Contact Noemi

On-arrival-Training in Sarajevo

2009-08-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

The European-Voluntary-Service (EVS)-Programme includes several trainings. The first one is the pre-departure-training, usually in your home-country where you get prepared for your EVS, talk about fears and hopes and motivation to be an EVS-volunteer. The second one is the On-Arrival Training in your host country. For the countries of South Eastern Europe, to which Serbia belongs, the situation is a little bit special, so all the EVS-volunteers of Bosnina and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia met in Sarajevo for their On-arrival-training.
So from the 1st to the 6th of June I met with 22 other volunteers coming from whole Europe, doing her EVS in the Balkans to attend this training. We shared our first experiences in our host countries, talked about our host-organisations and projects, about problems and things that are going well. In a special card game we got aware of the difficulties to behave correctly when you don’t know the rules, the same situation we meet in real life during our EVS, when we don’t know the unwritten laws and rules of the new culture we are living in. Another part of the training was dedicated to the EVS as a learning service. In the EVS should be space not only for non-formal, non planned, spontaneous learning, but also especially for informal learning, meaning learning out of official institutions, but being aware of our learning. With regard on this we were encouraged to set up a learning plan with defined learning objectives to achieve during our EVS.
Out of the official programme the On-Arrival-Training was a great opportunity to connect with other volunteers, to build friendships and make contacts for future travels. Of course we also used our free time to discover the amazing city of Sarajevo, having a walk in the centre and trying the famous cevapi and Bosnian coffee and sweets. Sarajevo is completly different of all cities I've visited so far...it really has this kind of oriental charm, altough it is too touristic for my opinion you can feel that athmosphere...the skyline is dominated by mosquees and in the ottoman part of the old town all the shops have small benches outside, there are this carpets and scarfs for sell everywhere and even in the most touristic center you may get in to a conversation with some local people. When I was searching shelter from the rain in an small shoemakers workshop the shopseller and shoemaker kindly invited my to a coffee and I had to promise to visit him again if I come back to Sarajevo. :-)

Beograd III

2009-07-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

Beograd again...the fortress Kalemegdan and old ships by the river Sava...

Beograd II

2009-07-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

Some more pictures of the serbian capital...

Beograd-Capital :-)

2009-07-30T05:32:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I've been in Belgrade but here finally some pictures...Belgrade...so different from Novi Sad or Subotica...very busy, noisy town, full of huge, grey, important buildings, old orthodox churches, coffeeplaces and bars everythere, on all the streets, not only on nice ones, many people on the streets, girls in very sexy cloths, bussinessmen, beggars, gypsis, too much cars, horrible traffic, small shops, worskhops, some nice old streets, modern buildings,dirty squares and sidewalks and very clean, fancy ones, a beautiful old fortress on the river Sava, a lifely pedestrian street an old "bohemian street" with romantic restaurant and traditional live music in the evenings, interesting graffitis and many buildings still showing the dammages of the war in 1999...It's a huge mess, and a living metropole, yes, you really feel it is the Capital! :-)

Finally

2009-07-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hi, I am really sorry, it's a long time since my last blog and this one will not be that long either...and without any pictures :-( Internet connection is to slow and my pictures have to high resolution and somehow I managed to delete picasa again..so no chance...I am not going to waste two hours behind my pc just to put some pictures, even if they are very nice...you know, I actually shouldn't even write this post, but should go to sleep IMMEDIATELY!! Tomorrow, or actually allready today, early in the morning I will have to get up to start my bike trip to Dubrovnik. My brother Seth and my friend Lionel started it today allready, tomorrow evening I'll catch them up in Novi Sad. Then we will go down to Valjevo and cross the Serbian-Bosnian Border near Visegrad, later continue to Sarajevo and Mostar and finally Dubrovnik. I am really looking forward to that trip...I hope to meet interesting people, to get to know more about these countries and to see new landscapes...
But, you see, I really need to sleep...so again, I say I'll write more about last months adventures in a later post...there is a lot to tell anyway...about my EVS-trainings in Sarajevo and Ohrid, about my travels to Makedonia as well, about EXIT-festival and about my so called "every-daylife" in Subotica...

Another walk around Subotica

2009-05-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

I wanted to put this pictures for a long time allready...but so much things happened in the last weeks, I was constantly very busy and never had nor time nor a real will to blog and to loose to much time in the internet. Unfortunately the internet connection in the dormitory is very slow...so every post costs me about half an hour...and regarding that I am here in Serbia for less than fith months half an hours is a lot of precious time I could dedicate to discover the place and to get to know better the people I met so far.
Still it some times happens that I am just going on a walk trough the center by my own and taking pictures of things and places that seem interesting or characteristic to me. It's not necesseraly nice places, but they have something special.
So that's some pictures of the non turistic and not nice side of Subotica, that still has some kind of charm.
At least I think so.
I also planned to make some posts about my trip to Belgrade and Novi Sad on the weekend of 16th of May and on the Activities we had for the Day of Europe on the 9th of May and then on my every day life here and on friends and people I visited and on some small excursions I did in the nature around Subotica. But as the internet connection is really terribly slow today and I have a lot of things to do before I catch my bus for Sarajevo (I have to go to an EVS-training there) this nights...I just won't have time to do so today...So bit of patience please :-)

Home sweet home :)

2009-05-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

As I probably allready told you my room here is really tiny....but I somehow managed to arrange all my staff...creating every day something new, some decoration and so one...So here some pictures of my little home here...as it looks now. There is my "Nobody-Loves-Me-Corner" :) where I put all your letters, pictures and so sone to convince me that, ther ARE poeple, who love me, whenfever I feel like lonely. :)
Oh yes, in this corner is also the frog I got from my flatmates for my last birthday...keeping my curtains out of the window...if not my room would be much to dark.
And then I have an installation for my earrings...they serve me as decoration...:-)
Oh, and I also made some bookshelfes out of empty boxes...my room is really getting kind of cosy...so I had the plan to invite some friends for a tee-evening this night...but unfortunately my room is belonging to a student dormitory that has the rule, that nobody, not living here, has the right to stay in my room after 9.30 pm. A tee-evening from 9.15 to 9.30 doesn't make a lot of sense.

Some more of Trenchtown

2009-05-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

Trenchtown...was really a good time...relaxing, little bit of working and than some friends cooked a delicious meal over the fire every evening. Enjoyed it!

Trenchtown 09

2009-05-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

So I was at this Trenchtown-Festival last weekend....we had some activities there, which means it was kind of working, but still within the group of volunteers we had a great time there...relaxing, having fun...here just some pictures...oh...an for everybody who knows german or how to use google translate, I wrote an article about this festival for tink.ch.
Have to hurry now, there are some movies in the center I want to see..so writing more later...

Working, painting, ...

2009-04-29T03:34:00.000-07:00

We are going to have some activities, games etc and an inforamtion stand about the LDA Subotica (Local Democracy Agency) at the Trenchtown Music-Festival in a forest closed to Subotica. So these days I have a lot of work preparing these activities, but its also quit creative...yes, I could finally bring in some ideas :). So monday evening Ivana (my language teacher)and I and Angela and Dejana a bit as well were painting from 4 to 11 pm a huge carton with holes to put your had in and taking pictures. It was really fun.

Budapest-Budimpest

2009-04-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

I told you this already, on my journey to Subotica I spent also a few days in Budapest where I met also my russian friend Mila and my hungarian friend Maria, who organised Peter, a great "city guide" for us :)
So here some impression from Budapest in March 2009.

Pictures "Welcome to Subotica"

2009-04-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Youhouuu! I finnaly got the letter with the charger for my camera that I forgot in Switzerland.So I can make pictures and show you the ones I took in the very beginning. I just show you somem pictures of my arrival here. How my room was decorated like, me in the main pedestrian street the "korzo", still in winter, and my and Dejana, my tutor in the LDA office.

Back to work…

2009-04-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Spending my days calling the european embassies in Belgrade, asking if they got the LDAs invitation fort he 9th of May, Day of Europe and if so, if somebody will come (nobody comes until now, all involved in the activities in Belgrade), and if they will send us some promotion material of their countries for a kind of “Euro-fair” that LDA is going to organize on the city square. Beside this I am looking for information about sustainable tourism in Serbia and about methods and ideas for promotion of creativity in schools. Yes, that summaries my work at that moment. Oh, and this evening we have an other meeting to prepare our activities at the Trenchtown-Musicfestival (30th April to 2nd May) and tomorrow a meeting with some educators of the dormitory to talk about the workshops I am going to have here.

Szeged…over the border

2009-04-24T11:37:00.001-07:00

On Monday Svetislav, a guy working for the towns museum, and a former collaborator of LDA, invited me to a trip to Szeged. Szeged is the nearest town over the Hungarian Border. It is really closed, just about 40 km north from here, but still it took us far more than an hour to get there because of the border controls. Obviously Hungarian guardian didn’t change since socialist times…They checked every single passport, copying name etc. one by one in there computers, although we all had new passports, that you could just scan and then they checked the cars, asking to open motor hub etc, just to control we didn’t hide some drugs etc. It took a loooong time. I don’t want to imagine what it is like after holydays….
Szeged has a nice center, some really beautiful buildings, but I have to say, I prefer Subotica. There is more characteristic, personality, live and even just places to stroll around, here than there.

