Friday's Five - 5 Swiss French Words (Related to Food) You Should Know

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or join me on Facebook to be regularly updated. Thanks for visiting!

Some years ago, when I was working in Zürich, I was overwhelmed with swiss german. Although I considered by german relatively fluent, I didn't understand a word of swiss german. After 3 months, I could know when my work colleagues were talking about the weather, some recent news or the upcoming weekend. But as you can see, I spent most of my time there guessing the lunch topic of the day. I usually had a poor soul sitting next to me who's job was it to translate whenever I had a clueless look on my face. 

Before moving to the french part, I thought that at least this time, the french would be the same as in France. At least some of the (very few) words I had learned in University would find their use. I was right, kind of. French in Switzerland isn't that different from the french from France, but there are, in fact, some words that will be confusing for other french speakers. 

1. Cornet. You go to the supermarket to buy some fruits and the cashier asks you if you want a cornet. Why would the cashier want you to take a music instrument similar to the trumpet after buying some fruits? Turns out, cornet is the swiss french word for sac de plastique (plastic bag). 
2. Services. Whenever I buy a quick take away salad, the kind waitress asks if I want service. The first time I thought: better decline any service, whatever it is, it will probably have an extra cost.  I then took a plastic fork and knife and went back to work. Soon afterwards I found out that service is the swiss french word for couverts (cutlery). I can picture the cashiers' puzzled look when I kindly declined and then took it anyway!
3. Déjeuner. Yes, you know this one. But, as confusing as it may be, déjeuner in Switzerland is not having lunch, but having breakfast - what in France is called petit déjeuner. 
4. Dîner. 1:30pm on a saturday. I went to have lunch on a terrace. The waiter comes to take my order by asking "Quest-ce que vous voulez pour dînez?". "Dinner?" I thought "who wants to have dinner at 1:30pm?". What school had taught me to be dinner in french seems to be lunch in Switzerland. 
5. Souper. So, if breakfast is lunch and lunch is dinner... what the heck is dinner? Souper, as in supper!

All these words are related to ordering food and going food shopping, which is as far as I can get with my limited french. 

Do you know about any words that are used differently in another country? 

________________________________

PS: Just a quick note on my april blog cleaning challenge - I'm probably going to make the move to Wordpress this sunday! I realized that many design options can't really be seen correctly unless you've already got posts in it, so... wish me luck! 

Friday's Five - Another 5 Latin-American Expressions I've Mastered at Work

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or join me on Facebook to be regularly updated. Thanks for visiting!

I usually don't talk a lot about my job in my blog. Really. However, in last few months I've been given an increasing amount of responsibility and, now that the deadline is near - I'm even dreaming of work (and that's when you know you've got a problem). Fortunately, I don't usually have nightmares related to work (except for one on which I drove to a meeting and feel down a bridge right into the lake and got trapped in sea weed *shudder*). 

Anyway, give that I couldn't fit all of my newly adopted vocabulary in on my last Friday's Five, consider today's post a completion of my literate expansion at work. 

1. Hinchar. Literally: to inflate. It is commonly used when something or someone is getting on your nerves, like the continuous actualizations you are asked to install every morning when you turn on your computer. Well, that's actually not that bad - as I take that time to prepare my morning coffee. The same is used when you're concentrated on work, trying to meet a short deadline and someone is loudly chatting just next to you. 
2. Dar Bola / Dar Pelota. To take someone seriously or pay attention to someone. As in "No le des bola" (meaning something like "Don't give a shit") - Someone telling me not to give shit about someone else's comments or arguments. 
3. Pajero. Besides for being a Mitsubishi car model, pajero also means wanker (which explains why Mitsubishi changed its name for spanish-speaking countries). However, nowadays it's used as a light insult to someone lazy. As per this definition and working in a fast paced industry, you can get a picture of how many pajeros I have to deal with every day.
4. Forro. If someone is a forro, he's a betrayer. Someone who won't help you if you ask for it, a person you can't trust. I'm happy to say that I haven't encountered many of these yet, but colleagues did. If I ever cross paths with one, I'll know what he is!
5. Quilombo. A big mess. Used when there is a large number of people copied in an e-mail chain that seems to have no beginning and no end. Also, when someone sends a revised document without using Word's mark up option but doing it all manually, or when there have been so many changes that it's impossible to follow a line of action anymore. Yes, this is the word one I use more frequently (together with pelotudo). 

