Alain Alone in Winnipeg

New Blog: Alain alone in Switzerland!!!

2007-04-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

Hey guys ... I decided to update my blog again ... so instead of aaiw.blogspot.com check aais.blogspot.com!

Any questions about the Name? Yeah, because I'm in Switzerland, I had no other choice than to change the name ... *smile*

Alright, it's time to switch ...!

Hello Switzerland ... and last blog entry?

2006-08-15T19:38:00.000-05:00

Yep, I'm now back in Switzerland ... I came back 2 weeks ago on August 1, 2006.

Switzerland meets a Winnipeg guy *smile*

I already adapted well to my new old environment; however, for sure I miss all my Canadian friends! Yet, my holiday keeps going on and the "party" is not over ... thus, there is no time to be sad.

This will likely be my last blog entry on Alain Alone In Winnipeg, but check my blog again in the following days/weeks for I will continue updating old blog entries (adding pictures and so on); especially those of my second trip with Greyhound. Further, I will post here the address to my new Swiss Blog (I will start this new project in the following days/weeks) ... it won't base on my daily activities, instead I'll mainly post pictures and short reviews of exceptional activities and experiences.

Let me say thank you to you ... notably to all the readers of my blog ... I completely enjoyed sharing my experiences.

After 122 blog entries ... thousands of words and pictures ... hundreds of spelling errors and mistakes *joking* ... it's time to say goodbye. I wish you all the best and I hope to meet you all again ... online or in reality! Bye & Tschüss ...

My last days in Winnipeg ... including broken eyeglasses ;)

2006-08-01T20:12:00.000-05:00

As I came back to Winnipeg it was already time to say Goodbye to Melanie who went back to Germany. To end her stay in Winnipeg she invited over for a farewell bbq ... and at this time it made me also think about my residual days in Winnipeg.

In order to make my last days fun I planned with Khizar to party every night ... and so it came that I had an awesome time the following weeks.

The following weekend I had bbq with Mark, Lisa and Khizar at Kildonan Park. First I made them a surprise and I was looking forward to bring them to a small provincial park close to the airport. However, there were so many mosquitoes and we had no spray to fight them ... and we had no fire wood ... thus we had to drive back towards downtown. With fire wood and "OFF" Spray we finally ended in Kildonan Park ... a very beautiful place ... and we spent a couple of hours there, actually until almost 3 o'clock in the morning. My Canadian friends were kind of suprised for usually police made them go after 10 p.m. ... do we look so trustworthy ... let's ask the policemen of Winnipeg ;)

A Canadian Life Saver ... Off Spray keeps insects OFF!

On my third last Sunday I was looking forward to go swim somewhere ... yet I couldn't motivate anybody to join and so I stood home as well. At night time we went to A&W for burgers (hey guys, the Double Teen Burger is still one of my preferred burgers) and then we went for a coffee to Baked Expectations. And then ... guess ... yeah it was awesome Karaoke time once more. With Naomi, Lisa and her sister, Khizar and Mark I spent another superb night!

A&W Burger ... mmmhhh!

On Tuesday, Khizar and me went to a Salsa class. My friend Kristy asked me to join again for Salsa classes (I haven't been since my second trip, also because Melanie already left the city) and it was fun to meet them there and to improve dancing skills (my skills still are pretty weak, it seams I have to work hard in Switzerland to change the situation *smile*). We also had the opportunity to meet Jessica, a friend of Kristy. After salsa we went to a coffeehouse in somewhere Winnipeg and had some funny conversations.

Wednesday we expected to go to Salsa again ... yet, I was late, really late and until I found a parking lot it was too late to go to Salsa classes anymore. By chance we also met Jessica walking along the street, for she previously had to look for another parking lot because the wrecking service almost towed her car (I hate it, they don't give bills ... they just tow your car and you end having lots of troubles).

Never ignore this road sign ... Kind regards, Dr. Hook!

After Kristy finished her Salsa class we planned singing Karaoke; however it didn't work out somehow and Khizar and me went to my house watching a movie (Amélie ... I already know the movie well; yet, I enjoyed showing the movie to Khizar and i think he really liked the movie).

On Friday I planned a night with my roommates, something like a pre-farewell party. We started at six and went to North Garden for Chinese Food.

Tannis (former roommate) and her boyfriend Matt

Three amazing roomies :)

After a delicious meal we went to the Taverne for beer and some kind of warming up ;).

Some kind of womanizer ... ;)

Many friends of Tannis (my former roommate), Phil, Craig, Corrado (an almost roommate :)) joined and finally with a huge group we went to Karaoke. It was the first time for almost all of them and they really enjoyed it a lot.

Phil Collins

Craig Hasselhoff

Corrado Il Divo

... and the Dixie Chicks!

Finally, singing makes people hungry and so we had to get a burger at Junior's before saying good night to the stars.

On Saturday night Kristy, Jessica, Khizar, Mark and me went to the Empire. It was a good opportunity to test our learned Salsa skills ... unfortunately, that night the Salsa floor was closed. Yet, we still spent a fun time on the main floor ... until, I shaked my head and I somehow lost my glasses. We couldn't find them for about 5 minutes and as they got found they were broken. So I lost my glasses in Canada ... tztztz ... however, I wasn't too upset for I had planned to buy new glasses soon. Thanks to Khizar, our new driver, we all got home safely.

Broken eyeglasses ... new luck?

Sunday I went to the Fringe Festival with Lindsay.

The Fringe Festival is dedicated to theatre; in several locations different plays are performed for more than a week. Lindsay invited me to dance play named "Long Black Veil" that is based on a song of Johny Cash. The play is fine; I especially liked the music that was played by a small orchestra; however, it looks like I don't get too much attracted by dance performances.

Then already my last Winnipeg week started ...

On Monday I started cleaning up my room ... I went through all the stuff that accumulated during the year.

Time to clean up ...!

Kind of sad and strange to go through all that material, however after a day it was almost done. At night I was invited at Nan's house for Chinese Hot Pot ... it was a very nice way to say goodbye to a good friend.

The next day I met Mark (the Canadian blogger and business student) for a "goodbye lunch" downtown. Later on, I went to the Forks to buy a few souvenirs like Maple Syrup and Maple Tea.

Maple Syrup ... the perfect Canadian gift!

Later on that day I picked up Khizar, we got some ice cream at Dairy Queen's and watched Romper Stomper (a movie with Russell Crowe as a skinhead, I would say an average movie) with Craig.

On Wednesday Khizar and me went to Salsa classes again. We actually expected to meet Kristy and Jessica; however, they both were sick and couldn't join. Later on we went for tasty Indian food to a restaurant called Clay Oven. Finally, we went to Cinema City (for amazing $1.75 a person ... maybe the last time I get as cheap movie tickets) watching Mission Impossible 3.

The next day I had a "goodbye lunch" with Lindsay. We went to a small nice café on Osborne Street, enjoyed some tasty food, and had a good conversation. Later on that day I had dinner at my welcome family's place. They were the first Canadian I met and made me feel comfortable in Winnipeg during my first days. Finally, I met Stephen in Corrydon for a beer and together we had a review over my past year in Canada.

Friday was shopping day ... shopping for my goodbye party the following day. With a huge shopping list I went to Canadian Superstore. The same day I had to clean my car, for I sold it to Chrissy some hours later. After some paperwork and a visit at the insurance agency the deal was closed.

My previous car

Then it was time again to continue cleaning up my room before I went to the Empire. There I met Kristy, Jessica and Khizar and we tried to practice some Salsa (yet not on the Salsa floor, the dancers there are too good!).

After a fun night I had a few hours left to sleep before the preparation started for the big "Goodbye Party".

I got off at nine in the morning and I had to hurry; the first guest were expected for 12 o'clock. At 12 o'clock I still wasn't ready and luckily nobody showed up before 4 pm. Craig (my roommate) decorated the living room and the kitchen and I continued working in the kitchen ... cutting pineapples and melons, preparing a chocolate mousse (with the help of Chrissy, Dale and Phil ... thanks!) and the ingredients for burgers, and so on ...
As finally everybody showed up I was almost done and the big party could start ... :)
First we played some boccie, later on we got dinner (burgers, what else? *smile*) and later on we played cards and other games and enjoyed desert. I think everybody really enjoyed the party and it was a great opportunity to see all my friends again.

Boccie Team with Khizar, Shannon, and Lisa

Boccie Team with Craig, Corrado, and Phil

Lisa and Mark picking fruit pieces

Corrado, Phil, and Shannon making jokes

Khizar Art Master

BBQ Chef Corrado

Good kitchen mate Dale ... beats chocolate mousse to perfection!

Chrissy and a burger :)

Ray playing "Meierle" (a Swiss game (probably not) that is also famous in Canada)

Stephen, Kristy, Corrado, and Mark having good conversations

Shannon, Kristy, me, and Corrado playing Rummy

Kristy and Craig try to solve a puzzle ...

... and Stephen tries his luck as well!

Craigs wonderful decoration of the house!

Sunday was my last entire day in Canada. In the morning I had to clean up the kitchen and to empty my fridge and the kitchen cabinet. At 6:30 pm I met Kristy, Jessica and Khizar for Salsa at the Forks. It was a really hot day and the humidity was very high ... a few steps of Salsa and we were drenched in sweat. Yet, we still had a fun time and we promised that we would dance salsa again if we would meet at a later point in time. Later on that night I met Naomi, Lisa, the Canadian and the Philippine Mark, as well as Phil and Corrado. Together we had a last drink at Earl's and it was a last time to say goodbye.

The "Canadian" Mark

Naomi and Phil

Khizar and Lisa

Phil and Mark

Corrado

Naomi and me

During my last night I had mainly to clean my room and to make my luggage. After a few hours of sleep and some last preparations I got a ride from Chrissy and Mark to the airport.

A last picture with Chrissy ...

... and with Mark!
(thanks to Mark for the last 2 pictures)

After a last visit at Tim Horton's I had to pass the security control and at 10:25 my plane took off ... for a last time I could see Winnipeg ... from a bird's eye view.

I spent an amazing year in Canada; I made lots of new amazing friends and experiences. I'll keep good memories and I won't forget Winnipeg and especially not its people. And for sure, one day I'll be back ... :)

Greyhound Trip Pictures online!

2006-07-17T05:35:00.000-05:00

Enjoy the pictures of my Greyhound Trip (West Coast) in the Photo Gallery ...

Vancouver Island, Vancouver and journey back to Winnipeg

2006-07-13T16:49:00.000-05:00

The next day we had the fun opportunity to meet Brian. Brian is an international student I met in Winnipeg and he also spent some weeks of his holiday in Vancouver. He showed us Canada Place and later on we enjoyed some fabulous ice cream. Later on that day it was already time to head towards Vancouver Island and Victoria.

We took the ferry and had an awesome journey to the port on Vancouver Island in between beautiful islands and an amazing scenery. Arrived on the island we had a longer bus ride and finally stayed overnight at the university of Victoria.

Early next morning we got picked up by a rental car company. We then rented a car with the goal of visiting Victoria as well as the south part of the island. We passed through the city of Victoria and headed north to Nanaimo and Courtenay. In Courtenay Mark found a cool hostel in a beautiful natural setting. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to well discover the neighborhoods.

Before it got dark we drove up a mountain to enjoy the nice neighborhood and I tried hard to discover some wildlife. Finally we ended up having a beer in downtown Courtenay.

The day after we had to give back the rental car and so we drove back to Victoria. Everybody in the city was in a soccer fever for the world cup was going on and so we also found the opportunity to watch the second half of the game with the end that wasn't as much in my favour.

After the game and lots of Italians honking we made a small discovery tour of downtown Victoria. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any lockers and so we had to carry them with us all the time. In the afternoon it was soon time then to head back to Vancouver.

In Vancouver we stayed the following nights at a backpacker hotel and I had the fun opportunity to share a room with another Swiss guy. He came from St. Gallen and was improving his English skills in Vancouver and he told me that there are lots of Swiss guys in town. He was a very friendly guy and Mark had to discover that Swiss guys have some similarities ... haha ...

On our day before we had to leave we again met Brian; he showed us some amazing places in Vancouver we had not visited before. After strolling around Stanley Park we got some tasty Japanese food ... eat as much as you can for just something more than 13 bucks ... unbelievable. Sushi, Sashimi, and lots more ... it's great to discover new food. Then we got some more of this awesome ice cream and after a cup of coffee (or a chocolate) it was already time to say goodbye.

At 6 in the morning we had to pick our Greyhound bus to Winnipeg. It was my last long journey by bus ... a 39 hours trip. We passed the rockies and stopped in Jasper. Unfortunately we were just allowed to enjoy the nice countryside mostly through the windows of the coach. By chance I also saw a small black bear ... I tried hard to find one for a long time. Later on, we arrived in Edmonton and just had time to pick up a burger before we had to take the next bus.

In the early morning hours we arrived in Saskatoon were we enjoyed some breakfast. Then we had to drive all day long through the prairies and we also passed through some places in Manitoba I haven't been before ... like Roblin, Dauphin, Riding Mountain National Park and Brandon. Finally we got back to Winnipeg for 9 pm and after a short taxi ride I was happy to be back "home".

Yep, that were two amazing trips ... I made lots of cool experiences and I spent an awesome time. Yet, it was good to be done ... for I think I couldn't enjoy visiting anymore cities. Now I had left a bit more than 2 weeks in Winnipeg and I looked forward to have an awesome time ...

Seattle & First Days in Vancouver

2006-07-10T03:03:00.000-05:00

Actually I'm kind of lazy to write these last lines on my second trip. Yet I should write or I won't do it anymore ...

My second day in Portland I spent on walking tour. Was pretty interesting and I learnt some interesting facts about the city (interested in improving its image, has good public transportation, some funny laws ...). For lunch I visited China Town and for less then 9 US dollars I got a great meal.

As I left Portland I headed towards Seattle where I met Margret. I met Margret on my first trip in Washington DC and she invited me kindly to visit her in Seattle.

The first night I stayed at the youth hostel ... the hostel in Seattle is cool, nice utilities, the best breakfast I ever got at a hostel and I also had the opportunity to do some laundry. The next day I met Margret, she picked me up for lunch and afterwards I visited her house. Seattle is embedded in a nice setting, a really nice place to stay. The same night we visited the Space Needle (a sightseeing tower) and a Baseball Game. Thus I got some more insight into North American culture ... :)

The day after the US celebrated its national holiday. In the afternoon we went kayaking ... pretty cool ... it rememberred me the time I was kanoeing in Switzerland (10 years ago). At night we could enjoy the fire works ... pretty cool!

Then it was already time to leave Seattle and I headed towards Vancouver. In Vancouver I met Mark (from Winnipeg :)) at the YMCA. At night we visited some parts of the city and got some Chinese food (expensive!). The next day we then rented a car and drove to Whistler. On the way there we stopped a couple of times and I had the opportunity to take some great pictures of waterfalls and lakes.

Welcome in Portland

2006-07-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

I get used to travel ... I traveled for 16 hours from yesterday 'til today ... and slept for almost 12 hours :)

So I'm now in Portland; countyside looks a bit different, yet also very beautiful. Actually, I was doing a hike and climbed a small hill (forgot already the name) and I think nature looks like in Switzerland (same kind of vegetation ... also small hills and a few mountains). The city area where I booked my hostel is quite peaceful (lots of small stores, independent movies, bookstores, and so on) and I already met some hippies *smile* ... it's for sure a cute area to stay. For lunch I enjoyed a very good Thai curry and including an appetizer I just paid 12 dollars ... amazing!!! Tonight there is a Blues Festival going on ... I might meet some people of the youth hostel there ...

Tomorrow I'm going on a walking tour in downtown Portland. In the late afternoon I will then take the bus towards Seattle ...

Cable Cars, Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, ...

2006-06-28T20:42:00.000-05:00

After a short breakfast and watching the lucky penalty of the Italian soccer team I headed towards the youth hostel at the Fisherman's Wharf. The hostel was easy to find at reminds me a big school camp. There I could storage my luggage and I went out for a sightseeing trip.

I went back to the wharf, bought a ticket for Alcatraz (I will go the following friday) and continued along the shore. On different piers I could take some nice pictures ... finally I took a street car back to downtown. I visited the Apple shop and got a couple minutes of free internet access :) As it was almost dark I headed back to the youth hostel and had the opportunity to ride a cable car for free ... for it was a "Spare the air day" and thus the ride was free for everyone. It's a really funny experience to ride the cable train on the footboard ...

Later on that night I wrote a couple more postcards and went to bed soon.

The next day I planned to visit Golden Gate Bridge by bicycle. Thus I went to a rental shop ... rented a bike for a day ($ 28) and headed towards the Golden Gate bridge. It was a cloudy day and the Golden Gate bridge was hidden by fog. I passed the bridge and did a small bycicle tour on the other side of the bridge before I went back to the Presidio neighborhood. Presidio is a beautiful neighborhood with beautiful mansions and a wonderful seashore.

I was pretty hungry and I didn't have anymore water ... biking in San Francisco makes pretty tired ... up and down and up and down ... so I finally found a family restaurant at the Cliff House and I really enjoyed the food. Later on I visited the Golden Gate Park before I finally brought my bycicle back to the rental shop. At night I had some laundry to do and met some nice people of Canada. They asked me to travel with them the next days; unfortunately, I already had my own plans ...

The next day I went to Muir woods ... a national park with lots of old Red Wood. The trees are very old (several hundred years, some over thousand years) and very tall. The trees have some interesting qualities ... for example do they need wood fires to spread out and they sometimes grow in a circle around the mother tree. The also need this foggy weather to survive (weather you'll have lots of time in summer around San Francisco ... actually looks more like low clouds than fog to me).

I already was back for lunch time and decided to visit a tower downtown as well as some beautiful gardens (Lombard street). At night I got some Japanese food, yet a shame for I still didn't know how to eat Japanese food ...

The day after I went to Yosemite Park ... was pretty cool. It's a mountainous area with impressive granite rocks and waterfalls. On the trip I met people of Malta, Australia, England and the USA ... was amusing to talk to these different people :) Yet we didn't have so much time to visit the countryside for the journey was pretty long. Before we headed back toward San Francisco we visited some of the famous Sequoia trees ... they have huge trunks ... some are famous for cars can drive through the tree.

At night I met the Canadian people and we spent the night together by having a beer at a nearby pub. They were really friendly ... we also had planned to go to Alcatraz together ... unfortunately they were too late and the tickets were already sold out.

Thus, today I went alone to Alcatraz. Was an amazing trip and the prison is pretty impressive. However, I was surprised by the bad condition of the buildings on the island ... pretty bad for such an important touristic spot. Yet, I enjoyed the audio tour and learnt some stuff about Native Americans (the occupied the island in the late 60s in order to get attention for their interests). Later on I moved my luggage to the bus terminal ... went downtown visiting some shopping malls ... and now in a couple of minutes I'll take the bus for Portland.

Have a nice weekend ...

San Francisco

2006-06-27T11:42:00.000-05:00

20 minutes on the counter ... I'm still in Reno with my story ... let's continue :)

After watching the soccer game Beverley showed me some Casinos in downtown Reno. Yet I didn't feel confident enough to play Black Jack. We had a drink later on and Beverley decided to head towards university again. Yet I decided to take some pictures ... and ended in a Casino again.

I joined a Black Jack game ... and spent 20 bucks ... played one hour ... had once only 12 bucks left, yet later over 30 bucks (my goal was 40 bucks) ... I finally ended the game with 24 bucks. For I didn't know the strategies people had to laugh sometimes ... it seems I made some stupid decisions. For sure it was fun ... (no no I won't get addicted)

At night we spent our time in a pub close to university ... had some food and good conversations.

The next day we rented a car to head towards Lake Tahoe. The countryside between Reno and Lake Tahoe is pretty impressive, for it changes from desert to a mountain like scenery. The lake is beautiful ... really clear and picturesque. Beverley showed me were she works (making bicycle path on the countryside) and later on we visited a small but gorgeous waterfall. Unfortunately, on the way there we had a small accident ... Bevereley drove and hit another car on her left side ... yet I think she is well off for the car was insured.

Later on we headed back towards Lake Tahoe and visited some nice lookout points along its shore. As we arrived back in Reno we picked up some people and were looking forward to visit a rodeo ... unfortunately we couldn't make it for all the tickets were sold out. We still could enter the fairground and it was fun to see lots of people dressed as cowboys (the real US?) ...

Finally we visited the movies and watched Nacho Libre ... a comedy movie ... about a priest in Mexico that wants to be Wrestler ... kind of stupid sometimes, yet still fun.

The next day I had to get off early in the morning for I had to catch my bus for San Francisco at 7:30 in the morning. The journey was pretty short and after a few hours I already arrived in downtown San Francisco.

