Goodbye Europe

Step by step everything is coming in order and things are falling into place. My things are packed, my papers in order, my room cleaned and tidy, the city was bed farewell. Next, the flight back home to Hong Kong. Chapter Spain is over, Chapter Switzerland long gone, now Hong Kong continues and Chapter Missouri starts. 

But honestly, the flights are the worst part of going somewhere new, or just on vacation, anything really. I hate flying, hate flying. Whenever I get on a plane I feel like every muscle in my body and every bone is messing around and aching. Then, about 3 hours into the flight I get exhausted. Then, after ages of not being able to get comfortable I finally manage to fall asleep. Maybe, maybe, I sleep for about 1 hour and then awake thinking I managed to sleep though till about three hours before the end of the flight. Boy, was I mistaken. It's really only half way through the flight, 6 hours or more to go. Now I get cranky and impatient. 

I try watching movies, you know, thats the service we pay for, what we expect, and what most of us really do on such flights. But for the past year I could not get on a single flight that had a little TV in front of my seat that actually worked! What? you might say in complete and utter outrage. That's what I always said. They tried restarting it and I asked to be reseated. 1) they don't seem to care. 2) the flight is so bloody full I can't even spot a seat that is close to empty 20 minutes after boarding has started. There's no hope. Finally the time shows it's three hours before landing. I start waking up more in hope of some entertainment. My eyes are burning, I'm exhausted. The usual. I didn't read, I didn't watch a movie, all I did was pretend to dose in the possibly most uncomfortably angled seat in the entire universe. 2 hours before landing, the light are back on. Thank you! People are moving, thing's are heading towards their landing positions. Just another hour and we're finally there! At this point I don't care anymore where I'm going, as long as I'm finally there. After 13 hours the plane finally lands, I can't wait to get up. We step out of the crowded plane after some people unbuckling too early and shoving their way past those patiently waiting in line. 

Probably the most exciting feeling ever sweeps over me as I step to the baggage carousel knowing that I don't have to sit in another bloody plane for at least a week, hopefully. The torture is over!! Wow, I just made myself unhappy about having to fly tomorrow even though I'm excited about the destination. Whoop for Hong Kong! OK, I'm excited again, at least I'm not travelling alone for a while. That's always more entertaining. 

So, anyway, this blog is meant to say goodbye to Europe. So far there's no plan to come back in a long time. For me it's two years, most likely, before I come back here. Sad, but there's not a big choice nowadays  with the prices of flights rising and so many planes being stuffed to the rim with people without even considering another bunch of flights a week in order to make flying more possible. So, one more day and this holiday is over, one more day and Kiwi has the movers in her house. Just one day but so much to do.

Real nail-biter

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This is Rome!

I just realized I had so much to write while I wasn't even near anything with internet I could use but once I returned I forgot to actually write it. So, this post is all about Rome and the things I saw there. It was an amazing trip, 5 days in Rome. We stayed with family in a place called Merlupo outside of the city of Rome but only about 40 minutes away by car. Anyway, here are some things I saw:

The barfing lion:

This building is completely made of white marble and only the horse carriage with the riders with wings are black so they are very easy to spot in the sky of Rome:

The details of a puerta in the Forum Romanum:

Forum Romanum, where there were TONS of old stones, the place the ancient romans would spend most of their time. Basically the centre of the town at that time:

The Colosseum, enough said:

The famous statue in the Domo di San Pietro of La Pieta:

The Swiss guard in the Vatican, love the look:

St. Peter's dome from along the columned street:

Plenty of old pieces of awesomeness in the Forum Romanum:

Calcata, a really cute little broken apart town that housed artsy people on top of a hill that was crumbling away beneath them:

When working in Rome this will most likely be my home for a while, but hey, it had tiles:

Part of an old temple in the Forum Romanum:

In the Forum Romanum:

The Spanish steps during sunset:

These are just some of the things we saw, there were plenty more and dozens of things we never even got to see. If you want to go to Italy I would highly suggest Rome. It's an amazing city with so much to offer. Around every corner there is something you can look at and wonder as to how long it has been there already. All the things that were around so many hundreds of years ago. Amazing.

Um, this is how my day starts?

I expected today to be a busy and long day, but never did I expect it to be this complicated and annoying. Last night, right under my window, the road started to cry. Well, the water pipes under the road burst and water seeped through cracks in the middle of the road. I watched for a while as the fire department walked back and forth over the crack trying not to flood the road but at the same time trying to figure out where the water was coming from. 

This morning I was awoken by the gentle humming and sounds of a jack hammer right outside my window. At 7am. Thank you Switzerland for letting me enjoy the first day I was planning to sleep in after the excitements of the last week. Oh, but that's not all. Today people were supposed to come by to fix a problem with the pipes in our house. This is not related to the pipes bursting though. But since we no longer have water this needed to be moved. Yet still we needed to be up and presentable at 8am in order to explain the situation to the young guy that came to work on our house. 

So now that this was all cleared up we can enjoy the rest of the day, right? Wrong. Soon after we get a phone call from the grandparents, we need to pick up my grandpa, who is on crutches and swears out of his ass more than a teenager that is trying to prove his coolness to his friends. So, it's not too hard, I go alone, on the streets in Switzerland, in an area now constantly under construction, to drive around an area I don't really know my way around in a car yet. It was all fine and dandy until I get shouted at for not really knowing how to parallel park, I never learned that. Then I get shouted at for wanting to put the parking ticket in the machine, yet he says it's fine without, but not before he shouts "No" at me several times without an explanation. Then I'm not told where we're going until the last minute which can be very stressful if there is construction, people, and dozens of other things I need to keep an eye on. 

