top of the hill overlooking the town and then after seeing the oldest and largest church in Bern, we went for a swim in the Aare (the longest river in Switzerland) that runs right through Bern (very fast moving and colder than anticipated) and then had pizza for dinner. Here are some pictures of the day:

There are a number of statues on fountains around the old town. This one was the best, hands down. Ogre eating babies.

View of the old lower part of town where workers would have lived. Taken from the Nydeggbruecke.

View of the Aare (where we swam) from the bottom of the Bundeshaus (House of Parliament)

The symbol of Bern is the bear and there are many statues all over town depicting them.

This is the former city bear enclosure. Currently a new bear park (looks much nicer along the banks of the Aare) is being built (opening Oct 2009) where live bears are kept. In the past up to 24 bears had lived in this old enclosure.

If this guy likes Switzerland...

He seems to have loved it, is that a good thing or not?

http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/

In the featured videos list, click on reality check and then O'Reilly overseas. It's the second point he speaks about.

For a good laugh, watch the remainder of the video to see a news reporter punch a drunk Michael Jackson fan. Wicked.

In Case I Didn't Think I was Back in Europe

Two great sightings in two consecutive days.

Thursday afternoon on the tram on the way to the migration office, I happened to see a father-son mullet parade...on scooters! Both of them riding in a row through downtown Zurich rocking mullets that would put early 90s Jaromir Jagr to shame. To top it off, the Dad was wearing the summer version of the Canadian Tuxedo. Yep, jean shorts and jean vest. Classic.

Second viewing was just down the street at the tram station. I looked across theto the platform for the other tracks and noticed a bird hanging out on one of the benches. I was immediately taken aback and looked closer to see it was a duck, but not a mallard, but a thin necked, black duck. Now I wasn't far from the Limmat River which runs through Zurich, but it seemed strange there would be only one hanging around. It was also not disturbed by people walking around the platform. I was thinking it was a bit weird, but it got weirder when the guy sitting next to him bent over and started talking to the duck. He then proceeded to pick up the duck by its neck and cuddle the duck, which I deduced by this point was a pet out for a walk...

These are also two ticks in the pro-column for having a cell phone with a camera on it, because unfrotunately I have no pics of either. But in case I didn't know I was back on the European (sub-) continent, these two instances pretty much confirmed it.

Thanks to everyone I saw in my two weeks back in Ottawa. It was nice to be back for a short visit.

Talampaya 2009 Recap

Sweet weekend. Just happy I finally had a chance to get back on the field for an ultimate tournament. The weather for the entire weekend was great (warm weather, no rain, a bit gusty at times) and the results were alright, but could have been better.

Camping next to the fields

As noted in the previous post, this was the 20th anniversary for the Talampaya (heard this means tequila, but couldn;t find any confirmation) tournament. 32 co-ed teams from 11 countries. My team, ZUF (Zuri Ultimate Flyers), finished 8th which was a bit of a letdown (I had a personal goal of making semis and we were really close, but in the end not close enough).

First of all, what a difference between a European ultimate tournament and one in Canada (granted I've never been to a huge co-ed tourny like Potlach)! We played 9 games over three days, which is pretty comparable to a tournament in Canada (say 7-8 games over 2 days). The big difference was the scheduling of those games. Games were capped at 50 minutes and then there was at least 2 byes between games (if not 3). Apparently this format is the standard in Europe (might be longer games, but the byes are always there). In fact the TD profusely apologized to a team because they had to play twice in a row. This compares with most college and open tournaments I played in North America where you would have a single bye during the day and would be playing the remainder of the time. I recall a tournament in Edinboro, PA when we played for 8 straight hours because there no byes and games were to 17 with a 2 hour cap. So needless to say, big differences (the biggest reason is the number of avilable fields, as there were 7 fields for 42 teams at this tournament) that require different physical (cooling down and warming up a number of times) and mental (bringing itensity to games again and again) approaches.

We had three games the first day and won all three against teams from Switzerland, France and Italy. The last game against Matrix (a team from Italy) was tight for a bit, but we pulled away when it mattered. Saturday night there was a party at the fields, but I wasn't feeling up to it so I hit bed after a few beers.

