Switzerland - Zürcher Seeüberquerung

That is the crossing of Lake Zürich, which happened last week. Most frequently one would überquer a street--- or actually quer a street über, as it is a separable verb.

So scenic!

A friend from Germany was recently visiting me and we were talking about if I liked Zürich and why and a big part of my (somewhat flimsy) answer was the city's relationship with the water. With two rivers and a lake, the summer in Zürich is so chill. Go to a bar next to the Limmat, jump of the neighboring bridge and float down to the next one with your waterproof bag that houses your towel and wallet. So relaxed for a seemingly uptight city. Maybe it is because European cities were usually built next to rivers and lakes and that is not my experience from back home. Anyways, this event further exemplifies this notion.

Every summer (as long as the center lake gets warm enough {70F/21C?}, the city's sport department with several partners organizes a special day when anyone who feels physically capable can pay 20 francs and swim 1.5 kilometers across Lake Zürich from one public swimming area to another. The  course is set up with buoys and balloon towers to mark the way and kayaks and motorboats to keep other boats from crossing and to save anyone who gets tired.

The route: Mythenquai to Tiefenbrunnen.

I first heard about it last year, but it got cancelled because of the weather, despite the two make up days. This year I saw the advertisements in the tram, but didn't know my schedule and assumed it was something for which you needed to sign-up in advance and train (WRONG!). I was planning on doing it next year, with some proper training.

When I got to the office Wednesday morning, I received a group text to my frisbee team asking if/when they were meeting to do the swim. I had a pretty empty afternoon and thought Why Not? (I am trying to say yes to more things these days). Plus, who knows what the weather will be like next summer  - maybe it will get canceled again. I checked with my boss to make sure everything for our event the next day was set and then headed home to grab my suit and goggles at lunchtime.

It was even the nicer kind of swim cap (silicone) - that alone
is  worth half of the entrance fee.

The event website was very clear:

• This is not a competition! 
• There is no timing! 
• There is no registering! (The first ten thousand people who show up and pay are given a swim cap with a number which dictates your start time.... show up between two and six in the afternoon) 
• Decide for yourself, if you are in the right health state for this. Talk to your doctor if you aren't sure if you can handle it. 
• Included: swim cap, warm-up, gift, bag transport across the lake and risotto.
• Verboten: Cameras and flotation devices

On the bus ride there I was thinking about how I had not swum a lap since last September when I was rehabbing my knee (and that was only twice before I got a gym membership and switched to working out on an elliptical) and have not really been doing any sort of endurance workouts recently. I was relying on my experience swimming the 500 yard freestyle event for the high school swim team (almost 10 years ago!) to carry me through. I mean it is over a mile! But also shorter than you would typically swim in a swim practice (so totally doable)! But there is no resting or hanging on the wall! Back and forth in my mind the whole way there.

The crew. Changing the club charter to a swim club
 (or exploring opportunities in Water Ultimate... Underwater Rugby is already a thing, you guys)

I met my teammates (and a former teammate) at three, we got our start numbers, sun screened and watched the group before us do the warm-up. I thought warm-up meant there would be some part of the lake where you could swim a bit, but it was basically an aerobics class with music and an instructor and two backup dancers. So just imagine hundreds of people in bathing suits and caps stepping and dancing almost in unison. People who were just at the swimming area to escape the heat also joined in --- it was about 95F (quite warm for a country with very little air conditioning). When it was our turn, I didn't even fall over and mostly kept the rhythm.

The warm up from 2009 (Source: 20 Minutes {the free morning newspaper})

We started in heats of a few hundred swimmers (I don't know about our group, but the initial group was 800 people). The beginning was intimidating. The water was so cold and we all went in the water assuming everyone would be faster than us, so I was basically stuck behind layers of people swimming breaststroke without putting their heads in the water and chatting the whole time. I tried to squeeze between people to pass them so I could swim crawl (1500 meters of breaststroke - no way I would make that!) and was kicked in the ribs a few times. I made my way over to the fast lane, with no intention of being fast, but rather wanting to utilize the space that the fast folks left behind them. Life was much better over there!

