Tuesday, June 30, 2009
DESIGN STUFFF
Here is a quick graphic design piece I did up while bored. Just a photo from Switzerland.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
YOUNG LOVE
Last night I shot an engagement session with Tabitha & Aaron on the Hamilton escarpment. It was a beautiful night, perfect for photos overlooking the downtown core and it was great being able to get to know these two before their wedding, which is fast approaching.
The location that we were shooting at was the spot that Aaron asked Tabitha to marry her, so it was great being able to incorporate that feeling into the photos, it was obvious a special spot for them.
Here are some of the photos:
I will be publishing some design work that I have been working on in the next day or so also.
The location that we were shooting at was the spot that Aaron asked Tabitha to marry her, so it was great being able to incorporate that feeling into the photos, it was obvious a special spot for them.
Here are some of the photos:
I will be publishing some design work that I have been working on in the next day or so also.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
BACK/STOKED ON THE FUTURE of 5D
Hey everyone, for the first time on this blog, I am writing to you from my hometown of Waterdown, ON, CANADA!! I am back from an amazing trip in Switzerland and will continue to use this blog to update all'y'all of some projects I'm working on, going to show urrryone the latest and greatest of my photography AND some great projects that 5D Media is working on.
What?
I'm sorry?
5D? You don't know what that is? Guess I have some explaining to do.
I have JUST recently been asked to join the amazing and dedicated team of 5D Media & Design as their photographer and Media Designer. 5D has been around for a while but just recently expanded its design team and business end, they focus on building websites, ad campaigns, brochures - anything and everything that is advertising in the visual form.
You have to hit up the website at www.5dmedia.ca - I mean, if the homepage alone doesn't entertain you for hours, the unbelievable work they have done so far should.
If you or ANYONE you know is in need of any sort of advertising, website, WHATEVER, feel free to e-mail David, he will hook you up with what you need.
dshelley@5dmedia.ca
Support me if you care, check the site out, pass the word along, make people happy.
I'll be posting some engagement shots in the next few days that I'm shooting for an AMAZING couple tomorrow and some design work that I've been practicing on.
Stay tuned interneters.
-Jason
What?
I'm sorry?
5D? You don't know what that is? Guess I have some explaining to do.
I have JUST recently been asked to join the amazing and dedicated team of 5D Media & Design as their photographer and Media Designer. 5D has been around for a while but just recently expanded its design team and business end, they focus on building websites, ad campaigns, brochures - anything and everything that is advertising in the visual form.
You have to hit up the website at www.5dmedia.ca - I mean, if the homepage alone doesn't entertain you for hours, the unbelievable work they have done so far should.
If you or ANYONE you know is in need of any sort of advertising, website, WHATEVER, feel free to e-mail David, he will hook you up with what you need.
dshelley@5dmedia.ca
Support me if you care, check the site out, pass the word along, make people happy.
I'll be posting some engagement shots in the next few days that I'm shooting for an AMAZING couple tomorrow and some design work that I've been practicing on.
Stay tuned interneters.
-Jason
Sunday, May 24, 2009
PARASAILING, HUGE FOUNTAINS & RANDOMS
Alright, so it's been WAY too long without a blog post and for those of you that read this blog:
I am sorry. Sincerely.
So what has happened since our last time together? Let's see.
Yesterday I went parasailing, which was UNBELIEVABLE! Since Switzerland is pretty much made up of huge hills, even bigger mountains and gigantic valleys, parasailing is almost a national past time here.
We booked a time to go parasailing with this dude who parasailed from where I am staying - Huemoz - to Geneva, which is an hour in a half by car. To put this in perspective, I was only in the air for 15 minutes, yet this dude flew to Geneva and back ... to sum it up, this guy is a living legend in Swizterland.
He runs his own parasailing school slash company where, for those of us who have no idea how to parasail, we can strap onto another dude and have him fly us around. There is a video down below of us in the air and a photo of me strapped to this crazy blonde dude who looks like a sheep farmer or something.
The whole process of parasailing in itself is a little crazy if you don't have a streak of action sports in you. Here's how it works. You have almost what looks like a mountain climbers outfit on (as far as the straps go), so straps around your legs, waist and then over your shoulders like a backpack. Then, you have thin yet strong threads, around 50-60 of them, that go from your back and shoulders to a huge fabric "parachute". It's a parachute but just not round, it's rectangular.
Once you are all strapped in and such, you start booking it down the hill until the parachute is above you, then, you run even faster ... actually, with me strapped to this guy, it was more like a ridiculously fast wobble and then before you know it you are running in the air.
From that point on I put my life in this guys ... parachute, hoping he wouldn't catch a bad air current and have us plummet 1500 feet to our immediate death.
This guy spoke no English, so there was a nice awkward silence for the first 5 minutes until I started just talking randomly, knowing full well that he had no idea what I was saying. So, I started talking about how if he allowed us to plummet to our deaths I would haunt his family and that it was really cool he let me be strapped onto him and how I didn't usually do this kind of thing with other guys. I was saying all this in a really nice tone of voice though and when I looked back after saying I would haunt his family he was smiling, so he had no clue what I was saying to him.
At one point, we were over some farmers fields, about 1200 feet in the air, and there was a group of 30 or so hikers below us and out of nowhere, almost making me piss myself, this dude behind me just started yelling random French words at them but they couldn't hear us, so he started laughing vicariously. Weird but whatever.