Have you heard of any of these before? 

Friday's Five - 5 Latin-American Expressions I've Mastered at Work

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or join me on Facebook to be regularly updated. Thanks for visiting!

When weighting a job, I give a lot of importance to the work atmosphere. And that, precisely, was something that really caught me when I was interviewed by my present employer - Many of my colleagues were spanish speakers (mostly argentinians and chileans)! This made it easier for me to decide to settle down in a country where I did not speak the language. They have helped me out, cheered me up and have made me feel a tiny little bit closer to home. 

I've realized that, during this year and a half, I have not only learned about the business itself and its technicalities, but I've also been exposed to a whole new range of regional vocabulary that has slowly grown into my day to day expressions. I guess that's one of the advantages of an international work environment - We unconsciously learn a new language (or in my case, a new slang!). 

The following words are now part of my daily vocabulary:

1. Cachafaz. Someone cheeky, shameless and impertinent. Often used to refer to the counterparty, when it comes up with an unacceptable condition or price in an ongoing negotiation. 
2. Pelotudo. A dumbass. Used to describe yourself when you realize that you've left to lunch break without your wallet or that you forgot an important appointment. 
3. Che. Che is used to call a friend. It's almost a habit to start every question with a "Che" now. If I don't, the sentence feels empty!
4. Poronga. Now this one is tricky, and shouldn't be used too liberally as it has a double meaning. Let's just say, I use it as a derogatory comment - to high-hat something, such as the excel model that I had been working on for hours and suddenly turns the expected result into one fat error. 
5. Boludo. If you are a boludo, you are not very bright, pretty dumb or just plain clueless. However, it's also used among friends, without being offensive. Mainly used... well, all the time. 

What about you? Have you acquired some "foreign" words into your daily vocabulary?

(A Belayed) Friday's Five - 5 Carnival Destinations in Europe

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or join me on Facebook to be regularly updated. Thanks for visiting!

There's not doubt about Brazil holding the number one Carnival in the World. Carnival in Rio started yesterday and has a full program until Tuesday 8th - which includes street parades, masque balls, street bands and a lot of samba. Good. But taking out Rio de Janeiro - What else has the World to offer? There are a lot less known, but still awesome Carnival Celebrations you should consider as an alternative, and these are my favorite ones:

1. Cologne Carnival. This is the largest and most famous Carnival in Germany (and probably in continental Europe). Although historically the celebration starts on November 11th at 11:11am, the actual Carnival began last Thursday, "The Women's Day", and lasts all the way over to Wednesday 9th, "Ash Wednesday". What's Women's Day you may ask? It's a day that has been celebrated for ages, that thanks all women for the good influence and hard work they have done (and do). During that they, women storm city halls, cut men's ties and are allowed to kiss any man that passes their way!
2. Carnival of Venice. The Carnival of Venice was first recorded in 1268, but was stopped for many years when the city fell under Austrian control (in 1798). It was again revived in the late 20th Century and now is one of the top Carnival destinations Worldwide. The Venetian tradition is most distinctive for the use of artful masks, which were used in the celebration to remove social differences. Anyone participating, could mingle easily with people of different classes or sex.
3. Carnival of Cadiz. Andalusians are probably (together with the Canarios) the spanish folk with highest number of festivities over the year. Cadiz is nationally recognized for it's Carnival, which is relatively different from the rest of Europe. In Cadiz, the costumes worn are often related to recent news (such as the bird flu in 2006, during which many dressed up as chickens!). What's fun about it is it's sharp criticism and original costumes. Another highlight are the groups of chirigotas - satiric popular groups who sing about politics, new times and household matters often using clever world play.  
4. Carnival of Croatia. The most famous Croatian carnival takes place in the costal city of Rijeka, in the Kvarner region. What makes their Carnival unique is the incorporation of local traditions and customs. Just before the end of Carnival, each town in the region burns up a man-like doll called "mesopust" who is blamed for all the conflicts of the previous year. But the most iconic symbol of Croatia's Carnival are the bell ringers, who dress up in lamb-wool costumes and wear big animal masks and walk from one village to another ringing the bells they wear around their waists.
5. Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. To close, what would be a post about Carnival celebrations without including the major one - the one of my home town? Carnival in Tenerife lasts for several weeks, during which you have the murgas competition (a similar group to the chirigotas), queen elections and culminate in a week of street parties and parades. One of the best days for celebration is "Ash Wednesday", which is called the "Entierro de la Sardina" (The sardine's funeral). This night, locals dress up as widows. Each coastal city builds a huge sardine, which is carried along the streets to the water. It's then placed on a fisher boat and burned, while letting it dragged into the ocean. Everyone "fake cries"! During these days, Tenerife receives massive visits from all over Europe - only the Carnival of Santa Cruz (capital of Tenerife) attracts more than a million visitors! The Carnival aspires to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site this year!

I'm missing Tenerife's Carnival this year, and it's not easy when watching my friends add their pictures on Facebook. I hope next year I will make it again, even if it's only for a weekend!

Me dressed up as Catwoman in Carnival 2006

Which is your favorite Carnival destination? Have you been to any of these? What would you dress up as? 

Friday's Five - 5 Spanish Drinks Made of Wine

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or join me on Facebook to be regularly updated. Thanks for visiting!

For a change, I've thought on giving my Friday's Five a new fresh theme. Instead of focusing only on 5 posts I specially enjoyed reading this week - to be frank, it's hardly impossible to choose 5 out of so many - I'm extend it to... well, any 5 that I may come up with (always related to travel). 

Friday's Five - #5 - 5 Spanish Drinks Made of Wine

Not that I want to discourage you to drink spanish wine when in Spain - you really should! But besides for its Rioja and Ribera del Duero, the country has a long history of mixed drinks - after all, who hasn't heard of Sangria, right? But there is much more than a fruit punch made of wine, and below are my 5 favorites:

1. Sangria. The drink every tourist will sip while sitting on any terraza in country's major tourist spots. I've tasted many different versions (even in different countries), and there's none that can be compared to the one served at home. Sangria is made of inexpensive red wine - mental note: the cheaper the wine, the stronger the hangover -orange and lemon juice and a variety of fruit slices such as peach, lemon, orange and apple. But the best receipts are never that simple - I recommend including a cup of cointreau, cognac or rum, as well as some cinnamon! 
2. Rebujito. The birth of rebujito took place in the Feria de Abril, in Andalucia. For a change, this drink is prepared with manzanilla, a variety of fino sherry (a fortified wine made of white grapes). The manzanilla is then mixed with 7Up or Sprite, added ice and some mint leaves. Personally, my favorite!
3. Kalimotxo. Kalimotxo (also: Calimocho) has always been the teen and student drink in Spain - it's, after all, less fancy than the ones above. It usually involves red wine from the Tetra Brik cartons of Don Simon, and a cola-based soft drink - split 50/50. It couldn't get any easier (and cheaper!). A common way of serving is in a one liter drinking glass made of plastic, ironically known as minis. This drinks stops being popular when you reach an age at which you actually enjoy the wine - mixing it with coke is a sin (now)!
4. Pitilingorri. Also known as Caliguay or Tologorri, it is a variation of the Kalimotxo that contains red wine or rosé, mixed with lemon juice (although you can also find it with rosé wine or orange juice instead).
5. Tinto de Verano. Although many believe that Tinto de Verano is similar to the sangria, the taste is quite different. A good tinto de verano (which again, will probably not be the ones you get on a hot tourist spot) will be prepared with red wine, soda (La Casera), lemon, ice and red vermouth. Spaniards often prefer it to sangria, because its less sweet and more refreshing.

