For those of you who don't know swatch is a swiss watch company that creates cheep and affordable good working swiss watches, however they are definitely not your typical watch from physical appearance to a rich history.
In the time Swatch was created (1980s) the Swiss watch industry was suffering big time. (article about the industry sinking here... called 'Quartz Crisis') The sink in the industry was from a combination of a soar in the mass production of 'new' digital watches in Asia and the start of an economical depression in Switzerland. At this point people were more likely to buy a cheep watch than a complicated expensive swiss watch. The return of the industry came with the help and ideas of many, yet the way seemed impossible. A group of people from the ETA watch company (ETA makes parts for watches in my very own home town, to learn about them click here) decided to make a new, modern, and inexpensive watch. In order to make it inexpensive they would need to cut down on some of the specialties that made watches so special... the parts. Most watches had at least 100 parts, each part purchased and put together by hand. This many parts makes a watch very complex and expensive... so the idea of swatch was to put a watch togther in less parts (around 50). To accomplish this seemed crazy at the time. It would be like making lasagna with only peanut butter and crackers. After a lot of hard work and planing Swatch was able to create their first watch. The popularity of Swatch soared and saved the Swiss watch industry allowing both new and old watches to continue being made. Since then they have a lot more styles and types, but the price is still dramatically lower than an average Swiss watch (ranging from 60-110 CHF). If you want to look at some of the Swatch watches on their website click this link. I hope you enjoyed this educational story!
19.2.16
Ski Vacation
In the first week of sport vacation I went to the Alps (Valhalla in east Switzerland near Chur). I went with family friends of my second host family because my second host family had to stay at home for Fastnacht (I will talk about Fastnacht in a later post). On the first Saturday of break I took a train direct from German course to Chur. By the time I arrived at the vacation apartment it was late afternoon and my vacation host family (Brigitte, Thomas, Laura, and Luc) were just arriving back from a long day of skiing. That Evening we played a big game of monopoly, som card games, ate dinner, and went to bed. The next day I slept in (first day of vacation is always great). For breakfast we had fresh bread from a local bakery. It was amazing, crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, heavenly carbohydrate goodness. I was also introduced to oval malting crunchy, it is pretty much Nutella with Rice Krispies inside of it, I am planning on bringing 200 jars home with me! It was too windy to go skiing, instead we visited a nearby town, Lenzerheide. Lenzerheide is a small, cute, touristic town made up of small restaurants and sport shops. It is located in the heart of the mountains and has the most wonderful view. Laura and I went ice skating and the others took a walk through the winter was so warm that the rink was made up of melted ice, it made for a very interesting ice skating experience! That aft noon we once again played games, ate, and slept (three of my favorite things). On Monday the weather was good and we were able to go skiing, I am pretty bad at skiing, however I improved throughout the day. For lunch we stopped in a small resturant, than continued skiing. At the end of the day I was tired and nearly passed out on the bed back at the apartment. The next day was once again to windy for skiing so we decided to spend the day in Chur. We spent the morning walking around the town and looking at various buildings, after a McDonalds break (surprisingly a lot better quality in Switzerland, they even have a veggie burger!) we went to the shopping outlets. We spent the whole afternoon looking through stores, I couldn't believe that they had a roxy store, sadly the prices were Swiss and not American. In the evening we did the normal routine and than slept. On Wednesday it snowed, and most of the ski lifts were closed. I decided it was the perfect weather to bake a chocolate cake and baked macaroni and cheese. After a morning of baking, family friends of my vacation host family came to town. Laura, the daughter of the family friends of my vacation host family (also named Laura), and I went to the out door hot pool located in the mountains. We were able to enjoy the snow and views while still staying warm! In one corner of the pool it had underwater chairs with jets, sadly they were all full. After waiting for what seemed like hours I was able to claim a place. Laying on it felt like