Fruska Gora- Vojvodinas Alps :)

2009-04-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

I met a guy in Subotica, who told me he was an active member of Suboticas alpinist clubs and who invited me to come to hikes in the Serbian mountains. The first mountain in Serbia is Fruska Gora, near Novi Sad, 100 km south of Subotica. The second one another 100 km further. You have to know Vojvodina is mainly just flat. Really flat. There is not even a hill of 3, 4 meters. So Fruska Gora is what we would call a forest in Switzerland. Okay, a forest on a hill. But which forest in Switzerland isn’t on a hill?
In Vojvodina they call it mountain. So on Sunday I went with the Novi Sad Alpinist Club for a 20 km hike in Fruska Gora. It is a really beautiful place. A chain of hills all covered by beautiful forest, with very high trees, that now, in the beginning of spring, have this shiny bright green leaves.
Still it was like a joke, having to follow a mountain guide for a simple walk through the forest. We were a group of almost 40 persons and walking pretty slow, so when I wanted to walk a little faster one of the guide women, called me back, saying: “Stay behind me! The alpinist codex says that everyone has to follow behind the guide!” (Maiann, han di grad vermisst, het di gern chli agsmilet in dem Moment und ab dem Chnuschti dr Chopf gschuettlet). Yeah, what an alpinist codex for some hills!
Still, it’s a beautiful place.

Some days off in Novi Sad

2009-04-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

There was orthodox eastern las weekend…so we had a second weekend off. I used this short holydays to pass some days in Novi Sad, Vojvodinas capital, about 100 km south of Subotica. Novi Sad has maybe the double of habitants, but seams much bigger than Subotica. I really loved it for being full of shops, cosy coffee places, bars, fancy and less stylish ones and people. I also got to meet some more EVS-volunteers. I am the only EVS in Subotica, but there are eight of them in Novi Sad. I had already met Marta and Manu before, in the IBB-Training and now got to know the other girls. I am glad to be the only foreigner volunteer in Subotica, so I don’t run the risk to spend all my time with other foreigners. Still seeing them like that, spending all there free time together, being really good and close friends, I got little bit of jalous, not to having this international company. I mean, if ever they have any problem with there EVS or Serbia or cultural misunderstanding etc. they have each other, and they all are in the same situation and can understand each other…
But anyway, I can’t complain about my situation either. So I spent a lot of time in Novi Sad, walking around, discovering all the backyards with small shops (spending all my money on earrings!!) and bars, the amazing fortress of Petrovaradin, where the EXIT-Festival is going to take place, and then sitting in coffees and bars with the Novi Sad Volunteers and some Serbian friends of them. Saturday night Irene, an Italian volunteer, took me with their friends to watch a movie in a friends place. I spent a nice and calm evening at the home of her friends. Oh, and Sunday I went to Fruska Gora.

Last news

2009-04-16T03:31:00.000-07:00

There has happened a lot during the last weeks...So I will just resume the most important facts:
- I bought a bike, it's a very good quality secondhand bike I bought it for 100 euros and already used it last saturday to drive to the small but pretty town of Sombor, 60 km from Subotica and for some other smaller tours. I also got to know Nikola, the guy who sold me the bike. He is very friendly, and invited me to visit him and his family every time I wish to.
- During my biketrip to Sombor I noticed once more the world is very small...In a small village on the way I met a woman, who is a friend of a friend of my parents...
- There was eastern...I went to church saturday night, to see who it was celebrated here. The most fascinating was, that the catholic celebration, that took more than 2 1/2 hours was held in two languages: croatian in hungarian. Serbian people celebrate orthodox eastern next sunday. I realised Subotica was really a very multicultural town.
- I have been invited to several flats now...and I think it is allways very intersting. Most of families live in very small space, in old flats...but yesterday evening I was at a birthday party of two students, sharing a flat and this one looked pretty much like a students flat looks like in Switzerland...so, everything exists...
- I had my first crisis, like being sad, feeling useless at work, being a little homesick last week but now already overcame it. This bad moments are part of integration in a new place I guess
- I am leaving for Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina this afternoon. I will spend some days there with Irene and Manu, other volunteers I got to know during the training in my second week here. I am curious how Novi Sad is like...they say it is pretty different from Subotica, but nice as well...I will see...

Memories

2009-04-16T03:19:00.000-07:00

It is already the third time I am for several months living abroad. So until now nothing was really shocking me here in Serbia, as almost every thing that is different, I kind of can put it somewhere in a scale between Honduras, Russia and Switzerland. And in most cases, although Serbia is really different from Switzerland, it is not that far from Switzerland as are Russia and Honduras.The unfriendly women in the station selling me the trainticket to Novi Sad this morning, remembered me of Russia, the same do some communist style buildings, the dormitory, the bureaucracy it needs to start my workshops in the dormitory or to organize any other event...but still it is not that worse as it was in Russia. Many things remember me of South America as well. Especially now, that is worm outside, and all the places and streets are crowded with people, walking, sitting and talking in front of a small shop or snack place in the corner. Loud music in public places. And then the smells....On monday while I was riding my bike to the hungarian border there was this very special smell in the air, that recalled me all my memories from Honduras. I was really happy and content while driving the bike along this road, feeling the sun and wind and tasting this smell...until I realized this smell,, that remembered me so much of Honduras was actually the smell of burned rubbish. I really had to laugh, when I realized that the smell of burned rubbish could awake such positive emotions in me :).

Spring time

2009-04-06T12:05:00.001-07:00

It's finally spring! I am so happy about it! :) Wonderful weather, sunshine, birds sing, the trees have their first leaves and since yesterday, the tree, just across the street, is all white, full of flowers. I allready have a pretty full programme with sessions, work in the office, writing some texts and comments for the website, thinking about workshop-programme for the highscool-students of my dormitory, having language classes, doing home-work...but still I try and I manage, to enjoy a maximum of this beautiful weather. I was walking around the town the whole weekend. First, on saturday morning, we went with Ivana, my "serbian teacher", to the "Buvljak", a huge market place, where you can find every thing you wish, and most stuff, pretty cheap. Later we were in the center, on sunday morning I have been with some girls I knew in the training, to big park and in the afternoon to turistic place near to Subotica, called "Palic". There is a nice lake, a lot of tourists, there was sunshine and souvenirstands. It really felt like holydays. :)
Oh, and I started to read the book "Der kleine König Macius". It's originally a book for children, but you know me, I love this kind of books. And it is really interesting, I can't stop reading...

Karaoke

2009-03-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

It’s Monday night and I am invited to a karaoke party. Kind of strange. Seems to be really “in” here. I am here for hardly more than two weeks and it is the 3rd Karakoe-party I am going to, just you to know, I have never ever been on a Karaoke party or something similar in my life before. But then we went out to a pub, where was a Karaoke-party the first Friday night in Subotica with Dejana and Nikola, both are working with me at LDA. Last week, during the training, we also had a Karaoke-night (that's were the pictures a from)and now today, I got invited for a “humanitarian” Karaoke-party. I hardly imagine, what this should be like. I’ll see. I have to go now.

Ne razumijem!!

2009-03-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

I hate it, this situations, when I should explain something to somebody, when I need something and I am just unable to do it. I try to think about the right words, searching them somewhere in my brain; try to figure out how I could change a Russian word in a Serbian word. Try to build Serbian sentences again and again. Try to make understand my self. And fail again and again. Try to explain with hands and feets, making faces. Useless. I feel sooo helpless in that kind of situations. Then finally I give up, shaking my head, smiling helpless, kind of excusing myself for not knowing the language.
I am seriously trying, giving my best, but it’s not that easy, anyway. So once more: No Internet for me that evening. You will have to wait little bit more, until I can update my blog. (I wrote all this updates previously on words).

Youpeeeh!!

2009-03-30T12:10:00.001-07:00

I just got the news last week, that I am accepted as a student for the Master in International Studies in “International History and Politics” in the “Graduate Institute” in Geneva!!! So I am really happy! Alltough I am not a 100% sure if it is really that studies on which I want to continue it is a very good feeling, to know you got accepted for these studies!
Oh, and some other good news: I just discovered my table had a drawer. In such a tiny room as mine is, that’s a important discovery!! I have much more space on my table now, as I could put all my pens and paper in the drawer!!

WELCOME in Subotica!!

2009-03-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

It is hardly a year since I have been back from Russia, and already I am on the road again…out for new adventures in eastern Europe :). My EVS-European Volunteer Service in Subotica, Vojvodina, Serbia, started two weeks ago.
I spent the weekend in Budapest, where I met with two old friends. Maria Bognar, who I met almost four years ago, travelling in Peru. She is from Budapest and we stayed at her place. And Mila, a good friend from Russia, who spends right now a month in Chezch Republic in the frame of an exchange programme of the University. She came by Bus from Ostrava to Budapest to meet me there. It was very nice experience to meet these friends again. Somehow this proved to me again, that it is worth to invest in friendships, even if you don’t know if and when you are going to see each other again. Life is unpredictable and has so many opportunities… I hope that this will help me now again to have the needed energy to build new friendships here in Serbia. As when I left Switzerland for Budapest I still felt kind of sad…and homeless… To meet Mila and Maria in Budapest gave me hope. And it is probably true, what some friends said to me: “Home is where ever you have friends.”
From Budapest to Subotica it was only a three and a half hours ride.
Dejana, Olga and Oscar came to pick me up at the train station. Dejana and Olga are my tutors, responsible for me at my work in the LDA, Local Democracy Agency in Subotica. Oscar is my mentor, responsible for me in spare time, I guess. The three of them received me very kindly. I think I am really lucky! They seem all very friendly and open-minded people and I feel it is not going to be hard to become friends with them. They brought me to the dormitory for highschool students where I am going to live for the next five months (it is a nice place, only food could be better. It is much too much meet and to few vegetables and fruits :(). On the wall of my tiny, but cosy room big letters, printed on paper said: “WELCOME NOEMI”. So yes, I felt really welcome from the very first day on. The town itself was a nice surprise as well, much prettier, than I imagined. The centre is full of buildings in the style of “art nouveau”. I really love it. And there are narrow streets and small old and beautiful houses. Of course you can see, it is poorer than Switzerland, a lot of older buildings break down, there’s some rubbish on the streets and you find small shops every where, that are open until late in the evening (some thing I actually always miss in Switzerland). The toilets as well don’t have swiss standard usually…but anyway I got used to that kind of things and after Honduras and Russia, Serbia, at least what I have seen until now, seems like real Europe to me. However, I have to admit, I didn’t get to see that much until now, as I have been here for no more than two weeks and I spent the whole last week in Palic, a small and very touristic place, because of a lake, at about 10 kilometres of Subotica. In Palic, on a typical Hungarian farm actually, called “salash”, took place an international youth leaders training, called “International Bridge Builders”, supported by the European Commission. Oh, and I got a very nice diploma, confirming that I attended that training on “leadership competences of young people within international youth projects on intercultural dialogue among SEE (South Eastern Europe) countries and European Union”. That sounds not bad, doesn’t it? :) We were about 24 people from 10 different European countries participating in that training. Actually, one of the trainers was Oscar, my mentor, but unfortunately I didn’t really get to know him much better during this week. I have to admit, when I read the application form for the training I thought it would be a little more challenging, than it was, but still, it was really interesting, and I spent a great time in very good company, and won friends in Serbia, Hungary, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovakia and in other places more. I can now go to visit some of them on every free weekend :). I put some pictures of the training as well. Can’t show you any picture of Subotica yet, as, that typical for me, I forgot the cable I need to connect my cam with the PC in Switzerland and the charger as well….
Tomorrow I should really start to work for my hosting organization, Local Democracy Agency of Subotica and think about how I am going to organizing the workshops for the highschool students in my dormitory. The aim of LDA, which belongs to the association of LDAs, initiated by the Council of Europe is promoting Democracy on a local base, to support and strengthen local governments and to provide education and formation for local political so that they are able to fulfil so called European standards and values, like protection of human rights and protection of ethnical minorities, gender equality, respect of environment, and so one. So the LDA is offering a wide range of workshops and trainings for local politicians and young leaders on topics like conflict resolution, project management, intercultural exchange and so one. There are a lot of projects to promote international collaboration on local leves as well, for example in Subotica, which is really closed to the Hungarian and creation border there are this programmes of regional cross-border-cooperation. The idea is that I should work in the youth programme of LDA of Subotica and I also hope to get the chance to participate in some of the workshops and maybe later on, once I improved my knowledge of the Serbian language, to held workshops myself. Anyway, I am really curious and looking forward to coming experiences… After this training I am full of ideas and motivation, so I hope to be able to realize at least some of them. We’ll see. I will tell you how things develop, anyway.

