Dinner with a Friend

I had a nice dinner with a friend of mine from Richmond today. He was here on business for a few short days and luckily we both had an evening free.

We opted to go to a little Italian place a block or two from the apartment called DiFrancos. The food was excellent. The only set back was when they were out of our first two choices for dessert. Both the tirimisu and the chocolate mousse were already gone by the time we got there. So we had to settle for the huge 3 scoop bowls of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce on the side.

My German was in good form tonight. Probably one of my better experiences actually. I was quite comfortable speaking with the waiter and at one point he even asked me if I knew some senior VP at the company. He was explaining what the guy looked like in German. I understood pretty much everything he said which was amazing.

I was good to see my friend and listen to a few stories about life and times back in Virginia. I know our paths will cross again at some point and I surely look forward to it.

Rebuilding Year

I just found out an former soccer teammate from the US just took a job here in Switzerland. He has only been in town for a couple of weeks and is still living in the same temporary housing that we were living in when we arrived.

Just thinking about that place brings back some memories. Really it wasn't that long ago but it already seems like an eternity ago.

Thinking of his move has really brought me to think about my move and how much I have changed since my arrival. I can tell I look at things differently. I speak differently. I put more thought into what I say before I say it.

This also brings up the thought of all the experiences that I can say I had when this is over. By that, I am reminded of a restaurant my wife and I stopped at in Staunton Virginia on our way back home before we left for Europe. We stopped in our favorite little Italian restaurant in that part of Virginia called Little Italia. I highly recommend it if you are in Staunton. And we were enjoying our dinner listening in on the conversation next to us.

At the same moment we both heard the guy at the next table say 'Well, when I was in Zürich......' It had this kind of snob sound to it. We looked at each other, with an amazed look on our faces knowing that in a few short days we would be living practically in Zürich. Now that we have been here for awhile our conversations take on that same tone. It's not that I want to sound snobby, or different, or better, but that is our life now. It is very different. I don't talk about going to a Cubs game or Riverdogs game. Instead I talk about our day trip to the Alps.

I don't want to sound any different to my friends or family, but somehow I have already been changed forever, and that will from now on always be a part of who I am.

So, once my fellow teammate has had a chance to settle, and go through some of his own changes I think it will be time to start building the European arm of our American soccer...excuse me...football club.

MacGyver

1 pocketknife
2 trash bags
1 dried Christmas tree

MacGyver could probably save a burning village in Somalia from an evil communist regime with these items.

Well, me on the other hand, I just got rid of the dried out Christmas tree that was sitting on my balcony for the last couple of weeks.

We had missed the official collection becase we couldn't read the garbage announcement in German. So at the time I just threw the tree on the balcony and figured I would think up something later.

Well, after a couple of weeks I figured it was time. Unfortunately in the move somehow my only saw got misplaced. And, as you know stores aren't open on Sundays. I pondered how I could break the tree up and remembered I had a Swiss army knife (with a saw). I can say with confidence that I was amazed what you can do with the Swiss army knife.

Lazy Day

Today was a lazy day for us. There wasn't much going on and to be honest we really didn't feel like going out. I was nice to just sit around the house with nothing particular to do.

I spent some time practicing my German. Then I went through our movie collection. I found that IMDB.com allows you to catalog your movies on-line. I had been cataloging my movies on my own, but IMDB allows be to publish my list of movies on the Internet. This will be really nice if I want to exchange English language movies with other expats here in Switzerland.

I think I have really gotten into movies because after our experience at our friends place last week we went out and bought a DLP projector on a whim. It was a total impluse buy. I can't beleive we did it. Regardless. The last two weekends we have setup the projector in the living room and watched movies on the big screen. Or should I say big wall.

Last Friday was a movie fest for me. It started with The Breakfast Club, Then on to A Nova special about navigating the nortwest passage. Finally I started Oceans Eleven but I was too tired to get through it so I had to call it a night. I usually wouldn't watch so many movies in one sitting but my wife had gone on a day trip with a friend and I didn't expect her back until really late.

Off topic, but last night we went to a baby shower for a friend of Chantal's that she met through the American women's club. This was my first exposure to this circle of friends. It was a nice time, good conversations and so on. But the people were a little different then I am used too. I don't know how exactly to explain it. Maybe they all had different priorities in life. Different goals and expectations from living in Europe. I couldn't tell if any of these people would become good friends. We'll have to wait and see.

Schnee

We got our snow!

I woke up this morning to find the town coated in a thin white blanket. It was beatiful. The walk to work was quiet and somber. The snow crunching beneath my feet.

The walk actually reminded me of my childhood. I can remember how my dad used to wear these rubber totes on his dress shoes in the winter. I used to think they looked silly.

