2 Weeks of Fête

So just this past weekend, a few things happened. First off, "Fêtes de Genève" finally came to an end. Even though the Swiss National Holiday was two Mondays ago, since then it's been the Geneva Festival and it finally concluded this weekend. Wow, 2 weeks of celebration. Perhaps this is something that should take place back at home.

And before I get into the rest of this post, just quickly mention something from last week. After a night of drinking, and thinking that all is well because it was Friday (even though I later realized that it was actually Thursday, and that I still have to work the next day) I found this to be kinda cool. While walking home with my friend, Sayuri, we stumbled across this courtyard by the waterfront, where there are all these bricks that have been painted in flourescent/glow-in-the-dark paint.



And each brick has some sort of inscription on it in a different language...I think. Anyway, I just thought that it was quite a beautiful sight.

Anyway, aside from the celebrations, last week, I set out on a search to find one of the rare and inexpensive Asian food stores that I had heard were scattered in the various nooks across the city. And lo and behold, jackpot! I found one. Welcome to Dragon Pearl! Although it's a Vietnamese shop, they've got everything from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese foods.

But the sole reason that I mention this place is because while I was there, I found my beloved rambutans! What is rambutan? See for yourself...



Yes, it looks odd. Perhaps even disgusting to some. But it's delicious. Just crack open the shell or peel, and out pops pure delight! Apparently, the name "Rambutan" is derived from the Malayan word "Rambut" which means "hair". For more info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

And seeing as how I missed out on the trip to Malaysia to revisit all my nephews, cousins, uncles, etc that I haven't seen in 17 years, and to resample all the delicious Chinese food that my body has gone without for the last 2 months, I decided to shell out the 6 Fr for a pack of 16. Expensive I know, but I needed to get my fix.

But this weekend was great, party at Chris and Jedrzej's new apartment on Friday, where things got out of hand to the point where the neighbours were threatening to call the cops on us.



The following pics are of the Polish drinking song we learned from Lucas? but sounds like Lucash? (apologies, if I butchered the name) which also probably contributed to the angry neighbours.



I wish I could say that I had taken more pictures. But I didn't. And primarily because I also wished that I had recharged the battery in my camera. That and the fact that after the drinking song there was already quite a bit of al-kee-hall in my body...so yeah...oh those Polish!

And finally Saturday...for the big fireworks finale. Amist a lovely evening snack of cheese, bread, olives, chips, cookies, beer and wine, we watched possibly the best fireworks display in the world.



Seriously, I mean it when I say it. The Fêtes de Genève fireworks is one of the biggest and most well known in the world. People flock from all over the world to watch the 50-minute pyrotechnics display.



These pictures don't even do it justice, and in fact, I'm a bit ashamed to put these pics up as an indication of what the show is like. But just take my word for it, if you can haul your ass up to Geneva during the month of August, be sure to stay for the Fêtes de Genève.