Bye bye Neuchâtel…

2009-03-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, my Neuchâtel-time came definitely to an end now…That’s pretty sad. I had left Neuchâtel and my friends and my life there. For over three years Neuchâtel has been my “home” and now I had to leave it, and to find and to build a new home somewhere else again.
Honestly, I seriously already miss my flatmates, my crazy “colocos”. Before I left, we organized once more a real party in our flat in the Street Fahys 33, Neuchâtel. The four of us (René, Lorenza, Emmanuel and me) invited our friends to the “Festi’fahy 09”. I can say it was a real success, we definitely reached the lever of our flat-warming party “pendaison de crémaillère” or “pendaison de piemaillère”, as we called it then, in autumn 2005. There were over 40 people and we had great fun until three or four o’clock in the morning. Preparing and eating pizza, drinking wine, beer and punch, listening to Derlis and Julio, singing and playing guitar (it’s marvellous to have professional musicians as friends ), chatting, laughing, taking a polaroid-picture of every one kissing my frog, dancing…
Unfortunately, as I was that busy enjoying my time and talking with every body, I didn’t take any pictures that evening, but here are some of the photos me made to illustrate the invitation to our “Festi’fahy”. Maybe those pics help you to get an idea about how it was? :)
After this loud and big party, my very last day in Neuchâtel we went out only the four “colocos” plus Sabine, the girl, who moved in “my“ room. We went to eat some amazingly tasty crêpes in a place called “L’annexe”, and later had some beer in a bar in the old town. It was a very calm evening, but anyway, it was good to spend some more time just with my dear flatmates.

Berlin-Potsdam

2009-03-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

To prepare for my EVS-European Volunteer Service, I had to participate in a Predeparture-Training. As Switzerland doesn’t send that much volunteers within the EU-Youth in Action-Programme I could/had to go to a small village somewhere in northern Germany for this training. The training took place from Monday to Wednesday, so I decided to profit of this to spend the weekend in Berlin. I knew that my friend Christiane, a german girl, who was doing her EVS in Nishnij Novgorod, during my exchange semester, had started studying in Potsdam. So I took a night train from Basel to Berlin on Fridays evening and met Christiane early in the morning at the railway station in Potsdam. I had imagined Potsdam really different, more like a big city, not that small and cosy as it is in reality. Even the Castel of “Sansouci” is although very beautiful, pretty small. The next day we went to Berlin, where we were walking trough streets and squares, visiting all the famous and less famous places. It was COLD, too cold to walk around in Berlin, but still, I found Berlin such an amazing city, I wanted to see everything, couldn’t get enough. So poor Christiane had to come with me to the Wall, to monuments and to Kreuzberg, walking and freezing until almost midnight…
Still I think it was worth it…Of course you can never see a city like Berlin in only one day, but I got a good impression and I am sure we spent a great day, both of us :)

Meeting Sasha again

2009-03-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

Sasha, my Russian friend, who was doing a voluntary service in Germany came to visit me for Christmas and New Year. She spent Christmas with my family and New Year with Maiann and some common friends from Neuchâtel. We spent a really nice time together and could do and see a lot of things. We have been in Lausanne, in Zurich, in Schaffhausen in St.Gallen in Pany, visiting my godchild and skiing and we have been in Neuchâtel of course. On 27th of December Lionel invited for one of his famous dinners…that time on the theme of “chocolate”. We enjoyed a delicious dinner consisting of 6 dishes, all related in someway to chocolate…Mmmmh…”leckerschmecker”, how Lionel says :). So just some pictures telling a little more about this two weeks Sasha spent with me in Switzerland.

Winter

2009-03-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

It was a rude change from tropical weather and beaches in Honduras to Switzerland, where winter had already started with cold and snow…It was a really strong winter this year, with as much of snow, as I never saw before in Neuchâtel. However winter can be very beautiful as well…

Santa Claus’s Day with Angi

2009-03-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

When I came back from Honduras, there was already somebody waiting for me in Neuchâtel. Angi, on her way back from Kongo to the USA decided to make a stop in Switzerland to visit her friends…What a good idea! I was really happy to meet her a again after almost 2 years...As she was in Neuchâtel for 6^th of December, and as during her year in Neuchâtel, the 2 of us organized a lot of “soirées” and parties together I decided to invite all our common friends from the old good GBUN-times for a “Sanct Niclaus Evening” to our flat. We made “Grittibänze”, a traditional “manshaped” bred for Santa Claus Day, and we ate peanuts, oranges, sweets and chocolate fondue…It was really a bit like in former days, during one of our common soirées…

Before the party on Saturday evening we spent a really relaxing day. I needed it, as when I came back in Wednesday evening I immediately started working again on Thuersday, so had to get up very early…

So after a “grasse matinee” (sleeping until late) on Saturday we went to Yverdon-les-Bains, where we went to the thermal baths. They are not exactly as beautiful as the ones I have been to in Guatemala, but I really like the atmosphere of thermal baths in Europe when it is cold and wet outside and you can swim in this warm water…

Caribbean beaches

2009-03-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

The main objective of my trip to Honduras was meeting my friends. However, as I didn’t have any real holyday for more than a year…and as I had never seen better beaches than the ones on the Caribbean in Honduras, I really wanted to spend at least one weekend on the beach. I had the idea to go there together with the mara Utila, what unfortunately didn’t work out. Still I finally managed to spend my last weekend with Elvin, a friend from the San Francisco, in Tela. I have been in Tela before. Eighteen years ago we spent two weeks there with my family. That was actually the first time I had been at the Caribbean and my parents haven’t the best memories. It was raining the whole 2 weeks. We have been much luckier this time. We arrived on Saturday morning and they told us the rain had just stopped the night before. And what a great surprise! Walking along the beach Elvin and I met Alberto and his wife Monika with their Baby Pascal. Alberto has been a volunteer for the YMCA Honduras, but is now living in Switzerland as he got married to a Swiss woman. I met him in Honduras in 2005, when he was visiting his friends and relatives. And know, it seems that we chose again the same moment to visit Honduras J and we had the same idea concerning the Caribbean beaches as well. We spent a great time together in Tela…swimming, sunbathing and drinking coconut-milk mixed with Gifity, kind of a brandy, made by the local Garifuna-people. Holydays!
Unfortunately Monday in the early morning I had to catch my bus back to Guatemala not to miss my flight on Tuesday… :(

Mara Utila!!!

2009-03-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

On eastern 2005 I spent about the best holydays of my life, some of the best for sure. I went to Utila, a small Caribbean island with some dream-beaches and amazingly beautiful corrals, belonging to Honduras. I spent there a whole week, sharing apartment, room and even bed with a people I didn’t even know before. The only person I had met before was Gerardo, responsible for accountings in the YMCA of Honduras, he told me that he was going to Utila for eastern holydays, and as I had heard of the beauty of the bay island before, I kind of invited myself to go with them. And I didn’t regret it! We went on so well all together, that in the following months we still regularly met to go out with the “mara” Utila, the group of friends from Utila. Of course I met this mara Utila that time as well. They organized a hondurenian supper for me and I prepared a swiss chocolate fondue for dessert. The mara, since 2005 was growing as Tatjana and Carlos and Gerardo and Rosa got married since and Gerardo and Rosa have a very cute little girl Aissa.

