sunshine and birdsong

the sun came back today. it's been incredibly gorgeous outside this afternoon; which conveniently coincided with today being a national holiday [rolls eyes]. i still can't get over the fact that bizzare liturgical holidays (good friday?) are sanctioned by the government as bank holidays here.

went running again; farther this time, but still not so much. i feel like i'm gaining weight again, and i don't know what to do about it. i try as hard as i can, but it often seems like nothing ever helps.

the birds were out in full force, chirping their chirps and squawking their squawks and in general just giving the impression that they somehow have a hell of a lot to talk to each other about. i wonder what they talk about. it seems silly that they would bother to make that much noise and not be transmitting any information.

last night, daniel defended his thesis, and graduated---yay him! i hope i get to that point someday. yeah, i know it's pretty likely that i will [knock on wood], but somehow it still seems an awfully long way off.

he also threw a big party afterwards, and i helped run the barbeque with gilles and mikel. it was a very nice evening, even if i probably ate (and of more immediate relevance, drank) a little more than could be easily considered prudent. i stayed to help them clean up, and we didn't get out of there until nearly 3:30am, so after walking home (the busses stop at midnight; walking took about an hour), i was all but dead on my feet. this brings us back to the fact that even though i don't understand _why_ today is a national holiday, i still very much appreciate that it _is_. :)

one last sidenote: i'm slowly succeeding in converting people to speaking with me in french. it's still not a particularly efficient method of communication (my fault), but some of them are finally catching on that i do really want to learn. for instance, jean-christophe and fred will now consistently speak to me in french, and even give second explanations in french when i look confused, rather than immediately falling back to english, like everyone else. i suppose i shouldn't be too hard on daniel, seeing as it was his night and all, but he's probably the worst about this kind of thing. no matter what i say to him, he always responds in english; even if i continue in french, he persists in english. this makes for a reasonably bizarre spectacle (a dual language conversation with neither of us speaking our native language).

this must be where pies go when they die

last night was awesome.

after several months of talking, and not much doing (both on my part), i finally got the twin peaks started, and it seems to have been a success---if for no other reason, then just because on my first such event, i already put the smackdown on markus's 'movienight' (in quotes because we never seem to watch movies anymore) by having three (count 'em) women present. hahahahaha. (the 'movienight' regulars are always complaining that there are no girls present.) of course, though, then they tried to change the rules by claiming that it didn't really count, since one was married and another fianceed. [rolls eyes] there's just no pleasing some people...

but really, it was a great time, and we packed my tiny little apartment nearly to capacity (while keeping everyone reasonable comfortable); there must have been around twelve of us (hrm... in order of arrival: me, ildar, dena, conlin, helen, jim, markus, fabius, leah, sylvain, sean, enno... did i forget anyone? don't think so. well, that makes twelve alright). what was even crazier was that we somehow achieved a critical mass of americans; with six of us, we weren't the minority anymore. :)

i made a huge pot of corn chowder, and good thing, since by the time everyone left there were exactly three tablespoons remaining in the bottom of the pot. it lacked a little bit of salt, but that was easily remedied, and people raved over it. i tried to make sure i was stocked with drinks (i had amassed a pretty decent assortment of juices, soft drinks, and spirits) and then we just ended up going through the 4 bottles of wine that various people brought anyway. [shrug] it's funny how you can never really predict what people are going to do; in fact, about the only thing you can predict is that they most certainly will not do whatever it is you expect or want them to... haha.

oh, and on the food note, i had sent markus out after donuts, since he had heard of a new shop near the train station that supposedly made the real thing (not very common here). i mean, come on, it's twin peaks; there's gotta be donuts! anyway, i gave him what i hoped would be way too much money (though in switzerland you never know, and it usually isn't), and told him to go for 3 dozen, just to be safe. he got there and the guy laughed at him before explaining that there were only 4 left. the hell?!?!? what kind of self-respecting shop can have the nerve to call themselves a _donut_ shop, and yet let their inventory fall as low as FOUR pieces? that's just insanity, plain and simple! [throws hands up in frustration] so we cut them into little tiny pieces and passed them around. it was hilarious in a sad sort of way. :) next week we will try to call ahead. (though i am a little sticker-shocked; the singles were 2.80 each, and while i persist in hoping for a volume discount, such things are rather rare in switzerland...)