There I tried to get a taxi ... but all the driver refused me ... until I understod that the Gay Parade was going on and that many streets were closed. So I walked for a while, crossed the parade (yet seemed to be over already) and finally found a taxi that brought me to the youth hostel. Some people I met on the trip told me that the area around the hostel is dangerous ... yet for sure it's not the safest area in San Francisco but it still wasn't as bad.

After updating my blog I decided to visit the hilly area and its cable cars. It's really impressive and it reminds me the scenery in couple of movies. Thus I walked up and down, visited China Town and finally went back to the youth hostel. There I read a few pages, wrote my first postcards (yes finally!!!) and went to bed early.

The next day I changed the youth hostel ... let's talk about it later ... :)

San Francisco ... yuppeee!!!

2006-06-25T16:53:00.000-05:00

Time goes on so fast ... and as usual I have to hurry to write my blog entry :)

As mentioned I went back to Salt Lake City after I brought my stuff to the greyhound terminal. The Arts Festival is nothing really special, lots of artist sell their paintings and there are some concerts going on. After a while I got hungry and the food on the Festival wasn't as cheap; thus I decided to go back to the Chuck-A-Rama (the place you eat for 10 bucks). Afterwards I went back to the Festival and was looking forward to listen to a Symphonie Orchestra Concert ... they should have started at 8:30, yet until they began it was after 9:00 and I just had a couple of minutes before I had to leave in order to take my bus towards Reno.

As I left the festival I waited for the bus ... and after a while I had to figure out that there was no bus to the greyhound terminal anymore (at 9 pm?!?). Yet, I could take another bus and had to walk for a while ... got a bit lost ... got in a hurry ... saw lots of strange people (so I also discovered that not anything is shining in Salt Lake City ... but almost) ... and finally still could get my ticket on time for my bus.

And then big surprise ... guess ... yes bus drivers of Greyhound don't seem to like their job ... another bus driver didn't show up ... the second time in a couple of days. It was kind of bad because the next day I had to be on time, for I was meeting Beverley in Reno (an English girl I met on my first trip in Washington; she was only reachable by email) and I didn't know how to notify her. Ok so the driver didn't show up and we didn't know a lot what was going on ... there were some rumours that the bus would leave around 3 am in the morning. So we were waiting and I had the opportunity to talk to some guys. I met a guy who served the US army and spent a couple of years in Germany (it seems there are lots of them in the US) ... he told me about German beer and girls *funny*. I also talked to a girl that had 8 brothers and sisters (her parents got both divorced) ... for sure it was also funny to talk to her.

After 2 o'clock we all got curious what was going on ... there was kind of a stupid security officer ... you know this kind of person ... they have no power in their private life but as soon as they get some in their professional life ... they're really proud about it and like to use it (same situation in the army ... I hate these people that fuck you up all day) ... so he felt that we were kind of rude towards him and that he had to handle us the same way. What do you think if someone tells you at one clock (in the morning) that if someone complains he kicks out every single person of the bus terminal and that it is not his problem that we have to wait ... so what happened finally was that before we were able to take the bus he made a personal security check on every person. That means that he checked all our bags for weapons and stuff and he checked every single person with his stupid metal detector. By the way we had to stay in a row and "if your bag is not open and ready to be searched, you'll have to wait at the end of the line and you won't be able to take the bus at 3 am" (so you would have to wait until 11 am). I was kind of afraid because I had my swiss army knife and I wasn't ok to lose it (yet I was able to hide it). Finally he told us that it's our own decision to travel with Greyhound ... and that he didn't travel with Greyhound for 35 years ... ok, enough ... I know I got excited again :)

Honestly, I still think Greyhound is ok ... just expect to be late ... yet it works and you'll meet lots of funny people ... and it's pretty cheap (depending on ticket/pass) ...

So the next day I arrived late in Reno (after 11 am instead of 7 am) and as I got out of the greyhound terminal I was looking for Canada Hall. Google Map had cheated on me, Canada Hall I had found was just a building under construction (and not the building I was looking for). Yet I had a street name and after a hike with my luggage I was able to find Canada Hall at the University of Reno. Yet the next problem was that I expected that nobody was waiting for me ... for I was as late.

I waited for a couple of minutes ... a girl came out and I asked her about Beverley ... and I was so happy ... she was informed about the Swiss Boy. So she could tell me where Beverley was ... Beverley and her friends were looking soccer ... and it was Switzerland against South Korea ... so I was able to see the soccer game too ... and was happy that Switzerland won (most were Korea supporters actually). I will try to see the game tomorrow ... good luck again!!!

Ups I'm still in Reno with my story and not in San Francisco ... yet I've got only 01:35 left ... tztztz ... talk to you later guys ...

Best regards from San Francsico!!!

My days in SLC

2006-06-22T16:43:00.000-05:00

Hey I really enjoy my time here in Salt Lake City.

Yesterday I finally arrived around 10 o'clock in Salt Lake City and the first thing I did was to look for my accommodation. Yet everything worked out well and after 20 minutes I already arrived at the motel. Yet it was too early to check in ... and I was looking forward to get a shower for I was travelling since two days, yet I had to wait until the afternoon.

According to the motel manager and my lonely planet ... I had to check first Temple Square. Temple Square is a small area downtown Salt Lake City with impressive churches and buildings of the Mormons ... Salt Lake City's importance to the Mormons is comparable to Rome for the catholics. Thus I entered Temple Square and as soon as I entered I got invited for a discovery tour led by missionars of this church. Was kind of weird, they were always talking about their beliefings and made lots of advertisement for their church ... yet the buildings were nice and I still got some points about their religion.

Later on I visited the local city park and climbed part of the mountain right behind the city. The capitol and a nice residential area are located there. I had the opportunity to take some pictures and also to discover Salt Lake ... a big lake that gave its name to the city.

Afterwards it was time to get back to the motel and I really enjoyed to take a shower :)

At night I did a short discovery trip to the university (really beautiful ... a nice place to study) ... had some good food at a restaurant (a tasty buffet for $10.25) and later on I went to the movies ... and guess ... I met some Swiss girls, I couldn't believe it ... the first Swiss since I am in North America ... and I met them at the red light asking for directions. Yep ... the world seems to be small sometimes ...

We saw Lake House ... not too bad but kind of confusing ... yet besides the movie I enjoyed to talk Swiss german to some guys ;) After the movie the two Swiss women couldn't get back to their motel, for the public transportation wasn't working anymore (too late) and we couldn't figure out the number of a taxi company (a weird guy tried to help us ... but he seemed to know nothing). I then got a crazy idea and just asked a young couple if they could offer a ride to the other Swiss guys. Everybody seemed a bit confused first (by my action), yet it worked out ... and everybody (including me, ok I my motel was so close I could walk easily) got a free ride from some nice local people. That was really cute!

The next day I went back to the university area, checked the olympic park (nice arena) and spent some time at university again. On the way back I went again to the library, changed reservations for my hostel in San Francisco (the hostel at Fisher's Wharf seems to be located in a much better neighborhood according to the Swiss people I met the night before) and I updated my blog (right now).

Later on I will bring my luggage to the bus station, will have a look on the Arts festival and get some food before I finally will take the bus at 10:30 pm to head towards Reno.

Cu again in Reno ... an good luck for the Swiss Soccer Team ... I hope to see the game too!!!

Welcome in Salt Lake City :)

2006-06-21T19:47:00.000-05:00

Hey guys ... once more I got internet access at a public library ... out of an hour only 36 minutes are left :) Yet I prepared some writing on the bus, for I had over 50 hours to spend ... :)

Before I left for my second trip it was time to say good bye to Yui, for she wouldn't be in Winnipeg anymore. Together with Lisa and Mark we celebrated my last night at the Earls; it was kind of sad for it also remembered me the night I had to say good bye to Shinya as well on how it will be at the end of July (my final leave-taking).

However, we spent a good time at the bar and after midnight I finally got home. I didn't feel well, for I had so much to do (preparations) and at the same time I was tired of the half marathon I ran the same day.

The half marathon was a very good experience. After a few hours of sleep I had to get off at 6 in the morning. Together with my roommates we all had decided to run the half marathon; so we had to get ready early (my roommate bet me, I thought I was late coming home at 2 am, yet I think it was even after 2:30 am as he arrived *smile*). It was a rainy day; however, this was the perfect weather condition for it keeps your body cool.

It was surprising to see thousands of people on a early Sunday morning ... all willing to run a half or even a full marathon. During the first few kilometres I wasn't able to run fast for there was such a crowd. Yet, it made me feel good to pass lots of people ... it really motivates to keep a faster pace. It was also amazing to see all the people along the street cheering up the runners. Some even distributed beer (for free!), others served pieces of fruit, ice or also water.

The half marathon went over good so far and I had no problems during my first fifteen kilometres. Unfortunately my right knee started hurting and I had to fight against myself in order to keep running. Especially, the last 2 km were very hard ... after 1:55:06 I was happy to have finished my first half marathon (something more than 21 km).

But back to that night ... I was tired and I wasn't prepared neither had I cleaned my room. I was upset that I had to do all that stuff at the last moment in time. Finally around 04:45 am I was done and I just had a bit more than one hour to get a rest. I also didn't sleep well and was pissed off to go alone (to my upcoming trip). At this point in time I would have preferred to cancel the entire trip; but that wouldn't have make sense for everything was already organized (and I was just to tired to think logically).

After I had a shower and I finallz was ready to leave I felt better. My roommate oferred me a ride to the Greyhound Bus Terminal. Lots of people told me lots of stories about Greyhound and I got curious the know the truth :) So my fears (about the trip) were gone fast and I got excited.

As I talked to the Grezhound employee he got kind of excited about my long journey to Salt Lake City (50 hours trip (including breaks) and over 3400 km long). On that journez I had to pass Grand Forks, Fargo, Sioux Falls, Omaha, Kansas City, Denver and so on ...

During my ride to Kansas City I had the opportunity to talk to some guys on the bus. I met two girls, who headed towards Texas and I also talked to a black guy who moved from Fargo to Omaha. He got kicked out by his parents two days ago for he had to deal with the police (under legal age alcohol consumption). He already went to jail (because of booze?) and also had a kid. Finally he was unemployed ... all that with only 19 years of age ... made me feel kind of sad to see differences of lifes and opportunities that different people face ...

After Kansas City I met some other funny guys who had to travel for as long as I did too. One came from North Dakota and headed towards Las Vegas, another came from New Orleans and traveled as well to Salt Lake City. He told us bad stories about New Orleans (people lost all their belongings they ever worked for, still lots of crime there, ...), yet was pretty happy to get back to Salt Lake City and to enjoy holiday for a while.

In a small town we suddenly didn't have any bus driver, for the 'take over' driver (what's the right word?) didn't show up. So we waited in the nowhere until we got a new driver (after around 2 and a half hours) ... yet I had a previewed break in Denver of 7 hours and thus it didn't bother me. The same night I had the opportunity to visit Denver for a couple of hours (nice downtown area!) before I finally had to take the last bus that drove me overnight to Salt Lake City.

More stories about Salt Lake City on my next post ... feel free to write any comments ... so far you can feel proud if you read this huge post ... and it would make me feel better in order I knew that someone studied my blog :)

Hello from Salt Lake City ...

Ready for another trip?

2006-06-19T03:49:00.000-05:00

In a few hours will start my second trip ... kind of amazing ... the last two weeks went over so fast. And I even didn't update my blog ... tztztz!!!

However, I will try to keep you updated during my upcoming trip.
My schedule looks as follows:

Monday	June 19, 2006	Winnipeg	Travel
Tuesday	June 20, 2006	Travel	Travel
Wednesday	June 21, 2006	Salt Lake City	Salt Lake City
Thursday	June 22, 2006	Salt Lake City	Travel
Friday	June 23, 2006	Reno	Reno
Saturday	June 24, 2006	Reno	Reno
Sunday	June 25, 2006	Reno	San Francisco
Monday	June 26, 2006	San Francisco	San Francisco
Tuesday	June 27, 2006	San Francisco	San Francisco
Wednesday	June 28, 2006	San Francisco	San Francisco
Thursday	June 29, 2006	San Francisco	San Francisco
Friday	June 30, 2006	San Francisco	San Francisco
Saturday	July 01, 2006	Portland	Portland
Sunday	July 02, 2006	Portland	Seattle
Monday	July 03, 2006	Seattle	Seattle
Tuesday	July 04, 2006	Seattle	Seattle
Wednesday	July 05, 2006	Seattle	Vancouver
Thursday	July 06, 2006	Vancouver	Vancouver
Friday	July 07, 2006	Vancouver	Vancouver
Saturday	July 08, 2006	Vancouver	Vancouver
Sunday	July 09, 2006	Vancouver	Vancouver
Monday	July 10, 2006	Vancouver	Vancouver
Tuesday	July 11, 2006	Travel	Travel
Wednesday	July 12, 2006	Winnipeg

Enjoy your time ... talk to you soon!!!

10,600 km of roads ... and finally back in Winnipeg

2006-06-09T16:42:00.000-05:00

I'm finally back in Winnipeg ... my blog wasn't updated for a long time, thus I think I have now some work to do ... :)

Let's continue where the last post ended ...

We visited Quebec City, a pretty impressive city with lots of old buildings. Many Canadians told me that it is one of their preferred cities. However, I prefer more modern cities like Toronto, New York or Montreal. A reason might probably be that I got used to see this kind of cities, cities with beautiful old houses as we have many in Switzerland, France or in general in Europe.

The next day we continued our way to the seven falls (les sept chutes); according to Lonely Planet the falls should be more impressive then the falls of Morency. Arrived in the park we were almost the only visitors, the park had just opened a couple of days before.

The park is pretty beautiful, the park consists of seven falls (as the name says) from the top to the bottom and the water falls are also used to generate electricity.

After leaving the falls we planned heading towards Montreal. Yet, first we were looking to visit the cathedral of Sainte Anne. The cathedral is pretty impressive and is build on two floors; something I've never seen before.

Finally after a break at Tim Horton's ... my mother was already addicted in the meanwhile ... we headed towards Montréal. On the way we did a stop at Walmart where I could backup my pictures and later on we got some delicious Chinese food at a local restaurant. We finally got to Montreal before midnight and were lucky to find a motel within a short time.

The next day we took the car to the next shopping mall (free parking!) and from there we could take the subway towards downtown. I got pretty impressed by the clean and modern subway of Montreal ... there was a big difference to the subway of New York which is pretty old and dirty.

In the old part of Montréal we visited the cathedral and we went down to the pier where is also located a nice small park with a good view on the borders of the river.

Later on that day we visited the newer part of Montréal ... modern architecture, impressive skycrapers and lots of shops.

Finally we climbed on Mont Royal to get an exciting view of the city at sunset.

Jardin botanique (public garden) and Olympic village - that was the plans of our next day. We spent almost all day in this wonderful park ... let the pictures talk for themselves ... and for everybody who likes taking pictures it's one of the best opportunities to do this.

As the park closed we had a short look a the olympic center. The building is pretty impressive; however, I don't like this architecture because of the excessive use of concrete.

Ottawa was our next destination; it is a pretty small city compared to other cities we already had visited before. First we visited the National Art Gallery; yet, it is not as good as the Art Galleries of Chicago or Washington. We also visited the local market where you could buy plenty of fruit and vegetable.

As we arrived at the parliament we first visited the parliament hill. Later on we walked besides the main entrance and by chance we were able to get a free tour inside the parliament within 10 minutes. Many students work as tourist guides at the Canadian parliament ... for sure a fun job if you're a Canadian student looking for a summer job!!! I got pretty impressed as one of the guides spoke fluently German ... probably the first person I met in Canada that spoke German and didn't have German roots.

At the end of the interesting presentation (we visited the senate and the house of commons chamber) ... we were just 5 persons in our group and had our own guide ... we had the great opportunity to enjoy the view over the city out of the peace tower.

After this amazing day we already headed towards Toronto; yet it was already too late to reach Toronto and thus we stopped in Kingston and found a convenient motel there.

... to be continued ...

Road Trip Pictures ONLINE!

2006-06-06T18:29:00.000-05:00

Enjoy plenty of new pictures in the photo gallery!

Meet the parents :)

2006-05-22T19:54:00.000-05:00

I'm already in Quebec ... and the first opportunity to log on the internet since I met my parents in NY. Unfortunately (as usual :)) I've just left 7 minutes until it's 9 pm and the internet cafe will close ... ok I will not waste my time anymore :)

I met my parents at the airport, everything worked out well. They were very happy to meet me, as I was too. We had a motel close to the subway and we spent three wonderful days in NY.

Later on we continued our trip to Boston. On the way we did an overnight stay in New Port, a lovely, picturesque, and rich town on the Atlantic coast. We only arrived the next night in Boston, and there were only a couple of hours left to check the city.

Afterwards we continued travelling along the coast; visited Free Port which is another lovely town and finally found a motel close to the US coast.

The next day we travelled to Saint John (Canada) and took the cruise to Digby (Nova Scotia). The next day we visited Peggy's Cove and we spent a few hours in Halifax.

Afterwards we drove through New Brunswick to Frederickston; visited the small city and found a place to sleep close to the Quebec border.

Today we arrived in Quebec City and visited this wonderful city. We will stay until tomorrow night ... in the following days we will visit Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and we will be back in Winnipeg soon.

Sorry for these lines, they may be really boring to read ... I hope I will find time soon to let you know more about my trip and my experiences. I will only be able to upload my pictures in Winnipeg ... however, I should aready be in Winnipeg in around 2 weeks.

Have a great time & enjoy spring!!!

The best hostel ever ... ;)

2006-05-11T21:31:00.000-05:00

Today was kind of a lazy day. Got off at nine, bought some breakfast at SevenEleven (orange juice, croissant (almost like at home), yogurt and a pancake (they are just great ... I'm already addicted) and talked to the some nice "hostelmates". Later on, I called my parents ... they are looking forward to join me in New York on Saturday.

With three nice ladies that I met at the hostel (what a lucky guy *smile*), we visited two museums: The Natural History Museum and the National Art Museum. At the Natural History Museum we saw things from dinosaurs to the hope diamond (one of the biggest blue colored one) and at the Arts museum I saw some more famous paintings.

After the museums we turned back to the hostel, for Beverly (the English girl ... or does she prefer if I say lady :)) had to catch her train in direction of Florida. Actually she is doing a one year trip around the world ... a pretty amazing thing. Probably I will met her again around San Francisco ... if it works out that we are at the same time there.

After having dinner I talked to a guy who worked in Germany for five years as an engineer; he told me that he climbed the Matterhorn (wow!) and that he likes to backpack in the Austrian alps. He also gave me lots of advices for my second trip and he even gave me his map he used to travel in the eastern part of the US as a gift. It's just amazing, people here at the hostel are so great ... the ambiance is so cool ... I could stay here for weeks!!! Actually, Margaret (one of the other girls that came to the museum) lives in Seattle ... she offered me to show me some cool places there if I manage to go there for my second trip.

And just now I could use the notebook of Toni (a very helpful guy of California) to backup my pictures on CD (my chips are already full - made already over 500 pictures) ... as you see it's one of the best places I've ever stayed at ... this hostel (and its visitors) are just amazing :)

Arriving in Washington & Say Goodbye

2006-05-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

We left Pittsburgh around lunchtime (after we were "kicked out" by the motel ... we should have left for 12 but were still watching a movie at 12:15 *cheating*) and drove downtown. Downtown Pittsburgh is pretty nice ... very busy but still not stressful ... the city has some impressing buildings and bridges. Later on, we were looking for the library; according to my book there should be free internet access at the library of Pittsburgh. So I had the opportunity to update my blog the other day.

Around 4 o'clock we finally left the city and headed towards Washington. On the way we did a break and enjoyed a buffet at a diner (you can eat as much as you want for only 6.99 ... pretty good offer for hungry students). In the dining place we also saw lots of Amish people, it seems they have a community between Pittsburgh and Washington DC.

Finally, we arrived in Washington after 11 pm and could check-in in the youth hostel. The personnel was pretty rude and we had to move into a dorm where all the guys were already sleeping. The room was also noisy (construction work and air conditioning) and we had to get off already after 6 in the morning to move the car (for we didn't find a free parking spot). And finally also the shower didn't work ... the only thing was that the location was cool (downtown) ... however if you ever go to Washington DC skip the youth hostel ... it is not worth it!

Thus, I decided to move out. David was also leaving the same day, for he was going to visit his friend in Jacksonville, Florida. Luckily, I had found two other hostels in Washington and so it was time to check them. As we arrived at the first location, we had to find out that the location was closed because of a previously fire. However, the second location I found is pretty cool. Close to the subway ... parking for 5 bucks a day ... nice people and clean environment. After check-in we went visiting some of the famous tourist spots downtown ... from the White House to the Capitol (and so on ...). David seemed to be a bit sad, for he couldn't visit all the places he was looking for. So we finally had diner at 5 pm before he left the Washington looking forward towards his stay in Florida.