Siguatepeque

2009-03-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

When I had 5 years I was living for half a year in Siguatepeque with my whole family. Siquatepeque is a rather small town on the most important hondurenian “highway” connecting the capital Tegucigalpa with the biggest city and industrial capital of the country San Pedro Sula. So, more than 18 years ago, my parents, my brothers and I were living there for six months in the house of the family Martinez. When I was in Honduras in 2005 I got in contact with them again. This was rather special then. As I remembered the Martinez children, Guido, Doris and Aldo as small boys and a girl, with whom I was playing around the house and then suddenly I get to know that Doris is now longer that girl I was baking cakes of sand with, but that she’s married and mother of two boys and Guido and Aldo are studying medicine in Tegucigalpa. I was actually living in Aldo’s place in Tegucigalpa during my visit in Honduras. And of course I also spent a weekend in Siguatepeque. Meanwhile Doris’ boys, Daniel and Diego got a little sister, Alejandra, very beautiful baby girl. It is a pity I don’t have any picture of her, but still, her brothers are cute as well. :)

My loved "San Pancho"

2009-03-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

“San Pancho” that’s how “we” call the San Francisco barrio as kind of a nickname…So here some more pictures of this place…

My favourite place in Tegucigalpa

2009-03-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

For most people in Honduras, even for most of my friends it is hard to understand that the San Francisco "Barrio" is my favourite place in Tegucigalpe. For sure I love this part of the town so much because it was here that I have been living for 6 months in 2005. I know most of the streets and shops there I know a lot of children and young people and everybody knows me. But also, I think, even if it is a dangerous and poor part of the city, it really is beautyful. First, you have an awesome view over the citiy of Tegugigalpa from there on and then, the houses, most of them build by their habitants themself are so colourful and interesting to see. Many things are improvised. And in period of rain all is very green, there are trees and wonderful flowers growing everywhere between the houses. Also, there is so much life on the streets. All the children and young people playing on the streets, older people sitting in the entries of their houses and chatting and in every house there are selling something. All the families have some kind of improvised shop. You can cut your hair, buy ice-blocks, buy, coke and chips, selfmade tortillas or cakes, bring your shoes to repair or making saw clothes. It is really full of life everwhere. I love to stroll around the streets in the San Francisco. Also I have some very good friends their and people I love very much. Some of them you can see them on this pics. There are Elvin and Bayron, volunteers of the Ludoteca, the place I have been working in 2005. And there is Nolvia, a Programme-Coordinator of the YMCA. Finally there is Yeimi with her youngest sister Maria-Jose. Yeimi is Karinas godchild and she was kind of living with us, when I used to live in Karinas family. Yeimi has about 18 years and she didnt' finish school yet. Maria-José is not even 4 years old and allready she's aunt of 4 children and soon it is going to be 5, as Yeimi is pregnant aswell. This is maybe the sader side of life in the San Francisco. So many very youn girls, without education and without any perspectives are already mothers and don't have the capacities to grow up their children. So they are growing up with their grandmothers or even great-grandmothers.

That's my girls

2009-02-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

After the meeting in Marcala I finally got the chance to visit my former hostfamily and to see my little sisters: Andrea Yacelly and Khariz Siney. Wow! They grow so much since 2005 and got such nice, beautyful and friendly girls! I spent a whole day with them just doing handworks, playing around in the barrio, they actually, moved to another part of the Tegucigalpa, a much safer one. But, to be honest, even if it is cleaner and richer and all, it is so much more boring than the Colonia San Francisco where I have been living with them in 2005. Anyway I spent a very good day with my two little sisters...

Marcala once more

2009-02-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

Just a few more impressions of Marcala...and the volunteers meeting there. It is a really nice town up in the mountains, the climate is quite fresh, the air as well and there is only one or maybe two discos in town, where every saturday and friday night the whole town is going out. So on this weekend of course with Carmen, Vicky and Lorena (the girl sitting with me on the last picture) went there as well.
Unfortunately because of some drunken guys following us on every step we had to leave much to early.

Marcala - encuentro de voluntarios

2009-01-27T14:56:00.000-08:00

My first weekend in Honduras I stayed in Marcala, a small town in the mountains. I went there for a meeting of the volunteers of the YMCA Honduras. So it was a great opportunity to meet a lot of friends. On saturday we went to very nice place near the town...so that's were this pictures are from and on the last one you can see me with Carmen, the secretary of YMCA head office in Tegucigalpa.

San Lorenzo

2009-01-04T15:01:00.000-08:00

To be honest, there is not that much to see in San Lorenzo. It's a rather small and uninteresting town, and altough it is situated on the pacific coast there are no real beaches. Anyway, even if the pacific beaches are not that bad, in Honduras, the caribbean ones are much nicer.
But still, San Lorenzo has a wonderful mangrove forest...that is really beautyful to see...and on the street along the bay in several restaurants you can eat very tasty seafood...sopa the mariscos for example. That's what I tried on this evening, when we went out for eating with Karina and some friends of her.

Honduras' Pacific Coast by motocycle

2009-01-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's how I spent my first day in Honduras. Sitting on the back of Harrissons, he was my hostfather when I stayed in Honduras in 2005, Motorcycle and driving across the Southern Departments of Honduras. As my dear Mami Karina, changed her work and is no longer working for the YMCA in Guatemala, but for "Save the Children" in San Lorenzo, a small town on the pacific coast I spent my first day in the very South of Honduras. There, in a little village, called Langue, are living Don Fausto and Dona Martha, Karinas parents in law. I met them allready three years ago and was really glad to see them again. Don Fausto picked me up right at border between El Salvador and Honduras and after 2o minutes drive we arrived at their house. In the later evening came Karina and Harrison, as they are both now working in the South. All together we spent a really nice and relaxed evening. It was so nice to finally meet them again.

On the next day Harrisson took me with him for his work. He is a supervisor of several group of women, belonging to a national microcredit-programme and had by this reason to visit different places closed to the pacific coast on this day. I sat behind on his moto and really enjoyed this drive trough Mangroves, a long the coast and over stony, dirty ways to a small village where there was going to be a meeting of one of this groups that day. During the meeting I started to play with the children of the village, which told me a lot of stories and taught me some little songs. :-)
I also got the chance to take my first bath in the ocean...
before we drove back in the evening to San Lorenza, where I was going to spent the night with Karina.

just two pics more

2009-01-04T14:38:00.000-08:00

That's in te mineral springs of Mita in Guatemala once more...and me, like allways.... :-P
you know...

My visit in Guatemala

2009-01-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

"No solo soy loco, tambien soy chapin". "Not only I'm crazy, I'm also from Guatemala". That's what is written on a t-shirt I once sent to my friend Eddy, inspired by all the t-shirts saying: " No solo soy perfecto, tambien soy chapin", (not only I'm perfect, I'm from Guatemala as well) selled on the tourist markets in Guatemala City. And he, Eddy, is: loco and chapin. I'm just loca, crazy. At least sometimes I do some crazy things.
So in November I finally did something I wanted to do for allmost 4 years now: I finally went back to HONDURAS and Guatemala to meet again all my friends!!
I had a KLM-flight (very nice airline, surprisingly tasty food and interesting video-and game programm on personal screens) from Geneva to Guatemala City with stop-overs in Amsterdam and Panama the 7th of November and a flight back the 2nd of December. So, it wasn't that much time, but as I don't have any idea when I could get an other opportunity to travel their I did it.

And it was definitely worth it! I first stayed 3 days in Guatemala with the mentioned above Eddy (you can see him on the picture below together with a dog, who looks just exactly the same like him :-)). And then travelled further by Bus to Honduras. In Guatemala City we just strolled around the center, visited the Presidents Palace and went out in the "100 puertas" a slightly alternative Bar in the old town. As I since my last visit in Guatemala in 2005 I read Miguel Asturias famous book "El Senor Presidente", lot of places in the center, for instance the Presidents Palace and the Central Square rememberd me episodes of this story.
On Sunday afternoon I travelled with Eddy to a small town called Asuncion de Mita, next to the border with El Salvador, where he is working and stayed over at his place until Tuesday, when early in the morning we left for San Salvador from where I could catch I direct bus to the Honduranian border "El Amatillo", where my former hostmothers father in law, Don Fausto, picked me up.

In Mita there are some mineral springs in midden of the most beautiful tropical landscapes...So monday morning we went to take a swim there. It was just so wunderfully relaxing...

what I am doing since september

2008-10-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

Well, since september I am working as a trainee in the small swiss develloppement organization "Horyzon". Just for some publicity: www. horyzon.ch. It is actually the international cooperation office of the YMCA/YWCA Switzerland.
I was looking for job for quite a while, so I am really happy I got the opportunity to work right there, as it is exactly the kind of work I was looking for and, what makes it even better, it is an organization, which is part of the YMCA, movement I really like. I really like working there, good team, very nice colleagues and interesting, varied work. Still I understand I really miss university as well. You know, student life, especially if you studied in the philosophical-historical faculty, is really great. You have probably much more freedom, than in every other period of your life. You just decide on your own wether you go to classes or not, to which classes you go and what you want to learn. And then you can just go to hear lessons about something, you are interested in. And you just have an unique opportunity to learn so many things. Okay, for sure, you sometimes have to follow some boring classes as well, and there are some really bad professors, but still.
And then you are living, sharing a flat with other students and meet a lot of students, young people interested in the same topics as you are, and enjoying their life, every day. It's so easy to have a good company when you are at University and you have parties all the time. I'm exagerating now, but, it's true I really miss Unviersity, students and social life at Unversity.
I'm glad to know I'll have to go back to University for my master degree, studying two years more. :-)
Since I am working only 80% I have a day off, and imagine, I'm going to follow some classes at University on my day off! :-)

Weekend in the Tessin

2008-10-26T13:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have to admit, even if I worked really hard during the weeks I tried to enjoy the weekends.
Especially as during the whole month of August I had a visitor from Russia, Masha, and I really wanted her to enjoy her stay in Switzerland. So all the weekends we travelled to some special places in Switzerland. One of the best trips was for sure the weekend we spent in the holiday-house of a friend of mine on the boardes of the Lago Maggiore in the Tessin. It's incredible how different the Tessin is from the rest of Switzerland. You really feel like in some southern country. There are growing lemons and oranges and other tropical fruits and it is, at least in summer, much wormer. We spent only a day and a half in the small village of Porto Ronco, but it felt like a real, very relaxing holiday. Just sunbathing, swimming, and haning around next to lake. I also tried some windsurfing. I event didn't do it too bad, so it seems as if the windsurf classes I took in June kind of helped.
We also made a small excursion rowing to an island in the middle of the lake. Needs quite a bit of musles, but still, we (Masha and me) really enjoyed it.

