A crazy week ... *updated*

Wow, I have so much to tell ... and since a couple of weeks I'm a bit lazy in answering mails and updating my blog. Sorry to everybody, many answers are pending for a couple of weeks already ...

Saturday a week ago, Melanie invited me to a house party of another girl that lives close to my house. To my surprise, most of the people at this party have been to Switzerland. Actually, we were invited by a family with 5 children, and at least 2 of them have been to Appenzell. They worked there as au pair or as waitress and learned German ... must be *sweet* to hear English native speakers talking Swiss German with an Appenzell dialect :)
For all non Swiss guys reading my blog ... Appenzell is pretty picturesque town in Switzerland, the area is famous for it's mountainous countryside and it's cows and needless to say for its cheese production. You'll find the real Swiss guys there (including all the stereotypes) :)

At night we went to a Cuba social ... it was a fundraising event ... a Canadian working brigade is raising money for going to Cuba. The event had kind of a marxian touch ... life in Cuba is good and Fidel Castro is a hero fighting against Capitalism :) However, for sure we enjoyed the music and some of the dancing performances were pretty impressive.

Sunday I spent most of the time studying car ads and doing some homework (I was to tired to get off for badminton). I found a car that wasn't an accident car, looked good and was pretty cheap. Thus, on Monday I asked my roommate if he could give me a ride to the car dealer.

The car is a 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier with approx. 78,500 km, is nice to drive and pretty comfortable. Ok, honestly I prefer the Ford Focus (I had before), for the car had a nice and modern design. However, I paid less and the car drives fine, thus I think it still was good deal. And most important, I was ready for my road trips ...

The same day I got a mail of my friend who should travel with me ... bad news ... he cancelled his trip to New York, thus I had a serious problem for my parents will arrive in New York and not in Winnipeg and there were only 30 days left. I was upset about that, for I think it's not really desirable to bear the consequences for someone else decision.

The following Tuesday I went to an insurance broker in order to insure the car. Afterwards, I went for a test drive ... with the exception of small issues (one loud speaker and the light buzzer don't work) the car is in a good condition. At night I had to study for my management exam the following day.

On Wednesday I also had my last swimming class. For sure I improved my strokes; however, I still have to exercise a lot. At night I called the my welcome family and also the lady who kindly gave us a ride after the accident ... for I was now able to visit them by car :)

Thus, I visited this lady (Audrey) the next day and brought her a bunch of flowers. Audrey introduced her family and invited me for a cup of tea. We had a good conversation (about differences of culture and daily life in Canada and Switzerland) and I really enjoyed to meet this family. I also got two good hints:

• There should be a good German bakery (Kohler Bakery) at the intersection of Academy Road and Centennir Street. In terms of good bread, I also discovered some good bread at Canadian Superstore ... the presidents choice bread is pretty good (for example the olive bread with a hard crust)
  
• There should be a good Japanese restaurant at the intersection of Broadway and Edmonton Street that serves a lunch special (incl. Sushi) for $12.
  

Later on that night, I met Mark and we went to the Taverne (pub).

On Friday I had no school at all. I had a good night's rest, did some homework, went for a run with my roommate (probably I will try the half marathon, my roommate almost conviced me) and at night, I enjoyed watching a movie together with Phil and Craig (roommates). The movie was a funny comedy, though I don't remember the title.

Saturday I worked on my flyer ... my idea was to find people at university who would be interested in joining my roadtrip. If you haven't seen the flyer yet, feel free to check the next blog entry. At night I met Mark, Sylvain, Emilie and some more guys for bowling. Unfortunately, all the bowling lanes were fully booked and we ended playing pool and foosball (it's actually the correct translation for "Tischfussball"). Sunday I mostly focused on my report.

The weather gets warm now ... the snow also started melting during the week. Moreover, some Canadian already started wearing Flip Flops :) Spring is coming soon!!!

Road Trip? Any plans this summer?

Full resolution

Calling, Cars & Cooking ... (updated)

When I came home from university last Monday, I saw that Chantale (my friend of Switzerland who stays in Middlesbrough, UK) was online and thus it was a good opportunity to call her by Skype. We had so much to tell each other and time flies on ... I think that was my longest phone call ever ... and I really enjoyed it :)

On Tuesday, I went through another hundreds of car ads (always the same), called my parents and spent some time on my report. I have to write a report for Introduction to Management and Organization Theory; in the report I have to compare chapters of the text book to a company I worked for. As you could guess I chose Credit Suisse. Unfortunately, they are not very cooperative, for they even refused to hand me out an organization chart of the company.