floating, I don't think I have ever been more relaxed! That evening we had fun by playing poker. After the first few rounds I had twice as much money as everyone else, by the end of the game I had lost. It was still fun! We went skiing the day after and the weather was amazing. Blue skies and a blanket of snow filled the valley like a daydream. That evening my second host mom came to meet up with us for the last one or two days. We all went out to pizza (and of course played games). I learned a game called f*** the neighbor (which I now call "not so nice to the neighbor" because I didn't want to be rude). It turned out that I was very bad, yet throughout the evening I improved. I will teach anyone who would like to learn when I get home. On our second to last day of vacation we took a gondola to the other side of the valley and went skiing in Arosa (probably spelled wrong). It was officially my favorite ski spot because the slopes were not crazy hard, yet still interesting and technical. Plus one of the ski lifts was shaped like Toblarone and what's not to like about that. At around lunchtime we headed back over to the other side of the valley to meet my host mom (she doesn't ski so she just went hiking). It turned out that while we were in Arosa, Valbella was brewing up a storm. It was cold and windy on the other side of the valley and we went strait home after eating lunch. That evening was casual filled with a lot of naps, more board games, and around the world ping pong. On our last morning Laura and I went on the Alpine slide. It was 3km long, the longest in Switzerland. The curves were very scary, but it was amazing. My hair whipped back in the breeze and I had to hold my hat in order to keep it from flying away. That afternoon we headed back home. I was sad to be torn away from the mountains, yet happy to be on my way to Spain and Engelberg in the next week of vacation.
18.2.16
Spain
My host family and I went to Spain for 3 days this week. We booked stand-by plane tickets the day before, and than traveled on Monday morning to the beautiful city Valencia. It was all very fast and rushed, but once we got there it was amazing!
Day one:
We left for the Zürich Airport at at 8:45 with one backpack each (I was quite surprised I could fit everything into one small backpack). Our train left at 9:26 and on the way there we enjoyed a coffee. We took a lot of selfies with a strange lens my host brother has. You can attach it to the camera on your phone and it distorts your photos making really funny faces. After a quick train-change-dash in the main train station we made it to the Zürich Airport. Our train was registration, tickets, security, oh-no, back to registration, back to security, and so on. Right as our flight was boarding we arrived, got seated, and prepared for the take off. At 1:30 our plane arrived in Valencia. It was much warmer than Switzerland, a whopping 64 degrees! Soon we found our car rental and were on the road. After seeing how people in Spain drive, I have decided that if I ever live there I will need to use the metro. It took us nearly 45 minutes to find a parking space in the old part of the city and we nearly got crashed into about 40 times! When we finally hit the streets it was around 3 o'clock and almost everyone was asleep taking the afternoon naps. We strolled around the city looking at all of the old buildings, stopping at small bakeries, and taking tons of pictures. We were able to tour through one of the buildings that had previously been used as trading/bank house. It consisted of 4 main rooms and a large orange tree orchard in the middle. By 5 o'clock we had seen everything in the city and decided to travel towards the beach to find a hotel for the night (considering that we were so last minute we had not yet booked one). This turned out to be harder than it seemed due to the fact that most people own vacation homes so there are not many hotels, and people don't normally go to Spain in winter so a lot was closed. For about 1 hour we searched and drove until we took a short stop on a beautiful beach to take photos at sunset. It became to cold outside so we continued driving until we found a (somewhat sketchy) hotel near the beach. By this time it was already 8 or 9 at night and we all had a flabbergastingly large appetite. The hotel clerk told us of an Italian restaurant about one block away. When we arrived the Restaurant appeared to be closed. The two workers inside said something about closed and five minutes in broken English (language was a problem because none of us spoke good Spanish). We assumed that it was closing in 5 minutes considering that it was so late. After being ushered in we figured out that it was in fact opening in 5 minutes. After a large dinner of pasta and pizza we went back to the hotel and slept!