This however, was the first time I ever had to walk some distance, in snow, in dress shoes. I was sliding around like crazy at one point fearing that I might pull a groin muscle. I now see the value in those ridiculous little rubber slippers.

Jack

I had a great meeting at work today. I don't often blog about work but this story warrants an exception.

One of the enjoyable aspects of working at an international company is watching people wrestle with languages. Often times in my situation most people in my meetings are not speaking their native language. Since English is the lowest common denominator everyone switches to various accents, rythms and interpretations of English.

To set the stage I was in a meeting with 3 Americans and 1 French guy. As we are in the meeting the French guy is at the flip chart writing down actions. One America says we need to call Jack. The French guys writes it on the board and then proclaims...

"I don't know Jack!"......Long pause.......laughter.

"Maybe Bob should call him"

I took my French co-worker aside after the meeting and explained his Faux Pau. He really got a laugh out of it too.

First Snow

Today we had the first really snow of the season. Up to this point it isn't much. Just a light dusting on the roof tops. Nohting to speak of on the ground. The forecast shows snow for tomorrow and the day after as well.

I hope we get a good amount. I'd really like to be able to make a few snowballs, or build a snowman or something. When I was leaving for Switzerland from Richmond I was really hopeful that I would see more 'winter' weather. I had really missed all the snow we had as kids and saw this as an opportunity to see more snow.

Of course, now they are realeasing reports saying that there is a 90% chance that people are the cause of global warming (and thus less winter weather). Was there an elephant in the room?

So I guess even in Switzerland there seems to be less snow than normal. At least that is what I am told.

Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow to a blanket of white covering the city.

Pocket of Americana

We got an invitiation from some friends of ours (fellow college alumni) living in Switzerland to attend a evening of bowling. The event was planned to be mixture of expats from various countries and various backgrounds.

The best part of the evening was probably the first 5 seconds I walked into the bowling alley. There was this smell. If you are a bowler you know the exact smell I am talking about. It is a stale cigarette, lane oil, sweaty shoes smell. The moment I opened the door it hit me. And for a brief moment I had a flashback to America.

The night was a evening of bowling, beer, and conversation (in english). I had a great time and had a chance to talk with some old friends, as well as some new ones. The bowling alley itself seemed like a little island of Americana. The pleather chairs, the cigarettes, the classic bowling ambiance. I can't really explain it but it was definately the closest thing I've seen to home here in Europe.

I have a feeling I'll be back there again.

Swiss Theater

This week on Tuesday we went to a friends house to watch a movie. He is a fan of the various classics from the 50's. He is actually a co-worker of Chantal's and he has often commented that she should see 'Pillow Talk'. We'll Tuesday night was the night.

We stopped by his place and had dinner with his partner. They had made some great spaghetti with a homemade sauce, and served some local swiss red wines with it. I was very surprised by the red, it was quite good.

For those of you that are wine fans you won't find many Swiss wines outside of Switzerland because they generally don't export their wines. The Swiss are known for their whites and not their reds. Personally I prefer red wine but find many of the Swiss reds to be too sweet for my liking.

After dinner we went into his private screening room. It was great. The room was rather small and had three leather chairs. In back of the chairs I could see all sorts of flashing electronic equipment. And way up by the ceiling was a projector mounted to the wall.

Our friend started the movie, and wham, the picture hits you like a ton of bricks. It was amazing. The entire front wall was filled with the movie in all of its technicolor glory. I now understood why he was always watching movies.

The Superbowl

I don't know what I am going to do about the superbowl this year. I usually stay mildly up to date on pro football, but every season right around January first I really start watching religiously up to the superbowl.

With the superbowl being in the early evenin on the east coast I think that means it will start at something like midnight here. I'm noto sure it I'll stay up to watch that one this year. We'll have to see.

Anyway, a little off topic but I found a great video on youtube. I didn't even know about this guy until today. He is funny as heck.

2 or 1.50

I didn't realize how much I choose to ignore my adopted second language until the other day when I was pouring myself a bowl of cereal. That may sound like a strange statement, but in fact I'm sure my eyes gloss over some of the same words hundreds of times, yet I choose not to learn them.

Maybe it's not that I choose not to learn them, but rather I can't learn them because I am overly stimulated. Another aspect may be some of the non-verbal ques that I receive in certain situations that allow me to live my daily life without necessarily understanding German. A perfect example is my daily breakfast routine.

Every morning I like to pour myself a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. We buy the store brand for both our milk and orange juice. This means the boxes are identical except for two things, the words for orange juice or milk on the front of the box, and the price.

The strange thing is the other day I noticed that I was doing something subconsciously that I have probably been doing for months that didn't become apparent to me until just a short time ago. I never actually read the containers when I pull them out of refrigerator. I realized this because I didn't know what the word that was on the front of the milk carton. The word on the front of the milk carton is actually Teilntrahmte Milch (I just had to go to refrigerator to look it up).

