What have I done in 2 months in Switzerland? A lot. Part 2

After the first few weeks of getting settled in, I started my PhD (is it work, or student life, I don't know it's in the middle) at EPFL in the IMAC group (applied computing and mechanics). I got to finally see the tensegrity bridge that I'll be doing experiments on for my work (tensegrity is a structure make up of sticks and cables that can support itself). For my individual project, I'm taking over for a PhD and there's also currently a post doc on the project, but in terms of the lab group, we're about 10 ish people, a nice size. I got to meet many of them the night before I started at a dinner party at Gaudenz's place, which certainly helped to break the ice (though the timing was completely happenstance).

At this point I had been searching for an apartment and emailing people basically since I arrived, and I had a meet up with another Quebequoise to meet and see if we'd work well together. Things went great and I got to see the flat (and its resident kitty), and from then on it was a done deal. From from Montréal but living in Lausanne for the past 10 years, she was knowledgeable about local things, but still had lots of things from back home (accent included :D). A few days before I officially moved in, there was a whisky tasting event in Lausanne and I decided I had to be there. Having a fun time tasting and talking to people, I run into Julie, my to-be flatmate. So we thought ya, this is definitely going to work out :).

Bern had their monthly DJed balboa night, Balberna, to which Cedric and Nadja joined as well. We made it a dance weekend by also checking out Zürich's dancing on the Saturday night. During the day on Saturday, Nadja took us around to show up Bern (including the bears, the icon of Bern) and they were nice and fuzzy.

The next weekend was the next monthly lindy event in Bern, but reason told me to skip it because I had the Lausanne 1/2 Marathon the next morning. Surprisingly it started at 2pm, so a really laidback schedule. I had been training with Gaudenz, Romain, Stephanie, and Yves at lunches (though the 15 km after work were always poorly timed for trying to do errands after work :P). It was a gorgeous day for running (if I was going to be picky I would say it was a tad warm) but I really enjoyed it, the view, and the energy. Finished in 1:50:44.

I believe it was the weekend after where soupaggedon started (what Gilad, Glen, and I called it) when cooler temperatures prompt for preserves of soup, chilli, jambalaya, and other such things. Potato leek, ginger carrot, onion soup, and jambalaya mmmm (oh yes and a few rounds of hummus).

Writing this weekend because for the past 2 weekends I haven't even been in Lausanne. 2 weekends ago I was in Grenoble with Mathieu and Florence for the Grenoble Swing Dance Festival, a huge lindy hop event that I had no idea about (and they registered back in July). I tried finding a space in the lessons, but failing that, I explored Grenoble (went up to the Bastille via les bulles gondola) during the day, and went to the parties at night. I have to admit it's been a while since my last huge lindy hop event, it reminded me that I've been mainly doing balboa and that there are some things I'd like to go back and revisit. But I had excellent dances with wonderful people from all over France, Switzerland, Spain, and Poland.

The next weekend was Rocky Balberna with Javier and Heather from the states. Nadja was (again) the best hostess we could ever hope for and fed us until we were (too?) full. The classes were fun with focus on both partners (thinking about this especially after Bobby's article about the proactive follower on Swungover). I was super impressed with the mean level of balboa at the events, and that's only from Switzerland! The band on Saturday night was super cute and played a great variety of all danceable songs. I have to say, the Sunday afternoon was one of favourite parts because the coffee shop in downtown Bern was open just for us to eat/drink/dance. It was really nice and cozy, very fika.

Photo credit: Balboa in Bern

As for what's up next? Well this week was continuing to write/finishing my draft literature review for my comp that'll be sometime in June? This week is a trad jazz night where I'm teaching a balboa crash course to allow people a way to dance to that flying fast music (the Lausanne swing scene is most comfortable in the 120 bpm to 150 bpm range). So far the musicians have really enjoyed having the dancers there (this'll be the 3rd event where the dancers show up). I'm off to Zürich next weekend for balboa and actually visiting the city in the daytime. 

December 2nd is the Lausanne Swing Kids (university swing group)'s first party. Intended to get 1) people out dancing and 2) support for the university to allow us to be an official club, we're hosting it at Tech a Break, an independent establishment on EPFL campus who has been super welcoming and accommodating for us. Teaching and DJing, it'll be great! Ah yes, and all of our events can be for the city-wide scene, unlike the troubles we had with the University of Waterloo Campus Rec rules. Speaking of the club, I just got done the logo this week (hand drawn and digitized). Needs work still, but it's a work in progress.

There's a trad jazz festival Dec 10 - 13 in Flon (downtown Lausanne), which I should start making more noise about. After that, it's the IMAC Christmas dinner and then home to Canada. I'll be around from the 19th to the 26th and then I'm off to the Snowball in Stockholm for a week :D

As for future dance plans? There's definitely bal in the future, dancers coming to visit (yay!), and seeing where the Lausanne Swing Kids takes us next term.


tl;dr I haven't been deported yet and have assimilated myself into their culture enough to have been provided shelter and work.

What have I done in 2 months in Switzerland? A lot. Part 1

My flight to Geneva was made a stop over in Iceland, where I was super tempted to do the free stop over and visit Reyjavik, but considering I had most of my future life's possessions with me, I decided to skip it until a future time when I wasn't so pressed to you know...permanently switch countries. On the plane from Pearson to Reyjavik, I was seated next to an awesome couple who were going to visit Iceland for a while who were also into hiking, biking, and climbing. Exchanging Facebook contacts as we got off the plane, I got to see pictures of their adventures and it looked fantastic!

