Apr. 17 – Desert Island
We (exchange students) went to Zurich on Friday for a clubbing night. I am never, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER going on ANY excursion again where I don’t have the freedom to leave when I want to. It’s almost as terrible as being stranded on a desert island. Dammit. Even though I say that, I know I’ll probably chance it again sometime in the future, because maybe, just maybe, it’ll be a good time. I already learned my lesson with these types of things last year. My frosh leader friends and I went on a 4- or 5-hour boat cruise/dance for the new froshies when we were in 2nd year. There were almost 10 of us. We were so bored that most of us were sitting down for at least the last 2 hours. There were people dancing upstairs, but the music sucked and it was cold. Two of my friends even fell asleep. I have pictures to prove it. It was also excruciating for me personally because I wore my turquoise stilettos, which are beautiful and sexy, but as painful as a medieval torture device after 2 hours of wear. That was the closest I came to crying in public for a long time.
Zurich before clubbing was not so terrible. I did eat at a McD’s for the first time in Europe. Look at the prices (picture)!!! Over 10 CHF for a combo. The people working there said, “No pictures” just after I got one haha! Another very funny thing: I saw a young woman walking down Bahnoffstrasse (i.e. equivalent of Yorkville Ave. in Toronto) dressed nicely, but wearing flip flops with the socks that have toes. I was gawking. After that, we (my roomies) sat next to the river, chatted, and drank beers. The rest of them went to another bar and we all met up at the club.
Clubbing in Zurich was terrible. I missed a clubbing night at The Elephant on Wednesday. I heard from everyone afterwards that it was such a good time and that they played good music (a rarity here). I was thinking that I’d have to make up for it in Zurich and party extra hard. But, it didn’t work out even as close as I had expected. In fact, I think it was the worst clubbing experience I have EVER had. I have had a few bad clubbing experiences in Toronto, but then, I could always leave and go home. Here, I was stuck until 4am, when the bus left to go back to St. Gallen. The music was terrible. Retro. And I don’t mean retro in a good way. At one point, the DJ played slow retro and people were slow dancing on the dance floor – like in middle school. I mean, he played Michael Jackson, songs from the movie Grease (and not Summer Nights), Jitterbug (?!), and so on, most of which I don’t know the names of. 90% bad retro; 8% house music, which I do not like at clubs; 1% bad hip hop (Will Smith); and 1% good hip hop (old Destiny’s Child). Seriously, there were less than 5 songs the whole night that I enjoyed dancing to, although I would have liked to have listened to some of these songs had I not been at a club. Jitterbug really reminded me of Goo, though, because we always sing it at karaoke!
Also, my feet were hurting, but I still would have danced if the music was semi-good. It was brutal. I wore my black round-toe pumps because I’d heard that people are so dressy in Zurich, but they weren’t. For the rest of the time that I’m in Switzerland, I WILL NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS! I will stick to my black sneakers. My roommates are holding me to it. The funny thing is, I can wear white shoes for a year and keep them super-clean, but I got my black sneakers dirty after less than a month of wear.
One good thing that I got out of clubbing: a bunch of really great postcards that say different things in German like “hug me,” “provoke me,” and so on. I can’t wait to put them up in my room.
Tired But Happy
Yesterday, I went to Konstanz again, but with a different set of roommates this time. We all slept about 4 hours after coming home from Zurich at 6am and then we got up to get on the train to Konstanz. We’re all troopers hehe. At one of the stations where we had to change trains, we heard a loud bang. When I looked, I saw that it came from one of the overhead electrical wires for the train. I joked that, if I wasn’t in Switzerland, I would’ve been on the floor or something hahah. I don’t think I literally would be on the floor, but I do feel really safe in Switzerland, especially in Zurich, because there’s always just enough people around. St. Gallen is always dead quiet at night – I might not even see 5 cars on a 20 minute walk from my friend’s house, and maybe not even another person walking.
