Mountains, Cheese, and Jazz

After a sleepover in Heathrow Airport, we wearily boarded the plane for Switzerland at 7:00 AM. We arrived in the small town of Wohlen, Switzerland on Friday morning. Wohlen is about an hour south-west of Zurich and from the google maps picture, it looked like we would spend the next few days sitting and watching the cows graze on the hillsides. We couldn't have been more wrong.

On arriving to Switzerland, we traveled to their local magnet school, and we met our hosts. They were all students our age and they were very good at English. In this area of Switzerland, they all speak Swiss German, High German, and some English. Swiss-German is a type of German that has very little grammar and is mostly unintelligible to anyone who knows German such as Jack. We had lunch at the school, and then prepared for our half hour concert for the whole school. The students were expecting some boring Harvard classical music, and I think they were a quite surprised when we start hopping around and singing songs about counting to 40. The students loved the performance and they all were asking us to sign the cd’s we were selling. It was definitely a Din rock star moment that I heard only happens in Singapore!After this, we all went to a river outside of Wohlen, where we had a traditional “grill”. A grill is basically a barbecue but you have to make the fire and you mostly cook sausage. Some Dins played a strange game called Kubb, while others attempted to make serpent bread by baking dough on a stick over the fire. 
That night we sang at the house of the woman who set up our visit. She held a lovely dinner party for her friends and family and we had the privileged of singing in their beautiful garden, chatting with guests, and snacking on some of the deliciously prepared food.

That night, David and I went to our home stay in Fahrwangen, an even smaller area outside of Wohlen where we stayed with a wonderful Swiss family. We talked with Michelle, their daughter for a long time about the Dins and Switzerland. Surprisingly, I learned that she was an exchange student at Monroe Woodbury High School in New York a few years ago, only a 45 minute drive from my hometown of Montgomery. I still can’t fathom the odds that my home stay in the middle of the Swiss countryside has visited Valley Central High School, and probably took the SAT’s at Monroe Woodbury at the same time I did. The world isn’t as big as we may think it is! The next day the group of host students planned an outing to the mountains. David and I experienced an authentically delicious Swiss breakfast with croissants and an incredible dish called Birchermusesli, pronounced Beer-her-musely. It has oatmeal, yogurt, and all different types of fresh fruit. We met the others and took an hour and a half train ride south to a mountain near the alps.    

 


We all went on this fun sled/luge ride down the mountain in these small carts with a hand brake. It was quite thrilling as you flew down the mountain in this metal half pipe and banked around curves going very fast. Some of the Dins didn’t think they needed the handbrake to go around the curves and now they have some nice skid burns to prove their need for speed. Also at the mountain, they had a very long suspension walking bridge that went over a ravine. We of course spent 5 minutes finding it’s resonance and  took some pictures as it swayed around (some Dins are nerds). My group of Dins and hosts went for a hike up the mountain and had lunch on a hillside facing the jaw-droppingly beautiful Swiss Alps. 

On the way home, we stopped at Zug, Switzerland where a few of us rented paddle boats and went onto the lake to paddle around and go swimming. For dinner, I ate at Kai and Eric’s host, and she treated us to a real fondue meal named Raclette. It involved putting Swiss cheese in a tray with slices of sausage on top, melting it under a hot plate, and then pouring the cheesey-meaty magma over boiled potatoes to create a delicious customizable dish. Absolutely stuffed from that, we sang our big 70 minute public concert at the school again and the audience really loved it. We had a party with the hosts that night, and we were amazed that in under 48 hours, we felt like we were good friends with these people.

From the conversations I’ve heard, all of the Dins absolutely loved Switzerland thanks to our generous and friendly hosts. So thank you to them, and onward we travel to Saarland, Germany!  

Oxford, England: A Little Taster

Oxford wasn't our first stop (London was), but I'll be blogging about our short but lovely time in Oxford as it gives a little taster to our stay in overall stop in England.

We arrived in Oxford from London early in the morning on the 14th, energized by two whole days of leisurely exploration of England's grand capital. At Oxford, we were met by our friends, the Oxford Gargoyles, Oxford university's co-ed jazz a cappella group. We had hosted them for a few days in March when they toured the East Coast, so we were equally excited to have the favor returned.

 All of us were thoroughly blown away by the quaint beauty of Oxford University, the second-oldest surviving university in the world. While Harvard may have just celebrated its 375th anniversary, Oxford has been around since the 11th century. That's even older than I am, so that's saying a lot. (For our alums's benefit: Long story short, I served two years in the Singapore army, so I'm a 23-year-old sophomore old man.)

We were given a tour of several colleges, including Worcester and Christ Church. Each college is steeped in history in its own rich way, and I appreciated how the meditative tranquility of Oxford found expression in its Gothic architecture.

Despite the glorious scenery and buildings, the best of our Oxford stop was punting. Punting, akin to rowing a Venetian gondola, is quite a big thing in Oxford, so we were quite excited - if not a little curious - at the entire prospect of being in a boat propelled by pushing a pole against the river bed. The 12 of us were split up into three boats of somewhat varying expertise in punting, so one boat (the members of which shall remain  anonymous) had a bit of a struggle against the strong river currents. Nevertheless, in classic English fashion, we enjoyed a lovely tea consisting of scones and muffins on the river.

At the end of our journey, Ben and Sean did a wonderful bridge-hopping stunt, whereby one stands on the deck of the punt, grabs the bridge as it passes overhead, then climbs across it as quickly as possible and drops down onto the punt as it passes out under the other side of the parapet. 

I can safely say that punting was the best experience we've all had so far. It was a totally new experience, and it was made wonderful by the generous and fun-loving Oxford Gargoyles. Many snaps to them!

We rounded off our short day in Oxford with a short gig at a nearby pub. We took turns singing a few songs with the Gargoyles, to much enthusiasm and applause by the audience. Here's a video I found on youtube which showcases us:

Eventually, we had to leave for Zurich, Switzerland via Heathrow, but not before bidding farewell to our gracious and wonderful hosts. We truly enjoyed our stop in Oxford, and we hope we can return soon. Stay tuned for many more tour updates! :)

Photo credit: Alex Miller

Once More, Around the World

It's time once again for ... The Din & Tonics' World Tour! As the only current member who went on the 2010 tour, I thought I'd kick the blogging off this time around.

There's something surreal about the prospect of getting to do this crazy thing not once, but twice. Scratch that, it seems pretty much impossible. But then again, the reality of what we were doing never quite hit me last time, either: 10 weeks, your best friends, and the world... it's pretty hard to believe. And now, I guess lightning is going to strike a second time. This time, I'd like to think I'm going through this a few years older and a little bit wiser, but honestly, I just feel the same childish excitement all over again. For me, this tour will be quite a bit more tour-managing and not quite as much sitting back and staring wide-eyed at the unfolding craziness. That means more emails, more phone calls, and more scheduling to make sure there are no more easyJets or Cypruses. But I've had an extremely able crew of fellow tour-planners with me: Grant, Kai, Rafic, Ryan, Sean, and Jack. Of course, the snafus are bound to happen, and they'll end up on this blog sooner or later. But that's what makes it an adventure!

So to all the alumni, friends, family, and fans of Dins out there, we welcome you to follow us around the world through our blog. And on my part, in the spirit of my 4th of July entry from last time around, I'll try to make it as tasty a trip for you all as I can.