View from the shore last year. "Fast swimmers" to the left of the balloons, "swimmers" to the right. (Source: postmedien.ch)

By the time I made it to  Buoy #1 the temperature was great and I felt accomplished for at least getting started and kept trying to do the math about how far I had left to go (they never said how many buoys there were). Luckily at 350m, 650m, and a few other intervals they posted the actual distances so I could gauge my progress. With each one I felt more confident that I could finish. I couldn't quite swim in a straight line, but it wasn't nearly as drastic as the time in middle school when I somehow swam under the lane lines (during backstroke?) and either finished or did my flip-turn in the (luckily empty) lane next to me. Leisurely freestyle with occasional directional reorientation and navigation around people, with no fatigue, in the sun- it was so nice and enjoyable.   

Even if your Swiss German is not tiptop, the video on this site will give you a good idea of the experience/scale.

I finished and went to the tent where volunteers were handing out drinks. I assumed that it was something like Gatorade, although at running races in Germany, I have seen them hand out beer and alcohol free beer. The cup was warm, but it was 90+F so I chalked it up to a lack of refrigeration and took a sip. BROTH! Soup. Not intuitively refreshing at all, but some how enjoyable enough that I went back for seconds while I was waiting for my teammates to finish.

We collected our gift water bottles, free risotto (it didn't have much taste, but to have dinner included at a sporting event that only cost 20 bucks was a nice touch) and carry-on sized sunscreen, then headed to a slightly less crowded and more shady area nearby for some swimming and a bit of a picnic. 

VERDICT: This was sooooo cool, despite growing up as a swimmer, I had never done an open water swim before. I think I would like to try to do more of it or just more swimming in general. I was on the faster side for this very causal event, but not for a competition - it would be nice to train a bit more seriously or at least with a goal in mind.

Also, talk about Swiss efficiency! Almost 9,000 people showed up at a the equivalent of a public pool (albeit with a very big lawn) over the course of 4 hours and made it across the lake with no preregistration. You would wait in a fairly short line (there were some surges when the nearby trams and buses arrived, but I don't think anyone waited more than 7 minutes) hand someone 20 francs in return for a cap that had a tag for your bag so you could pick it up on the other side, an instruction sheet and a meal coupon inside. 

This was on a mid-week afternoon-- that is a lot of folks skipping out on work (most of the people I was there with were teachers or PhD students, but that is still a pretty impressive crowd).

When I got home and checked my work email, I found out that more people had signed up for our workshop on Thursday and by the way we need you to moderate a workshop group. This caught me off guard, but my group ended up having a great discussion about sanitation supply chains :)

Enjoying a European summer so far! I'm off to Germany for a fun 4vs4 ultimate tournament next weekend, then hopefully a bit of enjoying/exploring Switzerland before a tentative Southeast Asia work trip in August.  

Spargelzeit!

... That means it is ASPARAGUS TIME! in Switzerland and Germany, but I will use it to refer to what I've been up to recently on the continent since returning from Tanzania, Haiti, and the USA. 

The restaurant we went to for a team dinner during Skybowl
(a local tournament) had an entire separate menu for items containing Spargel.

Spring has arrived in Züri and it is marvelous! My balcony garden has begun: a tomato plant, a pepper plant and some dill (so far). I'm back to riding my bike a little more and enjoying being out in about in the city; however, this sign was a little unsettling:

My new homebrew is ready. I tried to clone a Magic Hat #9 to no success. When I opened the first bottle over half of it spewed out as carbonation. It was drinkable, but sour and had much heavier apricot scent than what I was hoping.

Disappointing beer. Also in this photo: FC Bayern marvelously losing to BVB!

ZUF won Skybowl! Probably thanks to all the Spargel available on the menu the night before the upper pool games. Like last year, the chocolate trophy did not last long. 

Gewonnen!

Over the long May 1st weekend (it is labor day over here), I joined some friends from Munich (with whom I played in February in Stockholm) for the Bibione Beach Co-Ed Challenge. Their club sent three teams. The one I was on didn't do so hot on the field, but won both the spirit and party prizes. I tweaked something in my quad while throwing before warming up on the first of three days of playing, so was not very effective that day and was still working it out through the second day. By the last game on Saturday, I was feeling like I could almost go full speed and the woman who was marking me totally smashed my toe - it is still colorful and not totally bendable. Basically, I am getting old and need to remember that warming up is important (can't do much about preventing the toe issue though).

