The Laundry Challenge

Anyone who's ever stayed in another country long enough to do laundry knows what it's like to be confronted with a laundry machine that speaks a different language than yours. Well, today, I decided to go downstairs in the apartment building and visit the Swiss laundry machine. After all, it's still cold out, and I only have two pairs of long pants. So I have to wash the dirty pair again.

First, I had to decide: is this the right soap? Is it soap at all? Luckily, the product labels are also in French, and this looks OK and not like bleach or something.

Then there's the control dashboard...what buttons should I choose to get ready for takeoff?

Then there's the soap tray....three slot options....hmmmmm. I think if I pour the soap in the middle slot, that should be OK.

Finally, after I make my selections, will the machine just start? What's the button with the "key" symbol on it? It turns out that opens the door again. Well, it looks like the machine is starting on its own...I looked up "Haupt" and I think this means "leader wash" or maybe "pre-wash"?

rainy day in Zurich

It pretty much rained all day today -- hard! -- but there was a brief break midday, and I took a few pictures.

I walked around part of the old town...first stopping in some shops (where I had a woman show me some black tshirts that ranged from 150-260 Swiss francs....how much is that? Probably almost $200). I saw a furniture store that I couldn't resist....check out the zebra sofa...and was baffled by a shop that appeared to be an upscale restaurant on one side, and on the other side, apparently sold pillows.

I also met my friend Tanja for lunch in a really cool vegetarian salad-bar place called "tibits." But it wasn't a typical salad bar....it had a lot of already-made, really yummy food, some of it Swiss, some of it Indian, all of it good.

Finally....here's a view from the window of the apartment, through rainy windows.

figuring things out

After a morning of heavy rain and lightning, I've finally drifted out of bed. I'm alone in the apartment, trying to figure things out. This apartment is very nice and I'm afraid of doing something wrong.

For example:
I made coffee in the coffeepot. Now I need to clean it. How do I open it without breaking it or getting coffee everywhere?

This sponge is cool. Is it for washing dishes? I hope so. This stick (to keep your hands off the sponge) is clever.

Why are there two flushes on the toilet?

Schweiz

It's raining...but it's a quiet lull. I am in a thick, clean apartment with white walls that are solid like bunkers. The windows are dense and quiet. The floors are clean wood that don't resonate when you walk on them. There's a machine in the kitchen that makes bubbled water, poured straight from the tap, that tastes as good as Badoit. The fixtures are beautiful. The tram comes every six minutes. I am in Switzerland.

last day in Paris...

I spent my last day in Paris cleaning the apartment, running errands (I bought a cheap fleece pullover so I don't freeze to death), and then met my friend Pascale for an evening at Cafe de l'Industrie in the Bastille. I really like this place....and so do a lot of people....it's totally jammed! It normally occupies two buildings on facing corners, and right now only one of them is open, so the remaining one is standing room only. We got a table at 6:45, where Pascale insisted that we get drinks first (dinner before 8 is a no-no!).

I had carpaccio....brave, because my digestive tract is still a mess....but it was delicious...and she had steak tartare. I'll miss Paris, but not the grocer (he's closed on Mondays, thankfully). And I missed a few of the things I like to do when I'm here. But onwards....on Tuesday...to Switzerland.

Below is a photo of the slippery, winding stairs I traversed several times per day to my apartment. You wouldn't want to hang onto the banister too hard, though...it's loose! And there's a huge window between every landing, so if you fall, guess where you'll go?

a few more photos

Here's some more photos of our walk through the 18eme and the 20eme arrondissements...you still find some old one-family Parisien homes here, mixed with new, modern apartment buildings. Parc de Belleville is awesome, and if you climb all the stairs to the top, you have an aerial view of Paris...plus a great view of all the lush landscaping on the levels of the park itself.

I didn't take any photos of it, but we walked through what seemed to be an African squatters' area, with a huge, rundown apartment building filled with African men, clothes hanging off all the balconies, and corn on the cob -- with the corn eaten off of it -- thrown everywhere on the ground.

This graffiti artist was in a tiny alleyway in the lower part of Belleville, not far from the Belleville metro stop. It looked like it had also been a squatters' area but was starting to get renovated, as was the area at the other end of the block which had been Tunisian, maybe....? But all the shops looked closed and there was construction equipment everywhere.

a few photos

Before my time on Swisscom runs out, here are a few photos I took on walk with my friend Pascale today in Menilmontant and Belleville...