A Swedish Winter Wedding

The adventure started at 4am when my alarm went off and I had 15 minutes to get out of bed in Lausanne and get moving. I walked to the train station because the buses weren't running yet and at that hour the prostitutes were still out and the parties in Flon were still going strong!

I caught a flight first to Brussels and then on to Gotenberg. There was a 15 minute window given in the invitation for guests to arrive at the church and I made the timing perfectly. First I stopped to have lunch in Gotenberg at this small cafe. They had magazines and books that you could read and they had the most bizarre text book available! I couldn't read what it was about but the pictures said it all, I believe it was a text book about investigating the scene of the crime and the book was full of pictures of knives dripping in blood, bodies sprawled in apartments, blood spatters on walls and even a half burnt corpse in the woods.

After that bit of education I figured which bus to take but I needed help on the bus because I had no idea how to buy a bus ticket (machine was in Swedish) and these boys helped me. Lucky for me they really stress English in Sweden so I was able to communicate with most people.

The church was old, but exactly how old I never found out. It had the lovely painted alter like I had seen in so many museums throughout Europe and they lit all the candles in the church too.

After the wedding we made our way to the church.

One neat Swedish wedding thing they do is on the walk between the church and the hall they hang multiple choice questions about the bride and groom. Everyone fills out their sheet of paper and at the hall one of the evenings entertainment is to correct the answers and see who won.

Some other fun games that were played during the dinner is that when the glasses are clinked to make the bride and groom kiss, couples names are drawn randomly from a bag and that couple has to kiss. Then the bride and groom have to do their best to imitate the kiss.

And when the bride or groom leaves the room all the single guests (boys or girls depending on who left the room) run around and around the hall and kiss the remaining newlywed on the cheek because their partner isn't there to guard them.

And just like the last time I was in Sweden, this time there were also songs throughout the dinner. There were song books at each guests place and throughout the evening we would sing one of the songs.

One song we sang was:

Wann Mår sång baj Älvis Prässli

Vajs män säj, ånly fools rasch in
batt aj kent hälp, fåling in lavv vidd jo.

Kjell aj stäj, vodd itt bi öh sinn
if aj kent hälp, fåling in lavv vidd jo.

Lajk öh rivver floo, sjårly to de si
darling så itt gåos, samthing´s ar mänt to bi

Täjk maj händ, täjk maj hål lajf to
får aj kent hälp, fåling in lavv vidd jo
får aj kent hälp, fåling in lavv vidd jo

So if you didn't figure it out, the song is actually in English, now go back and read it again!

Also at the wedding we had name tags to find our seats, but on the back of the card was a word about us as a conversation starter. Mine said Mr Eee, which is the name of my steadfast little laptop that just keeps on working. I'm writing on him right now.

When it came time for the waltz the bride and groom had obviously practiced and when the rest of us joined I was asked by a man who actually knew how to waltz, a rare treat at weddings.

The dancing continued through the night and at different times I went to help with the dishes, there was no catering service (other than providing the dishes of food) so we used the church industrial dish washing machine to clean up after dinner.

It was a late night when I finally got to bed and a very long day that had started at 4am! I slept in the next morning and then eventually made it to the bride and grooms apartment for brunch. We talked about cooking and I told everyone about Once a Month Cooking where the idea is you spend a weekend cooking the meals for the rest of the month. I said I didn't do it myself, instead I do twice a month cooking. I cook a batch of chili, eat it for two weeks and then a wit in the room said I cook a second batch of chili again. No I replied, I alternate with a lasagna. Ok, not quite that grim but pretty close! I work long days and am never around when the grocery stores are open.

After that I stayed in Gotenburg at the house of one of the wedding guests and we watched live action episodes of the Tick. Yes, there is a live action version and it has some pretty cheesy lines: "When you get in bed with evil incarnate, it always steals the covers."

