Dear Switzerland.

I love you.

That is all.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Preview of my Weekend in Ticino.

My dear friend Kara from Minnesota is visiting me for about 10 days, and we're doing our best to make sure that she sees as much of Switzerland as possible. We just spent a long weekend in Ticino (the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland), and it was totally gorgeous. More updates to follow!

Eurovision is an Educational Experience.

Late this week, my roommates (Georgie, from England and Max, from Germany) started talking about Eurovision. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about but was excited to join in the related festivities, since this seemed as though it would be an entirely European experience.

Georgie invited some friends around, and we had a lovely dinner party with about 10 people total. There were people from Holland, Germany, England, Switzerland, Spain and even another American! Thank goodness we have a massive dining room table! Then Eurovision began.

Eurovision is a music contest among (primarily) European countries, although countries like Israel and Azerbaijan and Russia were also in the mix. Each country gets one group, and the top 25 groups compete for the prize. There is some American-Idol style voting, in which you text for the country you like best. And you can't vote for the country where you are (based on your cell phone area code). The popular vote is also combined with votes from a panel of judges, and then each of 41 countries awards points to their top 10 picks, in a very complicated and elaborate system.

Apparently Eurovision is not exactly known for its high quality musical stylings, and I have to admit that it was pretty bizarre. From a Swedish Justin-Bieber wanna-be to a French opera singer with the worst hair ever to an Icelandic blues band, the acts really ran the gamut. The clear winner in my mind was a group that basically seemed like gnomes on crack with tinkerbell on a unicycle from a country I couldn't locate on a map (Moldova).



I mean, wow.

Another favorite were the two Irish twins that looked like Lady Gaga crossed with something from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.



Again, wow. I think American Idol would be some much more interesting if it were more like this...

There was also a song in there from Romania about how dimples could change the world, a 70's group from Serbia, and a Georgian heavy metal group, just to name a few.

The music wasn't the only thing of interest, actually. After all of the performances and the voting, each of the 41 countries had one representative present their votes individually. It definitely seemed a little like a popularity contest, with Eastern European countries voting for their neighbors, etc. It was also interesting that countries like San Marino had just as much of a vote as Germany. I feel like I was actually able to get a better sense for European politics and relationships and countries in the process. Overall, it was quite the educational experience. With a healthy bit of bizarre thrown in for good measure.  

What Next?

After having such an interesting and unusual vacation, re-entering the real world has been... well... a little boring. Switzerland no longer seems like such an adventure after Iraq, let's be honest. That's not to say that I'm not enjoying being back, but I have had a harder time than usual coming up with blog topics.

So... here are some highlights from the past two weeks.

Upon returning to Switzerland, I became massively ill with a sinus infection and had my first Swiss doctor experience. Based on my experience, it seems that the doctor's offices are much smaller here than in the US, with only one to three doctors per office. There were no nurses to check me out before I saw the doctor. And the doctor had his desk in the same room as the examining table. It was a new experience, but I was feeling so terribly that I don't remember much.

Thankfully, I recovered for the talk that I gave for the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics PhD Congress. The PhD Congress entailed a day full of talks given by PhD students from the different groups. The institute is very diverse, with physics, biology and chemistry represented, but the major research focus of all of these groups is the environment. I really enjoyed learning about all of the different varieties of science and the interesting questions that are being investigated. After the day of talks, there was a dinner and party at a nearby bar, and I was able to meet lots of people who I have seen around my building but had never met. I even made some new coffee friends!

The weather has been lovely- 70s and sunny almost every day- so I have enjoyed running before work. I have a route that takes me up into the forest, and I run along a ridge in the woods that has a great view towards the Alps!

Speaking of running, I ran the first leg of the SOLA relay race this weekend for my team, which was comprised of people from my research group. The SOLA race is organized by ASVZ, which is the student athletics organization here. The race is an all-day, 120 km relay around Zürich. There are 15 different segments of the race- mine was the first, and started at 7.30 am, while the last segment was not done until 6.00 pm! It was a fun atmosphere, with a mass start of over 400 people. I bumped into several people I knew and even made some new friends. (I may have been wearing my softball t-shirt from last year. Since our team was called "The Experimental Sausages," I think I met many people who wanted to understand my shirt...) After the race, my friend Sarah hosted a big post-race barbecue at her flat, which was super fun! I think at one point we had about 30 people on her roof-top balcony (which was large, but not 30-people large).

