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

I do not have enough time to read the Swiss news, but from time to time I receive some links what Americans write about Switzerland…
In Thin Air of the Alps, Swiss Secrecy Is Vanishing

What should I say? I was not aware that this is a serious problem in Switzerland

The only thing which bothers me:

For centuries the farmers here lived off their famed Appenzeller cheese and a bitter liqueur that most, except fervent admirers, say tastes like cough medicine gone bad.

My beloved Appenzeller…

Prost!

My first thanksgiving celebration
Which meant for me a four day long weekend to relax and have some fun…

At Thanksgiving itself we spent the afternoon at the home of one of our faculties, he lives about 40 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. In his opinion no one should have to celebrate thanksgiving alone, therefore he invites all the foreign students to his home to celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving. Very nice of him! But we had our own turkey and left his house after a visit to celebrate ourselves.

On Friday, we saw Spamalot a Monthy Python Musical. For a more thorough feedback read David’s post, he went one day before we did.

On Sunday we visited two building which were built by Frank Lloyd Wright.
- Falling water (official page http://www.fallingwater.org/)
- Kentuck Knob
Frank Lloyd Wright is a very famous American architect who built many interesting buildings. I do not have a good understanding for architecture but I have to say that these buildings where really nice and designed very thoughtfully.

Finally, we took some nice pictures of my second favorite element.
- Cucumber falls
- Ohiopyle falls

Pictures for the whole weekend can be found here.

btw: this is the last relict from 2008

Today, I went to an event featuring Scott Rigsby a double-amputee world-record holder. He was the first double-amputee to finish the Ironman in Hawaii.
He had an amazing story to tell. It was not a typical motivation speech as I heard it before, rather a life story of a man with a dream!

Here is an video about him:

He said he will also write a book to inspire more people. So keep an eye open

Yes, they did it! AWESOME!
This was a mind blowing game

I like Pittsburgh and I feel secure in my area. However, tonight when I walked home from the cave (my study/work area) a police car drove past with red/blue lights on. Not unusual, but then I saw the next intersection with many red and blue lights. Finally, when I walked past this intersection I saw 7 police cars all with running light and no accident on the intersection. This made me feel slightly insecure. Fortunately, the police and all the other people where on the other side of the road… Good night!

Initially, I wanted to publish the first relict post, but I have news which are more important!

America is often called the land with unrestricted possibilities. Sometimes, I have the opinion a better name would be the land with an unrestricted amount of ridiculous rules.

Today, I went to the swimming pool at the University Center. After the training, I went to the diving board to have some fun. After a few jumps from the 1m board, I decided to climb the 3m board. I was surprised when the pool attendant was whistling against me. After CLIMBIMG DOWN from the 3m tower, she explained that only the diving team is allowed to jump from the 3m tower. When I asked why, she told me for security reasons… The sad thing about that is that I had to find out that even CMU has ridiculous rules!

Maybe, I should start gathering all the ridiculous rules, which prevent me from having fun!

Last Friday evening I/we took a day of to have some fun. Here is what we did:

First we visited the Phipps Conservatory. Which is an botanical garden and free for Carnegie Mellon students.

After buying food and walking back towards the University we discovered a snowboarding contest which took place in front of the Cathedral of learning. The organizers of this event used artificial snow for the contest. This was quite funny because everything around the contest was still green.
Finally, we went to see the Black Knight at the University Center. Even though, I had allready seen this movie I decided to watch it again. It was lots of fun especially because the student contributed to the atmosphere. The students where cheering, clapping and expressing other emototions actively.

The reason the Cathedral of learning is so color full on the second picture is because of the Festival of Lights in Pittsburgh

So, and now back to work… =)

I know… I am nearly a week behind. But because I do not updated my picasa web album at the moment and I still want to give you an impression…

Here you are:

I carved this pumpkin myself

Last Wednesday we had to leave the classroom early. The reason for this was a fire alarm.
It was a “nice” experience because nobody panicked and there was no hectic rush. Within a few minutes the whole class was outside. After a while (no clue how long it took) we were allowed back into the building. Someone told us that the fire alarm was set off by butter popcorn which were too long in the microwave

After that a friend told me that this is the reason why it is not allowed to make popcorn in government buildings…