Now I am back in Switzerland. I don't get that coming home feeling arriving at my apartment but I do get it sitting on the train. The Swiss train is currently the home of my heart. It was also a shameful 5 minutes late coming into Lausanne today. Maybe I am becoming Swiss since I now classify that as shameful public transit behavior!

Fiddle Weekend

After last weekend of violin this weekend was another Ceilidh band performance.

The venue was a mountain chalet, part of a small resort where a Swiss doctor was having his 40th birthday. He had apparently said he wanted dancing at his party and we were the surprise which meant we came quite late in the evening.

The night started first with dinner with band members at Isa's house, then we drove up the mountain to the parking lot. The original plan was to hike up with snowshoes and headlamps but since there hasn't been much snow this season we couldn't do that. Instead we were driven up... and that was the adventure!

The road to the chalet is closed during the winter without special authorization, and the company that runs the resort had the necessary 4x4 vehicle. We piled all the instruments in the back and started heading up. The man who was driving said it would be a little bit scary because he had to go fast to get through the snow drifts. Oh. Em. Gee. The road was mostly clear, but there were parts where the entire road was covered in ice, followed by a patch of snow. We slid over the ice on this narrow mountain road but kept up the pace. To one side of the road the mountain fell away steeply and I looked to the trees at the side, hoping they would be big enough to stop our descent should we slid off the road. Isa had grabbed my arms and I told her I was too young to die.

However, the truck couldn't go all the way to the chalet, we pulled up next to a snowmobile and loaded all the music and several people into the trailer. I was precariously balanced on the edge of the trailer holding the two violins so they wouldn't be bounced too much. It was an interesting experience, it was dark so the road was lit by the snowmobile headlight and we bounced along under the trees with the wind blowing. At this point I had to move into the trailer and ended up sitting on N's lap, and it turned out he was sitting on Isa which I didn't know. In one section the snow was on a bit of a slant so our driver (concerned that the trailer might tip) had us all lean over to one side. Not very easy squished in as we were!

We got the chalet, all the instruments and people were intact and made our way into the main hall to set up. We didn't start playing until late and we were a very welcome surprise. The performance wasn't mic'd so we had to play loudly to be heard over the dancers. In the end we headed down (after midngight) the same way we arrived. Stuffed into the trailer (I got to ride on the machine this time) and then the death run in the truck.

I didn't spend the night at the chalet because I wanted to get to the lab to finish these important experiments. However, here I am today and my stupid e coli's didn't grow.

So that was the first fiddle gig I've ever played where I had to arrive my snowmobile!

Also, apparently when I say Cully (a nearby town) and try to do it with the correct pronunciation, it sounds like I'm talking about some bit of male anatomy in French rather than the town. Something about the ewe/ough sound (which is what double l's sound like) that I can't quite get and now I can't remember which sound was the right one. Well, if I get that uncomfortable pause in conversation I'll know I've picked the wrong one...

Violin Weekend

I would not call myself a violinist. Years and years ago I received my grade 8 from the Royal Conservatory of Music but that was quite some time ago. I do however play the fiddle and a few weeks ago I was asked about my violin skills. The story is that in France there is a string quartet and they offer weekend workshops where other musicians come and stay on this little French farm and spend the weekend working on music. I was asked to fill in at the last minute because one of the first violinists couldn't make it and they needed someone. I had a peek at the music, choked out a 'yeah I can do it because you need me' and spent the last few weeks practicing like mad. I haven't done this many positions changes since that grade 8 all those years ago.

Anyway, the weekend turned out to be much better than expected. It was all in French so I followed as best I could and expanded on my French vocabulary. For example, in English our notes are named based on math (whole note, half note, quarter note, 32nd etc) but the French names are based on appearance (round, white, black = quarter and then the eighth is called croche which google translate tells me is quaver).

Many people were sick so the original quartet was expanded to a sextet with doubling on the first and second violins. Just as well, that music was hard (Mozart quartet in d - the minor one if you happen to read this blog and are big into classical string music). But I digress, it all turned out right in the end. My partner was a much better technical player than me, hitting the notes in tune being of chief advantage, and also she was playing without rehearsal (the handing out of music was a bit disorganized).