To finish off with balconies, on Friday night my roommates and I grilled on our balcony to celebrate Max's birthday. On Saturday, I planted a herb garden on my balcony, which entailed hauling carrying massive bags of dirt around Zürich. And on Sunday, my roommates and I had a 3-hour-long Sunday brunch on the balcony. I heart balconies!

On Being Famous in Turkey.

You may remember that while on our trip we were interviewed by some random Turkish journalist while touring the ruins of Ani. At the time, I doubted that this man was a legitimate journalist. While I still have my doubts, apparently we did make the news. In fact, we made at least 10 Turkish newspapers!

You can find a story here. A complete listing of the stories can be found here.

As Jessica pointed out to me, this journalist did take several liberties with the facts. (Although, to be fair, we have no idea how Celil translated our comments to the journalist.) In fact, Brian didn't really talk with the journalist. And we never said that mosques made us happy. But, there you have it. You never know what is going to happen in Turkey!

Journey Back to the Real World. Whatever That Is.

I have to admit that I have been putting off writing this post, since, to be honest, the end of the trip was fairly anti-climactic. It's hard to top flash floods and hellish immigration experiences, I guess? Or, really, any of the weird and cool and interesting and surreal experiences that we had. (The fact that I got to do this with dear friends makes it even more fantastic! Did I ever expect that my Minnesotan self would go to college in Boston, meet great friends from Tennessee and Washington, attend their wedding in San Francisco, watch them move to Tel Aviv, move myself to Zürich, and then meet in Turkey to vacation in Iraq? Life is so interesting.) I was actually just asked about my Easter vacation by my German teacher, and it was pretty entertaining to see her reaction. At the end of class she was still shaking her head, saying she was having a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that I went to Turkey and Iraq and that I spoke in German with a taxi driver there.

Saturday went something like this: Woke up at smokey hotel due to construction noise. Checked out. Caught bus up to old Mardin. Had lunch in a fancy restaurant. Somehow got separated from Brian when he was looking for a hotel. Helped by a little boy to catch a bus supposedly to the airport and said goodbye to Jessi who went to look for Brian. Bus didn't move for 10 minutes because a tour bus was stuck in a narrow alley. Got out of the bus to walk. Missed bus. Passed by a donkey or two. Bumped into Brian outside of a hotel. Called a taxi at the hotel. Passed a large parade of young people wearing neon wigs, with faces painted, who were chanting something. They stopped to take my picture. Got into the taxi and made it to the airport in time for my flight. A major portion of the safety information time was dedicated to praising Atatürk, given that Saturday was declared Children's Day by Atatürk. At the end of the flight to Ankara, the flight attendant said something in Turkish and didn't translate it. All I understood was the word "American" and then everyone turned around and looked at me. Caught flight from Ankara to Istanbul. Took a normal, metered taxi to the hotel we stayed at when I arrived. Was recognized by receptionist, who gave me a massive suite with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, dining room and bathroom for the cost of a single. Fell asleep to the thumping base of the club downstairs.

Sunday: Happy Easter! Woke up. Caught a taxi back to airport. Drank the most expensive coffee ever. Made it through immigration. Flew back to Zürich. Everyone clapped when we landed. And we were met at the gate by immigration people, who wouldn't even let us off the plane until we could show that we should be there. Then I really knew that I was back. Of course Swiss immigration would meet a flight from Turkey at the gate, even though there are other immigration stations further in the airport. Welcome home! Took wonderfully on-time public transport back to my flat. Was met by my lovely new roommate, Georgie, who wanted to drink tea and sit on the balcony and chat for hours. The end.


It's not only the anti-climactic nature of the end of the trip, but it's also the summing up that I am struggling with. I feel like I saw and heard and felt and touched and met and learned and experienced so much, and it is hard to divide it into themes or even put it in words. At this point, I'm still mulling and absorbing and thinking and processing, but maybe someday I'll have synthesized this trip into a neat little package.

Really, the point of traveling to this part of the world (for me) was to have a hands-on experience with the people and the culture and the history and the present. The fact that this region is both the cradle of civilization and a focal point of current events makes it rich and layered and interesting and complex, and I wanted to get a feel for it. There are some things that you cannot learn from books and the news- only experience will do. And through all of these experiences, I feel that I have gained an increased appreciation for the complexity of situations (here and elsewhere) and the frequent absence of a right or even a good answer. Not necessarily very satisfying, but I think that reality is layered and complicated and full of snarls, and traveling gives you a glimpse of all of the knots and tangles. And I love it!

