big day today.

And yesterday. Well, really, a big WEEK.

Last Tuesday: broke down and wore my skinny jeans to Karaoke from Hell, and it was their 250th show--their "leather edition", as the emcee called it; a burlesque dancer; and LOTS of sparkly poppers and confetti. Kinda a goofy celebration, really, but cheesy good fun.

The emcee's leather turned out to be his lederhosen (above center), which was funny, until he he declared that he felt silly speaking English in his shorts and Alpine hat, and promptly switched to Swiss German. Booo. I think the big winner that night was the bass player, above on the left, who went for a mesh tank top and sleeveless leather vest. The poor guitar player was clearly overheating in his leather jacket, but he stuck with it. The drummer opted to go shirtless, as he usually winds up without one anyway, but he DID have a sweet fake mustache.

Thursday: vegetarian Mexican dinner with Lori and Dave. We made cheese enchiladas topped with fried eggs (kinda like enchiladas rancheros from Twisters...!!  =), and Lori brought veggie chimichangas. Ice cream with raspberry compote for dessert. YUMMMMMMM. Also got our dining room table! Wooooo!

All of our chairs fit!

It's just sooooooooo pretty!

Friday: I had coffee and assorted baked goodies with downstairs neighbor, who is Irish and extremely hilarious and awesome (and the first person I've met here without Mike's connections or assistance...!). Then went and signed up for six weeks of my first non-Google-related German class.

Saturday: chile tasting, followed by lunch of grilled Argentininan beef with fresh bread and chimichurri sauce. In this beautiful little square with a fountain and big shady trees and white wine (and, oddly enough, a built-in ping-pong table that was occupied the ENTIRE time we were there). Here's the chile shop itself is really small, but full of amazing and delicious chile-packed sauces, curries, olive oils, and all sorts of fantastic chile-related delights, mostly made by the shop owner himself. (He also stocks a small assortment of wine, but it's only stuff he likes. HOW AWESOME.) Here's his promo photo.

How's THAT for honesty in advertising! It's a chile and wine shop...get it??  

Here's the lineup of the hottest chiles in the shop. Which is, naturally, where Mike started his sampling.

Here's the shop owner dosing out some horribly hot food-like items for the chile eating contest.

In which Mike, of course, had to participate. Smiling at the start...

...and smiling at the end. He didn't even get the hiccups, flinch, cry, or sweat. It was pretty impressive. (Our friend Dave was unfazed, as well. THESE PEOPLE ARE INSANE.)

To the victors go the spoils! Travel-sized bottles of "Iguana Deuce" hot sauce with "I survived!" labels.

Last, but not least, slabs of beef on the square with the Gaucho.

Saturday evening: departed for Lausanne for the birthday party of our friend Steve's fiancee, Nathalie, who is the tiniest, sweetest, and most adorable French person I've ever met. The party was at this utterly fantastical, 2-million-franc apartment overlooking Lake Geneva. The hosts were divine, the food phenomenal, and the company extremely interesting. OH YEAH...and Lausanne is this beautiful fairy-tale type of town in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, which makes it (and the train ride south) almost surreally charming.

Sunday: got up and ate crepes by the lake (Mike's was ham, mushrooms, and cheese; mine was cheese, potatoes, and red onions...perfection in food form), in front of an honest-to-goodness stone chateau. 

This is how much was left of my crepe. 

Then Steve gave us a brief tour of Lausanne's old town and cathedral (building commenced in 1170!!), followed by a short (but entirely painful) hike up a steep hill to a villa that's been converted into an art gallery. What's really nice is that it seems like the villa's grounds are public land, so there were people everywhere hiking or lounging in the fields or playing with their kids...just a lovely place.

The cathedral is pretty massive. This is the only photo I managed to get of the entire length of it.

Who doesn't love a nice rose window?

Wisteria in old town. My new favorite plant.

Yes. Lausanne IS this ridiculously quaint and picturesque.

Biiiiiiig cathedral.

The villa. LOTS OF FLOWERS.

We stopped at the little cafe, then went into the exhibit (El Modernismo: De Sorolla a Picasso, 1880-1918). Turns out, it was probably the only exhibit I've ever seen where I truly liked most of the pieces. And then there was THIS.

The view from the villa. Green grass, leading down to the lake, with the Alps in the background.

More alps and chateau-y buildings.

I couldn't quite capture the expansiveness or drama of these views, so you'll just have to trust me. LAUSANNE IS SO BEAUTIFUL IT'S UNFAIR TO THE REST OF THE WORLD. You'd have to really not mind climbing hills to live there, though: it seemed like everywhere we went was uphill. Steeply uphill.

Anyway. After our jaunt up to the villa/gallery, we went back down to Nathalie's apartment, where we had a lovely dinner of ridiculously good French cheeses, some really nice red wine, fresh fruits and veggies, and some fancy-schmancy cupcakes (two inches of icing, people!!) that we'd picked up on the way back down the hill. Just a truly lovely way to end a food-and-beauty-centric weekend. My favorite kind.  =)

And finally, today's big event: went to my first "semi-intensive" German class. I am truly relieved that I had the good sense not to sign up for an actual intensive class: the amount of information with which we were bombarded today is more than enough for one three-hour session, and I cannot imagine doing that all week, plus several hours of homework a day, thank you very much. But class itself was enjoyable, and my fellow non-German-speaking classmates seem like a genuinely nice bunch of people, so I might actually stick with it for a while (or at least, for the twice-a-week for six weeks that I've signed on for). Wish me luck, people: I still have nightmares about being back in school, so we'll see how it goes.