A trip to England, chili con carne, and pumpkin-scones

Lausanne has decided that it wants to skip past the "late autumn" stage, and produced 10cm of SNOW last weekend. It has officially turned freezing as well- I've gotten out all my winter coats and scarves and boots and gloves, because the wind in the morning when I wait for the bus sends shivers to my very core when I'm a little tired and have just gotten out of my warm snuggly duvet.

I, however, missed the snow-- all I got was the patches that were still left on Monday. I went to Bath in England last Wednesday and stayed for five days visiting my boyfriend and seeing one of my very awesome old high school girlfriends. Here is some of what I got around to and some fun observations I made, not about the Swiss this time, but about the English ;)

- The English drive on the left (wrong) side of the road, which is really scary when in an airport bus driving super fast through the winding roads leading into Bristol city (I flew in to Bristol international), where I had to find a train. Roundabouts are especially nerve-racking, I had no idea where cars were supposed to be coming from or going to or which way round we were going and I was at the edge of my seat for the entirety of the 30 minutes I was on the bus, terrified we were going to hit oncoming traffic as we were on the wrong side of the road.

- There are really funny "walk left" signs on the staircases at the train stations-- all the stairs are divided in the middle and people are encouraged to walk on the "correct"-- but again wrong -- side of the staircase. I didn't notice the first time and was promptly almost trampled by an oncoming horde of business-clad people on their way to work.

- I had a HUGE Harry Potter inspired moment on the train to Bath. Behind me sat about six school children, all dressed in uniforms (very Harry Potter, just no robes..), and then came the "Trolley lady", with a big trolley rolling down the aisle asking if anyone wanted tea or biscuits which were for sale. When a girl asked for a "strawberry pasty", I couldn't help but smile. Anyone who has seen or read  "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" will know what I am talking about.

- Thursday night I went with my boyfriend to the Spa (Bath is famous for its hot springs and the Roman baths that are there). It was a really cold night, and the rooftop pool in the dark with lights from the city was really beautiful, especially when enjoyed from really nice warm water! We had a dinner package included and had a fabulous time eating great food in our white bathrobes in the Spa restaurant.

-  Friday I spent with my friend from school as my boyfriend had classes. We went a little nuts in all the stores, and she knew exactly where to take me-- including where to eat. We had coffee at cafe Nero, hot-dogs at the "sausage factory" stand, and incredibly English afternoon tea at "Sally Lunn's" which is famous for its special bun. We also went to a fudge shop. I don't think I have to say more about that. I mean fudge- everywhere. yum. At night we went for dinner at "Brown's"- really good restaurant with great food, before we went out to a bar and nightclub for the night with some of my boyfriend's friends- definitely a good night!

As always I'm having difficulties placing the pictures- but yes, it was a fabulous day.

- Saturday the weather was beautiful (but cold), and so we went and played mini-golf! Very fun- and combined with "Shakeaway" milkshakes containing Daim chocolate and Maltesers, the day was pretty much complete.

- Sunday was rainy and so we stayed in and baked cinnamon rolls. Also yum.

I really didn't want to leave on Monday.. but reality calls and I remember that I am studying medicine and that I have a ton of reading and studying to do, as well as having missed a couple of classes that I needed to catch up-- but oh so worth it to take an autumn trip to clear my head! New motivation found!

This week has therefore been a lot of catching up and studying, as well as curing a rather insistent cold. The cold weather is inspiring though- and I have put some effort into cooking this week- autumn food in the spirit of Halloween :)

1. Chili con carne
http://southernfood.about.com/od/groundbeefchili/r/bl50812k.htm

This recipe was absolutely delicious, and I made the whole recipe which meant I had food for pretty much an entire week ;) Here served with sour cream and cheese with boiled potatoes. I also had it with fresh bread-- the dish is great because it goes with about anything and tastes great on a cold rainy night.

2. My pasta-tuna-pesto dish (from my little "student recipes" book):

- 400g pasta

- 1 glass of pesto

- 1 tomato

- 100g grated cheese

- 1 box of canned tuna

Boil the pasta, and mix tuna, chopped up tomato, a bit of the cheese and pesto in a heat-resistant pan. When the pasta's done, mix it in with the "sauce", and spread the rest of the cheese on top. Put the oven on grill and leave the dish in until the cheese has a nice golden color. Voila! So good-- I've made this several times, it's great because it makes me two dinners and a lunch when I make it.

3. Halloween = pumpkins, so I made pumpkin scones!

http://www.dinmat.no/Finn-oppskrifter/Oppskrifter/Br%C3%B8d,-bakst-og-kaker/Bakst/Bakst-uten-gj%C3%A6r/Gresskarscones (for Norwegian-speakers.. or copy and paste into google translate ;) ) 

So happy November everybody, I've been in Switzerland for 8 weeks, and next weekend my sisters are coming down for a visit- can't wait! It's been a while without my family around now- 7 weeks until Christmas! 