I went back to my hostel; could do my first laundry since Winnipeg and met lots of friendly people ... we were talking in the living room until 2:30 in the morning ... unfortunately I got into a debate about the US (and I had to stop it for it didn't make any sense anymore); however, I spent a fun night at the hostel :)

A fun day at Cedar Point (Sandusky)

2006-05-10T19:04:00.000-05:00

Monday, we planned to visit Cedar Point - one of the biggest roller coaster parks of the US. The park was pretty close to our motel (actually, Motel 6 is great ... lots of comfort for only around 20 bucks/person!), thus we already arrived there shortly after 10. The weather was just great ... lots of sunshine and warm temperatures.

As we entered the park I got a bit afraid by the different roller coasters. Some looked pretty scaring .. especially there was one (Top Thrill Dragster) were you accelerate withing 4 seconds from 0 to 120 mph (around 190 km/h) and afterwards you make a big loop. First we tried a free fall (I almost died a first time ;)); later on a first roller coaster (I wasn't able to open my eyes) and then many more. Yet, as more you do as less afraid you get ... and finally David could also convince me to try the Top Thrill Dragster ... pretty crazy ... but at least I will not get afraid so fast anymore :)

Top Thrill Dragster (from 0 to 120 mph in only 4 seconds)

I think the park is a must see if you travel between Chicago and Washington. A day ticket costs around 39 bucks (US), but as soon as you manage your fear you'll have lots of fun.

At night we decided to head Pittsburgh in order to be able to reach Washington earlier. So we finally arrived around 10 o'clock (pm) in Pittsburgh and were looking for another Motel 6. After check-in we enjoyed another dinner at a great dining place (pretty cheap 6.49 for Country Fried Steak with two side meals *smile*). After dinner we went to bed and were happy to look forward for a short visit of Pittsburgh (and later on Washington) the next day.

Chicago - Cleveland

2006-05-09T13:35:00.000-05:00

Hi ... I have time to write a couple of lines; however I've just 20 minutes (internet account at the library of Pittsburgh) and I will see how far I can go ... :)

On our first day in Chicago we slept in; David and me we were pretty tired. We got off for lunch time and decided to go downtown. First we bought some food at Dominick's (a store like Safeway) and headed downtown later with the elevated train.

I was pretty impressed by downtown; lots of tall and impressive buildings (neoclassical and lots of modern architecture). We also had to go to the post office to pay my road toll as well as David bought his bus ticket for grey hound.

Afterwards we went to the Millenium Park ... very beautiful and a great opportunity to take beautiful pictures. After having lunch we went to the Navy Pier ... a very touristic area with a nice view on the lake as well as the skyline. At sunset we went to the John Hancock Center, one of the tallest buildings in Chicago and had the opportunity to have a look on the city out of the 94th floor.

At night we should have dinner at Little Italy. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find it and thus we ended a second time at Dominicks (grocery store) and bought a huge pizza for just 5 bucks. By eating our pizza in the store we met two ladies of Mexico and Spain and by chance they stood in the same hostel as we did.

The next day we got off earlier in the morning, for we were planning to have a sightseeing trip in the loop downtown. This trip was organized by the tourism office of Chicago and is free. As we arrived at the tourism office we had the great opportunity to have a city guide for one hour for free. Actually, Chicago has a great tourism office ... they are friendly and offer lots of opportunities (for free!) to discover the city. So after our short sightseeing trip with the city guide (she showed us lots of impressive buildings and gave us some information on the history of the city) we took the train to discover the buildings around the loop (a guide explained the architecture and history of the buildings you could see by taking the train and driving through the loop). After a short lunch in the Millenium Park we went to the Arts Institute of Chicago. The Arts Institute of Chicago has lots of paintings and sculptures of different time periods. The Arts Institute is a must see ...

At night we met the two ladies for having dinner together ... we had to try the special Chicago pizza (a big crust and lots of toppings) ... was good; however, I still prefer a pizza of a real italian dining place. Later on we went to bar with live Jazz Music ... was great and pretty cheap for we got a free drink and we didn't have to pay an entrance fee.

The next day it was already time to leave Chicago. Honnestly, I really like the city ... there are many beautiful parks, the buildings and the lake are very impressive and also people seem to be nice. As we left Chicago we headed towards Cleveland to find a hostel close to Sandusky for we planned to visit a roller coaster park ...

(time is up ... I hope I will get some more time ... )

Finally, we arrived in Cleveland for sunset. Cleveland is a nice small city with a small skyline and couple of restaurants and bars. Yet, we were looking for a cheap place to have dinner and didn´t find anything convenient (ok it was already late at night). We went back to our motel room we booked before arriving in Cleveland. On the way there we were looking for a dining place and found a Perkins restaurant ... David was driving and we got a bit confused on how to get to the parking lot. We made a U-turn on a place it was prohibited ... and guess ... a couple of minutes later we saw some flashing lights in the back of our cars. I had the great opportunity to make a new experience: Getting investigated by an US police officer :) (ok, David was investigated and not myself). Yet were lucky and didn't get a fine. As we arrived at Perkins the diner was already closed ... and also a couple of seconds later the Police officer was already back again. We were already a bit afraid what will happen next ... yet, the officer was just giving us some advices were we could have dinner at this time (late at night). So with the good advice we finally found a 24h diner ... enjoyed good and cheap food before we went back to our motel. Arriving at the motel we saw two police cars in a short period of time and we could notice that the police checked the licence plate of our car (are we registered now?). I start getting paranoid and expected to get further visit of a police officer. However, nothing happened anymore and I got a good sleep!

More on Sandusky and Pittsburgh as soon as I will find another internet cafe ...

Welcome in Chicago :)

2006-05-06T01:03:00.000-05:00

As I see, I get lots of interested visitors on my blog ... David offered me to use his notebook; thus, I will let you know some things that happened recently :)

We left Minneapolis yesterday morning. On the way to Chicago ... and by enjoying free lunch (sandwiches of Starbucks) ... I suddenly got the idea that we could visit an American Swiss town in Winsconsin named New Glarus. By checking the map I found out that this town was close to our way to Chicago and so we decided spontaneously to visit this town instead of Milwaukee.

First we had a pretty hard time to find this town, for the street (due to street work) was closed and we had to use a by-pass. Arriving in New Glarus the first thing I saw was a Swiss Flag ... a long time since I haven´t seen one. There we visited the bakery and some other souvenir shops; yet, most of the stuff they sold wasn´t really Swiss. However, at least I found Rivella and Aromat. In another souvenir shop I talked to the shop owners in Swiss German ... was funny, the family moved 25 years ago to the US and they made their living with this shop! We also found some authentic New Glarus beer that we know to enjoy in our hotel room :)

Afterwards we headed towards Chicago ... by entering the city we missed the right exit and had to pay a toll fee ... however, a problem was that we didn't have coins. Thus we didn´t pay the toll (80 cents), and had to send it today by mail (the stamp and the enveloppe were actually more expensive!). In Chicago David did a great job as a map reader ... however, we still needed a map to find the hostel. And then I had a red light ... the light changed from green to yellow and then to red ... no no I didn´t have an accident again. However, it seemed that it was already red when I crossed the light and I saw three flashing lights ... now, I´m not sure if it was the lights of the cars standing on the intersection or if it really was a flashing light. I will see as soon as I´m back in Winnipeg if I got a nice letter of Chicago police. For sure I was a bit upset, yet I still hope it was a EINBILDUNG. After a while we finally found the hostel. But we still had to find a solution for parking the car. The hostel is clean and the room prices are pretty cheap (30 bucks a night per person). For the car we also found a solution ... there are some streets were you can park for free and so we're able to save 12 bucks / day.

After check-in we were looking forward to visit Little Italy ... yet we were too spontaneously and landed instead in Downtwon Chicago. For it was almost 11 pm nobody was anymore on the street. Thus, we decided to return to the hostel and had some dinner at PittaPit. We seemed both a bit negative minded ... however I think it was the normal feeling you'll have the first night ... especially if you arrive at night in a city you don't know.

Today was a great day and all the bad feelings are gone once more ... however more about today will follow on a later point in time ...

Greetings from Chicago!!!

An exciting day in Minneapolis

2006-05-03T23:18:00.000-05:00

My cultural shock is already gone ... I spent a great day in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

I woke up around 8:30 in the morning, yet I could sleep for another hour. Around 10 o'clock David and I were ready for discovering the city.

Boarding the bus we were asking for a day pass ... and you know what ... the bus driver didn't know how to issue a day pass; she told us that she never had done that before. After a call to the transit head office she found a solution and for six bucks we got our 24h pass.

A couple of minutes later we already arrived in downtown. I was pretty excited about all the tall buildings, the business people and in general the nice environment. Really different on how I saw Minneapolis the night before. I took plenty of pictures ... I felt like a countryside guy that spent his first day in a big city (ok I've already been to Paris and London).

Walking through downtown we also discovered the modern light rail of Minneapolis. Yet we decided to first take a bus heading St. Paul.

There we first visited the Capitol ... the Capitol is a building in which are located the court, the house of the senate, the house of representatives, and so on. The building is open to the public and we visited the entire building. The building was actually built after 1900; however, it looks much older (neo classical architecture) ... the building is really beautiful and everything is very well maintained. A must see in St. Paul!!!

Later on, we went to the Museum of History, and we saw exhibitions on the first settlers in Minneapolis, a classical local house and its story and also on the Olympia games of Nazi Germany in 1936. Finally, we visited the Cathedral in St. Paul, which was also built after 1900 and took over 9 years to be completed.

We took the bus back towards downtown ... but we were both hungry and so we decided to skip the Art Museum and enjoyed Mexican food instead. The food was really tasty and much better than the Mexican food I had in Grand Forks. David was also pretty surprised to see lots of his compratiots. In general; a huge part of population is speaking Spanish here.

At night we took the light rail to go to the Mall of America.

There we checked dozens of shops ... and I finally ended with a new belt (of H&M, my favorite store) and a new cool T-Shirt. The mall is supposed to be the biggest one in North America ... it is pretty impressive for it also includes a fun park (including roller coaster, underground aquarium and much more). And according to North American shopping culture the most heard question today was: "How are you doing guys?"

After ice cream at Dairy Queen we decided to get back downtown. On the way to our youth hostel we decided to make a short break at Starbucks (Starbucks is actually as expensive as in Switzerland). Yet, after getting a tea we had a positive surprise ... employees of Starbucks offered us free Sandwiches (the ones they couldn't sell); thus, we will have a free tasty breakfast tomorrow. That was a good experience to end this exciting day (free food for students *smile*).

Tomorrow we will leave Minneapolis for Chicago ... I hope I will be able to update my blog continously (if I will have an internet access). However, I don't know when I will be able to post some pictures.

In terms of cultural shock ... we arrived at night, and I was impressed by the size of the city (and actually it's still a small one ... Chicago, Washington and New York will be much bigger) ... on the other hand, I didn't like the way people talk (they seem to be harsh ... but only for a short snatch) ... the way people don't seem to trust each other and also the kind of ambience (you don't feel too safe at night). However, by taking some precautions I don't see any further problems and I didn't make any bad experiences at all ... it's probably just people and news that scary each other.

First day: Traveling to Minneapolis

2006-05-03T01:50:00.000-05:00

I was pretty late with preparing my stuff - I emptied the fridge before midnight, prepared my luggage around 1 in the morning (by talking to my roommmate) and finished writing mails at 3 in the morning. Thus I still got a couple of hours to sleep ... I had to get off after 9, picked up David and we finally headed the US around 11 in the morning.

We had a short break at Grand Forks, it was already around 3 o'clock ... had some food at Arbys before we continued for Fargo.

railroad crossing in Fargo

World Famous Theater in Fargo :)

Rules, rules, rules ...

Fargo is a nice small town, bigger then Grand Forks, with some picturesque buildings. After Fargo the weather changed suddenly from sun to rain ... yet the weather changed again after a couple of kilometres. The countryside between Fargo and Minneapolis is amazing. Small lakes, small hills, green nature ... so beautiful and different to the Manitoban countryside.

A crazy Mexican guy ;) (and also my travel partner)

A crazy Swiss guy ;) (and captain of starship Cavalier)

Lakes, lakes, lakes ...

We also did a small stop in a town for taking some gasoline ($2.69 US / gal compared to $1.09 CAD / l). Finally we arrived for around 9 pm in the suburbs of Minneapolis. The highway got larger and larger ... and after a while we also discovered the amazing skyline of Minneapolis. By chance and after a couple of error (without using a map!!!) we found the youth hostel and we even didn't have to pay for the parking. We got a private room for the first night ... pretty comfortable for our luggage is in safety. Also the lady working at the desk of the youth hostel (located in an old house) is very friendly and helpful *suprised* ... thus, I think we were lucky guys.

After check-in we decided to go uptown, to visit some bars and to have some food as well as a drink. We first went to Mc Donald's ... yet I felt bad to eat another burger, and chose a pretty good Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad. Later on, we were looking for having a beer ... unfortunately we didn't have our passports and we were refused to stay in a bar. Thus we returned back to our youth hostel ...

So far concerning Minneapolis, I have kind of a cultural shock ... Winnipeg is pretty different ... but more about that later on ...

Have a nice week, greetings from Minneapolis!!!

Farewell Parties & Good Bye

2006-05-02T02:49:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty late with this entry, it's already after 2 in the morning and tomorrow (or better today) my road trip experience will start. Thus, I will just give you a brief overview of my past week.

Monday a week ago I met David for planning our road trip to Washington. Was a pretty funny experience, we checked many web pages ... booked a hostel in Chicago and figured out what cities we wanna visit. At night we had dinner together and watched a movie.

Tuesday and Wednesday I attended a Salsa class with Melanie ... we're already getting better :) and it makes lots of fun. However, by having a look at the intermediate level I could see that lots of effort is needed to get there.

On Tuesday I also met Stephen, he invited me for beer and chips ... and we had lots to talk about. Wednesday after Salsa I went with Melanie and some of her friends to Corydon ... we enjoyed good gelati and had a drink in a nice bar (Cafe 22) later on.

On Thursday my friends of university organized a Karaoke night ... lots of fun again ... we sang for over 3 hours ... from Rammstein (I invented a new scaring German edition ... I still hate Rammstein) to Elvis (Love me tender ... once more :)).

Friday we had BBQ together at university. Brian was a perfect cook (as usual) and I enjoyed an unforgetable night with all my friends. Later on we moved to Arthur Mauro (student residence), played a couple of games and finished our exciting night in the early morning hours. Feel free to check some new pictures in the picture gallery!!!

Saturday we went to the Empire ... Salsa floor was cool (however I was too shy to dance; the dancers there have a very good level and I'm still a beginner), but I found the main floor boring. However, I went there mainly to meet all my international friends.

On Sunday we met for a DVD night at university college (residence) ... we were watching Ray ... a good movie ... however the extended edition seems to be pretty long and everybody was pretty tired (from the nights before).

Today I was preparing for my upcoming trip (tomorrow) and at night I enjoyed amazing Chinese food at North Garden ... the food was really tasty! Unfortunately, it was pretty sad to say good bye; especially, to good friends you don't know when you'll see them again ...

Later on I continued cleaning up and preparing my stuff ... and now it's already time for bed :)

Tomorrow, as mentioned before, my first trip will start. I will be back in Winnipeg for beginning of June ... hopefully with lots of stories and pictures. I actually also changed the date of my plane tickets ... I will be back in Switzerland for August 1, 2006!!!

Day Date From To Distances / km
1 May 2, 2006 Winnipeg Minneapolis 738
2 May 3, 2006 Minneapolis Minneapolis
3 May 4, 2006 Minneapolis Milwaukee 541
3 May 4, 2006 Milwaukee Chicago 147
4 May 5, 2006 Chicago Chicago
5 May 6, 2006 Chicago Chicago
6 May 7, 2006 Chicago Detroit 456
7 May 8, 2006 Detroit Sandusky (Cedar Point ) 182
8 May 9, 2006 Sandusky (Cedar Point) Pittsburgh 292
8 May 9, 2006 Pittsburgh Washington 387
9 May 10, 2006 Washington Washington
10 May 11, 2006 Washington Washington
12 May 12, 2006 Washington Baltimore 66
12 May 12, 2006 Baltimore Philadelphia 157
13 May 13, 2006 Philadelphia New York 151
Total Trip 1 3117
1 May 14, 2006 New York New York
2 May 15, 2006 New York New York
3 May 16, 2006 New York Boston 352
4 May 17, 2006 Boston Boston
5 May 18, 2006 Boston Portland 169
5 May 18, 2006 Portland Saint John 472
6 May 19, 2006 Saint John Digby Ferry
6 May 19, 2006 Digby Halifax 227
7 May 20, 2006 Halifax Halifax
8 May 21, 2006 Halifax Fredericton 437
9 May 22, 2006 Fredericton Quebec 579
10 May 23, 2006 Quebec Quebec
11 May 24, 2006 Quebec Montreal 252
12 May 25, 2006 Montreal Montreal
13 May 26, 2006 Montreal Ottawa 199
14 May 27, 2006 Ottawa Toronto 451
15 May 28, 2006 Toronto Toronto
16 May 29, 2006 Toronto Toronto
17 May 30, 2006 Toronto Sault St. Marie 858
18 May 31, 2006 Sault St. Marie Thunder Bay 702
19 June 01, 2006 Thunder Bay Kenora 489
20 June 02, 2006 Kenora Winnipeg 208
21 June 03, 2006 Winnipeg Winnipeg
22 June 04, 2006 Winnipeg Winnipeg
Total Trip 2 5395
Total 8512

Two weeks more ... school is over now!!!

2006-04-24T02:46:00.000-05:00

Yep I'm still a bad blogger ... however, let's talk about the last two weeks.

Monday two weeks ago, I had my first final exam. It was an exam in Economics, and I was pretty late with my studying for I didn't work as well during the weekend. Thus, I was working all day until my exam at 6 p.m. ... and I did it pretty well I think. Later on that night, I saw Dogville with my roommate ... it was a pretty good movie with Nicole Kidman ... takes some time to get into the story (the story is quite similar to "Der Besuch der alten Dame" of Friedrich Dürrenmatt).

Tuesday, I went to take my first Salsa class ... it was pretty amazing ... I loved it. Ok, it's true I also had a nice partner *smile* ... also Phil, my roommate, really enjoyed the lesson. Later on, we visited a friend of Phil; we went for a run and had awesome dinner: BBQ Steaks with Salad ... hmmm! This night was just perfect!!!

On Wednesday I went to library and started preparing for my Mgmt Science exam. I also met David, a Mexican international student at the library ... and you know what ... I found someone for travelling to New York ... I was really excited about that!!! At night I went back to take another Salsa class, that time Mark joined and we had again lots of fun. Afterwards, we went to have a drink at a pub ... and enjoyed some French Fries :)

Thursday and Friday I just spent most of the time studying for the exam. Friday night, I saw another movie with my roommates ... Craig and Tannis stood in ... we saw "An unfinished life" with Jennifer Lopez ... kind of a US/Canadian country movie; good but not really lasting ...!

Saturday night I went to a wedding social with Craig. They told me that this kind of social is only hold in Winnipeg. The social's goal is to raise money for the upcoming wedding. We had some drinks and met some new people ... the social already ended at 01:00 a.m. for it's the law for public events (I was suprised!!!) ...

On Sunday we should have had a run in the morning with the Running Room. Yet, when my alarm clock woke me up at 8 am; I couldn't hear any noise (it seemed that nobody was up) and thus I decided to continue sleeping. Finally, I still had a good run with my roommate in the afternoon. We run to the Forks along the Red River. The weather was pretty amazing; it was such a beautiful day in early spring! Later on, we had some pasta and suddenly also Mark came over and joined for dinner. At night I had to study for my exams.

Monday, I spent most of the time studying. By the way I saw a good documentary on China.

The Tank Man

It is talking about the tank man and the resistance of the population against the government in 1989. At night I went for a short bycicle ride ... on the way I smelt the odor of BBQ steaks ... I had no other choice than to cycle to the next grocery shop and to buy some awsome steaks :)

On Tuesday I had my exam in Mgmt Science. I was kind of too slow and didn't manage to finish the exam; however, I don't care too much, for sure I passed the exam. At night I attended another amazing Salsa class with my roommate.

On Wednesday I started studying for my last exam on Friday. Most of the stuff was to memorize ... I really hate that. At night Melanie joined for Salsa; that was really fun and later on we enjoyed a drink at the King's Head Pub downtown. It's a nice place to stay with kind of a European/English touch.

Thurdsday I had a hard time to study. It was my last day and my motivation was not mentionable. During the day I watched another good documentary on the US conflict with North Korea and went for a short run with my roommate.

My last night of studies

At night it was the last time I had to study for university (in Canada ... in Switzerland I'm not done yet!). However, it was a good feeling ... holiday was so close now!!!

