Victor Lytvinenko: May 2006

Swiss Time...

My friend Michelle took me to his house last weekend in a little town on top of one of the nearby mountains called Arosio. We walked by the church in the center of the town, built in the 1600's, which had a sundial which was right on time.

The watch is an hour ahead because of daylight savings.

four bucks and a beer....

I bought this sewing machine for four bucks and a beer. It is probably 35 years old, weighs 50 lbs, and works perfectly. I made this hat the first day I have the machine.

These are two different views of the mountain I climbed last week. The perspective of the peak in the picture on the right is skewed. The actual peak is the tip on the left side. It is a lot further away.

Summit Monte Boglia

The other day, after school, I got on my bike and headed up the mountain which I tried to climb the other day, Mt. Boglia. It is the tallest mountain around Lugano. I rode my bike almost up to the point where I was at the other day, but it wasn't even half way. 4 hours after I left I made it to the top.

This is a 360 degree view from the top.

That is Italy behind me.

Field Trip: Milan!

We took a field trip to Milan the other day. This is the tenth grade class which I teach English to, and the History teacher. We started the day here, at the Aquarium.

This castle is 800 years old. It was in the hands of the Spanish and the French for hundreds of years. It is downtown Milan and probably takes up 10 city blocks.

vem-bot?

This is funny. You are supposed to step on the bull's balls and spin around for good luck.

This is the Duomo, the biggest gothic church I have ever seen.

This is Alan(Brazilian), me, Andrea(Italian), and Henan(Brazilian) on top of the Duomo.

This is something I have never seen in a church before. It is a line with the astrologically sighs on it. There is a small pin-hole in the roof of the church, and at noon the light shines on this line, and in the months of each sign, the light shines on that sign. As you can see they built this after the church and the last sign goes up the wall.

This is the crypt in the basement of the Duomo, holding the saint of Milan.

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Fun Facts about Lugano/Switzerland

Fun facts about Lugano and Swiss-Land

1. They wash the sidewalks…with hoses and scrubbers.

2. Prostitutes and drugs are illegal, but every day I see people smoking pot on the street and prostitutes. When I went to apply for my visa, I had ten documents from my school saying that I was going to live at the school, that I had paid for school, I had a bank document showing that I had money in the bank, and all I wanted was a student visa, not a work visa. They sent me away three times to get a trivial paper from school before they accepted my application. Each time I went to the office there were prostitutes there, from eastern Europe, who would go up to the counter, give their documents, and without any questions, they received real work permits. I asked my teacher about it, and he said that everyone knows about it but as long as they don’t see anything it is not really there.

3. People here will not cross the street until the green walk light tells them it is ok. Even when it is late at night and there are NO cars, they wait for a min or two for the green light, and they will ONLY cross at the cross walk. I think it is kind of funny.

4. There are no Laundromats in Lugano. Zero.

5. Everyone takes a 2 hour lunch, thus everything is closed from 12-2… no running errands on your lunch break.

6. The word for tomato in Italian(and Russian) is Pomodoro. Pomo= round, and doro=gold

7. The day for finding – There are no second hand/flea market type places here. There are no thrift stores, but one day each month they have what I like to call “the day for finding.” When people have things that they don’t want anymore, often things that are in perfect condition, they put them neatly out on the street on this designated day each month. Then, while everyone goes home from work, they can look at the stuff, and take what ever they want. From 2am until the morning the trash elves (because you NEVER see them) come around and take whatever is left. I have found thus far: A bike, a fan, a sewing machine, a cafeteria(European coffee maker), and a few other small things, all functioning well.

I went to Italy today....

I went to a big farmer's Market in Italy today. (because there are no farmer's markets in Switzerland!!?? The Swiss are weird...more on that later) I bought some honey from an orange tree orchard, some 3 year old Parmesan cheese, some old stanky other cheese (which is amazing), some lemons, some salami with truffles in it, and a delicious bottle of Italian wine. Oh, and an Italian newspaper (I can understand most of it now, and this week is the first time I feel comfortable talking with people on the street in Italian. I was able to bargain with the people at the farmer's market and I don't think they knew I was American)

Mozart and Hiking...

Up on the mountains there are big mirrors at corners to see if cars are comming...interesting.

The other day, Mikiel and I went to see Mozart's Requim...Wow.

The other day I needed to get out of the city, so I got on my bike and rode to one of the mountains, got off, and proceded to climb straight up. It was probably about a 70 degree angle most of the time. I was kind of scrambling up, trying not to slide all of the way down. This is the view from a clearing where I stopped.

They are growing...

haircut day

Klinsnauct

Soccer is going well. Our new coach is absolutely INCREDABLE. We are an entirely new team and have won three of our past four games. This game we won 2-0 against a Swiss-German team called Kussnacht.