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

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!

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

It was almost 2 weeks ago, but nevertheless I would like to share my experience from the Kids in Crisis (KIC) Triathlon. This is only my 3rd triathlon. After an Olympic distance Triathlon in 2006 and an Ironman70.3 in 2007 I didn’t think about triathlons for almost 3 years. In this time I was pursuing my master’s degree where my shape degraded severely. But by now I have received my master’s degree and started training again.

The night before the event I had a hard time to fall asleep. I am not sure if I was so nervous, or if it was the fact that I went to bed at 20:00. I got up at 4 o’clock in the morning. I started more or less relaxed my morning routine and was soon out of the door to prepare the two transition areas. After getting marked with my number and checking in my running gear. I rode down to the first transition area and checked in the bike. I was ahead of the crowed and had enough time to prepare everything in a calm matter. I put on my wetsuit and went down to the beach to do a warm up. There I realized that the tide was out. And other people were walking far out into the water. As a weaker swimmer, I was almost celebrating that fact until I realized there was a catch to it. There were many stones and shells which made it dangerous to run. After a long walk and a short warm up swim we started to line up at the beach. While we were listening to the last instructions, a 10 inch crab (with about 2 inch clamps) came out of the water and turned around once he saw all the people. I didn’t expect that and spent the next few minutes hoping: “Let that not be me who stands on this crab!”

Finally, we were allowed to run off, and since we had to run the first 250m I was among the first who started swimming. But the swimmers caught up pretty fast and overtook me a few minutes into the swim. I also learned that there is a big difference in swimming in the sea (salt water) or in lakes. 20 minutes into the swim I had this weird taste in my mouth and I was looking forward to drink some water. Another thing which I realized was that one part of my feet was burning and I guessed that I had a cut from running over the stones/shells. At least it wasn’t hurting too bad and I didn’t have to give up the race as other athletes. Towards the end of the swim we had to run again and I had cramps in my calves. Surprised by that I stretched for a second and then went ahead. Luckily these cramps didn’t come back for the rest of the race. Later I learned from an expert that this can happens if the water is cold, and the wetsuit puts the caves in a stretched position without movement. So the next time I should occasionally relax my feet during the swim.

Even though I prepared everything in the transition area, I was confused after the swim and didn’t follow my transition procedures. This way it took me 2 minutes till I finally hoped on my bike. I started off in a moderate pace for the first 5 minutes. Where I drunk some water and also ate half a banana. Then I started pushing hard on those pedals. My goal was to be over a 30 km/h pace even with the hilly course. After I overtook several triathletes with much more expensive equipment I started feeling better and better. Especially up hills it seemed as I would fly past them, but I’m not sure if I should attribute this towards my Swiss roots, the road bike, or my flyweight… Towards the end I forced myself to drink some more water, since I learned in the past that I normally don’t drink enough.

The next transition went smooth. I had a clear head and was out of transition area after only 51 seconds. But I soon had to learn that this forced drinking was too much for my stomach. So I had to slow down and couldn’t run my pace. I was suffering quite a bit. But after half time I started to recover and picked up the pace. Since, I didn’t use my running muscles yet, I was able to sustain a high pace for the last 5km. So the running split doesn’t seem too bad.

Results
Time: 2:21:08, Division place: 5, Overall place: 36,

Pictures from the race!

Overall I am pleased with my time, after all it is 15 minutes faster than my last triathlon.
I am looking forward to Nationals Triathlon in Washington DC with the full length swim and less running
By then I should also have a better nutrition plan for during the race.

Thanks@Rebekka for cheering for me and supporting me after the race!

Many have heard the joke:

What do American Beer and having sex in a canoe have in common?
Both are fucking close to water!