Friday, I finally wrote my last exam ... was a pretty hard one. I wrote several pages and was still not able to answer all the questions well. Yet, it seems this was one of the exams you can hardly finish. Later on, I was invited by Chrissy for BBQ. The weather was so nice ... it was just a perfect evening.

The BBQ Team

Nan and Mark

What an amazing night ...

Mmmhhh strawberries :)

What's happening here??? No, I didn't get one! *haha*

On Saturday I US trip with Melanie and Naomi was planned. I was ready for 8 am and picked them up at their houses. Yet, a couple of minutes later ... my engine broke down on Pembina Hwy. I thought that might be exceptional and continued the drive. As we left Winnipeg the engine broke down again; thus, I decided to cancel the trip and to return to Winnipeg. Luckily we found a repair shop ... and they were able to determine and fix the problem (one sensor that is responsible for switching the gears broke down) within one hour. Thus, finally we were ready for 11 am ... and arrived at the border for 1:30 pm. Lot's of the countryside was flooded and we had to use a by-pass (what made us lose time).

The US customs officer were pretty friendly and joking ... it might be advantageous to have some nice girls in the car ;) Finally we arrived for 3 pm in Grand Forks.

City Hall of Grand Forks

Melanie and Naomi

There we enjoyed some Mexican food; unfortunately, the food wasn't tasty and the waitress was pretty unfriendly and rude. Later on, we went to Walmart and also to Wendy's ... before we finally drove back to Winnipeg.

On Suday, I slept in and called my parents. Later on I went for a short run with my roommate. As I was cooking, Mark rang the door bell ... he seems to smell it when I cook ;) ... and thus we had dinner together. At night we went to Corydon. There we found a funny little store with sweets and treats.

Sugar Mountain @ Corydon Avenue

Later on, we enjoyed a good, but quite expensive pizza (around 19 bucks for a 13' pizza). As we left the bar, it began to snow ... I couldn't believe it. The same afternoon I enjoyed wearing a T-Shirt ...

	SKY	TEMP. (C°)	FEELS LIKE
SUN 23h		2	-4
SUN 22h		4	-1
SUN 21h		4	-1
SUN 20h		7	-
SUN 19h		10	-
SUN 18h		12	-
SUN 17h		15	-
SUN 16h		15	-
SUN 15h		22	-

Northern Lights

2006-04-14T02:50:00.000-05:00

Wow ... tonight we had the opportunity to see Northern Lights.

Check my gallery for more pictures!

(the pictures are not perfect, for I took the pictures in front of my house, and with the city lights it's not really dark ... if I ever will have the opportunity, to take pictures on the countryside (dark!) I will publish them for sure on my blog)

I catch up ... a two week review :)

2006-04-11T10:16:00.000-05:00

It's time to catch up ... and still I have lots to tell you ...

Monday two weeks ago, I had almost finished my report. On Tuesday, Melanie invited me for a Theatre play downtown. I went there with Mark, and we also met some friends of Melanie. The play's name was "Blithe Spirit" and all the actors were students of the University of Winnipeg. The spoken language was British English ... quite funny for us here surounded by American English. And that's what the play was about:

Blithe Spirit is a witty comedy which looks at the marital mess created when a novelist conducts a séance to research his next novel, and accidentally revives the ghost of his first wife! Featuring some of Noel Coward's most memorable characters and sparkling dialogue, the play laughs at the foibles and feckless behaviour of the British middle class in the 1930's. A spirited comedy sure to delight.

The actors played really well, at the beginnings I had some problems understanding the languagge; however, I would say I finally understood most of the story. In the theatre there was also kind of a funny guy ... his laughter was so loud and weird, that we usually had to laugh about the play and this viewer as well.

The following Wednesday I watched some documentaries with my roommates. On TLC (a TV channel) you can watch documentaries all day. I got amused by the titles of their documentaries, even if the stories talk about sad circumstances: "Honey, we're killing our kids", "The man whose arm exploded", "The 700 pound man", "Little people, Big World", "Part 1: Born without a face", "Part 2: The Facemakers" ... the topics are sometimes focused on US issues; however, the documentaries are not as shallowbrained as I had expected. Feel free to watch some documentaries online ...

On Thursday and Friday I had two movie nights at my house. On Thursday Melanie was my guest, I cooked some "Älpler Macaroni" (traditional Swiss dish with pasta, potatoes, cheese, onions and also apple puree) ... later on we watched two movies ... "City of God" and "Paradise Now". During the movie I remembered that I already saw "City of God" a couple of years ago in the movies ... yet I didn't know the English title (original title: Cicade de Deus) that's why I wasn't able to recognize the movie. This movie talks about the suburbs of Rio (Brazil), where kids grow up dealing with drugs ... in an environment of permanent violence. A good but violent movie. Paradise Now tells the story of two guys in Palestine who see their destiny in suicide bombing ... the probably last hours of their life, and their appearing doubts ... Then on Friday, I invited some friends of university ... Yui, Olivier, Khizar and Mark came over for dinner ... this time I tried Risotto, yet the meal was awful (I don't know why, last time I tried it ... it worked out pretty well ... I was also not very satisfied by my Swiss dish the night before ... it seemed this was not my cooking week). By the way, I found out that the Schneider's Oktoberfest Sausages are pretty good ... :) This night we saw two German movies Good Bye Lenin and The Experiment and later on the French movie Monsieur Ibrahim. All pretty good movies ...!

Preparing dinner with Olivier (thanks Khizar for the pics)

Alain made garlic bread

BBQ (including burnt sausages)

Dinner time

Our photographer Khizar :)

On Saturday we celebrated Shinya's birthday at Korean restaurant downtown, Mark and I were making a gag ... actually, we were looking forward to wear a tuxedo and to colour our hairs grey ... yet finally, we just ended wearing a tuxedo (the coloured hair would be fine for a pub, yet not really convenient for a formal dinner at a restaurant :)). However, our friends were surprised by our appearance ...

Two beautiful guys *smile*

And for I think nobody ever saw me in Switzerland in a Tuxedo ... I offer one picture more ... *smile* (for more pictures check my gallery).

Bonus picture ;)

Our night finally ended in the United Taverne ... that was a really great Saturday!

The next day I met a couple that would like to join my NY-Trip. We met at Dairy Queen, had ice cream and talked about the trip ... both seemed to be pretty interested, yet they couldn't confirm ... I really hoped I would get their acceptance soon ...

Then already my last week of university began. The weather got warmer, there was no snow anymore ... and on Monday it was a good time for a longer run. I felt energetic that's why I was looking for a longer run ... I ran along the river and saw beautiful living areas, and I also found a lovely place along the river. There is an old bridge (beautiful at sunset), a lovely neighborhood, and an ice cream parlor selling probably the best ice cream in town (according to their ad, yet the ice cream is good, I agree).

The old bridge

The Bridge Drive In ... I haven't tried the shake yet ... mmhhh

The Bridge Drive In is at Jubilee Ave. ... cross the bridge,
and you'll see the lovely neighborhood!

After 2 hours and a run of approx. 19 km I was exhausted, yet I really enjoyed this lovely day in early spring. And I had also a good fealing, now I think I should be able to run the half marathon ... actually, I'm surprised about myself, in Switzerland I used to run for 8 km and I was pretty tired afterwards. I haven't found out yet, what makes the difference here.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I had to prepare for my exam on following Thursday. Thursday night I went out with Mark ... we enjoyed Vietnamese dinner (the food was great, I love it) and later on we had ice cream at the Bride drive in.

Friday was already my last day of university, yes my last day of university in Canada (with the exception of final exams) ... unbelievable ... this 24 weeks of school went over so fast, I can still not believe it. In the afternoon I went to the car shop in order to do an oil change. At night I met Christine and Mark for badminton ... unfortunately, the gym was already closed (because of final exams) and thus we went for a run in the basement of the gym and ended playing Ping-Pong what was amusing. Later on, we met Yui, Brian, Shinya, Khizar and some other guys for watching movies. We saw the end of a Thai horror movie (or more a thriller to me, was good) and a scaring French horror movie (someone kills an entire family at a house on the french countryside). Afterwards, everybody was so agitated that we had to watch a comedy to calm down.

On Saturday, I had to go back to the repair shop ... I had a loose contact on the signal light ... only to find out that I had to go back on Monday (grrr!). I studied a bit, and at night I was invited by Stephen to the Empire. We also spent some time in the Salsa room ... watching the people dancing was amazing ... that's why I got the idea to take Salsa classes. Thus, I already conviced Mark and some of my roommates ... next Tuesday we will attend our first Salsa class :)

Sunday I spent most of the time studying for my first final exam on Monday. Around 6 pm I felt like making a break ... and I called some friends, unfortunately nobody was able to join. I went to have a look at the floodway ... all the snow melted in the last days, so the river reached a high level and the floodway prevents now the city of beeing flooded. It was also nice to hike in the nature and to enjoy the sound of water, singing birds, ... (I didn't do that for a long time)

The Red River Dam

Flat countryside

The Red River Floodway

Where the Floodway (left) and the Red River (right) splits

Dead end

Flooded countryside

Do you like documentaries?

2006-04-04T23:26:00.000-05:00

Part of my experience in Canada is to watch North American documentaries.

By chance I found this great page with dozens of documentaries on North American as well as Global issues. It's really interesting ... and a good opportunity to learn English:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

You can watch all the documentaries online ... have fun!!!

A crazy week ... updated

2006-03-28T11:09:00.000-06:00

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?

2006-03-25T18:44:00.000-06:00

Full resolution

Calling, Cars & Cooking ... (updated)

2006-03-18T19:21:00.000-06:00

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 ...

2006-03-15T13:33:00.000-06:00

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 ...

2006-03-07T11:36:00.000-06:00

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 ...

2006-03-05T23:30:00.000-06:00

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

2006-03-05T02:32:00.000-06:00

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

How a broken car influences my daily life ...

2006-02-27T22:13:00.000-06:00

I'm still sorry, for the moment, I wasn't able to finish my previous blog entry. I'm kind of busy, soon I will have my second midterm exams. So I will just keep you updated on what happened last week. (Entry on Banff Trip should still be updated soon)

As you read I was pretty sad to lose my car. Not that I love cars so much, but here in Winnipeg a car is something like a piece of freedom. You can go everywhere at whatever time you want, with the transit that's kind of impossible. And also i had a hard time to accept that I did an error ... I wasn't able to sleep well after the accident and I spent a reflective Sunday.

However, on Monday I already felt better, and I overcame more or less this bad experience. So, Monday morning I had to go to the insurance to make a claim. As I arrived at the insurance claim centre, the employees told me that I could do my claim by phone. So I called the hotline, explained on how the accident happened and what persons were involved. I got a appointment for a face-to-face discussion on the following Thursday. Monday was also my first day back at school after the reading week.

On Tuesday my roommate gave me a ride to have a look at my car and to get my personal stuff. I was pretty curious to see my car, in order to evaluate if it would be a write off or if the insurance would repair my car. The car was brought to a huge parking lot (where many other accident cars are located) close to Transcona.
I was suprised to see on how much my car was damaged. However, I still hoped that they would repair it.

On Thursday I had to go the insurance company as mentioned before. After a short conversation with the insurance agent she told me that my car was a write off. The repairs would add up to more than CAN 13,000, yet my car wasn't worth this amount of money. Thus, I was sent to another insurance agent, who did evaluate the value of my car. Finally, the insurance is pretty generous and will pay me approximately the amount I spent for the car.

Friday, I was invited by some friends of Sylvain for playing Taboo. Taboo is a game where you try to get your team guess the secret word without using some predifined words. We had lots of fun, for most of the group were international students (of Egypt, France, Germany, Switzerland and also Canada ;) ) and sometimes we even didn't understand the secret words. Later on, I was pretty lucky to get a ride home.

On Saturday I started working on a paper for my organization theory class. Nevertheless, I spent most of the day going over ads in the Canada Auto Trader magazine, in order to find a "new used" car. Unfortunately, all the cars I called for were former accident vehicles. Thus, I wasn't able to find a car that fits my expectations. At night I was invited to university by Shinya, he organized a room party ... and finally over 15 guys spent a cool night in this one residence room!!! As a consolation my friends made me a present: A new red car ... a toy car *smile*

Unfortunately, I already had to leave for 11:30 p.m. ... did a short ride by bus and finally took a taxi to get home. The last bus in direction of my area (St. Vital) left university already at 8 p.m.

The next day I went to badminton with Chrissy. Luckily I got another ride to university (thanks!!!) ... we played a few games and had some fun on the running track. Later on, I continued working on my report and also did some other homework.

Life goes on ... I'm lucky for it's not so cold and with exception of the weekends, shopping and leisure it is ok to use the Transit system; nevertheless, I still used to tell: "Fries and Ketchup are complements, as Winnipeg and having a car ..."

Banff Trip Review

2006-02-25T00:51:00.000-06:00

Hey sorry guys, I felt a bit powerless this week and that's why I also didn't update my blog. Now I'm well again, and I have lots to tell you. Let's start with a review of our trip to Banff.

Friday, two weeks ago, my roommate drove Sylvain and me to Polo Park, where we had to take the bus for Banff. When we arrived at the parking lot there was no bus there, also in the following half an hour we couldn't see any bus. However, after around 40 minutes the bus arrived and our trip could start. The bus trip to Banff took about 17 hours (including breaks) over a distance of approximately 1450 km.

Trip Winnipeg Banff

Banff and its surroundings

When we started our travel in Winnipeg some guys decided that we should have some good movies, so we already did our first stop after a couple of minutes at the video rental shop :)

Blockbuster movie rental shop

Later on, we had some fun watching the movie "Not another teen movie" (this movie on a trip with a church is kind of fun *smile*). In Brandon we did our first break, and had the opportunity to have dinner at A&W. Afterwards, it was time to fall asleep. I brought my own pillow and all in all I slept pretty well until sunrise next morning.

Sylvain, me and my pillow ;)

Sunrise in the nowhere

We already were in Alberta when I woke up. Along the street I could discover oil pumps, I've never seen that before.

Oil pump in Alberta (source: http://folio.photosource.com/)

After breakfast at Tim Horton's (try the toasted bagels, they are awesome!!!) we drove along the Canadian countryside. As usual you see the flat country and there is nothing, nothing, and nothing ...

Canada's nowhere

... until we suddenly saw the Rockies appearing.

The Canadian Rockies in the background

About two hours later we already arrived in Calgary.

Calgary, Alberta

In Calgary we had the opportunity to see some of the places where the olypmic games where held in 1988.

Ski jumping hill (olympic games of Calgary, 1988)

After Calgary we did a last stop before reaching Banff.

Our bus

We also got our week schedule ... let's have a look!

week schedule

And finally after a long trip we reached the National Park of Banff.

Entrance to the National Park of Banff

To be continued ...

My worst day in Canada

2006-02-19T02:44:00.000-06:00

It was 11:43 pm ... I was driving home my friends. I approached a corner (on which I intend to turn left), the lights are red and I stop the car. The lights change to green; I start my maneuver. Unfortunately; I forget to look out for cars of the opposed direction ... I drive slowly ... and see the fast approaching Taxi (~50 km/h) in the last moment. I try to brake, crash, it's already too late ...

Fortunately; nobody is hurt. However; the car seems to be a write-off. The nose of the car is completely destructed and the engine leaked. For sure we had lots of luck ...

Yet, I was very upset, for I knew about this hazard. I was afraid of red lights since I arrived in Canada. The reason is that they are differently positioned and also there are some other traffic rules. Thus, if you're not fully concentrated you will have wrong instinctive reactions ... and that's what happened tonight.

Now life will continue without car ... we will see if I will buy another one. For sure it will be hard to go back to Winnipeg Transit and Shopping by freezing temperatures sucks too ... Nevertheless; I love Canadians: Immediately after the accident, one lady stopped and offered us to sit in her car in order to avoid the cold. Furthermore, she offered to give us a ride home ... it's so nice to live in a country with such helpful people!!!

Banff Trip

2006-02-17T21:03:00.000-06:00

Pictures of Banff Trip online ... review follows soon!

Bye Bye ...

2006-02-10T14:48:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit in a hurry, I'm preparing for my trip to Banff.

This morning I heard at the radio that highway 1 is closed in Saskatchewan because of icing street conditions. That's actually on our way to Banff, so I hope they will clean the street until we will come.

To my friends in Switzerland ... good luck on the exams ... I'll keep my fingers crossed!!!

I wish you a great week ... I will be back next Friday ... cu soon!!!

There is a colder city in the world :)

2006-02-09T17:56:00.000-06:00

This is probably the coldest city in the world:

Norilsk (Russian: Нори́льск) is a major city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It obtained the city status in 1953. It is the northernmost city in Siberia and the world's second largest city (after Murmansk) above the Arctic Circle. Norilsk and Yakutsk are the only large cities in the continuous permafrost zone. Norilsk is also the northern-most city with a population over 100,000 on the planet. Population: 133,436 (2004); 134,832 (2002). (Wikipedia)

Where is Norilsk?

(http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/asia_ref_2003.jpg)

Climate information for Norilsk
(http://www.climate-zone.com/)

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Avg. Temperature

-29

-32

-16

-5

-3

-18

-26

Avg. Max Temperature

-26

-29

-13

-2

-1

-16

-23

Avg. Min Temperature

-32

-35

-20

-8

-6

-22

-30

Avg. Rain Days

Avg. Snow Days

Climate information for Winnipeg
(http://www.climate-zone.com/)

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Avg. Temperature

-17

-12

-5

-4

-12

Avg. Max Temperature

-12

-6

-7

Avg. Min Temperature

-22

-17

-10

-3

-9

-17

Avg. Rain Days

Avg. Snow Days

The exams are over ... I'm ready for holiday ...

2006-02-08T13:52:00.000-06:00

I just finished my exams today ... now I'm ready for Banff. Our trip will start this Friday at 7:30 p.m. ... we will travel for around 20 hours, so we should have enough time to talk to some new people :) For my trip I need some special stuff, and I'm lucky: My roommate lend me a backpack and a Canadian Friend (thanks Stephen!) lend me an air mattress ... the only thing I have to buy is a pair of snow pants, for I forgot mine in Switzerland.

Last Thursday I had to prepare for my exam, and actually I can't remember if I did something else (I should update my blog more regularly).

On Friday I had my exam at 6:00 p.m., afterwards I met my friends. On the way to my car we had the crazy idea to jump into the cold snow ... that was really fun even if it was pretty cold (- 25° C.) and it almost froze our fingers. After warming up in the car (what took a while), we went to an Indian restaurant having dinner. At the buffet I had to try every single dish (that made the plate pretty full) and everybody was laughing at me; however, this was a good experience. After dinner nobody knew what to do ... so guess ... yes, we went to sing karaoke again. It seems like we all get good karaoke singers and as always we had lots of fun.

On Saturday I met Nick (the canadian exchange student who is going to Winterthur/Switzerland). We went ice skating on Assiniboine river for about and afterwards we had dinner at the Earls. I'm curious about his experiences he will do in Switzerland ... he will leave on February 22nd.

On Sunday and Monday I was studying most of the time. Yet, there was enough time for a run ... Sunday was a beautiful day and I enjoyed going outside and to run on the snow covered streets. On Monday I did some shopping with Shinya and he had a funny experience ... Shinya likes chocolate, so much that he spent more than 9 bucks for chocolate. Actually, we didn't know how much is 100 grams ... we both were looking for 100 grams ($ 2.88/100 grams) ... and Shinya ended with 330 grams ... Finally, I still hope he loves Swiss chocolate :)

Yesterday I spent most of the time with studying ... most of the stuff was to memorize (I hate that). My roommate is actually doing some renovations in the house("he pimps up his house *smile*); he lets repainting the walls in the entrance area and he also lets building a stonewall around the chimney ... by this opportunity I met the painter and we had a funny conversation. He is a guy from Italy who came to Winnipeg 45 years ago ...

Ups it's already time for my class (2:30 p.m.) .. Cu soon!

Test

2006-02-05T00:46:00.000-06:00

Test

Getting busy ...

2006-02-02T00:01:00.000-06:00

Yep, it's already time to get serious again ... I already had my first exam yesterday (Tuesday). Next exam is on Friday, and then two the following week on Wednesday ... so I try to be serious and to study.

Actually, I'm really proud to stay in Canada this year, for it is the warmest January they ever had. The Winnipeg Free Press wrote today:

"The past 31 days will shatter records across the province as the warmest January ever recorded in Manitoba ... Winnipeg's average of daytime highs and nighttime lows this month was -7.5°C, a full 10 degrees warmer than normal.

The reason for the balmy weather is a shift in the pattern of global air currents. Normally, an Arctic low settles over Hudson Bay and sends temperatures tumbling into the deep freeze. But this year, the Arctic low shifted to Eurasia, where countries from Russia to Italy are battling the winter norms we generally endure."

