Nice weekend
The rest of my weekend was pretty low-key and refreshing.
Saturday night Farhad cooked us all a wonderful meal of pasta with homemade pesto sauce (utilizing fresh basil he bought at the market that morning). It was a nice gathering and a very tasty meal (see photo).
Following that, we watched an apparently classic 70s Bollywood film called Amar, Akbar, and Anthony. It's pretty convoluted, but basically involves three brothers who are separated from each other as children and raised one each as a Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. Through some bizarre turns of events, they meet each other, become friends, each fall in love, meet their biological parents without knowing it, and ultimately all find out that they are family. The movie was AMAZING. Not necessarily in a good way, but not bad either. Lots of ridiculous musical numbers, fights involving a lot of flipping around in the air, and plot holes you could drive a tank through. Highly entertaining.
On Sunday morning I went to the English-speaking Lutheran church which was alright. Because it's vacation time in Europe a lot of the regular attenders (including the normal pastor and music people) were gone and the liturgy moved quite slow. But it seemed like a very diverse congregation and could be fun. There I met two kids from Kent State who are studying abroad until December. They seemed pretty nice and we exchanged e-mails, so perhaps I will see them again. I found out that the Corbusier exhibits ended at the beginning of August so I didn’t seek out any museums yet.
I actually went back to the apartment and did some reading until Farhad asked if I wanted to go for a drive. He has possession of his brother’s car for awhile while his brother is traveling or something. So we picked up Carmen (a girl interning at the Catholic Migration Commission or something like that who had gone to his college) and drove across the lake to some of the small towns on the other side. They were very quaint and the view of the lake with mountains behind it was captivating.
[photo: this bad picture proves that I’m here, or at least somewhere with a big lake and mountains]
The water was so calm and almost vacant that I couldn’t help but imagine Greg out there ripping it up on the wakeboard. Although it was a bit cool. Weatherwise, it’s been a lot like San Francisco recently: low to mid-70s for highs and then down to the high 50s or low 60s at night. While it is sad that summer appears to be on its way out, the weather is perfect in the mornings for running. And the humidity here is nonexistant compared with Cincinnati.
After hanging out by the lake for awhile, we drove back to the city where we met up with Mike and Dave (two other interns at other organizations) for a beer. We were right by the Jet D'Eau fountain, where I snapped this picure. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy for a brilliant sunset, but at least you get the idea. It’s a pretty neat sight. After watching children play with the swans and ducks, people eat ice cream, and two guys almost get into a fight for some unknown reason, we decided to call it an early evening.
I came back home and put my market purchases to work, whipping up some Chipotle-style guacamole and cilantro-lime rice. It took a bit longer than anticipated but tasted delicious. At least I know that even if I can’t have the real thing, I can come reasonably close.
That is one thing I do kind of like about life here: because things move a bit slower and since I don’t have TV and everthing closes at 7, I have more time to spend on things like cooking. I enjoy cooking but during school and co-op it was always a battle with time (i.e. I’d get home from class with about 45 minutes before a meeting or something so no time to make anything, or too much homework to justify taking an hour to prepare something). And due to the wealth of fresh ingredients here (and the ease of going to the store every day, if necessary), cooking is much more attractive and feasible.
I may just have to do more of it. Or at the very least make more guacamole.
Saturday night Farhad cooked us all a wonderful meal of pasta with homemade pesto sauce (utilizing fresh basil he bought at the market that morning). It was a nice gathering and a very tasty meal (see photo).
Following that, we watched an apparently classic 70s Bollywood film called Amar, Akbar, and Anthony. It's pretty convoluted, but basically involves three brothers who are separated from each other as children and raised one each as a Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. Through some bizarre turns of events, they meet each other, become friends, each fall in love, meet their biological parents without knowing it, and ultimately all find out that they are family. The movie was AMAZING. Not necessarily in a good way, but not bad either. Lots of ridiculous musical numbers, fights involving a lot of flipping around in the air, and plot holes you could drive a tank through. Highly entertaining.
On Sunday morning I went to the English-speaking Lutheran church which was alright. Because it's vacation time in Europe a lot of the regular attenders (including the normal pastor and music people) were gone and the liturgy moved quite slow. But it seemed like a very diverse congregation and could be fun. There I met two kids from Kent State who are studying abroad until December. They seemed pretty nice and we exchanged e-mails, so perhaps I will see them again. I found out that the Corbusier exhibits ended at the beginning of August so I didn’t seek out any museums yet.
I actually went back to the apartment and did some reading until Farhad asked if I wanted to go for a drive. He has possession of his brother’s car for awhile while his brother is traveling or something. So we picked up Carmen (a girl interning at the Catholic Migration Commission or something like that who had gone to his college) and drove across the lake to some of the small towns on the other side. They were very quaint and the view of the lake with mountains behind it was captivating.
[photo: this bad picture proves that I’m here, or at least somewhere with a big lake and mountains]
The water was so calm and almost vacant that I couldn’t help but imagine Greg out there ripping it up on the wakeboard. Although it was a bit cool. Weatherwise, it’s been a lot like San Francisco recently: low to mid-70s for highs and then down to the high 50s or low 60s at night. While it is sad that summer appears to be on its way out, the weather is perfect in the mornings for running. And the humidity here is nonexistant compared with Cincinnati.
After hanging out by the lake for awhile, we drove back to the city where we met up with Mike and Dave (two other interns at other organizations) for a beer. We were right by the Jet D'Eau fountain, where I snapped this picure. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy for a brilliant sunset, but at least you get the idea. It’s a pretty neat sight. After watching children play with the swans and ducks, people eat ice cream, and two guys almost get into a fight for some unknown reason, we decided to call it an early evening.
I came back home and put my market purchases to work, whipping up some Chipotle-style guacamole and cilantro-lime rice. It took a bit longer than anticipated but tasted delicious. At least I know that even if I can’t have the real thing, I can come reasonably close.
That is one thing I do kind of like about life here: because things move a bit slower and since I don’t have TV and everthing closes at 7, I have more time to spend on things like cooking. I enjoy cooking but during school and co-op it was always a battle with time (i.e. I’d get home from class with about 45 minutes before a meeting or something so no time to make anything, or too much homework to justify taking an hour to prepare something). And due to the wealth of fresh ingredients here (and the ease of going to the store every day, if necessary), cooking is much more attractive and feasible.
I may just have to do more of it. Or at the very least make more guacamole.
posted by Aaron at 11:33 PM
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