14/06/07
I had a very interesting dream last night.
Mr Kitamura, a teacher from my highschool's geology class appeared, whom I haven't thought about for more than six years.
But it's very easy to explain why.
It's because my roommate is a geologist.
Inspite of all what people say about brains, sometimes I think human brain is, after all, a very simple thing.
I had a breakfast at seven thirty.
According to this geologist from Amsterdam, Swiss people are early birds.
I ate two slices of bread, a bowl of museli, some cheese and a glass of orange juice.
Having satisfied myself with a good breakfast, I went out with no specific destination in my mind.
I decided to do some hiking, for it seemed like the most sensible things to do in this provincial village.
I walked towards south, through the footpath between the patches of field.
Since I did not have a map, I took photos with my digital camera everytime the path branched out so not to get lost.
Yeah, it's a modern application of the method invented by Hazel and Gretel.
Oh, what more can you ask?
After walking for about two hours, I sat down on the path and rested for a while.
I was reading when two small deer came out of the woods.
But as soon as they spotted me, they ran away with great speed back into the forrest.
It was what you call a close encounter.
I kept walking and walking towards south, enjoying the pretty countryside scenary.
Theoretically, I could have gone walking forever,
but I stopped and returned my way back when I got hungry as it was practically impossible.
I had some pasta and a beer in a small restaurant.
In the afternoon, I walked towards north.
There was a lake, but didn't appear to me as anything special, so after eating an apple, I head back to the town.
It was already six when I got back to the hostel.
Soon the geologist came back.
I asked him how his day went.
'Oh, I went to see the Roman Amphitheatre'.
So that's what he was doing! I thought he was here for some decent research.
Completely out of the blue, he asked me whether I want to play table tennis.
I said, sure.
The table tennis table was in the back garden.
And that was how I ended up playing table tennis with a geologist from Amsterdam in a small town in Switzerland,
a situation which I never imagined to play a part.
He said he's good at table tennis as he plays normal tennis (is that logically correct?).
But he was good, using curves and all.
And as we were playing, the kids (around the age of 15 and 16) who were staying at the same hostel came out in the garden.
For some reason, they all wanted to play table tennis with me.
The kids were from a place called Lucern, and they said they're on a school trip, today being their last day.
They were a very polite people, and wanted to know about Japan and asked me a lot of questions.
'So do you cook sushi?'
'if you cook sushi, then it is no longer sushi'
'Are the girls attracted by sumo wrestlers?'
'I don't think so'
They asked me why I came to this village, so I told them that all the meticulous planning and
great travelling ability could be undermined easily by one small mistake, such as misbooking a youthhostel.
Their teachers liked my story.
It impressed me how they all spoke English so fluently.
They told me that the official English education last only three years.
I told the kids that someday I'll bring the Ministry of Education buttheads from Japan, for their own education.
After playing table tennis, I was reading a novel in my room, when the kids came and asked whether I have any plans this evening.
I said no.
So we went to see the Roman amphitheater together.
Well, they say that it's a Roman ruin.
It was a ruin, but not sure whether it was a Roman ruin, for it looked a bit shabby.
The place was scheduled to be the venue for a rock concert next month.
Perhaps we should advise Italians to hold rock concerts in the Colloseum too.
There was a castle nearby, and till the sunset, we talked about random things.
I asked Lukas how a typical Swiss spends his summer.
He said "it's nothing special, just seeing friends".
That's true I thought, living in Japan does not necessarily mean that you go see Sumo every weekend.
After the sunset and before it got any darker, we went to buy icecreams to Coop in the petrol station.
I guess it was good to have come to Avenches after all.
Had I been to Zurich, I would not have had this kind of multi-cultural experience,
and there would have been no beautiful countryside scenery
and no eating icecream in the rain either.