Pickwicks fountain marathon

After watching the snowman explosion in Zurich, we returned to Baden and joined everyone at Pickwicks. To celebrate the last week in Baden for many praktikants, lots of people had met for all-you-can-eat ribs at pickwicks. Of course, ribs were just a prelude to the main event of the night: fountain tossing. It's a tradition amoung the praktikants here that before you leave you get thrown into the fountain at Pickwicks. Or if it's your birthday. Or sometimes for no good reason at all.

Vance did an awesome play-by-play of this night on his blog, so I won't go into too much detail. All you need to know is that by the end of the night every one of us was soaked and had been in the fountain at least once:



















Wet Calgarian praktikants: Tommy, Travis, Mike, Richard, Evan, Felix, Vance, Lindsey, Bernard, Keegan, me, Devon, Shane, Kevin, Warren, Adrienn, Tyler, Henry

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Here's how it all went down:

The night started off with some all-you-can eat ribs and cheery beer drinking at Pickwicks




Warren chows down on some ribs at Pickwicks













Mike and Tyler's last Pickwick's night!














Tyler decides to dress up for the occasion...

















Myri (the Swiss girl that Tommy is dating), Tommy and Warren












One last party together as Kehlians!
Me, Bernard, Richard and Henry










Eventually Tommy had to leave to walk Myri to the train station, and fearing that this might eb the only chance, the fountain throwing started. Basically, Bernard, Henry and Tyler were leaving at the end of the week and deserved to go in. Shane, Devon, Mike and Tommy were pretty much finished work, so they went in because it might have been there last night at Pickwicks. Richard went in because in anticipation for the night he wore his swimsuit, and chose to announce it aloud (common rookie mistake).





Tommy impresses Myri by being the first to be dunked in the fountain













Mike goes next (gotta get the fast ones before they have a chance to run!)











Henry is nabbed from Pickwicks to be thrown in












Richard reveals his swimsuit underneath... it worked out I guess, but ironically had he not been wearing it he might not have needed it. What a paradox










Bernard faces his inevitable doom















The Kehl guys, post-fountain visit












Tyler puts up quite the stuggle, and an umbrella is almost destroyed in the process (but they got him in the end)













Devon takes a swim












Shane was lured down to Pickwicks saying we needed his help to toss people in... little did he know....










After that the excuses started wearing thin... thin as in non-existant. Evan happened to be too near the fountain, with a wet revenge-driven Devon and Shane lurking nearby, so he went in. Vance was loudly orchastrating the whole affair, so he was silenced by being tossed in. Things just went downhill from there...




Evan fights to the death













Vance gets a piece of his own medicine










After Vance went in, he went a wild rampage declaring that everyone must go in the fountain. His first target was Warren. Unfortuantly for Vance, nobody really rallied with him, and the one-on-one battle with Warren resulted with Vance ending up in the fountain for a second time. Berg loyalty came to the rescue though, and Tommy returned from the train station just in time to help Vance throw Warren in.






Vance tries despartly to get Warren in the fountain











Travis was next














Along with Felix














...Keegan...












And Kevin












Apparently Travis didn't get his head wet on his first fountain visit, so they threw him in again














And while we're at it, let's throw Vance in one more time for good measure









By this point Lindsey, Adrienn and I were becoming all too aware that every guy had been tossed in the fountain already, and we were probably next. My only defense was that every other guy had given me his wallet, watch, etc so it didn't get wet... so I quickly loaded up my pockets in anticipation.

First Lindsey was grabbed, and she went in. Adrienn took off running, but I realized that I probably couldn't outrun anybody so in a half-assed attempt to escape getting wet cried out "I have all your stuff!". Nobody cared. They totally called my bluff, and as I was dragged towards the fountain, (being the kind person that I am,) I emptied out my pockets onto the street. Evan lifted me up and my glasses came flying off, as usual, so I tossed them blindly back towards the crowd. I flailed as much as possible, but it was hopeless and I ended up in the fountain, as I knew I would.

Since I was taking pictures, there ended up being no pics of me or Adrienn, so I've created paint images in an attempt to capture the moment.




Only a few dry people left...uh-oh..













Lindsey is the first girl to get tossed in















Illustration of Evan throwing me into the fountain











Adrienn in the fountain (she managed to bite Mike's arm in the struggle)

Sechselauten - snowman burning event

On Monday April 24 there was an event in Zurich know as Sechselauten. Bascially, all the old guilds gather and celebrate the spring festival. It's a huge event, and everyone in Zurich gets the afternoon off as a holiday, woo! There's a parade and some other things, but the big event is the burning of the Böögg - a giant snowman. They set him alight and wait to see how long it takes for his head to explode (which is filled with firecrackers). The faster it explodes, the warmer summer will be (kind of like a Swiss groundhog day I guess).

Only Evan and Richard were hardcore enough to come out for the event. We navigated through the crowded streets and found a good place to view the snowman burning. They set it alight, and then all the guilds rode around on horses (I was too short to see this part though, lol). There was a small explosion, and we were like, was that it? Nope...turns out there are firecrackers all through his body. Eventually thing started getting pretty dramatic, with large parts of the Böögg catching on fire and exploding outwards, showering the crowd in flaming snowman flesh. Finally the final explosion came and the whole head was demolished to the cheers of the crowd.