Most people on the team have red hats like the folks in film The Life Aquatic, the team's German namesake - Tiefseetaucher.

I recorded part of a module for a Massive Open Online Course for work.
It really could have gone better, but if you want to see it you can register here.

Nikolaustag - Switzerland

Samichlaus leaves presents in Swiss children's shoes for them to find on the morning of December 6th. I forgot to leave my shoes out, but I did go to a get together with some Swiss friends where we drank glühwein, ate lebkuchen, an baked Grittibänz.

The table was set with clementines and chocolate coins.

 I was the glühwein cook; it turned out a little sour, but I was just working with the citrus I was given.

Lebkuchen is much more cake-like than the German versions I have tried.
Warm with a bit of butter, yum!

 Grittibänz or Stutenkerle (sweet-dough guy) are (possibly) meant to be in the form of a bishop and are similar to gingerbread men, in the sense that they are human shaped.


Stutenkerle (+belly dancer kerlette) before...

and after. Delish!

Since Samichlaus already made his rounds, I was wondering if the consumer-Christmasness that has engulfed the city would subside, but it looks like Züri is in it for the long haul. Three Santas tried to give me fliers on my way out of the train station this evening.

Store display on November 5th.

 Much of the city is done up quite tastefully with white lights, dangling, draped, stars, and icicles. But each evening I get a taste of tacky lights on my bus ride:


It isn't so clear, but there are white, purple, and green lights. Some of them are chasers.
The lit trees on the overhang are there all year.
I can only assume that the man reflected in the bus window is aghast at the sight!

 I think that those are the only colored lights I have seen, with the exception of my own balcony. There is a single strand of multi-colored lights running from the plug, up to the awning, down the edge of the building, around the corner and halfway along the length of the railing. This leaves it looking a little incomplete, if  you ask me. There is even cord to spare, so lights needn't be wasted on going up to the awning.

The main design flaw with the lights is that there is not a plug on the end to chain stands together!

 

Letzigrund, Zürich, CH

Some of my German friends have equated the Swiss soccer league with the German fourth division. While this may be a bit of an exaggeration the stadium was less than three-fourths full at the recent FC Zürich - FC Basel match, I expected it to be at capacity considering that those two teams top the Super League table, separated only by a few points. Basically, this was Switzerland's El Clásico, but whole sections of the stadium were covered in grocery store advertisements and a huge banner from the opposition. Granted, the stadium was built for the 2008 European Championship and there is at least one other first league team in Zürich, the Grasshoppers. Since the teams are temporarily sharing the stadium, I hope the derby matches are a bit fuller.

 

Outside of the stadium was probably the dirtiest part of Switzerland. There we also lots of police in riot gear.

Beside the stadium, before the match.

My friends and I had tickets in the FCZ supporters section. I stood on a seat and ended up with a great view, even though we arrived right at kickoff.

 

FCZ conceded a first half goal and the Baslers set off fireworks and flares. It was much more than I had expected. After halftime, suddenly our section was full of lit flares. I don't know why - there was nothing to celebrate, neither team was doing much of anything exciting. Thanks to a handball in the box very late in the game, FCZ was able to pull even, but an even later goal (in the 4th overtime minute) for Basel left Züri with a loss. 

My view of the field, empty seats, adverts, smoke and flares. The FCB fans turned that Lion sheet around 360⁰- I don't know what exactly that was about, but it might be a symbol Lions flank the Zürich coat of arms and there are ice hockey, ultimate, baseball, lacrosse, and ice skating clubs here that use a lion as their mascot.

I also found out that there is a highly recommended slaughter house near the stadium, an adventure for another day.

Driving

I can count the number of times I have been in a car in Switzerland on my fingers. A Mobility car to move apartments, a van to Italy, a station wagon back, and a few taxi to get to meetings for work when the Swiss trains were running late (it happens!). I was not driving any of these vehicles. Nevertheless, if you stay in Switzerland for more than a year, you are not supposed to drive with your foreign license any more. In the event that I event do need to drive here in the future, I went through the process of applying for one. Even if I don't drive, it helps me establish/demonstrate residency and will ease transactions where I have to show ID (I've been using my residency permit, which isn't actually a legal proof of identity).

