Sam M. '07 | August 09, 2006
"Swiss Miss"
DID YOU KNOW? The song "Hips Don't Lie" went to #1 in nearly every country that has singles charts. There are four countries where it only went to #2, and it only went to #94 in Japan. And I am SO SICK OF HEARING IT.
This is a dumb story, but scroll down for some more pictures.
I left my umbrella on a train in Switzerland last weekend. It was really a great umbrella--it had a big button that you could press to open it, fit perfectly into my small girly hands, had a comfortable strap to fit around my wrist, was compact enough to fit horizontally in my backpack when folded up, and kept the rain off of me pretty well, although the ravages of time were becoming apparent after three years of use. But anyway, I left it on a train in Switzerland.
I was worried about finding a replacement, because I got the umbrella three years ago at MIT when Shannon '05 lost my previous, much less awesome, umbrella. I was like, "Whatever, just give me 12 dollars or something," but Shannon went out to the Cambridgeside Galleria the very next day and bought me this great, top-of-the-line umbrella that I've loved ever since. So I thought that there would be a pretty big disparity between the amount of money that I was willing to spend on an umbrella and the kind of service I had come to expect from an umbrella.
With that in mind, I looked up the word for "umbrella" in Google translator and went out shopping last night. I must have looked kind of strange in the first store I went to, because I tested each umbrella I encountered according to the above five characteristics--so I opened it, held it in my hand as if it were raining indoors, dangled it by its strap from my wrist, put it in my backpack, and estimated the permeability of the material. Do most people do this when they're umbrella shopping? I mean, you would want to test-drive a car, right? There were a couple umbrellas with button-opening mechanisms, but only one even met two of my five criteria--a 10 ’Ǩ model that was a little bit too big to fit comfortably in my backpack and had an uncomfortable plastic strap.
The second place I went, I found a cheap, yet serviceable model for 2,50 ’Ǩ that I figured could use as a provisional umbrella until finding an actual replacement back in the USA. But I cut myself while closing it, and it didn't look sturdy enough to hold up even for three more weeks in Germany.
The third place I went was almost closing, but it was on my way home so I figured I might as well give it a shot. I got a little distracted because "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas came on, so I kind of wandered around looking at 7 ’Ǩ polo shirts for the duration of that song. But just a few minutes before closing, I happened to stroll upstairs to the women's section, and was just about to leave when I saw umbrellas right next to the escalator. After a little digging, my eye caught the gleam of the giant "umbrella open" button on my beloved old umbrella. Thinking it was too good to be true, I threw five other umbrellas on the floor digging it out and popped it open--it was none other than an exact replica of my old umbrella! And the cost was exactly the maximum price that I was willing to pay for an umbrella! I walked over to the cashier with the umbrella still in disarray, paid for it, then popped it snugly into my backpack before she even had a chance to open up a bag for me. What an evening that was!
It's the little things.
But I digress. The plan last weekend was to go to Engelberg, Switzerland and take a 5-hour hike up to some random hotel in the middle of the Alps, then hike over an Alp (?) to Meiringen, and take the train home from there. We were hoping that the trip would be a real hit, but instead it rained for the entire weekend, and much of the Alpine scenery we had hoped to see was obscured by clouds, making hiking both dangerous and kind of futile.. I blame Alpengeist. I still managed to take 176 pictures and 2 minutes of video, so I guess there must have been something interesting going on this weekend. So check it out!
First of all, let's get the scenic alpine vistas out of the way.
Now, then.
The first thing in Switzerland we saw was a Swiss supermarket, because we were hungry something fierce after our overnight train ride. Now, where I'm from in Pennsylvania you're not even allowed to sell alcohol in supermarkets, so even seeing wine at Trader Joe's in Boston is a shock. And Europe, with hard alcohol sitting right next to the produce section, is another matter entirely. But still, I was not prepared to see red wine sold in a milk carton, above.
Also in Europe, they are a little more open with their advertising than in the US. This poster is part of an anti-AIDS campaign. The concept is that you wouldn't play hockey without protection, so why would you do anything in life without proper protection? For a fun surprise, try reading and translating the text on the left-hand side of the poster. It's nothing if not direct.
When we got to Engelberg, we met up with Karl '07, who is most definitely ready for some Alpine hiking. He's actually in the midst of a two-week hike through a pretty big stretch of the Swiss Alps, I think as part of six months he's spending there (correct me if I'm wrong, MIT readers). In addition to being a hiking expert, Karl also speaks fluent Swiss German. After studying German for a year, I could understand about one word in ten when the Swiss spoke to me. Now, Karl's talent might not have mattered too much, since most Swiss also understand the High German dialect spoken in most of Germany, but it did lend the whole party some street cred when talking to transportation officials. It's a lot like if you went to Mississippi and you had somebody along who could speak Southern--it's just easier to get things done that way.
