Cake

I had eggs left over from making chocolate-chip pancakes. I hate eggs. Therefore, I made cake.



What to remember when baking cake in Europe:

• Different altitudes affect how things rise and boil


• Celsius and Fahrenheit aren't the same thing.
  

The result of which led to a huge bubble in the middle of the top layer, and a lack of rising. I fixed it before the chocolate layer got too damaged, though. This is a vanilla/chocolate cake with raspberry frosting.


And just for fun, here's the view from Laubi Weg, which is a nice little brick path leading from my apartment up to where the trams come to take me places. I've given up on waiting for the sky to turn blue. The sky is never blue. Ever. Not even when it's sad. I have to figure out how to properly expose my photos so they sky works out with everything... I'm really unhappy with this photo cause the foreground is so dark and the sky so bright, but hey, at least the bricks look cool.



Classes are going well. They are much more mathematically advanced than classes at K-State. One of them is in German, and I don't understand the lecture at all. Poor me! It's a simple enough subject, though, and he posts his notes online, so I can read them slowly and then go to lecture, which is more effective. Hooray!

Lake Zurich

Today I had a meeting with the study abroad lady at ETH, so I had to make sure to wake up early. For some reason, I felt like lingering in my warm bed--the sort of feeling I tend to get during inclement weather. Sure enough, I look out the window, and it's snowing. Now, apparently the people here rejoice at snow, but after a month of dealing with frozen wet toes due to trudging through the snow-infested streets of Boston (yes, it's seriously an epidemic over there. I mean piles 4 feet high? Come on!) any amount of snow is tantamount to torture. Anyway, I dragged my carcass out to ETH, met with Sandra (who was incredibly nice), and received loads of information that would have been really useful from the beginning. I decided to go straight back home and warm myself up with a soup rather than walk around with my new maps or explore campus.

A couple hours after I arrived home, Elenora (the Italian girl I mentioned) suggested that we walk around town a bit. I wanted to get pictures of Lake Zurich that I hadn't managed to take before (due to a dead battery), so we set off. As a result, I have loads of fantastic photos for you all. The first couple are from the main station. A river-like stream-like thing there flows eventually into the lake, so the first view is of buildings along that river.


This is a creepy statue that's right outside the Bahnhof. Zurich is full of these strange fountains, gargoyles glaring down at you menacingly from rooftops, and statues of boldly naked women with moss growing in a suggestive location.

We got back on the tram and made it down to Lake Zurich, which was incredibly beautiful. Here are the rest of the pictures from there, no commenting necessary:

Welcome to Zürich

This blog is meant to update my friends and family on my trip from the US to Zürich, and if anybody else happens to find it helpful, that would be fantastic.

Day one

I left Boston on Saturday, January 31^st. Unfortunately, I hadn't packed, thinking that I would have enough time (as my flight left at 8pm). In my haste of departure, I forgot basically everything--a transformer, one of my coats, some clothing, a power strip, cables for my desktop, and unfortunately I also had to send back some of my textbooks (most tragically my Griffiths books) as my luggage was severely overweight. I didn't realize packing 70 pounds worth of clothing was actually possible.

At any rate, I had over two hours to kill once I had gotten through security (which, strangely, wasn't any more rigorous than that for domestic flights). I finally got on the airplane. The flight was pretty nice--the steward(esse)s had ridiculous accents, there were amusingly crappy in-flight movies, they served some excellent tea and a nice meal and gave us blankets and socks (random, eh?). As we approached Britain, we saw an incredibly vibrant sunrise:



... and I could tell we were nearing London when the clouds began to terrify me:



Upon arrival at Heathrow, I (and a large crowd of fellow passengers) followed signs down to a large open area that had tunnels for trams to the left and right. We waited there as the time passed. I checked my watch regularly, noticing that my closing time for boarding my plane was approaching. I repeatedly asked the guards there what I ought to do, and they said the shuttle should arrive any moment. Finally, they told us all to just walk (although when I asked earlier, the bastards didn't mention any mode of walking), and I had to go to a ticketing desk to catch a later flight into Zurich. Meanwhile, my cell wasn't working at all--I couldn't access the towers or the internet through it. The ticket guy gave me a small voucher and I ate a poppyseed bagel (mmm... opiates) and had a pretty fantastic coffee (mmm... stimulants) while I waited. The rest is pretty uneventful, mostly dealing with me finding the correct gate and dragging my incredibly heavy luggage up and down the streets of Zürich in a state of near exhaustion, but I did make it to my room in the end (69 Rötelstrasse).

Days 2-10

The rest of the week has been filled with periods of hiding in my room, in a somewhat depressed state of being, and other periods of exploring the city. To be honest, whenever I'm walking around alone, I feel somewhat terrified and lonely. Thankfully, one of the girls that's staying in the Wohngemeinschaft (a sort of dorm-like apartment, where, in this case, eight girls each have a room with a sink but share a kitchen, bathrooms, a washing machine, and showers) is from Italy and has nothing to do until her semester starts, so have walked around town together. I have yet to take my camera outside, but one of these days I'll post some pictures of the town. It's gorgeous, and when I'm not feeling homesick or shy due to language barriers (Swiss German is related to actual German only by an awkwardly large stretch of the imagination), I can appreciate its beauty.


I can also appreciate the differences between Zurich and the US, which, although minor, can be disconcerting. The keys are dimpled instead of serrated, and some of the spoons are serrated instead of smooth. The sirens on ambulances go waa-woo-waa-woo instead of weeeeeeeeeoooooooooeeeeeeeeeeoooooooo. The grocery shop has a little scale where you weigh your produce and punch in a number corresponding to the vegetable in question--it prints out a little sticker that has a barcode, weight, and price on it. There is absolutely no cheddar cheese to be found anywhere. The list goes on...

Basic lessons learned:

• Don't forget a goddamned transformer/power adapter
  
• Make sure to have some money in the proper currency
  
• Figure out if the public transportation is free before you start squatting
  
• You're not exempt from homesickness, no matter how much you think you will be
  
• Meat, fresh vegetables, clothing, and fresh fruit are freaking expensive here.
  
• Ask questions so you don't end up flashing the neighbourhood every night for a week before realizing the windows have shutters.
  

Love,
Asma