BMW

yesterday we had a company visit to BMW headquarters in Munich, Germany. it was simply awesome. we went through their entire factory and saw how they made their 3-series cars. robots EVERYWHERE!!! they have replaced humans, and it's quite scary to watch them work with SUCH amazing precision and accuracy. they were also very large robots, so it kind of made you think of what it would be like if they jumped out of the factory and decided to kill us all (i heard from numerous students yesterday that they had thought of it).

we saw the metal of the cars being pressed into the various types of parts that are eventually used in making the car, then we saw those pieces go through a spot welding procedure where they are put together (this was all done by robots), and then we saw the metal all put together to make the cage of the car. then we saw the car go through painting, which was very cool (also all done by robots), and then we saw the cars get their seats (that's where the "new car smell" was abundant). then we saw the cars get their underparts put in (everything from the engine to the brakes and axles; the entire undercarriage). at the end we saw the engine's being produced, and then also got to watch the finished product go through testing.

it was an experience i'll never forget and it was truly great.

the bus ride to the factory was 3hrs each way.

all else is well, and i'm getting really good at making indian curry chicken. today i added an extra flair to it that made sunil really love it. he was surprised.

our new roommate, cam, has settled in and is having a great time himself. he loves our kitchen (as do i) and has already cooked his first meal in it.

will update soon...

new roommate?!

interesting story...

i was in the housing office at school last week to sign my housing contract (i thought they had forgotten about me...too bad) and as i'm talking to the housing lady, this guy looks at me and say in a total american (more specifically, californian) accent, "where are you from?". i answered "Los Angeles" and he told me he was from san francisco. he was there to find a place to live. he's been here in st. gallen for a few days already and has nowhere to live (he's been living with a friend's family). he's a 24year old master's of international business student and oddly enough is half persian, half swiss. w got to talking and i mentioned sunil (my indian flatmate) was still looking for a roommate, as his originaly roommate is still in india (couldn't attend the program due to visa issues in his country). our convo slowly turned from small talk about living situations into him seriously considering moving into our place.

he told me he was staying here for 2 years. so i told him he's probably not find a place as good as ours with other flatmate's that share his sense of quiet living and graduate studies as ours. and also told him that if he was staying here as long as we were that it wouldn't be too tempting to share a room for his entire stay here. however, when he said he's going to be here for 2 years, i told him that it would be really good for him, because he could take one of our rooms for himself once we leave switzerland (in a couple months).

so, it turns out we're getting another flatmate. i really don't mind since he's a cool, fun guy (any time someone's presence can add extra comedy in my life, they are welcome to come by). pics will be posted soon.

keep in touch...

leadership and team building competencies

yesterday we had a special one-day class called "team building: leadership and team competencies". it was one of those day-long management/team building workshops full of trust games and group discussions, etc...

first we had the trust games, where 4 groups of 6 students each were picked out. 2 of the groups were leaders and 2 were followers, then we switched after 30min. the purpose of the lesson was to lead your group member through a list of 6 different tasks (from pouring a glass of juice to lighting a candle) without talking to them, while they are blindfolded. take a moment to think about this; imagine having to explain to a person (who is completely blind) to pour a glass of orange juice and walk it to you 10 feet away and hand it to you for you to drink, WITHOUT TALKING TO THAT PERSON or making any sounds with your mouth. it's really not as easy as it sounds.

in the first round i was a leader and my partner was a blind follower. first i had to have him pour the glass of juice and hand it to me to drink. then i had to have him light 3 candles with match sticks (BLINDFOLDED). then i had to have him touch and feel a flower/rose and then have him draw that rose on a piece of paper. then i had to have him run (while holding my hand) across a field. then i had to have him jump a rope 3 times, and finally have him run around a tree 3 times in each direction.

well, first came the glass of orange juice. i found the best way to communicate with my partner (armond, fom usc) was to play out what he was supposed to do with his own hands so that he would understand. i couldn't very well show him with my hands because he was blind, and i couldn't talk to him, so what i would do is act out what he has to do, using his own body. i would put the glass in his hand, then remove it and put the bottle of juice in his other hand hand and act out the process of pouring juice into the glass with his two hands (this was the only way to have his brain register everything, as if it was happening internally within himself). then i had him put back the bottle and while holding the glass of juice, walk over to where i would be and reach his hand that had the glass in it out toward me at which time i would take it from him. that's all he had to do. so after i used his body to act it out, i then tapped on his back and he understood this meant "start". he did it without a hitch and we completed the first task without a hitch.

next came the lighting of the candles. when the prof. was telling us about this one, we were all confused how we would stop people from burning themselves. i have to say that this particular task was not well thought out by the profs. not only that but it was obvious that lawsuits were not part of the culture here. i thought to myself if this was in america, it would have just been a lawsuit waiting to happen. think about it; a blindfolded person who is supposed to trust the school and his partner is burned without even knowing he was in danger of burning himself. that's bad shit. so again, i acted everything out with his own hands so he would understand what he had to do. i let him touch the candles; when he touched the wax and wick he knew it was a candle. i put all 3 candles in his hand, and then shook a box of matches so he would hear the sound, and then put it in his other hand. i opened the matches and took one out and acted out lighting the candles using his hands. he got the idea. the poor guy spent more than 10min (literally) just trying to light these damn candles in the wind. the profs. told us that we weren't supposed to help them during the lighting so i couldn't do anything but laugh (which i did repeatedly). he ended up burning his finger. i showed my disappointment with this task to the prof. it was obvious it shouldn't have been part of the activity.

next i had to have armond draw a rose on a piece of paper. so i gave him the rose, had him smell it and touch it and then gave him a pen and let him feel the paper. he wrote "flower". to tell him that's now what i wanted him to do i took his own hand and i made a "thumbs down" signal. this told him he was wrong. i gave the rose back to him to inspect and then gave him back the pen. this time he wrote "smell, rose, flower". first i laughed, and then i again made the "thumbs down" signal on his own hand. next o put the pen in his hand and holding his hand i moved the pen in little circles (to replicate the rose's pedals). this time he got it and was successful.

next i had him run across a field holding my hand. except he thought we were supposed to skip, so he ended up skipping the whole way, while i was laughing my ass off running with him. i really wish i had gotten that on video.

next i had him jump over the rope attached to a couple trees. this was easy, i just took his leg and i put it on the other side of the rope, and made the #3 on his hand. he got the idea.

i did the same thing with the running around the tree and he got it without a hitch.