Finally, we're driving home, right? Wrong again. First, for some reason, it's necessary for my grandpa to stop by my house and, all on his crutches at about 5 steps a minute, he decides to oil the gate! Why? I don't know, I didn't think there was anything wrong with the gate. Oh, and then he starts up a friendly chat with the construction workers. That's nice, but we're waiting in the blistering heat of the car for him to get back in so we can get the hell out of there since there is food in the back from when my grandma went shopping. 

Finally, we drive home, but he doesn't tell me that. So every 5 meters I have to ask "And now? Left, right, straight ahead?" Around 3 turns later I say "Where are we going now?" "Home obviously." is his response. Ah, I see, I guess I didn't inherit the mind reading gene. Sorry gramps. 

Sorry for being a disappointment to whatever you expected of your grandchild that never bloody lived in Oerlikon. But hey, now you can go brood in your home, alone, and sad, since you just ruined the chance of me coming to visit you before I leave. 

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What a wonderful world

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My future in Rome

Dear Blog,

I have neglected you and for that I am not even slightly sorry. For the past week now I have been in constant movement, constantly busy. Other than the World Cup 2010 final, everything was exciting, new, and fun. So why have I not been online? I conquered internet addiction! No, I never had that before, that's for sure. So it really wasn't hard. 

What have I been doing you may ask. I've been in Rome!

After 5 days of walking for hours at a time in the blistering sun, getting strange tans from different shirts and shoes, seeing so many awesome ruins that I lost count, eating great Italian food, spending time with family I haven't seen in years, and learning some Italian in the meantime, we got back to Switzerland and I was exhausted. But the exhaustion I felt was wonderful because every moment in Italy was filled with something. The Colosseo was awesome, I want to move in there. Maybe if I win the lottery I can buy the place and ruin it so I can say I live in it. 

I have been thinking long and hard about where I see myself in the future. So far I have a couple of plans. One of them is to live in Rome, in the centre with a view of the Colosseo. I think once in Rome I will make a living from selling fake DVDs on the streets. Or maybe I'll play the flute as a performer.

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Blistering heat

Summer is here for the staying. 32 degrees Celsius and  not a cloud in the sky. Today is one of those days where I don't want to do anything, just lie around in a huge batch of ice-cream with my feet in cold water, under an umbrella on the balcony. I wish... So now I'm staying, with all windows open, in the shelter of my apartment where there is shade. Hopefully by the time it's evening the air has cooled down enough for me to go out to Zurifest. 

Cravings are rising now with this heat. I want to go swim, I want to sleep, I want to eat nothing but ice-cream and cold drinks. How perfect would it be to have a swimming-pool on the roof right now? More than perfect, that's how perfect. 

Sometimes I wonder what makes people truly happy because when it's cold they complain and when it's hot they complain. It's common here, that's for sure. I love the heat, but there is a limit. 28-30 degrees is perfect. 32 is already too much. But I won't complain beyond the phrase I uttered about 20 times in the last 3 hours: "God, it's hot!"

So, now what? Well, I just wanted to let you know I'm going to flood our balcony to create a pool-like thing. Then I'm going to load a movie, get an ice-cream, and mix a drink. Today is going to be good.

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Inching on

I'm preparing for the inevitable. 

Slowly the evening is creeping up on me. Hard to believe, but it will all start eventually. Living in a constant limbo takes more energy than facing it all as soon as possible. Yet still the day is inching on and nothing is making it faster. The more I dwell on what is to come, the more it frustrates my patience and I am trialled for what my future may hold. But some days we must all face that which brings the greatest amount of unhappiness to us. 

That which brings it to me arrives at 18:00. I want to say sharp, but that would be extremely incorrect as it may start much earlier.

My grandparents are coming to visit.

I'm harsh? No, I'm patient but slowly my patience is running out. After just one day with them I feel drained of anything that could have possibly turned this day around. Everything that was going on was more stressful than exams, more annoying than noisy neighbors, more painful than having a rusty nail push its way through your hand slowly. Thank goodness, or the quick wits of my partner in crime, we made excuses to finally escape the clutches of two bitter old people that find no greater joy than the yearly verbal abuse of their extranjero grandchildren. 

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Push the tempo

The internet needs to be fast. The cars need to have speed. We need immediate answers. Time is money and we all want money. What is it that compels us to want to always hurry up like that? When working on something I get a sudden urge to complete it. I hate leaving things undone. When it comes to stress or anxiety it seems that none of us ever really want to feel the kind of uncontrolled stress. However, people want to feel the anxiety that comes when acting on stage, the adrenaline felt when breaking the rules, the stress that comes from responsibility for a life. Speed is what makes us feel alive. Don't get me wrong, there are other things that make us feel more than alive. But it's the fascination with speed and the stress behind speed that gets our adrenalin rushing.

I can't deny it myself. I love the rush of being behind stage waiting in the last couple of second. Fingers prickling of excitement, mind racing, barely able to stand still. 

But now that I saved the post and returned a day later to write it my entire train of thought is lost and I guess it ends here. But I hope you enjoyed it up to now, it's like an unfinished piece of art, it could be awesome. But it's not because no one, including me, knows what this will ever be about again. If I remember I'll let you know. 

Toodles
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