Holidays in the West

      I was able to go home for two weeks to visit family and friends for the holiday. Nuno came along for the festivities, but Ryder stayed behind. We got there a few days before Christmas, and then Kevyn followed coming from Japan, and then Jenny from Boston. The Chung family Christmas traditions continued including way too many presents as usual. A couple of days after Christmas, Nuno and I drove to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Luxor hotel and saw the magician Criss Angel's show Believe. We also saw the Bodies Exhibition and the Venetian's Madame Tussands wax museum.
     We then returned to good old Rancho Cucamonga for a dinner at Lucille's BBQ. Nuno and I then left the next day to go to Universal Studios where we took the VIP tour, which not only allowed us to go to the front of the lines, but we got a personal back stage lot tour where we got to see the set of the television show Parenthood, the prop storage with the original E.T, and we were able to take pictures in front of the clock tower from Back to the Future (sadly the clock was being repared). At night we met up with Jenny, Jenny's brother Chris, and Kevyn for dinner in Pasadena.
     The next day was New Year's Day and we went to Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, where sadly the hand prints were closed off. We took a bus tour of Hollywood, which ended up being 90% a tour of celebrities houses: this is where Michael Jackson's came out in a body bag kind of thing. We then proceeded to head to San Diego to stay at Brady and Fred's house (who sadly were in Japan). We had a nice dinner at a place called Bali Hai on Shelter Island overlooking the harbor and downtown. I was able to see many friends, and I had dinner with some at my favorite restaurant in Oceanside, Hill Street Cafe. On the last day we hit up the San Diego Zoo with my ex-coworker and her baby before heading back to Rancho.

Kimberly, Valentin, Katy, and I at Hill Street Cafe

In front of the Excalibur Hotel

At the San Diego Zoo with the pandas

E.T. is 30 years old!

Marilyn in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater

Ovlera Street churros stuffed with caramel!

     For the remainder of our trip we did some last minute shopping to take advantage of the cheap price, and on the final day took a trip around LA. We went to Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street and finally got to see the hand prints in Hollywood before heading off to the airport. Au revoir lovely Cali!

Fête de l'Escalade

A chocolate cauldron is a symbol of this holiday

      La fête de l'Escalade is the oldest celebration in Geneva. It is the night of December 11th/12th in 1602 that the Duke of Savoy marched his army to Geneva. He intended to take the city by surprise and wipe out the heresy within, before making Geneva capital of his territories. When the soldiers began to attack, an alarm was sounded and the citizens of Geneva took up arms to attack the army. As the cannon roared, the Savoyard army was forced to retreat. The next day the citizens of Geneva went to the churches to thank God for saving them from grave danger. One of the myths that surroung the holiday is that a woman dumped a big cauldron of hot soup on the attackers, so the chocolate cauldron symbolizes that story. These marmittes are filled with marzipan vegetables.
     Nuno, Ryder, and I took a visit to the Old City of Geneva for the fesivities of the Escalade. Many people were dressed in traditional clothing at the time of the Escalade in the 1600's. There was also musicians marching through the streets playing specific songs to celebrate the holiday. Sadly, the drummers scared Ryder. We were also able to go through the Passage de Monetier that is only open for the Escalade. One of my favorite things about the celebration is the mulled wine, so good!

The typical regalia

Mulled Wine aka Vin Chaud

A group of the citizens of Geneva stand in front of the Palace of Justice

Nuno and I attack each other with traditional weapons at the time

Watch out I have a weapon I am not afraid to use!

Drummers marching through the street

Bern

Two Bear Cubs playing at Bear Park

     This weekend, I had the chance to visit the capital of Switzerland, Bern. It is about a two hour train ride away from Geneva. I met up with a friend, Sophie, who I met in San Diego, but she lives in Zurich. She was my tour guide for the afternoon, which was great because I do not speak Swiss-German. We spent our afternoon eating Italian food for lunch. Then walking around the center of the village. We wandered over to the Bear Park which was located next to the river Aare. The Bear is the iconography of Bern, also seen on the canton's flag. After checking out the bears, Sophie and I hiked up a hill to the Rose Gardens, which sadly at this time of year does not have many roses. We met up with one of her friends who lives near the city of Bern. I thought Bern was a charming city and it was a great opportunity to explore another part of Switzerland. Thanks Sophie!

Federal Palace of Switzerland

Cool statue on the street

Zytglogge Bernese German for "Time Bell"

Albert Einstein's house

Sophie and I on the bridge crossing the River Aare

View from the Rose Gardens

Chocolate Overload

Chocolate Version of the Flower Clock

     This past weekend, my friend Michelle and I went to a Chocolatier Exhibition in Geneva. There was about twenty-five chocolatiers from around Switzerland and some parts of France. Each chocolatier had a booth with their products, and the best part...samples! Michelle and I had to pace ourselves so we would not go overboard. My favorite chocolatier was Poyet, which is located in Vevey, Switzerland. I enjoyed how they had really different flavors and descriptions of each chocolate. My two favorite chocolates from them were one called Mumbai, which had the flavors of Indian masala tea and mango jelly; the other was called Kundun and it had an infusion of lotus flower and Himalaya salt. From another chocolatier, Honald from Zurich, I had a margarita chocolate that was strong, but interesting. There were also macaroons, but our focus was the chocolate of course!

The crowds of people trying to get their chocolate fix on

Chocolate machine...yum!

Chocolate sculptures, do not touch!