NEXT came my turn to be blindfolded, with a completely different set of tasks. we walked to the other site and i put my blindfold on. first he hands me an object. without a doubt i could tell this object was a rubber ducky. he then handed me a pen and let me touch paper, so i knew it was similar to him and the rose. so i drew a rubber ducky. he put my hand in a "thumbs down" position so i knew i was wrong. he handed me the duck again and then gave me the pen again. this time i wrote "rubber duck" and he put my hand in a "thumbs up" position.

next he gives me an orange (i was able to tell by the texture and the smell). he held my hand with the orange and used my other hand to act out peeling it and then reaching my hand outward as if feeding him. so i went ahead and peeled the orange and then took a piece and reached it out. he took it and put my hand in a "thumbs up" position.

next he gives me what feels undoubtedly like a hammer and puts my other hand on 3 nails in a piece of wood. so i slammed the nails into the wood. no problem.

next he lets me touch a piece of paper and then takes my two hands and puts them in the position of a flying bird. this made me understand that i had to make a paper airplane. i made it and then he made me act out throwing it, so i did and he put my hand in the "thumbs up" position.

next he gives me what feels like clothes. a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt. i put them on over my clothes and he gives me the "thumbs up" signal. all fairly easy. i'm glad i didn't have to light anything with matches, blindfolded.

in other news...a group of us went to Zurich on tue, we had lunch there and we went to a church and an art museum. then 3 of the guys and i just hung out in a restaurant/bar while some of the girls went shopping. we then came back to st. gallen. it was fun. however, it was raining and that was a bit of a downer, but nothing we couldn't handle or get over. on our trip to zurich, we spotted the endangered armenian night owl.

in yet other news, my indian flatmate has two of his indian friends in town to visit him and the first thing they did after they put their bags down was raid the kitchen. i swear it looks like an indian food manufacturer that's been breaking the laws of good food sanitation and production in my kitchen.

topron and the chocolate factory

yesterday we went to an authentic swiss chocolate factory that goes by the name of Maestrani (website here). it was really great; we actually got to see how the chocolate is made, as it is first taken out of the shell that holds all the cocoa beans (we didn't see that part), then crushed and stirred (we saw the machines that do that, and they were churning), then added to milk powder, cocoa paste and cocoa butter (they explained all the different combinations in order to get dark/milk/white chocolate), poured into molds and cooled down. then they are taken to another part of the factory where they are wrapped. it was really an amazing experience. i had never been to a factory before this. we also got to taste some samples...it was tasty, but honestly i can't say that it beats all chocolates just because it's swiss. i mean it was really good and they are famous for it here, but it wasn't like..."omg, i've never tasted anything like this before". chocolate is chocolate; some girls (ok most girls) will disagree. i also bought some goodies from their store for some of you back in LA. going there made me want to start growing cocoa beans (slowly but surely turning into my dad). it's a really cool plant but will obviously take great care and maintenance as far as its environment goes. in nature it only grows in tropical environments so that has to somehow be replicated (greenhouse, temperature control, lights, etc...). so that was a really cool experience.

that same day we arranged to have a poker night at my place for a bunch of students in the group. those that made it really had a great time. we taught some people how to play and ended up putting 5 franc in the pot for each tournament (we played two tournaments). the first one was won by one of the girls that we taught how to play for her first time (that shit always happens), and the second tournament was one by ANOTHER girl that we taught how to play that same night. i came in second so i got my money back for the second tournament. i have to say it was really fun. we laughed a lot and learned a lot about each other. the get together definitely gained enough popularity to happen again very soon. poker can be very funny with the right people.

anyway, today i wanted to see if i could make something a little more "interesting" as far as food goes, and i wanted to take a day's break in eating super conservatively healthy...so, i made tuna casserole. right now it's sitting in the fridge awaiting going into the oven (i want to put it in the oven just before i'm ready to eat it), and it looks MIGHTY GOOD!!! it's two layers of penne pasta, tuna with onions and mushrooms in a creamy sauce (a little like alfredo, but slightly different taste), topped with mozzarella cheese and a few slices of tomatoes. i'm excited to taste it. i've never made anything like that before, so i'll keep my fingers crossed.

other than that..everything is going GREAT, i'm having a better time here than i ever thought i'd have.

appenzeller alpenbitter!!!

yesterday was our first outing as a class. with our program coordinator, jennifer (new yorker), we went to the EXTREMELY TINY town of Appenzell. we took the train there, which took about 45min. we got a city tour while there, then had lunch. during lunch a group of us were together at a restaurant; me, lannette (my roommate), maureen (from UCLA anderson), all three SC trojans (armond, katy and arthur chief dawg), martin (from austria), john (from houston), jaakko (from finland), marie carmen (from mexico) and marie-astrid (from belgium). i seriously hope i named everyone correctly. i think i got all the names down, usually pretty good with that after a bunch of embarrassing encounters of forgetfulness in the past. so we had lunch and chit chatted for a couple hours (laughed a lot), and then met with the rest of the group at the train station where we walked to the Appenzeller Alpenbitter brewery/factory. alpenbitter is the name of this all-healing (so they say) alcoholic concoction made of 42 natural herbs and some strong-ass alcohol; its website is found here

from left to right: john (houston), sunil (my roomie, india), jaakko (finland), me, arthur (trojan), armond (sherv look-alike, trojan), martin (austria), andreas (switzerland)

imagine jagermeister, except this drink tasted a little less like black liquorish than Jager does and is not as sweet or as tasty as jager. we watched a video about the drink before heading onto the tour of the factory. the video was a huge advertisement for the drink, and was a lot less informative than i had hoped. as far as business management goes, it makes sense to advertise the drink as much as possible in the intro video, considering that your subjects will end up in the tourist shop, drinking samples of the drink, various other drinks manufactured by the company and have visible and very close access to the factory store that sells their products.

left to right: lannette (my roomie, minnesota), armond, me, sunil

after the video we went on the tour and got to see samples of all the herbs found in the drink (not all ingredients, as the drink has many secrets that can't be dispelled, which is also the reason the company cannot import to the US since the FDA requires them to disclose all ingredients in the drink and they refuse to).

our program coordinator (new york), buying the drink.

after the tour of the herbs, tanks, condensers, warehouse where they keep the rest of their products, etc... we got to their sampling room and store. this drink is STRONG. in the video it said that many doctors recommend it to heal many ailments (bullshit in my book), and we all found it ironic that the english speaking tour guide that works at the company was out sick.

after the tasting was over, we went back to the train and came back to st. gallen. when we arrived many of us went home, but a small few of us (me, my roomies and the trojans) went to the local Orange (that's the name of the cell carrier) mobile store so that they can also get cell phones while here.

after that we lost one trojan, and the rest of us went to the main and largest grocery store by the train station to get some food. we met about 5 more international exchange students in the grocery store (of which 3 were in the ISP). after shopping we came home (long long walk, first to the bus, then from the bus stop to out house, carrying many pounds of groceries and bottled water). we were dead tired when we got home; i even accidentally fell asleep in my room in a weird fetal position, sideways on the bed. nevertheless i did get up at around 9pm to make myself and lannette dinner (i make her food, which is always the same as my own food, and she does the dishes; great deal, as all i have to do is add exgtra ingredients to whatever i'm cooking in the first place).

i have to say, i'm really glad school has started...i was beginning to get bored during the days. now i've made some new friends and we're having lots of fun hanging out, at school, on tours and soon on company visits, etc...

these "company visits" i speak of are basically visits to various companies in and out of switzerland for tours and insight into the companies strategic and managerial ways. we are all very excited for these company visits. each company's location we go to is considered that company's main headquarters, or at least the company's main european headquarters (most of the companies are european. for a list of the companies and locations we go to, please see below:

BMW (main corporate headquarters in munich, germany)
IBM (european headquarters in zurich, switzerland)
IWC (very famous watch company in switzerland: website)
European court of justice (luxembourg, with our european business law prof. who is also a famous judge in switzerland.)
ICRC (international committee of the red cross, geneva, switzerland: website)
UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency, geneva, switzerland: website)
and either one or two other companies that have yet to be announced.