Haha, as you see my Swiss friends actually enjoy cold weather and we got something like Swiss Winter weather. The time I arrived in Winnipeg I used to tell people that kids usually believe in Santa Clause and in the same way I believe in warm winters ... as you can see ... dreams can become true *smile* ... ok, the Winter is still not over, let see first what comes next ...

As you could see on the pictures in the Photo Gallery we enjoyed our Saturday afternoon in the Forks. That's a famous touristic area in Winnipeg, we already went there many times.

The Forks by night

It was really fun to skate on the trails, for the Assiniboine River had been opened for skating ... so you can skate down the river for a few kilometres.

Skating Trail on Assiniboine River

Afterwards, we went to Finn's Pub to have dinner. Later on, we spent our night at the Shannon's Pub and enjoyed some good rock music.

Two cool guys ;)

This Sunday I got up at 9:30; I went playing badminton with Chrissie, Yui and Olivier. Unfortunately, there was a gymnastics competition and we could play only a few games. After a few badminton games we had to spend our remaining energy in the Gritty Grotto. That's a running track (228 metres long!!!) in the basement of the Frank Kennedy building. In the afternoon I started learning for my exam on Tuesday.

On Monday, my day was filled with classes and learning ... nothing more.

On Tuesday, as I told already I had my first Supply Chain Mgmt exam. I think it worked well; however, I was a bit confused over the short essay questions ... the questions looked like ... "Name the 4 key aspects of supply chain management" ... I answered the questions in point form and was wondering on my neighbour who was writing and writing and writing ... I hope I didn't misunderstand! Later on, I felt like cooking ... I baked some potatoes topped with melted cheese and two pieces of pork wrapped in aluminium foil. The potatoes smelled great; however, the meat didn't meet my expectations.

Today I had lunch with Sylvain; we enjoyed some Chinese food at University Centre (there is a new food corner in the first floor of University Centre). In the afternoon I had my swimming class, wow was really exhausting, later on I relaxed by watching the "Rundschau" (unfortunately not in English), got dinner (fish sticks with frozen vegetables and an avocado), did some homework, updated my blog ... and now ... it's time for bed! Good night!

Reading Week Trip

2006-01-28T03:08:00.000-06:00

Hmm ... it's already 3 o'clock in the morning, but I still feel like updating my blog, even if should stay in bed already. Let's start ...

That's actually really exciting, for the reading week I will go to Banff. Banff is a famous ski resort (looks to me like Switzerland *smile*), located in a national park close to Calgary (that's about a 20 or more hours bus trip from Winnipeg!!!). Sylvain (the French guy) will join for the trip; together and with many other students we will have a great time in Banff. And it's only two weeks from now. Let me give some more information:

You are invited to experience some great skiing/riding on our 4th annual Banff University trip. Based on trips during the March school break, this is for those 18+ who may wish to take in some of the great nightlife that Banff has to offer, but still get to the hill close to opening time. Costs are kept low through group discounts on lift tickets and the use of Rundle United Church in Banff for accommodation and meals. (sleeping bag and air mattress required) Both sunshine and Lake Louise offer a wide variety of terrain from easy beginner slopes to awesome double black runs, glade skiing and snowboard parks. Also included is one day to Kicking Horse in Golden, B.C.

Agenda: Feb 10th – Depart Winnipeg Friday evening via private video-equipped motorcoach. Arrive in Banff about noon on Saturday. Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs. - 4 awesome days at sunshine, Louise, and Kicking Horse. Tuesday – optional day to ski/ride (cost $50.00) or shop, sightsee, and rest. Thurs. evening – Depart Banff – arrive back in Winnipeg about 1 P.M. Feb 17th.

Cost for the bus, 4 lift tkts, meals, accommodation, and admissions to the Banff Centre/Banff Hot Springs - $515.00. Not included – Breakfast to/from Banff, drinks on the bus, evening entertainment, and ski/snowboard rental (about $95.00), if required. A $115.00 deposit is required on booking and the balance by Jan. 23rd. If your plans change, refunds will be given until Jan 5th.

Are you also interested in, there is still space available. Please let me know, I will give you all information you need. Now I should get serious for another two weeks, I have to write 4 exams and then let's have a week of fun!

Now back to my week review ... on Monday we had an amazing warm day ... Sunday up to -29°C. and one day later +3°C. ... that's crazy, I couldn't believe it ... when I got home after school it was raining instead of snowing!!!

On Tuesday I had to clean my car, for it smelt bad ... the problem is that the carpet is wet and cannot dry, for my car is all the time outside (it's usually always below zero). With vacuum cleaner, newspaper, and cleaning agents I fighted against bad odors ... it worked out more or less ... it's still not dry, but my car smells good again *smile*

On Wednesday I had one more swimming lesson, it still doesn't work as well ... and I still hope I will improve soon. What was fun, is that most in my class couldn't swim before, for many it was a challenge to dive. So it's suprising to me that they start with crawling and not with breaststroking ("Brustschwimmen").

Thursday, I got lunch with the other guys at Pembina Hall. It's the residence cafeteria, the food is pretty cheap (around 6 bucks a full meal including drink, soup, main meal, salad, and dessert) and still tasty. However, the other guys told me that they feel bored about the food ... I can understand that, if you have to eat there every day. Nonetheless; we decided to have dinner together at Pembina Hall every Tuesday and Thursday ... that's cool!!!

Today (or yesterday Friday), after school I went to a show of a famous US comedian (Rob Corddry, he is a comedian at the daily show of a US broadcast). Unfortunately, I didn't get the most jokes ... was actually weird, everybody around me was laughing ... and I probably looked serious all the time ... Later on, we had an Information Night regarding our trip to Banff. We had the opportunity to get some more information and to meet the people that will join ... I think we are really lucky, the other guys seem to be nice! Afterwards, we bought some stuff for Sylvains room (carpet and curtain) and I also bought something for my room ... it adds a bit of life to my room ...

Green Life for a few bucks (student friendly!!!)

I will be happy to see it blooming ("blühen"), unless I forget to water it ...

Everybody talks about Canada ...

2006-01-24T21:58:00.000-06:00

Canada Elections on Swiss TV broadcasts ...

Schweizer Fernsehen: German
Tele Suisse Romande: French
Tele Svizzera Italiana: Italian

(I'm already making free advertisement for Swiss TV broadcasts ... tztztz!!! *smile*)

Time to catch up ...

2006-01-23T00:10:00.000-06:00

Oh, I'm still one week behind with my blog entries, it's time to catch up!

Saturday a week ago, I went with Sylvain to watch a hockey game at the MTS-Centre downtown. The Manitoba Moose were playing against Philadelphia - and the Moose won the game 2:0.

Mascot of the Manitoba Moose

The MTS-Centre is something like our "Hallenstadion" in Zurich; it is very modern.

Hockey game in the MTS-Centre

On Sunday I was too tired to play badminton; I preferred to sleep. Later on, I called my parents, did some homework, and spent a relaxing day. On Monday after school it was time for weekly shopping, without that nothing special happened that day. On Tuesday I had school until 11:30, did some homework in the afternoon and at night I went out for a small run. On Wednesday I had my Swimming lesson ... it already works a bit better; nevertheless, I still feel like I don't advance by moving my legs. However, I hope I get out soon on how to work with my feet ;)

On Thursday I did some homework in the afternoon and at night I was invited for watching a movie with my roommate. We saw Lord of War, a movie with Nicolas Cage, who plays the role of an arms dealer in our contemporary world.

Mark invited me for dinner on Friday night, we enjoyed a great Philippinese meal.

The invitees at Marks house

Afterwards we went to university for playing badminton. Later on, we had a warm drink at Starbucks and after we brought Chrissy home, we decided to watch a movie at Cinema City. We saw Wolf Creek, an Australian horror movie. I don't like horror movies; however, I really hated this movie ... I almost left the movies during the performance. Don't watch this movie if you plan to have a road trip in Australia ...!

Yesterday, I was invited for Japanese food; Naomi, another girl (I don't remember her name), and Shinya cooked together Japanese food. We had Sushi and some other Japanese specialities ... it was great! Finally, we ended our night at Karaoke ... and I also found a song that fits my voice ... you will laugh *smile* ... it is: "Love me tender" of Elvis Presley *SWEET* To see some pictures, please click on the follwoing link (thanks to Naomi).

Today I was just too lazy to get out of the house ... I should have a run this afternoon ... yet, I thought it's too cold. We had -19°C., with wind chill it was actually up to -29 °C. ... really too cold for running ... looks like I'm still not a good Canadian!

And tomorrow is ELECTION DAY in Canada, I think that will be a big issue, for the new Canadian prime minister will be elected. According to the polls it looks like a political change will happen ... I'm actually not sure if that is good for Canada. We will see ...

An exciting week ...

2006-01-17T23:53:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, I'm sorry ... actually my entries are all delayed. However, I try to keep you updated and I hope you still enjoy my blog. Also feel free to write comments, I really appreciate them!!!

In terms of cold weather, I'm not allowed to complain. Today I read the following lines in the newspaper:

"The recent three-week spell of balmy weather has shatered Winnipeg records, with nighttime temperatures averaging 16.9 degrees warmer than usual for this time of winter.
By comparing intervals other than calendar months, a climatologist has proved for the first time that the 21 days of warm weather since Dec. 22 are the warmest such interval recorded for this time of the year - since records began 134 years ago."

It almost looks like I brought Swiss weather to Winnipeg *smile*.

Monday a week ago, I visited a speech of Paul Rusesabagina. Rusesabagina's story was told by a movie named "Hotel Rwanda", a really good movie that I saw about one year ago in Switzerland. The movie tells the true story of a hotel manager, who was able to save the lives of over 1000 persons during the genocide (in 100 days over 900,000 persons were killed) that was happening in Rwanda in 1994.

On Tuesday I tried to figure out the trip that I would like to do with my parents next summer. I planned to visit the following cities: Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Fredericton, Halifax, Portland, Boston, and finally New York.

Nevertheless, I'm not able to find people in order to continue my roadtrip through the US and also to the West coast of the US ... if you read this lines and you're intersted in doing a road trip next summer (between June and July), please let me know!

On Wednesday I had my first swimming lesson; I would like to improve my strokes (crawling). The lesson was pretty hard; I got out of breath by swimming 25 metres, but I hope that changes soon!

The next day I had to bring my car to a repair shop, for they had to replace a small part. Without that, the car is working fine. I also visited a roommate's friend who fractured his collarbone ("Schlüsselbeinbruch") during his last ski trip. Actually, he seems to be fine also he cannot work for the moment. At night I gave a ride to a French guy to curb ("zügeln") his baggage to his new accommodation. I was wondering because he had 4 pieces of luggage and thus, I don't know how he will be able to travel back to Europe next summer *smile* (for sure it was more than 64 kilos). I also met his roommates, his landlord (one of his roommates) was actually born in London, he is a soccer fan (he also looks like an Englishman) and it is pretty fun to talk to him.

Finally, on Friday I met Sylvain (the french guy mentioned before) for our first grammar lesson (we just work through an English grammar book). Afterwards, I helped him buying a mattress and some other stuff to furnish his new room. In the evenings we were invited by Shinya and Brian for an exciting room party ... a nice way to end a school week!

Fishing Sunday

2006-01-15T13:37:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday I planned to join my roommate for fishing. I picked up my friends and together we drove to Selkirk, a small city in the north of Winnipeg, where I also bought my car some month ago.

Trip to Selkirk: Ice Fishing

As we arrived in Selkirk I called my rommate's boyfriend Matt, for he had to show us the way to the river and his fishing shack ("Fischerhütte"). Yet, prior we had to buy some food and we also needed 2 more angling licences.

A Manitoban Fishing licence

After a short drive we arrived at the river; we had to change the car (to a car with four-wheel drive) because it was not possible to drive down to the river with my own car. On the river we saw many small shacks, every shack is equipped with a stove ("Holzofen") and actually, Matt told me that some also have a TV and a couch (sounds like fishing by watching ice hockey and drinking beer *smile*).

Fishing shacks on the Red River

After a short ride we arrived at his shack, well recognizable with a Canadian Flag :)

Matt's fishing shack

After a short introduction on how to fish and how to prepare the bait ("Köder"), everybody got a fishing rod and was ready for fishing. It was nice to stay in the heated shack (instead of fishing outside), yet during the first hour nobody got a fish.

Fishing in the Shack

Fishing hole

Suddenly, after about one hour, a fish floundered ("zappelte") at my fishing line. It was amazing, I caught a big fish!!!

Now everybody was really motivated to catch another fish. Unfortunately that was our only catch for this Sunday. Matt told me that the best time to fish is early in the morning, around 6:30 a.m. ... so probably we should try our luck again a bit earlier in the morning ...

Matt: A nice host and a good fisherman

My roommate Tannis

International Fisher Oranization *smile*

At Sunset it was time already time to return to Winnipeg. For sure it was a super opportunity to know another piece of Canadian culture ... and I really would enjoy to ice fish again!!!

University started again ...

2006-01-10T00:14:00.000-06:00

The day after our new year's trip I slept in; in the afternoon I started to clean up my room (I never did some paperwork and so). To celebrate our last day of holiday I met the other students at the Taverne for a free Coke (all soda was free *suprising*) ...

On Tuesday January 3rd, I had my first class. Yet, I overslept ... my class was at 10 o'clock and I woke up at 10:05 ... tztztz ... looks like I went to bed too late! Also there was a time conflict, for I had two courses at the same time! For lunch I met the other students, and in the afternoon I continued cleaning up my room.

On Wednesday I finally was able to attend my classes ... my Organization Theory prof seems to be funny ... and his goal is to prepare us for our future life as strong managers (who knows what I will be one day!). The economics teacher is the same as i had last term, I really like his way of teaching classes. Finally, the Science Mgmt teacher seems to be from India; unfortunately, his intonation makes me feel a bit sleepy. However, I think he is still a good prof and he really looks patient. Also, the learning matter shouldn't be too difficult.

On Thursday I attended my Supply Chain Mgmt class; I still was afraid that I missed the first lesson. However, actually there was no classes on Tuesday (so it was actually fine that I overslept *smile*) ... I was also happy to meet a student, who was also my classmate in International Mgmt. For lunch I met a Canadian student, who I've known from International Mgmt too. If we will find an opportunity, we will probably camp next summer for a few days together ... that would be cool!

On Friday I only had my Economics class. In the afternoon I brought my car to a local car repair shop ... it was time to get a look on my car and also to do the oil change. As they found out, my car works fine, with the exception of a small part that was missing and will cost me around 50 bucks. At night I was playing badminton; later on we had a drink at Shannon's, a pub downtown.

For Saturday, we planned to skate together. We met around three o'clock at the forks to skate together! For I wasn't skating for a long time, I had some difficulties; nonetheless, after a while I adapted well and I had some fun on the ice.

(Thanks to Brian for the picture)

Skating makes hungry; thus, we had dinner at a nearby pub: garlic chease toast, french fries, onion rings, bruschetti, chicken wings ... mmhhh!!! Later on, we met at university for a pool game and we also had some fun with game machines (video games). After midnight, it was already time to go home, for we had some other plans on Sunday: ICE FISHING!!!

New Year's Trip

2006-01-08T21:05:00.000-06:00

Finally I update the review of our New Year's Trip! It took me really a long time ...

On Saturday morning (the 31st) I was preparing a small surprise for my friends. The night before we were talking about wearing suits, so I had the idea to wear one for New Year's Eve. Yet, I wasn't wearing the tie and the pants because it looked too formal to me. However, Yui, the Thai student, need almost half an hour to notice my special clothing :) (she seemed to be tired, for she hadn't sleep the night before)

I only miss a hat to look
like a chauffeur *smile*

Our plan for December 31st, 2005 was to drive from Winnipeg to Morden, the small town were we booked a motel room.

First Day: Trip to Winkler and Morden

After around one hour of driving we reached the city of Winkler.

The City of Winkler

Winkler was founded in 1888 by Russian Mennonites; today the city counts many ancient German mennonites as inhabitants. In Winkler we first had lunch at Dairy Queen (they are famous for good ice cream!).

Afterwards, we continued our trip to Morden, a small town close to Winkler (by doing some research on this cities I found out that both cities have their own small airport *wondering*). Morden has a couple of beautiful old buildings and a few shops.

The Town of Morden

One of these nice old buildings (former post office)

Our Motel was situated outside of Morden, for around 100 bucks we got a room with 2 double beds and a bed sofa. Our motel room was nice, and I was excited that the motel also disposed a swimming pool and a whirl pool. After check in we decided to go back to Winkler, to do some shopping and to watch out for a place to have dinner and to spend our new year's eve.

By driving through Winkler we saw a dozen of churches, it was incredible - Winkler has probably more churches than shops!!! By doing our shopping in Canadian Superstore we could also meet many local women wearing traditional clothing (also wearing something like a black triangle on their hairs); according to a Canadian friend this should be traditional mennonites. Finally, we also didn't find a nice place to have dinner in Winkler, for there are almost no restaurants in Winkler (with the exception of fast food chains).

Back in Morden we finally found a steak house, unfortunately we only could have dinner there because they closed already at 10 o'clock. So we still had to find a place to stay for midnight (would be boring to spend midnight in the motel room!). After a short break in our motel room and a relaxing bath in the whirl pool we had an excellent (and a bit expensive) dinner at the steak house (a 10 oz steak with danish potatoes and veggies).

The waitress told us that there should be a bar open over midnight at the other end of the town. For it was too early (around 9:30 p.m.) to go there, I decided to have a look outside of Morden in order to find another bar/pub. We left Morden in direction of la Rivière, the place where we should go skiing the next day. For about 40 kilometres there was nothing, nothing, nothing and again nothing. With the exception of the small town of Manitou (my roommate told me that she spend the weekends during her childhood in Manitou because her father used to have a farm there) there was just nothing than farmland ... and probably I never saw before such a dark place at night (for there lives almost no population). We ended our night trip at la Rivière, where we should spend our next day. Because there was also no party there, we decided to go back to Morden.

We finally spent midnight at this bar in Morden, probably the only on open in Morden and Winkler, with lots of young people of the town. It wasn't a bad place, and with a beer and billiard /pool game we ended the year 2005.

The next day we planned to go skiing in la Rivière / Mountain Holiday. Thus we had to get up before lunch time ;) ... around 10:00 o'clock everybody was ready for leaving the motel.

Second Day: Skiing in la Rivière / Holiday Mountain

Actually, the countryside is really special, for a few kilometres before arriving in La Rivière there is still nothing such like a hill ... the countryside is flat.

Suddenly the road goes downhill and it looks like you drive into a hole ...

In this small valley is located la Rivière and and also the Holiday Mountain ski resort.

Holiday Mountain

The hill is pretty small, yet for sure it was good for any beginner. For intermediate skiers, the hill is a bit boring. However, Shinya, Yui and I rented a pair of shaped ski (= carving ski) and Brian a snow board. Shinya (who is also a good skier) and I tried to give a beginner's lesson to Yui ... after 1 hour she was almost able to drive down alone a small hill.

Brian was really motivated ... and he worked hard on improving his snowboarding skills.

After an hour or so, we had a small lunch at the restaurant of the resort. Later on, Shinya and I were driving down the hill again and again and had some fun helping the beginners back on their skis. And Brian was still working hard ... Yui prefered to wait in the restaurant, for she seemed to be too tired.

About 2 hours later, everybody was tired and we decided to go home. Back in Winnipeg we ended our trip with a nice dinner at Boston Pizza.

The days between christmas and new year ...

2005-12-30T23:39:00.000-06:00

The days between christmas and new year were actually not so exciting, for I had a cold and had to stay in bed. During our christmas trip I got the cold during the first night because the window was open and I was too lazy to close it ... I also suffered a backache ("Rückenweh").

On the 27th I had a good night's rest. At night we had dinner at the Romani's (Italian Restaurant).

The 28th, I felt bad; actually, we should go shopping (boxing week), but I didn't feel like. So I stood in my bed or was playing Age of Empires II ... yes, I know I should stay in bed and not play computer games *smile*.

Already a day later I felt better, so in the afternoon I met the other guys for shopping. First we went to Polo Park (the biggest shopping mall in town), but I didn't find anything convenient. Later on we went to different outlet stores of Adidas, Mexx, Tommy Hilfiger, and so on. They had some really good offers ... I bought two shirt with long sleeves, a dress shirt ("Hemd"), a sweater, a tie, and a scarf. At night we enjoyed dinner at my house and watched a movie ("The Tuxedo", thanks to Rainer!).

