Pictures: Zurich

Pictures: Delhi Tour

Day 23: Kunsthaus Museum

At 6:30 am Zurich time, we stepped off the airplane and onto mainland Europe. There was snow outside, increasing our excitement to be home even more! We were already experiencing bits of culture shock here and there: the bathrooms were almost luxurious with automatic faucets and clean floors, almost everyone was white, and attendants spoke to us kindly! The glass in the airport looked so clean; the stores all had bright lighting and more spacious layouts. We were struck by how uniform and modern everything looked, with a contemporary palette of white, black, metal and glass. 

Maddie and Kiernan once again saved the day. At the travel desk, they found us all hotel rooms, travel vouchers, a meal voucher for the airport, and two meals vouchers at the hotel, all free of charge!!! The whole group was relieved at not having to spend as much in such an expensive city, as well as having a bed to sleep in and time to see some sights! 

I attempted the Internet for awhile, but at 5 minutes between a click, I decided to wait for the hotel instead. Around 10am, I went to NZZ Cafe, and treated myself to a latte and sandwich (with a chocolate!) thanks to the voucher. 

While this airport has been interesting to explore, I'm generally tired of waiting in airports at this point. I should've brought a good book...I think I'll go find one to read for awhile! I'm also so proud of how the group has been without a chaperone. We are calmly and efficiently accomplishing each step, clearly communicating meeting places and times as well as addressing logistical concerns.

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In the airport I read part of Focus by Goleman. It was pretty interesting and I'm going to try and read it at Colby (along with Cloud Atlas, a recommendation from Nathaniel!). It was so nice to be by myself in the airport for awhile. I haven't really been alone for the past month, and it was so nice to relax without anyone I knew around. It was also infinitely easier to be anonymous in a European airport, where I wasn't stared at for being white.

We met at 11 to take a bus to the hotel. The Novotel Messe, where we are staying, is so beautiful! There is art everywhere and it is so modern and clean looking. We were all getting culture shock on the way, amazed at how clean the roads were, how safe we felt, how smooth the ride was, and how large the bus was. The air outside was cool and crisp, which was also a treat! 

Lunch at the hotel was amazing. We had salads!!!! I've never been so excited about eating lettuce and tomatoes and raw vegetables in my life! They even had a corn salsa to put on it: it was so delicious! They also had sweet soup and this really fantastic bread. Finally, there was spaghetti--it is one of the foods I've been missing a lot! I was having an absolute hay day with that buffet.

After that miraculous lunch, we hopped on the metro to go to the Kunsthaus. The metro was so smooth and clean and efficient (words you'll hear me say a lot about Zurich). I think it is a good indicator of how good public transport can be. It is also a solution to Shiva's stance on the car (which is obviously destructive) without replacing it with just horses...

We got off at Bahnofstrasse--the heart of Zurich, a street of old buildings and high end shops only open to pedestrians! Everyone was ogling the fancy architecture and delicious looking truffles. The waterfront was also serenely gorgeous. We walked a mile to the Kunsthaus, an internationally renowned museum containing many Renaissance works and impressionist masters. 

The Kunsthaus was so enjoyable for me. As I get older, I appreciate/am affected by art more. I would really like to spend more time in the art museum at Colby, and I think in the future I'll opt for guided tours to art museums I go to. I love hearing the back stories to pieces. There was one exhibit at the Kunsthaus that was about 36 slats of wood with rough head portraits, all hanging upside down and slashed so that the wood was exposed. It gave me goosebumps. I later on heard that the artist had been schizophrenic, making it even more interesting. I've also decided that Impressionism is no longer my favorite type of art--palette knife painting is. There was a room there of works from Jean Schnyder that was stunning. I love seeing the globs of paint, the texture of a piece. There was also a subroom where he had painted the same two places 40 times. It was so beautiful. The whole museum was gorgeous.

We all met up in the cafe and left for an armory turned into a restaurant. It was really neat, and the potatoes and sausage were excellent! Sophie, Jocelyn and I walked up and down Bahnofstrasse for awhile longer before returning to the hotel, where we decided to use our vouchers on a delicious cookie with ice cream. It came in this pan and was pretty big. It was also nutty and fudgy and pretty much perfect in every aspect. 