I downloaded a form off the internet, filled most of it out, then took it to a optometrist where I paid to take an eye exam with my glasses on. Then I went to my Circle's office so they could verify that I was who I said I was and send it off with my North Carolina license and a passport photo. 

I got a call the next day and was informed that I had forgotten to answer a question, my license was too new (I had just renewed it in October and there is no date saying since when I had gotten my initial license), and my photo was too pale.

See 4b? It means there is no expiration date!

One check mark, one photo, a scan of my previous licence, and a copy of my diving record (just to be safe) were sent back to them and two days later I received my new license and the old one (in a separate envelope), with a nifty "Not valid in Switzerland" sticker, which does not look very durable or official.

The whole process took nine days, about the same amount of time it took to get my renewal license back home. The internet told me this could take up to three months, so this was a pleasant surprise. It was also a fairly inexpensive process, 20 CHF for getting proof I am a person from the Circle, 20 CHF for the eye test and 8 CHF for new passport photos, which I need for some upcoming visa applications anyway. A steal compared to what bureaucratic actions usually cost here. *EDIT 10 DEC 2014: just got a bill in the mail for 85 Francs for the transaction... that's the Switzerland I've grown accustomed to :)*

USA!

I spent most of October in North Carolina, the first week was at a conference on Water and Health at the nation's oldest public university, followed by a speedy trip to Florida and Hogsmede, then some more time in NC.

After answering some questionable questions about my time in Kenya (it is on the other side of the continent from the ebola...), I was allowed through customs and was whisked off to what was formerly the best pizza joint in the city by my parents where we met some friends. The pizza took forever and was not that great, but they have one of the best beer-lists of any restaurant in the city.

Then we walked across the street to see my favorite bluegrass band, Chatham County Line, perform at the Neighborhood Theater. What a great way to say hello to NC after being away for ten months!

I caught a train to Raleigh where I presented and had a poster (about business model innovation and reaching scale in the water and/or sanitation sector) at the conference. There was a good mix of researchers, practitioners and funders in attendance and it seems as if what I am studying is interesting for them.

I probably shouldn't be looking at the screen, but the spotlight gave the monitor in front of me a glare. 

My parents drove up and cooked a southern meal for all of my colleagues. They survived the BBQ, sweet potatoes, green beans, coleslaw, and pecan pie to pose for this photo:

We were rolling deep at this conference!

Pops somehow figured that the best day to escape the Muggle world was a Tuesday, so I spent the weekend in Raleigh, got my one and only pumpkin latte of the trip, and caught the Sunday afternoon train home so that dad and I could drive down to Florida to visit Harry Potter World! That gets a whole photo post of its own.

Tasty! My turkey, avo, bacon, cheddar, mustardish sauce croissant was even better - Helios rarely steers me wrong.

Upon returning to NC, Ma and I headed up to see G-ma, who treated us to lunch in the fancy dining room (like where you need reservations) at the old folks' home. We then continued on to Raleigh where we horsed around with one of my Aunties and her horse, Jack.

Such a good teacher! Mom didn't want to ride, but soon had much better steering capabilities than me!
I got Jack to walk in a figure eight and over a bridge (with a stop in the middle).

After church (and the brunch that followed) on Sunday, we drove back to the western part of the state for a week of sports!

I caught this guy. I have apparently not learned how to hold a fish in a photo, guess I just need to catch some more!
(Also pretty unhappy with how that nail polish color turned out.)

Brisket, corn bread, cheese grits and butter green beans from 12 Bones, when Barack and Michelle eat when they are in Asheville. 

We went to the Charlotte Hornets opener. Dad started taking me to basketball games when I was a little kid, like couldn't go into the bathroom on her own little. I remember taking a notepad to one game and keeping a tally of the score. So it was really neat to see them come back to town (Back story: long ago the Hornets moved to Louisiana, Charlotte got a new team called the Bobcats, Bob sold the team to Michael Jordan, the Hornets (now of New Orleans) changed their name to the Pelicans, fans lobbied to bring the hornets name (and purple and teal branding) back to CLT). They weren't doing so hot, and in the third quarter were down by over 20, but they rallied and hit a buzzer beater, sending the game into overtime.... So now my mom thinks basketball is fixed.

