What's In A Name?

Hello, my name is...(insert name here depending on which continent you find yourself on)

I was born in Europe and my parents were so nice to give me a typical European name, Russian to be perfectly exact. I love my name and never encountered any problems with it while growing up in Europe. But then, my family moved to North America. And suddenly, my European name seemed to stick out like a sore thumb, together with almost everything else about me which stuck out like a sore thumb. As the years passed, i learned to dress, speak (not perfect, but pretty damn good), and behave like the North Americans and soon, i wasn't sticking out so much anymore except when it came time for me to introduce myself.

Svetlana. Sszf...? Sfff...? Swu...? was usually what followed until the ultimate insult to my name somehow always spung up in their minds: Sweatlana! Right! Sweetlana would have been much better but i think that might have been too much to hope for. So i went about my life dreading meeting the next new person whom i would need to introduce myself to, until one day, a sweet old lady who had a particularly hard time with my name and feared spraining her tongue, came up with the North American version of my not-so-North American name.

Lana. Well, wasn't that just my salvation. Introducing myself as Lana was easy and painless for them as well as for me. Oh, what a nice name is usually what followed and immediately after, oh, you must be from Quebec with that accent. Right! The accent! Never went away, never will. Don't matter much now. Now, i've returned to my home continent of Europe where my name had begun giving me a hard time again.

Why, you may ask. Because the Europeans seem to have a hard time with Lana, as simple as that sounds! I lived so long in North America that Lana became my name and i began believing that was the name my parents had given me. I had begun forgetting my real name. So i have been introducing myself as Lana ever since i came back to Europe and have endured the frustration until it finally hit me: I'm not Lana at all. I'm Svetlana. I'm back in Europe.

It takes a person a long time to change and some people never do. But the first step toward that change is realizing a change is needed. I have to admit that learning, or re-learning is more correct in my case, to go back to one's roots is a much easier task than learning to become something new. In the end, i'm a unique mix of growing up in Bulgaria, spending 15 years of my young life in Canada, and settling down in Switzerland. Each place is unique with its unique culture, customs and peoples and each place has left its thumbprint on my character to shape me into what i am now. I hope this is not the end of my transformation. I do not believe in stagnation but rather in constant flow, constant learning and constant evolution towards something constantly better than the one before.

Hello, my name is Svetlana.

Rammstein - Wo bist du (Misheard Lyrics)

Rammstein - Wo bist du (Misheard Lyrics)

Wow! I found this on YouTube and thought it was kind of interesting! I'm sure that to North Americans, Rammstein lyrics sound much like a nonsense jumble like the one above but for those of us who actually understand the German language, this is what we hear:

Ich liebe dich
Ich liebe dich nicht
Ich liebe dich nicht mehr
Ich liebe dich nicht mehr

Ich liebe dich nicht mehr
Oder weniger als du
Als du mich geliebt hast
Als du mich noch geliebt hast

Die schönen mädchen sind nicht schön
Die warmen hande sind so kalt
Alle uhren bleiben stehen
Lachen ist nicht mehr gesund und bald

Suche ich dich
Hinter dem licht
Wo bist du
Wo bist du

So allein
Will ich nicht sein
Wo bist du
Wo bist du

Die schönen mädchen sind nicht schön
Die warmen hande sind so kalt
Alle uhren bleiben stehen
Lachen ist nicht mehr gesund und bald (Repeated twice)

*music*

Ich suche dich
Hinter dem licht
Wo bist du
Wo bist du

So allein
Will ich nicht sein
Wo bist du
Wo bist du

Ich suche dich unter jedem stein
Wo bist du
Wo bist du

Ich schlafe mit einem messer ein
Wo bist du
Wo bist du


And i'm not bothering to translate so our North American friends can amuse themselves still....