**Photo Credit: Brian and Jessica Patton.

Leaving is Hard. Literally.

On Friday we had to say goodbye to Sulaymaniyah and our friends and head back towards the border. We had a lovely breakfast of pancakes before heading out to meet our driver. The night before we had met some guys at the English center who tried to arrange a way to drive with us. It didn't end up working, but someone's brother's uncle (or something like that) was a private driver and between all of these people, a private driver was arranged to take us from Sulaymaniah to the border with Turkey, and the route was arranged to be the most scenic (and safe). It's so nice to have people taking care of you!

Our driver was an older man who didn't speak English, but our friends actually called him a couple of times during the trip to check up on us and to make sure that everything was okay. Everything was (mostly) okay, although our driver seemed intent on setting some sort of land-travel speed record. It started raining a half an hour into our 6 hour drive and never really stopped, but we just kept driving. We were going 140 km/hr on some of the smallest mountain roads in Iraq! Luckily, these small roads didn't have as many people, so there was less passing-on-blind-curves than on the larger, more busy roads.

Driving in Iraq is really... unique. Lanes are really just a suggestion, but most of the times people don't drive in them. And there appears to be no speed limit, except randomly-placed speed bumps, which all cars will grind to a crawl to cross over. The only rules of driving that I could catch were: 1) honk when you're passing someone because otherwise they won't know to stay in their lane, 2) put on your hazard lights when slowing down to go over a speed bump, 3) if it's okay for someone to pass you on a mostly-blind curve, turn on your blinker and slow down a little to let them know that they can pass, and 4) drive down the smoothest part of the road whenever possible, especially if it's the opposite side of the road.

So, we hurtled through the countryside in Kurdish Iraq. What we could see was quite stunning, but it was really raining quite hard, so our view was obscured. We had a brief stop at a mosque for noon prayers for our driver and a little later a stop for lunch, but otherwise we were on a mission of speed.

After lunch the rain became harder, and even our driver had to slow down, although he was still passing people. We were in the mountains, and we started to experience massive streams gushing across the road, carrying rocks and mud. We really had to slow down to get through some of these, but our driver was not to be deterred. I'm really thankful that we got through the mountains when we did, given how the situation deteriorated.

We made it out of the mountains and were driving on flats near the border when the water situation really got a little out of control. The roads were quite new, but were not built with continued, monsoon-style rain in mind, so it was basically a wide stretch of asphalt with very high curbs and no drainage. And, as we were in the plain heading towards the Tigris River at the border between Iraq and Turkey, basically all of the water was heading toward us. And our driver didn't speak English, so our attempts to get him to stop or turn around didn't really work.

At first, we were just driving through some big puddles. Then we were driving more slowly through some lakes. Then we were crawling through inches of water, and we could feel the water moving beneath our feet. Then the water started hitting the sides of the car, and it sounded like we were in a pontoon boat. Finally, we really couldn't move any further because the water was so deep. People were stalling all around us. Even semis couldn't really move. An army bulldozer came up next to us and literally started tearing up the side of the road to try to open some sort of outlet for the water. (I'm impressed with how quickly they were there, actually.) There were men out knee-deep in this nasty, rocky, muddy water trying to direct traffic and rescue stalled cars.

Yes, we were making a wake.

Note the man in knee-deep water.

While this may sound a little dangerous, we knew that we weren't in danger of being washed away, because there was really nowhere for us to be washed away to. Probably the biggest danger was the potential for CO poisoning, as we started smelling exhausted and realized that our tailpipe was under water. So, we sat with the windows open in the torrential downpour in our taxi that felt and sounded like a pontoon boat.

Finally our driver got bored with waiting and decided to just go. He went slow enough and didn't stall, thankfully, because I didn't want to get out in that murky water. However, I started noticing that my feet were wet and realized that water was pouring into the car! This still did not appear to phase the driver, so we drove the last 10 minutes to the border with approximately 6 inches of water sloshing around in the bottom of the taxi. Thankfully our bags didn't get wet, as the trunk was high enough. Our driver delivered us to the border and began bailing out his car. We felt so bad! I really never expected that our trip to Iraq would involve flash floods.

Once at the border, we really felt like we had just been through the wringer, between the white-knuckle driving and the pontoon-boat experience at the end. And the experience was just starting.

