From the Home Front

So all week I have been procrastinating. I have failed to contact my friends to announce this years get-together location until this evening. I am ashamed that it took this long, but I am hopeful that everyone will still be able to attend.

As has been the tradition for the past several years during our annual trip home my wife and I usually select a local watering hole and announce our intention to belly up to the bar and hold 'office hours' of sorts. Those friends that are free that evening are welcome to join us for a few drinks and small talk. It is a nice way to catch up with our friends from the Midwest that we have not seen since the last Christmas season.

So like years past we'll be at one of our favorite establishments in the near west suburbs this Saturday evening starting around 7:30 pm. If you are free and in town feel free to drop by. I have made the calls and sent the e-mails but if I have forgotten you or you need to get in touch with me drop me an e-mail and I'll let you know where we will be.

I'm really looking forward to the evening, hope to see you there.

Home Sweet Home

Ah, to be back in the US for a short bit. what a relief. What a pleasure. It is so nice to be able to relax.

Not that I am not enjoying my experiences abroad but it is nice to be able to move around and live everyday life without such great effort. I don't have to worry about which language I need to speak, I don't have to plan my days activities because the stores are only open at funny hours, and I don't have to look at any train schedules. I just get in the car and go.

I have been sleeping like mad, I think I am still caught up in some severe jet lag. Hopefully I'll get over that today. I actually slept through the evening until 4:00 am so that was quite an accomplishment.

The food, I love the food. I have been on a food binge since I arrived. There was the half pound cheese burger, the KFC (which I had been searching all over Europe for and could not find). real deep dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches. Oh it is so good. We are actually going out to a different pizza place for lunch today for our second round of deep dish. You can never have enough I tell you.

We brought loads of European gifts home with us. We had three suitcases and only about 1 was really filled with clothes. The rest was just gifts, gifts, gifts. I hope everyone enjoys there little souvenirs. It should be a very fun and exciting Christmas this year.

Packing

A short post tonight. Santa came early to Baden this year. We celebrated Christmas this morning because it was our last relaxing day in Switzerland before we return home tomorrow. I am not looking forward to the 9 hour flight. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep a little on the plane.

I think this vacation is really getting to me. I slept about 11 hours last night, and then took a nap in the afternoon. I just feel like I need to catch up on quite a bit of lost sleep. I'm really looking forward to being lazy for the next 2 weeks.

Well back to the packing. There is not to much more to pack actually. We are basically taking empty suitcases home aside from a few gifts. We are planning to do quite a bit of clothes shopping in the US because the prices are better, and secondly we can actually understand the sizes there.

An Mal Tag

One more day, that is it. All I have to do is last one day. Then, vacation!

I can't wait. I have been counted the days, now I can count the hours. Oh the joy. I will be on vacation for 17 days. Wow, what a long time. I can't believe it. The best part is only about 5 or 6 of those days are true vacation days. The rest are office holidays.

I have been in the office here for 6 months and I've seen everyone else coming and going on their holidays here, and their beach stay there. Now it is my turn. I have already been thinking about the new year and what I want to do differently. My wife has the grand idea of planning 3 big vacations. How could that be possible!? I guess it really is when you have so much vacation time.

She has picked out a trip to Prague, Budapest and Vienna. We were also thinking about Tuscany. And then, maybe a trip up to Norway and Sweden to visit a friend. I have to call my friend actually to wish him well as it has been some time since we have spoken and I also want to get his advice on the best time to travel to visit him.

Military Extension

I received a gift from the DMV just in time for the holidays. They have granted me a military license extension to my drivers license. I am not sure why I got a military extension, but regardless I can now legally drive in the US when I return.

The law in Virginia includes a clause that if you leave the state your drivers license automatically expires. I got a note in the mail telling me that the only way to keep my license was to prove that I was working abroad. I had to collect several papers, and letters from work and submit them to the DMV.

I honestly didn't expect a response for quite some time, but they were actually quite efficient. I think it has only been about two weeks, and they even mailed the paper work directly to me here in Switzerland. Kudos to the Virginia DMV for services well rendered.

Now the fun part. Driving when I get back. I haven't been behind the wheel of a car in over 6 months. I can't even imagine what that is going to feel like. I'll probably end up taking the car around the block a few times just to get used to the feel again.

Winterzauber Baden

For the past several days we have been passing by Baden's Winterzauber (Winter Magic) festival. It is only about two blocks from our apartment and right in the center of town. So a walk to work or the grocery store inevitably takes us through the area.




Today we visited again to spend some time ice skating and for some reason I really wanted to roast a sausage over the open fire. I have to admit I really didn't have a taste for a sausage but I had seen so many people doing it, I just thought it was an experience that I too should have.

