Halloween Party

NEW: Vote for the best costumes (you can select more than one)! Scroll to the bottom

Although Halloween isn't really celebrated in Switzerland we couldn't miss out on a chance to dress up in crazy costumes, or a reason to have a party, haha. Since the Berg hasn't hosted a party yet (and therefore is on somewhat good terms with their neighbours) they had the halloween party at their place on the Saturday before halloween. Unfortunatly Lindsey was gone that weekend (she went to see Bob Dylan play in Germany) so she missed out on the party.

Some of the guys had bought pumpkins somewhere, so a few of us got together saturday afternoon to carve pumpkins and make pumpkin pie. I didn't really take an active part in either activity since I didn't have a pumpkin, I just hung out and was occasionally helpful. We did all the pumpkin stuff at Jenny's place (Jenny lives in the same building as Vance, Tommy and Lindsey, and is Devon's girlfriend). It was interesting being in a non-praktikant apartment, it's so decorated and spacious, haha. It was really nice of her to let us use her place.

Travis, being the pumpkin pie expert, was coordinating the baking process. It was pretty pro, we had pies and pumpkin seeds cooking in Jenny's oven and downstairs at the Berg. There were 4 pies in the end, and we ate one of them right away...mmmmm. Shane and Devon/Evan (they did a joint effort) each carved pumpkins, they turned out really cool.





Travis making pumpkin pie, mmmmm....


















Shane and Devon hard at work creating their jack-o-lanterns











Evan working on his masterpiece













Jenny and Devon eating pie fresh out of the oven












The finished jack -o- lanterns. Shane's is stabbing Evan's, which is screaming in horror with brain leaking out of it's head.









My costume was going to be Pippi Longstocking (or the Wendy's girl, according to Henry), because I knew that I could create the costume without having to buy anything, haha. The only thing I bought was hair dye, because I decided to be ambitious and dye my hair orange with a semi-premanent dye (comes out in 8-10 washes). It didn't really work out though, since my hair is so dark the orange didn't show up (I really should give up ever trying to dye my hair...). Luckily I found some orange body paint left over from street parade, and was able to make my hair bright orange. Henry got me some wire from work, and it was pretty easy te got my braids to stick out for the pippi look. I had all the clothes I needed (yay for cool socks), except for blue "dress", so I borrowed a shirt from Henry.




Me in my Pippi Longstocking costume















I took the bus down to the Berg with Adrienn, Shane and Evan. Adrienn was dressed as a nurse who had gone crazy and attacked her patients (Evan and Shane), it was a sweet group costume. They even had homemade fake blood and authentic hospital scrubs, haha. We were drawing a lot of attention from the swiss people, especially since Evan and Shane were playing up their parts, and hobbeling around all injured, it was hilarious.





Shane, Adrienn and Evan walking through Baden scaring Swiss people. The picture is blurry because I was laughing so hard, haha.







I couldn't believe how well Vance and Tommy had cleaned up the Berg, it was even all decorated with halloween decorations (including Tommy's cut-out sperm ghosts, haha). We were the first ones there, but everyone else arrived shortly, mostly with amazing costumes. I was impressed with all the creative ideas, I tried to get pictures of most of them:






Kevin as a hermaphrodite robot















Travis as a christmas tree (he got his costume parts from Kehl, since we have a fake tree and decorations and lights). He even brough an extension cord and was plugging in his lights, lol.

















Tyler as a chronic masturbator
















Devon as a broom (Jenny was a witch)

(You can see one of Tommy's homemade ghost decorations in the background, lol)



















Shiraz as the Phantom of the Opera















Javier and Anthony as ancient Romans














Victor as a ipod




















Vance as some sort of well-dressed zombie (I think he just really wanted to incorporate being a zombie with a top hat, lol)













Olivier as a pilot, rapper, pimp, or Swiss-German guy (depending on who you asked)



















Ooo, who's the hot girl?


















Haha, oh, it's Tommy
















Dan as a variation of Two Face. Check out Evan's intense pen wound.












Ash x2
Wicked makeup Warren...sorry Richard, I think you were outdone.











Warren and Shane seem to both be victims of Adrienn's chainsaw crazyness. Got enough straws Shane?












Bernard as devil and Henry as a gorilla in a suit (hmmm, alright.......)









The party was really fun, and went late into the night. The Berg is pretty small, but we made do by spreading out into all the rooms (including the kitchen floor, haha). It's hard to say whether I consumed more whiskey or candy that night, haha. One highlight of the night was going up to Jenny's place to eat the remianing pumpkin pies (we realized that there was not enough for everyone at the party, so went for a secret pie session). We ate pumpkin seeds too, mmmm. The only bad part of the night was waking up and realizing that my pillow was bright orange, haha, ooops, should have washed my hair before I went to bed.




Kevin, Travis, me and Shane with various amounts of strangeness.










Tommy and one of Jenny's friends (omg, there were girls at the party!!!!!). The best part of this pic is Richard and Vance in the background, lol.










Adrienn, Vance, me and Travis chillin in the kitchen













Shane didn't quite make it home that night. Neither did a lot of people actually, haha.

Which costumes are your favorite?
	Pippi Longstocking (Jacqui)
	Nurse attacks patients (Adrienn, Shane, Evan)
	Hermaphrodite Robot (Kevin)
	Christmas Tree (Travis)
	Chronic Masturbator (Tyler)
	Broom for the Witch (Devon)
	Phantom of the Opera (Shiraz)
	Romans in Togas (KSB: Anthony, Javier, Rob, )
	iPod (Victor)
	Formal Zombie (Vance)
	Swiss-German Pimping Rapper Pilot (Olivier)
	Disturbed (or disturbing) Girl (Tommy)
	Two-Face (Dan)
	Ash (Richard)
	Ash (Warren)
	Devil (Bernard)
	Gorilla in Suit (Henry)
	None, mine was way better then all of those
Free polls from Pollhost.com

London Calling

Great song. Even greater city, I could totally live in London someday. Adrienn and I were in London for 4 days visiting Ed (for those of you just joining us, Ed was a praktikant in Baden that we met over the summer). Ed actually lives in a town near London, called Uxbridge which is where he goes to university...and by "goes" I mean never attends lectures, haha. Man I wish Canadian universities were as slack.

Unfortuantly I didn't take my camera out very much on this trip, and Adrienn's camera ran out of batteries, so there's not many pictures. You will just have to use your imaginations.