Day two:
On Tuesday morning we ate breakfast in the hotel. Many things went wrong at breakfast. To start off all of the drinks had about 3 cups of sugar added to them and would have given anyone a sugar rush. I decided to go for toast considering the limited options. My host mom went to the conveyer belt like toaster before me with american-style bread and it seemed to work fine. I decided to use the Spanish bread (which tastes much better than american bread) It turned out that my bread was a little too large because it caught on fire mid way through the toaster. After blowing out the flames on the bread, I opted to eat non-toasted bread. As I sat down, I looked at what my host brother had chosen to eat. I saw cereal and milk with what appeared to be purred fruit onto. It wasn't necessarily my choice but it did look good. Upon his first bite we figured out that the fruit was in fact crushed tomatoes. He scooped the crushed tomatoes out of his bowl and continued eating. After a few bites he decided that tomato and cereal do not go together and also turned to the non-toasted toast. Once breakfast was over me and my host siblings headed down to the beach for about 15 minutes before packing up and heading out for a day in the Spanish sun (and the Spanish wind). Our first stop was a old castle on a hill. It took us about 30 minutes to find a parking spot in the small town at the foot of the hill. After many u-turns, sudden brakes, and yells of STOP STOP, we found a parking space. The view from the top was amazing. The castle was huge and we were able to explore it head to toe. All of the feelings and floors were gone, along with most walls. It left a lot of open space and great places to climb. After about an hour of exploring a worker there saw may host brother and I on the edge of one of the castle walls, he yelled something in Spanish, that was the end of our climbing up the walls. It was still nice just walking around the rest. In the second half of the day we headed back to Valencia to check out the modern architecture part of the city. I will not write much about it but be sure to check out the photos because it looks really cool! Later on we went to the beach. On the walk there we bought some oranges from a street vendor. They may have been the most amazingly amazing tasting oranges I have ever had. With sticky hands we arrived at the beach. My host siblings and I played in the frigid water (only ankle deep) while my host parents waited at the restaurant near by. We played at playground before heading back to Valencia to go to our Hotel (new and reserved in the middle of the city). For dinner we went to a Spanish restaurant and ate Pallela, a typical Spanish rice dish. For dessert we got giant ice cream cones (my flavors were kinder bueno and kit kat). We piggy backed on the way back to the hotel. It was quite fun.
Day three:
On our last day we woke up and ate at a Bakery for breakfast (not the hotel). At around 9 we meandered to the local inside market. It is about 2 blocks long both ways and has hundreds of vendors inside. We bought fresh juice, dried fruits that tasted like candy (one of them was called purple pineapple, it tasted good but I have no clue what it was), nut and citrus meringue, sheep cheese, and more oranges. It was cold outside and as we headed to a castle on the edge of town we tried to stay in the sun. We arrived at the castle and climbed to the top. From there you could see the whole town. We went back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and went shopping for about an hour before heading to the airport. I found my favorite american clothing store and may have bought a sweater. That was the end of our trip.
Day one:
We left for the Zürich Airport at at 8:45 with one backpack each (I was quite surprised I could fit everything into one small backpack). Our train left at 9:26 and on the way there we enjoyed a coffee. We took a lot of selfies with a strange lens my host brother has. You can attach it to the camera on your phone and it distorts your photos making really funny faces. After a quick train-change-dash in the main train station we made it to the Zürich Airport. Our train was registration, tickets, security, oh-no, back to registration, back to security, and so on. Right as our flight was boarding we arrived, got seated, and prepared for the take off. At 1:30 our plane arrived in Valencia. It was much warmer than Switzerland, a whopping 64 degrees! Soon we found our car rental and were on the road. After seeing how people in Spain drive, I have decided that if I ever live there I will need to use the metro. It took us nearly 45 minutes to find a parking space in the old part of the city and we nearly got crashed into about 40 times! When we finally hit the streets it was around 3 o'clock and almost everyone was asleep taking the afternoon naps. We strolled around the city looking at all of the old buildings, stopping at small bakeries, and taking tons of pictures. We were able to tour through one of the buildings that had previously been used as trading/bank house. It consisted of 4 main rooms and a large orange tree orchard in the middle. By 5 o'clock we had seen everything in the city and decided to travel towards the beach to find a hotel for the night (considering that we were so last minute we had not yet booked one). This turned out to be harder than it seemed due to the fact that most people own vacation homes so there are not many hotels, and people don't normally go to Spain in winter so a lot was closed. For about 1 hour we searched and drove until we took a short stop on a beautiful beach to take photos at sunset. It became to cold outside so we continued driving until we found a (somewhat sketchy) hotel near the beach. By this time it was already 8 or 9 at night and we all had a flabbergastingly large appetite. The hotel clerk told us of an Italian restaurant about one block away. When we arrived the Restaurant appeared to be closed. The two workers inside said something about closed and five minutes in broken English (language was a problem because none of us spoke good Spanish). We assumed that it was closing in 5 minutes considering that it was so late. After being ushered in we figured out that it was in fact opening in 5 minutes. After a large dinner of pasta and pizza we went back to the hotel and slept!
