Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday and it’s a little strange to be in a country where it isn’t really celebrated. Even so, the other interns and I celebrated on Saturday night with a party at the girls’ apartment. It was quite a good time and they did a fantastic job decorating.

This year I decided to do something relating to my adoptive country for my costume.


This is the 20 Swiss Franc bill (don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but Switzerland is not part of the EU and does not use the Euro; they have the CHF). The guy on it is Arthur Honegger, a composer from the country who also (at least on the bill) looks a little bit like old pictures I’ve seen of my grandpa Maurer.
As you can see, the Swiss like their money colorful and graphically busy. So I decided I would dress as the 20CHF bill.

Here’s a look at my costume. Cheap and easy.



Anyway, in keeping with the Halloween tradition of treats, I figured I’d share a couple Halloween mixes I made with everyone so you have something to listen to today and tomorrow.

Party Mix FROM HELL features a mix of indie/alt rock that is primarily enegetic or beat-driven (and Halloween-oriented)
Aaron’s Alternative Halloween Mix is a bit mellower and more moody

Enjoy, and remember, if you dress as a burrito tomorrow (that is, put foil somewhere on your body) you get a free burrito (or bol, or tacos...) at Chipotle. While I may not be able to take advantage this year, I hope you all do.

Happy Halloween!

Assisi, Italy

Last Friday, October 20th, I awoke bright and early to catch a 6:55am plane to Rome. The entire FI staff journeyed from there to Assisi, home of saints Francis and Clare. Our bus arrived in the medieval hill town just before noon, giving us some time to settle in before lunch. We stayed at a Capuchin dormitory-type place just outside the city wall (the Caps are one of the orders of Franciscans) which had pretty nice facilities and served pretty tasty multi-course meals. In keeping with Italian custom, we took a siesta after Friday lunch before venturing into the city. I joined John (my boss) and a small group as we entered into Assisi for the first time. It was somewhat overcast, but not too unpleasant and we were able to sit outside and enjoy a coffee (or ice cream, in my case, since I don’t do coffee). Following that, a couple others and I parted ways with the rest of the group to do some exploring/window shopping before heading back for dinner and some drinks.

Entering one of the city’s gates

Evening view of some church bells

On Saturday morning a group of us ascended an hour’s worth of hills to the hermitages Francis used to frequent. It wasn’t too difficult to see why he’d go off to this area with only the occasional cave for shelter from the elements—the forest was beautiful with moss-covered trees and lush foliage creating a tapestry of rich greens. In addition to crouching in some of his caves, I wandered around the mystical area and just got lost for awhile. I can’t really put the beauty of the place into words and the pictures hardly do it justice, but hopefully they’ll give you some idea of the place.

One of several donkeys encountered on the climb to the Carceri

One of several statues of St Francis in the area. I liked this one’s inclusion of many faith traditions

Moss-covered trees in the majestic forest

View over the Carceri chapel down to some more statues

Overlooking the valley

I made it back down the hillside just in time for lunch, after which I joined a different group to wander into the city again—this was to be the pattern for the weekend: dining and exploring with a rotating cast of characters, which was a good way to get to know some of my co-workers a bit better. Anyway, we stopped into a bar for a special coffee drink recommended by an Italian friend of the organization before making our way to the cathedral of San Francesco.


There, John rented everyone headsets so he could give us a guided tour. Aside from my misgivings about saint veneration and the fact that having a huge cathedral in his honor would is the complete antithesis of what Francis would have wanted, the place was gorgeous. There are actually two sanctuaries on top of each other. The lower one is a bit more intimate feeling with paintings by Cimabue and others. The upper was magnificant in scale and adornment, featuring mural work by Giotto displaying biblical stories and the life of Francis. John explained many of the parallels to us and it was nice to have my first experience of this era of Art History coming to life. Again, 6 years ago when I was sitting in 5400 DAAP staring at a projected image of these very frescos I never imagined I’d be seeing them in person.

Stealth mode: photography isn’t allowed in the cathedral, but I wasn’t using a flash, so I just had to be secretive. Here’s some of the fresco work in the lower church

John fills us in on some history

The crew in the upper church (Giotto frescos in the background)

A shot of the vaulted ceilings so you might be able to see just how impressive this place is

We made our way back to the city’s main hub, Piazza del Commune, where we learned a bit more about Francis and then stopped into a bar for a beer before dinner.