Belgium and Luxembourg Trip

Spurkees Bank Tower, Luxembourg

     I had the opportunity to travel to another part of Europe with my two friends Michelle and Justin last week. In our four day trip we traveled to the country of Belgium and Luxembourg. For each day of travel we were in a different city, or in the case of Luxembourg, a different country. In Belgium, we were in the cities of Brugge, Ghent, and Bruxelles. In Luxembourg, we traveled to Luxembourg city.
     Our journey began very early on Saturday morning where we flew from Geneva to Bruxelles. Once we were in Bruxelles, we took a train to Brugge, and before departing we ate waffles! Once we were in Brugge we ventured to find our hotel in the rain. After that mission was accomplished, we headed back into the city center and the new mission of finding chocolate commenced. There were so many chocolate shops it was hard to chose so we tried a couple of different ones. After too much chocolate, we thought real food would be a good idea and so Michelle and I tried to each finish a big pot of mussles and shared a beer. We then proceeded to climb up the Belfry tower of Bruge, or Belfort all 366 steps to get a magnificent view of the city.The next day in Brugge, we went on a boat tour, sadly it rained while we were on boat in the canals.
     The three of us then ventured by train to Ghent. We toured around Graversteen castle, which was located near our hostel. We had a nice dinner by the water and then saw one of the orginal city gates. The next day we arose early and took a train to Bruxelles and then another train to Luxembourg, which took almost 4 hours. Luxembourg is a very beautiful city with different levels of landscape. We took a tour around the city on a tourbus and then walked around to admire the architecture and the landscape. Our dinner was passed at a lovely French restaurant, where the waitress spoke 7 different languages. She was learning her 8th one: Luxembourgish.
     Four our final day of the trip, we returned to Bruxelles. We toured around the Grand Place and found Manneken Pis. He is the famous small boy statue that pees into the water basin. There are a lot of legends that surround the statue, but the more interesting tradition is how he changes costumes a few times each week and he has over 700 outfits housed in the city musuem. We then stocked up on chocolate and ate waffles and fries before heading toward the airport. Sadly, we missed our flight, but caught a later one and returned safely to Geneva.

Michelle and I share a beer

View from the belfry in Brugge

Gravensteen Castle in Ghent

Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent

View of Luxembourg City

Me in Luxembourg

The Grand Place in Bruxelles, gray building is the City Museum

Manneken Pis, famous statue in Bruxelles

Justin eating Belgium fries

Walks around Geneva

Swans is Lake Léman

     In order to take advantage of the weather while it is still decent here in Geneva, I have been taking walks with my friend Michelle. The first walk we went on was one that Michelle found in a book called the "Two Rivers Walk" where the River Rhône and the River L'Arve meet. It is interesting because the two rivers have a different look to them. One is clean, clear, and turquoise blue, and the other is dirty, cloudy and light gray. After we reached that point we crossed a bridge and went up a hill toward Bois-de-la-Bâtie. This is also the place where they have a free zoo. Most of the animals are in cages, but they let some birds roam free and my shoes were pecked at by some chickens who thought they were food.
     On another day, we took a walk around the center of Geneva with a walking tour focused on the watch industry in Switzerland. It was interested to be able to see buildings where the top floors were made specifically for watch making. We walked around and looked at not only older clocks dating back to 18th century, but also to different shops that showcased the many varieties of watches here as well as equipment for how watches used to be made. We ended our tour at the famous Flour Clock. The clock is made up of some 6,500 flowers, and the clock's second hand is more than 2.5 metres long - reportedly the longest in the world.
     Our most recent walk was around the area of Carouge. The center of Carouge is made up of small boutiques, which often had locally made products. We ended up going to the Museum of Carouge that had a exhibition of old toys, some from the 1890's like paper puppet stages using light to create shadows of the characters on the stage. The walk was cut short because it began to rain. That is what I come to expect here in Geneva, you never know what the weather will be like. I am mentally preparing for the winter weather.

Local graffiti

The point where the rivers meet

Aggressive duck at the zoo

The top of this building is the typical old style of the region

The flour clock

An interesting sculpture in Carouge

Mini-Adventures in Switzerland

A flag that includes all the cantons in Switzerland.

     The weather has been beautiful in Geneva lately, and so it is a cause for adventures outdoors. On this past Friday, Nuno and I went to go walk around an outside park area and this place had archery so we decided to give it a try. As many of you know archery has been a popular pastime in some recent movies: The Hunger Games and Brave. I turned out not to be so good at it and the cord injured my arm in the process. Nuno was pretty natural at it (I blame video games).
     During the weekend, Nuno, his best friend Fred, and Fred's girlfriend Claudine visited a place called The Grottos of Vallorbe, which is about an hour-and-a-half away from Geneva. It is a beautiful cave formation that is filled partly with water. It was 10 degrees Celcius inside, but the natural beauty of the inside of the caves was worth it. My favorite part was at the very end of the tour which includes a light show accompanied by music.
     Our last mini-adventure was an a 1940's bunker not to far away from the Grottos. It was 8 degrees inside and it was interested to see, unfortunately the tour guide spoke rapid French so I did not understand much. The tour was interesting because those kind of military places are often off limits in the United States. The more I see in Switzerland, the more I realize I have barely covered much ground in Europe, but the future deems itself open to more traveling possibilities.

Me and the target were not friends.

Nuno showing off.

I shot this arrow!

In the grotto, no flash was allowed.

The rock formations inside the grotto

The outside of the bunker, notice the US flag.

A map of the locations of the other bunkers.