Swiss dinner

Cooking for 10 people

I promised my floormates to cook “Älplermacroni”, which is a Swiss dish. It contains just potatoes, pasta, cream, cheese, onions and apples. I know, you may think now: “apples?!- Wtf?!”

Whatever, I went to the store to buy all ingredients. It was quite hard to calculate how many potatoes and how much pasta was needed. In the end I went for a kilo each. The dinner was supposed to be at 7pm so I started with peeling the potatoes and apples at 5. It took a while to peel 1 kilo of apples and one of potatoes.

It didn’t make it easier that 5 out of 8 hotplates didn’t work. Also the fact that we just have 4 pans and 3 big pots in the kitchen was quite annoying.

In the end I managed to cook everything on time, but in my opinion, the dish was not as tasty as the original Swiss älplermacroni. Maybe it was the missing Swiss cheese or just the fact that I had to less of cream.

However, all the people from my corridor were over polite and lied that it was delicious. They are just too nice!! 

visit home for aged

Visit a home for elderly people

Today a colleague and I went to the home for elderly people. We arrived there before 10 and were already expected. After a short guide through the centre we settled down in a room which looked like a comfortable living room.

As soon as I entered that room I noticed the typical smell of elderly people. Not that it is something bad, I just sensed it.

Some of the elderly people seemed to have a fitter condition than others. One woman looked very fit. She could nearly walk without a walking frame, while others were sitting in a wheelchair.

We started to play Bingo right away. The students, who are working there for a project, read each number loud and clear twice. Also Sarah and I tried to participate. But it was quite hard with just the Finish numbers. All the winners were so happy with their prices.

It looked like the working group made an effort for this game. We played many rounds till 11:45am. Because by then, it was time for the elderly people to have lunch. After they left we talked a bit with the working group about their project.

They have to work there for 12 weeks each Wednesday. It looked like they enjoyed what they were doing. The group worked out a plan for the elderly people:

In my opinion I think I’ll never be able to work in a home for elderly people because I would feel too sorry for them. The “patients” seemed to be happy, but still I had a very sad feeling. I can’t exactly explain why.

Primary school visit

School visit

Due to I study education in Switzerland, I was very happy to finally visit a school. I was curious about the system and the way how children are being taught. Finland gets everytime very good results in the PISA studies, so I think that something has to be very special.

We met on 13^th of February in front of the Luostarivuori School in Turku. The responsible teacher was extremely nice and welcomed us warmly. After a short visit through the campus we found ourselves in a classroom where English was taught.

As soon as we entered the room from the fifth graders the kids stood up and greeted us with a “good morning”. They totally spoke together like a choir. I was surprised because I am not used to that in Switzerland.

The lesson seemed very structured. First the kids had the opportunity to ask us some questions in English about ourselves and then the lesson started. They repeated some words after the teacher, worked in pairs and wrote some sentences down. The children were very focussed on their work, it was very impressive. After 45 minutes we left the classroom to observe another lesson.

That lesson was quite different. It was an international class in 8^th degree. Surprisingly also these students stood up to greet the teacher. Due to many ill students the teacher had to improvise, because for her original plan she needed all students. The students got the task to play a little sketch about over politeness or rudeness. That’s what they were working for the last view weeks, as the teacher said so.

Of course, some of the students got some strange topics, which were related with sex. But I think that is normal in this age, I mean they are about 15 years old, what else is more interesting than the “forbidden” sex theme?!

Both of the teachers offered us to teach some lessons. Of course we agreed right away. We now have the task to tell something about Switzerland, the culture, the food, the landscape etc. I am looking forward to it!

To come back to the original question, what is the difference between the Finish and the Swiss school system? – I couldn’t find severe differences. In Finland the kids start in the third degree with English and in the 5^th with Swedish. We have the same, the kids in our school have to start with learning English as well in the 3th degree and with French in the fifth.

Of course, after these two visits I can not tell about many things because I have rarely seen some lessons. It is just too bad that we don’t study education here =(.

valentines date

Valentines Day

Valentines day- I don’t know who Valentin was, but I don’t like him. Maybe I don’t like him because I have no one to share this amazing over romantic day. Whatever, I woke up in the morning and went to the gym. My only real love. The gym doesn’t complain about my gained weight, about my bad moods or my bad habits.

After sweating like hell I decided to buy some ingredients for baking a super sweet valentines day cake for all the broken hearts. While I walked to the grocery store I passed a second hand shop. I don’t know why I went in, but I found a perfect pullover to wear on my date tonight. Yeah, you read right, I was going on a date.

As soon as I got home my German floormate asked me if I would like to go out for a walk because he needed someone to talk. I badly needed to study, but instead I agreed. So we walked for nearly two hours. After coming back home I just had 20 min left to get ready.

I put on some make up and mascara. Before I went to the kitchen to get the ok of my floormates I changed into my new pullover. The response of the others made me blush.

So whatever, it was time to go. I met my friend in front of the Chinese restaurant. Yes, I am sorry, it was just a “date” to celebrate our new friendship. =)

Never mind, the food was delicious! We had spring rolls, sweet sour chicken with rice and fried bananas. The amazing exquisite food just cost 13 Euros each. What a bargain!

After we felt like pregnant, we left the restaurant to bake a valentines cake for all the other guys and girls from my floor.

Well, I didn’t spend the lovely love day with a handsome nice guy, but with very nice friends. To be honest, what is more than good friends?!

dinner on sundays

National dinner

12 people are living on my floor, which means, that we have many different nationalities. Or at least we should. Here for a short overview:

3 Dutch guys: Ruben, Marcel, Jan

2 Italian: Sara and Pietro

1 Sweden: Matilda

1 French: Adrien

1 German: Felix

1 Spanish: Isabel

1 Finish: ?

1 Indian: ?

I don’t know the names of the Finish guy and the Indian girl because I barely see them. Never the less, we decided to have a national dinner every Sunday, which means that every person cooks for the other 9 (the Finish guy and the Indian girl didn’t participate). We already had delicious Italian pizza and Swedish meatballs (unfortunately I don’t eat beef and pork =( ).

And after our dinner we do the dishes, the cook of course doesn’t have to help. As soon as the kitchen is cleaned up, we play cards until everybody is tired.

Next Sunday it will be my turn to cook. I’ll try to cook “älplermacroni”. What it is and how it tasted, will be explained in my next post.