Härzlech willkomme a de Lozärner Fasnacht!

The carneval ("Fasnacht") begins tomorrow! We're planning to go to the market place to check out the "Urknall" at 5 am! I don't really know what the "Urknall" means or what to expect, but that is when the carneval period officially begins. I hope the action is worth it, since 5 am is really early... And everyone, naturally, has to work afterwards, I have to work the whole weekend at the ER. But until now it's been nice, interesting and not too hectic. I hope this carneval event is not like the finnish equals with massive alcoholism and in consequence of that, a crowded ER...

The absolute highlight of today were cinnamon rolls! A colleague had baked loads of them after an original scandinavian recipe, very delicious!!!

Well prepared for 14 days at the ER after a weekend with beer, sun, snow and fresh air

We were supposed to go downtown just for a couple of beers on friday, it ended up after six or seven. It would not have been a problem, if we had not had planned to go skiing early on saturday. It was so hard to get out of the bed in the morning. The others went to Engelberg, I wanted to go to somewhere with more snow and decided to go to Laax. Originally I and another girl intern had planned to go for the whole weekend to Laax, she happens to now a guy, who runs a hostel in a small town near Laax. Unfortunately she got sick.

The plan worked out more than well, again perfect weather conditions and enough snow (not that much as two weeks earlier in Laax, loads of fresh powder and great free riding, but still so much more than f.ex. in Engelberg). And I did not even have to ride alone, I met a german doc at a ski lift we took up together! Imagine, she works in Ilanz near Laax, lives in the next village to Laax, Falera, has a ski lift right outside of her front door and payed as a local ONLY 260 Fr (150Eur) for a season ticket!!! Amazing! And she is starting to work in Lucerne in December... Unbeliavable how small the world is... And , she happens to know the former tenant of my first flat in Berlin (he also works in Switzerland). Naturally, I also ran accidently to the guys from the hostel..

On sunday I went to Hasliberg, it´s only 45 min away from Lucerne. I thought it would be a small skiing centre, but actually it was quite large. And very sunny! Not a bad destination at all... I really like boarding, but sometimes it´s just so troublesome with the gently sloping areas, bindings off and on. I´m really thinking about starting to ski too, furthermore it´s nicer to ride skis with other skiers and I still would definetly continue snowboarding with boarders. I´d like to try going on snow tours, that´s what many of the colleagues and locals do. They climb up a mountain with skis and then ride back in the untouched deep snow. And have the nature and silence all just for them. Sometimes I just can´t stand the crowded resorts and slopes, free riding in powder snow is just so amazing! Sounds like I might need some new challenges...

Dirty thursday

The easiest week until now is almost over. Next monday I'm going to start a 14 day rotation at the ER, first seven days, then seven nights. Lucky as I am, the carneval (the biggest happening of central Switzerland) is during my ER placement. Oh boy, it might get tough. I hope I'll be able to see at least something of the carneval action, since I have never experienced it before!

We had an after christmas dinner of the department of internal medicine on wednesday. First the dinner at a typical swiss "Gasthaus", food wasn't anything special, but wine was excellent. Which was the reason I had to drink so much... The evening was great, there were many of us interns, residents and of course some of the seniors and the chiefs! It was loads of fun, the "adults" went home after the dinner, we "kids" (= interns and residents, two younger seniors) continued to Bar 58, which already was closing that time, which means, it might have been sometime after midnight. We went further to Roadhouse, a bar and club at the central railway station. Long evening and night, loads of wine, guess what that stands for. But (!), I did not steal any shoes or brake my cell phone nor camera...

Thursday at work was not good. First of all I overslept two hours and missed the morning meeting. Well, that wasn't that dramatic. The day just felt sooo long after only a few hours of sleep... But I think wednesday was worth the misery yesterday !

Mount Rigi

Isch guet gsi

Last week was hard, it was my last week in the department of general internal medicine. I´m glad to be in a new section, I got along very well with my resident and the other staff, but still, it´s nice to be out. This week I´m going to spend at a department with patients coming only to specific operations(f.ex. coronary angiography, chemotherapy). Tempo is a bit quicker, but it´s also much more distinct than the department before. The atmosphere is nice, I have again a great resident, and not surprisingly, again a german guy! The other female interns are quite jealous because I get all the cool guys as my supervising doctors...

