タラコinイケア

家具だけではなく、食品コーナーも豊富なイケア。今回はちょっと気になるものを発見：

キ・・・・キャビア？！ ∑ヾ(￣0￣； )ノ

しかもチューブに入ってるってことは・・・・ぺ、ペースト状？！ ｺﾞｼｺﾞｼ(-_＼)(/_-)三( ﾟДﾟ) ｽ､ｽｹﾞｰ

とはいうもののスウェーデン語で「キャビア」は鱈の卵、つまりタラコのことらしい。

一緒にイケアに同行した友達（スウェーデン3年在住）によるとこれをクラッカーの上にゆで卵や野菜と一緒にこのペーストを乗せて食べるらしい。 しかし北欧はペースト好き。フィンランドに行ったときもペーストのものがたくさん売ってたな～寒い地域なので保存食の一環なのだか。

成分はこんな感じ：

あ、フランス語なのでおおよそ訳すとやはりタラの卵、塩、水、油、ジャガイモフレークなど。至って普通のペーストっぽいですね。

家に帰って検索してみるとアメリカ人などの英語圏のブログなどによるとかなり不評・・・まあ魚の卵どころかシーフードさえ抵抗があるので無理っぽいですね。フランスでは似たような商品があるとかないとか・・パテのペーストを愛用する国民としては受け入れやすいのかも。そして海外在住の日本人奥様方によるとこれをタラコスパゲティーに愛用しているのだとか。 次回ぜひ試してみるのでお楽しみに♪


（ちなみに残念ながら日本のイケアでは販売されてないそうな？）

IKEA Lunch

I'm sure you're sick of me telling you this but Switzerland is expensive. Very expensive. 

Buying a cheap sandwich for take out costs you over $10 and a tall Starbucks latte costs you about $8. Go figure about eating out at a restaurant. 

Hence, everyone is always on the lookout for cheap good places to eat around here. Yes, you may scoff at me for mentioning IKEA as a good place to eat but really, when general prices are so high around here you really appreciate the affordable descent food. I suppose the food court at IKEA in the USA isn't the most ideal place when you have a huge wide variety of cheap(er) foods to eat in the area. But for other countries it's quite nice: In Japan I had a few IKEA lunches with my friends in which we specifically go to IKEA to eat and then we'd do a bit of window shopping afterwards.  This is the brilliant business scheme of this company in which a space is provided for people to eat which then can lure people into do some shopping afterwards.

  

In any case I stuffed myself with a huge lunch and the bill was around $15.. even with the beer included which is merely impossible anywhere else in the city. In my school cafeteria, it costs the same with just the meatballs and fries and it's half the size. Happy soul happy stomach. IKEA is awesome. 

東京にいた頃も時々やっていたイケアランチ　笑。大衆食堂だけど安いしおいしいし、お茶もできるので友達と長時間わいわいお話しするにはもってこいの場所です☆　物価の高いスイスでは外食をすると最低でも3000円以上はするので学生には痛いのだけどイケアではトレーいっぱいに食べ物を載せても2000円ほど。学食が1200円ぐらいなのでホントにお得。食い意地が張ってるのでたくさん食べちゃいました。さてさてこの後は買い物をしてカロリー消費です！

The IKEA experience

If there's one place I'd like to write a thank you letter, it has to be IKEA. Throughout my college years, time in Japan, and now in Switzerland, no other place has been more entertaining and kind to my wallet than this franchise. 

Of course there's something very soothing looking at model show case rooms AND your eyes not falling on the floor looking at the prices. If planned right, most of the items in those show rooms are actually attainable. Plus, you can actually feel/sit/sleep on them and interact with the rooms. I'm sure I'm not the only one that day dreams about all the "what if I had this room..." scenarios! 

 

MY dream room

And also Switzerland has a IKEA family card. As far as I know, only a few countries have these but it's quite useful - a bit like a Safeway card which you can get on the spot and get discounts and promotions. Can't go wrong with those in a place like Switzerland which those are hard to come by!

そしてついでにイケア・ファミリーカードもGet! 店内数箇所に専用機械が置いてあるのでその場で作成可能♪ カードがあると商品によって割引だったり、特別セールなどがあるのでかなりお得感ありですｖ（＾＾）ｖ

さらにさらに、イケアではご当地別に食べ物や商品が若干違ったりします・・・日本ではメンチカツやカレーのメニューがあるそうですが、ここスイスではワッフルスタンドがありました♪

1個2フラン（約200円）☆　オーダーするとその場でプレートで熱々にしてくれます。外はカリカリ、中はふわふわでほんのりお砂糖のシロップの味がしておいしいです。プラス1フランでチョコソースや生クリームもかけてくれます。商品を見て歩きながらたべれれるのも◎ そしてレジの外にはまたフードコートがあり、歩き回って疲れた買い物客はみるみる立ち寄っていきます。あたしも釣られてソフトクリームを買ってしまった（1フラン）。それにしてもイケアの商法ってホントに感心するばかり・・・初代創立者は年々世界番付に入るのもわかります。

Thanksgiving

For Americans living overseas who can't be back for Thanksgiving, this holiday brings back lots of sentimental and nostalgic memories. It must be one of the few holidays that all Americans participate regardless of race, immigrant status, national origin, religion, etc. It brings friends and family together with the one thing we all love most: food. I remember my mother struggling to make turkey when I was little as not only do turkeys do not exist in Japan but there's no tradition of baking huge things in the oven! We often had a mash of American, Japanese, and Chinese food on the dinner table and it was always the time to sit down really enjoy family time. 