around nine, i popped in my [veeerry expensive] hongkong bootleg dvd of the pilot episode (i explained that fiasco in an eariler post, didn't i? well, speak up, if you're confused) and let them debate about whether or not we should turn on the subtitles---which, by the way, happen to be in something more like 'engrish' than 'english' (seriously, it's pretty pathetic at points). we had them on for a while, and then people were laughing so hard we had to turn them off, and then later we put them back because some people were having trouble understanding (the sound isn't very well mixed, so it's hard even for me to understand at certain points).

in the end, everyone sounded excited to come back next week for more, so i'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. my only apprehension is that if we increase by more than a couple people, we might need to move to a different venue---which would completely undermine my underhandedly sneaky plan to trick people into coming all the way over to my side of the city to visit me. :)

the twelve hour fight for middle earth

saturday, markus and i went to antoine's parent's house in geneva, where antoine has converted the garage into a finished living space with an amazing home theatre setup. he had originally invited lots of people, but it ended up just being the three of us. i didn't mind; i still had a great time. anyway, the purpose of the whole event was to screen all three of the lord of the rings movies, in sequence (extended versions, of course). it was really cool. we took breaks between each of the six discs, and had a nice dinner in there somewhere, but when it comes down to counting, it's still nearly twelve hours worth of film. wow. i think we started around noon, and finished by about 3am.

the original plan was that we would then go skiing in france on sunday, but of course they overslept (well, i didn't wake them up either, so i suppose it's as much my fault as any), so that didn't end up happenning. with the weather we've been having, i'm not sure the snow would have been any good anyway. god, the weather was so gorgeous. we spent most of the day just out playing in the yard, or laying in the sun on the grass and talking.

oh, and i almost forgot the most important part---also in this converted garage, they are storing (for his mom's cousin?) a fabulous (and huge) steinway. i guess she doesn't have room for it, so they put it there, and she brings her students there to teach lessons. i played on it basically every spare moment i had saturday and sunday. now, don't get me wrong, i love my baby here at the apartment (a korg triton pro-x), and i bought it because it has an amazing feel as far as electric controlers go, but it's really impossible to beat the real thing... god, i want one of those. it was so beautiful...

actually, on the way there saturday morning, we took mototaka to the ikea, and he hopped the train back. we also went in to help him, and look at a couple things. it was kinda crazy. that poor doesn't get out anywheres near enough. we try, but he always comes up with some excuse. anyway, as cliche as it sounds, watching him in there really was kinda like seeing "a kid at disneyland." and he was having almost as much trouble with decision making as steve does. (haha. sorry dude, i know that was a pot-shot; i'm sure you'll get me back for it later. [grin]) i tried to find a cupboard suitable for my disaster of a kitchen (by this point, i've acquired pretty much all the tools i need, the problem is now i don't have places to put it all! [rolls eyes]). and of course, i failed. or, rather, they didn't have anything that met my specifications. eh, even if they did, i'm sure it would have been too expensive anyway. markus and i did end up buying some more plants for our offices though.

today we had the last of the "demo marathon" at work. it was the big inauguration ceremony for the new building, and they had the minister of education (pascal couchpin) coming to visit, so we had to put on a good show. i still haven't gotten the new demo to work reliably (which really ticks me off), so vlad and i had to just use the old one, again. but alcherio seems happy, and i'm certainly glad that it's all over, so "all's well that ends well," or so we like to think, right? now i'm back to the "oh-my-god i have to write a paper for the damn SIS conference by april 22" mode. sheesh. it never stops.

hey, but twin peaks starts on wednesday! (i've invited lots of people, and i'm going to try to make it an every wednesday thing to see a couple of episodes. we'll see what kind of turn out i get.)

who needs spring when you can skip straight to summer?

wow, it's been a while. probably the page should have been replaced with those color test bars they used to put on television when there was nothing to show...

