Where is June?

When I looked at the calendar, in 2 days I will enter to July. It seems that the whole month of June is miraculously disappeared. The major reason was that I was battling with 9 exams (2 elective class exams were executed during the semester, altogether 11 classes...do you believe this?!?).

I tried so hard to balance the life - as an exam taker, a German language student, a part-time staff at a consultant firm, a girlfriend (I know I haven't done a good job. I was with him in Zurich, but I was like a furniture at the corner of the room..because I had to study!), a foreigner who still see Switzerland exotic, a friend who likes to hang out etc.

So far, I have had done a good job. I know I will pass all the exams (maybe a few could give an ugly result, but it's ok...we'll see.). I went to see Sex & the City. I watched a few football matches. I drank some beer and Campari with orange. I sat by the lake watching my bf swimming. I still functioned well at work. My friend and I bought Thai food and ate at the park and discuss so long about branding, the God Father, people.com and 10 thousands gossips. I still answered my mom's call and spoke to her for an hour (with no sign of irritation). I worried about the mosquito bites a bit...but often let go the thoughts and rubbed the scars with 100% Shea butter and so far they look gradually better. All in all, life has been moving towards the path that it is supposed to be..

Just one small thing: after this summer break (which is extremely hot now!), I will begin my academic life in another place. They say it is tough. But I can't wait to throw myself to the challenges and see how far I can lift the bar. But I know deep down, I will miss friends in Lugano so much. There are some people that I get along so well. We worked together in many projects and our learning curve is so high that we didn't have to discuss so much. I will miss them all.

However, Lugano is still my regular home to come back to anyway. I still have a job here. I am in love with the town. I still have some small hope that one day I could really communicate in Italian (now German is my priority). So, I will never lose touch.

Though June almost comes to an end, I still have July, Aug, Sep, etc. to look forward to.

Next activities in July: I'm going to England and Wales. Stay tuned! :-)

Hopp Schwiiz!

First of all, no politics or religion here.

Before the first football match kicked off of Switzerland against Czech Republic, I was sitting in the library stupidly and unknowingly it was the official day of Euro 2008! The final exams are very overwhelming me now. I live, breathe and am observed with the study subjects (or at least trying to) and worries about my bumps of mosquitoes.

Once I stepped outside for lunch, I saw a parade of people dressed up in white Red cross on the bright red T-shirt. Some had colorful marks on the cheeks. Loud music and laughters everywhere. I love it! I haven't see Swiss in such a high spirit like this before (except for Ticino part..everyday is like a festival :-)).

I observed that a lot of businesses trying to connect themselves to the events..let me give some examples. Starbucks (went there after finding myself nodding in the quiet library though full of people!) had an interaction with customers. A barista held a football field-like white board with a hole (like a goal) in some distance and customers throw a small ball into the hole. I don't know and I'm not sure how it worked as I wasn't invited and I don't know what the prize is ... a discount cup of coffee..? Tally Weijl, a Paris-based clothes shop, is selling tops in different types of logo of some countries participating in Euro - Switzerland, Italy and Germany (maybe more..).

Mars bar is also an obvious example. Since my group worked on this Hopp temporary re-branding strategy for our branding & advertising class, we know that this is not a one time thing. They have also done so with the Believe launch in the UK when it was the host. But well, our comment was that it's quite a risk to associate the brand with the team. You don't know how far the team can go - do you want the brand quality transfer to your product from the winner or the loser? (again, I'm talking generally..)

Personally, football is some sort of religion or politics. If you want your brand out of (more) trouble, try to get away from it. Of course, there are some companies have somewhat neutral position of 'I'm happy that you are the host, but I love the other the teams too!'. The paper placemat I saw at the Kebab place was a good example from Coca Cola. The very colorful paper say 'Bon Appetit (Have a good meal)' was featured in different languages of those countries participating in the Euro cup. But in the middle, 4 Swiss national languages got the highlight attention. That's because we're the host.

Now you know how much I enjoyed observing, especially in this marvelous football host opportunity! Hopp Schwiiz! Hopp Schwiiz!

Unwanted (love) bites

It happened around Songkran this year. Spring arrived and it was the perfect time to mow the lawn for the bar b q on the following weekend. After the 2 hrs of getting rid of the the-lower-leg tall grass, I found some red bumps on my legs and hands and I felt itchy like hell and they lasted several weeks. I had a gut feeling that it was because of the grass. To confirm this, a month later I did mow the lawn again, this time it reached its peak - the rash appeared on the arms, hands, legs, back and feet. It itched badly and I scratched till some part of the skin broke and bled. Indeed, my body full of red spots grossed me and this is really horrifying!

I went to see a doctor the other day in Zürich. I was so convinced that I was allergic to grass or pollen. But after he examined the bumps, he concluded that they were mosquito bites! Hello?? I'm from Thailand and so immune that I am not fragile to mosquitoes! The problem is that these mosquitoes are different from those in Asia. So, my blood for them is one of a kind and so tantalizing! But in conclusion, I am now officially allergic to Swiss mosquitoes!

I am left with 2 issues to solve. First, I never see my enemies face to face. They are sooo sooo petit but I could feel them everywhere, any time. Once I felt it on my leg, I wanna look at it in the face before I land my hand on it. But magically, it was never there. I neither got to see the face of the bastard nor did I get a chance to slap it. Therefore, I don't know how to get rid of them. Second, when was done is done. They left me dark spots on my back, my legs, arms, feet, everywhere. You know, those red spots can disappear in time if you did NOT scratch. But I did. The blood did come out. The skin was open. Now some of them were healed and became scars. Urghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

My solutions -> I changed my lifestyle.

1) I wear new fragrance of lemon grass with the logo of mosquito the enemy, called ANTI BRUMM (I can't swiss kiss with any friends anymore because I am too spicy). I googled 'what mosquitoes hate' and those are lemon grass (done!), tea tree, lavender, garlic and Citronella plant. So, I plan to eat more garlic (I will shoo other human beings as well), shower myself with lavender fragrance oil (own one bottle of tea tree gel from the Body Shop too) and when I get back to Lugano, I will look for 10 Citronella plants (if it is not too costly) to place in my garden and everywhere in the apartment!!

2) I looked up for possible ways to get rid of the scars. To run down the list, here are the candidates: vitamin E (some source says it could reverse the effect), Cocoa, could be Shea butter and Mederma. Put some of them in my list to shop in England this July. But since I am too impatient, I'm gonna give it a try at the Shea butter from L'Occitane or the Body Shop. It is advisable to get very pure one, so it's very likely that I would go for the first choice.

To be honest, I'm so depressed!