Last night, Eiko (another Japanese girl in my class) organised a gathering with her apartment mates and kindly invited me along with Yuki.. So nice of them :) and they were a fun bunch of people, i must say.. Speaking in german, but somehow as time goes by, my ears have been trained to better pick up key words in their language.. And the hosts cooked Japanese! So a type of sushi (which is like the Japanese version of Chinese fried rice) and curry rice! Really yum.. :) but it also made me crave for sashimi, which, where you hardly get fresh seafood, is unbelievable hard on the pockets.
Anyway, the pictures, as promised... here's the view I get to enjoy every weekday the past two weeks, as I walk from tramstop to classroom.. Beautiful, especially when the weather's kind.. This was taken a few days ago, and the weather so far this week has been perfect.. It's still cold in the morning, like 5deg, but by afternoon it warms up to abt 15deg and tt's perfect to sit in the sun outside.. But today we had quite a fog and this view unfortunately was not visible.. and I've read that come next week, there'll be a sudden cold front and there might even be snow!
Often, after lessons, i'll head here with Yuki to settle some admin stuff, post a card, shop, or just to take a walk.. It's the Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Main Station). You pretty much always arrive in and depart from Zurich here. And just infront of it (where I was standing while I took this photo), is the Bahnhofstrasse. So, we often take quite a walk and feel so tired but satisfied at the end of the day. Haha communication between Yuki and I is improving lots! Haha she's trying the learn English too, so we conduct a 'Tandem', whereby a pair is a teacher and student of each other's mother-tongue. So I officially know a few more Japanese words now :)
The picture below was taken on Wednesday (14th March), when there was a food market (like the kind they have at Takashimaya's basement now and then) in the Hauptbahnhof. Many stalls are set up here every Wednesday and Saturday, and they have quite a variety. There was a Gyoza booth, a vegetable (a la wet market Singapore style) booth, and of course, a few cheese stalls. You always know when you're approaching a cheese stall due to the pungent smell that hits you in the face abt 5m from it..
Anyway, Yuki and I took a long walk after lessons today, so that I could take pictures... So there's the Limmat bank, lined with many tiny shops.. I chanced upon a souvenir shop there today and I'm sure i'll be going back there :)
And the Zurich See...
So along it's bank now, pretty flowers are abundant and people sit in the sun to chit chat (an act that would have been ridiculous at this time last year). So, we did what the Zurichers did and sat down to chat and rest from the long walk.
Managed to capture a shot from where we were sitting just before the sun went down behind the mountains.. Once it gets dark, the temperature drops so fast.. Which means, scarfs on standby! So we started walking again after sunset, and sat in the streets of the Altstadt to savour our take-away Kebabs.. Super lecker (tasty, auf Deutsch).
On my way home tonight, I caught sight of the beautiful night scene of Zurich which I had always wanted to take a picture of. So I hopped off the train, crossed a few tram lines and roads, and found an ideal spot. The sight before me was breathtaking, but I somehow couldn't get my camera to shoot what I saw.. This was my best shot... sorry folks, haha a picture is afterall uncomparable to seeing with your very own eyes..
Lastly, my class! haha here's my classroom, and tt's the teacher, Martha, standing in front. Haha she's this very strong Italian accent to her german, and thanks to that, she calls me 'Char-lehhhh-neh'. So, the rest of the class pretty much call me like that too.. haha my swiss name..
and everyone else in class.. we sit in 3 groups of 4.. so there's my seat at the table on the right side of the picture..
Yup, tomorrow, we're heading to a Tierpark (which literally translate into Animal Park) for the official last day of the Intensive Course.. Looking forward to it.. :)
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