for anyone that hasn't heard of IWC, it is a very famous watch company in switzerland. we had a whole lecture on the importance of time here by the head of the school (the director, if i'm not mistaken, but i very well could be). it is really a big deal here. people are very punctual, and 7 o'clock means 7 o'clock, damnit! even when the trains leave the station here, if it is scheduled to leave at 9:07, then you can be 100% sure that that train will leave at exactly 9:07, and at 9:06:59, the clock will wait a tiny bit just so that it can click to 9:07 exactly as the train starts moving, it is that much in synchronization here. so it's no wonder it's become known that the swiss are famous for their watches. this is a reason that i am VERY excited to go on the IWC company visit. i love watches, and these guys are the sheiks of the trade. i'm really excited for the rest of the companies as well (just like everyone else in the program), except i just have a personal affinity to nicely made, technically produced and meticulously managed, criticized and scrutinized watches. hopefully one day i'll even own some of my own.

so, things are finally rolling here, and it's a very good time.

will update soon...

great times...

today was the first day of school (orientation, at least) and it was great. th ISP program is only one of several international exchange programs hosted by the university. all together (including all BA, MA, MAB & PhD students there are 200 of us international exchange students. 25 of us are in the ISP, that means we are studying to get our MBA and we are international guests at the university here. 5 other students in the ISP are from LA (3 from USC Marshall and 2 from claremont grad. in addition to those 5 (6 if you include me) there are 3 other students from the US (1 from texas, 1 from omaha, 1 from minnesota). there are a couple students from india, one from belgium, a few from china and others from all around the globe).

funny thing...the coordinator of our program--the lady in charge, the one to go to with any problems, course requests, itinerary Qs, anything and everything, the one that is with us the whole time--she's a new yorker. she came here in '97 and married a swiss man, and hasn't gone back since.

today really was a good day. tonight we all go to a local bar/restaurant and socialize, compliments of the university. also, there's an armenian guy in the program--he's one of the USC Marshall students--who looks 100% EXACTLY like Shervin. i'll post some pics up later, but the resemblance is really uncanny.

the 3 trojans (from left to right), katy, arthur (chief dawg), armond (sherv)

today i moved the house's access point closer to my room and now i have great internet connection (signal and very fast speed...consistently just under 4mb/s). so go ahead and check out the new pics that are up.

first day jitters

ten minutes ago i was lying in my bed, tossing and turning. tomorrow is the first day of school (no classes yet, but orientation). the problem is that we have to wake up at 7am, and anytime i know i have to wake up early in the morning it's always hard to fall asleep the night before. it's now 3:50 am and if i'm lucky i'll get maybe 3 hours of sleep tonight.

i found out today that one of our roommates will not be showing up at all, due to VISA problems in his country. so it'll just be me, sunil (guy from india) and lannette (girl from minnesota). today i hung out with sunil; he came with me to school so that i can use the gym (he wanted to take some time for himself in the library). after the gym i found a couple really good ping pong players and played with them for a little while before i met up with sunil in the library. afterwards we went together to the city center and an Indian grocery store caught his eye so we went in and looked around.


he bought some rice and i don't remember what else. i bought some tandoori chicken spice, onions, kari leaves (curry leaves) and some other tandoori chicken flavorings of which their names i forget (can u forget something u never knew?). so i had my own version of tandoori chicken for dinner earlier tonight, along with a salad and a hefty portion of US Open footage.

let's give sleeping another chance, it really deserves its moment of success.

will update soon...

my bad

i made a mistake...

i am going to be living with two other guys, and one girl. lool, oops! my bad.

school orientation is on wed (the 5th), and classes start on the 10th. for now i'm just living life like normal (except without some of the conveniences i'm normally used to, like a car). i go to the gym, the grocery store, watch tv, hang out with friends, cook dinner, etc...

today it rained, and it was pretty cold, but i had my trusty north face jacket, which was amazingly warm (actually hot). i'm glad i bought that jacket...if you're actually curious to know what this jacket looks like and how truly cool it really is, click here.

I have to find a place to get a haircut now. This is a sensitive subject; i've never had to get a haircut outside of supercuts in LA (angie there knows what she's doing, and gets it right every time). so this is going to be a first. my sideburns are already growing into crazy Larry David sideburns that are ALL over the place, making it seem like my sideburns are trying to fill my ears and cheeckbones with hair. so the search begins for a person who can cut hair and can speak english (these two by themselves are rare, let alone someone that won't charge me an arm and a leg as well).

will update soon...

bb

i live in a bed & breakfast!

new home (sweet home)

ok, i moved in...

the street i live on is called HASENWIESWEG (i still can't pronounce it properly). it's right next to the university. i can now walk there without taking any busses, which is very nice. the downside to that is that the house i'm in is now a lot farther from the city center, which i now have to take a bus to (but i took a bus to it before anyway, so it's not too much diff).

there's good and there's bad. let's start with good. kitchen and bathroom are completely remodeled (brand new), with new toilet, sinks, tiles, mirrors, all fixtures, oven, stove, refrigerator, etc...

the bad.............

IT'S NOT DONE!!!

i am quite literally, at this very moment, living in the middle of a construction zone. mind you, when construction is over, everything will look very good and nice and clean and dandy; the only problem is, compared to my last residence, this floor of the house i'm living in with my floormates is really small. it's me and 4 girls (hooray for that), 1 from minnesota and i believe the other two are from india. there are 3 rooms up here. i get one, lannette (the girl from minnesota) gets one and the two indian girls share one. so...4 of us will be sharing a bathroom and a kitchen (which is quite tiny, but i will definitely make do).

the house itself is larger than my previous home, however, in this house the concentration of student/sq.ft. of house is a lot higher.















*making the construction workers pose for the camera in the middle of their work (i'm such an ass)

another thing (which i didn't find out until today) is that we are living with the house owner and her son. she's a very nice lady and he's a techy (hooray for that) who works for a company's IT department and manages network servers and routers, etc... they both speak english, the son a lot more and they're trying very hard to make us ISP students happy. the mom is a TOTAL MOM, always trying to make sure i'm ok, if i need anything else, etc. etc... i went to the gym today and as i was walking back home she caught me outside the house and started talking to me (at first in German, forgetting that i don't speak it) about curtains for my room (which i'd asked for), but as soon as she told me she'd get on it and was asking around for curtains for me, i started walking into the house (my legs were tired and i just wanted to sit and be in my room) when she started talking AGAIN! this time about the progress of the bathroom upstairs (the one i will be sharing with my floormates), but she doesn't just give updates or progress reports...she drones on and on and on. she's a very nice person, i just didn't know i was coming home to a mom. we'll see how it turns out, it doesn't seem like she'll be TOO intrusive for the next 3 months. but hey, this is what it is.