Arriving in Geneva, the train station is connected to the airport (though a very long and twisty building. With my hiking pack inside a duffle, a backpack, and a trolley, I lumbered onto the train to Lausanne where I was struck with the lovely scenery already. My mum, being as planning-crazy (sorry mum) as she is, I was warned it was all uphill from the station to my temporary place (through friends of friends I had a futon I could sleep on in someone's living room). I was like pfft I'm fit enough, hills and luggage, no problem. So ya...I was a little sweaty by the time a got there but I still did it (get the impression I'm stubborn?). Daniele and Valérie were excellent housemates for the 2 weeks I was there.

I arrived on the Saturday of a long weekend, so any paperwork had to wait until Tuesday. With things normally closed on Sunday anyway, and now on Monday too, I had to be quick to find food. On Sunday, a dancing in the park event was created by Lindy Hop Lausanne, so I quickly got to meet fellow dancers. This included Cedric (another Toronto dancer who moved in a week before), Nadja, Alic, Gianluca, Coco, and more. Having 3 people attending EPFL with previous dance experience, there was quickly discussions of starting a university club. I also got an invite from Nadja (who is super welcoming and funny by the way) to dance in Bern the following weekend at their monthly lindy hop party, so I figured why not! I ended up meeting the " dancing couple from Vancouver" I heard about, Mathieu and Florence (I was slow to put things together when we met, but they're amazingly expressive lindy hoppers). I drove up to Bern with them and had a wonderful evening where I met a bunch of Bern dancers too, a handle of which did balboa too!

Paperwork in Switzerland is fun! Hahahhahaha. Seriously it sucks. Since I have my Polish passport though, it simplified everything and I had no work before I left Canada. Getting "starter" bank accounts and mobile accounts because everything depended on the residency permit. For that permit, you need to fill out a bunch of info, passport pics, passport, contract from EPFL, a phone number, and a letter from your landlord, a day after you submit this, you can get a notice that it's coming, and then some magic time between 1 week and 4 months, they'll have it ready. Also, most landlords don't allow non-permit people to have an apartment. Yeah, so it almost ends up being cyclical. Everything had to be addressed to Valerie since I was only there shortly. Oh! And we had to fish the mail out with a fork because they lost mailbox key privilege.

I was on campus a few times before I officially started because I, lead by Gianluca, met with the dance organization to see what kinda work we're looking at to create a swing dancing club. We also helped out at Sat Rocks V, an annual music/dance thing held by the Satellite bar of EPFL. It involved a wheel of fortune style wheel with difference dances and we would dance to that music and get people involved. On campus I also bought a bike, which was a total deal at 150 fr. (swiss francs) for a Shimano 105 derailleur, Shimano wheeled, carbon forked hybrid bike complete with lights, lock, and fenders. I would quickly learn that the 150 m vertical ascent from EPFL to home was not bad like everyone says, you just plan accordingly. The first weekend with my bike, I took a nice long trip out to Vevey past the UNESCO heritage site of the terraced vineyards by the lake. I was also scoping out the Lausanne Marathon route, seeing if it was feasible :P which it was.

The next little while was spent navigating the also-like Waterloo twisty, name-changing roads with GPS in hand (though locating the lake and direction was easy) and discovering my new city.

Winterstock 2014

On the Family Day weekend, Toronto Lindy Hop organized its second Winterstock event at the Wolf's Den hostel up by the west gate of Algonquin Park. Having been an offshoot of Lindystock in the summer, this event includes whichever winter activities during the day and dancing at night.

There was a very large Waterloo crew attending this year, so we were trying to figure out if we needed just Angie's van (which magically got a broken back seat while trying to get Martin's bike in the back the night before...thanks Martin). Good thing Matt had his car fixed up in time so that he and Sarah took off while the rest of us gathered the winter gear and musical instrument-heavy vehicle. Despite going back to Angie's to grab her banjo, the Waterloo cars arrived within 10 minutes of one another and over 4 hours before the next car from Toronto. This just meant more of Brooke's awesome home-made chicken pot pies and salad for us! After having driven for a few hours (not rubbing it in that the Waterloo drivers had to commute farther :P), people were pretty tired and more in the mood for catching up rather than dancing. Somehow I ended up DJ-ing until 4 am with minimal dancing actually involved, but it was still excellent times.

Clearly since I was up until the wee hours of Saturday morning, I was on breakfast shift with Stefan the next morning making eggs and bacon. Being in charge of keeping a constant supply of bacon and coffee to the trickling stream of groggy campers, I was the hero of the morning. Later that morning, I grabbed my running clothes and my GPS watch and went for a run along highway 60 towards Algonquin. I found it very peaceful and meditative since I had a lot on my mind with regards to life and work. It was very quiet other than the occasional car, my breathing, and a snap of a branch from an unseen critter.

Finishing up a nice, hilly 10 km (and almost making it to the entrance of Algonquin), lunch was conveniently ready upon my arrival. In the afternoon I was looking for some more solitude so I wandered over to the Ragged Falls park, not even 1 km from the hostel. This year, the falls was a lot more snowed over than last year (I distinctly remember last year the narrowed waterway being terribly loud and vicious looking). This year, the snow covered all but a little of the rushing water...still very pretty though.

J.J. Abrams would be proud of this lens flare

Saturday night was the whiskey tasting event that became popular since last year's event. This year's was opened from single malt scotch, to any variety of whiskey