Getting Lost in Lausanne

I think they should make a movie called 'Lost in Lausanne'. It has too good a ring to it otherwise.

But first things first. This evening, Seb the Uni-student was seen cooking spaghetti in the kitchen. However, I feel like I spent more time cleaning up the mess than eating. Stupid spaghetti overflowed and spilled all over the stove. And seeing as I had to wait for them to cool down (I was also heating up some bolognese sauce) by the end of it I had a layer of dried up stuff on the stove. Lovely...

But I must admit, the spaghetti was good. It may not have started off on the right foot; indeed I did forget to take off the sticker from the bottom of the cooking pot before adding the water and spaghetti, so that was fun to remove, I’ll let you imagine how I did it without removing anything; but hey, it's unusually fun!

So, on to business, Getting Lost in Lausanne:

Today was a great day. Started off with a hot chocolate with a friend in the Uni Bar called Satellite. Then off to 4h of maths, which I found refreshingly easy. And then, DONE. Easily the best day at school of the week. So back to the bar, for a beer this time. Now I usually don’t like beer, but I was introduced to one yesterday that is frankly delicious. Forgot the name though. Played backgammon with a friend, I lost spectacularly 7-0. He had incredible luck, and I had, well, at least I had my beer...

And then off to Lausanne, where I planned to go to different real estate agencies to see if any apartments are available. I think it is important to note that if every town was like Lausanne, obesity just wouldn’t exist. It all goes up and down and up and... I seriously challenge anyone to go to 7 different agencies around Centre Ville Lausanne and not break a sweat. And did I! But with the biggest smile on my face. I got absolutely and utterly lost in the town, but it was so cool. I now have a pretty good idea where the best shops are, and I’ve already spotted good Xmas present shops. I was just so happy to discover everything. I think it was coz the weather today was excellent, I was actually in t-shirt in the street!

So there are a few apartments available, I’ll have to confirm tomorrow.

And because I can't be bothered to link all my thoughts together, here's the random lines again:

-The train ride back is good thinking time.
-The entrance hall to the house smells very strongly of something very strange and very stale. Still haven’t figured out what it is, chalk another one up for the weird landlady.
-The entire kitchenware is actually slightly smaller than normal. It's SO annoying!
-No more pesky tickets for me, I have public transportation monthly subscription. High-Ho!!
-Old Swiss ladies aren't as nice as you'd think.
-Really Old Swiss people in the street or in shops tend to take you for an idiot.
-The municipality hides the shortcuts around town so that people can't find them and have to walk all the way up and down.
-I have hit my head at least 5 times on the low hanging lamp in my room.
-My first week of school is over. Not many left, right?

More Uni antics to come...

I'm in Uni now, how did that happen and how do i make it stop?!

Right, time for a bit of presentation first. This blog is mine, me, for me, by me, and all other 'me' there is. Everything may not sound exactly like me, but I'm not used to writing stuff for everyone to read. I actually got this idea from a friend of mine who does the same thing, and I admit she will probably call me a thief at best, though I’m sure she could find more choice words...

Anyway, I will call this my new method of procrastination, though it does serve the purpose of keeping multiple people up to date when technology fails me and I’m 'out of the coverage area'.

So then, let’s get down to it. I'm in Uni now. EPFL to be precise. And it scares the absolute feces out of me. I didn’t think it would, but hey, I’m usually wrong about things I don’t know, which thankfully aren’t common. Yes, I have been told of my arrogance… So on to this pseudo-journal of the freshman that is Seb.

First day, 15th September 2008:
I somehow managed to step into the school with excitement. With all the intriguing and new prospects open to me in the near future, excitement was understandable. Sadly it gave way to worry as I realised I didn’t know where to go. Luckily, Switzerland is a wonderful country where people are happy to help, and my Uni (only a few days and I’m already fiercely proud of it) is a fine example of such spirit...

-----Just stepped out to get some milk for my cookies. My landlady (it's easier to say than 'the-woman-whose-house-I’m-renting-a-room-in) has strange thought patterns. There's only one mug, but she wanted to be sure there would be enough teacups, so she went and bought five. And the mug has currently been thieved by someone. So yay for useless mini teacups.-----

So 15min late, I get to my first class, and I meet my first symbol of Uni life: l'Amphiteatre. And better yet, a full one. So guess who's sitting on the stairs? But I wasn’t the only one, so it was okay. At least until the teacher said it was a pity there weren’t enough seats for everyone, gesturing towards us. Having 250 pairs of eyes on you is a tad unnerving.

4h of maths later sees me and two girls from my class eating in the cafeteria and soon Elyes, a friend from Dubai meets up with me. From then on, nothing particularly special or entertaining happens. Until night falls, and I’m on my way back home. The error that night, one that I only realised the next day, was that I was looking at arrival timings, instead of the departures. In my defense it wasn’t written in big letters on the billboard. Okay, maybe, but they weren’t REALLY big, like they should be. So as a gift for my ignorance, I spent 2 hours erring in between two far away train stations. Not the best experience, but I was now very much aware of another symbol of Swiss Uni, it's gonna be really, really cold.

Luckily, I was able to catch a train back to Lausanne and get the last room available in the hotel I had stayed in. And back to school I went the next day.
___________________________________________________________________

In between then and today, not much else happened. Or at least not much that I can exactly remember.

In no specific order, here's some random info and answers to FAQs:
-I chose Ethics as my Human Science for the trimester. Expect some philosophical thoughts in the future.
-I have 18h of maths per week. I know, I have trouble believing it too.
-My Programming teacher says 'hein' every third word. It's flamboyantly funny.
-Mon prof de SMX (Science des Materiaux) a un accent marseillais. A toi d'imaginer...
-La metrologie, c'est purement nul.
-It takes me a bit less than an hour to get to school. Still scared to get on the wrong train too. Hehe..
-18h of maths...
-Plans for setting fire to the lake are in motion, and money shall be made! Hopefully..
-Sports are on the horizon
-Presumably, I am staying in SMX.
-26% of EPFL students are female.
-Lausanne's bigger than you'd think, but I still managed to find the Fnac!!
-I miss my family terribly, and their help has been incredibly appreciated.
-There are 16 restaurants and places to get food in EPFL. Currently, the best food is in the Architecture building. Lucky bastards…
-I finish at 12h tomorrow!

As a parting note, I’ve gotta say things are getting easier. Pandora's last gift isn’t as useless as I thought it was.