Cool honeycomb court. 

The martini glass bottle opener new building downtown lit up purple and teal for the win!

The following evening the Panthers lost to the Saints (American football). We tailgated with some neighbors down town. The new baseball stadium was open for concessions and beer. It seems pretty cool, hopefully I'll be in town when the Knights are playing some time.

U-S-A!

The big news around the stadium is these new giant screens. Maybe that is what was causing the QB to throw so darn high!

Halloween involved lunch at one of my favorite diners, a visit to the house I grew up in (my old bedroom is now a sizable closet), and heckling trick-or-treaters with some family friends.

Yum! Small block southern style with a side of fried okra!

This is (the garage of) where we used to live. We moved out 15 years ago and the garage is still the same.
We painted it like this when it became the kid's hangout. The dartboard was still on the wall! The house had been greatly expanded and is back on the market.

I thought of it too late, but it would have been cool to recreate this photo while we were there, but I didn't have any pumpkins.

No Halloween is complete without eyeball stew.

A few more days of packing, eating and hanging out with the perma-pup and it was time for:

My goodbye America breakfast. (Belgian waffle, two scrambled eggs with ketchup and coffee)

My goodbye America lunch. (mac'n'cheese, squash, deviled egg, tomato soup and a biscuit)

Thanks USA! That was a crazy on the go few weeks. Hopefully, next time I will have some more relaxation time built in. I'll be back for a really quick trip at Christmas!

Summer

I was gone for ultimate or work quite a bit over the summer. Between practices, tournaments, workshops and conferences I was at home for something like four weekends in four months, which provided content for the travel blog, but it is  really strange now to have some free time. I don't really know what to do (I spent this weekend in bed and on the porch with a nasty cold).

I did try to cultivate some hobbies while I was in Zürich. I had two such endeavors over the summer. A balcony tomato vine and my first continental foray into homebrew. While neither turn out perfect, the second way much closer to be considered a success.

I grew up in the garden. I am pretty sure I got into college because I wrote about playing in the compost pile. Growing a potted tomato vine on my balcony couldn't be that difficult, could it? I got three slightly larger than cherry-tomato sized tomatoes from my vine, but at one point I didn't think I would get any. By the time the last tomato was close enough to ripe to pick, there were no leaves left on the vine.

I guess I didn't realize the importance of tomato stakes.
(this was after I untangled it from the rosemary bush) 

So, I built my own, with special levels to accommodate the
existing vine branches. The poor vine had been through enough!

But soon the leaves yellowed and dropped:

A call to my dad diagnosed it with "the blight"
Plucking the bad leaves did not stem the spread.

Not all hope was lost, they continued to ripen:

48 hours difference.

In the end, they were eaten unceremoniously as a trio, with just a little salt and pepper. An afterthought, as I was rushing out the door to catch my flight to Stockholm.

Homebrewing was slightly more successful. It ate up a lot of refrigerator space and had my neighbors ask me to keep the noise down (bottling took much longer than expected), but it was fun + science-ish and now I have just over two Kiste-s of trinkbar beer (a Kiste is a plastic crate that Germans buy beer in, which makes it easier to transport and take back to the store to get your deposit back).

  

Part of the process. Yes that is pantyhose over a strainer.

Measuring the specific gravity (inverse of the density)

All set up to ferment in my room. Quickly moved
to the basement due to noise and temperature.

To keep the temperature down I filled discs with water, which was
pulled up into the towel and due to physics (chemistry?) lowered
the internal temperature by a few degrees Celsius.
Thanks Internet for the idea!

I waited some weeks, monitoring the specific gravity to see when fermentation changed, then bottled, put the bottles in the fridge and waited four more weeks and voila:

Pröschtli!

It is fine to drink and actually pretty tasty, just a little strange, because it isn't filtered, so there is some yeast in the bottles. It is also a little, ummm, unevenly carbonated, so it is best to open a new bottle over the sink :) My bottle caps are lime green - still working on a label. Stop by and test it out yourself!