Bisous xx Therese

ps. please comment if you try the scones and you get them to be less.. flat... mine were a little pancake-y (at least the first batch-- the second I added more flower), so I'll probably use less milk than the recipe says next time ;)

Leucocytes, haemostasis, 30 compressions, and 2 breaths

Hi! Sunday evening and it's been a long week--- lots of school, with classes and labs and practical work. I guess I may have given the impression here that all I'm doing is walking around happily in the mountains and the beautiful landscapes here, but yes, my life for the moment pretty much consists of studying... in pathology we're learning the basis of cell dysfunction and apoptosis, as well as cancerogenesis. Immunology has us all completely lost in all the types of white blood cells and their development and function. In hematology we've done all about blood clotting this week-- Von Willebrand's disease, hemophilia type A and B... all fun things that have been on the menu. I guess Wednesday was the only day when I wasn't drowning in the immune system-- we had a practical of 4 hours in the hospital being taught by ambulance personnel about basic life support (BLS), doing compressions and mouth-to-mouth and whatnot, trying desperately to save the lives of our very sick dummies (all while the AED is saying things like "shock discouraged, keep doing compressions", or "please stay calm" or "step away from the patient, analysis in progress!"). We all got our certification document after though, and are now supposed to be able to take charge in any emergency situation (hmmm? only a third year here!!). But it's true- in the event that a situation does arise, who does people turn to for help? The person with the most medical experience, even if that happens to be a student... I guess the distinction line between student and "person who knows what to do" is wiped out when people panic..

I was overall quite happy for it to be the weekend, and I've managed to be a little social too, spending Friday evening with a friend also on exchange from Brussels, drinking some delicious Chocolat Viennois at a cafe at Grancy :). Saturday I did some studying, but then at night saw "Les Intouchables" with a friend from school-- one of the best movies I have seen in a while! It came out a while ago but I just haven't had the chance to go out and see it, but definitely worth a watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXu2MhWYUuE


I also captured two really pretty nature moments this week- poor quality because they're taken on my phone BUT I think you get the idea:

Monday evening at the Dorigny Campus with new
snow on the mountains along the lake...

Morning sky on Wednesday..

Then as promised, I have today taken another walk up into the woods to look for autumn colors... I guess I was pretty successful ;-)

 

As I predicted the forest is beautifully clad in all shades of orange, golden yellow, and still shades of green and brown.

Since I'm being academic today, here's the explanation (given as an example in one of our first biochemistry lectures this year) for why the leaves all do this very creative change every year, here labeled using fluorescent markers for ubiquitin:

It's all to do with the cell cycle and levels of ubiquitination happening at different (and random) rates! It's a great example when explaining simple cell signaling.

This week I'm going on a trip to Bath in England to visit my boyfriend, so I'm really excited about that! A little break from the studying is going to do me some good!

Bisous from Switzerland <3 Thanks for reading! 

p.s. for any piano lovers like me, I  discovered the music of Ludovico Einaudi (who wrote the theme to Intouchables)-- absolutely beautiful- just search him on spotify or listen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_mUuvgGnC4&feature=related

A beautiful Saturday: Walk from Savigny via the "Tour de Gourze"

Hi everyone! :)
It's the weekend again, and I've been in Lausanne for 5 whole weeks! School work is definitely piling up on me a little, but with good afternoon sessions in the library at the hospital I'm making some progress. We have now finished our first "module", and are moving on to hematology, immunology, and some microbiology in the weeks to come-- I think it'll be really interesting!

The weather is more and more fitting the description of autumn. We're having really changing weather-- really hard rain followed by beautiful sunny days. This weekend though, is the first I've had here where temperatures stayed below 14 degrees all day, and are supposed to drop to about 7 degrees at night. Getting chillier, and my scarves are slowly making their way out of my closet (and generally onto the floor...). I've bought a new autumn/winter coat, and my boots are being allowed out of the "winter-shoe" bag. I guess I'm prepared.

All week, the forecast for today though has been reaaally sunny, and so I wanted to make the most of the upcoming beautiful autumn day. My friend and her boyfriend agreed to join in on the plans, as well as a girl from my class. After some scrutiny of the internet to find a good walk to do which was not too far from Lausanne, we found this site:
http://www.randosuisse.ch/savigny----cully.html

We took the bus at 13:40 from Sallaz in Lausanne toward Savigny. From there we followed a series of small country-side roads leading toward the hill where the Tour de Gourze (the goal of our excursion) is located. We passed farms and large fields, passed through little forested areas, counted at least 5 different species of COWS, saw goats, birds, sheep- you name it. The weather was spectacular, and all the way we had great views of the mountains beyond the lake , especially in toward Montreux and Valais. We turned off the paved roads about a kilometer from the Tour, and a steep forest path led us to the top. It was good we all had good hiking boots on as it was quite slippery with all the fallen leaves! The forest was so beautiful in its newly adopted fall colors, and enormous amounts of mushrooms scattered across the forest floor. I got some great nature shots of the sun shining down between the trees. The Tour de Gourze itself did not look too impressive when we finally found it; it was very... well.. square. But, the view from the top was breathtaking, as is the view from just about anywhere in this country, and we stayed there taking a large amount of pictures and just sighing at the wonderfulness of it all :)

Walking down from the hill toward the lake were more amazing views, and the afternoon sun made sure it didn't get too cold. We met several other hikers along the way, and a moment where I missed my dad a lot when we met 5 men with model airplanes, flying them out across the fields sloping down from the Tour. We went all the way down to a little town called "Grandvaux", where we found the train-tracks of the RER (local area trains), along which was a "tourisme pedestre" path (marked paths all over showing pedestrians where it's nice to walk), next to the tracks. We followed this in the direction of Lausanne, with the intention of going to the bus-station in Lutry, but ending up following further due to the beautiful scenery and wine-ranks we were walking through. We ended up at the Goussiers station, where we exhausted got on a train with two stops back to the main station in Lausanne. As always I think pictures give a better idea than my writing of how my day has been, so here is a selection :)

 

The Tour de Gourze from the backside of the hill

Bye-bye birdies :) off to Italy for the winter...

Hope everyone will have a great weekend! Here it's all books and studying tomorrow, but with this day behind me I don't think it will be too hard to sit inside.
Bisous de la Suisse xx