We then went up to talk with Catherine, who had been feeling nauseous all day and didn't go out. I hope she recovers quickly! But she has been to Zurich before and wasn't too keen on going to any one place. 

We went to bed after, exuberant about our day and dreaming of what we would do with Zurich round two.

Pictures: Makaibari

Pictures: Tiger Hill

Day 24: Swiss National Museum

This morning, Sophie and I were up bright and early to have breakfast in the hotel. It was, once again, fabulous! We then set out on the metro to Bahnofstrasse and visited three cathedrals before noon!

The first was St. Peters, with the largest clock face of any tower in Europe! Then Fraumunster, aka the women's church, with beautiful stained glass windows. Finally Grossmunster, with a huge statue of Charlemagne in the basement/crypt area! They were all decorated with carvings around the door and animals in the wood. It was super sweet.

Around 11am we went to the Swiss National Museum! It is a really great museum with tons of neat artifacts from Switzerland's history. There was also a paper cut art exhibit: I've found another new favorite form of art! It was so detailed, and the layering made the shadows from the light give it a whole other dimension. 

For lunch, Sophie ordered something from a cafe, then we both got Nutella crepes. They were possibly the tastiest thing I've had all trip. I'll be dreaming about them tonight. And the rest of the week. (Let's be honest, the rest of my life.) 

We then went to the airport, shopped at the duty free store and met the rest of the group at our terminal! 

I'm on the flight to Boston now, with arrangements to be at Colby by tomorrow afternoon! I'll put up another post on reflections, but that is how today went!

Day 22: Sari Workshop

Day 22: Sari Workshop

This morning we packed out bags and waited around the hotel until 1pm. It was crazy to think that we would be leaving India that day. After a month, we were all looking forward to something about being home. I was missing people, others were missing food, and others were missing sit down toilets. :)

At 2pm, we went to the residence of "The Queen of Saris," Anu's cousin. She specializes in slow made, hand woven, unstitched saris, and runs a workshop for sari wearing called The Sari School. We watched a slideshow on how saris are worn and colored in different regions of India (super interesting) and then we tried them on for ourselves! The sari is a lot more fabric than it looks like, with about nine yards of length and a yard wide. All the girls had fun with about four different styles. It was mostly other women doing it for us, but that was still fun! Then the guys learned how to do two different pants styles, and that was hilarious. We ended by watching a promo of theirs and an excerpt from a theater production called Sari. It was a really good activity for our last day, as no one was in the mood to do anything too intensive. The Queen of Saris, like many other people who spoke with us, was passionate about her subject area, long winded, and prone to embellished tangents. While we didn't understand some of the jumps in conversation we made, it was thoroughly enjoyable listening to her. 

Afterwards, we went to the Eros Hotel, a five star hotel in Delhi. We had an amazing buffet style dinner that put everyone in good spirits. They had fantastic goat cheese and salmon and honeyed pork and stuffed chicken breast and dal and naan. The real treat was at the dessert table; I got at least two full plates. The chocolate mousse was unbelievable. Stuffed to (more than) our hearts' content, we went back to the original hotel to collect our bags before setting off to the airport. 

At the airport, we had a hasty goodbye with Rajiv and Anu (it was probably for the best, as we will hopefully be seeing them soon and some people aren't so good with goodbyes!). We had said goodbye to Professor Roy at the workshop, as he was feeling ill. That meant that we were a group of 15 at the Delhi airport, ready to check in and go to Zurich. Unfortunately, they weren't ready for us. There were a few problems with checking bags and getting boarding passes to Boston, as the flight from Zurich to Boston had been cancelled already. Maddie and Kiernan stepped up then, negotiating with the travel agents to at least get us to Zurich. We were told we may have to stay in Delhi for another 24 hours, but Maddie and Kiernan pulled through! We would be going to Zurich, even if they didn't have a hotel for us overnight.

Once through security, we all gawked at how expansive the airport was. The ceilings were three stories, and I couldn't see the opposite end of the halls. The stores were also incredibly nice, and huge light fixtures hung above us. We finally boarded at 2am Delhi time, and I slept most of the flight to Zurich!