Category: Switzerland

About Switzerland and our travels in and around it.

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Unexpected Sights…

i had wanted to blog about these sights last week… but other posts took priority. So here they are – Unexpected Sights which greeted us…

The first one was when we first returned from our summer hols, a couple of weeks ago. You see i had left my Spring Onions unattended the whole time we were gone (yes i know, bad gardener!). Well, i had, of course, expected to see dead plants when we got back. BUT lo-and-behold!

They are such cute little white flowers, all bundled together!

They grew! Or at least one pot of them did and even flowered! i had read that seeing spring onions flower was a rare thing as normally you would harvest them before that happens.

It was indeed a happy sight for me! It goes to show that some things (applicable to people as well) can be quite tough and surprise us 😉

The second unexpected sight was this:

i snapped this picture quickly with my smart phone.

Yes i know it’s hard to see – but that little person with one hand raised in a sea of red chairs is Tobias. You see, last Wednesday, it was a public holiday here so no school. Now while in Singapore i had lamented about missing out on watching the new Pixar film, Brave. (We love our animated movies and missed the opening by just 2 days.) Then i saw it was on here and i found a cinema showing an afternoon slot in English. So we went.

i had thought since it was a public holiday in all the Cantons (States) surrounding Bern, where we went to watch the movie, the cinema would be peopled (my word for not exactly full, but with people around). We went there early, got our ticket from an automated machine (the counter only opened 30 minutes before screening time). The machine indicated that all seats were free. i did think that was funny but still i thought people would just buy at the counter later.

We walked around a little, looking for Tobias’ house-shoes which he needed for school. Then had a light lunch of sandwiches. We bought our popcorn and went to sit in the theater. There was NO ONE around at all… we only saw a handful of other people but none of them were heading into our theater. So we were the only ones, watching Brave in English, in a cinema in Bern, on a Wednesday, when it was a public holiday in Solothurn!

Now we can tell people we know what it is like to have an entire cinema theater all to ourselves 😉 It was a weird feeling. A little scary if you have a wild imagination – hehehee…

There was a small disappointment just before the film started. i heard voices and looked back to see that a couple had joined us, they sat right at the back. So we weren’t all that alone after all 😉

Have a lovely weekend. The forecast here is for rain over the weekend. So it will be cooler than the nice sunny full-on summer weather we have been having. Not complaining. The plants need the water and we could use with a bit of cool as well. But i’m still hopeful for some summer sun before Autumn hits.

syc

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1st Violin Lesson…

Tobias has been back at school for 1.5weeks now. He is now in Zweite Klasse (2nd Grade or Primary 2) and he is still loving school as much as before. He still has 2 long days at school and 3 mornings. He still goes to Judo.

BUT… he no longer goes for swimming classes – he got the last badge in July! So he is officially water-safe. 😀 Very proud of him!

NEW… He had his very first violin lesson, just yesterday. It was only  25 minutes, half of which was spent learning the basics such as how to hold the violin and bow, what the strings are called etc… His teacher, Herr Steiner, also had to tune his violin, which he reassured me would not need re-tuning for a while after this.

Look at how serious his face is 😉

After the introductory stuff, he went on to learn to pluck the strings with his finger. i believe it is called playing open strings. It was fun to watch. The teacher sang the name of an animal, first letter of the name corresponded to a string (G,D,E,A), such as Giraffe, in a specific rhythm and Tobias was to follow on the correct string, in the correct rhythm. After a couple of rounds of plucking, he was allowed to try doing the same thing with the bow, making sure he only plays that one string.

Herr Steiner told me he is doing great for a first lesson. Tobias’ homework is to practice plucking and bowing with those animal names and also to come up with 3 more animals for each string. What a laugh it was, when we came home and had to crack our heads thinking of animal names in German that begin with G, D, E and A. This is not something they teach at adult German classes or use in daily life and Tobias’ vocabulary isn’t quite big enough yet. So we went on the internet, looked through dictionaries and his little kiddy books and finally came up with 3 animals for each string; G was the hardest to find.

Tobias loved his lesson and looks forward to practising. Mummy looks forward to him playing nice little pieces on the violin in months to come 😉

See here for how Tobias decided on learning the violin and see here for how happy he was to collect his violin.

syc

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Done! Step 3 of Step 5…

On 5th July 2012, Thursday, i completed my 8 hours of Swiss Driver’s Education Classes 😀 (called Verkehrskundenskurs in German) … it took me 4 consecutive evenings of 2 hours to get it done and now i have a piece of paper which says i have fulfilled my obligation.

There was quite a fair bit which was from the self-study i did when preparing to take the theory test earlier. But i also learnt new things, such as from 2015 onwards, it will be mandatory to drive with headlights on – all the time. i learnt about tricky things to look for when driving into certain junctions, also strange (ok strange to me) recommendations such as the first thing you do when entering a tunnel is to take off your sunglasses (i can’t do that – i wear prescription sunglasses if i took them off, i most definitely won’t be a safe driver).

i had a fun time at the classes, even though it was conducted in Swiss German (which is different from High German – i learn High German in my language classes), plus the instructor came from a different part of Switzerland (i had to go to another city to do this as the ones in my city just didn’t work out in terms of timing) which means his accent in Swiss German is much different from the one i’m used to in our part of switzerland. (Oh the joys of language learning :p )

The other students were all teenagers/young adults eager to get their first ever driving license. They were of course Swiss and completely understood what was said and took part actively in answering questions. i tried my best but found it most beneficial to listen. Besides, they had interesting stories to tell, such as one girl nearly was involved in an accident during one of her practical lessons, another guy who is Italian (parents were immigrants) kept comparing the difference in driving laws and behaviour between Italy and Switzerland which finally led the instructor to sternly remind him that we are discussing Swiss laws not Italian ones.

There is one other thing i like to mention – i really liked the building the classes were conducted in – it is new, bright and colourful!! Here are some pictures to show off the building:

This is the Migros (the major supermarket chain) Klubschule (Club School) in Aarau, Switzerland. Doesn’t the cafe look so inviting? There is an outdoor sitting area too.
This is the walkway from the stairs to where the classrooms are, simply love the colours. Notice the tape on the floor – they are still doing up parts of the building. The break area (right picture) is so pleasant and has such an open feeling.
This is the hallway just outside our classroom… i love those colour blocks on the dark green wall and the long row of windows facing the wall… we were in room 108.

So step 3 done… have already started on step 4… another 1.5 steps to go to get my Swiss Driver’s License! Hurray! 😉 (See here for the list of all 5 steps).

syc