Adrienn and I flew in on Thursday afternoon. We got our flights from EasyJet, and got a wicked price (~$80)...the drawback was that we flew into Stansted, a "London" airport way out of the city. So we did the standard 8 hours of travelling surrounding an hourish long flight...included a train and then adventures on the London tube. Finally we got to Uxbridge, where Ed met us and took us over to his place. His flat is pretty sweet, he lives with 2 roommates Andy (who we met when he came to visit in Baden) and Christine. We chilled out in Ed's room with Andy and Dale (a friend of theirs) and played some xbox, which Adrienn was thrilled about. Haha, not really, she's not a big fan, but Ed and Andy are obsessed with it.

We ordered in pizza for dinner (mmmmmmm) and then got ready to go out to a club in London called Fabric. They were having a special drum and bass night in honour of the club's birthday, so Ed, Andy and us met up with their friend Claire and caught the last metro into London at midnight. We encountered a bit of complication with a tube line being shut, but made it to the club eventually. One thing that was awesome abot hanging out with the guys is that they took care of navigating, since they know all the areas better. It was such a nice pleasent change to sit back and not have to worry about reading maps, woot.

The club was really sweet. It's in a building that used to be a train station or something, so you have to walk down a bunch of steps to get to the club. I really enjoyed the music, even though I didn't even know that I liked drum and bass, haha. The crowd was really into the music, and the place was packed, making it really fun to be out on the dance floor. One strange thing about the club is that it had one bathroom for guys and girls, and it was just open to the club with no doors (there were doors on the stalls, don't worry). I never really got what the deal with that was.

We had an amazing time, probably the most fun I've had at a club in a long time. We stayed until it closed at 5, and then took the metro back to Uxbridge. It was raining as we were walking which I was really enjoying. Back at Ed's we were all still wide awake, so we stayed up and kept the party going. By closing the blinds we could pretend that the sun wasn't already up outside, haha. Eventually we went to sleep, and woke up late in the afternoon. Ed cooked us a "proper english breakfast", it was delicious. We also had scones with jam and clotted cream...man the English know what good food is, haha.

By then it was evening (Friday was pretty much a write off, haha), so we headed out to a nearby pub. It was a nice place, pretty busy so we sat at tables outside. One thing cool about pubs in England is they always seem to have a good crowd, no matter what time or day is is. They like their beer, lol. This place was cool because it doesn't close at 11pm like most of the pubs in England. We stayed there until they closed, and then went back to Ed's to chill out a while before going to bed.

On Saturday we got up and went into London to go shopping. Ed and Andy took us to the best shopping areas, and we had fun looking in the stores. I didn't end up getting anything, but they guys both got some clothes (Andy was referring it as his one shopping trip for the year, lol). While we were walking we noticed some guys were about to do a show on the street, so we stopped to watch. It was mostly a juggeling act, but had other various stuff and was pretty funny. Our next shopping stop was Camden, a shopping area with some crazy shops, and even crazier people. Lots of punk and goth types, it was crazy. The stores had all kinds of cool clothes and stuff, and there was one area that was a kind of market. I could have spent a long time wandering around there, but unfortunatly we could only look a bit before everything closed (probably for the best, I would have spent waaay too much money, haha).

We headed back to Uxbridge and had a quick dinner before going out to see a comedy show at the university. Unfortunatly, we had taken a bit too long and we got there too late to be allowed to go into the show. It was alright though, because instead we went to the university bar and played some pool. It was a pretty cool place, looked like it had been redecorated recently, everything was new looking. Not as good as the Den though of course ;) Ed and Andy beat Adrienn and I at pool (no surprise) and then the guys played (Ed won of course because he is the pool champion of all time). Next Adrienn and I played a game, but we were bring so useless that the game took forever. The bar was closing (remember, 11pm) and we still hadn't finished, so the guys quickly wrapped up the game (the bouncers were nice enough to let us finish the game, but we were still being too slow, haha).

We went next door to the university dance club which was fun. Neither the club or the pub was really busy, apparently on the weekends people usually go into London, and on weekdays it is busy. We stayed there for awhile, dancing and making fools of ourselves, haha. Later on we took a cab back to Ed's and stayed up for awhile (as usual) before heading to bed.

On Sunday the guys took us into London to see some sights. Ed did a good job of being a tour guide, and had a route planned out to see everything and get some pictures. We started near the Tower of London, and worked our way down along the river. We ate at a nice pub (mmmm, it's been awhile since I've had a burgar) and then went over to see St. Paul's, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Trafalger Square. Next we took the tube over to Picadilly Circus, and went to a pub for a beer. That night we stayed in a watched Shaun of the Dead (awesome movie) and just hung out.




Riding on the tube...Andy looks scared











Beefeater at the Tower of London. He told us some cool stories and we didn't even pay for the tour, mwah ha ha.


















The Tower of London














Ed, me and Andy in front of the Tower Bridge













St. Paul's Cathedral














Cool shot from one of the bridges over the River Thames













Big Ben at night
















The London Eye at night











On Monday, Adrienn, Ed and I went and wandered around Uxbridge. We ate lunch at chicken place that was really good....hmm, can't remember what it was called. We stopped at few stores, and I randomly decided to buy monopoly (London edition, ooo). None of the praktikants have it, and I've been wanting to play for awhile. And it was on sale, woot. Adrienn, Shane, Evan and I played a few days later, it was an epic game and we played for about 5 hours before calling it a draw between me and Evan/Shane combined team (it was sort of at a standstill, and 2:30 am and we had to work the next day).

Anyways, enough about monopoly. In Uxbridge we also stopped by the travel place to investigate the best way to get to Luton airport (another obscure airport way on the outskirts of London) for our 6am check-in the next day. The only option she could suggest was catching the last bus to Heathrow at midnight, and then taking the train to Luton and spending the night at the airport. It sucked, but we didn't really have any other options.





Me and Adrienn chillaxin in Ed's room













Toe facination













Ed reminiscing with his high school yearbook













Andy playing xbox









That night we ordered in curry, mmmm, it was delicious. We hung out watching some snowboard movies, listening to music, playeing xbox, etc. At some point Andy suggested that taking a cab to the airport in the morning would be a lot less hassle that spending the night there. It was a decent idea, especially when we found out that a cab would only cost a little bit more than the bus/train. We decided that it was a way better option, so booked a cab for 5am the next morning, hooray.

Not so much hooray when we had to get up at 4:45, haha. It was alright though, the journey went smoothly and we got back to Switzerland and went straight in to work. It was a fun weekend, a lot more like a vacation than most of our trips. We mostly just hung out, slept in late, partied and got spoiled by Ed, haha, what lucky hobbits.