my room itself is nice (nicer than my previous room), although a little smaller than my previous room. the bed is bigger (a full as opposed to my previous twin), with a goose down blanket and pillow. i've finally fully unpacked my luggage from LA. everything's out of the luggage, either in the closet or on a chair or bed...or the ground. i am still not 100% settled in, as i have all that "kitchen crap" from my prevoius place just sitting in bags awaiting shelving in the "new kitchen" that is in construction as i write this (right now the electrician is doing his thing; earlier the plumber was jivin'; before that the handyman was bustin' out his skills. i met them all).

at first i had no lock on my door. i then explained that i'd like one and i'm SURE the girls will all want locks for their doors as well (which was the first thing Lannette asked me about when she put her bags down...i know. im good) and the landlord was very good about getting us some locks on our doors asap. her son called into work and said he's going to be late and then drove to the locksmith and got it done. my key is comedy; it looks like those old, cabinet keys you find in castles and anything else that's old. the internet is EXTREMELY SLOW (this actually brought a tear to my eye). it's a little faster than a 56K connection (around 200k/s), but i spoke with the son and confessed my amazement to him at the fact that for an IT guy who loves networking and works in the field he has some SLOOOOOOOOW ASS ASS internet. he said he knows and i tried to convince him to get the faster speed and he said he would but doesn't know how long it takes swisscom (the bigger mobile phone carrier and DSL provider in switzerland...like verizon in LA) to actually implement that from the time they commit to doing it. we'll see what happens there.

in other random news, after i unpacked my luggage today, i was able to admire my new north face goose down jacket i bought in LA for the cold weather here in switzerland and just wore it for like 45 min (it was actually cold, i wasn't just some idiot wearing a jacket for fun).

seacrest out

ps-life sux without a bathroom

i just had my dinner (chicken & vegetable soup), and found out that this house is emptying one student at a time. today two students left, tomorrow another leaves, and that just leaves me and another guy who lives upstairs. my friend, fred, is on vacation so he doesn't count, although he's a permanent resident of this house. so there's all these food packages, sauces, drinks, etc... in the kitchen (and they've been there since i moved in), and i found out tonight that they belong to the previous exchange students who lived in this house (they don't belong to any of the people i live with now). so when we were going over our cleaning strategy (as we have to have the house cleaned by the time we move out), i asked Chris (another university of st. gallen student who's leaving tomorrow for Geneva) who all these foods belong to, and that's when he said they belonged to the previous exchange students that never cleaned it up. i asked what he's going to do with it (since he's in charge of putting it all away and i'm in charge of cleaning the stove and countertop) and he said he's going to throw it all away. WOAH! stop right there! i'm talking about closed, packaged, new food items, like packaged cake mix, for example, or packaged Uncle Ben's rice, or bottled oil (brand new), or bottled balsamic vinegar, ground and whole coffee beans, packaged penne and farfalle pastas, salt, spices, herbs, canned tuna, canned corn, etc, etc, etc... all new. would i be so unkind to the starving children around the world as to allow Chris to throw all this stuff away. HELL NO! my friends, i'm glad to report to you now that i am the proud new owner of all this food crap that i probably won't use but am nevertheless extremely excited to own. i feel like i just went shopping. FOR FREE! aahhhh, it does feel good. the only thing now is that i have to figure out how to find a bag big enough to fit all this stuff in. ah, well, it'll come to me. this'll be good for my new home, with all new housemates; they can make brownies now and have some Uncle Ben's rice and pasta, and what not. it's a waste to put food to waste, my friends!

investment

today i made one of the smartest investments of my life. i bought an umbrella. let me tell you, if you don't have a car and must walk and take the bus everywhere, it's not fun getting wet every day, especially when it's pouring like the sky is trying to send you a message. i also got a cell phone today. it's a prepaid (pay as you go) type deal, which is very expensive, but i'm not here long enough for a 1- or 2-year contract so this'll have to do.

the day after tomorrow i move to my permanent residence, and i'm excited to see what it's going to be like. o, i also bought a couple towels today, fyi.

exciting news...check out roland's blog!

i have just learned of some VERY exciting news. the student that has been sent to LA from the university of st. gallen to study at pepperdine also has a blog. in short, roland and i have switched places in the world for the next 2.5-3 months. he is a full time student at the university of st. gallen, doing a semester abroad at pepperdine university in malibu, and i am a full time student at pepperdine university doing a semester abroad at the university of st. gallen. his name is roland and to read the things he describes to his friends in switzerland about LA and america is very interesting and entertaining. mind you, if you want to read his blog, you'll have to use google's language tools (http://www.google.com/language_tools) to translate the entire page into english because he's written it all in German. so, without further ado, please find the link on the right side of this page to navigate to roland's blog.

i don't know how interesting roland's blog would be to all my readers, but to be honest with you, i've gotten a huge kick out of it. he describes the SUVs in america, and compares them to the Opel cars you find here in switzerland/europe, and also talks about how you NEED a car in LA, and goes on to describe his new home there (as i did), with pics and all. it's really a nice contrast to compare our blogs and entertain yourself with all the differences and commonalities found in them. remember when you read roland's blog...St. Gallen is TINY. i mean really tiny, and i'm not kidding. to get a good idea of how small st. gallen is, you can walk from one side of it to the other in about 30-40 minutes. it's smaller than westwood. i'm actually having a hard time thinking of a place to compare its size to. everything in LA is so much bigger. i think westwood would be maybe the best size comparison. ya, just imagine westwood, but smaller (by the way, roland, you should go check out westwood if you haven't yet). so remember this when reading roland's blog. it is very small, cozy/intimate and everything is familiar here in st. gallen. it is the complete opposite of los angeles (which is one of the reasons i chose to come here; to try to get the most change i can for a short amount of time).

speaking of LA and how different it is from st. gallen, it reminds me of the very first conversation i had with my housemate here in st. gallen. his name is fred and he's from austria, studying here at the university. he's a cool guy and we became friends very quickly. he met me while he was kinda drunk, so it turned out to be an interesting first meeting. all of a sudden he wanted to ask me all these questions about how dangerous and violent LA is. i was telling him it's not that bad, however there are places you could go to if you want violence. but he was under the impression that all of LA was extremely dangerous (all he had to go by was all those LA movies he'd watched over the years). after a while i found out he was talking about east la, so i told him it's on the other side of LA, and if you go there looking for trouble you'll find it rather quickly. he got very excited at this statement. so he asked me if it was a place the guys could go to at night to hang out. i laughed before i answered him, but then told him it's not a hangout place for guys from the city to just go chill there for a night when they have nothing better to do, and it was very hard for him to believe that you could get very hurt in east la if you go there and start making a fuss, randomly cussing people out (that was the example of the behavior we used when we spoke). just goes to show you, we only know what we know, and we forget that people who have never been here only have few things to go by for a description. movies is a big one, that's all he knew about LA, was what you find in the movies, like "training day" with denzel washington (he asked if LA was really like that and i told him it was a pretty good rendition of what some parts of the city look like...like i'm on expert on East LA).

enough banter, it's late and i have to sleep. check out roland's blog, and don't forget to use google's language tools to translate the page. maybe i should just post his blog in the translated version already. ya, that sounds good.

goodnight...

i went to the university today so that i could use the gym, only to find out it closes early on saturdays and it's not even open on sundays. while i was there, however, i met a couple colombians who were playing ping pong. i asked if i could play and showed them what it's all about. tonight i may go out with a couple guys i met at the grocery store yesterday. they also study at the university, finishing up their bachelor's degrees.