Few days before I put my life in a blonde parasailers parachute, we took a day trip around Lake Geneva. Lake Geneva is half in Switzerland and half in France, so we drove around the whole lake, which is about a 5 hour car ride. We stopped in a French town and then in Geneva, which is in Switzerland.
Geneva is a really amazing city. Though, something I really like about it is that any couple we saw walking around, was either all over each other making out dry humping or just looked like they were really in love, murmuring to each other in French over a coffee and feeding each other ice cream. The people in Geneva are so horny .... I loved it, not only did it provide entertainment but it made me wish I had a girlfriend .... anyways.
The sickest part of Geneva is that they have this massive fountain that is at the end of a pier that juts into Lake Geneva and it shoots a thick stream of water about 150 feet in the air, you can see this fountain almost anywhere in Geneva.
You can walk right up to the fountain, if you want to get soaked. We stood about 50 feet away from it and just got covered in a fine mist of water that was coming off from the impact of the fountain spray hitting the lake. I included some photos below of the fountain. The photo of the building below - look carefully - top right you can see the fountain. This photo was taken about 5 miles from the fountain, we were deep in the city.
My trip is coming to an end, which causes me to feel a mixture of sadness and happiness. I have had an amazing time here in this country and I know I will be coming back, visiting often, I'm even thinking of in a few years looking for a house to buy here that I can rent out from time to time. This country is so different and unique, peacefuly and quiet, majestic and beautiful that I cannot just visit it once in my life.
Enjoy the photos and video below and I will post a few more blogs before this trip is out!!
-Jason.
This is the view I had ... crazy, I know.
Look how happy we are together! That is the parasailing dude who I trusted my life with, awwww.
This photo is SICK because there was a double rainbow, major storm clouds and then BAM ... blue sky. Crazy.
Some random street in Geneva, we were so lost trying to find where we parked out car.
Le fountain top right - yeah, cool, I know.
The le fountain upclose. Kinda.
I am sorry. Sincerely.
So what has happened since our last time together? Let's see.
Yesterday I went parasailing, which was UNBELIEVABLE! Since Switzerland is pretty much made up of huge hills, even bigger mountains and gigantic valleys, parasailing is almost a national past time here.
We booked a time to go parasailing with this dude who parasailed from where I am staying - Huemoz - to Geneva, which is an hour in a half by car. To put this in perspective, I was only in the air for 15 minutes, yet this dude flew to Geneva and back ... to sum it up, this guy is a living legend in Swizterland.
He runs his own parasailing school slash company where, for those of us who have no idea how to parasail, we can strap onto another dude and have him fly us around. There is a video down below of us in the air and a photo of me strapped to this crazy blonde dude who looks like a sheep farmer or something.
The whole process of parasailing in itself is a little crazy if you don't have a streak of action sports in you. Here's how it works. You have almost what looks like a mountain climbers outfit on (as far as the straps go), so straps around your legs, waist and then over your shoulders like a backpack. Then, you have thin yet strong threads, around 50-60 of them, that go from your back and shoulders to a huge fabric "parachute". It's a parachute but just not round, it's rectangular.
Once you are all strapped in and such, you start booking it down the hill until the parachute is above you, then, you run even faster ... actually, with me strapped to this guy, it was more like a ridiculously fast wobble and then before you know it you are running in the air.
From that point on I put my life in this guys ... parachute, hoping he wouldn't catch a bad air current and have us plummet 1500 feet to our immediate death.
This guy spoke no English, so there was a nice awkward silence for the first 5 minutes until I started just talking randomly, knowing full well that he had no idea what I was saying. So, I started talking about how if he allowed us to plummet to our deaths I would haunt his family and that it was really cool he let me be strapped onto him and how I didn't usually do this kind of thing with other guys. I was saying all this in a really nice tone of voice though and when I looked back after saying I would haunt his family he was smiling, so he had no clue what I was saying to him.
At one point, we were over some farmers fields, about 1200 feet in the air, and there was a group of 30 or so hikers below us and out of nowhere, almost making me piss myself, this dude behind me just started yelling random French words at them but they couldn't hear us, so he started laughing vicariously. Weird but whatever.
Few days before I put my life in a blonde parasailers parachute, we took a day trip around Lake Geneva. Lake Geneva is half in Switzerland and half in France, so we drove around the whole lake, which is about a 5 hour car ride. We stopped in a French town and then in Geneva, which is in Switzerland.
Geneva is a really amazing city. Though, something I really like about it is that any couple we saw walking around, was either all over each other making out dry humping or just looked like they were really in love, murmuring to each other in French over a coffee and feeding each other ice cream. The people in Geneva are so horny .... I loved it, not only did it provide entertainment but it made me wish I had a girlfriend .... anyways.
The sickest part of Geneva is that they have this massive fountain that is at the end of a pier that juts into Lake Geneva and it shoots a thick stream of water about 150 feet in the air, you can see this fountain almost anywhere in Geneva.
You can walk right up to the fountain, if you want to get soaked. We stood about 50 feet away from it and just got covered in a fine mist of water that was coming off from the impact of the fountain spray hitting the lake. I included some photos below of the fountain. The photo of the building below - look carefully - top right you can see the fountain. This photo was taken about 5 miles from the fountain, we were deep in the city.