Paris - revenez a la belle ville

Alright, this post is reaaaaaly late, because it took me until now to gather together all the pictures I wanted. I still don't have everyone's, but I have enough of a selection. Thanks to George, Olivier, Lindsey, Vance, Bernard and Henry for sharing their pics!

I have already been to Paris, but I wanted to go again because there were lots of things that I didn't see while I was there that I wanted to. Olivier was planning a trip for October, so I decided that would be a good time to return. The group ended up being quite large, every day new people would buy tickets and eventually there was 13 of us going (lucky 13): me, Henry, Bernard, Lindsey, Vance, Olivier, George, Evan, Shane, Rebeca, Fengli and Fengli's friend (who I never met, and I don't know her name). It was a really fun trip, very different from the first time I went when it was only Adrienn and I. I was the only one that had been to Paris before, so I got to feel like a pro and be the tour guide, haha.


We took the night train to Paris, which I have never done before (well, I went on an overnight train to Jasper when I was little...but that was different). It left late friday night, so we stopped by Mojo (a bar in Baden) on the way to the station since some of the other praktikats were hanging out there. I felt a little silly, since I was wearing my pyjamas, haha, but who wants to fit in anyways. Lindsey, George and I found our way to the little 6-person compartment we were sharing, and got settled. It was pretty comfortable, though the tiny sheet was hard to keep in place so it wasn't the best sleep.




Me ready for sleeping on the night train











We arrived bright and early in Paris, and after taking forever to get everyone sorted out with metro passes, arrived at our hotel. It was a pretty sweet place, and only cost $20/night for each of us...cheaper than most hostels! Our room was even cheaper, since we had an extra person (Vance decided at the last minute to join the trip, and it was too late to change the booking). We slept 3 people in one of the double beds, it wasn't too bad.

The plan for the day was to go to Versailles, one of the things that I didn't get a chance to see last time I was in Paris. It was the perfect day for it too, beautiful sunny fall day. We all took the train there (it's about 30min out of the city) and than bought day tickets. It was 20euro (~$30), but well worth it because we got 3 audioguided tours, and access to almost everything on the grounds.

I have never done an audioguided tour before, but it ended up being really sweet. For those that don't know, you get a headset, and then everytime you enter a new room you press a button and get all the interesting info from that room, accompanied by a pleasant soundtrack. It's especially fun if everybody presses the button at the same time, because then you are all looking at the same things at the same time (aka, to an observer, a group of 10 people would all suddenly look at the ceiling in unison for no apparent reason). Anyways, though it lacked the personality and humour of a guided tour, the audioguided tour was a lot more flexible, and easier to hear, so it gets my approval. We took the audiotour of the States Apartments first, which included things like the apartments of the King and Queen, and the Hall of Mirrors (which was unfortunately being renovated....too bad, I bet it would have been sweet).





A chapel inside the Chateau de Versailles


















Rebeca, Henry, George and Bernard enjoying the audiotour














Me and Vance checking out some paintings of Napoleon's battles












After the tour we realized that our group had been split up...which was alright, because there were just too many people for an effective tour. I ended up with Lindsey and Vance, so we wandered out to the grounds and marvelled at the amazing view. The Grand Canal stretched out forever in front of us, and it was surrounded by gardens and forest.



Me in front of the Versailles Gardens and Grand Canal










We ran into Tyler, Kevin and Mike, and decided to go check out the grounds together. It was really cool, as soon as we stepped past the hedges it was like you were in a different place...everything was all foresty and cool. There were various buildings and sites out on the grounds that were included in our daypass so we made our way to all of them. There were so many paths and high hedges (no hedge maze though, boo) that it took a bit of navigation not to get lost.

We checked out the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon, which are basically houses where the King and Queen could go to relax...you know in case the Palace felt too cramped and they wanted to get away, lol. Next we went to the Queen's Hamlet not really knowing what to expect. It ended up being this cute little village surrounding a big pond (or small lake...not really sure how the classification system works). It was a really nice little area...I think if I lived at Versailles I would rather stay at the Hamlet than the main Palace.








Some big fallen tree near the Grand Trianon that Mike decided to enjoy














Part of the Queen's Hamlet










We discovered that there were fish in the pond...there was one big one that kept surfacing, causing us to yell with excitement every time (I think we provided humour for the other tourists). Then we found a spot where somebody was throwing food into the water for the fish and/or ducks and swans. I was a feeding frenzy! The amount of fish trying to eat the food was insane.

We sat and relaxed on the hill for awhile. While sitting Tyler discovered that the tree had a strange fruit that had fallen on the ground. He opened one up and debated whether or not it was edible. In the end, curiosity won over and both him and Mike tried a bite of the mysterious fruit. They didn't die, but said it didn't taste very good either.






Fish fighting for food...so many!

















Chillaxing at the Queen's Hamlet














Probably the coolest looking tree I have ever seen. I love autumn...












After our break we walked back to the Palace (there was a lot of walking, that place is huge). We took audiotours of the King's Chambers and Apartments of Mesdames (the last to tours included in our day pass). They were interesting, but by the end we were all pretty tired. By then it was late afternoon and we were ready to go back to the hotel. By some miracle we met up with everyone else....I have no idea how it happened, since we had broken up into about 4 groups and done different things.




Mike, Kevin, Tyler, me and Lindsey in front of the Palace.














Cool pic of Olivier out on the grounds

















Meeting up at the end of the day (a Paris Miracle)









We got on the train to go back to Paris (minus Rebeca and Olivier...they never ended up on the train and we discovered later that it was because Rebeca had lost her metro pass and they were getting a new one). The highlight of the trip home (and any metro ride actually) was this weird French teenager, all decked out in hip hop gear and bling. He was bopping to his music, and jumping around all over the place making quite a commotion (eg. doing head spins and banging on the windows). Every now and then he would yell out in French, and at one point he started taking (lots of) money out and throwing it on the seats, before returning it to his wallet. Anyways, we were very entertained by this (though I think I would have been freaked out if we weren't in such a big group) and being the hardcore tourists that we are, of course got a picture.




Vance and the hardcore French Hip-Hop dude













Sleeping on the train back to Paris...triple shocker sort of...what are you doing Tyler)










When we got back to Paris we were all hungry, so we got off near Notre Dame (it was on the way) and bought dinner supplies at a grocery store. We sat near the river with a view of the Cathedral and enjoyed our food (I had bread, cheese and tomato...classic). I threw in some Notre Dame pics, but I don't think they are actually from this day (I didn't go into Notre Dame this trip). Oh well, they had to go somewhere.





Mike, Tyler, Kevin, Vance, Bernard and Henry in front of Notre Dame

















Notre Dame Cathedral












Gargoyles at Notre Dame














Nice view of Paris at dusk.