what has been happening to me recently, anyway? that _is_ a pretty good question.

well, at the moment, the sun is shining and there's hardly a cloud in the sky; the weather has been positively gorgeous since sunday. it was totally crazy; like somebody decided to turn winter off with a light switch. but it was definitely getting to be about time for it---up until last week, we were still getting a couple inches of snow every two or three days. it always melted pretty quick, like within 24-36 hours, but then i would wake up the next day, and there would be another layer on my balcony again. i remember one morning in particular (it was a wednesday, i think) when i was riding the metro into work in the morning, and for some bizarre reason, the unusually large flakes of snow just hung immobile in the air, without falling. must have been the wind, or the motion of the train, or something, but the effect was really surreal. like in the movies where time stops, and you walk around looking at the frozen things. very beautiful; very trippy.

if this sunny streak holds out, probably next week i'll go buy seeds and try again to plant my balcony garden this year.

i've actually been up snowboarding again twice since last i wrote. good god, it's so amazing. i can't get over how much fun it was once i rented a real board and ditched the piece of crap i was using the first time (in january). i got some confidence back, and had a blast. oh, and what's more, i guess the snow in the northwest has been really crappy this year, so all the equipment is super-cheap, and dad found an incredible deal for me on a very nice snowboard, so next season, i'll even have my own stuff! i'm really looking forward to it. (for any snow-geeks out there who might care, it's a 2005 burton custom 154 with the white custom bindings to match; all together, it was only about $400. it's gonna rock.)

started another french class on tuesday. it's in the evening (6-8), which is simultaneously both convenient and a little irritating, but i think it will work out well in the end. there's actually more women than men in the class, which could make for a different dynamic, seeing as this is really the only such group i've participated in since getting here. (most of the people i know are the people i work with or near, and the ratio here at epfl is even worse than caltech, if you can imagine that.) oh, and i ended up just going into the next class in my sequence (B1), even though ildar had convinced me to go and try to take the test for passing into B1+. i mean, he had a point--it's better to be the worst in a class than the best--but i didn't quite pass the test to make it to the next level. my score was right on the borderline for the written, and then when she spoke to me, i don't think she was very happy with my verbal grammar skills (though she mentioned that my vocabulary was pretty good). it's hard to tell (after only one class) where i will fit into this group. my verbal skills are very bad (i'm the first to admit that), but in terms of general knowledge and aural comprehension, i'm tempted to guess that i could very well be towards the top of the class. i just want to improve, that's all. and i'm as impatient as ever. sigh.

a week ago tuesday, enno and i made samosas from the recipe that sarah sent me. jesus christ, they were fucking *delicious.* i have no way of judging if they were in any way authentic at all, but at least they reminded me of things i had had in indian restaurants in the united states, so that made me happy. god i love indian food. i really need to learn to make more of it. oh, and that was when i finally got to present enno with his christmas gifts---three months later. [rolls eyes] but again, he seemed appreciative, so that's all that really mattered to me.

so many things have happened. i need to be more diligent in keeping up...

let's see... jean-christophe defended his thesis, and is now officially "dr. zuffrey." he threw a big party afterwards, and the whole event was a lot of fun.

jim and fabius and i went to the theatre to see "ray," which was excellent. i wasn't sure what to expect going into it, but i definitely came out feet a-tappin' and fingers a-snappin' -- i totally want to try to get some of his albums now (i'd never really heard any of his music before). it will probably be interesting to see how closely they kept to what the music really sounded like, or if they had to schnazz it up for a more modern audience. which would be a real shame, especially since it would make me feel like a total tool for liking what they did to it... well, let's just hope that it always rocked this much.

i'm finally getting off my ass, and have announced that twin peaks will officially begin next wednesday (march 23) with the pilot episode, and we will be continuing on wednesdays until we finish the series. now i'm just trying to find a donut shop in lausanne (you can't watch twin peaks without donuts---it's just unnatural).

okay, i think that pretty much brings us up to speed. probably i've forgotten some things, which will now be forever lost in the sands of time, but i guess i just have to try to do better next time... hope the things i forgot weren't too important. :)