Pieces from Peter Bergmann's Exhibit, Nov.18th, 2007, Villa Schüpbach, Steffisburg

"Sterbender Hof" (Dying House)

"Morgenlicht" (Morning Light)

"Herbstgartenlandschaft" (Autumn Garden Landscape)

"Lauenenhorn" (Mount Lauenen)

Unnamed Painting in the Atelier

"Verschneite Gleise" (Snowed-in Train Tracks)

Unnamed piece in Atelier

"Wohin" (Where To)

"Kalter Friede" (Cold Freedom)

"Chlausenplatz" (Santa's Place)

"Samichlausens Tschugge" (Santa's Boots)

"Bern am 6. Dezember" (Bern on the 6th of December, Santa Clause Day)

"Bremerstaadmusikanten" (The Bremen Musicians)

For Art Lovers

Peter Bergmann is 70 years old. He is also a renowned Berner Oberland painter from the village of Oberville, which is only a short drive from our village along the Simmental, down towards the town of Thun. Back until a few days ago, i had no idea who Peter Bergmann was, but since he turned 70 recently, the local paper printed an article about him which mentioned that a special exhibition of some of his work will be held in Steffisburg until November 25th to commemorate his birthday.

I haven't mentioned this before but i do possess a great appreciation for art with an emphasis on paintings. My favourite theme is nature with autumn and winter pieces in particular and just about anything that has to do with the Christmas season. Well, Mr. Bergmann's exhibit happened to feature just that. So you can imagine my excitement when i found out about it. Steffisburg is a small village next to Thun and we just happened to be heading down that way last weekend anyway, so it worked out great.

The exhibit was held in Villa Schüpbach, which is a big old house with all the rooms emptied out and the walls decked with Mr. Bergmann's works. Each room had its own theme, including the stairs to the lower level, and the cellar which was the actual atelier.

As i mentioned above, most of the pieces were autumn and winter scenes, but there were many featuring summer paysage, flowers, and animals, the majority of them donkeys, sheep and cravens. Room V was something of a Christmas theme and that one was, of course, my favourite room which also happened to contain my favourite piece shown above in this blog. The piece is called "Chlausentag" which translates into "Santa Clause Day", painted in 2007 on acrylic. I fell in love with it so much that my husband decided to buy it for me as a Christmas gift. That would have been so wonderful had it not been sold already! I was quite disappointed especially since all my other choices were also sold away. I was prepared to leave empty handed until we reached the atelier. There, in one corner, was an over sized folder containing numerous loose pieces. We were just leafing through them when a beautiful black and white winter scene caught my eye. My husband looked at me and i smiled and nodded.

I left Villa Schüpbach very happy holding my Christmas gift in my cold little hands. My handy husband will make me a frame for it and i plan to be able to enjoy it by Christmas.

As a bonus, i happened to see a mini version of my favourite piece in the form of a card by the entrance as we were leaving, which i promptly purchased and after framing that one as well i hope to be able to enjoy it at my desk.

Above are photographs of the pieces that moved me. Taking photographs at the exhibit was permitted, so i captured the ones i wanted to bring back with me.

Ski Season 2007/2008 Opens!

So here we are in mid November and already we got half a meter of fresh new powdery white stuff covering the ground. It's beautiful and it's early. I guess that is "making up" for last winter when we hardly got any snow and it came very late in the season.

The ski slope operators are thrilled. So thrilled, in fact, that they've decided to officially open some of the slopes early this season, namely, this weekend. My husband is on cloud nine and brimming with excitement. He could hardly contain himself today. He reminded me of a little boy on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa.

Speaking of Christmas, all this snow has put me in a cheery Christmas mood. I hum Christmas tunes in my head, I add every single Facebook application that has to do with Christmas on my profile and I have started to check out Christmas cookies recipes because, drum roll, are you ready? I will attempt to bake Christmas cookies this Christmas! Ta-ra! And not to forget one of the very joyous aspects of the Christmas season - Christmas shopping! Music to my ears!

Speaking of Christmas shopping, that is exactly what we are planning to do this Saturday in Thun before heading out to a Christmas dinner party hosted by a dear friend who has been so kind to invite us for yet the third time after we've had to cancel the last two times. We are very excited to be attending this year since our friend's Christmas dinner party has an outstanding reputation for it's excellent food and drink as well as excellent company which combined makes for an excellent evening.

I will be making a Mediterranean style roasted vegetable salad with olives and feta cheese to take to the party. How inappropriate for a Christmas dinner. But i thought i'd bring a little sunshine to a cold, snowy evening. And it goes so well with red wine and grappa.