It was evening by then, so we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the evening. We had all bought wine (that's just what you have to drink in Paris) and had a nice pre-party in our hotel room (I was sharing a room with Lindsey, Vance, Shane, and Olivier). One highlight was when Vance went on a massive rant about x-men...ah, it's been awhile since I have witnessed a drunken Vance geek rant, lol.





Mike, Shane and Lindsey drinking wine (and George's hand). Nice shirt colour choices guys, very effective











Vance, Henry, Rebeca, Olivier and Bernard chillin in the hotel room











Olivier, after having his hair styled by Rebeca















Around 10:30pm we took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower to ooo and ahh at being lit up. It really does look amazing, I don't think I could ever get tired of seeing it. We hung out there for awhile, taking pictures and having fun.




Kevin, Vance, George, me, Lindsey, Henry and Bernard on the way to the Eiffel Tower











Riding the metro. Vance managed to jump into every single pic taken on this journey (if only I could post them all..), with the same expression...haha












Vance, Lindsey, Shane and me at the Eiffel Tower

















Nice pic Bernard

















Olivier, Rebeca, Shane, me, Lindsey, Vance, Evan and George with the Eiffel Tower.









Some people were smart and left in time to catch the last metro back to the hotel. Unfortunately, I was not one of that group...we didn't want to leave yet, and convinced ourselves that it wasn't that far back to the hotel. Once we started walking and checked a map though, we realized that it was in fact quite far (we were basically walking from the Eiffel Tower to north of Sacre Coeur...if you know anything about the layout of Paris you will shake your head at our poor decision). Walking around Paris at night was fun though, especially after we stopped to buy more wine. We walked past the Arch de Triomph which was beautifully lit up and took some pics.

It was around this time that Shane got the hiccups. He said that he had to sit down and take a break, so I sat down too and before we knew it, everyone one else had left. The good news: we both had maps. The bad news: we had no idea where we were and our navigation skills were highly compromised at this point in the night. We attempted for quite some time to get home, but it seemed that every time we figured out our location we were veering even further off course. Eventually (around 4:30am) Shane just lay down on the grass, and by then I had lost all hope as well so I lay down too. We slept there until about 6, when the metro was running again and caught the train back to the hotel, crawling into bed around 7. Needless to say, we were both fairly tired the next day, haha, but at least we had an adventure to tell.

Sunday...everyone else had a museum day: Lourve, Orsay, Modern Art (I can't remember who went to which ones, and what else everyone did all day, and I'm sure you wouldn't want to read all the different itineraries anyways). Since I had already seen all those museums, I decided to check out the Paris Science Center, which is apparently one of the biggest ones in Europe. It was a really cool place, though it took me awhile to figure out where the cool exhibits were and how to buy tickets for a show. I discovered that I had come on some special weekend where everything was free, woot! I wandered around looking at stuff, and ended up spending most of my time in the mathematics section, it was sweet (in a geeky way, sigh), they had all these demos and videos explaining chaos theory, fractals, etc. Some exhibits were translated into english, but some were just in french, so I got to break out my pathetic french skills to try and figure out what was going on. The day also included a (free) show in the planetarium, which was sweet even though it was in french. It started with showing some constellations in the sky, which I sort of know so it made the french easier to understand. I love the planetarium theaters...how you are just surrounded by stars and in those big reclining comfy chairs. Unfortunately, they were too comfy, because I fell asleep near the end of the show (this was probably due to my night adventures, lol), but it was a nice power nap so that was ok.




Bernard and Mike with the inverted pyramid at the Louvre. If you have read The DeVinci Code you will know all about this ;)















The outside of the Paris Science Center...the big sphere is some strange musical clock that played different sounds for hours, minutes and seconds, it was pretty cool.








After the science center I went to central to wander around a bit. I saw a couple churches and the opera house (one of them), it was fun just walked down the streets in Paris. Eventually I got tired, so I went back to the hostel and had a quick nap before it was time to meet the rest of the group. Unfortunately, the meeting plan had been changed without anyone informing me, so instead of meeting for dinner we were meeting at 9. I wasn't too impressed, but at least somebody had come back early for a rest and mentioned it to me around 8...

By 9 most people had returned back to the hotel, so we went out to see the Moulin Rouge. It was pretty cool looking, but nothing too exciting since it was too expensive to actually go in and see a show (though I bet that would have been sweet). More exciting was that it was located in a sort of red light district...so as we walked down the street were were surrounded by sex shops and erotic show theaters, haha.




Olivier, Vance, Henry, Bernard, Mike and Lindsey in front of the Moulin Rouge. They are standing on this big air vent for added effect, haha.











Haha...















We walked to Sacre Coeur (it was only a few blocks away) and marvelled at how cool it looks lit up. It was here that we somehow met up with George and Shane, and basically the rest of the group. It was another Paris miracle...though I think we planned to see Sacre Coeur that night so I guess everyone was just sticking to the plan. We hung out on the steps just enjoying the night. There were a few guys playing the guitar and singing, and I swear it was the same guy that was playing when Adrienn and I were there last time. I guess maybe he goes every weekend, that is cool, the one guy was amazingly good too. We left early enough to take the metro home and go to bed at a decent hour (hooray for good decisions!).





Chillaxing at Sacre Coeur















The next day I went with Evan, Shane and George to Pere Lachaise Cemetery. It's famous because lots of famous people are buried at it...the most well know is Jim Morrison (he somehow outshadows lots of other historical arts figures, haha). We did the typical thing, which was go straight to Jim Morrison's grave which was surprisingly small...and guarded (there had been vandalism problems, but it is all cleaned up now). After that we found Chopin's grave, and after that we had had enough (it took a long time to locate graves, it is a huge place with minimal navigation aids).





Jim Morrison's grave...not as fancy as most of the others














The guys wanted to go check out Notre Dame, so I broke off and went to the Picasso Museum. I had issues finding it, so had to ask for directions a few times...which I did completely in french, woot. Eventually I found it, and managed to get in for free ("under 17"), nice beating the system. It was a cool place, with art from Picasso starting from just sketches from when he was a student. There was a lot of info about his life too, and I had a good time wandering around looking at everything. After that I had time to go over to the Museum of Modern Art (also got in free, haha), which I saw last time but wanted to check out again. It was cool that I did, since almost all the exhibits had changed. I only had time to look around a little bit, but it was still fun, I find the art there really interesting (though some of it is pretty strange).