Cheers!


After our meal, everyone gathered together for some socialization and Grappa and Limoncello. Grappa is a really strong liquor made from distilled grape leaves, in the same lines as Everclear, paint thinner, and other things you shouldn’t put into your body. Limoncello is a liqueur that basically tastes like melted lemonheads. All in all, it was a nice cap to the evening.

Pick your poison…


Fresh olives
On Sunday morning we walked down to San Damiano, the small church where Francis was first called by God (through a crucifix that literally spoke to him) and where Clare and the sisters later lived. Nestled in the middle of a grove of olive trees, the church was quite beautiful.

A crucifix that hangs in San Damiano. Christ appears to be wearing different expressions depending on where you are standing

Yaron checking out some of the fresco work

A brilliantly-colored bush on the outskirts of San Damiano

Later that afternoon, we took the bus down into the valley below to go to the Basilica di Santa Maria Degli Angeli (Church of Mary of the Angels). Fun fact: Franciscans orginally settled the California coast so all the towns are named after people and places from Assisi (i.e. Santa Clara, San Diego, San Francisco, etc.). The city of Los Angeles is actually named for this church. While impressive from the outside, I felt the interior of the church was trying too hard. However, it’s basically built around the Porziuncola which is a small church that Francis frequented.

Yep, this is where LA gets its name. (That’s the FI staff out front)

Mary welcoming us

Another view (including the dome) from a few blocks away

Another statue of Francis, this time commemorating a time he befriended a cicada (he would’ve loved Cincinnati…)

We then headed to a Franciscan-run center for interfaith dialogue where we shared Mass and a nice dinner. The view of the city from the roof of this place was amazing.


On Monday we were given a lot of time to ourselves so I had the chance to go to the cathedral Santa Chiara which now houses the original cross that spoke to Francis as well as Clare’s remains. It is a beautiful church and maybe my favorite location of the trip.

More illegal/stealth photography. I took this shot of the actual cross that spoke to Francis right before being yelled at by some lady

The rest of the day was spent souvenir shopping and locating tiramisu (a successful mission). We boarded a bus around 4pm and headed back to the airport in Rome, eventually landing in Geneva around 11pm after an inspiring and relaxing weekend.


A final statue of Francis with a view to his cathedral. This one commemorates his return home from a Crusade after being told by God in a dream to leave the army

Snow Patrol in Zurich

Last Wednesday, the 18th, Farhad and I left work a bit early to catch the train to Zurich for a concert by Brit-rockers Snow Patrol. This was my first time seeing the band, and given that Eyes Open is one of my favorite albums of the year I knew I had to make it there. The train ride was about 3 hours long but we planned accordingly. Though I didn’t get to spend any real time in Zurich besides the walk to the Volkshaus I can’t wait to go back. It seems like a great city and a lot more modern/Western looking than Geneva. Of course, that could just be because everything just appeared very well-designed (that’s German Switzerland for you). But anyway, it’s apparently more of a cultural hotbed than Geneva, so I’ll have to plan some weekend excursions.

So anyway, having made it to the venue, I was back in my element. A rock show in Zurich might as well be a rock show in Columbus and I drank everything in. Opening was a band called the Cinematics who sounded a lot like the old Killers album, but not bad.

Gary Lightbody and co. hit the stage with “Spitting Games” and didn’t look back. The light show was almost as high-energy as the band, providing some great effects (and photo ops).
The entire set consisted only of material from the most recent two albums but I didn’t mind one bit. The two things that impressed me most about the band were (1) how they seemed to be having a genuinely great time (Gary would spontaneously break into a huge smile during instrumental breaks), and (2) how the imbued their songs with a level of energy that made me gain new appreciation for those that never impacted me on record.

“Chasing Cars” was played to the delight of Grey’s Anatomy fans everywhere, but I was far more moved by the powerful slow build of “Make This Go On Forever.” In fact I enjoyed everything, though would have like to have heard “Hands Open” (which was conspicously absent along with “Chocolate,” though they’re probably as sick of playing that as they are of Zach Braff).

Regardless, it was a great show and I got some decent pictures.

