My trip is coming to an end, which causes me to feel a mixture of sadness and happiness. I have had an amazing time here in this country and I know I will be coming back, visiting often, I'm even thinking of in a few years looking for a house to buy here that I can rent out from time to time. This country is so different and unique, peacefuly and quiet, majestic and beautiful that I cannot just visit it once in my life.
Enjoy the photos and video below and I will post a few more blogs before this trip is out!!
-Jason.
This is the view I had ... crazy, I know.
Look how happy we are together! That is the parasailing dude who I trusted my life with, awwww.
This photo is SICK because there was a double rainbow, major storm clouds and then BAM ... blue sky. Crazy.
Some random street in Geneva, we were so lost trying to find where we parked out car.
Le fountain top right - yeah, cool, I know.
The le fountain upclose. Kinda.
Monday, May 18, 2009
SCARIEST NIGHT EVERRRR
Nothing I'd rather do than walk through a 200 year old town on a foggy night with random cats running around and scaring the living crap out of me.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
PARIS - PHOTOMENTUARY
Alright. Wow.
Paris was amazing. Blog post finished.
Just kidding, but before we get into the photos, I'll just set the intro up for you. We left for Paris on Monday (my birthday) and drove 6 hours, which, was a horrible drive because once you get out of Switzerland and into France, there isn't really anything to look at.
I mean, France is nice but I'm thinking Paris should pull a Vatican, and make themselves and independant country because the country of France totally sucks to drive through - so I slept, pretty much the whole way.
From now on, I'm going to blog through my photos and they aren't going to be in order of the days, because it's easier to cut off my own leg than format the photos in this blog.
Just so people don't get confused, the text will always refer to the photos ABOVE it.
Louie Vuitton. Did I go in? YES! Did I lust after every piece of clothing that would have fit me? YES. Did I try or touch anything? NO! I checked if they had Kanye West's shoes that he designed for LV but apparently they aren't out yet, which almost ruined my whole trip to Paris becaue I want to have a photo of me wearing them so I could have sent them into his blog. But NO ... Just to put LV into your understanding, a t-shirt, that says Louie Vuitton all over it costs 250 euros ... soooo ... $400 more or less. A Speedo buy LV is 200 euros ... craziness. We saw some Asian dude walk out with 5 bags of LV stuff ... I was tempted to take him into a back alley and steal everything but I didn't.
Mont Blanc - Champs D'Elysses. I have no clue if I spelled that street name right but that's how I'm going to spell it because it looks right - Champs D'Elysses is the main drag of Paris where you will find all the stores that you can't buy anything in. This is a fountain pen and it ONLY costs 14200 euros as you can see, so ... you know ... like $40,000. Pocket change, right?
THIS is a public toilet. Pretty awesome right? I pressed the button to open the door and was hit by a wall of old crap/piss smell, almost knocked me over. Not kidding. Did I use it, aahhhh, nope, I held it thanks.
Golden Penis. The French sure know how to carve their statues!! Not only was the horse made out of gold BUT they even hung a horse like a horse should be hung, penis and balls included. AND in gold, I hope the French carve a statue of me when I die! Just saying ...
The Tower of Eiffel. We were eating lunch at a corner cafe and we asked the waitress which direction the Eiffel Tower was in and she looked at us like we were, I don't know, foreign or something. I didn't ask the question, my mom did, I just assumed that if we looked up in the sky we would be able to see it BUT I was wrong. The French build incredible buildings and they build them high, so you actually can't see it from all over Paris like you could see the CN Tower. But she gave us the "why I am I wasting my time with these incompetent people who speak ANGLAIS" look because we said "Eiffel Tower" WHEN their english translation of Eiffel Tower is Tower of Eiffel. Excuuuuse me! haha, but in all seriousness, I love the French people but some of them are really rude.
Street Dancers. These dudes were SO unreal, they just set up their PSP and a speaker and waited until they had a crowd and then just breakdanced for ten minutes. It was so sick, I'm a huge fan of dancing of any kind (secret fact about Jason) because I know it requires so much practice and talent and I have tons of respect for people who can dance legit. I pushed my way to the front and started shooting them and once they saw I had a camera they would always come up close to me and bust out their biggest tricks, which was SICK hahaha. You can see what I mean of the photo of the dude with the bandana, he came up so close to me that I couldn't focus on him. I talked to them afterwards and they are all really rad guys and make a pretty good living off of dancing in the streets. I got their email and said I would send the photos to them, which they were really stoked about.
Champs D'Elysses. These two shots above are of the main drag in Paris. The first shot you can see how busy the street is. This was at 3:00 on a Tuesday. I don't think anyone works in Paris, I just think the government sends them cheques in the mail and then they go shop, eat, drink and smoke like it's going out of style. Any time of the day, there are adults, some dressed in work clothes, some dressed casually, just walking about - EVERY corner cafe is packed and I'm sure if I were to walk into an office of some sort it would be empty. Europeans have it going on.
Chanel. I was just walking around the Louvre area of Paris and saw a Chanel photoshoot going down, so I literally sprinted over to watch. For those of you who are photographers ... meaning you know how to use a strobe or can define the word aperture or focal point, then you will be either disappointed or happy to hear that all she was using was a D300 with a flash on the hotshoe ... me, personally, I was disappointed, I wanted to see STROBES, UMBRELLES, 50,000 ASSISTANTS RUNNING AROUND, STYLISTS, ETC ... but I saw this instead. Still stoked to see it though.