I may have hated winter before, but i seem to be developing a certain liking to it slowly but surely now that i live in a winter wonderland. In the years past, winter used to mean cold, wet, ugly, grey days and freezing nights and horrible driving conditions. Now, winter is still cold but it means something very different to me. It means beautiful, white, crisp days and magical glistening starry nights and cozy, pleasant train rides. As i look out my window now, i can see the snow under the light of the street lamp falling gently and quietly over the empty street. The ski slopes will be nice and crisp tomorrow morning awaiting their first eager skiers. My husband will be one of them. I promised to drop him off at the slope early in the morning so he can squeeze in a couple of hours of white pleasure while i go grocery shopping and make my sunshine salad. Then we're off to a fun winter evening with good company, good food and good drink.

Winter is here and for the first time in my life......i'm actually happy about it!

Taxed!

I have been unaware of this till a few days ago, but apparently, i've been paying "church tax" and i didn't even know it!

It came out the other night as my husband and i lay in bed just before falling asleep. That is when our most enlightening conversations happen, by the way. My husband expressed concern that bad weather's coming and snow's coming and he will need to put his bicycle away, inside somewhere as opposed to just propped up beside the house, so it wouldn't get snowed under. I jokingly suggested he puts it in the second hand store that our landlord keeps on the ground level of the chalet. My husband laughed at that and commented on how much "junk" there is in that store and that there would be absolutely no space for his bike in there. I asked, just out of pure curiosity, if he thinks our landlord gets a substantial income from all the stuff he sells or is it just to pass the time. Oh, no, my husband replies, the money he gets from selling the stuff does not go to him. It goes to the Salvation Army.

Our landlord is a priest of the Salvation Army. Some Sundays he holds church service up in his house. We can hear them singing. Every Friday, he opens up the second-hand store and puts all the stuff out on display and the people come and maybe buy something. The wife of our landlord does not work. Well, that's not exactly correct or fair to say. She does not have a job. She works though. She vacuums the house every, and i am not kidding here, every day! I hear her. She's a good, Swiss housewife. But she earns no income.

So here is the question i posed to my husband that night in bed: If the landlady doesn't earn any money, the landlord earns very little from our rent and some events he might host (but hey, village Saanen is not that big, and we already have another priest living across the street. Yes, we live in a 'holy' area indeed!) then how do they get the money to live? The answer was simple. From our "church tax". Church tax? Yeah, church tax. Do I pay this church tax too? Yes. Do I pay it because i'm married to a Swiss or did i pay it before also? No, i pay because i'm Swiss. Aha, i see. Does every Swiss person pay church tax? But of course, what for a question is this? Well, do i have some sort of say here, like could i not pay church tax if i didn't want to? Sure, but why would you want to "go out of the church"? Huh? You know, that's not good really, you might not be able to get buried when you die. HUH? It's just not good, ok. Ok, so i pay church tax so i can get buried. Any other benefits? Well, we didn't pay a cent for our wedding ceremony, did we? No. Ok. Ok.

"Now i lay me down to sleep......."

Diana Krall: Cry me a river

Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

Halloween Invades Switzerland!

Just when we thought we were safe from ghouls and monsters here in the peaceful country of Switzerland, they decided to invade and did it successfully, lol!

Halloween night, October 31st, 2007, 18:56, i'm just about to jump in the shower to wash off the day and the Satan worshiper out of my hair (know what i mean, Allie?!) when the door bell rings. I kick the door of the bathroom closed with one foot, the other's already in the tub. I hear my husband shuffle to the door but then the water comes down from the shower and drowns any further sound. I leisurely begin my shower.

A few minutes later, the door of the bathroom opens, i hear a couple of foot steps and the shower curtain flings open. My husband's head pokes itself into the shower. He's grinning. "Is it Halloween tonight?" he asks. "Yeeeees?" i answer as i continue my shower. "Ah! That's what that was about then!" he exclaims, "You know who was at the door just now?" he asks me. "Noooooo?" i say. "There were three kids, all dressed funny and with masks on their faces and as i opened the door they yelled "Suesses oder Saueres", so i thought, oh, shit, what do we have in the house, then i remembered the chocolate mouslies we bought that i don't like, so i gave them all to the kids....they were happy!"

So we got our first ever official trick-or-treaters! First time for me since i came to Switzerland and first time for my husband, who's lived his whole life in Switzerland! I told him he should have saved some of those mice in case more kids come, but it was not to be. Those three is all we got! I was excited though. Even though Halloween is not my favourite holiday of the year, i kind of missed giving candy out to the little ghosts and witches. It's fun and i'm glad we got invaded! Next year i'll make sure we've got some goodies around on October 31st. Who knows, maybe we'll get four kids at the door!