The curious world of Swiss daytime television

I’ve been home sick for one week now, so you could describe me as a Swiss daytime television expert. Something I am obviously incredibly proud of.
Here are the things you miss out on if you have a job; aka things I have seen on TV this week:
- A cow trying in vain to give birth, taking too long. A vet and two student vets attempting to pull the calf out manually, taking too long. Calf dying (well, I didn’t actually see that bit, since it happened inside the cow). A vet and two student vets slicing open said cow and pulling out a dead calf.
- A woman breast-feeding in an advert for baby powder milk. Having lived for quite a while in continental Europe, I’ve grown used to seeing women’s breasts advertising shampoo on a billboard. This only shocked me because I thought there were so many anti-breast-feeding-in-public people about. Perhaps they all have jobs and don’t watch daytime television.
- Enough poor English on CNN to last me a lifetime. Where do they find their presenters for goodness sake?
- A teenage mother shouting at her mother after she insisted that Friday night was the only night she wouldn’t look after her daughter’s child. Daughter complained then that she had no free time. Mother said welcome to motherhood. They made up, predictably, and then the mother decided to treat her irresponsible daughter to a trip to the solarium. As if she wasn’t orange enough already.
- Peer Steinbruck, the German Minister of Finance, talking angrily about money going missing in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. I have never seen this man smile, but then I found this photo of him! What on earth is a politician doing making hand paintings? Curious.
- A hippy looking couple being made over from hideous crumpled tie-dye outfits, to crisp, Goths. Interesting indeed.
- A penguin eeyoring like a donkey.
Unsurprisingly I am looking forward to returning to work soon.

Pretty as a postcard

I was buying a card for my Grandmother the other day; something to cheer her up. I was in a small local shop, and I noticed then, alongside the normal postcards of snowy Swiss mountains, trains, cows and cathedrals, there was a postcard of Altstetten; my little neighbourhood. I found this a little amusing, and I bought it purely because I think my Grandmother would like to see the neighbourhood where I am living. It made me wonder; what deems something worthy of printing a postcard with it on? Is it the number of tourists that visit the place? The density of hotels and guest-houses?
I never saw a postcard of the neighbourhood I lived in Calais; if one had existed I would not have sent it as friends would probably have sent an emergency helicopter to escort me out of the grim-looking place; the France that you only normally saw on the news during riots. There were not many in Valenciennes; but it was not a tourist destination. In Reggio Emilia, there were very few; it is such a beautiful town; more beautiful in my opinion than Venice; purely because it is infinitely more real; more full of Italians and their lives than the museum city on water. Yet, because Reggio Emilia tended to be bypassed by tourists, for the simple fact that it has not been marketed particularly for tourism, the task of finding a postcard to send to family or friends was tricky. Yet Reggio Emilia is simply beautiful, in my opinion.
But is something postcard-worthy simply because it is touristy? I think people should sending postcards of places that people might want to see; not places everyone has seen already. People’s neighbourhoods, thought-evoking graffiti found by a café where a friend had coffee, the local street gang; things that actually say something about the trip…
Above are the postcards I would perhaps have sent from the places I have lived…

(in random order: Reggio Emilia, Calais, Altstetten Zurich and Valenciennes)

The picture of Via Volta in Reggio reminds me of wandering around the streets of Reggio Emilia, without a map, just discovering beautiful little streets, chapels and shops full of delicious looking local delicacies.

The burned-out car in Calais reminds me of the challenges of teaching children who grow up with that landscape as a normality, for whom it is entirely normal to hear sirens all night, to wake up and find there has been a fire in their neighbour's flat. It was really a rough place, and one that I would not like to live in again, but I had an amazing ten months there and wouldn't change my experience of 'la ZUP.'

The station in Altstetten, in snow. This actually reminds me of flat-hunting in December; when I found myself on a number of occasions walking down dark streets in snowstorms, clutching a print-out from google maps.

A square in Valenciennes; this is not the big square; the Place d'Armes, but a calmer one a few streets away, where a great cafe put tables and chairs outside in the spring and summer, and the Polish lady would hang local art on the walls. The cafe had perhaps the smallest toilet I have ever been to; you had to go in, sit on the toilet and put your legs either side of the seat in order to close the door, and as you sat your nose almost touched the door.

