And on Saturday

Just another couple of notes about the weekend. On Saturday, a couple came to visit us from Zurich. The woman, Anna-Katrine, is from Denmark, and Rand's Danish mother, Lis, asked her to get in touch with us to welcome us to der Schweiz. Lis said that she remembered meeting Rand years ago, at a lively Christmas party Lis and Svend hosted one year in the 80's. She came with her boyfriend, Markus, who's Swiss and in fact went to high school in Baden, so maybe later he'll give us a little tour and point out some things we've missed. We very much enjoyed their visit and hope to come see them in Zurich as we begin to explore that city. Anna-Katrine is a grad student molecular cancer researcher, which is pretty exciting. Rand didn't recognize her when she came to our door and we soon realized why. When they met in 1985, she was 7! They're both really delightful and gave us a welcome gift to adjust to our new home, "The Xenophobe's Swiss Guide". Thanks, Anne-Katrine and Markus!

And finally, we had dinner Saturday night with our friends, