blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

As most of you know, I spend the last 3 weeks in Switzerland. So, yesterday it was time to fly back to the states. After a very short night (3h), since I had some farewell drinks with my friends. Once in the plane I was enjoying 3 movies (The Expendables, The other guys, Killers) which help to make the time pass faster. Also the service and food was really good. I should only fly with Swiss!
To my surprise, I made a new record at the US customs and border control. There wasn’t a line and I had only to wait about 5 minutes till I was granted access to the states. Once at home, I had just enough time to unpack my luggage before I had to leave again. Destination was Madison Square Garden in NYC. I had a ticket for the Rammstein concert.

The concert was amazing! I really enjoyed their live show! But the set up in Madison Square Garden wasn’t great at all. No Jumbo Tron for close ups, and the area where you could stand and dance in front of the state had only space for maybe 200 people. Fortunately, I had a good enough seat that it both wasn’t a big problem. It was a real spectacle, a burning man, lots of fire and pyrotechnic explosions. I would definitely recommend seeing them!

(pic source: http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/19529623)

At the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC, I got a goody bag with various things in it. Amongst them was a little blue carabiner which can be used as a key ring. Interesting about that is that is an advertisement for the “European Union”.
I was thinking about it, why would they advertise to athletes? Or is it a general advertisement campaign in the states? I wonder what the goal of such a campaign would be. It obviously got me thinking, but I doubt that it will have a big impact on US citizen in general? Another interesting question is, who is behind this campaign. By that I mean who is paying for it? Did all the countries together decided that it is worth the money?

So many questions. If anybody has and Idea or knows something about it. Please fill me in!

Duh! Everyone who has at least been to the USA once, knows that what they sell as Swiss cheese is everything else then Swiss cheese. But this weekend, when I went grocery shopping I discovered something else.
So far I always assumed that Swiss cheese brands like Gruyère would be imported from Switzerland. How silly of me to assume that. The Target next door just opened a fresh product section which I really enjoy! It is not big and the selection is limited, but at least it is an easy way to get some fresh products. Like vegetables, fruits, sandwiches, and milk products.
So while I was looking through all the new things they have, I discovered some cheese called Gruyère. But already the looks of it told me that it is not real Gruyère. When inspecting the back of the package. I learned that this cheese was made in the USA and has nothing to do with Gruyère what so ever. In my opinion this is just a marketing trick which I lucky didn’t fall for
I’m amazed that they are allowed to do that…

But this won’t hold me back to enjoy the expanded selection of my closest “grocery” store!

Tomorrow, I will be competing in the National Triathlon in Washington DC. I already arrived here yesterday Friday to get settled in and have time for the race preparation. Amy and I had also some time to explore the city. We were on the top of the Washington memorial and visited the American History Museum.

The race seems to be organized very well, and everything is going smooth. The best part of the day, was the organized bike ride from the Hotel to the transition zone. Two Police car with blue light and sirens escorted us (several hundred athletes). I felt like a celebrity, while we passed the white house and the World War II memorial. After the bike ride, I did a test swim in the Potomac. They say this is one of the dirtiest rivers in the US, and that might very well be. I was barely able to see my hand in the water during the swim stroke. Unfortunately, I bumped my knee into the ramp to get out of the water. So it is a little swollen and I am hoping that everything will be fine till tomorrow since I will be racing anyway

Apparently, there are 7000 athletes competing in 44 waves
I am in wave #12 and will be starting 7:44am (EST)!

Check back in a few days to read how I did…

What a weekend! Amy was visiting me for several days and we had a great time together.
Let me just tell you the details for Saturday.

After a long jog (2 hours) to the Greenwhich beach we were ready for some more relaxing activities and headed into the city. As you might know the thing to do in the city is to go watch a musical. So we spontaneously decided to check out the ticket booth at time square if we could get tickets for an interesting afternoon show. To our surprise they still had tickets for Marry Poppins available which was on the top of our musical list.

Since we had some time left until the musical started we decided to visit the Guggenheim museum (Thanks @ UBS for the free entry). Most people know about me that I am not a very artsy guy, but I appreciate good craftsmanship which you certainly will find in most museums. That said, I was only enjoying a small part of the exhibition. Besides some wonderful art pieces, the Guggenheim was also showing many provoking pieces of art where I had a hard time to find the artistic value.

Then it was time for the musical. We really enjoyed the musical and got reminded of many memories we had from the movie. But I have to say I remembered the overall story a little different. It seems like I/we have to go back and watch the movie again.
We really enjoyed all the little “magic” things they did on stage. Overall, we liked the musical and would recommend it to everyone who knows and likes Mary Poppins.

After that we walked through the city to the Frying Pan. This is a bar on several barges at Pier 66 in NYC and is the place to be. We were lucky to get a table on the top deck on the very front, where we enjoyed a beer to close our excursion to the city.

After such a wonderful day, we knew there was only one word to describe this blog entry:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Pictures from this weekend

I just came back from the Beach Boys concert. Or better said what is left of them
During summer they have a concert series right outside my apartment building. It’s called Alive@Five. Since this was the last concert for this year, I figured I have to attend… After waiting for 20 minutes at the entry and paying $10.- I was allowed in to a really crowded festival area.
I had a fun time listening to the Beach Boys, since they have so many well known hits. In general the atmosphere was quite good, and I might have to go to more concerts next year.