On the 30th we still didn't have any plans for our new years trip. Together with Brian (Taiwanese student) we were looking for a trip ... finally I reserved a motel room in Morden (that' s about 140 km south west of Winnipeg) ... our plan was to spend New Year's eve in Morden/Winkler and January, 1st in la Rivière / Holiday Mountain (small ski resort). At night we were invited for Japanese Curry at university and afterwards we watched a movie (one more!) ... that time we saw The Constant Gardener ... for three bucks (that's for sure a reason why we spend so many evenings in the movies). Before I finally went to bed, I had to prepare my stuff for our trip on New Years Eve ...

The review of New Year Trip will be published soon (sorry for delay) ...

Christmas Trip Review

2005-12-29T12:47:00.000-06:00

I got up late on 24th; actually, I had already prepared my luggage the night before. At 10, one hour late, I was ready to pick up my friends at university. We decided to drive to Steinbach, in order to visit the town, have lunch and doing some shopping (especially food). On the way to Steinbach we also passed the small town of Hanover (with one "n", but I think there is a connection to Hannover because it's a German community) and saw road signs for Blumenort (funny name, "Flower Town"). There are also many French speaking communities (La Salle, St. Adolphe, ...).

First day: Trip from Winnipeg to West Hawk Lake via Steinbach

When we finally got to Steinbach, I was really surprised that it was such a small town, for I had in mind that it must be one of the bigger towns in Manitoba. Still we found a supermarket to buy some food, yet we didn't find an open restaurant downtown. So we decided to continue our trip in direction of West Hawk Lake and to have lunch later. As we got back to highway #1 we found an restaurant in Richer; I was interested in having some Canadian food.

The restaurant looked pretty funny ... it was an old kind of bar/pub and when we entered the first thing the waitress asked, was: "Hey guys, you seem to be young! Please show me your identification cards side by side ... " I was really surprised, for we weren't looking to order a beer. However, as she told us, we weren't allowed to stay in this room if we haven't reached our 18th birthday. In the back room of the bar they sold beer (liquor store), one side of the room was full of gambling machines and in another corner two old guys were drinking a beer and spoke French Canadian together (hard to understand!). This bar looked like the setting in an American movie; nevertheless, we ordered toast and burgers ... and got a good meal.

Now it was already time to drive to West Hawk Lake. The resort was easy to find, the check in took only a few minutes ... and I think we were really lucky to find such a good cottage. We had a nice kitchen, a lovely living room with a fireplace, three bedrooms, and finally a small bath room. A few minutes after we moved in the cottage we already got visit of some deers, was really nice to see them in front of our cottage.

"Canadians" seem to be curious *smile*

The other guys prepared dinner and Brian and me, we tried to light a fire ... as we experienced, it is difficult to make a fire only with newspapers and humid wood; therefore, we had to collect some kindling ("Kleinholz"). We had Chinese Dinner and Japanese noodles (they look like spaghetti, you eat them cold!) ... both was really great. We ended our Christmas eve by watching two movies ("A very long engagment", "Euro Trip") and enjoying the fire.

On the 25th we got a great breakfast with bacon, eggs and toast. Later on we decided to make a small trip by car.

Second day: Trip to Ingolf and Whiteshell Provincial Park

Spontaneously we decided to go to a small town named Ingolf ... just for fun! After a couple kilometers we reached the end of the road and there were just a few houses. I was already thinking of turning back, when we discovered that a small way led to the frozen lake. We parked our car on the border and walked down to the lake as a men arrived with his snowmobile. He told me that the ice was thick enough to drive on with cars, I was actually really suprised because I never did that before.

He left, but after a couple of minutes he already came back and offered us to ride his snowmobile, for he thought that we never had the opportunity before, what was true! He was so kind, everyone of us was allowed to drive his snowmobile and it was really fun ... for sure he is responsible too that I will keep Canada in a good memory!

We had some fun with the car on the lake, it was an unfamiliar picture to see parked cars on a jetty ("Anlegesteg"). We drove round the whole lake, who was pretty big (circumference was probably more than 10 km).

Having fun on a frozen lake!

Afterwards we did a small trip through the Whiteshell Provincial Park, on the way we saw many lakes and also a few falls. I was really interested in Rainbow Falls (due to the beautiful name), yet the fall was not as big as I was expecting :)

Rainbow Falls: Small, but still beautiful!

On our last day of our Christmas Trip we had planned a big trip ... going to Lake Winnipeg before going back to the city of Winnipeg.

Third day: Seven Sister Falls, Pinawa, Victoria Beach, Grand Beach, Winnipeg

On our way to Lake Winnipeg we did a stop at seven sisters falls, I was curious to find out why this town had actually such a funny name. The town itself was small, but at the end we found a road sign for the dam. As we reached the dam we had a sight over a huge storage lake ("Stausee") and also on a very wide river valley.

Dam of Seven Sisters

Huge storage lake

View on the wide river valley

Later on we drove to the town of Pinawa, that is situated close to the storage lake. Yet, there was nothing special to see, thus we continued our trip in direction of Lake Winnipeg. After seeing many frozen lakes we also passed through an area of First Nations ("Ureinwohner"). The urban sprawl ("Zersiedelung") was well visible, also we could see that the poverty in this area was higher than in other parts of Manitoba (burnt cars, houses with broken windows, ...).

Around 3 o'clock we finally arrived at Lake Winnipeg and reached Victoria Beach. First, we didn't know how to get to the beach, yet after asking some pedestrians we finally found a way down to the beach. The sight was really impressive, I felt like I stay at the North Pole.

Lake Winnipeg - I'm still looking for the polar bear!

Actually some interesting facts about Lake Winnipeg: Length 428 km, Area 24'390 sqkm (equals more than half Switzerland), Maximum Depth 18m !!!

We also visited Grand Beach, yet everything was closed and we couldn't reach the beach. Our exciting Christmas Trip ended finally with dinner at George's Burger House in Winnipeg.

Christmas Trip

2005-12-27T00:50:00.000-06:00

Hi! Our Christmas trip is over ... enjoy the pictures in the photo gallery!

I believe I can fly ... :)

My review of our trip will follow soon ...!

Merry Christmas

2005-12-24T00:43:00.000-06:00

Hey guys ... I wish you Merry Christmas ...

I will spend my next days in a cottage at West Hawk Lake, that's a small lake about 140 km East of Winnipeg! I will be back for December 26., CU soon ...

Enjoying first days of holiday ...

2005-12-24T00:27:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I just got up at 11:00 o'clock, still I didn't sleep lots :) I did some phone calls, answered many mails and at afternoon we had Chinese dinner at university. We had "hot pot" with different kind of meet, fish and vegetables ... was tasty! Afterwards everybody was a bit tired, yet we went home early :)

Today I still didn't get much sleep ... because our day was almost overplaned. I got up at nine and give a ride to a friend to get some baking stuff. After 10 o'clock we started baking for Christmas and also for his birthday ... we did 4 cakes ... 2 of them burnt a bit, but with some small "repairs" (we cut the burned crust and put some frosting on) the cake looked super! We are ready for Christmas *smile*

Tonight we were invited for a birthday dinner at the house of the Philippine guy. We had some delicious Philippine food; acutally, the food looks to me quite similar to European food. Afterwards we had a good time watching pictures of the Philippines, Canada and the US.

And now it's soon time to go to bed ... a trip is waiting me and I have to get up early tomorrow morning :)

Exams are over ...

2005-12-21T18:24:00.000-06:00

Yipee, my exams are over ... thus my term is over too ... now I have holiday!!!

Monday and Tuesday I was preparing for my last exam on Wednesday! On Tuesday I was writing my last two christmas cards ... the same day I got the call of Walmart that my pictures are ready to pick up; actually, I was waiting since 8th of December, hence I wasn't interested anymore.

Yesterday in the afternoon I wrote my last exam; unfortunately, I didn't work out as well. The questions were pretty difficult, yet I should pass the course. First, I was a bit upset, and a few minutes later I already changed my mind: I felt happy that the term was over and I now have two weeks of holiday!

When I came home, I had to do some work on my car. Last week I ripped off the power plug of my car ... but what do we need a plug for? Yeah, actually all Canadian cars have hybrid engines, thus on city traffic you are able to switch between gasoline and electric power. So that's pretty cool, you just charge the batteries at night ...

Did you trust me? I'm joking ... it's still true that all cars in Winnipeg have power plugs, yet for another reason. Because of cold temperatures and to ease the process of starting the engine they use an external power source in order to operate an engine block heater ("Motorheizung"), furthermore you get the advantage that your car will heat up faster (warm air for the air ventilation!). Finally, I know that hybrid engines exist already, but do these cars have a power plug ...?

At night we had a burger at Dairy Queen and went to the movies to see "A History of Violence". Was a good movie, talking about a family guy who gets more and more confronted with his past of violence ...

A busy week or even not ...?

2005-12-18T21:50:00.000-06:00

This week I had no school, I stayed all week long home to prepare for my exams on Friday night (financial accounting) and on Saturday morning (economics). It was probably a strange week; on the one hand I was busy and felt like I had to work, on the other hand I was wasting my time with junk.

Actually, on Monday I was working on my financial accounting material, at night I had to go downtown to pick up the pictures I needed in order to create my christmas cards. In the shop they told me, that they lost my pictures during the transmission from the computer to the lab. That was really bad, for I did two times the way downtown (everytime I lost about one hour) for nothing. Also Christmas was coming soon, so I needed the pics. Last Wednesday (Dec. 08, 2005) I already let printing out 6 pictures at Walmart, yet also here I'm unlucky ... I'm still waiting (today is Dec. 18, 2005). However, I was still able to write a dozen of christmas cards because I let print out the pictures by a 1 hour photo finishing store (yet, as I'm still waiting I'm not sure if I will be able to send more cards).

On Tuesday I was working hard, I worked all day on my potential economics questions. I just didn't do anything more ... probably it was the day I was the most serious.

Working Time ...

On Wednesday I was working a bit in the morning, in the afternoon I had to give a ride to a Canadian friend to the airport, she went back to her family in Ontario. When I arrived back at the airport, my first time since I arrived in Canada last August, I remind my first days in Canada. There is such a big difference, when I arrived here everything was new and I was wondering about everything: cars, streets, red lights, liquor store, persons, behaviours and so on! And now everything looks familiar to me, like I stayed in Canada for years. It's funny how fast you get adapted to a new environment :) At the same time I felt like travelling too, I just want to take the plane and visit another city ... back to reality ... I had first to write my exams before I could get on another trip *smile*
At the airport I was also looking to change the date of my return tickets (actually May 21, 2006). Unfortunately I wasn't sure about my actual travel date (July 07, 2006), and because the travel agent of Air Canada wasn't able to find me on their computer system they couldn't complete my request. However, for the moment it looks like I will even stay longer ... my latest date to go back to Switzerland is the 31st of August ... my student permit will expire that day and I will not apply for extension.
On my way home I did a stop to do some shopping. I bought a fleece and some running shoes ... Afterwards I got dinner and continued studying.

On Thursday I went shortly to the shopping malls because I needed some envelopes. But I was not able to find them, this ones I found looked more for business purpose, I didn't like them at all. Then I got the idea to buy a package, I got 40 christmas cards and envelopes for $3.95 - so I finally had my envelopes, even if I don't need the cards :)
At night I was writing the christmas cards, for I was thinking that I had to mail them in on Friday in order that they will be in Switzerland/France for Christmas.


5 cm	10 cm	15 cm	20 cm	30 cm	40 cm	50 cm	75 cm	100 cm	150 cm	200

We got more snow this week

Friday at 6 p.m. I had my financial accounting exam. The exam duration was 3 hours, that was pretty long; nevertheless, time went over fast. Afterwards, I went home and had dinner. Then I had just two hours to repeat my economics stuff ... sleeping a few hours ... and writing the economics exam on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Actually, it was funny ... I wrote both exams in a gym, the same place i usually use to play badminton :)
After the exam I went to the house of the french guys because we should do a small trip that day. Yet, we changed our plans and went to Polo Park, the biggest shopping mall in Winnipeg. The mall was crowded with people, for everyone was doing its christmas shopping. The other guys bought some books and together we were looking for a coat (one french guy actually likes buying one).
At night we had Thai Dinner for celebrating the birthday of one international student, later we spent another funny hour with Karaoke for and finally we ended our night in the Taverne.
There a small funny story happened: I was ordering a coke; however the waitress (a good-looking girl) forgot my order and offered me a coke (actually it was pepsi, but coke sounds better, isn't it?) for free (by pretending she forgot the bill too). Later on, when I thought she already left our table, I told to the other guys: "She is a hot girl" (because she actually is ... ok, usually I will not comment that, I did it more because it was really nice to offer me a drink for free!) However, she just stands behind me and according to my friends she heard what I just told them ... I was really ashamed!!! Later, when I ordered another coke, she forgot it another time ... yet, I didn't get my drink and also not a free drink ... probably she was revenging me *smile*

Today I only get up at 12 o'clock. I called my parents and afterwards, I was cooking ... I tried a meat sauce (Sauce Bolognese) and it worked out ... smells good! Finally, tonight it was time to update my blog ...

School is over ...

2005-12-11T23:55:00.000-06:00

My school term ended on Wednesday, now it's exam time ... I'm sorry to all the guys who are still waiting on my email answers, looks like I'm again a bit lazy, but I hope to send you all an answer soon ...

On Monday I was baking a (Swiss) Apple Pie ("Apfelweihe"); my roommates and my friends really liked it. I just missed the whipped cream ...

On Tuesday I continued improving my baking knowhow, I was invited with another friend for Xmas-Baking and all together we were baking Xmas cookies. Check out the pictures in the photo gallery ... thanks to Mark for the pictures (and the copyright *smile*).

Wednesday was actually my last school day and to be honest, I felt a bit sad that day. I talked to my roommate and he felt the same ... probably the weather was responsible for our change of emotions. He had the good idea to invite me for a run and I really enjoyed it. Even if it was really cold, about -15°C., with good equipment (warm clothes) it's really fun to run and my stamina ("Ausdauer") seemed to be infinite (we run for about 11 km).

On Thursday I started learning Economics, I had lots of reading (around 70 pages), yet I didn't do anything more.

Friday I went to an optional class at school, we had the opportunity to ask questions about the exam topic. I also went checking my new schedule for next term ... yupee ... my earliest class is at 10:00 a.m., thus I don't have to weak up early for my next term. On Friday night I met the other guys for dinner at the cafeteria of the university, we also had to talk about our christmas plans (we have the choice between looking for a cottage/hotel around a mountain or on a lake) ... I will know more soon. Afterwards we went out for a small trip to the french part of Winnipeg. We had a very beautiful sightseeing, downtown looks beautiful with the snow and all the Xmas decorations. Afterwards we went to the Movies; we saw Jarhead, a movie about Marine troops in the Gulf war. I had really mixed feelings about the movie; however, I endorsed the fact that they didn't glorify the war and the spirit of the troops.

Saturday I was learning for a couple of hours and was chatting on MSN (instead of going out, tztztz). Finally, I had a funny ride with a friend through the city of Winnipeg ...

Today I went with some friends to the Manitoban Museum. My first impression was that it was quite an old museum. But then I got really surprised, the museum is huge and there is lots of really interesting stuff to discover (about the First Nations ("Ureinwohner Kanadas"), Hudson Bay, Building of the railway, and so on). We weren't able to visit all the museum in two hours, that's why we will go back another time. Afterwards we had dinner at George's Burger House, I think nobody was hungry anymore ... a must for all visitors of Winnipeg (but only if you like Burgers *smile*). To digest and to avoid a bad conscience ("schlechtes Gewissen") I went for another short run :)

Have a look out of my window!

About the weather ... now it's cold every day, we get used to stay outside at temperatures below -10°C. , with the wind chill it feels colder than -20°C. ... but the temperatures will still lower for January and February. How cold it feels, depends on how strong the wind blows. For the moment the situation is not as bad ... I've still warm hands :)

Actual Winnipeg weather forecast

Swiss retrospection, American Customs & lots more (updated)

2005-12-06T23:36:00.000-06:00

Last Friday I met Nick; he is the exchange student who will go to Winterthur next April. I also met Andrea, the Canadian exchange student, who stayed in Winterthur between October 2004 and March 2005. We had some mexican food and enjoyed our evening. It was funny listening to Andrea as she told us lots of stories about Switzerland, it looks like she really enjoyed her time in Switzerland. Also, Nick is really excited about going to Switzerland soon, I hope he will have a great time there ...

On Saturday, two French exchange students and me decided to do a trip to the United States. I asked my room mates where we should go; they gave me the advice to go to Grand Forks, which is a city with 50'000 habitants about one hour of the border. So, we started our trip at nine o'clock in the morning and arrived about one hour later at the border. First, we visited the duty free shop and also get some information about what we are allowed to buy in the United States and to get back (= import) to Canada.

That was really surprising to me: We weren't allowed to buy anything or we had to pay duties and provincial sales taxes because we just stayed for less then 24 hours in the USA. After 24 hours, 48 hours and one week you will get exemptions of CAN$50, CAN$200 or CAN$750 worth of goods without paying any duties (= GST (Goods and Services Tax, actually 7%) and excise taxes (actually 7% for products under the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) tariff treatment); nonetheless, you (probably) still have to pay PST (Provincial Sales Tax, 7% in Manitoba). Under the NAFTA Agreement (North American Free Trade Agreement) all goods that are produced in Canada or the USA are excluded of duties (duty-free), but you still have to pay GST and PST. To buy alcohol or tobacco you have to stay at least for 48 hours (to get an excumption), or you will have to pay a duty that can exceed the value of your goods. To conclude, a funny point: If you did any reparations on your vehicle abroad you have to declare them at the border, or it could happen that they will evaluate your car as new and you will have to pay GST and duties on the entire value of the car ... :) Don't cheat!!!

But now back to our trip (I just got excited about studying the Canadian "I Declare" booklet) ... We then got back to the car and drove to the American Customs. The American officer greets us with the informal question "how's gone?", I gave him the passports and then he got serious:

"Where are you from?", "In which country were you born?", "What are you doing in Canada?", "Where do you live in Canada?", "Where are you going in the US?", "What are you doing there?", "How long will you stay?", "Is that your car?" ... and so on ... they then studied seriously our passports, recognized that they are machine readable and before the investigation continued, they check the trunk of the car. We had then to enter the building of the US customs and had to fill out a form with lots of question like if we had been involved in war activities and other stuff. Finally, they had to take finger prints and pictures of us all ... and they also didn't forget to write down my car license! After already 30 minutes and some more questions we finally got our permission to enter the US ... and don't forget to take your credit card or some US$ (you have to pay US$6 for the permit which is valid for three month). I never spent as much time at a customs, neither in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria or as well Canada ... they take it really serious ... still I doubt that this process increases the security of the United States. However, I have to point out that the officers were friendly and gave clear instructions of what we had to do ... and the time was worth to spend a nice day in the US.

The US customs (border)

After one hour on the Interstate 29 (I unfortunately didn't took a picture of the road sign) we arrived finally for lunch in Grand Forks. We first got some money and were amused about the ATMs ... you can do all your business out of the car by just chosing the right lane ...

Drive Thru Bank

Afterwards we decided to have lunch and found a lovely restaurant called Whitney's. We had some American food ... I enjoyed Filet Mignon (à la Americaine *smile*) and especially I liked the Bean Soup (was really good!!!). We also had some Chicken Wings on a Minnesota Sauce ... mhhh ...!!! The meal costs us about US$20, that seems to be a bit more expensive than in Canada.

Just accross the street we found the Cabelis, a hunting store. They sold lots of funny stuff like tents, special machines to drill through the ice (ice fishing), camping utilities and everything what is good for hunting. In another part of the shop you could buy weapons, rifles and also bullets ... it looked so strange to me ... there was a mum buying bullet with her daughter (she was just a teen) ... that is really thought-provoking ("nachdenklich stimmend")!!!

Bullets, bullets, bullets ...

Afterwards we went to the shopping malls and checked also the prices. The prices looks to be similar with Canada ... a reason is probably that the city is close to the Canadian border and also that there is not a lot of competition. At sunset we decided to have a look on the US airbase; unfortunately, it was too dark, so we didn't see lots. From outside the air base seems to be gigantic; according to Wikipedia the air base has a population of over 4000.

Caution: Snowmobiles!!!

On our way home we had to pass the Canadian customs, lots of questions again, yet after 5 minutes we could pass the border. The customs agent looked really serious (in the way he didn't believe/trust us) and I liked especially the question if we bought any firearms or bullets.

Now everyone was hungry and we were looking for a restaurant. We drove through the small town of St. Jean Baptiste, not only the name was french, also it was a french community. It would be nice to have dinner in that town, unfortunately; we weren't able to find a restaurant there. Finally we found a restaurant in Morris, and we enjoyed some real Canadian specialties. I had a French/Canadian bean soup and afterwards a veal cutlet ("Paniertes Kalbsschnitzel") with mashed potatoes. I really enjoyed my veal cutlet, was my first since I'm in Canada ...

