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 :)*

Thanksgiving (early)

Well confiscate my passport, I thought Thanksgiving was the third Thursday of November. This is a notion that I was dispossessed of after sending an email around, which invited several friends/colleagues over to my house on the 20th for turkey and pumpkin pie. I decided to stick with the false date, since I will be giving my first university lecture on "real" Thanksgiving (45 minutes on market based approaches for environmental services to engineering students at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, one of two federal engineering schools in Switzerland - the other is here in Züri) and will not have time to tend a turkey. (O/T: Any teaching/lecturing tips!?!)

In preparation, I collected recipes and put them into a spreadsheet to figure out my shopping list. I also went to one of the big grocery stores, on the outskirts of town, to buy a frozen turkey. On the big day, I went to my kreisbüro (city office for my area) to apply for an extension to stay in Switzerland and for a Swiss drivers licence. Then I went to the local supermarket to get all the ingredients, except for the parts of the pumpkin pie, which I had bought the previous afternoon because I thought I would have time after practice and World Toilet Day to bake, and the ingredients I had brought form the USA (brown sugar, canned pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice, which I didn't end up using).

First off I baked the pumpkin pie, so it could cool. I followed a recipe for the Ultimate Pumpkin Pie (I used actual spices instead of "pumpkin pie spice"), which turned out quite well. I did not notice a big effect from the apricot preserves, but they certainly did not hurt. If I make it again, I will use a thicker layer. Luckily, I grabbed an extra crust at the store (thinking I'd have time to whip up a second pie), since the one I bought the day before was not big enough. I bought the smallest pie tin at the store, so why they sell pie crusts that are smaller I do not know!

One of my guests brought an apple pie, so my lack of baking a second pie was a-o-k!

Next came the things that needed to be baked, but could be reheated after the turkey was done: stuffing, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes. I prepared the stuffing according to a recipe my dad had sent when I was living in Germany the first time, back in 2005, and  there were some issues with how it turned out the first time: my LJ (blog) from that time attests to me telling the Germans that it was a "Bread Salad"! Well, after being in the oven for 20 minutes, it was starting to have that sort of bread salad feel, so I looked up other recipes... most of which involved adding broth to the mixture of butter, bread, onions, celery and herbs, so I poured some stock and a whisked egg over the salad, re-stirred, and re-baked at the same time as the sweet potatoes. The outcome was fantastic - it kept it's shape even when the walls of the spring-form pan that I baked it in were taken away!

While the stuffing was in the oven the first time, I was trying to make something that could act as cranberry sauce. You can't get fresh cranberries here (not that I looked very hard), so I got some dried ones and simmered them in orange juice and zest, sugar, and water. After they had plumped up and cooked down, I added a bit of corn starch to thicken it. Unfortunately, in the chaos of setting the food out on the table, this got left in the fridge.

The sweet potatoes were easy an delicious. Everyone was really excited about how good the tasted -multiple guests added "especially for being so healthy." It was rather difficult to explain the massive amount of butter and brown sugar involved. (I easily used over a pound of butter across all the recipes).

Now it was turkey time. This was my first time cooking a full bird (I had steamed turkey parts for Thanksgiving in my oven-less apartment in Madrid and have avoided hosting duties in the interim), but this lil'guy didn't come with gizzards. Cradling the full bird in order to rinse out the cavity was a strange sensation. I plopped it onto the rack in the roasting pan over veggies, then spread herbs around the insides, added some additional sprigs, and tucked the legs through a whole in skin. Then I doused the outside in butter and massaged salt, pepper and herbs into the skin. I then surrounded the bird with some more veggies and put it the oven.

Pretty textbook... 

The turkey was doing its thing, I made deviled eggs and Brussels sprouts.

You know it is a promising recipe when you have to add
butter to the bacon grease you have already collected.
Oh, and brown sugar!

Once the turkey was done, I made gravy, while the stuffing, sweet potatoes, and green been casserole (which someone had brought) were reheated.

There was another american on hand to assist with the slicing (the apple pie provider).
Also in this photo: the pink-ish soup in the upper left-hand corner is chesnut-red wine soup
a solid and genuine effort from my flatmate, but I would not recommend it! 

How many people does it take to slice a turkey?
There is one good to great knife in my flat and I coudl not find it for this...
I suppose it was napping after working on all veggies all afternoon!

So good!

And there were leftovers! (It may be bad to say, but the leftovers are my favorite part...) I made soup, but set aside enough so that I can take a few turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce for lunch this week.

Thanks to all of my guests for providing me with an excuse to cook this much food and to my parents who gave me recipe guidance (Dad's turkey advice makes up for the (nine year old!) incomplete stuffing procedure).

World Toilet Day (belated)

Wednesday was World Toilet day. Celebrations around the world included Urgent Runs and Big Squats in order to raise awareness of the un-safe sanitation conditions faced by over 2 billion people today.