These are two more shots from the main street in Paris. The first one was of this girlfriend of some guy. He was making her pose in some really stupid positions and being all anal about it and I could tell she totally didn't want to be posing, especially on a street that is FULL of people. I thought it was funny so I turned all stalkerish and shot a few photos of her, she was posing, it's not creepy. The second shot is of a cafe we had some dessert at. I have nothing else to say about the cafe except that I think - legit - it was run by Jewish mafioso ... seriously.
Notre Dame. This church is ... incredible. The architecture, the history, the beauty, it's all so amazing. This place is huge too. Anyone see the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame? I have, a hundred times, love that movie - anyways, this was the church that Quasi Moto swung and loped around in. I didn't see him, kinda wanted to, maybe that had a grave for him or something, I dont know, then my dreams were crushed when I found out he is a myth of sorts ... felt like the time I learned the Easter Bunny wasn't real and that my parents bought the chocolate for me ....
I will most likely throw up another post about some of the experiences I had that weren't photographed in Paris but right now I'm sick of typing and I think this should be enough for now, if not then friggin' deal with it cause I don't want to type any more, I want to drink my puny little coffee that was just served to me. I could finish this coffee in two gulps. The Swiss need to learn how to make things bigger ... then again, maybe they don't. Who knows.
Miss everyone so much it's starting to hurt my chest.
-Jason.
Paris was amazing. Blog post finished.
Just kidding, but before we get into the photos, I'll just set the intro up for you. We left for Paris on Monday (my birthday) and drove 6 hours, which, was a horrible drive because once you get out of Switzerland and into France, there isn't really anything to look at.
I mean, France is nice but I'm thinking Paris should pull a Vatican, and make themselves and independant country because the country of France totally sucks to drive through - so I slept, pretty much the whole way.
From now on, I'm going to blog through my photos and they aren't going to be in order of the days, because it's easier to cut off my own leg than format the photos in this blog.
Just so people don't get confused, the text will always refer to the photos ABOVE it.
Louie Vuitton. Did I go in? YES! Did I lust after every piece of clothing that would have fit me? YES. Did I try or touch anything? NO! I checked if they had Kanye West's shoes that he designed for LV but apparently they aren't out yet, which almost ruined my whole trip to Paris becaue I want to have a photo of me wearing them so I could have sent them into his blog. But NO ... Just to put LV into your understanding, a t-shirt, that says Louie Vuitton all over it costs 250 euros ... soooo ... $400 more or less. A Speedo buy LV is 200 euros ... craziness. We saw some Asian dude walk out with 5 bags of LV stuff ... I was tempted to take him into a back alley and steal everything but I didn't.
Mont Blanc - Champs D'Elysses. I have no clue if I spelled that street name right but that's how I'm going to spell it because it looks right - Champs D'Elysses is the main drag of Paris where you will find all the stores that you can't buy anything in. This is a fountain pen and it ONLY costs 14200 euros as you can see, so ... you know ... like $40,000. Pocket change, right?
THIS is a public toilet. Pretty awesome right? I pressed the button to open the door and was hit by a wall of old crap/piss smell, almost knocked me over. Not kidding. Did I use it, aahhhh, nope, I held it thanks.
Golden Penis. The French sure know how to carve their statues!! Not only was the horse made out of gold BUT they even hung a horse like a horse should be hung, penis and balls included. AND in gold, I hope the French carve a statue of me when I die! Just saying ...
The Tower of Eiffel. We were eating lunch at a corner cafe and we asked the waitress which direction the Eiffel Tower was in and she looked at us like we were, I don't know, foreign or something. I didn't ask the question, my mom did, I just assumed that if we looked up in the sky we would be able to see it BUT I was wrong. The French build incredible buildings and they build them high, so you actually can't see it from all over Paris like you could see the CN Tower. But she gave us the "why I am I wasting my time with these incompetent people who speak ANGLAIS" look because we said "Eiffel Tower" WHEN their english translation of Eiffel Tower is Tower of Eiffel. Excuuuuse me! haha, but in all seriousness, I love the French people but some of them are really rude.
Street Dancers. These dudes were SO unreal, they just set up their PSP and a speaker and waited until they had a crowd and then just breakdanced for ten minutes. It was so sick, I'm a huge fan of dancing of any kind (secret fact about Jason) because I know it requires so much practice and talent and I have tons of respect for people who can dance legit. I pushed my way to the front and started shooting them and once they saw I had a camera they would always come up close to me and bust out their biggest tricks, which was SICK hahaha. You can see what I mean of the photo of the dude with the bandana, he came up so close to me that I couldn't focus on him. I talked to them afterwards and they are all really rad guys and make a pretty good living off of dancing in the streets. I got their email and said I would send the photos to them, which they were really stoked about.
Champs D'Elysses. These two shots above are of the main drag in Paris. The first shot you can see how busy the street is. This was at 3:00 on a Tuesday. I don't think anyone works in Paris, I just think the government sends them cheques in the mail and then they go shop, eat, drink and smoke like it's going out of style. Any time of the day, there are adults, some dressed in work clothes, some dressed casually, just walking about - EVERY corner cafe is packed and I'm sure if I were to walk into an office of some sort it would be empty. Europeans have it going on.