So, along with Karl '07, Bao '07, Ling '07, Kendall '07, and Vanessa who goes to Cornell, I '07 took a postal bus up to our hotel in the Alps. Karl '07 did manage to get us a 50% discount on tickets, probably with his mad Swiss German skills. Along the way, we saw a marmot, which I had previously thought was an animal made up for The Big Lebowski.
And this is actually how we spent a lot of time in the Alps--sitting on trains, playing Chinese Poker (also known as "President" in some circles). Watch out, guys, Bao has got a full house!
When we finally got up to the hotel, basically an unheated log cabin with 14 beds for 6 people (when asked if we would get any company), we took advantage of the temporarily nice weather to take a short, touristy, hike up into them, see some cows, yodel, and sing a few bars of "The Sound of Music." Since I played Captain Von Trapp in high school and thus hate "The Sound of Music," I made sure that it was only a very few bars. One thing we learned during our hike was that the Alps are big and we are very small. Back at the hotel, we ate some delicious swiss Rˆsti, which was insanely delicious because potatoes are my favorite food, played some more cards, and headed off to bed. We woke up the next morning to find the hotel besieged by thousands of cows.
I didn't get any good pictures to demonstrate the sheer number of cows just walking around the road outside the hostel, but basically the whole place was just cows, cows cows cows, compressed to the density of a neutron star. So take the picture of Ling '07 and the cow up there and imagine that I could get basically the same shot looking in any direction. After a well-balanced and delicious breakfast, we took a few carefully-placed steps down to our postal bus and ended up deciding to head down to Bern, the capital of Switzerland, on our way home.
...and this was really the coolest thing we saw in Bern. I don't know what motivated anyone to make this statue--there are a bunch of similarly-mounted ones like it, but none of them really match this one in terms of just sheer bizarreness.
Oh yeah, and then we gave Kendall dreadlocks on the way home because she was bored. Can't wait to see how they're holding up in Italy this weekend!
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That's like when I went to Poland last year, and that Madonna song "Hung Up" was playing EVERYWHERE. It completely invaded my subconscious and became the soundtrack of my dreams. But now I hear it and think fondly of the Wieliczka Salt Mines, that nice Brazilian guy we met there, and all those crazy pigeons in Krakow. I still love "Hips Don't Lie"!
Posted by: Shana on August 9, 2006 10:05 AM
1. Oh baby when you talk like that, you make a woman go mad.
2. Colors of the Wind was like my favorite song in kindgarten. Actually, who am I kidding? I still bop along to Pocahontas. Wait, do people still bop along? No?
3. Umbrella shopping.. it's not for the weak.
Posted by: JKim on August 9, 2006 11:29 AM
Best part about this entry: "fit perfectly into my small girly hands"
Posted by: Anonymous on August 9, 2006 12:51 PM
Alternate best part of the entry: Southern translators
Just playing, samcow.jpg #1
Posted by: Ruth '07 on August 9, 2006 09:33 PM
Wow. I'm kind of sad that I only get 2 lines in your blog when the thing took like . . . I dunno at least 4 or maybe 5 hours. But anyway, they look really bad, but that's cuz they've got all this crap in them and I can't wash them until tomorrow . . . yay. Thanks for all the help, btw. And Thank God for bandanas.
Posted by: Kendall on August 10, 2006 08:48 AM
Shana -- I forgot Poland! In my travels of Europe, that is. Anyway, I did love Hips Don't Lie the first time I heard it, but it's seriously on like once an hour in Germany... I think that we heard it on three different stations at the same time in the car on Monday.
JKim -- Oh, I bop to Colors of the Wind. All the time. You make me feel really old, now, because we sang Colors of the Wind when I was in chorus in 5TH GRADE. Wow.
Anonymous -- Haha, thanks.
Ruth '07 -- Well, I can't understand people who are in some small Pennsylvania towns 20 minutes from me, so I can only imagine Mississippi.
Kendall -- I actually have 3 different pictures in my web directory, but I wasn't sure you'd consent to me posting them. I'm sure they'll be great! Can't wait to see them tonight!
Posted by: Sam on August 10, 2006 10:01 AM
1. Umbrella rating at Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2116557/
2. Love the haircut
3. Karl '07 was in my freshman advising seminar and spoke French incredibly well.
4. Looks awesome!
Posted by: Mitra on August 13, 2006 12:32 PM