Sunday we moved into the upper pools (along with the top two finishers of each other pool) which meant increased competition. We won our first two games against a team from Germany and another team from Italy. Both were good solid wins with high pressure D, and patient O. In the second game I was voted the male MVP by the other team which was pretty sweet. The prize was some coffee flavoured liquor shot, which considering my history, was a piece of cake. At this point we had qualified for quarters and our thrid game was less important but meant an easier matchup in quarters if we could pull out a win. However, we got stomped. This team from Paris had a strange zone which with an increased cross-wind on the field completely confounded our entire team. Waaay too many drops to even come close. That set up a matchup with Sugar Mix a team from Germany. They were enormous. 5 of the guys had to be over 6'5". However, their zone was much less of a problem for us and we sliced and diced, but got a bit too eager near the endzone a couple of times near the end of the game and it cost us. We lost 8-6 and were in the 5-8 bracket the next day.

Sunday night was the infamous tournament party. The theme this year was burlesque (I think somethin along the lines of Moulin Rouge?) and some of the team costumes were impressive. Our team doesn't do the whole costume thing which was fine with me and I headed back to sleep around 2 AM. Monday morning we lost our first game against an Austrian team due to sloppy play and then got into a dogfight with another French team and lost a heartbreaker on universe point.

I stayed around to watch the finals of both divisions and saw a not-so-competitive game between the Bern Flying Angels and Basel Freespeed in the Open final, which Bern dominated from start to finish. Then watched Black Bonzai (a French based pickup team) play Disctractors (a Czech team that I had seen warming up on Sunday and noted how every member of their team were great throwers. One dude had all throws with both hands, he was sick). A very close game, that went to universe point that featured a ton of tunrovers. Disctractors eventually put in the final point and celebrated a well-earned victory.

#97 on the Disctractors. Best thrower I saw all weekend.

Personally I played pretty well and my throws in the wind are 100% better after this weekend. Despite it being my first tournament with ZUF I managed to get tons of play on both O and D and when games were on the line, they were putting me on the field. Nice.

Off to Ottawa on Monday, maybe we'll cross paths?

Sweet Weekend in Store

Off to Geneva this weekend for my first European ultimate tournament, Talampaya. Apparently this is one of the oldest co-ed tournament in Europe (this year is the 20th anniversary). 3 days of disc and camping because June 1st is a holiday. I'm playing with ZUF this season, which is the best Zürich team and although my preference would be to play open, there is no possibility in Zürich this year. However, this team is pretty good and they are serious about playing disc instead of drinking their faces off at tournaments. A good sign.

I mean if you only have a one word name for the tournament, it must be epic, right? Updates next week.

Weekend in Italy

Slowly chalking up European countries. Actually considering I'm been here three months and I've already been to Slovenia, Germany (for a day), and now Italy, I'm not doing too bad. I figure I've got three years so I can afford to take my time.

This trip has been in the works for about a month and a half, but didn't really come together until two weeks ago as my MSc supervisor, found out that he didn't end up getting permits from the NWT in time for research this month, and decided to come to Italy to give a talk at a university in Milan and see a stage of the Giro D'Italia.

Since I am somewhat constrained by conducting weekly field visits (hiking in the Swiss Alps is such a drag...) I took a train directly from my field site to Milan. We stayed in Milan (just out of the core) with a former professor from the Geography Department at Carleton, which was great. Took the train to Venice on Thursday morning and spent two days there, staying at a bed and breakfast. Went back to Milan on Saturday, walked around a bit that afternoon and then watched Stage 9 of the Giro. Headed back to Zurich on Monday morning and then went dirctly back to my field site in the Loeschental for more sampling.

My shorts thoughts on my trip along with some photos and a link to more photos on my Facebook page.

Venice

• Amazing, beautiful city. Almost entirely car free on the island. Although very expensive (especially in high season (which by my calculations is about 51 weeks a year), but if you make that one week low season, look out!

Venice!!!

• Most tourists actually only spend a day and arrive at the train station and beeline for San Marco square, take a gondola ride, have a gelato and then get back on the train, so the afternoons could be busy in the main areas, but the evenings and later nights were great.

San Marco Square at night

• Spent a lot of time walking the city and the spots away from the main squares (which are very nice) are amazingly calm and beautiful.
• The city is a maze of streets and canals and streets that end in canals. Did a lot of backtracking.
• One of my favourite things to do in any city is to go to the market and Venice didn't disappoint with it's fresh seasfood.
  
