...and Cheese

So straight after gorging ourselves on chocolate, we went to Gruyere to gorge ourselves on cheese. Sounds pretty gross, huh? I didn't quite manage to put any cheese on my mouth which in some ways is too bad because Gruyere is one of my favorite cheeses. But nevertheless, I got to look at (and smell) cheese. Each of these wheels weighs 35 kilos and costs about 2000 Swiss francs.

And after the cheese factory, we went to the cute (i.e. touristy) little town of Gruyeres, which is high up on a little hill. No cars are allowed there, you have to actually walk up to it. We only spent a good 30 minutes there...but here's proof that we were there! Here's Linda and Hend...
And me (and a misbehaving strand of hair), Vichekka and Asiya...
And Vichekka,Kathy, Katerina, Hend and Barry...

Chocolate...

After a particularly intense week---probably our most intense week studying trauma, dreaming up peace justice packages for Sri Lanka and dealing with our own lovely internal conflict---we went on a very welcome outing to the Cuiller chocolate factory. I was a bit disappointed to learn it was owned by Nestle, but the chocolate was still very good. I mean it wasn't like Hershey, Pennsylvania with its cute little Hershey kiss lamp posts, kiddie roller coasters and the overpowering smell of chocolate as you drove into town...but it wasn't like Scharffen Berger in Berkeley either where they let you look at the actual machinery. It was definitely its own thing...with ladies in space-agey aluminum foil aprons and sashes leading you through black rooms...to stare at multi-media presentation flashing on the walls, the ceiling, the floor....I mean, see below, it looks like Firas here is in a night club.....but he's really just at the chocolate factory:
But we did get to eat chocolate...and lots of it...here's Linda (and Firas)
And here's my roomie Emma:
We could eat all we wanted...so we did...

happy joint entry

hello all.  I am sitting here with A--- who is an ACTUAL PAID WRITER.   So, he can actually write, not like me who is too overly fond of ellipsis dots.  I thought it would be fun to write a joint entry, and when I asked, he put down his notebook.  I'm assuming this is an "okay."

So A---, what would you like to say to my 4 blog readers?

A---> Thanks Grace for the precious virtual space. It feels nice to blog again, especially now because I have gone into hibernation from my own personal blog for  the last few weeks. Dying to write stories from here. There are so many stories in my head but Caux doesn't give you the opportunity to be by yourself and write and read. There's just so much to do and so many people to meet and so many smiles to construct that writing something meaningful takes a backseat. But thanks to Grace, I get to spurt words that have been in my system for a few weeks now.

Actually,  I am suppose to write a press release for the lecture that is going on for a the Foreign Editor of one Indian newspaper for its Indian relevance, but after what I have heard, I don't think it needs a write-up. Whatever he said, is freely available on the Internet and reading the company website. India  is a super power, the largest democracy, the fastest growing economy, the youngest population and yet we tend to ignore the mass suicides committed by our farmers in the villages of India that are so cleverly camouflaged by this new-age globalisation. So the exclusive few trumpet our achievements like we are the next big thing to take on the world, the reality is far from the perfect picture our guest lecturer is painting on the world stage at the moment.

Grace> [Some background for my 5 blog readers (L---has just tapped our shoulders and informed us that she reads my blog.  Thanks L!)...background: we are still sitting in this lecture, and this man is from India and so is A---.]

A---, you should share with the newspaper one of the stories that is dying to get out from your head!  That's not healthy, man.   Your head might explode with all those stories!

A---> I am an activist writer, and not a back-scratching one. So I guess, I rather have the stories marinate in my head than have half-baked thoughts out on the screen.

Grace> Hey man---you're a keyboard hog!  I've actually had to LISTEN to this guy while you've been typing!  It's okay though, I haven't of course really been listening, it's been more like background noise...ba dum dum dum, ba dum dum dum...there's a certain rhythm in his voice that is magnified by this strange echo in the room...but I digress.

I can't resist another digression; I couldn't help but notice your trouble with my American keyboard.  You probably don't know this, but talk about different international keyboards has been a consistent feature on my blog.  Isn't it annoying? 

A---> Yes, if we talk about globalisation and a flat world, like your thomas friedman theorises, we are only getting more and more individualistic and somehow, instead of making things more uniform across the world, so we have everyone on the same common platform to gestate on new ideas, hardware experts feel otherwise. Make life miserable for the end user. Shame him. Make him use the delete button for every 1/3rd of a word he types.  Like I always say,  as much as we talk about commonalities, there are far too many differences that connect or disconnect us (depends on which part of the globe you  are sitting and reading this blog)!

Grace> Hmm.  As much as I'd like to think otherwise---it's pretty true.  It's kind of weird, it seems like our commonalities are either only on the surface or on a very deep level...but there's this vast in-between.  Things on the surface would be like refrigerators, the need for education, jobs, government.  The things on a deep level would be being human....and then there's that vast in-between....so many differences!  Can we all get along or all we all bound to be oppressed by who ever is loudest!?!

[L---has now joined us, and is teaching my guest writer how to make origami things.  She drew him a diagram and now they are both engrossed with a tiny, tiny piece of lime green paper.   Fine motor skills are being challenged here as they fold it tinier and tinier.]  Oh well, I guess this is my chance to go off...oh he's back.]

Oh goody!  L--- is now joining us...L---, give us your two cents!