Is it too obvious that I'm dreaming of summer, with all these refreshing drinks? I really can't wait to be lying at a beach with the sun on my skin - I haven't really had it since I was in Lebanon, almost 2 years ago!

Have you tried any of these? 

Do you also have drink combinations with wine where you live?

Friday's Five - #4 Edition

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Top 5 tips for visiting New York City (from a Manhattan tour guide), Downtown Traveler. Remember the tickets I won on last year's company party? Well, time has finally come and now it's only 6 days to go, and I'll be in New York having a couple of girly days shopping, sipping cocktails and well, ok, also doing some proper tourism! I can't wait to see the New York Library, the London Bridge... the TATE, the Guggenheim. I've been writing a list since, er... November. I came across this useful post that shares some local tips for anyone visiting the City. Any further tips or suggestions?


How to have the Worst Day Ever in Phuket ( and How to turn it Around), Twenty-Something Travel. When I read this post, I couldn't avoid having a shy grin on my face. How many of you have had days on which every thing seems to go upside down? I had plenty of them. Really, plenty. Her post teaches to never lose your sense of humor when things go that wrong, after all, they can only get better. 


Gadling teaches you to read Cyrillic alphabet in 5 minutes, Gadling. If you've taken a look at my current Bucket List, you will have read about the the Trans-Siberian or, well, Trans-Mongolian trip I am dreaming of. This is slowly developing into an obsession (and it's killing me to think that I might not be able to do it this year). However, I'll be flying over to Moscow for a Conference in March, and, now that I started developing my french skills, I realized I have to take a quick course in Cyrillic. 


Drink Your Way Around the World, As We Travel. Drinks are often left behind when you're tasting the culinary offer of a region or country. It's easy to relate Spain to sangria, but there are so many other drinks that have not been internationally recognized. You can't leave Argentina / Uruguay without sipping some mate or Peru without tasting pisco. Nathan and Sofia highlight some other interesting drinks from around the World (being moroccan mint tea among my very favorites!). 


Top 10: New Year's Traditions from Around the World, Strux Travel. As much as I enjoyed my New Year's Eve in London, I did miss eating the 12 grapes at midnight (a spanish and portuguese NYE tradition). I had never stopped to think about other NYE traditions from around the World. Among the 10 traditions, I think my favorite is the brazilian one, where locals lay candles and flowers in the sand. I'm sure it looks beautiful. 

Friday's Five - #3 Edition

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Life's Great Mysteries, Mr. Shev. I found out about Mr. Shev's Blog on the Expat Bloggers in Switzerland edition of The Connectors at Worldradio.ch a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoy his writing, and Life's Great Mysteries is among the best - it gets you thinking about little mysteries of our day by day life that you might have never thought about before, and this, in an incredible funny way. 

A word about jeans, 30-something Travel. Stephanie is a flashpacker by heart and gives great advice for those who are looking to see something outside of the usual guidebooks. In a word about jeans she justifies the reason to travel with jeans in your backpack (which, hey, I do too!) - you wouldn't be going into a trendy restaurant with zip-off pants, right? There it is - jeans are the solution!

Couchsurfing Changed My Life, Journalist on the Run. If you've read about my thoughts on Budget Traveling, you'll know that I've already been considering this travel option for a while but wasn't very sure about the lack of privacy. But then, this encouraging post from Janet has made me see things in a different way and I've decided to create a profile these holidays as a pre-new year resolution! 

Adapting to the French Diet, Le Fabuleux Destin de Brenna. Why french women don't get fat is one of my life great's mysteries - and I presume I'm not alone in this, given that Mireille Guiliano even writes a book about it. The secret lies on eating with pleasure. Check Brenna's post and you'll find out why!