Afterwards, knowing that we couldn’t make it back to Geneva before the morning, we took a train to Bern where we attempted to sleep in the station 3.5 hours (I managed 2) before our connecting train would leave. It wouldn’t have been too bad but it got really cold in the station. Fortunately I had the foresight to pack about 3 extra layers, but still couldn’t sleep for very long. Also, the pay toilets (which were the only ones in the station) were closed for the night, so that was exciting.
After we both couldn’t sleep any longer, Farhad and I walked into the city a little, bought cheap and fresh soft pretzels from a stand that was just opening, and were finally able to board our train.

We made it back to Geneva around 7am and promptly slept for another 3 hours each (having taken Thursday morning off). Though it now all seems a bit like a strange dream, it was a good time and I feel like I’ve earned some stripes from sleeping in a bus station in a city unknown to me.

Annecy and Chamonix, France

I have three reasonable updates from the past few weeks, but it’ll probably take some time before I’m able to get them all posted. So I’ll start with the older stuff first, and work my way up to more recent happenings...

My first real out-of-Switzerland “mini-vacation” came a weekend ago (October 13th-15th) when I traveled to Annecy, France, to visit Alison and Erica, the UC graphic design juniors currently co-oping there for Salomon. I left Geneva after work that Friday by bus and arrived in time for pizza and ice cream to help celebrate Erica’s birthday. I also got to meet some of the other interns there who were very nice.

On Saturday we headed to Chamonix with Krishnama (one of their Salomon co-workers).


A view into Chamonix after leaving the train station
Before ascending Mont-Blanc we found a wonderful café where I had a Mexican-style wrap as fresh as anything I’ve had over here. It may not have been Chipotle, but it did the job. Following our meal we found the tourism office and figured out where we needed to go to catch the lift up the mountain. We were just in time to take the last one of the day, and though it was a bit pricey, it was well worth the fee.

This is what the lift up the mountain looks like. It wasn’t quite as scary inside, but looks a bit precarious from this view

The summit we climbed to via the lift thingy

To get to the top of Mont-Blanc actually required two lifts, the first to a medium height about 1300 meters up from where we started. From there was another lift that took us a further 1500 meters up, to an elevation of 3842 meters (the actual summit is at 4810). This was where everything went very vertical, got quite cloudy, and temperatures dropped below freezing. There is a viewing station complex that the lift goes to, so sane people can take a look at everything. There are plenty of people with more of a death wish that go up with skis or those crazy ice hiking boots that go off to climb the mountain or something. We saw plenty on the ridge and it looked like they could just tumble off at any moment.
The views were amazing, but the location did test the limits of my tolerance for heights (or more my tolerance for falling down a mountain).

A look down into the abyss

Some more of the snowy mountain goodness

Peaks of some of the Alps viewed from on high

Me chilling in the Ice Cave you can enter from the lift station

From the middle lift station we saw plenty of people parasailing off the mountain. While the view from the top offered a glimpse into another world above (and within) the clouds, the medium view also offered great vistas.



From this location, it was also possible to hike down. It was a beautiful day and we didn’t really have anything much planned, so we decided to go for it. The 2.5 hour journey offered me some of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever been privy to, and though my calves ached for three days afterwards, it was well worth it. It’s also kind of fun to say that I hiked down a mountain almost 1300 meters.

One of the stunning landscapes on the way down the mountain

Fire and Ice — an amazing array of shrubbery paints the landscape in front of the glacier

I couldn’t resist the urge to go sit amongst the plants. God’s quite the artist

Once we finally reached the bottom, we had about an hour before our train so we got some pizza near the station that was made-to-order and absolutely delicious. We got back to Annecy around 11pm and headed for bed.

On Sunday I got to see more of Annecy. It was at once strange and cool to experience the city where so many of my friends and classmates have each spent 6 months of their lives. It definitely has a distinct European village feel to it which is missing from the commercial metropolis of Geneva. The Old Town was charming and the lake incredibly beautiful (supposedly the cleanest one in Europe or something). Alison and I went out to the market in the morning and returned to have lunch and be joined by Erica for our afternoon journeys. We went to one of the castles in the town which was having a free weekend so we got to see a couple little museums. We also got some amazing ice cream at a shop they knew of (I had banana flambeé and chocolate orange).


View along the canal. Postcard-tastic

A look over the Old Town with a view of the lake and mountain

Before I knew it, it was time to head back to Geneva. I boarded the bus having become closer to some college friends and with a wealth of wonderful new memories.