st. gallen, day 2

today i woke up and went out to buy groceries. i found a little grocery store 20 min away (walking) from my place and bought some chicken, slamon, veggies, fruit, tissues and spices. i NEED a watch/clock. i don't know if i've mentioned this yet, but THERE ARE NO clocks in the hotel rooms in europe. there wasn't one in ireland, spain, or switzerland's hotel. there wasn't one in my room when i settled here. there isn't one in the house. WHAT THE HELL. i NEVER know what time i'm waking up (i know what time i go to bed because it's when i turn off my laptop, and that has the local time on it), what time i eat, shower, NOTHING. it's actually very annoying, so the first thing i'm going to do tomorrow is find me a damn watch.

after i got my groceries i made myself lunch from the previously said ingredients. i then called my new friend, Isabelle and met her at a restaurant that i had to take a bus and a transfer bus to get to (LA boy is taking the bus and walking everywhere now, where is his car?!). we ended up staying at the restaurant for about 5 hours (literally), talking and laughing the whole time, so it turns out i made myself another couple great friends here. AND the guy has a car. DAAAAAAAMN RIGHT!!! so they dropped me off at home around midnight and i watched some world poker tour championship episode on Joost on my laptop (joost has become a good friend when i am bored here), checked my email, blah blah blah.

st. gallen, day 1

dropped chris off at the airport at 8am this morning after checking out of our hotel. then i drove myself with the rental car to st. gallen and met with the housing manager. she gave me the key to my temp. room (which is in a house, like most of these rooms and has 1 kitchen and living room for about 10 people. everyone has their own room, but usually 2-3 rooms share a bathroom), which is clean, white and VERY empty. there is a small bed in the corner, a desk (with a little desk light on it), a cabinet (for a closet), a bookshelf and a floor lamp (which i am not using because i am instead plugging my laptop into its power outlet). oh, ya, there's also a desk chair that rolls around and swivels. the floors are hardwood. the desk and the bookshelf match each other and look like they came from ikea (there's one just outside the city, very close from here, so i think these pieces really were from there).

i made a couple friends already (i'm usually quick at that) and am going out with them tonight. my bathroom is shared with the guy whose room is next to mine. how it works is there's a door on the ground floor (where i'm located) and inside that door there are 3 more doors. one is my room, one is someone else's room and the 3rd door is the bathroom that we share. it is like that for every couple rooms, and the house itself is about 3 stories tall i believe. the sheets for the bed were supposed to be clean and they may very well have been, but it's good to double check so i washed them again in the house's washer/dryer, which took about 3 hours total to figure out, including the time it took me to argue with the machines' manager who collects the money for the machines (and who doesn't speak ANY english). after 20min of playing charades with him, i got my message through that i DIDN'T want him to add 10 more francs to my bill. this whole time i thought we'd get free laundry if it's IN THE HOUSE; but nooooooo, they have to install pay machines inside the house as well.

the kitchen looks like crap, and it doesn't look like it will be fun at all cooking a healthy meal here, but o well, what can i do?

after returning the rental in st. gallen, i took the bus to the main bus/train station and bought myself a monthly bus pass so that i can use the bus as much as i want for the next month without paying for each trip, which would also have cost a lot more. i haven't eaten anything all day, but i'm not really feeling it because i've been up to so much today. i have to go shopping for groceries and buy some soap and things like that. my house is directly across from a high schooland the neighborhood itself looks very nice and clean.

for dinner the grocery store was closed so i got some chicken from the kebab place (lots of those around, selling falafel, shwarmah, burgers, etc...) and lettuce. i walked about 30min to and from that place and now i'm just writing to u. looks like im going to be doing A LOT of walking for the next 3 months.

zurich, day 6

today we went to Liechtenstein

B-E-A-utiful!!! wow, wow, wow, is all i can say. you must see the pics and even then will have no idea what it's like to actually stand in this place and see what we saw. the most beautiful colors of mountains, water, clouds and mother nature.

we drove up a mountain, all the way to the top, but there were no elevation marks, however i know it was really high. when we got out of the car and walked around we got tired quick as the air was very thin and oxygen was not abundant. imagine Mammoth, we run around a little and we notice getting tired a lot faster because of the altitude. well this was like that, but we didn't need to run around or dance to feel it; just by taking a deep breath you could feel how high you were.

we found a little farm atop the mountain with sheep, and chris just HAD to go feed them and play around with them. so he did. it was very funny, as they were making noises at him as he got closer and closer to them. once he bent down to pick up some grass and offer it to them, they ALL came up to him....it was like all of a sudden 15 sheep just approached chris from behind the fence and started eating from his hands...it was truly hilarious, and he was a very happy boy.

afterwards we went by lake Walensee, which is a beautifully colored lake (different from any color water i've seen before) that meets the mountain, and it just creates the most beautiful sight i've ever seen before in my life.

tomorrow i drop chris off at the airport, then drive myself to st. gallen where i will meet the housing manager at the university and get the keys to my temporary home, then return the car and start living my new life in switzerland.

zurich, day 5

it was really hot today, and the streets were very quiet. it was dead today, as it's a sunday and everything's very quiet on sundays. the receptionist of the hotel said people like to visit family on sundays and so it's like this every week. since the parking is free on sundays we're NOT MOVING our car, and decided to just walk around the city and hang out in the hotel's neighborhood center (old town city). the pic above was taken later in the day (evening time), but earlier it was literally dead and we saw maybe 8-10 people in the busiest consumer street here.

tomorrow we might either go to Austria or Liechtenstein.

will update soon...

zurich, day 4

aaaahhhhh, hello blog,

i'm back on the internet, and i have some stories for u. where to begin? so much stuff to say. i guess the beginning is traditional.

let's finish up with barcelona's 6th night. i can't ever forget this night, as chris performed an unthinkable feat. my boy chris ate a TUB of paella made for a family of 4 (i'm not kidding, this thing could have fed 3-4 full grown adults or a family of 6 with 4 small children). i have posted one pic of his feat here, but if you'd like to see the entire thing with progress reports along the way, click on the photo link to the right of this blog.

there is a crap load of Pizza Hut restaurants in barcelona and they are PACKED. in america you won't find one person in a pizza hut as they deliver (not to mention their food isn't anything you need to wait around for), but in barcelona it's like a restaurant...seating area, nice tables/chairs, everything.

anyway, after chris ate himself into a coma, we left for home (hotel).

next day we had 2 flights to make, it was an entire day of flying. we got on out first flight from barcelona to london (it landed in gatwick, not heathrow), which is a VERY nice airport. then we waited 3 hours to get on a plane from gatwick to zurich. here's an invaluable tip to travelers: ALWAYS (i repeat, ALWAYS) book your airline seats in the exit rows. you can stretch out your legs fully and it is WAY more comfortable than all the other coach seeats. take a look at the pics.