I went over to the Eiffel Tower to meet everyone at 4pm like we had planned. Almost everyone showed up, and people that weren't there we met up with later once we were up the tower. We all paid to walk up the stairs, and had fun reading all the tower history and interesting facts, and of course taking pictures of the view. We walked up to the second observation deck, which is as far as you can go by stairs. Everyone wanted to pay and line up to take the elevator to the top, which was cool because I didn't do that last time. It was worth it, even though the view isn't that much better you feel so high up! And there is just something cool about being at the top of the Eiffel Tower.





Henry taking a pic of Bernard, haha




















The Eiffel Tower!













Almost all of us at the top of the Eiffel Tower (Henry and Bernard didn't come up, tsk tsk).
back row: Mike, Shane, Kevin, Evan
middle row: George, Lindsey, Vance, Tyler, me, Rebeca
front row: Olivier












Arch de Triomph from the top of the Eiffel Tower

















View of Paris (primarily the Louvre) from the top of the Eiffel Tower









After the Eiffel Tower we all had different last minute Paris things we wanted to do, so we split up again. I went with Shane, Evan, Lindsey, George, Rebeca and Olivier to the Louvre...the plan was to start at the Louvre and walk up Champs-Elysses (a famous street that joins at the giant traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe. Also the name of a catchy French song that was stuck in my head all weekend...NOFX does a cover of it that you might know) to the Arch de Triomphe. There was a bit of a snag when we discovered that the Tuileries Gardens were closed for the night. Evan and Shane were insistent that we stick to the plan of walking directly, so I went with them to climb over a hedge into the gardens. It was surprisingly easy, the guard on the other end just let us out with no hassle, it was sweet.

We met up with the others, and then took a break at Place de la Concorde. We took some pictures, and then puzzled over strange markings on the ground for awhile....it appeared to be some sort of sun dial with the obelisk, but we never really figured it out.

We walked up Champ Elysses, stopping for a break to have a snack and coffee. Eventually we made it to the Arc, and everyone quickly paid and went inside. It was here that I had the most embarrassing part of my weekend...Lindsey and I tried to pull the whole "pretend to be 17 to get in for free" scam, which worked fine, they believed us. However, we were told that we had to be accompanied by an adult to go up the Arc, and everyone else had already rushed inside. After a bit of debating, we went back to the booth and told them we were actually 21, and showed ID....they let us in, but we got some disapproving looks, it was pretty embarrassing. Serves us right, lol...

I hadn't been up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe before, it seemed like it wouldn't be that special since it's not really that high (although, higher than it looks). It was totally worth it though, the view is amazing...you can see all 12 streets circling out away from the traffic circle, and especially at night it is really impressive. We got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle, and stayed up there enjoying the view and taking pictures. At one point, Shane decided that he wanted to get a better view, so he used some tricky moves to climb up onto the center section. A little while later, we heard a guard say "Oh-la-la!" (yes, he actually said that, hahahaha) when he noticed that Shane was up there. He had to leave, which was alright since it was time for us to go anyways. Haha, it was a good thing that Shane wasn't Lindsey and my's "responsible adult guardian".





George, Lindsey, me, Rebeca, Shane, Olivier and Evan in front of the Louvre











The Louvre at night, the pyramid looks cool.














Champ Elysses from the top of the Arch de Triomphe













On top of the Arch de Tiomphe (too bad the Eiffel Tower didn't make it into the picture)












The stairs inside to the Arch de Triomphe to the top














We took the metro back to the hotel to get our stuff, which was interesting because the desk clerk pretended that our bags were missing. I was kind of freaked out for a bit until he showed us to the room where they were being kept...crazy French people and their sketchy humour.... We went to the train station where we met up with the others and got onto the train for another fun sleep. I slept pretty well (it was a tireing day) and then had time to go home and shower before taking the train to work.

I am impressed how smoothly the trip went considering the giant group that we went with. I guess we have finally mastered group travelling, and figured out that you can't do everything together, and not to wait for late people at meeting times (sorry guys, you snooze you lose...or some other more fitting quote...). I'm glad that I got to see Paris again, to revisit my favorite things and see the things that I missed last time. It is a city that I would love to return to some day, and maybe even live in (just think how good my french would get!)

Hike - Creux du Van

Last Saturday I went on a hike near Neuchatel with Rob, Bernard, Travis, Tommy, Lindsey, Shiraz and Rebeca (new praktikant from Panama). The hike was up to a ridge called Creux de Van, and then down through a gorge with a waterfall, it was really pretty. Good level of difficulty, and nice because we were walking through the forest a lot of the time. The only open part was the big fields on top of the ridge, which was good because we took some nice pictures. The weather was perfect, a bit foggy at the start (we were worried it would stay) but then it cleared up and we had a beautiful view of the valley and the alps from the top.

We caught the train at 9:47, which was nice because we got to sleep in a bit. After switching at Olten we got on a train to Neauchatel. After that we went on another train Noiraigue (arrived at noon), where the hike began.


At the train station about to start walking. left to right: Bernard, Shiraz, Rebeca, Travis, me, Tommy, Lindsey, Rob












The first bit of the hike was uphill through a beautiful forest. It was a great time of year to come on this hike, because there were brightly coloured leaves all over the ground. We quickly lost our outer layers of clothes, except Rebeca who was missing the warm Panama climate, haha. Eventually she got used to it too though.


Taking a break by a fountain on the way up. Switzerland is awesome, there are drinkable fountains everywhere, even on hiking trails!
left ot right: Rob, Bernard, Lindsey, Travis, Shiraz, Rebeca, Tommy










Walking up through the forest to the ridge

















It took us about three hours to get to the top of the ridge, longer than we should of since we took lots of breaks and weren't really rushing. I think Rob would have liked us to walk faster, he was very concerned with keeping on schedual, and kept calling to us to stop taking pictures and hurry up, haha.

At the top we crossed over the other side of the ridge and there was an amazing view of the inside of the cresent-shaped steep cliffs (we had walked up the outside of the cresent). We walked around the top of the ridge and took lots of pictures (thanks to Rob for sharing his pics with me).




Finally at the top! Looking down into the valley below the ridge.














Me and Shiraz posing in front of the cliffs


















Shiraz and Tommy checking out the view













Group shot at the top of the ridge (don't you love camera timers!)
left to right: Rebeca, Lindsey, Travis, me, Bernard, Tommy, Shiraz, Rob.











All of us (except Travis, who took the picture) posing on the cliffs. It was scary standing up there, there was a steep drop on either side.
