Chanel. I was just walking around the Louvre area of Paris and saw a Chanel photoshoot going down, so I literally sprinted over to watch. For those of you who are photographers ... meaning you know how to use a strobe or can define the word aperture or focal point, then you will be either disappointed or happy to hear that all she was using was a D300 with a flash on the hotshoe ... me, personally, I was disappointed, I wanted to see STROBES, UMBRELLES, 50,000 ASSISTANTS RUNNING AROUND, STYLISTS, ETC ... but I saw this instead. Still stoked to see it though.
These are two more shots from the main street in Paris. The first one was of this girlfriend of some guy. He was making her pose in some really stupid positions and being all anal about it and I could tell she totally didn't want to be posing, especially on a street that is FULL of people. I thought it was funny so I turned all stalkerish and shot a few photos of her, she was posing, it's not creepy. The second shot is of a cafe we had some dessert at. I have nothing else to say about the cafe except that I think - legit - it was run by Jewish mafioso ... seriously.
Notre Dame. This church is ... incredible. The architecture, the history, the beauty, it's all so amazing. This place is huge too. Anyone see the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame? I have, a hundred times, love that movie - anyways, this was the church that Quasi Moto swung and loped around in. I didn't see him, kinda wanted to, maybe that had a grave for him or something, I dont know, then my dreams were crushed when I found out he is a myth of sorts ... felt like the time I learned the Easter Bunny wasn't real and that my parents bought the chocolate for me ....
I will most likely throw up another post about some of the experiences I had that weren't photographed in Paris but right now I'm sick of typing and I think this should be enough for now, if not then friggin' deal with it cause I don't want to type any more, I want to drink my puny little coffee that was just served to me. I could finish this coffee in two gulps. The Swiss need to learn how to make things bigger ... then again, maybe they don't. Who knows.
Miss everyone so much it's starting to hurt my chest.
-Jason.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
HIKING & CREEPY FRENCH LADIES
Alright, I'm back again - whether that is good or bad I'll leave it up to you to decide - BUT I come bearing some new stories, some new photos and a lot of pain in my thighal area <--again, making my own words up -->.
Yesterday was a pretty chill day, did my usual hibernation routine and slept in until 12:00 and then got up, brushed ma teeths and ate some german frosted flakes, they are normal frosted flakes just with German writing on the box, I could make some German jokes but I'll hold myself back. No reason for why I told you what I did in the morning, just bored right now so I thought I'd let all of you faithful readers know ... ya know? Good.
Around 2:30 my dad, Richard (in picture below) and I went for a hike, back to Solalex, which I blogged about a few back and included some photos of the cliffs. Let me set the pace for you though first. Richard has lived in Switzerland for 9 1/2 years. Richard runs marathons. Richard hikes for 6 hours. Richard works out every other day. Richard is a FREAKIING man-machine.
I have not lived in Switzerland for 9 1/2 years. I do not run marathons. I do not hike for 6 hours. I DO NOT work out every other day ... though my exceptional physique may cause you to think otherwise - don't be fooled, it's all au natural baby.
Anyways, two nights ago we were having dinner at Richard's house and I - mistakingly - mentioned to him that my dad and I were going to go for a hike in Solalex again while the girls shopped. He said he wanted to come with us - he was even SO generous as to kindly offer to lead the hike, quote "so that we could REALLY see Switzerland" unquote. FML.
"Sure Richard, that sounds GREAT." I enthusiastically said, when what I REALLY meant was, "Are you F'ING serious? You think I'm cut out for that crap? Climbing boulders and stuff ... YEA RIGHT!"
Fast forward to yesterday. My dad and I meet Richard at his chalet, just 2 minutes away from ours and drive to Solalex. We get out the car, me, mowing down some chocolate because I knew I would need the energy. We ended up hiking for about an hour in a half and it was by far the best time I have had yet in Switzerland. We hiked - the whole time - up a hill ... wait ... we hiked - the whole time - up a mountain. No word of a lie, the landscape and ambiance of the mountain was straight out of the Lord of the Rings movies, you know the scene, where Frodo and Sam are hiking up the rocky hill with Golum ... Golom ... Gulum ... I have no clue how to spell his name - regardless, when we started the hike it was all blue skies and birds singing but as we ascended the mountain further mother nature must have become seriously pissed at something in the world because she directed massive, BLACK rainclouds our way. She even teased us - she left just a little circle of blue sky that I desperately longed to expand yet it was quickly consumed by the black rain clouds. By the time these clouds were pouring in and ruining all hopes of survival, we were an hour up the hill, so we had two choices:
1) Hike up the hill even farther to a "refuge" which are little restaraunts/hostels that are scattered all throughout the alps, and hide under the eavestroughes, since it wasn't open
2) Hike down the hill and risk getting soaked and ruining my camera
3) Cower under a rock and cry until the rain went away
I know I said two choices but the third was running through my head.
We were the only humans around for about 3 miles other than 2 foxes that were chasing each other around the refuge's property. We chose option 1 and hiked up to the refuge. As we reached the refuge, I looked at one of the mountain peaks and watched as clouds literally POURED over the tip of the mountain and started filling in the little valley that we were in, it was incredible. I mean, when you are thousands of feet away from clouds they move "slow" (such as the clouds you see from your window) but when you are already 2000 meters above sea level, these clouds move FAST! It was unreal.