Day two:
On Tuesday morning we ate breakfast in the hotel. Many things went wrong at breakfast. To start off all of the drinks had about 3 cups of sugar added to them and would have given anyone a sugar rush. I decided to go for toast considering the limited options. My host mom went to the conveyer belt like toaster before me with american-style bread and it seemed to work fine. I decided to use the Spanish bread (which tastes much better than american bread) It turned out that my bread was a little too large because it caught on fire mid way through the toaster. After blowing out the flames on the bread, I opted to eat non-toasted bread. As I sat down, I looked at what my host brother had chosen to eat. I saw cereal and milk with what appeared to be purred fruit onto. It wasn't necessarily my choice but it did look good. Upon his first bite we figured out that the fruit was in fact crushed tomatoes. He scooped the crushed tomatoes out of his bowl and continued eating. After a few bites he decided that tomato and cereal do not go together and also turned to the non-toasted toast. Once breakfast was over me and my host siblings headed down to the beach for about 15 minutes before packing up and heading out for a day in the Spanish sun (and the Spanish wind). Our first stop was a old castle on a hill. It took us about 30 minutes to find a parking spot in the small town at the foot of the hill. After many u-turns, sudden brakes, and yells of STOP STOP, we found a parking space. The view from the top was amazing. The castle was huge and we were able to explore it head to toe. All of the feelings and floors were gone, along with most walls. It left a lot of open space and great places to climb. After about an hour of exploring a worker there saw may host brother and I on the edge of one of the castle walls, he yelled something in Spanish, that was the end of our climbing up the walls. It was still nice just walking around the rest. In the second half of the day we headed back to Valencia to check out the modern architecture part of the city. I will not write much about it but be sure to check out the photos because it looks really cool! Later on we went to the beach. On the walk there we bought some oranges from a street vendor. They may have been the most amazingly amazing tasting oranges I have ever had. With sticky hands we arrived at the beach. My host siblings and I played in the frigid water (only ankle deep) while my host parents waited at the restaurant near by. We played at playground before heading back to Valencia to go to our Hotel (new and reserved in the middle of the city). For dinner we went to a Spanish restaurant and ate Pallela, a typical Spanish rice dish. For dessert we got giant ice cream cones (my flavors were kinder bueno and kit kat). We piggy backed on the way back to the hotel. It was quite fun.
Day three:
On our last day we woke up and ate at a Bakery for breakfast (not the hotel). At around 9 we meandered to the local inside market. It is about 2 blocks long both ways and has hundreds of vendors inside. We bought fresh juice, dried fruits that tasted like candy (one of them was called purple pineapple, it tasted good but I have no clue what it was), nut and citrus meringue, sheep cheese, and more oranges. It was cold outside and as we headed to a castle on the edge of town we tried to stay in the sun. We arrived at the castle and climbed to the top. From there you could see the whole town. We went back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and went shopping for about an hour before heading to the airport. I found my favorite american clothing store and may have bought a sweater. That was the end of our trip.
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