SEX, CHOCOLATE, SAUDIS & CANADIANS...

This will be a short one today...

Today I woke up to the sound of France...or rather the boat leaving for France, Evian to be specific (I'm guessing that's where the water's from!), and to the Swiss beginning their daily ritual of being busy.

I lurched my near free of jetlag'd ass out of bed to the shower to try out my newly purchased Swiss shampoo, complete with French, German, and Italian instructions on how to do God knows what...It said Loreal on it. I recognized that, so I bought it. This is how I see my stay in Switzerland working, I will be forever magnetised to the labels I know so well. Although I've resisted the temptation to run into the Starbucks, fiendishly positioned RIGHT in front of my bus stop, and order everything on the menu. I've only resisted thus far cos I don't know how to order anything, although the menu is conveniently in English (save for the descriptions) OH that and it will cost me my first born just to have a Tall Latte. Switzerland is expensive, c'est simple.

After an excruciating lesson this morning, thankfully only the half day, I went down to the lake with the only "friend" I have here, save for Akki the Japanese roommate, and the newly acquired Tania (from Lucerne). Marco, my Swiss friend, led me on a sweaty walk up and down the streets of Lausanne to an AMAZING boulangerie (boulangerie is French for sex in food form) where I got a billion types of croissants and the Swiss version of cheese pizza, un tranche au fromage, a plate sized slice of pure Swiss cheese grilled and melted to perfection. Droooooooooooooooooooooooooool. After that we dashed over to the Supermarche to grab some beer and for me, some Swiss chocolate! We continued to hike down to the lake, and talked (much to my pleasure) in English about politics, why being Swiss and Canadian is best, how to plot the downfall of Celine Dion, and why French is hard. I kept my composure...or at least I thought I did as I managed to "pull a Canadian" and down my to GIANT beers in about ten minutes. I did the classic McGeough "I can't be as drunk as I look cos I'm thinking pretty straight" frame of mind, which as my Mom has said "is quite the opposite. You're father always thinks he's fine, but can't quite keep it together." As like most things, I follow in his footsteps, so I will apologize to Marco now for the entertaining lunch he must have had watching the Canadian stumble for words in his native language...desole.

When you're in a country where you don't speak the language (or tune out the language when you're trying to learn) you find yourself able to pick up English from a mile away. You almost want to run over to them and say "PLEEEEEEEEASE speak to me! I haven't heard English in DAYS!" Luckily today, I didn't have to do that! My Lululemon jacket and Air Canada tag gave me away to three members of the Team Canada volleyball team that's here in Lausanne for the Int'l Beach Volley Competition this weekend! They asked me where I was from, and it turns out that one of the guys was from Calgary too! They seemed generally interested that a Canadian would submit themselves to the tortures of Swiss culture for a month, only to emerged broken and ready to be beaten again by the Scandinavians...I said it was a lifestyle choice, they laughed. I made the Team Canada volleyball team laugh. What did you do today?

As for "Saudi"...on all the record of me here in Lausanne, they all say that I am Robin McGeough...from Saudi Arabia. How they got to that conclusion I'll never understand! The first question the administrators often ask me is NOT "Why did you come to Switzerland?" or "What's Canada like?" or "Do you know Celine Dion?" but "DO YOU SPEAK ARABIC?"...WHAAAT? Ma Maman (the lady who's hosting me here in Lausanne) thought it bizarre that I didn't understand what her housekeeper was saying in Arabic...I thought it was normal, as I've never been to Saudi Arabia...maybe I made a joke on my entrance exam about Alberta being the Saudi Arabia of Canada....but even that's a stretch! Je ne sais pas. But as far as you're concerned, I'm a very happy Robin from Saudi Arabia here in Switzerland. The streets are clean, the food is delicious, and the French is...being...done.

To all the friends and family in Saudi Ara...er...Canada, I love you muchly! A bientot!

Robin

Ps. DAD/CAM!! You'll have to check out the photos of the Smart Car SUPERCAR that was parked outside my apartment today when I figure out how to post them! f***in' AWESOME!! People here in Switzerland know how to get around AND THEY DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME COS I OWN A SMART CAR!! Ahem...

Also...have you ever wondered where all the leftover/disposed of Razor scooters went? (Yunno, the ones that were around pre-Heelie days?) Well, you'll be happy (or saddened) to know that they've made a home in Swiss business culture. Pretty much every business person here in Lausanne (so I'm assuming that will be applicable to ALL of Switzerland) has a scooter that they race down the hills to go to work, or to catch the bus to the next Celine Dion concert! Its crazy how many people are on scooters here!

Anyways, T minus 2 hours to QCARD time and T minus 1 hour and a half until my episode of Top Gear is done!! PAYCE Y'ALL!!