A Japanese Routine...by Paula

My wonderful friend Paula wrote this about her life in Japan and I think it was worthy of a blog spot...

Thought you might be interested in what daily life is like in Japan for me.

Daily routine Monday to Friday. I wake up at 7:30 and get dressed. I live in a parking space - literally, that is the size of my apartment. I love it though, its easy to keep clean and find stuff and I have decorated it mostly peach. Although most of my friends sleep on futons, I have a sofa that unfolds into a bed (which I didn't realise for the first three months!), so I sleep on that. My main room (aka bedroom/living room/computer room etc) has one wall as a window which is great in the warm weather (now to November) but proved a little chilly in the winter (and by chilly I mean FREEZING!). The thing to do in Japan is have a table that has a built in heater under it. You put a big blankety duvet thing over the table, turn it on, slip your legs under and roast slowly. Its fabulous, but I can no longer justify using it in the spring as it's up to about 20 degrees already.I live on the 6th floor (although there is no 4th floor and no 4th numbered apartment as the word for 4 is the same as the word for death!). So I race down in the lift at 7:50 to get a tram from across the road. Sometimes I run into (not literally) my neighbour who is New Zealand/Taiwanese. There are about 10 westerners living in the building. The tram takes me to the train station (which is halfway to my school). And I walk the other 10 minutes to school. I could cycle it quicker but you can't cycle in the rain or snow so I haven't been able to recently but I think as of the new term (next week) I will start again. My normal school is a middle school so the students are between 12 and 15. There are 750 students (so its one of the biggest in my area) and about 60 teachers. As soon as I walk in I change into my indoor shoes (can't be traipsing outdoors dirt into the school). I rush to be at my desk by 8:15 (this is by far the hardest part of my job). I sit next to the head English teacher who is about 55. She is a real tough cookie who is always the first to react to a problem and she is really good to me. I bring my laptop into school where there is conveniently a wireless network so that I can run both my laptop and my iTouch. :)I normally teach about 3 classes a day. This involves me escorting the regular English teacher to the lesson, bowing with the students, doing greetings and then standard lesson stuff that is meant to looke educational. I have to make worksheets and stuff. Generally it all goes smoothly (except the one time I had my zip undone!). The teachers range from help to hinderance. The students generally are still mastering 'I like baseball' so there's not much room for experimentation. They do come up with some gems though: One student wrote about his summer vacation to the seaside and ended it with: lets enjoy be octopusses together. It made me soo happy. I get lunch at school with all the other teachers. this means that I pick up a tray from the kitchen area in our staffroom and carry it to my desk. It generally comprises of a vegetable soup, some small fish and veg, and a bowl of rice. And always a carton of milk. Its generally delicious. We all eat the same thing and then clear our trays and stack them at the front of the kitchen. Some days we get strawberries too :) The students eat the same thing as we do. They eat in their homeroom classrooms and the homeroom teacher eats with them. After lunch I generally succeed in passing the 3 or so hours by studying Japanese and reading the times online. I think I told you that I write for and edit the local JET community newspaper here so I also try and get a bit of that done during the day. At about 3 the students all clean the school. They have tiny little cloths that they race up and down the corridor with. It is extraordinary. They LOVE it!In the afternoon most kids stay until 6 or so doing club activities. Like baseball or brassband. Every student does something. I, however, leave school at 4. I go for a run around the park near my house (it has a zoo in it!) for about half an hour after work, but I think that will have to change soon as it will be baking by that point in the afternoon from April. I get home about half past 4 and make a toasted cheese sandwich as I walk in (the advantage of having your kitchen in your front hallway :). I normally have something to do in the evenings. I eat with friends at least twice a week and I have a Japanese lesson on Wednesdays. I cook (microwave) my own dinner about once a week, if that. I have 2 visiting school, which are both primary school. These are loads more fun and I am good friends with the two women I teach with there. The kids are FANTASTIC at English and love it and me. They point at my eyes and my hair and love how round my head is. The lessons tend to be games in various guises so I basically am a clown in these lessons. I love primary schools. I come home with my pockets full of acorns and origami hearts.