Afterwards everyone made piles of hot coals from the bonfire, and roasted their bratwursts. Evan and I (Richard had to catch a train home) came moderatly prepared with some budget sausages. We managed to join in on the fire of some swiss teenages (who I think felt sorry for us and our pathetic bbq supplies) and found roasting sticks and prepared to cook our food. Unfortuantly, the coals had cooled by that time, and we only got to have lukewarm sausages (there were pre-cooked hopefully...), but it was still a thrill to eat meat cooked (warmed?) on the burning corpse of a snowman.

Unfortunately, none of us had cameras that day, so I have no pics to post. You will have to use your imagination and my vivid storytelling to form your own impression of what it was like.

Basel - not just for EasyJet!

My mom flew to London with EasyJet, so I accompanied her to Basel for the day before her flight. I'd only been there for EasyJet and carnival, so it was nice to have a chance to check out the city.

We went to Jean Tinguely Museum, which was a collection of the artist's work, which mostly fell under the category of kinetic art. There were lots of complex machines that would come to life when activated by foot pedal. They were all very facinating, though lots of the art was very morbid and dark.

After the museum we went on a hunt around the city for the Tinguely fountain (we had forgotten to bring our Basel map walking around, oops!). We finally found it just in time for my mom to catch her train to the airport...it was cool though, and well worth the search.







My mom and a super hardcore tree


















Looking out over the river towards Basel










Walking through the park on the way to the museum













Large machine filling a main room of the museum (you can climb on this one!)














Hanging, whirling machines hanging at the entrance












My mom watching the machines at work (I took this pic from a top the largest machine!)













There was some cool story about this woman and how she watched out over the water, but I don't remember it











Creepy machines in the dark lower levels of the museum














Cool composition of my mom looking at some art
















The other section of the museum had some art...crazy stuff













Creepy...















The Tinguely fountain, really cool, water flying every which way!

Rhine Falls

I have been in Switzerland for almost a year, and it took me until the end of April to see the Rhine Falls! I went there with my parents, and a bunch of the praktikants came too. We checked out the town of Schaffhausen, and then walked to the falls. The falls were pretty impressive, largest in Europe (by volume of water I think), but probably not as impressive as Niagara Falls. It was a sunny day, for the most part, and a lot of fun to chill out in the park and throw around a frisbee. We checked out the falls, and then Shane and Dveon wanted to jump off the bridge into the river. They had done it before, but this time wanted to backflip. It was crazy (the bridge is about 13m high) but all went down sucessfully. I think my parents had fun watching this insanity, but my dad was definilty freaked out...he was ready on the shore to preform the rescue mission should need be. Later on my parents took us out for dinner (thanks!) and then we caught the train home.

I have no pics of the bridge jumping (I was taking pictures with Devon's camera), can somebody who was there please send me some? Thanks!





At the Schaffhausen Cathedral... my dad trying to read the Latin on the large bell in the chapel













Looking out over the town of Schaffhausen














Me and my mom at the Rhine Falls












Largest waterfalls in Europe











Nice view from the other side of the river

Less than Jake / Dropkick Murphys concert!

Adrienn, Evan, Vance, Lindsey, Ryan and I went to see Less Than Jake and Dropkick Murphys in concert!The show was a friday night in Zurich, so I met them all after work and we chilled out a but before going to the show. We had some time to kill, and somehow ended up in Claire's buying hair dye (temporary!). Adrienn, Evan and I used the mirror in the store to put it in, haha, we got some strange looks from people...

The show was totally awesome!!! First a band called Far From Finished played, they were pretty good. Less than Jake was up next... they are such an energetic band, it was so cool seeing them live. Ska music is so sweet, I love how the horns go so well with the music. I got up to the front with Lindsey, we had a great view of the band and were totally rocking out. They played most of my fav songs, except Screws Fall In, but all their music is so good that it didn't matter. I even got a pick from the bass guitarist! Thanks Evan :)

Dropkick Murphys was headlining (unexpected...we all figured Less than Jake was the bigger band, we it seems like Dropkick Murphys is way more famous here), and they went hard for the whole set. I really like their music, but I think I prefer the recorded stuff better. They played really well, but it was a bit too hard, and the guitars overpowered the other instrurments I thought. It was awesome though, because at the end they invited girls up to the stage for Kiss Me I'm Shitfaced. All 3 of us were up on stage with a whole bunch of others, and there was a pretty decent mosh pit going on. Then the let guys up to and things got totally nuts...I really don't know how the band kept playing it was insane up there! They never played Walk Away (my fav song) which was too bad, but other than that it was pretty sweet.

Here's a few pics from the night... Ryan was daring enough to bring his camera, thanks man! None of the main bands, those memories are saved for those who actually went to the concert :)
(aka, we have no pics of them)




Covert-op pics from Claire's that turned out really artsy

Dying our hair



















Lindsey helps Evan with his hair

















Oh ya, we are hardcore













Far From Finished played a good set















Riding the train home, sore, sweaty and tired.
Linds, Vance, me, Adrienn and Evan