Having a Bâle (a Sunday in Basel)

Welcome to Switzerland!

Made by the same guy (Jeff Koons) that made Puppy outside of the Bilbao Guggenheim, this here is his dragon head outside of the Fondation Beyeler. Split-Rocker is the name. At the time it wasn't so clear, but now I see that the head is actually split and he has a bit of a rocker vibe. Aha!

The foundation. 

To the left was France. 

To the right was Germany. 

Basel is a German-speaking city in Switzerland. Being clever-like I decided to buy my ticket in German. Sadly, it turns out I'm not that clever. 

Me: A ticket for a student, please. [Awww yeah, lookit that, I can communicate things in German!]

Cashier: 12 Swiss Francs. [Whoohoo! I understood her reply! She replied in German! Things are going well.] 

Me [puts down cash and student card]

Cashier: ?!??!????! 

Me: [Fuck.]

Cashier: [Gestures something to do with the cash.]

Me: [Attempts turning the cycle the money/card has been placed on.]

Cashier: [Hella frustrated.] WHAT LANGUAGE DO YOU SPEAK? FRENCH? ENGLISH? 

Me: [Turns to German friend.]

German friend (in French): You have to take the student card off. 

Me: [Embarrassed, removes card, receives change, runs away.]

There's something very confusing about being in a German speaking place minutes away from France with Francophone companions. As part of my "studying" German this semester, I've been watching copious amounts of German tv. Sadly, none of this passive comprehensive knowledge I've received helped me there. Some people I understood, others I didn't. 

Basel likes its fountains. 

Even though I don't frequent Starbucks in the US, I was still really excited to see all the Starbucks in Basel. They're the closest ones to where I live now. Honestly, I would only really want to go in there if they had the Horizon organic chocolate milk they have in the US ones and I'm pretty sure they do not. Tant pis. 

Lots of roads like this. 

And the cathedral, of course. 

Fall is coming! Autumn is here! Pétanque!

It was a Sunday and people were few and far between on most streets. 

There was even a manif'!

(Speaking of which, I participated in my first a couple weeks ago and it was excellent. Post to come.)

Where a Nobel Prize winner worked. We went into this courtyard because we were promised a talk on the importance of the arts and kids' crafts. We did not actually find said talk (I suspect it was through the doors...) but we were not terribly upset by this. 

The queen says hello on an utterly empty street. 

The Rhine follows me everywhere. 

The Griffin seems to be a symbol for Basel. Haven't looked this up to confirm, but he's EVERYWHERE. 

Along with the symbol on that flag. This is a little ferry that goes across the Rhein, it's operated by a motor that stretches across the river and the poles to which were put into place during the 19th century. 

A friend and I had the same reaction: HARRY POTTER. 

Life is going well. I have a week and a half before the Toussaint holiday and lots to get done in that time (including what is essentially my final in one class). I should get on that.... Last Saturday, we had a debate in class (we were assigned sides randomly) and I saved my team in a heroic fashion. So much so, that when we had another debate in class today my team tried to make me be one of the speakers, despite my not having contributed anything to the prep discussion. I declined today, which I still feel bad about. The fact is, living in another language, some days you have good speaking days and other days you have bad ones. Today happened to be a bad one. It was just hard to focus on things in French today. Given that today's format would be addressing things brought up by the other team it just didn't seem like a great idea for me. And sitting/listening through it, I know I made the right call. My team did great without me speaking. 

For Toussaint, I'm planning on going to the UK to visit some friends and to travel with my dear friend D from last year who is back in Brittany assistant-ing! I just need to buy tickets to get there. 

Big bisous, 

MCJ