I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving with my family since 2005 which is actually a scary thought. For the past few years, I've been traveling and having "Thanksgiving dinner" with my travelmates. Last year was pretty sad considering it's impossible to find turkey or anything close to Thanksgiving food in Cambodia; but I did take a nice getaway trip with R and some friends and had some traditional Cambodian meals with some amazing sights so I suppose that counted as my Thanksgiving.

Fast forward to this year, of course Switzerland is not big on Thanksgiving either and I'm not part of the expat American cliques around here. But nevertheless, it's good to spend time with good friends, good company, and of course good beer :)  

Sidenote: This year I did have Thanksigiving dinner with my usual travel partner in crime, Nancy in Helsinki which was pretty darn amazing. I'll post those once I finish editing the pics! 

 

This is what I'm thankful for! 

Happiness is with people you care!

Just a Tuesday Night

Sorry to brag my very busy hard working friends...but the best part about students is that we can make it to happy hour. I earn zero money so you gotta give me slack on having some time to get some cheap beer! Here are some pictures I've found on my phone... some of which I'm not sure who took them!

水道水

アルプスのふもとに位置するスイスはもちろん、西ヨーロッパや北欧圏では蛇口からそのまま水道水が飲めます。東京やサンフランシスコの水道水も安全で飲めるけどカルキ臭くてどうしても飲めなかったのだけどヨーロッパはさすが水の国、ミネラルウォーター並みにおいしい。調査によると市販のペットボトルの水よりも安全なのだとか。

最初スイスに来たとき友達がトイレに行った際に手を洗った後にそのまま蛇口から水筒に水を汲み出したので日本の感覚から行くと、「へ？便所の水を飲むの?」とかなりびっくりしましたが、こっちでは至って普通の行為。所変われば品（行動）変わるとはまさにこのこと。

ISO Conference

I had the privilege to go to CERN the other day for a conference. For those that you are not familiar with CERN you will probably get better definitions on Google as I'll probably give you a very diluted explanation and attenuate the great works that are done there. Basically, imagine the guys in Big Bang Theory at work....well that's all you need to imagine. It's geek-dork central (in a good way).

In any case, the conference was totally unrelated with the activities at the site. It was a conference for International Standards Organization  which is a major partnership with my program. Obviously I didn't understand everything that was going on after just a mere 2 months of classes; plus speakers came from all fields and some were very technical. Nevertheless it gave me a good sense of how the things I learn in lecture are applied and used in various sectors. All in all a good experience for the many more conferences I have to attend in the future.


先日フランスとスイスの国境近くにある欧州原子核緩急機構にお邪魔してきました。どんなところかというと・・・とにかく世界の秀才物理学者が集まって核に関する研究が行われている場所です　笑。とにかく難しすぎて大した説明になっていなくてすみません　汗。 訪問目的は学科の研究でパートナーシップを結んでいいる国際標準協会のシンポジウムが行われたので研究生として特別招待していただきました☆　さまざまな分野で活躍されている方たちが発表するのですがあまりにも専門過ぎてちんぷんかんぷんな部分もありましたが（汗）普段講義で学んだことがこういう風にしてビジネスや研究で生かされているんだなと知るいい機会でした。

Yes, this is part of CERN too

Tour of the CERN

After party reception!

そして余談ですがちょっとびっくりしたのがシンポジウム後の打ち上げ会。キャビアぎっしり詰まったサンドイッチ事件！ ∑(*ﾟдﾟ*)ﾊｯ!　キャビアのぎっしり具合がっっぱない。もちろん食べまくったのでワインが進む進む　笑。フランスとスイスの国境に位置するだけあって太っ腹です。

Caviar filled sandwiches..blingin' yo

Of course being Asian, I couldn't help myself taking a few pictures of the food at the post-conference after party!

Berlin: Art

I've heard this cliche before but really, Berlin is a city of art. Need I say more with the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall?  Plus there's so many other numerous other graffiti/street art in various part of the city which adds so much more color to the city. Moreover, it's very well blended-in with the culture of the city.

Berlin: Extras

Way too many memories, way too many photos to fit in. These are some extra pictures which I love dearly :)

Dima's cat making the perfect pose

I wanna go outside...

hehe funny poster I saw

The Harajuku of Berlin, Mitte district