What I did this summer

2008-10-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

So, as some people reading my blog got the completly wrong idea, of me doing nothing except travelling, enjoying festivals and partys, I decided to show you now, what I really did most of the time during all this summer. It started in the end of May and went on like this until end of September!
So, most of the time I was writing papers for my Bachelor degree at University. I had to write one paper about russian literature, concretly I had to analyse how Michael Bakunin described the russian terrorist Nechaev in his letters. I had to write an other paper about Russian Philosophy. I had to compare the views on russian and european culture of the two important russian philosophers Chadaev and Kireevski in the end of 18th, beginning of the 19th century. I also had to write 15 pages in spanish, about the way, colombian culture was represented in Gabriel Garcia Marquez book "100 years of solitude". I had to write a paper in Ancient History as well, about the reign of Antiochos III of Sardes. And I finally had to write my bachelor thesis in History as well. I did researches about Soviet delegations, visiting Switzerland during the period of nonexistance of official political relationship between the two countries.
That means, I had a total of 5 papers to wirte, 4 of about 15 to 20 pages and one more important of abotu 30 to 40 pages. It also means that I spent most of my summer in libraries or in my room, behind a computer writing all this papers. For my bachelor thesis I also had to visit the National archives in Bern, looking for information about this delegations. I then had to take a picture of all the documents I found and have a closer lookt at them at home. So, alltough, reading my blog, maybe it doesn't seam like this to you, believe me, I had a lot of hard and crappy work to do this summer. I was studying a looooot. And I took more pictures of archiv-documents than I took of all my free weekends and small trips.

"Buskers"-Festival :-)

2008-10-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

During one week every year we have a very nice festival in my town, called the "Buskers". During a whole week every evening a lot of street musicians and other street artists are playing on the streets and squares of the center. It's music of very different styles and there are also kind of magicians, clowns, and circus-artits. So, it is a big variety in program and the good thing about this festival is that it is for free and dures a whole week. So you can go to the center, having a walk, stay for a moment if there is playing a group you like and go on, if you don't. You also allways meet a lot of friends, doing the same, just having a walk in the old town and enjoy it. I think it is my favourite festival in Neuchâtel. It just makes you feel so good, so relaxed. :-)
This year I have been there with Masha, a russian friend who came to visit me in August.
I tried to take some pictures of our favourite band on this years festival. They came from England, but played some kind of Balkan-Style music. You just couldn't resist to dance when you heared it! (At least me, Masha, and the small children, that were around with their parents, we just couldn't restist this rhytms)

YMCA-Festival Impressions

2008-10-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

Just some more of my favourite pictures of this amazing week in Prague...

YMCA again :-)

2008-10-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but there are so many good memories and so many pictures worth to post :-)

still in Prague

2008-10-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

it's great to have friends from all over the world... :-) and to meet them all in one place...

ymca once more

2008-10-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

I spent such a good time with my friends from Brest, Belarus....

Y! M! C! A!

2008-10-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

Yes...so no some pictures of the festival in Prague! It was really amazing...there were about 10'000 people from YMCAs of all over Europe and even other continents. So there were guys from Togo, India, Corea, the States, Colombia and even Honduras as well! And I met all the girls I met in february in Belarus again. It was so great to meet all this friends again and to make new friends as well of course. So here you see just me, than a part of the opening show, when all the countries had to bring up ther flag on stage, then Sergej my "boss" during this week and picture of Prague by night. It's really nice the festival being situated right in the city of Prague. So when ever you feel like, especially during your free time at night, you could go for a walk to the center.
I've been as a volunteer at the festival, working in the translation group but as most of the people giving a show on stage or participating at a work-shop knew english, we hadn't so much work. I had maybe to translate like 10 minutes a day by average, so could fully enjoy the festival and had the plus to live in the international volunteers hostel, which was very closed to the festival site. As a volunteer I also had more contact with people from different countries. Especially with russians and belorussians, as meanly translations from russian to english were needed. So I spoke a lot of russian during this week. Excellent exercise!

Nordhausen once more

2008-10-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

Just the promised pictures of the second evening in Nordhausen. "Stadtfest" with Sasha and some of her friends.

"Progulka" with Sasha in Nordhausen

2008-10-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

My only holydays this summer were on the YMCA-Europe-Festival in Prague where I was a volunteer in the translation group. However I managed to take some days off before the festival to visit my friend Sasha. You saw her on some of the pics from Russia allready, as she was one of my best friends in Nizhny Novgorod. Right now she is working as a volunteer in a small town in Germany (Nordhausen). So I absolutely wanted to see her, since she is so closed now. Even if it isn't that closed thinking in a swiss way, as it took me about 9 hours by train to get there...but still. I made a stop on my trip to Prague to spend 2 days in Nordhausen and we really had a great time together.
We spent a very nice evening under a bridge next to a small river, together with the other international volunteers, a bottle of very good red wine and a guitar :-)
Sasha and me, remembering our evenings in Russia, just really felt like dancing, so we started to dance in the river , what was a lot of fun. :-)
At some moment all the volunteers living with Sasha got really tired...but we still decided to go on the party, and so left for some students pub. This second part of the evening however wasn't as nice as was the first. The next day we had some walk around the town and went swimming in a small nearby lake. Then we decided to coulour our hair with henna, so that's what you see on the last picture. Was fun as well. This evening it happened to be the town-festival, so there was a typical german party in the old town. Lot of beer, lot of drunken men and some pretty bad german schlagers. Anyway it was just so typical german, or at least how we see germans in Switzerland, it amused me a lot. :-) The pictures of this second night in Nordhausen you see them in the next post.

My birthday...

2008-10-04T13:21:00.001-07:00

I came back from the BigBoss-Festival on sunday evening and party went on... My parents came to visit me for my birthday which was on monday. It was very nice to have them over, since it was the very first time they really came together to visit me in my flat in Neuchatel. They also brought me my favourite birthday cake...That was very nice as well. In they evening I had invited some friends to celebrate my birthday on the border of the lake. It was good weather and several friends, that I haven't seen for a long time came to the party. So it was a pretty good birthday. And I had two cakes on that day! I'm a very lucky girl to have such awesome parents and friends!

Relaxing weekend at the BigBoss-Festival

2008-10-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

So, finally some more pictures. You know, I had really to much things to do this last months...5 studys to write for university, a driving-licence to pass (I didn't unfortunately), friends to see, I had to find a job and so one...But still from time to time a took a weekend off. Last weekend of july was one of those. There was the BigBoss-Festival, a festival for christian music in the Juramountaines. To be honest I didn't go there so much for the music, since there are very few christian music groups I like. I don't know most of the christan bands. But there were some great people going to the festival. So it was a unique oppurtinty to meet a lot of friends. I have been at this festival two years before aswell...so when we had to fix our tent we remembered a similiar situation...Two years ago it took us about 2 hours to build up the tent... :-) Then we were 4 girls, trying desesperately to fix the tent and about 4 guys wachting at us and laughing. This time we made the boys help us, and comfortingly to know, they didn't do much better than we. It took them still about an hour.
A great thing in this festival is the campfire which starts every night after the last concert at about 2 o'clock in the morning. Just sitting around the fireplace, singing and eating fondu. Yes, I guess that's a BigBoss speciality, the prepare a fondu every night on the fireplace. Saturday evening me and my friends cooked for all our group. Which was a lot of fun. We prepared sort of asian chicken with rice and salad for 10 people on two tiny campingfires. I was pretty proud about the result! :-)

Mikafils and Fionas wedding

2008-07-15T14:38:00.001-07:00

One of the highlights in the last weeks has been for sure the wedding ouf my friends Mikafil and Fiona. The best about it, was that there were invited lots of my friends from the GBU (groupe biblique universitaire de Neuchâtel) so it was the perfect opportunity to meet friends I haven't seen for a while. In the morning we all met in my flat to prepare our commun gift: a personal guide for bike tours "VeLo LoVe" :-). So fun started since the early morning. As usually we were late to go for the wedding and arrived in church not a minute too early. The wedding itself was great, the married were so sweet, the pope had to remember them various time to look at him and not at each other! ;-) After the church every bode danced some irish folk dances, which was really cool. However, to say the truth it wasn't cool but very, very hot. So later we went to the border of the lake. Fiona, the cutest bride ever, just walked in the water, wearing her weddingdress!! Of course, after that, everybody followed her, and with my friends we continued dancing irish dances in the lake...So later, as we didn't have any cloths to change, we had to dry us with a hairdryer ;-)

"Creux du van"

2008-07-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

"Creux du Van" is the name of an amazing place not far from Neuchâtel. So on of the last visits of my sister we went there together. It is not far, but still, if you go by foot, it is about 7 hours walking to get there and back...so we were really tired the evening, but it was worth it!

Barebecue with Lionel

2008-07-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

One of the first week after my arrival from Russia, on saturday evening my friend Lionel, called me asking if I'd like to come for a barbecue somewhere in the forest. It was pretty cold and windy, but of course I agreed. It was amazing, all together, the weather, the fireplace and especially the food Lionel prepared. Even if he's cooking on the fire you can note he's a chef. I never had a meat like this, prepared on fire, before! :-)

My crazy roommates

2008-07-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

I dont'th think there is to comment a lot...just every day life with my crazy roommates. So René is playing with some paper-dragons and Blaise and Maiann (who is not my roommates but still she stays regulary at our flat) who are trying to prepare saucisson neuchâtelois (a very tasty saussage) using an old and acid wine...