• Randomly there was an extreme Catamaran race on Friday afternoon. It was pretty cool to sit on the waterfront (despite less than sunny weather) and watch some sailing.

Milan

• Nice to visit, wouldn't want to live here. To begin with I'm not a huge fan of big cities, but it was overly busy and very dirty (although living in Switzerland I guess everywhere is dirty compared). Overall, not a fan.
• Spent a bit of time walking around the core. The Duomo Cathedral was very impressive (I guess any building that takes 200+ years to finish will be) and the first indoor mall (The Galleria) was nice, although I'm not sure how anyone affords anything sold there.

The Cathedral from the front. Amazing detail up close.

• There is a nice castle in the middle of the city which houses a couple of mueums and is surrounded by a great central park.

Giro

• Great to finally have a chance to see a cycling race in the flesh. Obviously my goal was to see Lance. Mission: accomplished. Also saw lots of other top riders.
  

Lance out of the saddle

• Cool stage because it was 11 different laps around the city which allowed us to see racers more than once. Managed to slowly walk across the city and see the racers in a few different places.
• This will however be known as the stage that wasn't. The riders weren't very impressed with the safety of the course and they staged a protest that involved stopping 3 laps in and addressing the crowd and taking a lesiurely ride around the course. Race officials caved and said that no changes in the GC would take place. So despite a Mark Cavendish sprint to the finish, everyone was awarded the same time.

Cavendish sprinting for the finish in Milan

Lots of other photos of my trip here.

All in all, a great trip. Italy is big though and I plan on going back. However, next time I hope to hit the Dolomites (perhaps with a MTB) and southern Italy (Pompeii and Mount Etna). Next big trip is back to Ottawa from June 9th to the 21st. See you then...?

World Hockey Championship in Bern

Apologies for this post being so late, Windows Life Writer seems to have given up.

Not sure how many of you are hockey fans (shame on you if you’re Canadian…), but this year the World Hockey Championship was played in Switzerland, splitting time between Zurich and Bern. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get a ticket (or afford one!), but fortunately the Swiss aren’t as excited about hockey as football. That meant that I was able to go and see a quarter-final game at pretty much the last minute.

I went to the game with Ben Mueller (who I met because of an introduction from Mr. Hobson) and his wife Cornelia. They live in Bern and although they aren’t huge hockey fans (although Ben mentioned he had seen a Mooseheads game when he was in Halifax) they decided to give it a try (perhaps on my account).

We bought tickets before the matchups were decided and hoped for the best. The game ended up being USA v. Finland, which although not Canada, was a great matchup with lots of history. I had also heard great things about the Finnish hockey faithful.

Each ticket included return transportation from anywhere in Switzerland, so I took a train from Zurich and met Ben at the station in Bern. We then went back to his place for a quick dinner and then took the tram to the game. We had standing room tickets, but the view was great:

View from our “seats”

Team Finland pre-game warmup

The game was good and it was hard not to cheer for Finland when their fans were awesome (lots of noise throughout the game with many SU-O-MI (Finland) chants).

Lots of Finnish flags

All of the scoring took place in the second period with the Finns opening the scoring and then the States scoring 2 and then taking the lead (for good) with an odd-man rush near the end of the period. I think the Finns played better, but Robert Esche was played outstanding.

As you might be able to see, the place wasn’t even close to being full. Perhaps this was because it was only a quarter-final, but a huge factor was the price of tickets (I paid 77 CHF for a standing room ticket, the price to sit down was 129 CHF). I heard the IIHF was disappointed about the prices. One thinks they might have mentioned that to the Swiss organizers before the tournament started…

All-in-all, a great experience. I just heard that the Blackhawks will be playing a game against the Zurich Lions in the Victoria Cup next September, so that may be my next in-person hockey experience.

Amusing Things about Switzerland: Part II

Another edition of the small things that I have taken note of since moving to Zurich.