White Chocolate Saffron Truffles, Chocolate & Tea. Well, since I've been talking about all that chocolate and all those truffles I saw and tasted at the Chocolate Festival in London, I thought that the best choice was to end this Friday's 5 edition with a mouth-watering white chocolate saffron truffle receipt. 

Friday's Five - #2 Edition

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

50 Amazingly Achievable Things to Do before you Die, Fevered Mutterings. I had been thinking for a couple of weeks to create one of these 101 in 1001, but seriously? I don't think I could keep up with them. I plan to spend my next... 2-3 years working, so all those "dive with a shark" or "visit Machu Picchu" are unfortunately out of my league. But that doesn't mean you can't have goals, right?


The Day US Customs found a Bullet in my Pocket, Wandering Earl. I thought I had a bad day at customs the when I was caught in London Airport with a swiss knife, but that's nothing compared to Earl's adventure - Luck was definitely not on his side that day! Before going back to the US, he had been traveling around Afghanistan and Pakistan (among others) and was caught by customs with a shiny bullet, a burqa and a box of Osama bin Laden Kufa Balls (candy). Wrong time, wrong place. 


Now staring as Paris: Brooklyn, M. Dashing. I've never had the chance to go to Brooklyn, but these pictures definitely make me wanna go right now. Amy writes mostly about Brooklyn, and has many other beautiful pictures of New York City's most populous borough.


Alternative Friday Night: Transport Back to the 1940s, Get off the beaten path. I really like the idea of time traveling - while it's not scientifically possible yet, this party is a good alternative! A reason to buy vintage clothes, wear red lipstick, and style your hair glossy and wavy... I'm so looking forward to this 1940s party on New Year's Eve in London!

How to Sleep in an Airport: 101, Sleeping in Airports. Had I known this site before, I would have saved so many unnecessary hostels and hotels. A list of tips and tricks for sleeping on airports, such as sticking notes on your self and surrounding seats with a "wake me at 5am"- that's a good one, and I can assure it works! The site also rates the best (and worst!) airports to sleep at!

Friday's Five - #1 Edition

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

While I was googling for inspiration during last weekend (yeah, I know - where did my imagination go?), I came across some great posts; some of them news, others personal experiences, and some others incredibly inspiring pictures. So, starting from today, and hopefully continuing each friday, I will be posting my top 5 favorite expat / travel posts!

____________________________________________________________

Leongs Legend, Gourmet Chic.  There are two things that have been obsessing me in the last month - on one side, the delicious macarons (I have a Laduree shop on my way to the gym - isn't life unfair?) and on the other, the Xai Long Bao soup dumplings. I first tried them in a side restaurant in Lausanne, called Chez Xu - it was true love. Thanks Gourmet Chic for the Londoner version of Chez Xu, it's on my list of To Do's for the next time I'll be in the city. 


The future of plane Seats: Analyzed, The Lonely Planet. Airlines are constantly studying new ways of making first class even more luxurious and fitting more people into economy - it's a trend (and I personally won't be profiting a lot of this one...). My favorite? The see-through plane Airbus engineers are currently studying - Can you imagine flying while watching the stars above and the city lights below? *Sigh*


My Dirty Little Travel Secret, C'est Christine. The internet is full of blogs about All Around the World trips (which sound amazing!), but often miss on small pleasures of being in a foreign country - like learning the language, befriend with locals and learn how to cook some national dishes. You will get to see the city / country in a different way.  


Spotted Dick and 20 other british foods with stupid names, The Jetpacker. I laughed out loud at this one - have you ever heard about a "Fitless Cock"? I hope never to be encountered with anything like that! Next to this one, "Love in Disguise" even sounds good - until you know what it actually is...!!


El Tigre, That's G. Last night I came across with this post - it brought me back so many good memories of Madrid! Not only do I miss the city itself, but also the time of being a student, bars were dirty and cheap, food was greasy and alcohol came in liters (or even better, "meters"!).