"soirée gastro"

2008-07-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

I have the enormous chance to have friend, who is a chef! And the best thing about it, is that he likes cooking so much, that he regulary invites a group of friends for a so called "soirée gastro". He than prepares for us a delicious meal consisting of six to seven plates, with wine and all. And we pay for all that a simply ridicular price. Since I'm back from Russia I was invited twice at a soirée gastro. Both times I discovered a lot of things I had never tasted before. It is amazing what you can do with food! As this dinners take place in the flat of my friend's parents and there is no professional kitchen, all guests have to help to prepare one plate. So you can see me, when I was trying to decorate correctly the salad, and Christoph trying to make crème brûlé. You also see the results. And then you see our chef in action, and my best friend Maiann smiling, all the group of friends and finally a picture of the two sisters of our cooking friend Lionel, I found this was just a really nice picture of there conversation between sisters :-)

My little sisters "confirmation"

2008-07-11T06:17:00.000-07:00

No idea if such a tradition exists in other countrys... but anyway, on pentecost my little sister Selina celebrated her "confirmation". In fact it is a sort of confirmation of her baptism and it means that she is now accepted as full member of the church, it is also kind of symbolic celebration for young people to enter the "world of adults". Thats the origin of this tradition at least. In most cases no a day it's first of all a reason to invite the whole family and to recieve a lot of gifts, especially a lot of money. In my confirmation I got library vouchers for about 300 swiss francs from all the neighbours and friends of my parents, I didn't even know. My sister got not that much because some of this neighbours died since. But anyway it was a really nice day and good oppurtunity to see friends and family and have a delicious meal in a very nice restaurant on the lake of Constance. So I put some pictures of myself, my parents, my brothers, of all the guests and of course of the main person of that day, my sister, who was a real beauty :-)

Travelling back home

2008-06-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

First of february I had to leave Russia. I did it by night-train to Talinn. That's amazing how different Talinn is. It's Europen, not Russia. But it is a very charming little town. I spent there only day, taking in the evening a Eurolines-Bus to Riga, where I could stay two nights with a friend of my russian friend Masha's mother. Very nice people! And interesting city as well. But my prefered Baltic capital is Vilnius. They tell it to be to hugest medieval town in the World and I guess, they are right, the really have an amazing historic center. Anyway there is a lot to see. And when I was there, it happened just to be Masleniza, which is an important folkloric day in most of eastern Europe. It is to celebrate the end of Winter and beginning of fast-time. So they are burning a giant doll and dancing aroung and eating tons of pancakes all the day long. So tasty :-)
As in my first intent to pass the border they didn't allow me to enter Belarus, even so I had a valable visa, I was forced to spend one day more than planned in Vilnius. Anyway, finally I got to Belarus, where I was meating friends from the YMCA. It was so cool to meet this people again and maybe even better to make new friends in the local YMCA in Brest and meet the best friends of my belarussian friend Tanya in Minsk. She had told me so much about them, I felt as if I knew them allready :-).
So on the pictures you see Masleniza in the courtyard of a lithuanin school, me travelling in a belarussian train and some pictures of excursions with the girls from Belarus YMCA in Brest. Great people!!

One week in St.Petersburg

2008-06-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Before I definitely had to leave Russia because my visa was vencing I spent a week in St.Petersburg, the so called northern Venice and Russian Cultural Capital....I guess you all know something about St.Petersburg so I am not going to tell you a lot about the city. Just put some pics so you can imagine of what this city looks like in Winter. I really enjoyed my staying there. Especially the Russiam Museum and the Ermitage and then the Ballet I was wachting in the Marinsky Theater, where once the Tsars where sitting in the lodge, was very impressionating.
I was living for a week in the flat of a friend of my friend Maiann. Was nice as well to get to know at least this people about whom she had told me so much...Yes it was a good last russian week....

Farewell-Party in Nizhny

2008-06-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know it's much to late to write all this and to tell about the farewell-party I organized in the student-home in Nizhniy Novgorod in the ends of january. But anyway, it is still worth to remember that evening...It was touched by how many of my friends followed my invitation and by the cards and gifts I got. I guess in the end I got really good friends in Russia and I am missing them a lot now...In my farewell-party we played some games. That's real fun, how much russian love to play, even adults. I enjoyed it a lot. We were laughing so much that evening although I was sad, because I had to leave them all and don't have the slightest idea when I am going to meet them again. The day after the party my train left at about 6 pm o'clock for St.Petersburg. Six of my friends brought me to the station and where waving to me, when my train was leaving...I think I almost started crying in that moment...It's allways hard to leave friends...to have to say goodbye and to realize that what has been will never be again.

winterclothes for free

2008-04-16T01:44:00.001-07:00

Did I tell you about my friends from the Market?
In beginnings of September I bought my coat in one of the small shops at the market in the center of the town. I often walked through this market when I had to go to the second building of my university for history lessons. It was amazing, the women working on this market soon recognized me and so started to invit me to drinkt tea with them every time I walked trough the market. Once the even gave me a sweater from free. But the best thing was surely, that they knitted socks for me, so that I shouldn't get to cold feets. :-)
Yes, it was really nice to have come friends on the marketsquares...

Gruss vom Zürichsee

2008-04-16T01:39:00.001-07:00

:-) nett, dachte ich mir, da hat mir doch mitten im kalten russischen Januar jemand einen kleinen Gruss aus der Schweiz gesandt. "Ihr Kleinbus vom Zürichsee" in Nischni Novgorod...Jetzt fährt er regelmässig von Nischni Novgorod nach Arsamas und zurück :-)

Russian X-mas

2008-04-16T01:24:00.001-07:00

Drinking tea from the samowar (typical russian teapot) and eating tasty cakes on my russian lessons the 24th of December. Together wich my teacher Anastasia Vasilevna we celebrated european christmas in that way, reading an old russian christmas story with it. Oh, and I got a very nice christmas gift from her, earrings!!! :-)

Russian christmas, on the 7th of january I spent again with Mila in the village of her grandpas. This were the coldest days I lived in Russia, about -28 C. But still it was just wonderful, this snow covered landscapes like in a fairy tale and later, we went to the small wooden saunahouse in the courtyard of her grandparents house, where soon we were sweating and it was a real experience to jump nacked in the snow afterwards.
That's incredible how tired you get in the sauna, so you can see me taking a rest in the bed of Milas grandma after the sauna...I needed to get some strenghs to enjoy the huge supper the grandma had prepared. It was so nice how this family let me take part of her life. I think this weekends in the village were some of my best experiences in Russia.

Snow and fire

2008-03-02T12:50:00.000-08:00

On of my walks trough town together with Sasha. Can sou see the frozen Wolga river?

An then, fireshow in the snow, 25 of december...Christmas-present for me ;-)

Russian winter

2008-03-02T12:46:00.000-08:00

no comment needed

Just enjoy thist beauty. But not to long, it is f* cold!!!

Russian Winter Sports

2008-03-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

Ice-skating together with Sasha, Christiane, Ilya and Genia, under open sky and thousands of stars, it is really fun! (even if the russian hip-hop music they were playing some times, was not that great).

Greatest fun anyway is it to use some plastic bags as a sledge, that is what we did at this evenign with Sasha, Christiane and Katya :-)

Monuments in Nizni...

2008-03-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

It is really impressing how many monuments there are in every russian town. On the pics you see just the two that are never missing: The monument in memory to the soldiers, who died in second world war, usually there is a eternal fire next to the monument, and on the second picture our dear Lenin.

Nizhny Novgorod in late autumn

2008-03-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

Just to complete the image, some more impressions of Nizhny Novgorod:

Little bridge right behind the University building with view on a churchs tower. One ot the three monuments to the famous writer Maxim Gorki in whos honnour the city of Nizhny Novgorod in soviet times was named "Gorki".
Further a picture of hte fortress (Kreml), a picture of one of the roads in the center and oune of the old and smuggly courtyards near the town center. I just love this old wooden cottages and curtyards. They kind of remember me Pippi Longsockings villa.

Walking around Kazan

2008-03-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

This is Albina, the girl who showed me around Kazan, the capital of the Tatarstan Republic, a neighbour district of Nizhny Novgorod. As there is living the tatar people who is of musliman religion, there are a lot of mosquees, one has been (re-)built only few years ago in the very centre, the old fortress (Kreml). It is a very beautiful building and inside there is a nice museum about Islam in Russia. I have also been visiting an other mosquee, which is in real use. And I have been visiting a lot of churches, but the one on the picture, a church in russian barock style, was the one I liked best.

Dartz on Concert

2008-03-02T11:23:00.000-08:00

So, finally some more news on my blog...okay, this concert was quite a while ago. But still, it was a great evening. Even if on the pic I am not smiling so much, believe me, I had a lot of fun this evening together with Sasha and her friends at this russian-irish-folk-concert! :-)

Visiting new and old russian towns...

2007-12-22T05:16:00.000-08:00

Once again the picture of Masha...sorry, that is an error, but this time please give more attention to the palace building in classic soviet stile and the typical sovietical park with the large avenue. That Dserchinsk is a very old town you can see on the flag... :-) The other pics are from Vladimir and Susdal, two of the oldest towns in Russia, they have more than 1000 years, there are a lot of interesting monasteries and churches to visit.

Gorodez-Day of the first snow!

2007-12-22T05:07:00.000-08:00

The 5th of November I had a day off because the official hollyday in honnor of the unity of russian people (memory of the liberation of Moscow from the polish by the popular army in the 17. century) felt on sunday 4. November and the people claimed to have an additional day off. :-) So I was enjoying this day off together with some guys of the ecological organization Selony Parus. We went by train to Gorodez, a small ancient town about one hour northwards from Nizhny Novgorod. It was a really nice day, very lovely small town, old wooden houses and nice churches, view over the "Gorkien Sea", an artificial lake, and what was the best of all, it was the first day we had real snow! Since then this snow has not dissappeared and it will probably stay to the end of March...