we got to zurich at around 10pm (many people coming in from Israel to switzerland). we found our hotel without a hitch and also found out that this place is the most expensive place EVER. i think the gov't charges you for the air you breathed while here when you want to leave the country. i believe the going rate for AIR in switzerland is now around CHF 2.50/breath (that's around $2 give or take). this is when i disappointedly found out that internet access costs buttloads. for 30min of internet, it's CHF 5, which is around $4 give or take (for future reference, any time i quote a CHF price, just take 80% of it and the result will be in USD). so i paid for this once, as i had to check something on my credit card's website (it felt like throwing money into the trash), because 1 hour of internet access then climbs to CHF 25, and the price here for 24 hours of access equals MORE than what we pay in america for a full month's access. ok, let's not get started on this...

we woke up to find out there is construction going on RIGHT BELOW us. they are building a lounge or nightclub or something next door to the hotel and it turns out we're part of the lucky crowd that gets the best of it. there's really nothing like the heart-pounding, brain-thumping bellows of a jackhammer and the startling crashes of 1-ton stones hitting the ground from 2 stories up TO WAKE YOU UP AT 6 FREAKIN' AM IN THE FREAKIN' MORNING. now let's ask ourselves a question: is Roni going to MAKE SURE he gets what he paid for? answer: DAMN STRAIGHT HE IS!!! (mama didn't raise no fool).

i told the director of the hotelwhat we were expecting from the hotel for the price, as it claims to be one of the nicer hotels in Zurich. they had my name and the dates of my stay and never told me anything about construction. long story short, i was able to hook us up with a 50% discount on the bill AND get free internet. HELL YA BABY! by the way, this is the mark of a good manager. he really was able to keep a customer happy, and i will only say good things about this hotel.

so, if u asked yourself whether i actually paid those ridiculous fees to be writing this post right now, you now have your answer.

on our second day in zurich, i decided to visit my university here. it's only a 25min drive to get to st. gallen from zurich, and the university really is in a charming city. the air is so clean, and it's at one of the highest points of the city, atop a hill, where the view is just beautiful (take a look at the pics).

we've been told the clubs are good here, but it's like CHF 30 to get in, and it's nothing like barcelona. the bars here close at 12am and the clubs go until about 2. in switzerland it's all about the countryside. i've been to other parts of europe (italy, germany, netherlands, denmark, belgium) and i have to say, from personal experience, none of the countrysides i have seen to this date are even close to the beauty of the swiss country. take a look for yourself at some of the pics...it's just SO green and CLEAN (dublin was green too, but the air here is something else). you know that feeling you get when you look at the ocean on a beautiful day when it just looks SO refreshing you want to be able to jump into it? it's like that here, you want to just jump into the grass and roll around (i know, i laughed myself when i just reread that).

yesterday (zurich, 3) we made a visit to Munich, Germany. took about 4 hours to get there (we make day trips out of these long-drive excursions to other countries and far away cities; so "American" of us). we went to the city center and found a place that's almost exactly like Universal Studios' City Walk. it was PACKED with people and shops, and the street was very wide and almost never ending, just like City Walk. we walked around, took pics, went into some of the shops and even had dinner in Munich's city center (i don't know the name of this area we were in that reminds me of City Walk). we left munich at 7:45 for zurich. the trip back took us 3 hours (god bless the autobahn). by the way, speaking of the autobahn, i ALWAYS miss my car and wish i had it with me when i'm on the German Autobahn. we were going about 170km/h (105mph) in our little piece of crap rental (our little carriage started shaking at 180km/h, which i could only even get to once, because the thing just wouldn't go, and i didn't want to cut our vacation short so i slowed down) while BMWs and Audis (these two manufacturers probably made up 75% of the cars on the autobahn) were passing us like we were 97 year-old geezers in a triathlon. i really love speeding without having to worry about the police, it's such an experience of freedom. i'd say on average we were at 155 kph (approx. 96mph).

today (day 4) was restful as i barely slept last night (maybe 3 hrs at most) and didn't want to drive anywhere. we walked around a little, chris did a little shopping and i ran some errands to get ready for my life in st. gallen. i found out that i can drop the rental car off in st. gallen, which has just made everything perfect. i will drop chris off at the airport on aug.21, and then drive myself to st. gallen, go to the university where i will see the housing manager in charge of ISP housing to get the key to my temporary home for 10-11 days, then go to that temp. home and drop off ALL my stuff (again, i have lots of baggage here), and then finally take the car to the drop off point in st. gallen and take a cab back to my apt. without having to carry all my baggage with me. sounds like a great plan.

will update soon.

writing from the university

hi blog,

 

i am writing you now from the university of st. gallen (the school i will be attending for the next 3 months). the y and z buttons on this kezboard are switched, so anztime zou see a z, it is reallz a y, lol.

 

the school is verz nice. it has a GREAT view as it is on a hill in the citz. sorrz for all the Z but i cannot correct each one, there are to manz.

 

i came to see how it was here. it was onlz about a half hour drive from yurich.

 

seems like i will have a pleasant school zear.

 

will update soon.

roni

Zurich, day 1

Dear Blog,

shit is expensive in zurich. internet is running out, and i am for sure not paying for more access for a couple days AT LEAST, so things will be quiet here.

i'm glad people enjoyed me getting hit on by a guy, you're all very sweet.

Zurich is very very nice, charming and quaint. small, narrow, cobble stone streets adorn our hotel's neighborhood. if i get a chance i will update later on when i have internet access, but things aren't looking too good. i leave here on aug.21 and go to st gallen.

seems like i was able to work out a temporary housing situation with the housing manager at the school so that i don't have to move to copenhagen for 10 days. i would have liked to see Aris but my bags all together weight more than 80 lbs and it's just a hassle, moving so much. i've gotten enough moving in the last 2 weeks.


now i have to leave my comp and go move the car because parking is disgustingly expensive here. i almost threw up when i heard the price.

anyway, will TRY to update soon, but don't count on it.

bye blog.
-roni

Barcelona, day 6

i got hit on by a 6ft, 200+lb. gay guy last night!

we went to a very cool club that chris went to the night before and he was right, it really was a great club, better than any i've been to in LA. the music was better, the people were more beautiful, it was more packed, the lighting was better, there were more dance floors (each with different music, like a whole different club within the club), and it was just a way better party overall.

me and chris were dancing with these Brazilian girls, and i was obviously breaking it down with the hot moves as you all know i like to do (the music was really good and i was in the zone, so it was totally my night), when this big guy with a goatee (who looked like he was around 30-35 years old), really liked what he saw i guess. he comes up to me OUT OF NOWHERE, while i'm dancing with these girls and tries to give me a drink! weirdest thing ever, no "hi", no "i like the way you dance", just comes up to me, no words at all and tries to pass me a drink. i wave him off and say "no", in response to the question i thought he was asking me, "this is your drink!?"

we kept dancing with the girls, when i noticed this guy just standing by the wall right next to us, simply watching. he wouldn't leave our sight (it was creepy), and then started dancing with another guy, but still right by us. toward the end of my stay at the club, he comes up to me and says "it's hot in here", and i said "ya"; everyone was literally swimming in clothes of their own sweat, it was ridiculous. here's the home run; this guy "actually had the AUDACITY" (that's for the bird) to grab my hand and say to me "don't stop! don't stop!" (as in "don't stop dancing, i like it!!!") in spanish. as he said that, he held my hand tighter and started jumping up and down, taking my hand with him, as if to imply that i should start jumping up and down with him holding hands. i was like "hell no". i can't even believe he couldn't tell i was straight, i pretty much exude it from my pores. i'm like the "Dos Equis commercial" guy (see video below). i tried easing my hand out of his, but it turns out the guy was more aggressive than i thought, and was holding quite tightly. so i pulled that shit out and immediately exuded even MORE manliness (which i don't even know is possible) right then and there, like my beard, which "...alone has experienced more than a lesser man's entire body" (see video link above).