The weekend was filled with sun, snow and good company! We have quite a good gang of interns, went out together on friday, checked out first a for us new club ”Adagio” and ended very soon at the place we went the friday before (”Black sheep”). Saturday and sunday skiing and boarding together in Engelberg. That actually is not one of my favorites at all, but since most of the interns have season cards for Engelberg, I rather joined them this time than went somewhere else alone (I also had a season card of a girl who was on call, so it was economic for me too). On sunday I tried skiing for the first time in maybe ten years, it went well and was very good, but still... Snowboarding is better! Next weekend propably to Laax!

After all... I Might be living in a fairy tale...

This week was quite chilly at work, got out earlier every evening. And since everyone has gotten use to their job and long days, people aren´t that tired anymore in the evenings. No more just living for the weekends, there actually is some social life during week nights too! On monday we went to the movies, saw a german movie which was very very funny, but totally meaningless! On tuesday we went to have few beers, it was again great and the local beer "Eichhof" is good too, which is naturally very important...

Well, then on wednesday I had to stay at home and sleep, since I had been out two nights in a row until midnight... Hehe.

On thursday I got out really early because I have to go to work on saturday, but just for a few hours. I was lucky, then weather was beautiful today, warm and sunny! I finally got to take some photos of Lucerne, did a long walk and sat on a park bench just enjoying the sun and the views. Lucerne really is one of the most beautiful places I have been to! I can not imagine many more overwhelming views than mountains at a lake at sunny clear weather! (Unluckily I was not able to upload the awesome pics...)

Missing the mountains after two days of Berlin

... but I still enjoyed Berlin a lot! It was great to see some uni and other mates again! And to get out of the regular everyday surroundings for a few hours was really refreshing. The weather was terrible, even worse than "winter" here, it was so cold. And unbelievably slippery, like ice skating!

At the birthday party on saturday people were smoking on the balcony and a guy went by with his girlfirend and dog. This guy slipped properly directly under the balcony and the balcony people started to laugh at him, properly. He got really mad and aggressive (typical east german/ berliner male behaviour...) and threatened our people with all kinds of stuff, f. ex. was he planning to call some of his friends over to start a fight... Oh man, what a guy, his girlfriend was so embarrassed...

Sunday was very relaxing. I had a delicious vietnamese lunch with a good friend and afterwards I was "forced" to eat a huge piece of raspberry cake! Very satisfying sunday program! I also had to buy some Fazer chocolate from the airport... Of course not for me, for my colleagues at work ;)

Berlin

Heading to my former home town Berlin in a few hours! A good old friend of mine has birthday and I definetly didn't want to miss this party! It's really nice to get out of Lucerne for a few days and go enjoy the advantages of a big city. And I so want to go eat Sushi... Macht es guet!

Back at work

New Year's break was nice, chilling around and sleeping a lot! Typical Lucerne weather is cloudy and foggy, sun has been shining maybe on five days during these four weeks. On saturday weather was as perfect as it can get here, sun was shining all day long and we had a clear blue sky! So it was a perfect day to go up to Rigi, one of the highest mountains in Lake Lucerne area. It was so beautiful, incredible views! And the sunset... Unbelievable!

The next day I went snowboarding in Andermatt, it was snowing almost the whole day, I had some difficulties getting up to the village with my winter tires (no spikes) since the serpentine roads were all covered with fresh snow. But I made it without any damages! Snowboarding was ok, partly sun was shining, on the other side the sight was terrible. And the same with the snow.

I spent the last day of last year by hanging around in the city and watching crazy locals jump from a bridge to the river, I don´t know why, New Year`s swim? It must have been cold. Since I don´t have a coffee machine at my place (and haven´t even bought instant coffee because during the weeks we always get some coffee after radiology meeting from the hospital cafeteria) I desperately had to go get some coffee, from where else than Starbucks!!! Can you imagine, a town with 50 000 inhabitants has to have a Starbucks? Apparently there are so many americans visiting Lucerne, that it has to have three of them...

In the evening I and six other interns cooked Raclette! We had tons of food and I suppose everyone ate far too much, but it just was so delicious! The cheese is so good here... And we had great wine too, my family's all left overs from christmas, I got f. Ex. six bottles of very good german wine. We watched fireworks from the 18th floor, A.K.A helicopter landing space on the top of the hospital! It was huge! Tens of smaller fireworks all around Lucerne!