Wednesday was my second last Swimming class, we especially focused on breast stroking; it was cool to learn a new technique on how to move the hands. At night I cooked a little bit - beef and broccoli - with a sauce mix you can buy for less than $1 ... and it was really good!

Thursday I should have prepared for my exam the next day. However, I preferred doing anything else; hence, I started preparing pretty late (9 pm) and was a bit stressed out at night. However, the exam worked well so I don't have to mind about ... :)

Yesterday, I invited some friends for dinner at my house. In a cooking marathon (haha) I prepared Lasagne and "mousse au chocolat" (sounds delicious in French, isn't it?). The lasagna was pretty good and I love the mousse ... for sure it wasn't the last one.

Canadian Swiss Italian Lasagna, mmhhh :)

I got some help from Chrissie and her boyfriend, who saved my mousse (the whipped cream was almost butter) and helped preparing the garlic bread. Yes, that was a sophisticated meal!!!

My kitchen staff :)

Our French gourmet Sylvain

Mark, our kitchen manager
(everything will be clean for sure)

And the cook himself

Mark brought two movies that we enjoyed watching after dinner. The first one was a North Korean Documentary of BBC with the title "A State of Mind". The movie is about the North Korean regime and focuses on the Mass games (a pretty impressive gym event) and the daily life within this special country.

North Korean Mass Games

Later on we saw "Hable con ella / Talk to her" of the director Pedro Almodovar. The story is about a orderly ("Krankenpfleger") who takes care about a female patient, who is in a (permanent) coma. At the time he makes a new friend, whose wife also is in a coma, he gets more and more addicted by his patient ...

A study week ...

Sorry guys, this post was kind of late. However, let's start:

Monday, a week ago, I continued preparing for my exams (supply chain mgmt, mgmt science). After university I went for a run with my roommate. Was pretty good ... it was a good start in a new week.

On Tuesday I still tried to figure out, on if I would be able to reset the router. Unfortunately, no success. The day after I had my swimming class and we just were two persons, so we enjoyed a kind of private lesson. In the meanwhile also the weather got cold again ... brrrhh ... ok, yet not below -20°C.

On Thursday I had my first exam, in the afternoon I met with Nan and Michael to prepare for the exam the next day. When I got home around 7 pm my roommate asked me if I feel like having a burger and so we went to George's for dinner. Later on, we also bought a new router (actually pretty cheap, it cost only $49.95).

The next day I wrote my exam in the evening ... so far it was a pretty boring week.

Yet, right afterwards I was invited to Olivier's house and we had good Chinese food prepared by Brian and Yui. Afterwards, we all together watched the movie "L'auberge Espagnole" ... it was the perfect movie. The story is about a French guy, who is going abroad for a year. So in Barcelona, he lives in a shared appartment and has lots of fun ... a kind of similar to what we experience here.


Luckily, Chrissy offered me another ride home ... it looks like I found a new chauffeur *smile*

Saturday I was mostly occupied by going through car ads. Yet, there aren't many good cars available in my range. Most of the cars are cars sold by dealers (I would lose 7% of taxes), accident cars (would be more difficult to resell), or cars with severe risk of high future maintenance costs (e.g. Chrysler/Dodge Neon 2000-2002, Chevrolet Malibu 2000-2002, and so on). However, I still hope to find a car soon (7 weeks left until my trip starts) ... there was an interesting ad in the Autotrader magazine, unfortunately I was too late and the car was already sold. At night we spontaneously organized a movie night at Sylvains house. I proposed Sylvain to buy some stuff in order to prepare our own dinner (instead of going to the restaurant).

We met for six o'clock in Osborne, went to Movie Village and chose the movies "The 40 year old virgin" and "9 Lives". Back in Sylvain's house we first started cooking together (it was fun) and enjoyed a 300 gram steak with pasta and salad. Unfortunately, we had to solve some technical issues before our movie night could start (we used the wrong button on the remote control ... the landlord thought he has to trash his tv set, fortunately we could sort out the problem). Later on, Mark joined for the second movie. Regrettably, I had to leave soon in order to catch my last bus. Anyway, we enjoyed a cool movie night.