I was just neat to see everyone huddled around the fire cooking their wurst on long metal poles over the open fire. When you finish cooking the sausage you head over to a little hut and the man behind the counter wraps your sausage in paper. You eat the thing like a peeled banana. If you would like mustard with your sausage they give you a slice of bread and squirt a pile of mustard on top. It is almost like being handed a painters palette full of mustard.

While we were there I noticed something funny. As I have said we have been passing this festival in our daily life for a few days now. There is always Christmas music playing at the event, but since it began last Thursday I can not remember hearing a single song played in any other language than English. There were several Gospel versions of classics like Silent Night. How about, 'Last Christmas' by Wham, another classic for the ages. I also remembered hearing a couple of Elvis songs as well, my mother would have been in all of her glory.

Why not a single tune in German, or Italian, or French for that matter? I remember singing 'O Tannenbaum' in grade school. I can't believe that David Hasselhoff hasn't covered that timeless classic on some German Christmas music CD. Actually, just for giggles I was on Amazon, and Mr. Hasselhoff doesn't disappoint, he does have a Christmas album. The last track on the disc, 'Stille Nacht,' Silent Night, sung in its original language, German. If you have iTunes I would suggest you take a quick listen to some of the music. Although I would never buy the album it is bizarre to listen to Night Rider singing Christmas carols.

Pandoro's Box

This marks my 100th blog post. I think that is a real feat considering I have been blogging for about 6 months. I don't know that I ever expected to get so much feedback and readership from friends and family. I had no idea what kind of Pandoro's box I was opening.

Alas, this man has no clue what he speaks. 'Pandoro?' Who was Pandoro? This ignorant fool must be speaking of Pandora's box. I may not be well versed in cultural matters, but I do know cake when I see it. And today we finally broke to the pressure and curiosity to try one of the boxed Italian Christmas cakes that have been on display in the grocery stores.

They seem to go hand-in-hand with the holidays here. I have seen them leaving the store with about every 4th person and I have really wanted to try one.

The cake itself is extremely big, even for American standards. I don't think the picture of the box really does it justice. Imagine two angle food cakes stacked on top of each other. The cake has a strange sweet scent to it. I recognized the sent but I couldn't quite place it.

Then I took a bite and I immediately recognized the flavor. It tastes similar to a Polish traditional cake called babka. It is not as heavy as the babka I am familiar with but it straddles the the line between a not too sweet cake, or a very sweet bread. Top it with a little powdered sugar and it is rather tasty.

Between the two of us, I think we'll be eating this thing for the next week or so. I hope it keeps well.

Ice Skating

For the past two days the city has been building and preparing an ice skating rink in the Bahnhofplatz. Today was the first day the rink was open.

It is a small rink about the size of a volleyball court. They built the rink right over the middle of a plaza. The rink is cooled by a refrigeration machine so even though it was in the 40's today the ice was ready for skating.

Skating is free and since it was the first night there were not many people. We basically had the entire rink to ourselves except for a couple of obnoxious high school kids who I think were probably trying to impress the girls with their feats of stupidity.

The town is completely decorated with lights and it is truly a pretty sight. The picture I have posted shows one small section of town where lights are hung from one side of the street to the other. There are also bell shaped lighting fixtures and there quite nice. I'll have to take a picture of those some other night when I have some free time.

Its been a long but fun day today and I am getting tired. All that skating has just worn me out.

Fame!

So I felt it was necessary to post some video of the singing Christmas tree so you could really appreciate the thing.

With out further adeu here is a clip of the Singers Of Joy, singing Fame.

Christmas Tree

As the holidays are fast approaching we decided we wanted to get a Christmas tree early this year so we could enjoy it before we fly home for Christmas.

Friday night we began the search by first looking in the local papers for any kind of advertisements. Strangely enough we did find a few ads for local garden centers that would be selling trees starting on December 2nd. After looking at the addresses though they were not appealing as most would require a significant bus ride. And that didn't sound too good with a tree.

We went to bed Friday night with the thought that we would check the street market on Saturday morning. The street market had already been selling wreaths and various holiday center pieces so we were hopeful that this coming Saturday might prove fruitful.

Saturday morning we woke to find that there were no trees at the market. We followed some other leads that suggested there would be trees at the local grocery stores but it was still too early. The final option was to check Jumbo on the internet. Jumbo, the home depot of Switzerland, proved to be our only option.

We boarded a bus for the 15 minute ride to scope out our options. Once there we found that we were in luck. They had all sorts of trees from little 3 footers to 6 footers. Of course we quickly selected an American sized 6 foot short needle tree. I have never gotten a short needle tree before but that was our only choice.

So out the door we go with a 6 foot tree headed to the bus stop. The tree was wrapped in that plastic netting to keep the limbs together, but it was still a bit cumbersome and I wasn't quite sure how it would go over on the bus. After the quarter mile walk to the bus stop we got on the first bus that came.