On Sunday I was playing badminton, it was the last time this year, for the gym will be closed during the exam period (actually, Wednesday will be my last school day this term). In the afternoon I felt like cooking; it was time to try something new ... I did Chili con carne and it worked out: It tastes great ... :)

Column on Winnipeg Transit System

2005-12-02T10:24:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning by reading the newspaper (Winnipeg Freepress, 01 December 2005) I found a column concerning the Winnipeg Transit System. The major of the city wants to increase the fares and that leads to an interesting debate ...

Click on the picture to read the column.

Baking, buying tires & winter stuff ...

2005-12-01T15:49:00.000-06:00

On Tuesday I had my last writing essay class. Afterwards I decided to bake, since I haven't bake for a long time. I did a marble cake ... tastes great but was too long in the oven (a bit dry); however, with some Frosting it still tastes good :)

Yesterday I was looking for my courses for next term, unfortunately I was not able to select all the courses. Yet, the coordinatior on the student office will help me and I hope it will work out ...
I chose the following courses:

Probably I will also take again a ESL (English as a second language) course, but first I have to check the schedule.

Today I went shopping, my roommate helped me to find cheap and good new tires. We checked out Walmart, Costco, and Canadian Tire. We finally bought the tires at Canadian Tire; for around 350 bucks I got new all season tires. I also had the opportunity to buy a new winter jacket, a neckband and some other winter stuff ... now I should be ready for cold temperatures :)

Hockey, Mc Donald's, Movies ... a typical Canadian Saturday night

2005-11-28T18:06:00.000-06:00

On Saturday we first met for watching a Hockey game of the Bisons (team of the University of Manitoba). There weren't as many people in the sports hall, the ambiance could be a bit better. Still we enjoyed an exciting ice hockey game and had some fun with the team mascot of the Bisons. Unfortunately the Bisons lost the game ... enjoy some pictures of the hockey game in the photo gallery.

Afterwards we went again to the CinemaCity, for nobody did like going to a social. Yet, almost all the movies started at midnight, therefore; we decided to have some dinner first. The nearest fast food restaurant was Mc Donald's, so we decided to have a burger there.

Have you ever seen the selection of food in a "Canadian" Mc Donald's??? Yes I know I'm crazy (still I'm not a fan of this fast food chain) ...

Thanks to Olivier ;)

Afterwards we went back to the movies; we decided to watch "The Weatherman". I like Nicolas Cage's strange behaviour ... the movie was good ... but I didn't like the end because the message was quite simple and gave no answer to everything what happened during the movie (open end).

Sunday I played badminton, started updating my blog and did some accounting homework. My school term is almost over, thus it remains one and a half week and on December 15th, 16th and 21st I will have my final exams. Yet, I should have enough time to prepare these exams without being stressed out ...

The Flu Shot & Jeans Searching

2005-11-28T01:29:00.000-06:00

Yeah I'm so lazy now ... I update my blog irregular :( ... but still I work hard to keep you informed :)

Yes, on Monday I just did nothing useful, surfing on the net, and enjoying my free time. Before I went to bed I studied my Accounting schedule - SHOCK - I just saw that I was two weeks late with my homework ... yeah that's why it was time to get serious and catch up ...

On Tuesday I had to get my flu shot ("Grippeimpfung"), I don't know if it's a good thing, but the risk to get it is high (bus to university is usually crowded ...) and I prefer to avoid it if possible. Now it was really funny, because you have to get the flu shot at the grocery store ... between eggs and cough drops ("Hustenbonbons") and not as habitual at the doctor's practice ("Arztpraxis"). And the best - I also had a discount with my member card of the grocery store and was able to collect some air miles, isn't that cool??? :)

On Wednesday I got some phone calls because of my upcoming birthday, besides nothing special happened. On Thursday I went out to do some shopping, particularly I was looking for new jeans. But my legs are too short for Canadian norms ... I was not able to find any fitting jeans in the adult department, yet I found some Lewis jeans in the kid department ... and I got them for a special good price (kids price!): $22.95 - Yeah, isn't that a nice advantage of buying kids stuff??? And for the next time: I will buy adult size and bring them to a taylor, that should work (and I also will get the colour I like!!!) ...

On Friday I met some other students for having dinner together ... and to celebrate my birthday (my birthday was actually on Thursday). I got some nice gifts: a 2006 Calendar with pictures of Canadian landscapes, a cribbage board game (including the cards), and also a t-shirt of the University of Manitoba. Yet, don't feel bad if you forgot my birthday, usually I use to forget all the birthdays too ...

Find some pictures of Friday Night in the photo gallery.

Presentation: Switzerland Business Culture

2005-11-21T23:13:00.000-06:00

For my international mgmt class we had to prepare a presentation on the business culture of Switzerland - probably funny for you guys :)

Download it here

My cheapest movie ticket I've ever bought & Planning a trip for Christmas Updated

2005-11-20T01:31:00.000-06:00

On Saturday I asked my friends for going to the movies, lots of people told me that there is a cheap and good cinema - the CinemaCity (actually there are two cinemas under this "brand"). Usually the movies are a bit older, that means they pass to that cinema as soon as they are not showed anymore in the main movie theaters, yet who minds? Actually the popcorns (something more than $3) are more expensive than a ticket (depends on the showtimes, between $1.50 and $3.25) ...

We saw Northern Country, I think it's quite a good movie. The story should base on real facts and is about a woman with two kids, who gets beaten by her husband. That's why she decides to move out. Yet to feed the kids she needs a job, so she starts working in a cole mine ... all female staff are confronted to sexual harrassment. The situation gets worse and the story ends finally in court ...

Sunday was badminton as usual, ok I had a hard time to get off because of a short night and was finally late at Badminton, for I had to find a free parking lot first :( Looks like everybody likes sport on Sunday mornings ...

After badminton I had lunch with one international student at the cantine of the university residence. Was good to have a full meal (especially because my cooking skills are not as great anymore - I have to change my mind again!!!). Afterwards we met for planning our christmas trip ... I got the idea to travel by car to Calgary and rent there a small cottage for a week ... the problem is that we are late and I don't know if we are able to find something that is awesome (American English, eh?) ... I will keep you informed ...

I also got the opportunity of taking some pictures of the University of Manitoba ... enjoy them in the photo gallery!

I got my insurance & a Manitoban Driving Licence Updated

2005-11-18T14:32:00.000-06:00

This was a busy week, thus many things happened. On Monday night it started snowing, we got about 30 cm of snow in 24 hours. On Tuesday Canadian Life changed :) Traffic almost came to a standstill, buses were running late (a women at my bus stop was waiting the bus for about one and a half hour), lots of university courses were cancelled ... libraries and cafeterias closed earlier ... all that because of 30 cm of snow ... yes, I was really surprised, yet yesterday still the major of the city complained about the very slow cleaning of the streets ... on the other hand, why taking life so serious, it works also without such a hurry *smile*

my view out of the window (Tuesday morning)

On Wednesday I got my insurance coverage for the car and I also exchanged my Swiss Driver's Licence against a Manitoban Driver's Licence. Was funny to give away my Swiss Licence ... I'm more and more Canadian now :)

Because of the bad road conditions, I wasn't sure if I should go out for a trip with my car (I wasn't allowed to drive before). Anyway, I went to Canadian Superstore doing some grocery shopping and I also bought some equipment for my car. Against my expectations it was not as challenging to drive on the frozen snow, yet I know that I have to be careful ...

On Thursday I had to prepare for my economics exam the next day. On Friday I went playing badminton, afterwards we went to a "House"-Party (not the music!) ... they organized a party for their last days in Winnipeg (they just came here for a term). They transformed their house into a party house - was cool, probably over 30 persons were dancing to music ... the house was crowded and the ambiance was great. Also a good opportunity to meet new people - there was a big surprise:
I talked to a guy and he told me that he will go study to Switzerland. I was really surprised and asked him, what university he will go to ... the answer was ... University of Applied Science in Winterthur ... and the next point was ... Business School! So funny, I couldn't believe it ... I met just this guy who is going to my home university in Switzerland! He was really excited and told me that a former exchange student that went to Switzerland really enjoyed her stay in Winterthur! His name is Nick, and he will stay in Winterthur for the second term ... would be funny if you will see him soon ...!!!

It's getting colder brrrhhh

2005-11-14T18:31:00.000-06:00

Hey it's snowing again, and that time we will probably get more snow. Today was really cold ... average day temperature (for today) was near zero, for the first time (since I'm in Canada) I saw that slops ("Pfützen") were frozen. I'm happy to have a car now, the "Winnipeg weather nightmare" seems to start ... (I'm joking :) ...!!!)

On Thursday it will be cold ... brrrhhh ... but it will be much colder soon ...

On Saturday I got my car in Selkirk, fortunately my roommate gave me a ride to pick up the car. Arrived in Selkirk we had first traditional Canadian breakfast: eggs, toast, fried potatoes, bacon, pancake with maple syrup and tea - tastes great and is not as expensive ($ 6). Afterwards we went to the previous owner of the car, had to complete some paperwork and finally I got the car. Yet I was not able to insure the car, I was just allowed to drive it home. Hopefully I will get the car insurance soon ...

Yesterday I was playing badminton, and in the afternoon I spent some time on the computer and on my homework. Next friday is my second economics exam, it will be my last midterm exam. So I still have to stay studious ... :)

Crazy Friday & I finally bought a car ...

2005-11-11T17:17:00.000-06:00

Finally I found a car, I will get it tomorrow in Selkirk, that's about 45 min. north of Winnipeg. I bought a red Ford Focus 2002, the car looks as new and is still under warranty. I'm really excited, now I'm ready to discover Canada ... :)

(picture as it was published on the internet)

This week passed really fast, because we had just 4 days of school. Today (November 11, 2005) is remembrance day, almost all stores are closed and also there are no classes. Many people wear red poppies (an artificial red flower) as a sign of remembrance. Excerpt of Wikipedia:

"Remembrance Day or Armistice Day is a day of commemoration observed in the Commonwealth of Nations and various European countries (including France and Belgium) to commemorate World War I and other wars. It is observed on November 11 to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. Remembrance Day is specifically dedicated to members of the armed forces who were killed during war, and was created by King George V of the United Kingdom on November 7, 1919 upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey."

My day started late, I just get off at 11:30. Then it was time for cleaning my room and doing some laundry. Afterwards I did some homework and at 5:45 p.m. I left home to join my friends for having japanese food. It was my first time having Japanese food (with the exception of Sushi) and some of my friends were afraid that I probably would not like raw fish. However I like Japanese food ...

Thanks to Shinya for the picture

Afterwards we went to "Toad in the hole" - thats an authentic British pub at Osborne Village and enjoyed a beer. Finally we didn't feel like going home, and so thanks to the idea of some of my Asian friends we went to sing karaoke. We spent two funny hours, everybody was relaxed and at the same time excited ... it was cooooool!!!

Thanks to Shinya for the picture

After midnight we decided to go home, unfortunately because of Remembrance Day the buses were running on a sunday schedule - of course we forgot that. We were 6 persons, and that was to much for one taxi. So another crazy guy as well as me, we decided walking home. After a "hike" down Pembina Hwy we reached University Campus one and a half hour later - that was an exciting experience! So I finally got home at 02:40 after having a short ride on my bycicle and was happy going to bed.

On Thursday I got my midterm exams back, I did well; thus, I'm happy with the grades. Also on Thursday my roommate gave me a ride to see my car (that I've bought now). My roommate did a great job because he was negotiating the price and also helped me examining the car.

Tuesday and Wednesday were daily business as usual. School, homework, looking for a car ... on Tuesday night I met other students to prepare a group project for International Mgmt. Our topic: Business Culture in Switzerland ... isn't that a lovely topic? *smile*

Again I have to look for another car ...

2005-11-07T17:41:00.000-06:00

I was doing some research on the Chevrolet Malibu Model 2000 today and the reviews are bad, really bad! Just see yourself: Link1 or Link2. I thought that I had found a car, but it looks like I need more time and I have to look again through many more ads.

Still looking for a car, baking pizza & inviting some friends

2005-11-06T01:29:00.000-06:00

Today was a busy day, even if it was a Saturday :)

I get off at 8 to have a look for the newspaper and the car ads. My roommate helped me a lot again, moreover he did many phone calls to find a car for me. I found a really intersting ad, unfortunately the car owner is not in the city and I have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to see the car.

In the afternoon I started preparing two baking sheets of pizza and suddenly I got the idea that I could invite some of my friends. So we had a good time, some good pizza (self-praise I know!), played different card games and enjoyed our Saturday night ...

Writing exams, buying posters and studying car ads

2005-11-04T18:30:00.000-06:00

Tuesday was a really busy day, I had to write two midterm exams: International Mgmt and Financial Accounting. The first exam was a multiple choice questions exam, we had first to write the test alone and then as a group - what looks a bit strange to me. At night I had my Accounting exam, the exam took two hours and was pretty severe, especially the multiple choice questions were tough. I will probably get the results next week ...

Wednesday I started looking seriously for a car, unfortunately I haven't found the right one, but I'm sure that will happen soon ...

Yesterday I bought some posters to "pimp up my room" *smile*, I think it was a good idea because it gives a better ambience.

Yesterday I also bought the Auto Trader, thats a Canadian magazine with lots of ads of used cars, I was studying the booklet the whole night. Today my roommate made some phone calls for me and at one point I was thinking that I found the right car for my needs. By mischance we heard that the car was a former accident vehicle, and so I have still to look for other cars ...

Halloween

2005-10-31T19:12:00.000-06:00

Today is Halloween - it's tradition here that many houses are well decorated and as soon as it is dark (at the night of October 31st) kids are going from house to house for "trick or treat" (if you not give a sweet they will do a trick).

In today's newspaper an article about a haunted house (one of these decorated houses) was published on the first page, and this house is really near to mine. Many kids will visit this house with their parents and will probably afterwards walk down the street. So I have to be well prepared and therefore I bought lots of chocolates ...

Finally I count 96 kids, almost 100 coming to my door! But I'm still not sold out :)

Now it's 20:50 and I'm curious what time the last kid will come ...

Easy weekend ...

2005-10-30T23:57:00.000-06:00

On Friday we had chinese food - some international students organized this great dinner in a chinese restaurant ... afterwards we had some drinks at the Earl's Lounge and spent a good time ... enjoy the pictures in the photo gallery!

Saturday and Sunday I spent some time preparing for my midterm exams (Accounting and International Management) on Tuesday. Today (Sunday) after badminton I was ready for another burger restaurant - that time I tried Burger King ... it is almost the same as in Switzerland, yet the burgers are much cheaper ... Double Whopper Combo is available for $5.70/CHF5.30 (what is the price in Switzerland? $11.50/CHF10.90?) ... I just saw on Burger Kings Homepage that I have to burn 939 kcal and 61 gram of fat ... (perhaps a good idea to play badminton first *smile*)

Who knows these chocolate brands ...?

2005-10-29T15:24:00.000-05:00

It is funny to find some ads with Swiss chocolate brands I never heard about ... so who knows these brands?

(Solution: Swiss Delice is produced by Frey (Migros) in Suhr, but I couldn't find anything about Governor's Table)

I'm lazy ...

2005-10-27T16:15:00.000-05:00

Hey I'm sorry, I started beeing lazy ... almost 4 days I didn't update my blog ... and also there is still a long mail queue, so excuse if you're waiting for an answer ... I will write back as soon as possible ...

Yes I have still a good time in Canada. Since Sunday we have lots of sunshine, and the temperature usually increases in the afternoons up to 15° C. On Monday I had a pretty good day - I don't know why - but I was really happy on that day. In the afternoon I was relaxing in the St. Vital park and was listening to music of Mando Diao - also the music makes me feel happy :) Afterwards I went shopping - it was time to buy some drugs/pharmaceuticals (no I'm not talking about "Drogen"), because it's good to be well prepared for the upcoming cold weather (I also found the well known Ricola Swiss Herb Gough Drops, they will surely be useful)! I also did my grocery shopping and bought the Economist, but up to now I had no time to read it.

Tuesday is usually my longest day of the week - so I'm at university from morning till night. At the international management class I had the job of taking care of class participation, this means that I had to note when someone was giving an oral contribution, sometimes it was hard to understand what people say, fortunately my class mates helped me! In my "Writing Essay" class we learn using complex sentences (and, but, or, yet, nor ...), compound sentences (therefore, furthermore, moreover, ...), and writing introductions, thesis statements and so on ... Yeah I think that are good lessons and we learn more than we usually do in Switzerland ...
At night I was baking (now it's like a weekly ritual): a chocolate walnut cake. I'm sure you're asking yourself what happend to me ... I don't know ... it's just fine to bake sometimes and I think I will be able to reach one of my personal goals for my year abroad: BEING ABLE TO BAKE AND COOK!

Yesterday I didn't do many things: One lesson at university ... learning at library ... helping a friend to publish his pictures on the internet ... having visit ... and so my Wednesday went over really fast! And tonight I will go to a birthday party ... but first I should prepare a bit for the two midterm exams next week! Cu soon ...

Geese Trip

2005-10-23T23:00:00.000-05:00

Oh this weekend passed so fast ... and I know it's time to update my blog :)

On Thursday I was looking for the birthday party of my roommate, but finally there was no party. It looks like something went wrong ...

On Friday I went to a Geese Trip with the International Centre for Students. We went to Fort Whyte - that is natural area were you can see some wildlife. We had a short introduction about the geese and had then the opportunity to enjoy the sunset and to observe the geese and other birds. Unfortunately we were to late to see the bisons, so I think we will go there another time (it's close to the city). You will find some pictures of the Geese Trip in the photo gallery - you can also hear the Geese by clicking here.

Yesterday I spent most of the time calling different persons. In the afternoon I was working on old accounting exams as a preparation for my upcoming exam: I was wondering why the exam was so hard, until I saw that it was the Final and not the Midterm Exam (it looks like I'm a expert for that kind of misconception). For dinner I cooked a Curry Risotto - that time it tastes great (I had a hard time to find the Buillon in the Grocery store). At night I went out swimming and afterwards we played a Canadian game: Cribagge
There is also a computer version of this game - you can download it here.

Today (as every Sunday) I went playing badminton. Because I get up early I was tired all the morning. After badminton I decided that it was time to try another burger. I had some coupons - and could buy therefor to big burgers (Double Teen Burger) for $7 at A&W. The burgers taste really good - I cannot understand why people still go to Mc Donald's here ...
Afterwards I went sleeping, laundered my clothes and bedding, tried to do some homework (I'm not really hard-working), and also spent some time updating my blog :)

Finally a funny road sign that remembers me that the winter is coming soon ...

The Baking Company: Tiramisu

2005-10-19T23:41:00.000-05:00

Yep, today the Baking Company was working hard: I had the pleasure to bake again with my roommate.

With the help of an Italian recipe we did Tiramisu, it will be a birthday gift for our other roommate. I think it will taste great, but we didn't try it now ...

Bonfire Party and my first grade

2005-10-18T00:11:00.000-05:00

On Saturday night my roommate gave me ride to their friends bonfire party. Outside of Winnipeg I first saw the man-made course of the red river ("künstlicher Flusslauf", also named floodway), that should prevent Winnipeg of the floods - it was built in 1960 after Winnipeg encountered floods the year before. The floodway is almost 60 km long and bypasses the city of Winnipeg - probably it builds also the biggest hill (even if it's artificial) in the surroundings. Apparent it should be possible skiing on that hill (the hill is just a couple of meters high). Find other Manitoban Ski Resorts here ...

At the bonfire party about ten people were sitting round a big fire, and because it's getting cold everyone tried to warm up near the fire. I also was invited for dinner ... I enjoyed a good time and had some interesting conversations.

Sunday I went playing badminton (as every Sunday) and afterwards I did a small bicycle tour - I appreciated discovering my neighborhood. For dinner I cooked some fish (à la Forelle Blau) and afterwards I spent some time writing mails. I'm sorry for the delay, I know many persons have to wait a long time for my responses.

Today I received my "first" economics exam back. I was very happy, I did 23 of 30 points and that gives me a B+ ... as you perhaps know, the grade system in Canada is different - I try to make a comparison, but I'm not sure if that's correct:

Switzerland --> Canada
6 --> A+
between 5 and 6 --> A and then B+
between 4 and 5 --> B and then C+
4 --> C
3.5 --> D
3 --> F
2 --> F
1 --> F

Football, Concert, Studying & lots more

2005-10-15T18:23:00.000-05:00

Hi - yeah some days went over since I wrote my last post - and now I will leave soon for a bonfire party (I'm not sure if I wrote it in the wrong way).

Wednesday at school I was following the soccer game against Ireland, unfortunately I was at the computer room of university and therefore my only way to do that was to read the live comments (on a ticker). I was not so happy about the result, but Switzerland has still a chance to get qualified ... so I keep the fingers crossed. At night I was invited for dinner by a Canadian friend and afterwards we went to a music concert downtown.