It rained for about 20 minutes, which my dad and Richard chose to talk about hockey ... if any of you know me you know that I could care less for such a stupid blog (I may have just lost some readers for that comment ... suck it up though) so I took the time to do nothing and eat chocolate and just hope that this didn't turn into some mishap that would be turned into a Hollywood movie ten years down the road.
The rain subsided and we started hiking down the hill again. Oh - right - how could I forget, let me tell you about this.
What were we clothed in while hiking this mountain? Shoes, shorts, t-shirt and sweater. Half the hike, we were hiking on snow a meter deep - thankfully the snow was packed down pretty hard but again, mother nature decided to amuse herself and some spots of the snow were soft, so we would be hiking along, not watching where we were going, looking at the mountains then BAM one leg would be a meter deep in snow. Fun? No. Amusing to watch others infront of me sink a meter out of nowhere? YUP!
I actually had no issue hiking up the mountain, you know, breathing wise and stuff, I wasn't necessarily out of breath but some others in our group were - let's do the elimination here - if I had no issue, I'm assuming you can guess Richard-man-machine didn't have an issue hiking up the hill, so that leaves ... my dad - he would stop every 30/50 meters and "take pictures", really, he was catching his breath, it was pretty funny at times, this would be our convo:
"K, guys *DEEP BREATH* hold up, just *DEEP BREATH* gonna take some *DEEP BREATH* photos of, rock and stuff" says my dad
"OK dad, hey, why are you breathing like that?" I would respond
"*DEEP BREATH* Breathing like *DEEP BREATH* what?" breathes my dad.
Good times, good times. I love him to death, it wasn't as bad as I made it sound but it was funny regardless.
Oh yeah, there was one part of the hike where Richard turned around and informed us that - while walking on snow - if we fell to our right, we would slide down a hill into a rushing river that was -10 degrees celcius ... no biggie, I can handle that ...
PHOTO ANNOUNCEMENT - below are photos of the view from the hike and then there are two photos taken from infront of our chalet, you can see, from our chalet, where we hiked too - as marked on the photos, so you can understand how high I really hiked.
Today, was pretty fun too. We joined Richard and his family and attended their church in a moderately sized town on Lake Geneva, which on the other side of the lake is France. The church itself was pretty sick, it's a couple hundred years old and is an english speaking church and caters to a lot of people from around the world that work at the Nestle world head offices, which is in the same town as the church. The service was pretty different from what I am used to - coming from a church that has a freaking rock band as the worship portion - to a church that has ... an organ and a lady strumming on an acoustic guitar. It was a pretty serene experience though, just to have a very traditional service - it was fun.
After the service, we took Richard's family out to lunch, since they have been dinner hosts so many times to our family over the last week. After a huge pizza drenched in spicy olive oil, we took a walk through the town, I didn't have my camera for this walk but something super weird happened. We were walking through this square (a city square, not a literal square ... I know some of you were thinking that) and I had this French lady come sneak up behind me and thrust herself infront of me, forcing me dead in my tracks. I tilted my head to the right and gave her a weird look.
She shot her hand out and grabbed my hand and slapped a 2 Franc coin into my hand. I looked down at it. I looked up at her. I looked back down at the coin. I looked over to Richard for help. I turned to her and brilliantly said:
"Um."
I look over at Richard, turn back to the lady and say:
"...Um. What? I dont speak Francois" <-- me infusing my english with random french words to show how incompetent I am at speaking the language. She looks at me like I'm an idiot and says:
"I know what you are saying, take the coin."
The coin was already in my hand and I said: "I did, you just gave it to me. Thank-you?"
"Mmhhmm" she responds and scuttles off. I watched her, both curious and not sure if I should be insulted or not. She thrusts herself infront of another man and hands him the coin, the same profound look of awe on his face as I am sure I had plastered on mine. She then zooms across the square to a man sitting on a bench and reaches into her tupperware container, removes another 2 Franc coin and pushes the newspaper away from infront of the mans face and forces the coin into his hand.
Even now, I HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA WHAT ALL THAT WAS ABOUT. I still have the 2 Franc coin, because on it's own it's useless, it can't even purchase me a cafe au lait (coffee). Not sure if I should be insulted but I have my own theory that, since all the other men she gave coins to were good-looking, that was why I got the coin. <-- again, this is my blog and that's what I think, disagree if you like BUT don't go crushing my theories, that isn't nice =)
Hey, guess what? Tomorrow is my birthday - I'll be spending half my birthday in a car, driving to Paris and then the other half walking all over Paris. I should have an internet connection so I'm going to expect love-filled notes from anyone that has me on Facebook - make me feel loved, I miss all my friends back home - you know who you are - and for those of you who may be reading this blog and don't know me in person ... I don't know what you can do - maybe sing Happy Birthday to me to yourself in whatever language you speak. That would be really awesome.
I'll be posting TONS of photos of Paris if the hotel we are staying at has an internet connection and if our converter plugs work in Paris. If I have no way to upload the photos expect a MASSIVE blog Thursday sometime, when we return from Paris.
PHOTO ANNOUNCEMENT -- the very last picture on this page, is a shot of me sleeping, my mom always thinks it's really funny to take pictures of me when I have no clue they are being taken, I don't mind though - it's a pretty funny photo. Now, before any of you go calling me names that are politically incorrect, I am wearing the sleeping mask because the sun rises on MY side of the house and shines directly through the window onto my face at the disgusting hour of 6 am. I don't wear it on a regular occasion ... you know I would admit if I did.