So how was I telling the difference? I discovered I was actually reading the prices which are printed on the top of the boxes. Milk costs 2 CHF and orange juice is 1.50 CHF. It is easier for my mind to associate prices with this drinks rather than the words itself.

I guess it is just an interesting glance into how ones mind works. Strangely enough, I spoke to my wife and she has had the same experience.

Bad Ragaz

This weekend was my wife's Birthday and she planned a nice trip for us to Bad Ragaz. Bad Ragaz is a small resort town known for its thermal bad close to the Austrian border. The thing to do when you are there is visit the spa and relax.

The village itself is also known as the home of Hedi, and everywhere you are reminded of that fact. There is Heidi bottled water, the Heidi golf course, and the Heidi walking path. It was quite humorous at times.

One added surprise on the trip was a visit up to Pizol, the local ski area. Before the trip we had not imagined there was any snow because it has been so warm and we really haven't seen any snow in the forecasts. Even in Bad Ragaz itself there wasn't any snow. But a short 15 minute cable car ride up the mountain proved that some of the slopes were open for the season.

I was disappointed that I hadn't brought my ski's but the 3 hours or so we spent hiking around the ski area was just as fun. The ski area had marked and groomed trails for hikers which was a very nice and made enjoying the outdoors still possible without the skis or snowshoes.

I have a feeling we will be back. And hopefully next time we'll be ready for some fun in the snow.

Lines

Now matter how many lines I don't stand in I am still amazed.

I have griped before about the strange masses of people that congregate in front or registers, trains, buses, etc. But no matter how many times I see it I am continually amazed. For such an organized and ridiculously meticulous society I would have never guessed that the Swiss culture would completely lack understanding of lines.

I was hear first does not matter. More so, it is every man or woman for themselves. I had another great experience with this over the weekend.

After the short week, and still being a little tired we decided that a trip to the thermal bad was in order last Sunday. We arrived in the lobby and there was one person in front of us. So we queued up and waited. The usual ritual is you pay at the register, and then walk through the door immediately to the left of the counter.

Mind you there are really only four people in the lobby. The cashier, the woman in front of us, and my wife and I. We were standing directly behind the customer at the register.

So as the woman finishes her transaction, she moves to the left to go into the locker room. At the same time another woman comes darting out of the locker room. With just enough room to squeeze her body between myself and the counter, she throws down her purse in front of us and starts filling out forms and making small talk with the cashier while she is making her transation.

I'm sorry, was I here first?! Do you understand the concept of line!?! Wait, I'm in Switzerland, so the answer is of course not. That was not rude, that was just efficient.

Everytime I see someone cut like that my blood boils. Then I take a deep breath and think, 'Ahhhh Switzwerland!'

Don't Forget

I made the trek up to the top of the castle to take some night pictures of the town. It's about 300 stairs to the top. I was carrying a tripod, and a fully loaded camera bag. Once at the top I set up shop, took about 5 photos, and my batteries died.

The extra set, sitting in my apartment.

Oh well, maybe next time.

The Royal Rumble

So my jet lag paid off tonight. I was up late, midnight, and I heard a familiar noise in the streets. It sounded like a bunch of teenagers in the streets causing trouble. It went on for over 10 minutes until finally I figured I should go out on the balcony and take a look. Sure enough, a bunch of drunk kids were getting into some kind of street fight outside the bar. Probably too many beers and too many insults.

If you've been reading the blog you'll know this is the second fight outside our apartment building. Although it really wasn't much of anything, it seems at times like any action in the middle of town is huge. Controversy to us is Sven throwing out his shopping bag and not saving it for the next trip to the store. You can imagine how exciting a little scuffle is for us. Rest assured I was out there with my camera and binoculars.

I'm not sure if this perception of Switzerland is due to the fact that I don't really get any local news because of my communication issues, or if there really isn't that much interesting stuff going on. Either way there was a little electricity in the air tonight.

Jet Lag

Jet lag is great, until you have to get up in the morning.

I was watching movies, searching the internet, riding my stationary bike (yeah , yeah, same old new years resolution) then I looked at the clock at it was 1:00 am. It can't be 1:00, I'm not even tired. I feel like I could go on a 5 mile jog. Unfortunately after a quick check of the clock across the street I discovered I had not forgotten to reset my watch. It really was 1:00.

That leads to the next question. If it is 1:00 am and you aren't even tired what do you do? Do you force yourself to sleep? Do you read? Do you vacuum? I have a friend who once blogged that we was singing show tunes or something, maybe Abba, I can't remember.

We'll counting sheep never works for me. But when my wife requests a back massage, that seems to put me to sleep in about 5 minutes. Let me just say, It didn't fail this time either.