bottom line, i can't help it if i'm irresistible to all races, genders and species. i didn't know my moves were so provocative. now i understand; it is pure pleasure to watch me move.

after i left the club, i couldn't help but notice the crowd spread around at 4am on a late monday night/early tuesday morning. do these people work? are they all tourists? (they speak damn amazing spanish for a bunch of tourists) Do people just go to the beach during the day and club at night? what's going on? the pic to the left was taken just to show you what it looks like here on La Rambla street (the busy/popular/famous street to be on, kind of like the promenade in LA) at 4am on monday/early teusday.

before the club we had dinner...however not at the place we wanted to. that list of top ten barcelona restaurants' NO.1 restaurant was called "Cal Pep" and it's supposed to be a really great restaurant so we asked concierge how to get there and we drove there only to find out that the restaurant is closed for all of august for holiday. what the hell? so we settled for an italian restaurant right next door to it. i had steak with veggies and chris had shrimp pasta.

tomorrow we leave for Zurich, Switzerland, which shockingly enough, may or may not be the last leg of my adventure before settling down in St. Gallen for school. the problem began about 6 months ago when i realized it's FREAKIN' hard finding a furnished apt. to rent for 3 months in a city so small that it's hard to find just a furnished apt. so i waited and waited, and finally decided to ask for help from the school's housing manager, who helps find ISP students (that's the name of the program i'm in, it stands for International Studies Program) a place to live for the 3 months they are in St. Gallen (furnished and all). so she finally found me something after days of arduous searching from her end and relentless nagging and pushing from mine. the problem you ask? well, the apt. isn't available for me until sept.1. why is that a problem, you ask? well, my trip/vacation with chris ends on aug.21. aaaahhh, now you see. i must stay somewhere for those 11 days. i started emailing around to people i know may be in europe at that time, and finally got a response from a good friend, who some would call a "Greek Stallion" (not me, i call him much nastier, degrading things). the fine Aris is hosting me for these 11 days in Copenhagen, Denmark, the city he will be studying abroad in, and luckily for me will be moving into his place on aug.19.

so there you go; in case the housing manager at the university of st. gallen tells me i for sure cannot move into my place there until the beginning of sept. i have a place to live in Copenhagen, which i am sure with my host may very well be the grandest adventure of all.

Barcelona, day 5

today was even more restful than yesterday. again we spent the day at the beach (or what was left of it, since we slept more than usual). we went to the same restaurant and we ate the same thing, lol.

tonight we'll probably be going to a club chris was at last night, where there are more english speaking people. we will probably have dinner at another one of those "top ten restaurants" from the previous post.

Barcelona, day 4

today was rather restful, as we just spent the day at the beach. it was cloudy today so it wasn't as nice as yesterday at the beach but it was still really hot out. we had lunch at a nearby restaurant overlooking the sand (kind of like on the boardwalk near the beach where you can still see beach goers walking by). i had grilled sole for lunch and chris had a shrimp cocktail and some steamed mussels. the mussels were really good.

i have to say, the hotness/sq.ft. ratio here is ridiculous. EVERYONE'S beautiful! i might be going crazy but even the 90-year old grandma's are exuding that sexy vibe. (lol, jk...i've yet to see a hot 90 year-old). the pics of all the pretty people (girls) that you see in the google pics are from today at the beach. i couldn't resist; i don't want to forget how the people look here.

we just stayed at the beach for a few hours and chris got a massage from one of the massage ladies that walk around the beach (kind of like the people on LA beaches that try to sell you drinks and T-shirts, but these give massages).

today we found the new finalist for the "most beautiful girl in spain" contest (photo above).

after it started dying down at the beach we came back to the hotel where i've begun my daily blog spiel.

for dinner we went to this very good restaurant called Cuines Santa-Caterina. it is the number 5 restaurant on THIS LIST OF BARCELONA'S TOP TEN RESTAURANTS. the food was VERY good, the atmosphere was very sleek and modern, with ficus trees and good lighting in between every table. i had thai chicken curry and chris had roast lamb with potatoes.

i was tired tonight and didn't feel like going to a club again, so i stayed in the hotel and went to bed early. chris walked to La Rambla and checked on some of the clubs there and said they were really good, and filled with americans that we can actually speak with without making fools out of ourselves, so i think we'll go to one of those tomorrow night (day 5).

Barcelona, day 3

this is going to be a rather short entry, as i'm kinda tired and want to go up to my room (o wow, they just started playing some live piano music here in the lounge/bar of the hotel; WOW, and singing, operatic style. it's BEAUTIFUL). there's some randomness for you, i guess i'll stay a little while longer. i've never been here this late at night to hear the live music. i'm going to try to record it now and post it here...it is really something to here, nothing like "live music" in america, it's like being at the opera as i'm writing this.

there are three singers rotating and taking turns singing with the piano player playing their songs. actually you may even be able to hear me typing this as you're listening to the recording of the lady singing her song. it's very nice, especially considering this is in the lobby's lounge/bar/restaurant area.

if you're interested to know what i'm listening to RIGHT NOW, click the links below.
live music in lobby 1
live music in lobby 2

back to today...we took a cable car that rides along a cable in the sky from tower to tower, from our hotel's tower directly outside our hotel to the beach tower. here's where my opinion of barcelona kicks in. this place is AWESOME!!!! AWESOMEEEE!!!!! it's all about the beach here, which is also "clothing optional" we found out (very nice!). the sand is PACKED with bodies; i think i have aerial pics of the beach, and if i find them later on the camera i'll post them, but for now no pics on this post, as i haven't updated the pics yet. anyway, this beach is AMAZING. weather is EXCELLENT, people are BEAUTIFUL and it's super packed and busy. the water is not very clean as i would have originally thought it was, but rather kind of murky, surprisingly. it's no santa monica pier but it's not the clear blue i was imagining.

before we went to the sand we had lunch and we finally had some paella, more specifically the seafood paella, which has shrimp, mussels and something else in it (i couldn't identify the last type of seafood meat as it was not connected to an outer shell like the other two were). Paella was SOOOOOOO GOOOD. if you've ever had cajun gumbo, imagine that, but better, less spicy, with seafood in it. it was like a thick mixed stew of rice, spices, herbs, seafood and sauce (sauce was a little sweet and little tangy, but more sweet). you definitely can't have just one taste, so i had to raid chris' plate for second and third tastes. i would have ordered my own but after two days of eating unhealthy in each country i strap down and eat very healthy for the remainder of each country's visit. if you're actually interested, i had a Mediterranean salad, which comes with lettuce, tomatoes, egg (cut in quarters), tuna (without mayo, here it's just the tuna meat, nothing extra), anchovies and green and black olives. no dressing here, i just put some vinegar on it. it was so healthy i almost threw up. i definitely didn't finish it, i just couldn't.