1. Dairy

Some would argue one of the better food groups and the Swiss take their dairy very seriously. There is a large dairy fridge section in each supermarket and the cheese selection is spectacular (and quite aromatic at times). However, the thing that I have noticed the most is the amount of milk fat in everything. You struggle to find milk with 2% or less. The norm is 3.5% and I’m adjusting to 2.5%. Same with the yogurt, rich and creamy seems to be what the Swiss enjoy. You can get 0%, but why would anyone do that (even in Canada)?

2. Church Bells

I gather that religion is a major thread in the fabric of Swiss society. The sheer number of churches in Zurich (a city with only 300,000 residents) is impressive. More impressive is the ringing of the bells of every single church every 15 minutes. You probably wouldn’t want to live too close to a church, because sometimes they play for a solid 15 minutes (Sunday morning), but also seemingly randomly…

The church (St. Thomas Kirche) down the street from my place.

3. All-In Pricing

What you see in the store is what you pay. Period. None of this getting to the register and being shocked at the numbers on the screen. It’s great. You can really go to the store with 20 CHF and figure out what you can buy because the entire price is on the sticker.

4. Polluter Pays

One of my personal favourites. Within Zurich, all garbage must be thrown out in Zuri-Sacks. You must buy these at the store from the cashier and they cost roughly 1 CHF per sack. There are different sizes available (17 L and 35 L being the most common) and sure you could try to throw out some trash without a Zuri-Sack but you better hope you have no identifiable garbage in there, including receipts, because they have garbage detectives who will identify the guilty party and you’ll end up with a nice fine in your postbox. I think this system is ingenious and because you pay up front, it makes you take pause before throwing away huge amounts of trash.

5. Sunday Shopping

Or the lack thereof. No Sunday shopping in Switzerland (I suppose there are a few stores open at the main rail stations). I love it. Perhaps that is because Nova Scotia had a similar system the entire time I lived there, but I really think it allows you to take full advantage of a day to relax and go biking or hiking or throw a disc…

Last Night’s Gig: Holy F%$# at Mariaberg in Rorschach, CH

I’m going to commit some outright thievery here and use the blog title common on CBC Radio 3 when hosts review concerts they attend. I think it’s a great title, so I plan on using it here when I go to see bands.

This was my first concert in Switzerland and it has been quite a while (since I consider live music to be an important past time of mine) since my last show. The one thing I have noticed is that a) it’s going to be a bit more expensive to see bands that I like here as they tend to only be the big stars that tour through Zurich and b) I think I took the concert scene in Ottawa for granted, especially when it came to acts I really enjoyed. They might be few and far between here.

I’ve had this show on my radar since the end of March, but it wasn’t until the last second that I was able to convince anyone to come along. The concert was in Rorschach which is close to 2 hours from Zurich by train. A nice small town on the shore of Lake Constance. No idea why they were playing here as their only stop in Switzerland though.

I had been introduced to the band from CBC R3 and really enjoy their live creation of electronic music and have heard great things about their live show. The opening act was It Hugs Back from Kent, UK. They were decent although the acoustics in the venue (which based on the architecture used to be an old church?) prevented me from making out any words. Decent tunes though. Holy F%$# didn’t go on until just after 11, but they played a great 1.5 hour set with little banter (not sure if that is more common in Europe because of language differences) and lots of energy. The sheer number of different keyboards and crazy instruments they have to create the sounds astounded me. The crowd was on the small side probably about 100, but were loud, appreciative and dancing like mad. After finishing the set with Lovely Allen, they were cheered back with some sort of chant which Brian then recorded and included in the next song. Sick improvisation. Wished I could have had time to give greeting from a fellow Canadian/Nova Scotian, but they finished up with just enough time to make it to the train station for the ride back.

A logistically tough 2.5 hour trek back with three train switches and requiring night tickets and waking up just in time to alight in the Zurich HB. Then a lengthy 40 minute drag back to my place. Walked in the door just before 4 AM. Yikes.

All in all, a great show and I look forward to the next Canadian act coming through or at least close to Zurich.

Springtime in Zurich

Alas, I’m not in Vienna to make this post a tribute to the Hip, but I think it’s finally time to rub it in for those of you back in Canada. For the past week it’s been high teens, sometimes over 20 degrees here. The sandals have been brought out of their seasonal hibernation and shorts have been worn. I have had beer on the patio the last two nights and the BBQ is ready to be fired up. I mean it’s no 4 degrees with snow/rain/sleet but hey, everyone has to live somewhere…right?