Again I forgot my passport ... and so we had to go to my accommodation ... but still then I forgot it - but I was lucky, this time they accepted my identity card and I could enjoy the concert. The concert was of an independent Canadian rock band named Cuff The Duke (http://www.cufftheduke.com/), the ambiance and the music was good but perhaps the music could be a bit faster ... (hard to explain in English).

Thursday was more or less a working day and yesterday I went out for shopping ... I also bought some baking stuff (I missed a scale and some other kitchen equipment) and I was looking for a Canadian or Amercian week magazine (like "Facts" or "Weltwoche" in Switzerland), unfortunately the selection was not as great. There are three different magazines as Times, Newsweek and one more Canadian magazine, but they are really thin and they haven't many articles. To get an insight I will read them once ... perhaps I will find what I like :)

At night we went to a party (Bacardi Party) downtown - we had a lot of fun - and I have also a lovely picture for you (Canadian Girls are nice, aren't they ...?)

Today I did an old accounting exam and after I went to the St. Vital park to meet some friends. In some minutes I will leave for a Bonfire party, people meet at a big fire outside of Winnipeg - I'm sure I will enjoy a good time tonight.

Informations about Manitoba / Informations about Switzerla

2005-10-12T14:35:00.000-05:00

I was asked a lot of things about Switzerland, and also for my Swiss friends it would be interesting to know a bit more about Canada/Manitoba/Winnipeg ...

Informations on Canada:
http://www.travelcanada.ca/
Quick Facts about Manitoba:
http://www.travelmanitoba.com/quickfacts/
Some movies of Travel Manitoba:
http://www.travelmanitoba.com/quickfacts/
Destination Winnipeg (Informations about Winnipeg)
http://www.destinationwinnipeg.ca/

Many Informations about Switzerland:
http://www.swissworld.org/
Some movies of Switzerland Tourism (a brief overview on the country)
http://caen.myswitzerland.com/
Many pictures of Switzerland:
http://www.sengers.ch/ (*very beautiful pictures* - just click on the flags/emblems to discover the different regions of Switzerland)
http://www.swisslandscape.org/swindexe.tpl
Good swiss news website (in English!)
http://www.swissinfo.org/

Enjoy the websites ...

Thanksgiving again ... I like it!

2005-10-11T23:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was invited by the parents of one of my roommates. We also had thanksgiving there and I had again a great meal! It tastes wonderful; moreover, it is nice to see the small differences between European and North American traditions and foods ...

In the last days I only talked about food ... it is almost the only thing I did: Baking, eating ... and enjoying Canada :)

Thanksgiving

2005-10-10T12:03:00.000-05:00

On Sunday I was invited by my welcome family for thanksgiving. As it is traditional here, we had turkey, mashed potatoes and different kinds of vegetables, for dessert we had pumkin pie ("Kürbiskuchen"). The dinner was excellent and I enjoyed having another good night with my welcome family and some of their friends. You can find a few pictures in the photo gallery!

Today (Monday) is a public holiday, all the stores are closed because of Thanksgiving. I have no school today, so I'm again invited tonight ... and I will enjoy another great meal ;)

But don't be afraid, it doesn't look like I will become fat in Canada - since I'm here I lost two kilos ...

Baking Day

2005-10-10T11:41:00.000-05:00

Saturday was my baking day - I was baking as a crazy guy: First a pizza and then I did two cakes - a chocalate cake and an "Aargauer Rüeblitorte" (carrot cake). My pizza burnt a bit, but it tastes great. For the chocolate cake I did the error of taking half of hazelnuts/filberts instead of only almonds (the chocolate taste is covered by the hazelnuts).

I hope I will be a good cook when I come back to Switzerland ...

My first Canadian Exam

2005-10-07T12:40:00.000-05:00

Yeah today I had my first exam in Canada. I was a bit nervous in the morning, yet I learned enough. But then something funny or even stupid happened: In my oppinion we had 15 minutes to write the test, so I did my best to write almost 2 pages in 15 minutes and to answer the question as well as possible. My penmanship ("Schrift") was awful, but after that time I was happy because I thought that I did answer the questions well and I was waiting for the professor saying that the time is over. But instead of that he said: "You have another 30 mintues!" Then I understood that instead of 15 minutes I had 50 minutes to write the test ...

I think the test wasn't as difficult. Perhaps my focus (= short answers) on the questions was a bit different of the professors opinion (I tried to complete/endorse ("ergänzen") my answers afterwards, but I had not many more ideas because the main points were covered) but I'm sure that I will be not too bad ... I will tell you my grade as soon as I will receive my exam back ;)

So have a nice weekend ... here I will have Thanksgiving ... mmmhhhh!!!

Current Weather Conditions on my Blog

2005-10-05T18:48:00.000-05:00

Now can see on my blog what are the current weather conditions in Winnipeg ... (on the right side of the blog page)

It looks like I am the only Swiss Guy of our school in Switzerland who got cold feet ... *brrrrhhh*

Current Weather Conditions:
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: 1° C. (feels like -7° C.) Light snow.
Zurich, Switzerland: 11° C. Partly cloudy.
Pensacola, Florida, USA: 28° C. (feels like 36° C.) Partly cloudy.
San Jose, California, USA: 27° C. A Few clouds.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: 11° C. Partly cloudy.

(05 October 2005, 19:00 local time)

It snows ...

2005-10-05T09:18:00.000-05:00

First snow ...?!?

2005-10-04T17:09:00.000-05:00

The forecast says it should snow tomorrow! That's crazy, on Sunday we had 22° degrees celsius and yesterday I saw the last Flipflops ...

See the forecast for Winnipeg in English or German.

Working days

2005-10-03T16:24:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went shopping with my roommate, there was a good opportunity to fill up my food stock. Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen to have some icecream - the small cup was perhaps as big as our midsize or large cup in Switzerland. In the eve I had to do homework.

Today in exception of updating my blog I will spend most of the time doing homework too. On Friday I will have my first exam in Economics - we have to answer 2 of 4 possible questions in 15 minutes. Keep your fingers crossed for me ...!

Trip to Kenora

2005-10-03T15:32:00.000-05:00

Saturday I had to get up early because I had to pick up the rental car. First I had to take the bus to go downtown and even if I didn't sleep very well I was not tired. I was excited of driving my first time in Canada. In preparation I studied the Manitoba Driver Handbook - there are some differences to our traffic rules in Switzerland.

Downtown I had to look for the Car Rental. After some paperwork I finally got the rental car, a Chevrolet Malibu. The car was really comfortable and easy to drive, but first I had a problem: It was my first time to drive a car with automatic transmission and I didn't know how to start the car - fortunately the problem was not hard to solve. Afterwards I had to pick up all my friends and then we went on the highway in direction of Kenora. Kenora is a small city (16'000 habitants) about 230 km east of Winnipeg in the province of Ontario.

On the highway there was less traffic, the scenery was typically Canadian. Near the border of Ontario we saw the first lakes, rocks and hills. With the falling leaves the countryside looked very beautiful, and i felt bad that I didn't rent a car earlier. After some breaks on different lakes we went to Kenora.

Kenora is a lovely small town, but the city seemed to sleep. In exception of some beggar ("Bettler") almost nobody was on the streets. This small town looks to me like a film location of a typical American movie (perhaps because I haven't seen many small North American towns before). For lunch we had Chinese food - it tastes great and was pretty cheap (about 14 Dollars per person).

After lunch we visited a private area (with some cottages) at the waterside, most of the houses were empty even if it was perhaps the most beautiful time of the year (because of the different colours of the Fall). Our last destination for that day was West Hawk Lake, a small lake in Manitoba which looks also pretty nice. On the way there we saw some deers on the roadside, unfortunatly because I was the driver I couldn't take a picture.

Back in Winnipeg we take advantage of having a car by buying some beers (to stock them in our residences) and had dinner in an Italian restaurant. Also that meal tastes great! Afterwards everyone was tired, so we decided to go home. On that day we did about 500 km and were happy having seen beautiful Canadian landscape.

Enjoy the pictures in the Photo Gallery!

A new haircut

2005-09-30T13:56:00.000-05:00

I was thinking it was time to cut my hair - but first I had to see the term for "Bürstenschnitt" in the dictionary - crew cut - ok even I could explain it to the hairdresser without using the english word. Well prepared with all the words I need to know I went out looking for a hairdresser and I found one in a shopping mall (http://www.stvitalcentre.com) near I live.

When the hairdresser finished cutting my hairs she told me, that I should take some colour in my hairs - and one minute later she already started preparing my hairs giving them some colour. Usually I'm hard to convince for such ideas - but that time I was thinking: I'm in another country, nearly nobody knows me, just try! But don't scare - only some of my strands of hair ("Haarsträhnen") got some blonde colour! And I think it looks nice - up to now everybody likes it! Perhaps I will do that again from time to time ... sometimes variation can be nice ...

My (our) first cake - mmmhhh!!!

2005-09-29T13:28:00.000-05:00

On Monday after my trip to the park, I went to the grocery store and I bought some ingredients for baking. On Tuesday I had my first "Writing Essay" Class, I hope I can improve my writing skills that way!

After my classes we decided (together with one of my roommates) to make a cake (for the birthday of another roommate), so I took my cookbook - the famous "Tiptopf"(a swiss cookbook that everybody in Switzerland knows from school), and we decided to bake a chocolate cake. Together with my assistant *smile* we studied the bake recipe (I had to translate it in English) and after about 1 hour we had done a great cake - it tastes super! I'm haughty ("stolz"), FINE SWISS BAKING ARTS in CANADA ;) Next time I will try a carrot cake, unfortunately I can't find hazelnuts so I have to improvise.

Fall is coming - Part 2

2005-09-28T00:53:00.000-05:00

Yeah fall is nice her, the trees have now beautiful colours (there are some pictures in the gallery). In the mornings it's beginning to be really cold, so to wear a pullover and a t-shirt isn't enough for Europeans. Canadians they have less cold, I felt bad without jacket and on the same time I saw the mailman wearing only a t-shirt and shorts.

Now I have more and more homework to do, it looks like the term will be rigorous. That's the reason why I'm sometimes to tired to write a new blog entry late at night. But I still enjoy my time here ... and I have a lot of fun ...

Fall is coming - Part 1

2005-09-27T00:48:00.000-05:00

Because I went early to bed on Saturday nite (01:00 a.m.) I was playing badminton on Sunday! The weather was very nice and it was a nice time to be outside, so in the afternoon I met some friends in St. Vital Park. This park is very beautiful and is located near to my residence, so I should go there more often! You can see some pics of our meeting on Sunday - thanks to Mark for the pictures!

Today I was again in that park and took some more pictures of the trees and the falling leaves - the pictures will be updated soon ... it's a bit late (it's nearly one o'clock) ... so I should go to bed! Good night!

My Canadian Roommate

2005-09-25T18:26:00.000-05:00

Yeah that's one of my Canadian Roommates ...

Less visitors & boring stuff

2005-09-25T00:39:00.000-05:00

Hi - tonight I was looking again my statistics of my blog and I saw that the number of visitors was fast decreasing - from 15-20 a day to less than 5. I know, the reason is because my blog is not updated every day and perhaps the news I told you are a bit boring. Finally perhaps you will asking yourself why I'm looking at these statistics - it is because I'm missing a feedback (feel free to write more comments) and finally it's not the idea to write posts only for my own amusement. So I will try to do a better job and hope you will like my blog soon!

The weather here begin to be colder and the leaves are changing their colour. Even two weeks ago we had over 28° Celsius, now sometimes it starts to be below 15° C. But that does not change the mind of the canadians, they even wear t-shirts and flip flops! Temperature doesn't matter :)

For my accounting book I was looking for a solution manual because I don't have a printer and it's exhausting to correct all my exercises in front of my computer. I was thinking that I could find the solution book in the library, but they do not have it! So I was asking in the bookshop for the solution manual, but at this time they cannot order it. So finally I went to the library again and print out every page of the online solutions I need! Why I'm writing that, is that I think they have not the solution manual to not violate the copyright laws and to prevent students of not buying the books (even if they are not available). Also on the copy machines there is a big label that we should not violate the copyright laws (I've never seen that in Switzerland). But as I read on a website, it looks like downloading of MP3 (but not of movies!) is legal for private purposes.

In the last days we followed the news regarding the hurricane Rita in Florida. At CNN you could see long cutouts of representatives talking to the population - it looks like they try hard to do it better that after hurricane Katrina (amazing - someone wrote a long entry to Katrina in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina). A rummy news contribution on this topic: On Monday and Tuesday there are no school buses running at all! Why? The States are trying to save fuel/gasoline! (shown on CNN)

Yesterday after playing Badminton we had again a party in a residence room (you will read that many times soon!) of one of my friends. After chinese noodles and pizza, some played poker and also "Ar***löchle" - the french know this game too! Some of the international students are from Minnesota and they decided to study in Winnipeg because it's cheaper than in Minneapolis (also I had to pay the tuition fee myself if I would stay in Minneapolis for my exchange year) . Perhaps another reason - some students are saying that in Winter there is nothing better to do than to study (naturally I don't hope so!). At two o'clock in the morning I decided to go home - it was raining and on my bycicle I get wet - but it was worth the trouble (I also saved money for the taxi :)).

Tonight I met two canadians, for dinner we had burgers and hot dogs - the hot dog was amazing (I've never seen a so big hot dog before). Afterwards we went to a pub and I tried two other beer brands - the Keiths (famous here) and the Sleeman, I like them more than the beers I had last time, whether the Sleeman is a bit a darker beer.

Now I'm really interested what's going on in Switzerland - I mean if people are voting for or against the "Personenfreizügigkeit" (I try to translate it in English: extension of the personal freedom of movement of european and swiss citizien - or just see that page in english http://www.nzz.ch/2005/09/25/eng/article6097741.html), I will see the results when I get off! Good vote!

My new bycicle

2005-09-21T23:54:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday one of my roommates gave me the advice to buy a bycicle and gave me the newspaper of last Saturday in which private ads were published. So with my roommate I was looking for a cheap bycicle ... I found one for $ 100 which looks quite good and I decided to visit the seller on Monday.

After visiting some of my roommates shops (he has four dollar-shops in Winnipeg, lots of cheap stuff can be bought there (gift cards, spices, party materials, decoration and so on)) he gave me a ride to the vendor of the bycicle. We were a bit surprised, the seller was a blue-collar worker with tattoos on both arms and long hairs and had a bit a scruffy ("ungepflegt") appearance. The price of $ 100 was binding, but it was fair because the bicycle was almost new. Afterwards I went buy a lock and some lamps/luminaries and I spent most of the eve "pimping my bicycle" *smile*
Now it will be better because I can move/go out even if there are no buses running ...

Yesterday I had to attend some administrative affairs, among other things I had to pay my fee at university. In fact because of an agreement with my school in Switzerland I have to pay no tuition fee but health insurance is mandatory (included in this fee) even if I'm insured in Switzerland - so I feel bad to pay over $ 400 for nothing ...
Later I was checking my canadian bank account and the bank employee had to give me some explanations about charges (20 transactions (drawings on own bancomats (ABM), payments (even in shops), inpayments ...) are free, every additional transactions costs $ 0.60, for a drawing at another bank they charge me $3 !!!). It seems that Canadians have to pay more charges than we do, instead they have higher interest rates.

Today I had only one lesson, most of my free time I did accounting homework. We are going really fast through the chapters of the book - unbelievable to me - it must be really hard for beginners! Also I heard that 40% will fail the exam. I still hope that's not true for me ...

Oktoberfest, Private Campus Party & much more

2005-09-19T00:44:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry, you have to wait longer for my new posts ... but I will try to keep you informed!

At Thursday I went to the Winnipeg Oktoberfest - I was curious to see an Oktoberfest in Canada. But to enter the Oktoberfest was still a problem: I left my passport home and the entrance control didn't accept my Swiss Identity Card (age verfication) - it was really stupid - we had to turn back home to take my passport.

The Oktoberfest was in a big hall downtown, there were different booth ("Feststände") where you could get some food or buy beer. The beer wasn't german, the Bratwurst was just a Hotdog and I missed the "Festbänke" (no translation for that in Leo). Nevertheless it was amusing and we had another good night in Winnipeg.

On Friday we had BBQ at university, I met again my welcome family. Afterwards we went to campus residence and we met anew the canadian guy, who served us whiskey coke 2 weeks ago! He is so a funny guy - we always have lots of fun. Later we went to another friends residence room and had some taiwanese, chinese and japanese noodles. It was an occasion to learn eating with chopsticks, of course we tried to slurpe ("schlürfen") as loud as possible ... *smile* Because I get lost with my bus schedule (there was no bus at one clock even if I was conviced about that) I had to take a taxi again (fortunately it's not so expensive) ...

Yesterday I should do some homework, but I did everything else. I was looking for a bowling center and that was really hard - so hard that we finally played billiard. It looks like that Bowling is less famous here than in Switzerland, I did 6 phone calls and there was no opportunity to play bowling (unbelievable!). One phone call was especially amusing: I was looking on Google Map for Bowling Lanes and one entry was entitled Asian Bowl - I called them to ask for a free lane but unfortunately it was an Asian restaurant (I took a while to understand it - there is a second meaning of "bowl"). To conclude: Do not always trust GOOGLE!

Later I had my first Mc Donalds burger, it was not really great (the same as in Switzerland) and it's easy to understand why people prefer other burger restaurants. A big difference are the prices, a menu costs you something over 5 bucks (~5 CHF).

Today I walked to university (no buses on sunday morning - sorry, I'm always complaining about public transportation) to do some sport. We played badminton and met some new people. One asian guy was very impressive, his smashs are so fast that you couldn't see the shuttle. Later on I had to do homework - accounting is still repetitive, but there is so much stuff to read (over 100 pages in 2 weeks!). Yeah and now it should be time to go to bed (01:31) and for you it's time to get off, isn't it? However, good night!

My room

2005-09-14T21:45:00.000-05:00

I promised that I would post a pic of my room ...

Good luck!

2005-09-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

I heard that my swiss schoolmates have to pass their exams right now! So I wish you all the best and hope to get good news soon ...

Alain Alone in Winnipeg

New Blog: Alain alone in Switzerland!!!

Hello Switzerland ... and last blog entry?

My last days in Winnipeg ... including broken eyeglasses ;)

Greyhound Trip Pictures online!

Vancouver Island, Vancouver and journey back to Winnipeg

Seattle & First Days in Vancouver

Welcome in Portland

Cable Cars, Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, ...

San Francisco

San Francisco ... yuppeee!!!

My days in SLC

Welcome in Salt Lake City :)

Ready for another trip?

10,600 km of roads ... and finally back in Winnipeg

Road Trip Pictures ONLINE!

Meet the parents :)

The best hostel ever ... ;)

Arriving in Washington & Say Goodbye

A fun day at Cedar Point (Sandusky)

Chicago - Cleveland

Welcome in Chicago :)

An exciting day in Minneapolis

First day: Traveling to Minneapolis

Farewell Parties & Good Bye

Two weeks more ... school is over now!!!

Northern Lights

I catch up ... a two week review :)

Do you like documentaries?

A crazy week ... *updated*

Road Trip? Any plans this summer?

Calling, Cars & Cooking ... (updated)

A study week ...

This and that ...

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

No internet access

How a broken car influences my daily life ...

Banff Trip Review

My worst day in Canada

Banff Trip

Bye Bye ...

There is a colder city in the world :)

The exams are over ... I'm ready for holiday ...

Test

Getting busy ...

Reading Week Trip

Everybody talks about Canada ...

Time to catch up ...

An exciting week ...

Fishing Sunday

University started again ...

New Year's Trip

The days between christmas and new year ...

Christmas Trip Review

Christmas Trip

Merry Christmas

Enjoying first days of holiday ...

Exams are over ...

A busy week or even not ...?

School is over ...

Swiss retrospection, American Customs & lots more (updated)

Column on Winnipeg Transit System

Baking, buying tires & winter stuff ...

Hockey, Mc Donald's, Movies ... a typical Canadian Saturday night

The Flu Shot & Jeans Searching

Presentation: Switzerland Business Culture

My cheapest movie ticket I've ever bought & Planning a trip for Christmas *Updated*

I got my insurance & a Manitoban Driving Licence *Updated*

It's getting colder *brrrhhh*

Crazy Friday & I finally bought a car ...

Again I have to look for another car ...

Still looking for a car, baking pizza & inviting some friends

Writing exams, buying posters and studying car ads

Halloween

Easy weekend ...

Who knows these chocolate brands ...?

I'm lazy ...

Geese Trip

The Baking Company: Tiramisu

Bonfire Party and my first grade

A crazy week ... updated

My cheapest movie ticket I've ever bought & Planning a trip for Christmas Updated

I got my insurance & a Manitoban Driving Licence Updated

It's getting colder brrrhhh