On Sunday, Chrissy gave me another ride to badminton. We had the opportunity to play against some new opponents what was pretty cool (with the exception of one Chinese guy who was a bit upset, for I stepped on his feet accidentally). Afterwards, we did our weekly shopping at Canadian Superstore and in the afternoon I was busy writing a report for university.

This and that ...

For the moment I really enjoy reading the blogs of Nick, who spends his days in Europe (http://nickinswitzerland.blogspot.com) and also a blog, whose address I got from Mark telling about a Philippine woman who spends her days in Switzerland and tells many funny anecdotes about Switzerland and Swiss people (http://pinoysphere.com/).

In terms of music I discovered that Norah Jones released a new cd ... check her website, you will be able to listen to all her tracks (http://www.emimusic.ca/thelittlewillies). I also saw that Lovebugs is preparing a new CD, I'm already curious to listen to the new cd soon (http://www.lovebugs.ch/bug/108/de/IM_STUDIO.html).

With pleasure I read about the tons of snow you got in Switzerland (about half a meter in one day). It seems almost like you had a harder winter than here in Winnipeg (I'm joking; however, it's the coldest winter in Switzerland since 21 years). We got some snow too, yet it is melting and temperatures are getting warm (actually 0 degree celsius). It seems almost that winter will be over soon ...

Time goes on so fast, more than half over ...

Since some weeks ago I feel that time goes on so fast. There are only 5 weeks of school left, a few exam weeks will follow and then ... I will start my summer trips! It's crazy ...

This week I still kept an eye on all the car ads. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything yet. On Tuesday I got my check (the money for the car). I was happy, thus I was able to buy a new car now.

On Wednesday I had my swimming class as usual. We learned breast stroking ... was funny, for the other guys know how to crawl but haven't learned how to breast stroke yet. I was also looking for a few driving instruction hours, in order to feel safe on the streets again. At night I went to the shopping mall, got a hair cut (I don't like Singleton's (hairdressers), they are cheap, but they don't do their job well) and enjoyed two Teen burgers (still my favorites with the exception of George's) at A&W.

Thus, on Thursday I had my first two driving lessons. With the driving instructor we went downtown, and did some red lights, difficult intersections, and so on. However, most of my friends where suprised when I told them that I took some driving lessons. The same day I also had to find a branch of my bank (Bank of Montreal) to honor my check, hence I did a small trip through the city. For lunch I went to Subway for my second time. In my oppinion Subway is sligthly expensive and all the sandwiches taste the same, for they usually put so much stuff inside that you will miss the taste of the single ingredients. Finally, at night I started preparing for my exams. I felt bad, for I didn't work hard this day, even if I had no school because my classes were cancelled due to the snowfalls the night before.

The proud cat of my roommate ... she is lovely :)

On Friday I booked the plane tickets for my parents. They will finally come to New York on May 13th, and will fly back on June 5th. So I should plan soon the details of this road trip. In the afternoon I got my second two driving lessons. During the lessons we stopped at the "boulangerie le croissant", for the driving instructor want to show me a bakery in the french part of the city. I bought a "baguette" for $1.50 ... the baguette was better than the french bread at Safeway, yet it's still not the same as in France. At night I met Eva, Melanie, Naomi, Eric, Mark and Sylvain at Osborne village for Italian food. Later on, we tried to find a place to stay what was pretty difficult. We finally found a restaurant with a funny waiter ... and ended our night in a good ambiance. On my way home I was a bit unlucky (ok, I didn't read the schedule well ... tztz), for my bus turned on half way. Thus, I had to walk for half an hour ... yet, it was actually not as bad, for it was not as cold and for sure it was good for my health :)

Saturday I stood home most of the day. In the afternoon the router suddenly ran down. I worked for three hours, but I wasn't able to reset the router. Thus, I connected my notebook in the room of my roommate in order to write this blog entry.
At night I met the other guys at the Empire (discotheque downtown). It's not really my favourite place ... but it's nice for once a while.

Today, I was working for school for some hours and in the afternoon it was time for a baking session. It's already a long time since I baked last time.

Peanut Butter Cookies

A few weeks ago I found a recipee for peanut butter cookies in the Winnipeg Free Press. And today I tried them ... they smell fabulous ... mmmhhh!!! If you want to try yourself ... the recipee is stated below. Unfortunately, Europeans will have to convert the measures (cups, ml --> gram). Have fun!

The recipee for "the world's best peanut butter cookies"

No internet access

Unfortunately, this afternoon the router ran down. I don't have internet access (with the exception of my roommates computer) until further notice.