We procured a taxi driver to get us across the border and into Mardin, where I would fly out of the next day. He really knew how to work the system. Since Kurdish people really like Americans, he and Brian would go to the front of a line and get the guards to let us skip ahead because we were American. While Brian was standing for hours in the pouring rain, Jessi and I stayed nice and warm and dry in the car (there are benefits to being a second-class citizen at times). At all of the posts, the people just wanted to see Brian, and Jessi and I got through mostly without a second glance. We got through the Kurdish border formalities in about two hours, skipping past hundreds of people and cars.

However, things then ground to a halt. We got onto the bridge over the Tigris River between Iraq and Turkey and stopped. We were on the bridge (over the raging Tigris River in heavy rain) for 4 hours without moving. I think we literally drove across Northern Iraq in a shorter amount of time than it took for us to cross this bridge. We didn't really have any idea what was going on, but there was no moving forwards or backwards, so we just sat. Eventually we found out that that the Turkish computers were down. Seriously.

Once things were moving again, we got through the Turkish border stations in about 1.5 hours, but, again, we were flying through because we were Americans! They really didn't search our bags or even ask us about the cigarettes that our driver had us carry in for him.

At this point, we had been with this driver for 7 or 8 hours and had gone 2 km or so. We all have decided that we are most definitely flying the next time, war zone taxes or no war zone taxes. I do think it's a little ironic that the major problems that we had at the border coming and going were on the Turkish side, and not the Kurdish side, which doesn't even have reliable electricity!

Our driver drove us to Mardin (not via the road on the border with Syria, but one through the mountains with several army checkpoints). At first he seemed like a granny driver to us, but then we realized that he was just driving a normal rate of speed through the mountains and night. We didn't arrive in Mardin until 2 am, but were able to call ahead and make sure that a hotel room was available. What a day!

A Day in Sulaymaniyah.

Originally, our plan for Thursday was to spend the morning at the Red Museum, which is a museum documenting some of the atrocities done by Saddam's regime to Kurdish people that is in an old prison used for the purpose. We were then going to spend the afternoon in Halabja, a Kurdish village that endured a huge poison gas attack also at the hands of Saddam's regime (the largest ever to target civilians) that now has a museum and memorial. These two museums were really at the very top of the list of things that we wanted to see in Iraq.

Of course, the best laid plans and all that... The day before, the Kurdish government decided to declare official holidays for the rest of the week, so all of the museums and official sights were closed the whole time we were there! Sad day!

Our hosts were super helpful as we tried to figure out what else we were going to do- I am so thankful for them! One of the other major things to see in Suli is the large bazaar, which is one of the oldest and most interesting in Kurdish Iraq. However, our plans to see the bazaar were also up in the air as a result of the protests that had been occurring. Up until that week, the protests had mostly been in the afternoon and evening, so we were originally going to see the bazaar in the morning and get out before the protests were starting. However, that week the protests had been starting in the morning and had become violent, so that whole plan was uncertain.

Thankfully, on Thursday morning our friends were pretty sure that the protests were not going to happen until the afternoon, and they knew of a part of the bazaar where we could go more safely that was a little more on the edges and so had not seen any of the action. So, armed with clear directions for the safe area and instructions to avoid large crowds and to go the opposite direction if we saw a large police or military presence, we did actually get to see the Suli bazaar, which was pretty cool. Brian started out our morning at the bazaar by purchasing and then putting on a traditional Kurdish headdress. I think this was the best thing that happened to Jessi and I the whole trip, because everyone was so busy staring at him that they didn't stare so much at us! At one point, Brian turned to us and asked, "Should I take this off? Everyone's staring at me!" We said, "Now you know how we feel all the time! Although the men are just smiling and staring at you, not leering and staring..." It really was funny to watch all of the people in the market smile at this super tall, blond American man running around with a Kurdish hat-thing.

During our time in the bazaar we also got honey and tea and a purse for Jessi. We had an interesting interaction at the purse shop. The man had a TV on, and it was showing coverage of a violent protest. He pointed to the TV and said, "Iraq!" We nodded, and he said (smiling, like it was the most normal thing in the world), "Sulaymaniyah! Here!" We got a little worried and said, "Now?" He replied, "No, yesterday." Phew!

Our time in the bazaar was mostly uneventful, although we did come out in a square with a massive amount of policemen at one point, but we just moved on fairly quickly. We did actually see quite a few military men and policemen, but they did not appear anxious or ready for immediate action and seemed mostly just entertained by Brian and his headdress, although we knew things could change pretty quickly.

