Sunday in Lucerne, my incentives, and some pirates

Sunday. I stayed at home on Friday because me and two more people planned to go to Lucerne on Saturday morning, and also because after finishing the 7th and last DVD of the 24 series, I have a new pack of DVDs to maintain myslef occupied at home when I am not reading, working or going out ("House"). Saturady morning was rainig a lot, so no daytrip to Lucerne by popular decision. I really wanted to go there for some hours so I didn´t go out on Saturday, and this morning, although was still raining I was in a train around 9am. Rationale:
1) I have started a new book and reading in the train through the swiss mountains is more interesting than reading in my appartment or inside a bar in Basel (reading under the rain is not an option for me yet).
2) Maybe in Lucerne is not raining (Veeeery naive)
3) Go for walk in a beautiful city and come back to have lunch and my sunday siesta at home.

Lucerne:

Its not raining!! After a coffee in a bar runned by an Italian man, and full of people from Napoli talking with that nice Napolitanian accent, I start my walk in Lucerne. I go first to the most famous monument in Lucerne: The Lion Monument. When I see the monument, a kind of flashback comes to my mind and I feel good. The reason is that I travelled around Switzerland very long time ago with my family, and they always complain that despite all the trips we did together when I was a kid, I don´t remember anything. Just like travelling as another luggage bag until I was 10 or 12 years old, with the difefrence that this one complains, eats, and...Well, I think I remembered the Lion but tomorrow I will check with my mother. Maybe I had never been in Lucern before.

"The dying Lion of Lucerne" was hewn out of natural rock in memory of the Swiss mercenaries at the Tulleries in 1792. Mark twain said that this monument was "the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world"....And I agree with him, especially with the sad part. The moving...well, I don´t know if he was ever in Firenze and Rome, but the Lion is impressive anyway. Despite the dozens of japanese taking pictures (just like me), you can´t avoid standing for a while in front of this rock thinking about...

Spreuer and Chapel bridges, both of them have paintings from the 17th century inside.
Right after I go out from the bridge the rain comes back again. No problem, the thin "gore-tex" that I bought last week at half price in the middle of the "wealth effect" after receiving my first salary here, has been the best and most useful thing I could have bought in Switzerland(together with the half dozen of different cheeses that I buy every weekend at marketplatz).

After leaving I decide to smoke a cigarrete with the view above, so that 10 or 12 Japanese families and their friends can see me in their photos when they come back to...Japan? The cigarret reminds me the stupid bet I made with Yuha in Frankfurt that I would give up smoking before starting IESE in October (the easiest and most silly way to end up a conversation about "you have to give up smoking" is just to bet with the non-smoker and hpe that he won´t remember after some months). That was after another conversation about the dangerous activity of buying meat in Barcelona beacuse of the bacteria and other microorganisms that you can find in any butcher there. Yuha...you are the best!!
No, seriously, just a comment about tobacco. As I spend more time alone here than in Barcelona, I can say that I have increased the number of cigarretes, but I still have the purpose of winning the bet. Here is where the incentives come (and this is related to the economics book I am reading). Of course, smoking, like peoples decisions in economics, is also based on incentives. The three types of incentives are economical, social, and moral ones.
1) From an economic oint of view, it is pretty obvious that giving up is a wise decision, but I still can afford it and probably I would spend that money in another trivial thing (The fact that in this moment I still don´t have to pay a mortgage or feed and grow a baby helps I guess).
2) From the social point of view, we smokers are not yet viewed as drogadicts and persons without future by most of the people, and I have never believed people who say that kissing a smoker is like sucking an ashtrey. I think I would have noticed that by the expresion of the girl, and pardon my lack of modesty but I still can find lots of "normal" girls who don´t mind kissing an ashtrey. Also at work or inside a plane I have no problem if I can´t smoke for long hours. Conclusion: No social point of view for me in this case. The only thing I could concede here would be that a very important person for me would tell me that she doesn´t want to stay with me if I continue smoking, but this has never happened....yet...ups...next point
3) Moral incentives. These are the ones which I think can save me from the addiction. For example, my health. This is a weak point now, because economics also tell us that people take a lot of decisions thinking in the long-term (eg: you are not going to spend all the money af your internship the first week after finishing because there is still one year of the MBA to go without any salary, and if you have been working in IB in London this summer you don´t have time to spend so many pounds), so it is impossible to think about the health danger of tobacco when you are 26. Final point: sports. This is the key point. I would be a better runner or swimmer without tobacco, and I would feel very proud of with myself if I can give up. So the MBA olympics is one incentive to give up, and my ego after being able to tell smokers as a non smoker that kissing a smoker is like sucking an ashtrey is another incentive to give up (and then I could go out also with women that think like Yuha in this respect).
To finish this long and boring post about tobacco: I am not so sure if my three types of incentives to give up right now are enough to overcome my addiction and the fact that I like smoking. We will see....I am not very optimistic.

After Lucerne I worked for about 2 hours and Sunday has ended with a movie this afternoon (Pirates of the Caribbean). First time in a Swiss cinema, and its like in Italy. They stop in the middle of the film!!!!for around 15 min!! This is the most anti-climax thing possible when you are watching a movie in the cinema. If you have to go to the bathroom or to buy a 2kg pop-corn bag you can do it at the beggining. By the way, in the pause I smoked a cigarrete with Ignacio.

Music for the train in a rainy day: The Notwist (Neon golden)-Pilot ......of the train