Sights in Nizny Novgorod

2007-12-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

To be honest, there is not so much of historical or cultural interest to see in Nizny Novgorod, but still, some sights there are and if you are not asking to much, so you can find pretty much nice places and even very much not so nice, but interesting places. Here just some of them. Churches (there are a lot of them) and the Nizhny Novgorod Kreml (fortress) in the background. On the third pic the mainbuilding of the bank and the forth one shwows the view over the Oka River, that you have from the University back yard. It is great to have this amazing view so closed of where I am living. If I feel kind of depressed, some times I just go for a tiny walk there and I immediately feel better :-)

Autumn in Nizhny Novgorod

2007-12-18T07:10:00.000-08:00

At least...in the evening of 4th of September, after whole month eastward travelling by bus and train I arrived in Nizhny Novgorod. And now I am here allready more than 3 months...Unfortunately the weather now is not that nice as it was the first three weeks, but anyway. Just wanted to show the beautiful side of russian towns. The trees along the streets and the huge parks, the large rivers...September in Nizhny was wonderful...maybe you can imagine a little bit looking at my pictures...One of the nicest parks in town is very closed to the student home, it is named: Shweizaria, which means, who didn;t guess it: Switzerland! :-) as you imagine, allthough it is a very nice place, it hasn't lot in common with real Switzerland. Anyway in September and early october I went there for a walk some times with Ilija or Genia, once or twice we ate there in a small restaurant Shashlik or hot soup...Not so much time ago I went for a walk there with Sasha and Katja, it is still beautiful place, and you can see over the frozen Oka River. Unfortunately the wind at the shore is very strong...so it gets quickly to cold...

Moscow - Finally in Russia!!

2007-12-18T06:40:00.001-08:00

I have been arriving in Moscow, not knowing yet where I was going to sleep. All I had was a paper with some phone nombers of friends of Sam, the Hospitalityclub-guy, at whose place I as staying in Kiev. So the first few hours after my arrival in Moscow I spent them at the trainstation, looking for possibilities to call or e-mail, buying and traying different phonecards and bad-working internetplaces. I also had to find a place, where I could leave my luggage for some hours and I needed to buy my ticket to Nizhny Novgorod for the next day. What a surprise! No ticket for the next day, I had to buy for a day later, which meant I had to ask Sams friends to host me not only for one, but even for thwo nights... And I still couldnt reach them at noon...At about 1 o' clock I just got fed up, decided to enjoy my time in Moscow, even if I didnt know where to sleep, bought a metro ticket, and went to discover the city...It happend to be the anniversary-day of the city, so there were many events on all the squares...I was walking around, enjoying it...Oh yes, and in the VanillaskyCafe I had some very nice japanese cousins for lunch! :-)

In the evening I met one of Sams friends and it was no problem to stay there for two nights. So first russian experiences where very positive!

About sighseeing und travelling in soviet trains

2007-12-18T06:17:00.000-08:00

I have been staying about 5 days in Kiev, more than in any other city on my trip and I didnt visit all the churches and museums that seem to be worth it...But I visited all the statues in memory of some war or some legend or any soviet or national heroe or event...It seems as if in all former soviet countries they really love this kind of statues for every thing. I don't really understand why they have so much of them and not all ar that nice, but still in Kiev I felt like I absolutetly had to visit them, especially the one you see on the picture. It is a statue in the honor of the mythological founders of Kiev and the first russian empire, the Kiever Rus. I was searching this statue more than two hours, walking along the huge Dnepr river and asking people where I could find it. And you know why I absolutely had to see it? Just because its picture was on one of our russian-language exercises that our dear teacher Yurovski gave us last year in University, when we were reading about old russian history...See what a interested student I am! :-)
Anyway, beside of the statues I also visited the Kiever Lavra a huge monastery complex, including many interesting churches and museums. I spent there a whole day. Anyway, time went by very fast and finally it was 1. of sept. and my russian visas validity started! So I bought a ticket to the nighttrain Kiev-Moskva... This night train was really modern one, but still it differs from westeuropean ones. It is a pretty complicated thing to get a train ticket in Ukraine or Russia, you need to ask early enough and you need passport and so one...but once you got it, the trains are just much cosier than ours. So even in this modern ukrainian night train there where carpets with flowers and we got tea in this lovely old-fashioned cups. I had a funny neighbour that night, guy from Moscow, who had travelled to Kiev just for one day, for a date with a girl he met in a chatroom...They definitely have an other understanding of Distance than we have... 22 hours in a train just to spend 8 hours together with an unknown girl! ...

Northwards to Kiev

2007-12-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

Some more illustrations of Odessa...Part of my international youthhostel-friends standing next to a typical sovietic heroe-statue... an other orthodox church, and a little boy playing superman in the backyard of the jewish-museum...

the next orthodox church stands 6 hours by bus southwards in the ukrainian Capital. There was no more trainticket avaible, so I had to go there by bus, which is not as confortable as soviet trains but as cheap. I Kiev is such a lot to see, so there will follow some more pics... I was staying in Kiev at a very interesting Hospitalitclub-Place. Sam was one of the leaders in the orange revolution...so it was very intersting to talk with him about Ukraina and the countrys position between western Europe and Russia...to illustrate this, a pic of the palace of foreign ministery in Kiev...

Black sea pearl-Odessa!!!

2007-12-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

Sooo long time I was waiting for it. To see the sea again and feel like in real summer holydays, and finally it got through. After one day more in Chisinau I at least got my visa and was able to travel forder eastweards. As it was so nice at Nastjas place, and they where so friendly people, hosting me that nice (see picture where all the family is sitting around the table, eating placenta, typical moldavian food), I asked Nastja and her boyfriend Andrej, who also was at the camp in Calarasi, if they wanted to spent some days in Odessa together with me. Both have never been there and they really wanted to, so we spent two days together all the 3 of us. Most of all we wanted to see the sea. Especially as Andrej and Nastja havent seen it at all or very, very long time ago...And we saw it and enjoyed swimming there, allthough I can't really recomend Odessas beaches, they are overcrowded and dirty, but anyway. The whole athmosphere in Odessa is really nice, just holyday-feeling!

After Nastja and Andrej went back I spent two days more in Odessa strowling around with some spanish, a polish and a costarican guy that I met in the youthhostel. Really funny company! Toghether withthem we discovered more cultural parts of the city, where visiting the undergorund, where soldiers in first and second world wars where hiding (there was even kind of a church, see picture) and the jewish museum.

more impressions of Moldova

2007-12-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

As I have been almost 2 weeks in Moldova, there are of course some more pictures...I didn't plan to stay there that long, but it was not possible to leave earlier, as I had to get my russian visa at the russian embassy in Chisinau. Because Tanias parents during the summer are working at a christian summper camp outside the town Calarasi, I was living there...there was not really place for me there, so that is why the second week I was participating in the youth camp taking place there, which was by the way really great experience! As I don't speak roumanian I tried to communicate in russian, it was really hard, but the girls where incredibly nice and helpful! So you can see here some pics of this camp and on the last photo Nastjas little sister. Nastja is one of the girls of our house in the camp. Very nice girl! As I had to go to Chisinau once more for my visa and I didn't now where to stay there, she just invited me to her place. That was great, such a lovely family, I just felt at home :-)

And some photos from Moldava

2007-12-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

How read my article of course better understands what you see on this pictures. There are photos from Chisinau, the capital, the parlament building in soviet style, a orthodox church and me and my friend Tania on a huge square with fountain. The other pics are from the little town Calarasi, where Tanias family lives. I hope they give you some impressions of what Moldavia looks live...I havent been in russian village in summer, but of what I saw in winter, it looks pretty similar...old buses, goats and chickens on the street...wooden houses...

Some friends... :-)

2007-12-01T04:57:00.000-08:00

I thought maybe you would like to know whith whom I am spending my free time here...So that s some pictures showing some of my russian friends. There is Anya, who I met trough Hospitalityclub, she is studying in one university with me and we are often meeting for a walk, drinking tea or going to cinema. It is also at here place I am mostly using internet :-). Then there is Masha. She is studying together with me. On the picture you see her on the background of the palace of culture of chimicals in her hometown Dserchinsk, where I spent two weekends togheter with her. On the last pic you see my friends Ilja and Genia from the Studenthome. We were cooking hotwine, as you can guess from the picture it was a rather funny evening. :-)

About Moldova

2007-11-15T01:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, as my english is getting worse and worse and as I hate to reread my posts to correct them about Moldavia I am not going to write any more than this german text, which I wrote for the local newspaper in St.Gallen. Sorry no-german-speaking friends...

Zu Besuch in Moldawien

Bereits die Bahnfahrt von Bukarest nach Chisnia ist ein Erlebnis. Die Schlafwagen sind eingerichtet wie eine typische moldawische Stube: Bunte Teppiche im Gang und in den Abteilen, gelbe Vorhänge und geblümelte Bettwäsche. So gemütlich ist kein westeuropäischer Nachtzug. Im moldawischen Grenzstädtchen Ungheni gibt es zwei Stunden Aufenthalt: Wagen für Wagen wird auf einen neuen Rolluntersatz gehoben. Moldawien ist ehemalige Sowjetrepublik und die sowjetischen Eisenbahnschienen sind 20 cm breiter als die internationale Norm. Morgens um neun fährt der Zug in Chisinau ein. Zwischen den imposanten Bauten aus der Sowjetzeit sind auch einige gelbgestrichene Steinbauten aus dem 19. Jahrhundert und orthodoxe Kirchen mit Zwiebeltürmen. In einem Stadtteil breiten riesige Märkte aus. Von der Zahnbürste bis zum Fernseher ist alles zu haben. Den breiten Alleen entlang fahren überfüllte Busse. Das Ticket für einen Leu, knapp zehn Rappen, verkauft einem die Kontrolleurin direkt im Bus. Die Fahrt im Minibus, einem ausgebeulten, zwölfplätzigen Mercedesbus von Chisinau in die Provinzhauptstadt Calarasi kostet 16 Leu, etwas mehr als einen Franken. Die wenigsten besitzen ein eigenes Auto. Das Benzin ist zu teuer.