One thing that is interesting about our time in Kurdish Iraq- I was never worried about my stuff. We were in crowded markets, and there was certainly more than enough opportunity for someone to take something, but no one ever even tried. People would not scruple to try to rip us off when we were buying things or taking taxi rides, but I've felt more nervous about my bags in some American cities than in Iraq.

We returned back to our host's home and went out for a huge Kurdish lunch at one of their favorite local restaurants. It was so nice to have someone actually tell us how we were supposed to eat the things that we were being served! One of the little boys came with us (the other was in school), and we definitely saw how much children are loved in this culture- especially little blond babies. At one point, people at the table next to us just grabbed his highchair (which was on wheels) and took him over to their table to coo over him!

We finished off our meal with Kurdish tea, which, let me tell you, is sweet. As in 2 tablespoons of sugar for maybe 1/4 cup of tea sweet. It really is more nectar than tea. The server brings the cups to the table with a sugar sludge in the bottom, and it's up to you how much you want to stir in. If you stir it all in, the tea starts to resemble maple syrup in consistency, I think. I've been experimenting with making Kurdish tea since I got home, and I really scandalized my new roommate by how much sugar I was adding- and then it still wasn't anywhere near how much is really added in Kurdistan!

For the afternoon, our hosts had helped arrange a taxi tour of sorts for us. They have a friend through their English center who was a taxi driver, and they arranged for him to take us on a hike up to some caves (a hike with no land mines, always good...) and to see some of the sights around Suli. They knew it would be easier for us to have one driver (who spoke some English) for the whole afternoon, rather than to hire a taxi and make them wait while we hiked, etc.

And so we went on this hike. We drove out into the countryside and parked along this steep road and set out. At first there was a road/path going straight up, but then it started to become a switch-back up the mountain. Our driver decided that we should just go straight up this hill. By the way, it had rained all the night before, and so the (clay-ey) soil was absolutely soaked. We started climbing and would literally have inches of mud caked onto our shoes after every few steps. We also had to do some rock climbing as it got more steep, although the rain had also loosed the rocks, so it was slightly challenging. It's possible that I got a little muddy and slightly cranky. And may have had problems with my asthma.

Sheepies!

Jessi, Brian and our taxi driver going up to the caves.

But we finally made it to the top, and we rewarded with some interesting caves and a pretty great (if hazy) view over the plain below. Everything was so GREEN. Again, I wasn't expecting so much green in Iraq- isn't it supposed to be a desert or something? Of course, the only reason it was so green was because it is spring. Our friends told us that the rain will stop in about a month and within a few days everything will be brown again. But the green was so beautiful and vibrant!

View from the top.

Caves!

Jessi and Brian in a cave.

Our descent was definitely more treacherous that the climb up, with all of the mud and the loose rocks. I definitely fell multiple times, including one time when the weight of my backpack actually made me start rolling down the hill. It was lovely, let me tell you. Finally, we made it back to the car. Jessi and Brian had gotten a little muddy, but I was just covered- basically up to my elbows- in mud! And then there was our taxi driver, who made the hike in shiny black point-toe shoes and a white button-down shirt, and he was still spotless, although I guess his shoes weren't quite as shiny as they were at first.

Saying goodbye to the caves.

Finally picking up the path again!

We were going to drive up to a look-out where we could see over the mountains and into Iran, but the weather was cloudy, so we instead drove past the Red Museum (you can still see the bullet holes from the invasion of 2003) and explored Peace Park, which is a huge park that has been developed in an area that was formerly an army compound under Saddam. I felt a little bedraggled traipsing through the park while covered in mud, but people still stopped us to get pictures with us, although we also got some disapproving looks.

Peace Park.

A memorial. It isn't usually under water, but there had been so much rain!

The Flinstones!

After the park, we cleaned up at the house and then went over to our host's English center to help out with a coffee and discussion night that they hold every week as a chance for people to come and practice their English outside of class. It was really fun to hang out at the center and to get to chat with the people that came. There were probably 5 or 6 men for every woman, as women don't have as much freedom to go out at night, especially if they have families. It was interesting to hear about people's lives, and I'm glad we were able to do it. The best part was that we got to dye Easter eggs! I had been sad about missing out on all of my favorite Easter traditions, but I got to dye Easter eggs in the middle of Iraq. Yay!

Sulaymaniyah.