Finally, I am a proud owner of a Connecticut Driver license.
As a foreigner I am only allowed to drive in the USA for one year with the international driver license so it was about time to get an American driver license. Besides, my Pennsylvania ID expired and I was getting tired of using my passport. So here a short description of the three things I needed to do in order to get a Connecticut driver license.

Part 1 - 8h Safe Driving Course ($125)
Overall a good thing. Similar to what we have in Switzerland. If I remember correctly we also had some light math/physics about car behavior where as this course only consistent of how drinking, taking drugs and being tired influences the driving skills. Unfortunately, it is based on the scary tactic and I felt kind of like in a boot camp where they try to “brainwash” you.

Alcohol is bad! If you drink and drive you are going to kill people! Do you want to be a murder?

Where I believe in not drinking while driving and also the designated driver concept I think that is not the best way to teach it. After a few months these teenagers will have forgotten what they learned in this course.

The best part about this course was that there were two Spanish speaking people in the course who barely spoke any English. When asked what their name is they weren’t able to answer till someone translated it to Spanish for them. I wonder how much they learned in this course. But guess what… they passed =)

Part 2 - Written Exam ($40)
I read through the handbook with all the rules about driving in the states, because I really wanted to pass this test. But as it turned out, this was wasted time. After queuing in 3 different lines (sign in, payment, document check) and overall waiting time of 3 hours I was allowed to take the test. Part of the long waiting is the STACK principle rather than the FIFO, which I observed. Even though the explanation on the stack said, that the new paper should be put underneath the stack the new ones always landed on top…
The test was rather easy, 25 questions and after 20 answers I was told, that I passed the test. No need to answer the last 5 questions. At least I saved 2 minutes there.

Part 3 - Road Test ($66)
I was a little nervous for the test when I arrived at the DMB, even though I have been driving for 10 years. The main reason that I was nervous was that it was unclear if I was allowed to take the test in a rented car. Since many friend incl. the car rental guy told me that I wouldn’t be allowed to do that. After a short wait (30min) I was asked to meet the expert by the car. We entered the car and off we went. I started a discussion with the expert which he didn’t mind, so the 10 min driving passed rather quickly. He was a very nice guy and he seemed also to have a critical opinion about the safe driving course and mentioned that he doesn’t understand why Swiss people have to take this test, since the German and French people don’t. After 5 right turns (no kidding, I didn’t do a single left turn ). I passed the test, Jihaa! One more time queuing to get the actual ID and I was done.
The only time, I got nervous was when the expert asked me what type of car I’m driving and I didn’t know the answer. I had to tell him that I rented so many cars, that I don’t care anymore.
But to everyone out there let me tell you this: You are allowed to take the road test with a rental car if you have a valid international driver license! (at least in Connecticut)

Conclusion:
13 hours and $231 and I am legal allowed to drive in the states for another 6 years!
If I include the rental car fee and insurance for the two times I drove to the DMV, the price would be around ~$350

Fun fact: The only eye-color which is missing on my ID’s is green! This one is grey, the last one was brown and my old Swiss ID said blue

Another weekend and another trip to NYC… this time I was accompanied by Amy
Here are four more things, which I like to point out:

- Plaid Power: We saw the NYC Tartan Day Parade. And we happened to be there for exactly the 5min, when the bag pipers (or was it only one?) of Carnegie Mellon walked by. Thanks to Amy’s loud cheering we are now proud owner of a yellow “Plaid power” towel from Carnegie Mellon.

- MoMA stands for the Museum of Modern Art. While entered the museum I was contemplating to leave right away because there were several hundred other people trying to get admission as well. But as a UBS employee I had free admission (incl. a free ticket for Amy) and was able to queue at a special desk. Since it is the modern art museum there is a lot of peculiar art which would need some time to get used to. Especially, the exhibition from Marina Abramović which included life performance and loads of nudity. The highlights for me were “Starry Night - Vincent van Gogh“, “Water Lilies - Claude Monet” and the Picasso exhibitions.

- The View. This is a restaurant in the 48 floor at the time square. And it is the only rotating restaurant in NYC, even though the rotation is not as smooth as it could be it is a great experience and the food is delicious. Definitive worth a visit before a show. Make sure to make a reservation and tell the waiter what time your show starts. They will help you that you stay on time Video on the way down in the elevator.

- Lion King. My first show at the Broadway! I guess there is not much more to say… I liked the musical and I would definitely recommend it.

Here are some pictures…

The last two weekends I did some trips to New York City. Since, I am only 45min (by train) away from NYC it is a perfect spott for daylong trips. And there is also more than enough to see. I have seen many neighborhoods in NYC and I am always amazed how different each neighborhood looks almost as you are in a different city. I would like to point out four highlights which I liked.
- High Line an old train line which was transformed into a walkway
- Williamsburg in Brooklyn, upcoming neighborhood. Nice bars and restaurants
- Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York which is supposedly the 4th largest Christian church in the world
- Grand Central Station where my train arrives and leaves

More trips to follow…

Here are some pictures.

What a topic

I am amazed how many men abuse the urinal to deposit their used chewing gum! And that happens not only in public toilets. You can find this also at Universities and most workplaces. I find this surprising because most often there is a trash can within a few steps. Besides, if they wash their hands they and use paper towels, to dry the hands, which end up in a bin as well. So it is not a big effort to throw the gum into a bin.

I wonder if it is only me or do other people think that this behavior is inappropriate and maybe even disgusting?