at night we went to a street where we didn't see any tourists. there were a few clubs on this street and everyone was a local (we spoke to many, that's how we know). we went to this one club and pretty much stayed there the whole night. over here the night starts at around 1:30-2:00 am. people have dinner at around 10-12 and then go to the clubs really late. last call in LA is at 2...here the party JUST began at that time...it started getting REALLY busy at 3:30, but we left at around 4am. the music in the clubs here are way better (in my opinion) than that in the LA clubs. i like spanish/salsa music and that's what was playing, but with a hip hop & techno twist, like spanish songs with a more hip hop style beat to it, and louder, faster bass and faster tempo. so, it was really good, and very busy.

another thing....ALOT, ALOT, ALOT of people here are gay. i've never seen such an open, dense gay population before. this place makes LA look like "something extremely heterosexual". it's not a good or a bad thing, i just didn't know how big the gay population was here, and it is really dense.

that's all for day 3.

ps: to view all my google pics, just click the link in the task pane to the right of this blog; it says "check out my photos". additionally, you will find many pictures of the people in spain (on the beach and such), and that's because it's a waste to not share with you the beautiful people here. some photos are a little racier than others, as i already pointed out that clothing on the beach is optional. and let's be honest, i know that's what people really care about seeing in th photos...everyone's curious. i guess these pics will support the motto of my blog, found under the title. enjoy!

Barcelona, day 2

today was a GREAT day. we went to La Boqueria. it is a HUGE market in the heart of barcelona. it was on Andrew Zimmern's "Bizarre Foods" program and it truly is an amazing place. there are merchants as far as the eye can see and once you're in side it's hard to find your way out, or even to make sure you've seen everything. there's everything from meats (cow, pig, chicken, etc...), seafood (eel, different varieties of fish, shrimp, lobster, mussels, oysters, etc...), fruits (any type you can possibly imagine and a whole lot more that many of you have never even seen in america), nuts, etc... i can go on and on, but really it's a big marketplace of street merchants that sell anything and everything you can imagine in the food department. so not only do they sell these things, but they also sell cooked foods and packaged foods that are made up of combinations of what is found in the marketplace. for example, the fruit stands not only sell the whole fruit but also sell packaged fruit assortments, and also juiced fruit on ice that one can buy and drink right there in the marketplace. there are also actual restaurants in the marketplace, in the form of a bar/counter, like a sushi bar in LA, but with cooked food behind the counter with a chef and a grill. La Boqueria is really too good to describe in words and i'm realizing now that my description doesn't do justice to what the place is really like. you must experience it for yourself, but i am trying my best to put the experience into words and pics.

so we spent a couple hours in this place, just walking around and trying to see all the merchants that were there. we talked to alot of people and probably annoyed most of them, and we found the most beautiful girl in spain (i'm sure of it, although the picture doesn't show it at all, but she was), who's picture is just above. also, you'll notice in my google pictures that there is beginning to be alot of pictures of girls, and you should know this was a special request from someone, so that they could live the experience of what i told them is a place with the most beautiful girls they'd ever seen. there will be more and more of these pics as i also enjoy taking them, so i invite you to enjoy the beautiful people in spain (because they truly are).

at la boqueria we bought a couple juice cups of mango and papya juice (if i remember correctly), and then also bought some cut up coconut and i also bought some amazingly tasting salted macadamia nuts. we also had a slice of pizza (the pizza here is ok, nothing special, but the average pizza slice from an average pizza vendor is alot better tasting than the average pizza slice from LA's average pizza vendor. again, though, it's nothing compared to those slices we had in Italy a couple years ago (especially in Florence and Venice).

enough about La Boqueria; i'll just say, if you're in barcelona, go there for sure and spend a day there. i didn't need to see it on "Bizarre Foods" to know i had to go there, because as it turns out, this market is at the end of that street called La Rambla, which i said had the street performers and was a very popular street here in the heart of the city center, so i would have found out anyway just by walking that street. so if you go to barcelona and find yourself on La Rambla, be sure to walk to the very end because La Boqueria is the prize at the end of your walk.

afterwards, we came back tot he hotel for some "reset" time, which i always like to do, hang out in the hotel's lounge/bar area, which is very nice here and catch up on some internet time (i know, total geek, but what are you gonna do?!) resting until the night time excitement.

at night we wanted to have paella for dinner; people talk about this dish so much it's like if you don't have it while you're here then you've sinned. i have to admit it looks good in all the pictures the restaurants have of it, though. so we found the place we wanted to have it at, but turns out this place is a Chinese restaurant. they have outside seating where you can't tell it's a Chinese restaurant AT ALL, but their outside seating (which is also on La Rambla, for great entertainment while having dinner) was full, so we decided to have dinner inside, which is when we found out the food coming to the outside seating was being supplied by the Chinese restaurant. go figure, a chinese restaurant in the middle of barcelona. so we sat down and figured we'd order one paella (which looked really good on their picture board outside) and the rest Chinese food (i know how this sounds, but keep reading). once we got in and wanted to order the paella, the waitress said that's only for outside and inside is ONLY Chinese food, so since we were already sitting we figured why not try Barcelona's Chinese?! long story short, it was DAMN GOOD; i felt better about sitting there ordering Chinese food when i looked int he back and saw that all the chefs were Chinese (the whole time i was thinking they'd be Spanish). so, the Chinese here was awesome.

we left the restaurant and caught the end (middle-end) of a really funny guy doing his act in the middle of La Rambla. he was an Irish (or some UK country) guy and was very funny and entertaining, so we stayed 'till the end (he was swollowing stuff and doing fire tricks and all the while made funny jokes and fun of people so it was funny, what can i say).

then we got back to the hotel to get our car so that we may go out on the town and find a club or something. we found one but it was packed and the bouncer wasn't letting people in, but i convinced him to let me go in for a minute just to check it out, and he let me. WOW! it was great inside, the only bad thing was that you couldn't see through the thick cloud of smoke. EVERYONE SMOKES HERE!!! it's like a prerequisite to living in this country. it's really unbelievable the sheer concentration of people that smoke here. they are also allowed to smoke in the restaurants, which i am glad CA law prohibits becuase it's just nasty to smell that while trying to eat your Spanish Chinese food. the club wasn't like a night club in LA or cancun for those thinking that it may have been (i'm sure many of the clubs here ARE like that, but this one wasn't); it just had really nice music inside (local, not american, which was very nice since i like spanish music) and it was definitely PACKED (the bouncer was right). i couldn't walk without pushing someone out of my way.

so we left and just drove around the city, which was nice. we didn't have a map with us but our hotel is on the water, so we just had to drive back to the beach if we got lost (which we obviously did). we saw many interesting things, including a really nice style of architecture this city inhabits, as well as a street where there is nothing but prostitutes. it wasn't like Amsterdam's (or any other country's) red light district, it was just a few city blocks that were inhabited by very obviously, indiscreetly-dressed female (and transvestite male) prostitutes. so it turns out this night had many interesting things to offer the eyes, as well as some things we won't want to see again (but that's for another blog, lol).

overall, at this point, my opinion of the city has still not been formed, as it is too early, but read the next post.