Also, I'm expecting birthday kisses when I get home - you know if you are a person who should give me a kiss or not, no need for me to list you peeps.
Love and miss all of my friends and if I know you on a professional level, I don't love you because that would be "inappropriate", so for those who may be my boss in some way ... "have a good one"
Jason.
This is Jason. Jason is in hibernation mode. Jason likes to sleep. That is Jason's sleepingmask, if any of you watch Gossip Girl, it's just like the one that Blair uses. Why I know that little tid bit if info, I will never tell.
My dad on the left, notice the expression of PAIN on his face and Richard on the right, notice the expression of COMFORT on his face.
This is Lake Geneva, they have these sick chairs inserted into these huge rocks all along the waterfront, such a smart idea.
The is the Bradfords (Richard) who I talked about so much during this blog. We are out to lunch at a really popular pizza restaraunt in Vevey.
View of my hike from my chalet door.
Closer view of the ridiculous hike I did.
This is the view, 20 minutes into the hike.
Yesterday was a pretty chill day, did my usual hibernation routine and slept in until 12:00 and then got up, brushed ma teeths and ate some german frosted flakes, they are normal frosted flakes just with German writing on the box, I could make some German jokes but I'll hold myself back. No reason for why I told you what I did in the morning, just bored right now so I thought I'd let all of you faithful readers know ... ya know? Good.
Around 2:30 my dad, Richard (in picture below) and I went for a hike, back to Solalex, which I blogged about a few back and included some photos of the cliffs. Let me set the pace for you though first. Richard has lived in Switzerland for 9 1/2 years. Richard runs marathons. Richard hikes for 6 hours. Richard works out every other day. Richard is a FREAKIING man-machine.
I have not lived in Switzerland for 9 1/2 years. I do not run marathons. I do not hike for 6 hours. I DO NOT work out every other day ... though my exceptional physique may cause you to think otherwise - don't be fooled, it's all au natural baby.
Anyways, two nights ago we were having dinner at Richard's house and I - mistakingly - mentioned to him that my dad and I were going to go for a hike in Solalex again while the girls shopped. He said he wanted to come with us - he was even SO generous as to kindly offer to lead the hike, quote "so that we could REALLY see Switzerland" unquote. FML.
"Sure Richard, that sounds GREAT." I enthusiastically said, when what I REALLY meant was, "Are you F'ING serious? You think I'm cut out for that crap? Climbing boulders and stuff ... YEA RIGHT!"
Fast forward to yesterday. My dad and I meet Richard at his chalet, just 2 minutes away from ours and drive to Solalex. We get out the car, me, mowing down some chocolate because I knew I would need the energy. We ended up hiking for about an hour in a half and it was by far the best time I have had yet in Switzerland. We hiked - the whole time - up a hill ... wait ... we hiked - the whole time - up a mountain. No word of a lie, the landscape and ambiance of the mountain was straight out of the Lord of the Rings movies, you know the scene, where Frodo and Sam are hiking up the rocky hill with Golum ... Golom ... Gulum ... I have no clue how to spell his name - regardless, when we started the hike it was all blue skies and birds singing but as we ascended the mountain further mother nature must have become seriously pissed at something in the world because she directed massive, BLACK rainclouds our way. She even teased us - she left just a little circle of blue sky that I desperately longed to expand yet it was quickly consumed by the black rain clouds. By the time these clouds were pouring in and ruining all hopes of survival, we were an hour up the hill, so we had two choices:
1) Hike up the hill even farther to a "refuge" which are little restaraunts/hostels that are scattered all throughout the alps, and hide under the eavestroughes, since it wasn't open
2) Hike down the hill and risk getting soaked and ruining my camera
3) Cower under a rock and cry until the rain went away
I know I said two choices but the third was running through my head.
We were the only humans around for about 3 miles other than 2 foxes that were chasing each other around the refuge's property. We chose option 1 and hiked up to the refuge. As we reached the refuge, I looked at one of the mountain peaks and watched as clouds literally POURED over the tip of the mountain and started filling in the little valley that we were in, it was incredible. I mean, when you are thousands of feet away from clouds they move "slow" (such as the clouds you see from your window) but when you are already 2000 meters above sea level, these clouds move FAST! It was unreal.
It rained for about 20 minutes, which my dad and Richard chose to talk about hockey ... if any of you know me you know that I could care less for such a stupid blog (I may have just lost some readers for that comment ... suck it up though) so I took the time to do nothing and eat chocolate and just hope that this didn't turn into some mishap that would be turned into a Hollywood movie ten years down the road.
The rain subsided and we started hiking down the hill again. Oh - right - how could I forget, let me tell you about this.
What were we clothed in while hiking this mountain? Shoes, shorts, t-shirt and sweater. Half the hike, we were hiking on snow a meter deep - thankfully the snow was packed down pretty hard but again, mother nature decided to amuse herself and some spots of the snow were soft, so we would be hiking along, not watching where we were going, looking at the mountains then BAM one leg would be a meter deep in snow. Fun? No. Amusing to watch others infront of me sink a meter out of nowhere? YUP!