We were really quiet and tired at first on the journey there, but we all had a coffee as soon as we reached our destination. In Switzerland, though, it’s really a pity if you don’t consider the journey a part of your trip, because it’s really gorgeous and special. Anyways, we went to a little sidewalk café in the old town. There’s no cars allowed and there’s tons of sidewalk cafes. I also had a huge piece of tiramisu and it was SO good – the best tiramisu I’ve ever had. I loved every single bite! Then, we went to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and had lunch at a little place next to the lake, which would be perfectly described by the word “lovely”.
Cora, Lisette, and I went straight to the shopping mall, because they wanted to shop and I’d already seen the old town. We spent 3 hours in ONLY Zara and H&M. I bought more black cargo pants from H&M. I have like 5 pairs of black cargo pants and I don’t wear most of them, but the ones that I bought I will hopefully wear. One pair is lined and perfect for days when I have to take the bus through a blizzard to York. Another pair is cropped and ripstop material and perfect for backpacking. I also bought a bright orange bracelet-length long-sleeve baseball tee from H&M.
At Zara, I found so many pretty dresses and skirts that I would love to wear, although they’re not really reasonable for me to buy at this time. Also, they’re ALWAYS too long for me. It’s so annoying. Anyways, I did FINALLY find some jeans. I’ve been having a really hard time finding a nice pair of jeans. There are some really ugly jeans being retailed right now and I don’t like any of that tacky stuff. Then, they have to fit perfectly. I got so exasperated that I had decided to just buy a pair as long as they were perfect and $100 or less. So, I finally bought a pair at Zara which I do think are perfect, except that I need to get them hemmed.
The thing with jeans is that, when you hem them, you really have to decide if they are going to be jeans that you’ll wear with heels, or jeans that you’ll wear with flats. For me, my heels are big enough that I can’t have a pair of jeans that I can wear with both heels and flats. Then it’s like I have to buy double the number of jeans to get the same “wearability”. My Miss Sixties are an exception, because they are a little bit too short for my heels, but it’s still fine. I was going to just buy another pair of Miss Sixties, because at least I knew that the fit was perfect, but at the store where I found Miss Sixties, the sizes started at like 29 or 30.
Anyways, we just had pizza after shopping and came home. I walked up the death-stairs with Christoph! There are several stairways that you can take to get to my house from the train station. The death-stairs are the stairs where the steps practically go all the way up the hill without any breaks. I thought I would maybe be able to walk up at the end of my time here, but I was able to do them just yesterday! I was really proud, but I never would have attempted it if Christoph hadn’t peer-pressured me into it.
Zurich before clubbing was not so terrible. I did eat at a McD’s for the first time in Europe. Look at the prices (picture)!!! Over 10 CHF for a combo. The people working there said, “No pictures” just after I got one haha! Another very funny thing: I saw a young woman walking down Bahnoffstrasse (i.e. equivalent of Yorkville Ave. in Toronto) dressed nicely, but wearing flip flops with the socks that have toes. I was gawking. After that, we (my roomies) sat next to the river, chatted, and drank beers. The rest of them went to another bar and we all met up at the club.
Clubbing in Zurich was terrible. I missed a clubbing night at The Elephant on Wednesday. I heard from everyone afterwards that it was such a good time and that they played good music (a rarity here). I was thinking that I’d have to make up for it in Zurich and party extra hard. But, it didn’t work out even as close as I had expected. In fact, I think it was the worst clubbing experience I have EVER had. I have had a few bad clubbing experiences in Toronto, but then, I could always leave and go home. Here, I was stuck until 4am, when the bus left to go back to St. Gallen. The music was terrible. Retro. And I don’t mean retro in a good way. At one point, the DJ played slow retro and people were slow dancing on the dance floor – like in middle school. I mean, he played Michael Jackson, songs from the movie Grease (and not Summer Nights), Jitterbug (?!), and so on, most of which I don’t know the names of. 90% bad retro; 8% house music, which I do not like at clubs; 1% bad hip hop (Will Smith); and 1% good hip hop (old Destiny’s Child). Seriously, there were less than 5 songs the whole night that I enjoyed dancing to, although I would have liked to have listened to some of these songs had I not been at a club. Jitterbug really reminded me of Goo, though, because we always sing it at karaoke!