But the sad fact is that exactly this kind of beer is what is sold to 95% in the USA. Only 5% is from smaller independent breweries. Shocking about that is that this 95% of beer comes from three companies: Anheuser-Bush (Budweiser), Miller, Coors.
Living in Pittsburgh for 1.5 years I always drunk Yuengling and wasn’t aware what kind of “war” is going on between all this smaller breweries against the big ones, since it was so easy accessible all over the city. But this is not the case in other parts of America. Here in Stamford I have the hardest time to buy decent beer in a store. Yes, I live next to a local brewery which eases this sad fact a little…

I highly recommend this documentary movie. Watch it and tell me what you think about it.
Yes, I know many readers are living outside of the USA and might ask themselves: “Why should that bother me?”. Well how do you know there is not a similar Beer War going on in your country…?

Watch a trailer of the movie!!

I’m awake again… We just had a fire alarm in our building.
Luckily, I was still awake and not in bed yet. But still, it took me a moment to realize that it is an actual alarm and not a drill.
The first time since I’m here that I actually used the stairs to leave the building

The fire fighters arrived just a few seconds after I left the building. So that was pretty comforting to know that they are ready if something happens.
I look up on the building, but could not find any smoke or see anything, so I guessed that there was nothing big happening. After about 15min we were allowed to go back into the building. The interesting part about the whole alarm was that the fire fighter I asked didn’t know why the alarm went off…

Finally, I screwed in the last screw and hammer the last nail of my IKEA furniture.

Thanks to the MSE program, I am inclined to keep track of various data in my life. Therefore, I know exactly how much time I spent on each piece of furniture… Just in case I will have to buy new furniture
I guess all in all the 13 hours 27 min is not too bad for all the things I accomplished. I could even go further and analyze on what time of the day I did the most work, and at what time I was most productive… but that won’t be worth the effort

Special thanks goes to my girlfriend which helped me to choose, find (in the store), transport and haul all the furniture to my apartment!
Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay long enough to also support me during the assembling

Ps: List of all the items assembled…
1 bed, 2 dressers, 1 small dresser, 2 Book shells, 1 Bookcase, 1 office Chair, 2 small tables, 3 chars, 1 kitchen Table

As many might know, I am working in the biggest trading floor of the world. But what most people won’t know is that UBS has an interesting tradition on St. Patrick’s day. This afternoon around 4 o’clock a group of bagpipe players walked onto the balcony of the trading floor and played some music for the 1400 people

In the last couple of days I was assembling the furniture which I got from IKEA. I like to share the experience of one particular day which was interesting.

In the morning my bed was delivered which I assembled right away and after that I went for a run. In the afternoon I had to realize that I was tired and not in the mood to assemble more furniture. But I also knew that with this attitude I would never get it done. So I decided to try another energy shot: “Redline Power Rush, 7 hour energy boost”. According to EdJunky it is one of the most potent energy shots. I had this shot lying around for several months by now and never found the right situation to use it. So I drunk the whole bottle and started working. After only a few minutes I started to feel the effects. Unbelievable how this stuff works! While physically still a little tired I was completely awake and I also had to urge to get things done! So I took on two MALM drawers from IKEA:

Screwing these two drawers together took me 4 hours without any breaks. (Except taking pictures).
After that I still felt restless and cleaned the apartment and assembled other things.

So if someone is tired and still needs to get a lot of physical work done. That is the way to go
But be aware, that the thinking process is not as clear anymore so it is definitely nothing for mind work. Besides one of the after effects for me is that I was only able to sleep 10 hours after I took the energy shot. I’m sure drinking such energy shots, while legal in the USA, are not too healthy. But it was worth the experience.

This Sunday I went for a run along the coast. Since we got about 10 inches of snow over the weekend everything was covered in white.
The thing which struck me was that in my mind model sand beaches have to be warm… warm water, good weather, and I can walk around in shorts.
What a weird feeling to run along a frozen beach which is covered in snow and ice.

I guess this happened because so far I only saw sand beaches when I went on vacation to warmer regions.
Is it only me or did other people have a similar experience. Maybe it is particular the case for Swiss people, because we are not bordering a sea so we travel to it in the summer.