Lindsey, Travis, Bernard, Tommy and Rob at the top of the ridge














Me, happy to be at the top posing with a random post, haha

















We had to head to Ferme Robert next (or "Farm Robert", as Rob kept calling it, haha)
















We stopped for lunch near the center of the horseshoe-shaped ridge where there was a sweet view (and were careful to not drop anything, haha). It took us forever to find a spot to eat, I was starving but we had to walk around looking at everything on the top, and see the alps before stopping, booerns. Haha, eventually we ate though, I had an awesome sandwhich, it was so good, mmm. Shiraz and Rebeca had not brought any food, but luckily Bernard and Lindsey had extra food to share with them.


Looking out over the cliffs during our lunch stop.
















Eating lunch, mmmm...













Umm, nice pose Tommy.












We walked around to the other end of the ridge and then down into the valley. The path down was fairly steep, but I was happy because I like walking downhill. I was until I slipped anyways, my walking stick failed me and I slipped on a rock, but I was ok. Just bitter at the walking stick, so I hucked it back into the forest in anger and continuted down freestyle, lol. The path flattened out near the bottom which pleased everyone (who were not liking the downhill walking, it was a bit hard on the knees) and we walked along inside the valley.



Walking down into the valley from the ridge.













Tommy's walking stick was better than mine :(












We made it to the next checkpoint in a couple hours, and Rob, Shiraz and Tommy decided to not continue with the last part of the hike, instead deciding to run to the nearest train station to catch an early train home. The rest of us continued along the path to the gourge, where we would end up at the next train station down the line. We didn't really know what to expect at the gourge, we didn't even know if there would be water. When we got there we were all really happy that we had decided to do the last part of the hike, because it was really sweet. There was a narrow gourge with a waterfall, and the path went down into the gourge and along the river. We walked along the water, and enjoyed the pretty scenery. We were a bit unsure if we were taking the right path, because there was no signs indicating that the train station was up ahead. It was alright though, because we were on the right path, and made it to the train station in time to catch the 6pm train home. Bernard and Travis stayed in Neuchatel for an extra hour (to save on train costs) and looked at sights, but Lindsey and Rebeca and I went straight back.



Me in the gourge
















The waterfall in the gourge



















The river we walked along to the train station.

















Near the end of the hike, we were back down to where there was a bit of fog and the sun looked cool streaming through it










I got home around 9:30pm to find Richard, Vance and Warren playing axis and allies in our living room. Vance had recently bought it, since he was feeling severly deprived of strategy games. They had tried to convince me to stay home from the hike and play, but I resisted the lazy option, which was a good call. I said I would chip in on the game (it was expensive) so I'll learn to play some other time. It appears really confusing and intense, and their game finally finshed after 10 straight hours. I don't know what I've gotten myself into...

Ibiza

Alright, this post is pretty late but it's because I was waiting until I got pictures from Travis, Kevin and Devon. I still don't have Devon's pics, but I'll add them when I do. Pretty much the only pictures I have from the weekend is from when we went to watch the sunset, since I didn't bring my camera to the clubs or beach, and that is basically all we did.

Anyways, on Sept 16-19 a bunch of us went on a trip to Ibiza! For those of you that don't know, Ibiza is an island off the east coast of Spain that is famous for dance clubs, tourists, and awesome beaches. Most people arrived on Thursday evening (Devon, Tommy, Travis, Nate, Kevin, Warren) and then Lindsey and I arrived on Friday evening. The goals for the trip were to party in some of the worlds biggest clubs, and spend the days relaxing on the beach. Unfortunately, the weather while we were there was cloudy/rainy, which limited the beach time. But we made the most of it and still had a really fun trip. Most of us pre-bought tickets for all the clubs we wanted to go to, which turned out to be semi-unnecessary, but oh well.

*********************************************************************

Lindsey and I arrived in Ibiza around 11pm, after a journey from Zurich, to Barcelona, and then to the island. We took a cab (to save time) to theFlorida Center Apartments where we were staying and found out which rooms the guys were in. We were staying in the town of San Antonio, which is on the northwest side of the island, on the opposite side from Ibiza town. Our apartments were nice, we had 2 rooms, each with its own kitchen area. Because Lindsey booked her plane tickets late, we were one bed short for the 8 of us, which was solved in various ways. On the first night Lindsey and I shared one of the single beds. On the second night we pushed 2 single beds together, but ended up with 4 people in it (long story, involving Devon pouring water on Tommy in his bed, haha). The last night me, Lindsey and Travis shared 2 pushed together single beds, and it was easily the most comfortable sleep.





View from our apartment. The weird egg thing is a monument for Columbus or something.











Nate, Kevin and Warren's room (ours was pretty similar)













View of San Antonio in from our apartment in the evening.









I'll take this time to fill you in on what we missed on Thursday night. The guys went to Amnesia and saw Paul Van Dyke, which was apparently an awesome show. On Friday they went to the beach (Friday was the only sunny day, grrr) and watched the sunset in the evening. In retrospect it would have been sweet to go on Thursday night, but oh well.



Warren drinking juice on the beach. If only it was this sunny every day...















Sunset on friday night








Anyways, back to Friday night. Lindsey and I arrived at the apartments around 11:30pm to find everyone napping. We had obviously not adjusted to Spain sleep schedule yet, so were all ready to party while they were all having their evening siesta. No worries, we bought some liquor and started pre-drinking. Eventually everyone woke up and joined us, and then we headed to Es Paradis around 1:30am. Everything went smoothly with our ticket reservations, and we walked in to a really cool looking club that was decked out with a tropical theme. It was still early though, so the place wasn't too busy yet. We decided to go back to apartment and enjoy cheaper-than-club drinks and return to the club later.




Me, Tommy and Warren all dressed up for the club (nice shades Warren)














Kevin, Warren and Nate ready to go out













Travis and Lindsey partying on the balcony









Es Paradis was a really cool club. The inside was decorated all tropical and there was a pretty good crowd there later in the night. We danced, bought a couple 11euro drinks (ow, my bank account) and met some people. Something you should know about Ibiza, about 80% of the people you see there are from England, it's insane. Anyways, we stayed out pretty late, and Lindsey and I even went for a late night swim in the ocean on our way home, haha. When we were leaving the club, Devon decided that it would be more fun to get kicked out so he got somebody to boost him up to the platform where the hired dancers dance. His plan succeeded, and he got kicked out, haha.




Es Paradis, the club we went to on friday night. It's in San Antonio, really close to where we were staying.









The inside of Es Paradis was really sweet, I liked the layout and atmosphere.













Devon dancing on the private dancing platform. Notice the ladder lowing from the ceiling on the left so the bouncers can come and kick him out.