I actually had no issue hiking up the mountain, you know, breathing wise and stuff, I wasn't necessarily out of breath but some others in our group were - let's do the elimination here - if I had no issue, I'm assuming you can guess Richard-man-machine didn't have an issue hiking up the hill, so that leaves ... my dad - he would stop every 30/50 meters and "take pictures", really, he was catching his breath, it was pretty funny at times, this would be our convo:
"K, guys *DEEP BREATH* hold up, just *DEEP BREATH* gonna take some *DEEP BREATH* photos of, rock and stuff" says my dad
"OK dad, hey, why are you breathing like that?" I would respond
"*DEEP BREATH* Breathing like *DEEP BREATH* what?" breathes my dad.
Good times, good times. I love him to death, it wasn't as bad as I made it sound but it was funny regardless.
Oh yeah, there was one part of the hike where Richard turned around and informed us that - while walking on snow - if we fell to our right, we would slide down a hill into a rushing river that was -10 degrees celcius ... no biggie, I can handle that ...
PHOTO ANNOUNCEMENT - below are photos of the view from the hike and then there are two photos taken from infront of our chalet, you can see, from our chalet, where we hiked too - as marked on the photos, so you can understand how high I really hiked.
Today, was pretty fun too. We joined Richard and his family and attended their church in a moderately sized town on Lake Geneva, which on the other side of the lake is France. The church itself was pretty sick, it's a couple hundred years old and is an english speaking church and caters to a lot of people from around the world that work at the Nestle world head offices, which is in the same town as the church. The service was pretty different from what I am used to - coming from a church that has a freaking rock band as the worship portion - to a church that has ... an organ and a lady strumming on an acoustic guitar. It was a pretty serene experience though, just to have a very traditional service - it was fun.
After the service, we took Richard's family out to lunch, since they have been dinner hosts so many times to our family over the last week. After a huge pizza drenched in spicy olive oil, we took a walk through the town, I didn't have my camera for this walk but something super weird happened. We were walking through this square (a city square, not a literal square ... I know some of you were thinking that) and I had this French lady come sneak up behind me and thrust herself infront of me, forcing me dead in my tracks. I tilted my head to the right and gave her a weird look.
She shot her hand out and grabbed my hand and slapped a 2 Franc coin into my hand. I looked down at it. I looked up at her. I looked back down at the coin. I looked over to Richard for help. I turned to her and brilliantly said:
"Um."
I look over at Richard, turn back to the lady and say:
"...Um. What? I dont speak Francois" <-- me infusing my english with random french words to show how incompetent I am at speaking the language. She looks at me like I'm an idiot and says:
"I know what you are saying, take the coin."
The coin was already in my hand and I said: "I did, you just gave it to me. Thank-you?"
"Mmhhmm" she responds and scuttles off. I watched her, both curious and not sure if I should be insulted or not. She thrusts herself infront of another man and hands him the coin, the same profound look of awe on his face as I am sure I had plastered on mine. She then zooms across the square to a man sitting on a bench and reaches into her tupperware container, removes another 2 Franc coin and pushes the newspaper away from infront of the mans face and forces the coin into his hand.
Even now, I HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA WHAT ALL THAT WAS ABOUT. I still have the 2 Franc coin, because on it's own it's useless, it can't even purchase me a cafe au lait (coffee). Not sure if I should be insulted but I have my own theory that, since all the other men she gave coins to were good-looking, that was why I got the coin. <-- again, this is my blog and that's what I think, disagree if you like BUT don't go crushing my theories, that isn't nice =)
Hey, guess what? Tomorrow is my birthday - I'll be spending half my birthday in a car, driving to Paris and then the other half walking all over Paris. I should have an internet connection so I'm going to expect love-filled notes from anyone that has me on Facebook - make me feel loved, I miss all my friends back home - you know who you are - and for those of you who may be reading this blog and don't know me in person ... I don't know what you can do - maybe sing Happy Birthday to me to yourself in whatever language you speak. That would be really awesome.
I'll be posting TONS of photos of Paris if the hotel we are staying at has an internet connection and if our converter plugs work in Paris. If I have no way to upload the photos expect a MASSIVE blog Thursday sometime, when we return from Paris.
PHOTO ANNOUNCEMENT -- the very last picture on this page, is a shot of me sleeping, my mom always thinks it's really funny to take pictures of me when I have no clue they are being taken, I don't mind though - it's a pretty funny photo. Now, before any of you go calling me names that are politically incorrect, I am wearing the sleeping mask because the sun rises on MY side of the house and shines directly through the window onto my face at the disgusting hour of 6 am. I don't wear it on a regular occasion ... you know I would admit if I did.
Also, I'm expecting birthday kisses when I get home - you know if you are a person who should give me a kiss or not, no need for me to list you peeps.
Love and miss all of my friends and if I know you on a professional level, I don't love you because that would be "inappropriate", so for those who may be my boss in some way ... "have a good one"
Jason.
This is Jason. Jason is in hibernation mode. Jason likes to sleep. That is Jason's sleepingmask, if any of you watch Gossip Girl, it's just like the one that Blair uses. Why I know that little tid bit if info, I will never tell.
My dad on the left, notice the expression of PAIN on his face and Richard on the right, notice the expression of COMFORT on his face.
This is Lake Geneva, they have these sick chairs inserted into these huge rocks all along the waterfront, such a smart idea.
The is the Bradfords (Richard) who I talked about so much during this blog. We are out to lunch at a really popular pizza restaraunt in Vevey.
View of my hike from my chalet door.
Closer view of the ridiculous hike I did.
This is the view, 20 minutes into the hike.
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