I picked up the tree and only took one step into the bus before I put it down. I figured there was no point in getting comfortable and I would just stand by the door hanging on to the tree. Sure enough we got some looks but I know I wasn't the first person to take a Christmas tree on a bus (maybe the first person this season though).

We got home and put up the tree and realized we didn't have enought lights, so off to the store for an 15 USD set of white lights (100 lights). Forget the colored lights they are about twice as expensive.

The lights, the lights here make no sense to me. Imagine if you took a big loop of lights and tied them in a circle. and somewhere along the circle is a plug. That is how the lights are put together. There is no such thing as end-to-end strings of lights. So not only are they not end-to-end but you also need a plug for every string. So now I need an entire power strip for 3 ridiculously priced sets of lights. For the love of God.

In the end we have a beautiful tree this year. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Happy Holidays from Switzerland!

Hell Froze Over & The Swiss Are Shopping

There was an advertisement in the paper this week announcing the unbelieveable fact that stores in Zurich would be open on Sunday for shopping. At first I didnt want to believe it.

We went to Zurich to see the shopping as well as visit the ice skating rink at the Landes Museum. I couldn't believe the crowds. It was like black friday. The streets were crowded, the stores were crowded, and there was just no room to move. There were no major sales that I could tell but people were out in full force shopping on a Sunday.

With all the people in the streets I just don't understand how commercialism doesn't win out and keep stores open on Sundays at other times of the year.

At one point in our days activities we happened upon the 'Singing Christmas Tree'. A set of bleachers arranged somewhat like a tree. There are choral performances at the tree pretty much every day from now until Christmas. Today we were serenaded by the Singers of Joy choir from Dietikon. Some how I was expecting that the singing christmas tree would belt out German Christmas carols. Instead the group started with Age of Aquarius and then went into Fame. For their third piece they did another melody from some space musical, at that point we decided to leave because we obviously weren't going to hear any of the songs we were expecting.

überkool Flohmarkt

Last night I happened upon a complete underground culture that I had not expected to exist. For weeks I was wondering what people in Baden did for kicks in the evenings if they don't go to the bars and don't go to the movies. Last night I found out.

We were looking for something to do so as we were looking through the local event calendars and we found something called the Baden night market. We couldn't read much of the description but the event was only about a 10 minute walk from our apartment so we decided to check it out.

What we found was something quite bizzare and unusual. We walked over to the area where the market was and it was very industrial. We were wandering among warehouses and I wasn't quite sure what we were looking for. As we strolled down the dark street I noticed people coming from around the corner so I figured this must be the place. We turned the corner and there was a single steel fire door in the middle of the wall. Above it the words "Brennpunkt," this was the place.

We entered the door and I don't know if I can even truely put the experience into words. The first thing we saw was this big cloth screen in front of us with some 'Art Film' that looked like it was something a Grad Student at NYU had put together. In the background there was the drone of trance music. There were brilliant lights everywhere. The kind of lights used in stage productions. The lights were in yellows, and oranges attached to stainless steel tressels throught the obviously aging warehouse.

I imagined myself walking into some sort of Rave. But instead, what I saw was even more bizzare. There was bar at the far end of the room and there we people with beer and wine milling around the room. The crowd seemed interesting, there we people from 16 to 50. As we began to take it all in I noticed that there were tables around the perimeter of the room and people were selling stuff. As I looked closer there were selling junk! This was an amazingly bizzare nocturnal flea market that was supposed to stay open until 2:00 am.

We wandered from room-to-room of the warehouse looking at peoples stuff, taking in the music, and the lighting. The place as packed and it seemed like everyone had a glass of red wine in one hand, using the other hand to part the tides of people in the aisle so they could get a little bit better look at the old pair of shoes that some vendor was selling for 2 franks.

We wandered into another door and there was some kind of dance going on. We coudln't really see so we moved on. We found we had done a complete circle and were back by the bar. We were so enthralled by this bizzarre event that we decided to grab a beer and perch ourselves on this railing above a large open stair case where we could people watch.

We managed to position ourselves in the perfect spot to watch the hippie turkish slipper vendor and his wife. She was wearing some kind of knee high boots with jeans. Then over the jeans she had on what looked like a linen skirt. She had a not so flattering shirt on and then what looked like a gold lame belt tied around here head that hung half way down her back.

As potential customers would come up they would try on one shoe, then the husband would pull out this huge duffel bag and rifle through it looking for the matching shoe. It seemed quite inefficient and very un-swiss, but highly amusing.

We stayed for about an hour or and hour and a half watching people drink and shop. If I see this event in the papers we'll definately go back. It is just too wierd to miss.