Der Minibus fährt, sobald alle Plätze besetzt sind. Das kann zehn Minuten oder zwei Stunden dauern. Die Landschaft ist hügelig wie das Appenzellerland aber die Vegetation ist wilder, die Hügelkuppen sind bewaldet. Manchmal sind Maisfelder oder Weinberge zu sehen. Am Strassenrand werden Wassermelonen zum Verkauf angeboten. Bei Tania Smolenschi zu Hause werden sie zum Dessert gegessen. «Es ist Wassermelonen-Saison » sagt Tania. « In Moldawien essen wir Früchte stets nur zur Saison, ausserhalb sind sie gar nicht zu kaufen ». Ich habe Tania während ihres Austauschsemesters in der Schweiz kennen gelernet. Jetzt reise ich für ein Studiensemester nach Russland. Auf meiner Reise besuche ich sie und ihre Familie in Calarasi.

Es mache keinen Sinn Moldawien mit der Schweiz zu vergleichen, sagt Tania. Es können nicht die selben Kriterien angewandt werden. Das Leben in Moldawien ist von anderen Sorgen geprägt als in der Schweiz. Obwohl die Löhne zehnfach tiefer sind, kosten Kleider oder Schuhe beinahe dasselbe wie in der Schweiz. Und « es gibt nie Ausverkauf », sagt Tania. Viele Moldawier wandern nach Westeuropa aus um für ihre Familie Geld zu verdienen. Dieses heimgesandte Geld mache den grössten Anteil des nationalen Bruttosozialprodukt aus, sagt Tania. Sie selbst studiert in Rumänien. Das Nachbarland gehört zur EU. Tania erhofft sich dadurch bessere Berufschancen.

In der Schweiz hat Tania die vielfältigen Freizeitangebote und die gesellschaftliche Verankererung des Sportes geschätzt. « Sogar Pensionierte sind in Sportclubs aktiv, Grossmütter fahren Velo, Bussinessmänner sind mit einem Trottinet unterwegs. Hier würde man mich schon für verrückt halten, wenn ich durch mein Quartier joggen würde ». Tania Quartier ist typisch für eine moldawische Kleinstadt. Nur die Hauptstrasse ist geteert. Die Seitenstrassen sind holprig und gleichen nach einem Regenguss einem Flussbett. Ein Mann treibt eine Ziegenherde vor sich hin. Vor einem Haus steht eine einfache Holzkutsche. An einem Tümpel sitzen Kinder und angeln. Entlang der Strassen stehen grüne Holzlattenzäune. Die Häuser sind aus grauem Stein, einstöckig und die Dächer sind mit scherenschnittartig-verziertem Blechwerk geschmückt. Immer wieder steht am Strassenrand ein überdachter Ziehbrunnen. « Viele Familien haben kein fliessend Wasser, sie teilen sich einen Ziehbrunnen in der Nachbarschaft».

Die Schweizer seien offener und unbesorgter als die Moldawier, sagt Tania. Die Gastfreundschaft hingegen ist in Moldawien wichtiger als in der Schweiz. Freunde und Verwandte werden häufig eingeladen und beinahe täglich gibt es spontanen Besuch, der gleich zum Essen miteingeladen wird. Eine moldawische Spezialität sind Sarmales: mit einer Mischung aus Reis-und Rindfleisch gefüllte Rebenblätter. Am Sonntag gibt es Schaschlik, grillierte Fleischspiesschen. Nach dem Essen bringt Tanias Mutter eine Schale gerösteter Sonnenblumenkerne auf den Gartentisch. « In der Schweiz ist das wohl Vogelfutter », scherzt Tanias Vater. Familie und Gäste knacken die Kerne zwischen den Zähnen, spucken die Schalen ins Gras.

2007-11-15T01:29:00.000-08:00

And three pictures from Bucarest: First one: REMONT. Every where in eastern Europe there is eternal Remont, means restauration, repairing...All people inviting me in there houses in Moldavia, Ukraine or in Russia, beg to pardon the mess in there flat, caused by remont, Hostels in Odessa and Museums in Nishny Novgorod are closed because of remont, on the mainstreet in Bucarest and in Nizhny as well, there ist remont...In Bucarest this remont was particulary interesting as there were only women working there and to say the trouth they were talking and smoking but not really working either...Other typicall eastern-european thing I met for the first time in Bucarest: Orthodoxe Churches and last picture: The famous house of parliments in Bucarest. They tell it has as many floors underground as "upper"ground...Unfortunately I was too tired to visit it...I had slept very few on the train from Budapest to Bucarest.

some more pics

2007-11-15T01:13:00.000-08:00

And some pics more from Budapest...and the timetable of trains leaving daily from Bucarest...
Und eis Foeteli nur fuer schwitzerduetsch-Schprechendi und bsunders fuer die liebe Linguiste: Wer het bhauptet ungarisch heg ueberhaupt gar nuet z tue mit indogermanische Sprache?!!!! Am Glacestand in Budapest jedefalls hend mir festgstellt, dass es durchus es gwuessi Verwandschaft mit em schwitzerduetsch git. Mini Lieblingsglace isch emel au Eper!!! :-)

Pics of my trip to Russia!!

2007-11-15T00:39:00.000-08:00

So, finally you will see some pictures of my trip to Nizhny Novgorod...Let start in chronlogigal order so the very first pic is taken at home just some minutes before I left to take the night train to Ljubljana. It will be the last familypicture for some time...then now I am in Russia my brother is in Peru and my sister will leave for Canada or the US soon...so our family is spread out over nearly the whole world... Then there are two photos from Ljubljana. When I was sleeping under a tree near the Ljubljna fortress some football-playing, portuguese-speaking guys wake me up, and so I spent the whole day with 6 interrailing Portugueses and a grazy Brasilian guy. They also showed me the really cheap youthhostel, they were staying in and in the night all the hostel-guests were going out together, pretty international company, guys from Finnland to Portugal, Australia, US and Brasil. Was really lot of fun! After Ljbljuna, -wich is an amazing town, it is so cosy, you just feel at home from the very first moment on, -I left for Zagreb. What to tell about Zagreb...I have been there allready some years ago, allthough it was just few hours then. It is very nice city....not touristic at all, what I like! From Zagreb to Budapest train left very, very early in the morning. I was at the trainstation at about 4 o clock and hoped to sleep some more hours in the train...but this tourned out impossible! Because of the Ziget-Festival taking place this days in Budapest this train was incredibly overcrowded, worse than every russian or honduranian Bus or Marschrutka!! Still I got somehow to Budapest and without any problem I even found my friend Maiann, who had arrived that morning by train from Zurich in Budapest. The whole afternoon we where strolling trough the huge historical center of Budapest and just enjoyed it to have one more day together to talk and talk and talk... :-) From Budapest I got to Bucarest, where I was only one day but I guess it is enough, as I didn't like this city so much. It is very, very noisy and dirty place...Still there are some few nice places to see and they also have this cheap and tasty Fornetti-Fastfood... Night train to Moldavia, Chisniau was the most cosy train I ever saw in my live. There where yellow curtains, carpets like in grandmothers house and flowers on the bedlinnen. Not only the furniture was really nice but also my "neighbours". There was a jewish ukrainian man living now in Israel how went together with his son to visit his ill dad and a roumanian man working for an NGO. Both were really interesting people. So the night went by pretty fast and in the next morning I met my friend Tania at the train station in Chisniau, Moldavia where I was going to stay almost two weeks.

Finally...

2007-10-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am sorry... (Please excuse mistakes...I am speaking daily better russian and bader english) I thought it would be easier to get internet access in Russia and so I could post news on my blog regulary....but, it turned out differently as you know from my emails. Still, as many told me they didnt get my adress correctly I will post it now on this blog. Maybe soon some pictures of my trip to Nizhny Novgorod will follow, will see...

кому: Ноэми Хельфенштейн

Куда: российская федерация
нижний новгород 603950
п-т. гагарина, д. 23
общежитие 4, "Гостиница", ком.52

2007-08-03T06:27:00.001-07:00

Some pictures of my birthday-farewell-party the 28 of July!

This evening adventure starts...

2007-08-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, I see. I've to learn a lot before this is getting a good blog. I changed my plans, so my train to Ljublijana ist leaving only this night...And then: adventure starts as I still don't know where I am going to sleep this next nights...
Last saturday was my birthday and I organized a birthday-farewell-party in Neuchâtel. It was really great day! Thanks a lot to all my friends, who joined me for that day!! Weather was perfect, sunny and fullmoon in the night. Thanks to Derlis, Julio and Philippe we had real concert in the night, and thanks to Maiann and Thierry delicious desserts. I really enjoyed this evening and most of all the great atmosphere between all this people, that didn't know eacht other before and in some cases even didn't speak the same language. :-)
So, I'm very thankfull to have such nice friends!! I will try to put some pictures of the party on my blog, so you can see.
Then, good bye,
we'll stay in contact by e-mail, this blog or any other way...
take care!
Noemi

Willkommen! Bienvenu! Bienvendios! Welcome!

2007-07-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hallo!
Wow! Hätte ich ja auch nicht gedacht, dass ich das je mache: Habe soeben meinen Blog erstellt. Mittwoch Abend plane ich per Nachtzug nach Ljublijana, von dort nach Rijeka, dann nach Zagreb, Budapest, Bukarest, Chisniau, Odessa, Jalta, Kiev, Moskau und schliesslich Nishni Novgorod zu reisen. In Nishni Novgorod werde ich ein Semester studieren.
Nun, und eben, um in Kontakt zu bleiben ist so ein Blog gar nicht so übel. Vor allem, wenn ich mir überlege, dass ich in Zwischenzeit meine Mails in 4 Sprachen schreiben muss, wenn ich will, dass alle sie verstehen. Nun, mit dem Blog ist's dasselbe, eigentlich ;-)
mal sehen wie ich dieses Problem lösen werde. Freue mich jedenfalls über alle die meinen Blog von Zeit zu Zeit besuchen werden!
Bis bald!
Noemi