Even though my intonation sucked, I had the benefit of experience in bands faking it. As in - when the thing starts falling to pieces you keep going with the wrong notes but right rhythms and eventually you'll get back on track. Not quitting when you've made a mistake is actually a pretty good technique to have and surprisingly not that intuitive. My other badly needed advantage is my reasonable feel for syncopation coming from playing in a highschool swing band. Plus the hours of practice.

Anyway, enough of the music lesson, we played a mini concert at the end for friends and family who came to watch and we also played with the 'real' string quartet (as in they do this for a living). And for the first evening we even had a dance - they had some fiddle music for quartet which we played and I tried to remember some of the Ceilidh dances to teach.

Goodbye's

At the pub.

Long time no blogged

Wow, it's been a while since I've written. I've been busy, c'est la vie.

One really fun event in December was our fundraiser for the Ceilidh. We had it in a hall in one of the small villages above Lausanne. We all had to bake something for the sale and this was a serious problem for me. Many things are the same here in Europe, but then you go to cook and you are missing the one strange ingredient (like brown sugar). I bought some vanilla extract, well, I think it was. It might have also been a vanilla flavour shot for your coffee. However the nanaimo bars I made turned out pretty good in the end. I also had to make the graham crackers from scratch and they turned out so-so. The bars were named by members of the band who set up the kitchen and they were called Canadian Squares...

The band night itself was fantastic. We had guest musicians who would come and plan in between the ceilidh band and the pipe band and there was lots of dancing. All in all it was a pretty special evening.

Also in December I took an avalanche safety course, we went up to one of the passes to Italy with guides and stayed at the hospice. The hospice was very neat, it had been there for many many years to help all the people who would make the crossing.

With the safety course we went out on a small ski tour above the hospice and my god the wind was really blowing! It was very cold and sometimes you couldn't look straight ahead. Our guide intentionally set off an avalanche so we could see what it looked like. The entire chunk of snow came loose together and slide off the mountain which was pretty interesting and very impressive.

On the way back to the hospice I left the group at the end. When it came time to walk down the road the wind was so strong I could not look in that direction. I had to walk with my head down watching the side of the road. I figured I had avoided all the avalanche risks to be hit by a car in the last 100 m walking back to the hospice!

When we got back to the hospice where it was warm enough to finally remove some clothes the shape of my face had been frozen into my scarf.

Anyway, I don't have any pictures from the hike, it was too cold. I had tiny snowballs form on my eyelashes that I had to melt with my fingers because when I was pulling at them I was at risk of pulling out my eyelashes.

When I got back to my apartment I had to play that same old game - where did I put my house keys! Everything was emptied out in the hallway as I dug through all my bags. I always put the keys away safely when I head out, I just never remember where that is!

Given the cold, when I was home in Canada I was treated to a MEC shopping trip and bought some better winter clothes! Skiing in Switzerland is definitely colder than in BC.

I was sad that when I was home for Christmas two lovely old ladies from my neighbourhood had passed away. One lady in her 90's was learning Spanish at the time and at the wake in her home there were still all the stickers with Spanish names for common items to help her learn. The other woman who passed away was also in her 90's and I had known her since I was very small. She would read my blog albeit indirectly as someone else with internet access would print out the interesting posts for her.

And then in January I went again to Zermatt. Again we had fantastic weather and again it was -20 at the top! That's cold times but this time I was prepared with my brand new clothes from MEC including mittens that actually cover my wrists! Hot chocolate in Italy was more like pudding served in a drinking cup but very tasty. Also on the Italian side the toilets were those toilets that are just a hole and which I've never seen in North America. Awkward even without the ski boots!

Also we had fantastic views of the Matterhorn. We stayed in the hostel which worked out pretty well except when the drunk German's came back at 4am and set off the fire alarm!

So whew, it's been a while since I've written! I've gotten behind in my homework as it were.