The next day we got off to a pretty late start and spent a lot of time lazing around in our rooms. We went for breakfast at a nearby restaurant: 3euro full english breakfast, can't go wrong with that (we actually had the same thing for breakfast the next two days too, haha).

After browsing around in some stores for beachware, we took the bus to a remote beach on the west coast of the island. It was really nice, though it would have been better if it was sunny. We chillaxed there for awhile, and Travis managed to get stung by a jellyfish in the water. He refused offers from a few people to pee on him, and managed to not die from the sting.



Nate and Kevin trying on some hats. Nate looks particularly enthusiastic about his.












Kevin and Warren sporting the mullet look. Just give'r!

















Tommy in his beach bun look, trying to soak up the rare ray of sunlight.













Travis's medusa sting










We went back to the apartments to relax and change, and then went to find a nice place for dinner. After a bit of searching, we chose a place along the beach, and embarked on the complicated task of deciding who should sit where. Basically, it was very overcomplicated, because people were sharing appetizers with some people, and wine with others, and apparently you need to sit directly next to everyone you are sharing something with, haha. Eventually we were all sorted out, and ordered. Lindsey and I shared some muscles, and then I had seafood paella with for my main dish (almost all of us did). It was delicious, I particularly enjoyed the crab legs, though they were tricky to eat.

We were all stuffed, and returned to the apartments for an evening siesta. About midnight we changed and pre-drank for the night, and then made it to Eden around 3. Unfortunately it still wasn't busy, apparently Eden was not the place to be that night. We stayed for awhile and danced on the mostly empty dance floor, and then left to check out some other clubs. It was pouring rain at that point, so we semi-ran to a club called Soul City that was the first and only hip-hop music club that I went to in Ibiza, it was pretty busy though, and decent. Me, Tommy, Nate and Travis were ahead of the others, and walked right into the club. We were wondering where the others were, and eventually Lindsey appeared saying that everybody else got asked to pay 10euro at the door and didn't want to. She got in by saying she wanted to "check to see if here friends were here", haha, nice move Lindsey. The five of us stayed there for awhile (we didn't see the other guys again that night until way later at the apartment) and then tried out a few other clubs on the street. Nothing was really busy, some places were reeeally dead, we were the only people in one club, just partying on the dance floor by ourselves, haha. Eventually we decided to call it a night, and walked back through the rain (the streets were like rivers!) to the apartment, where we saw Devon, Kevin and Warren. They had had an interesting night, finishing with Devon pushing Kevin into a fountain. Warren avenged this by pushing Devon in, and both were soaking we since the fountain was deceivingly deep. It was only then that both guys realized that they had their cameras in their pockets...oops. They dried them out overnight, and luckily they both worked the next day.




Eden: not the most popular club on the island













The deep fountain that Kevin and Devon were in. Note the danger of electrocution signs, wtf.











The next day we had our standard English Breakfast and then mostly lazed around in the apartments since it was bad weather. During a brief moment of sun a few of us attempted to go to the beach, but it started raining when we got there...booerns. Luckily, by evening the sky had cleared, just in time for the sunset. After a snack of waffles (so sweet....yum/eck) we went and sat on the shore near Cafe del Mar and waited for the sunset. It was really pretty, and we all took a bajillion pictures. After it was over a few people clapped, which was weird.




The crowd waiting for sunset.














Cool wave picture from Travis














Sunsetty goodness












Me and the Ibiza sunset.














Nate, Kevin, Warren and Devon watching the sunset







After the sunset we got cleaned up for dinner and found a nice seafood place. I got sea bass, which the waitress recommended, and it was really good. I'm not the biggest seafood fan, but I figured I should take advantage of being somewhere with fresh seafood. Lindsey and I shared muscles again, and I tried some clams too. Mmm, yummy meal.





Nice Spanish seafood dinner.
left to right: Tommy, Lindsey, me, Travis, Nate, Warren, Devon, Kevin








We changed and then got on the bus(aka, squished on, the bus was super crowded) to Privilege, which is allegedly the biggest club in the world. It's located inbetween San Antonio and Ibiza town, which is why we had to take the bus there. Warren decided to stay home that night, because he was feeling sick (too much rain I guess) and Kevin was too lazy to hurry to the bus, so he didn't show up until later.

Privilege was really cool. It has a big swimming pool in the middle (you can't swim in it though) and the dj sits on a platform over the water. The music they played that night was really good, lots of progressive trance which I love. Devon, Nate and Kevin decided to check out Amnesia, which was nearby and was having a foam party that night. I saw pictures after, and it looked really sweet, would have been cool to go to that. I had a good time at Privilege though, danced a lot and stayed till the place closed at 6am. The low point of the evening was paying 8 euros for a bottle of water. It was highway robbery, but I was so incredibly thirsty that it was worth it. Tommy and I (the only ones left at Privilege) walked down the road to the bus stop and somehow met up with the foam party crowd. They were soaked (apparently foam is not the only thing sprayed, they also got a firehose and champagne) and freezing...I was suddenly happy about my choice to stay at Privilege. Devon almost got Tommy to give him his shirt because he was so cold, haha, oh Tommy...




Lindsey, upside-down Tommy, me and Devon on the bus to Privilege












Privilege, the biggest club in the world












Inside Privilege...you can sort or make out the swimming pool and dj booth through the blurryness...I guess this just give you the impression of what it looks like when you're really drunk, haha












The foam party at Amnesia (I wasn't there, but it looked sweet)














Kevin and Nate in the aftermath of the foam party...









The next day was sunny, but we only had time to go to the airport, boo. On the plane back home we played the Swiss air chocolate game. For those who don't know, on Swiss air they always come around with a basket of chocolate for the passengers, and usually everybody takes one. Though in my opinion, if they are passing around the basket, it's basically saying "help yourself". Anyways, the game is that you have to take at least one more chocolate than the person before you (or twice as many, for advanced players). The stewdess wasn't too happy though, we got some mean glares. Oh well, chocolate is yummy.



Sticker on a baggage cart at the Madrid airport! Go Alberta!










Ibiza was a fun trip, though it would have been a lot better if it was a) sunnier and b) more crowded in the clubs. If I ever go again, I would go in August, which it the peak tourist time. Though, I probably don't need to go back. There's nothing really special there, but it's something to check off my list of places I want to visit someday.

Bern

Last Saturday I went to Bern with Adrienn, Shane and Shiraz. Bern is the capital of Switzerland, which I didn't know until I came over here. If you had asked me before I probably would have answered Geneva or Zurich (did YOU know that Bern was the capital?). The weather was rainy, so we bundled up with our sweaters and umbrellas and got on the train. Bern is only an hour away, so we just went for the afternoon (hooray for sleeping in!).