Also, my feet were hurting, but I still would have danced if the music was semi-good. It was brutal. I wore my black round-toe pumps because I’d heard that people are so dressy in Zurich, but they weren’t. For the rest of the time that I’m in Switzerland, I WILL NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS! I will stick to my black sneakers. My roommates are holding me to it. The funny thing is, I can wear white shoes for a year and keep them super-clean, but I got my black sneakers dirty after less than a month of wear.
One good thing that I got out of clubbing: a bunch of really great postcards that say different things in German like “hug me,” “provoke me,” and so on. I can’t wait to put them up in my room.
Tired But Happy
Yesterday, I went to Konstanz again, but with a different set of roommates this time. We all slept about 4 hours after coming home from Zurich at 6am and then we got up to get on the train to Konstanz. We’re all troopers hehe. At one of the stations where we had to change trains, we heard a loud bang. When I looked, I saw that it came from one of the overhead electrical wires for the train. I joked that, if I wasn’t in Switzerland, I would’ve been on the floor or something hahah. I don’t think I literally would be on the floor, but I do feel really safe in Switzerland, especially in Zurich, because there’s always just enough people around. St. Gallen is always dead quiet at night – I might not even see 5 cars on a 20 minute walk from my friend’s house, and maybe not even another person walking.
We were really quiet and tired at first on the journey there, but we all had a coffee as soon as we reached our destination. In Switzerland, though, it’s really a pity if you don’t consider the journey a part of your trip, because it’s really gorgeous and special. Anyways, we went to a little sidewalk café in the old town. There’s no cars allowed and there’s tons of sidewalk cafes. I also had a huge piece of tiramisu and it was SO good – the best tiramisu I’ve ever had. I loved every single bite! Then, we went to the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and had lunch at a little place next to the lake, which would be perfectly described by the word “lovely”.
Cora, Lisette, and I went straight to the shopping mall, because they wanted to shop and I’d already seen the old town. We spent 3 hours in ONLY Zara and H&M. I bought more black cargo pants from H&M. I have like 5 pairs of black cargo pants and I don’t wear most of them, but the ones that I bought I will hopefully wear. One pair is lined and perfect for days when I have to take the bus through a blizzard to York. Another pair is cropped and ripstop material and perfect for backpacking. I also bought a bright orange bracelet-length long-sleeve baseball tee from H&M.
At Zara, I found so many pretty dresses and skirts that I would love to wear, although they’re not really reasonable for me to buy at this time. Also, they’re ALWAYS too long for me. It’s so annoying. Anyways, I did FINALLY find some jeans. I’ve been having a really hard time finding a nice pair of jeans. There are some really ugly jeans being retailed right now and I don’t like any of that tacky stuff. Then, they have to fit perfectly. I got so exasperated that I had decided to just buy a pair as long as they were perfect and $100 or less. So, I finally bought a pair at Zara which I do think are perfect, except that I need to get them hemmed.
The thing with jeans is that, when you hem them, you really have to decide if they are going to be jeans that you’ll wear with heels, or jeans that you’ll wear with flats. For me, my heels are big enough that I can’t have a pair of jeans that I can wear with both heels and flats. Then it’s like I have to buy double the number of jeans to get the same “wearability”. My Miss Sixties are an exception, because they are a little bit too short for my heels, but it’s still fine. I was going to just buy another pair of Miss Sixties, because at least I knew that the fit was perfect, but at the store where I found Miss Sixties, the sizes started at like 29 or 30.
Anyways, we just had pizza after shopping and came home. I walked up the death-stairs with Christoph! There are several stairways that you can take to get to my house from the train station. The death-stairs are the stairs where the steps practically go all the way up the hill without any breaks. I thought I would maybe be able to walk up at the end of my time here, but I was able to do them just yesterday! I was really proud, but I never would have attempted it if Christoph hadn’t peer-pressured me into it.
posted by lilswtamy at 3:44 p.m.
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