L--->hehehehehe they let me at the pc! <Grace's rude intrusion:  It's a MAC!>  First, a disclaimer. I don't blog. So this may take a while. *sorry*.    I was actually listening while folding the pieces of paper (I fiddle, so sue me. At least, I have something creative to show for my inability to sit still, at the end of the day). What I heard was the speech of a head of a company group from a country that is not always included in the big boys club headed by the USA, Japan and the EU, given to a congregation of likeminded business people, who was trying to put the best slant on the substance at his disposal. I thought he sounded like he had actually learnt well from the American School of Marketing Yourself. True, you could probably get the same content off the group website, but you wouldn't have the opportunity to question him and try to get him to trip over his own metaphorical feet with a poser. Noticed that A--- declined to ask a question to get some content for his article. Yet, I'm not worried. It is his responsibility. Of course, I come a completely different background and was listening from that perspective. Probably sounded completely different to someone from the same country. I sound naive, I know. I am losing the scales, but only slowly. I think that I have taken over the blog  \(*v*)/  A-- and G-- have finally realised this and are looking over my shoulder. One last comment. I am still idealistic enough to believe that we are not too different that we can't all live happilyever after. I don't know how we are going to get there, but that is the whole point of it being an ideal.

back to G

G--->Okay, L---thanks for your twenty dollars worth of opinion.  My 4 other readers are sure to appreciate a different perspective!  And yes...I'm willing to live in a world happily ever after with you too!

Should we invite C--- in or is he so gone....his eyes do look open, but he's doing this head shoulder roll.  The phrase "head lolling" is now being whispered to me by L---.  C---is head lolling.  Or maybe I should go and actually prep for my presentation which I actually haven't practiced once.  Oh.  L--- didn't practice hers she says. 

This is deteriorating...so we will leave you.  Bad speaker has left, and another guy in a black suit is now talking.   For the record, this lecture is a weekly thing and is usually pretty good.  Of course, I have a very small sample size of 2.  So 50% of the lectures I've heard are good....the good one was about Northern Ireland.  Pretty good and realistic.  I liked it a lot.

Oh goody....clapping....time to hit send!

Some man is talking and we are not paying attention...

...and today, we have the rare lecture opportunity of an internet
connection! Yay! I am sitting here with A--- and C--- and J---- and
L----identities need to be protected here for the sake of our stellar
reputations----and we are, how to say? not so engrossed in this man's
speech. he is a bit full of himself, but oh well. J----is getting her
postcards done, A--- and I are reading blogs, L--- is making origami
things, and C---, well C--- is actually awake for once!

We're sitting here in the "Great Hall," the room in which F. Scott
Fitzgerald says has a strange echo, and it does! The acoustics are
pretty bad in here; maybe this man is really an awesome speaker....maybe
it's just that I can't really hear him clearly....or that I've missed
too much of his talk...when will this be over?

Swiss National Day Eve

I'm looking out my balcony and I see two sets of fireworks from my balcony, one somewhat obstructed by trees at the town of Montreaux and one in clear view directly across Lac Leman.  This is not the first time I've seen or heard fireworks from my window, and I feel reminded how this place strangely feels like Disneyland.  Each time I take the train I want to sing "It's a Small World" but I don't really want to sing it---because I find rather annoying.  But the song manages to get stuck in my head as I look at the cartoony marmots drawn on the sides of the train that cranks up the mountain to a castle, a castle with an immaculate lawn and hedges and towers for Rapunzel to let her hair down.   I have never been in the towers, but I do get to have most of my meals on the magnificent patio with its even more awesome view.   It feels unreal and part of me longs for my apartment, my couch, my bed, my kitchen.    I want to cook;  I want to drive;  I want to go shopping.  I want to have people over.   I miss my friends, my life.  But instead I go back into the dining hall and meet the nations, the nations who have come for a week or two or more to meet and seek peace.  Two more weeks...and I plan to make the most of it.

Tomorrow is Swiss National Day, and I suppose that's the reason for the double fireworks.  I still hear booming from my window.   Very long fireworks. 

Tubingen

I went to Tubingen this weekend to visit my friend Ursula. Tubingen is a university town, known for its medical school and humanities program. People like Hegel and Schilling went there. And the poet who was their roommate and went crazy also. Moltmann and the current Pope used to teach there as well. And of course, Goethe was there, as he is in almost every place in Germany. There's a sign that says he puked in Tubingen. I think Ursula pointed it out to me when I was there briefly in January, on January 1 actually. The whole town was deserted that day. It was quite eerie. This weekend, however, it was quite a happening place. Classes had just ended and the whole town seemed to be celebrating. Ursula planned out the entire weekend for me and showed me a good time. Here's me and Ursula. Apparently, this is *the* photo you're suppose to take if you ever go to Tubingen.

And here we are doing another prerequisite German activity. We're at the Neckermuller beergarden...which closed surprisingly early at 11 pm.

I actually finished this thing. That's a first for me.
Ursula was a fabulous hostess...she reserved a boat for us in advance, and we spent the afternoon on the Necker River. What an awesomely relaxing way to spend an afternoon. Here's Martina punting us about the Necker (while I ate my cake quite literally).
Punting was followed by a homemade pizza session, and then a picnic by the Necker, a candlelight picnic by the river. Europeans definitely know how to relax!
Anyway, it was wonderful to see Ursula and a bit more of her world....fortunately, I'll see her on Friday in Basel! We'll be joining Angela and Cornelia...and Sara K is flying out from the UK. It'll be a Regent reunion! How fun!