Of course with the temperatures comes the spring bloom and although it is amazingly pretty, my allergies are driving me crazy. I’m not sure what type of plant it is that my immune system has the feud with, but good grief, the last two days have been histamine-arific. Where’s that Reactine van when you need it?

Nice to see the Jays off to a nice start and I’m debating on paying 50 CHF to have access to all of the playoffs via steaming. It could mean some late nights/early morning for those west coast games, but I think it’s almost worth it.

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. I’m off to Slovenia for a week on Wednesday night for a conference and workshop and hopefully a bit of sight-seeing. They better put a damn stamp in my passport.

Technorati Tags: Spring,Slovenia

A Tale of Two Field Sites

Let me preface this by saying WOW!

I just returned from my first big trip to my field site where my research will take place over the next three years. My research is field intensive including at least weekly visits to the site. I wanted to post some thoughts about the two spots where I've had the chance to do field work

My MSc was based in the Mackenzie Delta which was beautiful for it's remoteness and simplicity. I loved going there and I enjoyed my time immensely up north and I hope to perhaps find a job there in the future. The people were great, I loved the pace of life and although the bugs were bad, it was great to get to know somewhere that few people even have the chance to visit. My field site was nice and getting the chance to boat there each week was great! There was lots of wildlife as well. Here are some pictures of my last field site:

My PhD will take place in the Lötschental Valley in the Swiss Alps. It's one of the larger valleys that connects to the Rhone although until the early 20th century (extremely late for Europe) it was still extremely isolated from the rest of Switzerland. The place is teeming with history in the form of extremely old buildings and a very interesting culture. Although the cheese and bread from the valley is delicious. My field site (which is an elevational transect of sites on both the north and south facing slopes) is located in Ferden (I encourage a look on Google Earth). My sites range from 1300 to 2300 m and it's quite a hike to the top. There was still a huge amount of snow yesterday when I went and it is probably going to be a month or so before all of it is gone. Although it's not as remote as the Mackenzie Delta, I think I'll enjoy this place for other reasons. The culture seems very interesting and once I get some more German under my belt we'll see if I can communicate a bit better with the locals. It’s also extremely beautiful.

Here are some early pictures of the area and sites (although these are going to be much prettier once everything begins to green up):

Looking up the valley (east) showing a few buildings in Ferden.

A photo of the Bietschhorn, one of the more prominent peaks in the valley.

Photo of the south slope taken from the north slope. If you look way up at the top where the last few trees are, that’s my highest site at 2300 m.

Photo of the north slope taken from the base of the slope. The trees without needles are larch (a deciduous conifer), so they aren’t dead, just not growing yet.

When going to the site by car, you need to take the car train through the tunnel (which must be at least 15 km long).

So needless to say, I’m looking forward to the field work and to posting some great photos and some nice hikes to bag some peaks.

My New Place

So, last week I had a flurry of offers for rooms. It came down to two different ones (each with some positives and negatives) and I made my decision. My new roommate is a girl named Regula. She is from Lucerne and is a German literature student and works at a langauge school teaching German as well. By a stroke of luck, I was able to move in last Saturday (March 27). That led to an impromptu trip to IKEA on Friday night to purchase a bed and ended up with Alessandro and myself strapping a mattress on the roof of his small car and driving across Zurich and dropping it off at the new place. Saturday afternoon I moved in with my three bags of belongings and built my bed. The address (for all of those letters...) is:

Sallenbachstrasse 17
CH-8055, Zurich

So without further ado, here are the pictures of my place:

Photo from the street. The flat is on the first floor.

Picture of the front entrance with the mailboxes.

The front door of the flat with the welcome mat (I need to figure out where to get one of the Swiss flag ones!).

The front entrance room of the flat with the kitchen table.

My room (a picture from last week), with the wardrobe that I inherited and my new bed.

The opposite angle of my room.

Back to the entrance area and the hallway leading to the other bedroom and the bathroom.

Two photos of the kitchen. Very nice with lots of light during the day. The dishwasher is also a nice addition.

I've also embedded a Google map below so you can get a sense of where I am in Zurich and Switzerland. There are two markers, the green one is my place and the blue one is where I work.


View Zurich, Switzerland in a larger map