Today is the day! I have a job interview at the Swiss Embassy. I am interviewing for a job as cultural attache.
And I like culture.. See the picture? I am trying to enhance a sculpture in Rio de Janeiro!

Marina outside our building

You saw a picture of the Whole Foods parking lot. On the other side of the building is this little boat parking area. You can tell, I am running out of things to tell in my blog :)
Tomorrow, I am going to Manhattan. I will take some cool pictures there.

Indoor jacuzi and in the back - that-s the gym

Hey Baba,
das ist er. Jetzt warte ich auf ein Bild Deines Basketball spielers? :)

The Weekend

This weekend Ben and I went to meet with Eric and Robyn for dinner. We had a great time and spent 3hrs eating! Anyways, on Saturday I went to the HSG Alumni meeting in Hoboken. (That is about 15 min down the road from us on the New Jersey side). Because the New York Area (also called "Tri-state area" which includes New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) is so big, around 20'000 Swiss people live around here. What do these Swiss People do here? They work for UBS, SwissRe and some of them try to sell Migros Ice-T to New Yorkers! (a HSG'ler!) By the way, he doesn't sell Thomy Mayo which everybody seems to ask him.
On Sunday we went to an Outlet mall in Short Hills. Ben and I went to the Nike store. I am still to spoiled by designer like Swiss Nike stuff so I didn't even take a look at their merchandise. But one thing I noticed.. they sell clothes in XXXXXL because that looks odd the write 5XL in the store! (that is about as big as half a tent!) and then I was suddenly covered by a shadow and a big black hand grabbed the T-shirt. I guess some people actually wear that size here :(

Ben and I went to the Red Eye Grill - a very good Steak restaurant in NY.

I just couldn't resist taking a picture of that.. (sorry!)

For the non-english speakers: The translation in German means approximately: Paper blanket toilet seat and in french: toilet lid ;)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhh Cicada!

Ok, last night at 8pm (I just got home) I hear this incredible loud noise.. It's so lound I think that's the loudes noise I have ever heard. So I walk around our apartment and I see this insect.. it's about 10 cm long. (See picture!!). Nobody told me about these! They are called cicada - or secada. Luckily the maintenance guy killed it!

here a definition:

Cicada, empty shell . . . (Magicicada septendecim) Native to North America.
Also known as the Seventeen-year Locust. This is an incredibly noisy and strange
creature! (Photograph has been rotated 90 degrees to the left for better viewing.)
The adult cicadas live but a short prairie summer. The larvae, when hatched, enter
the ground and remain there for 17 years feeding on the juices of roots. They then
hatch as a light brown (pictured above) grub, without developed wings of any kind.
They nest then without a cocoon, in their own skin. The skins (again, pictured above)
then split open on the back, and can be found hanging on the sides of trees.

Hello.
This is me.

Ok, this huge buildig in the back is our apartment house! We live in an apartment all the way on the right corner. I took the picture from the Whole Foods parking lot yesterday. As you can see the weather is still very nice - and for the Swiss people reading this - we haven't had a single rain drop in at least 2 weeks.
There will be a cocktail party on Friday at our pool. I will take some pictures and post them! They have been cleaning the pool area since Monday for the big event. I hope I can get Ben to stop working so we can go. That said, there are very interesting people living in the building. There is a bounty hunter (a guy that catches bad guys) and there is also a famous Yankees player: Ruben Sierra. Unfortunately I havent seen him yet. Or maybe I have but I didn't know it was him :) Well now I know how he looks so I'll keep my eyes open.

Oh yes, I forgot I have a car now (thanks Ben!) I love it, it's stick shift and it's red. All I need is a Swiss sticker so people will know why I am driving like a retard. Driving in America is quite different than in Switzerland. For some reason Americans obey to certain rules (and get really upset if you don't comply with that rule) while they are more relaxed on other rules. For example indicating ("Blinker") on highways - no one indicates a lane change. As a matter of fact people simply look in the mirror and change lanes, you would think blind spots don't exist over here. So it's always the duty of the car behind to stop or slow down to avoid an accident. On the other hand a Stop sign is a Stop sign and if you don't stop you get in real trouble.
As a side note: Never drink alcohol in a car, not even when you are just sitting in a parked car. Alcohol is a big No-No and if caught:
3 months driving suspension, $400 fine, 12-48h in an Intoxicated Driver Resource Center, up to 30d imprisonment, $100 drunk driving fund fee, $100 Alcohol Education Fee, $1000 annual surcharde for 3 Years and the list goes on.. and that is for first offence..

This is a picture of our outdoor pool. As you can see there is almost nobody there. This will drastically change at 3pm when hordes of screaming children, babies and other little individuals will crowd the pool.

Here you can see the view a little better. The parking lot you can see belongs to Whole Foods. An "organic" supermarket which is very trendy at the moment. (By the way ticker symbol is WFMI and a lot of people think its a buy). Anyway, they have lots of cool products e.g. Biotta juices and A. Vogel spices and Lindt chocolate..

My Swiss Treasures

Take a look at my Swiss treasures. I can even order real Bratwurst if I like. America is great! Thanks for the Aromat mom, Tayfun this is my last Suchard Express ;)
On the left you can see a little plant. It's my peppermint plant. When I was working in Geneva I used to make peppermint tea for my boss every morning. That's what got me started on peppermint. As soon as I got here I had to plant my own plant (from a seed!). At my last day I found out that it wasn't peppermint my boss was drinking.. oh well.. I am hooked.