The first thing we say was the Einstein Museum. It was a bit hard to find due to stupid street numbering, but we eventually made it to this tiny museum located in Einstein's old apartment. He was living in Bern, working at the patent office, while doing work that eventually won him the Nobel Prize. It was really interesting reading about Einstein's life, it was cool to find out that he was a student and professor at the ETH in Zurich where I work.

Next we checked out Bern's astrological clock, that was reminiscent of the one we saw in Prague (but not as cool). Just like in Prague, every hour there is a little show as the clock strikes the hour (once again, not as cool as the one in Prague, but we weren't expecting it to be). It was weird because the clock show actually starts at 4 minutes to the hour with a rooster crowing, then you wait and there is a jester ringing a bell, then you wait, etc. I think it would have been a lot better is everything happened at once. Hmm, I should go into the business of clock design... (speaking of which, that reminds me of something we were discussing on the way home on the train, about how the world should evolve to a metric time system. It just makes sense, everything else is metric! Hmm, enough geekyness and back to the trip description...). Something that is cool about Bern is that many of the main sidewalks are covered by arcades, which is like walking in an outdoor hallway. Perfect for a rainy day.




Adrienn and Shane waiting for the clock show.










Contender for the coolest fountain in Switzerland: an ogre eating babies, haha, why is that on a fountain? Shane and Adrienn do a reenactment.









The city of Bern is named after the German word for bear (bär), which was the first animal hunted in the area by some dude during the construction of the city (nice story eh?). Anyways, to celebrate this, Bern's canton flag has a bear on it, and they also have bear pits in the city. Yup, bear pits..it's as if you were at the zoo and were at a below-ground-level bear enclosure, cept instead you are just walking in the city. Unfortunatelyy, due to the bad weather we didn't see any bears (they must have been hiding inside), but at least we tried. I haven't decided yet whether I approve of having bears in a pit in a city (it is a nice pit, and apparently they are very well cared for).





Shane and I beside the bear-less bear pit














Next we headed over to the parliament building. Since it was late afternoon by then, we had missed all the tours (man, what's the deal with us and missing parliament tours? See Budapest). The coolest part about the parliament building was a wicked fountain they had out front (cooler than the ogrer fountain, but not as humorous). It had 26 jets of water, one for each of the Swiss Cantons, and they were constantly changing and doing different patterns. The fountain was basically luring you to try and run through without getting randomly sprayed when one of the jets went off. They boys ran through the fountain (Shiraz got wet, haha), but were shown up by some crazy Italian girls that were playing Russian roulette by standing on the jets and seeing who got soaked first (keep in mind it was a chilly rainy day). Eventually they were just running around in the water, it was very entertaining.





The parliament building















Shiraz, Shane and me by the canton fountain.











One of the crazy Italian girls that were getting soaked in the fountain.












Nice view of the city from behind the parliament building. Too bad it's so foggy, but it kinda creates a cool effect.

Thanksgiving Dinner in Baden

Last night the praktikants celebrated Thanksgiving (a week early, to not conflict with trips) at Ziegelhau (Adrienn, Shane and Evan's apartment). It was Evan's idea for a potluck style dinner, so everyone brought a side dish or dessert and Evan, Shane, Adreinn and I cooked chicken and stuffing. We obviously wanted to have turkey, but couldn't find it anywhere to buy so settled on 6 chickens for 15 people.

Adrienn came over around 1 to start preparing the stuffing with me. We semi-followed a recipe and made lots. After questioning Henry (Kehl's resident chef) about how to prepare the chicken we set about removing the innards and figuring out what was what. Eventually we managed to get the chickens stuffed, sealed and seasoned, and put them in the oven to cook. Next we went about making our side dishes: Adrienn was bringing mashed potatoes and I was making carrots. I helped her get about 7kg of potatoes boiling (since Shane had convinced her that 4kg was not enough) and then we peeled and cut up carrots with help from Aisling (Henry's friend that was visiting). I tried 2 different carrot recipes: standard butter and herbs, and one batch with brown sugar, honey and ginger. The second was a bit of an experimentation, but it turned out alright, though not amazing. By then it was about 5 and Adrienn had to go home to help the boys with final preparations. Henry, Ashling and I went over shortly after.




Adrienn and I preparing the chicken.















The chickens are spooning! Haha (well, we thought it was funny).
















Everybody had arrived by about 5:30, bringing with them lottttts of food. We had greek salad, corn, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, carrots, cranberry sauce, curried lamb, sticky rice, chicken, 3 kinds of stuffing, garlic bread, wine, pumpkin pie, cake and ice cream. Adrienn's room had been transformed into a dining room to seat 15 people (they borrowed a table from some other praktikants) and we laid out all the food. It might as well have been buffet style though, because everybody was so eager to eat (after a few civilized photos) that they just stood up and helped themselves, haha. The one thing missing from the menu was gravy... Shane had attempted to create it out of chicken sauce and cornstarch (no flour so Evan could have some, he's allergic to wheat) but sometihng went horrible wrong and it ended up as a crunchy crumbled mess. Oh well, the meal was still awesome without it.







Good gravy that's bad gravy! Seriously, it looked like ground beef.















Waiting for dinner. Henry, Pawel (Polish praktikant), Lucas (Polish praktikant).












Socialzing before dinner. Lucas, Javier (praktikant from Peru), Anthony (praktikant from Windsor, ON), Devon, Henry.











Horence the Thanksgiving Turkey Centerpiece (made by Shane).











Everybody (minus the near end of the table) ready to eat!
Shiraz (praktikant from India), Olivier, Henry, Aisling, Travis, me, Adrienn, Lucas, ___ (praktikant from Poland), Shane, George, Anthony, Javier








The other end of the table. George, Anthony, Javier, Evan, Devon, Shiraz, Olivier, Henry and Aisling.












Time to eat! Look at all the awesome food.















The aftermath. Lots of leftover, mmmmm.














Everyone ate lots and lots, but we still managed to have lots of leftovers. Richard and Bernard came over later (they were in Amsterdam for the weekend) and ate some food, and so did Mike and Nate from Ziegel D (the ones who lent the table, they were at Oktoberfest this weekend). Even after that there was still food left, so we packed it up an I got to take some home (yay!). We tied up the dishes, and after a bit of a break had dessert. Travis's homemade pumpkin pies were awesome, he made them completely from scratch. We demolished dessert, and then chilled out playing some guitar and talking.

Thanks to Ziegelhau for hosting such a wicked dinner. It was nice to have a Thanksgiving dinner even though we aren't at home, and awesome that everybody are such great cooks!