Right now I basically live in a water and sanitation paradise (and I am Thankful for it!). Even if my apartment did not have three sinks, a shower, a tub, a toilet and a dishwasher, there are over one thousand fountains around the city that continually spout drinkable water. 101 ZüriWCs (public toilets) are dotted across the city so there is almost always somewhere “to go” without having to sneak into a MickeyD’s. They are free and cleaned at least twice a day (you have to pay a frank to use the handicapped stalls, unless you have an eurokey, which helps keep these spaces cleaner for those who really need them.) The motto of the ZüriWCs is «Sauber und Sicher» or "clean and secure"-- something of which billions of people can barely dream. While I would not want to rely on fetching brunnenwasser or finding/waiting for a ZüriWC, these options are great conveniences when I am out and about. Going for a run? No need to bring a water bottle!

Clockwise from right: The WC and key/coin slot, one of the more modern water fountians (the one nearest to my house was built in 1804; and a map to locate all of the other toilet options in the area)

This is the style of toilet we have at my office—complete with instructions in two languages! It was one of the things that sold me on working here. When there is pressure on the seat a valve opens, so all the pee (or whatever is in the front portion) flows down a separate set of pipes to a tank in the basement where it is automatically treated: the unit produces concentrated liquid fertilizer and distilled water, which is recirculated and used to flush the toilets. Rainwater (and it rains a lot) is also used for flushing.

Celebrations in Zürich were organized by a few NGOs and a local composting toilet company.
The festivities included a display of toilets from around the world and through history, a sample of unique artisan toilet lids that are being auctioned on ebay to support a water charity (after being displayed in a gallery), and the conversion of one of Zurich's fountains into the Manneken Pis all in the well trafficked posh shopping area.

I checked it out after work with some colleagues.

The presence of a toilet being designed at the office was requested,

 but couldn't make it since it was being shown to potential investor.

(photo from facebook)

A "throne" in front of the local Hermès.

Some nice decoration!

The sign says 2.5 billion people have no WC.

How did/would you celebrate World Toilet Day?

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!

Hogsmeade

During my recent visit to the US, I took a quick side trip down to Florida and somehow wound up back in Europe (all I know is that we traveled through the 1950s). It was magical. There was snow on the roofs, even though it was 86°F. I knew, generally, that Florida was warm, but didn't check the weather before we left.

First off, BIG THANKS to pops for being a sport and driving all the way while listening to an HP audio book.

The vintage-style hotel we stayed in was part of the resort and was really cool. Multiple pools, a lazy river, a gym, a shuttle bus we never had to wait for long, discounts at Margaritaville and most importantly the privilege of entering the park an hour early. (Only problem is that the walls are a little thin - I sneezed and the neighbor said, "Bless you!")

First stop: the goblin run bank! These guys are animatronic and move (someone I showed this photo to thought that they were real people in costume). This was also the first stop of almost everyone else who was allowed into the park at 7AM.

The goblin robots aren't so great at posing.

Such detail! This was a house-elf dealer storefront (wasn't actually a store). 

Pretending to go into Order HQ.

After exploring Diagon Alley a bit, we had some time to kill before the train to Hogsmeade departed, so we rode the Transformers ride - I'm pretty sure I saved the world during it. The Shrek 4D experience was okay, but the room they have you wait in was pretty entertaining.

If they have magic, why do they need all that coal? It seemed like the line for the Hogwarts express was the longest/slowest one we waited in all day. 

Sipping on some butterbeer (very vanilla-y) with an early lunch at the Three Broomsticks .
There is no way I could have drunk a full serving of this.

Such a dramatic looking school.

A pensive for your thoughts.

After riding the rides and checking out the shops in Hogsmeade, we took a lap around the rest of the park. I really liked the "The Hulk" ride, so many twists, accelerations, loops, and just upside downs! And pretty much no line! Then it was back to Diagon Alley for dinner and shopping; we had hoped to ride the Gringotts ride again, but there was something wrong... maybe they realized what had escaped from it earlier...

Beard bags for sale!

This was not on the menu, but my peanut butter-strawberry ice cream was delish!

Captured the dragon breathing fire on digital film!

I thought this shirt from the Magical Menagerie was perfect for my lil'sis, but dad said no :(

Overall, the trip was great! I can imagine going in the summer! It was hot and (the HP parts) were kind of crowded as it was. Since traffic was lower, we had time to look at other parts of the parks and take an afternoon nap a break to watch Champions League.

I prefer the old-school roller coasters to the ones where you wear 3-D glasses and are surrounded by screens as you are moving.

It was a really neat experience- walking around a few blocks that have been fairly carefully curated to be a world that only exists in books or on the screen. I made my coffee this morning in my souvenir beer mug from the Hog's Head and have my a quddich club pennant hanging on my wall. They had a lot of cool merchandise, but nothing as awesome as the Ravenclaw quiddich hoodies a friend and I made in high school (I do not have a digital image, but will scan it once I am home again for Christmas).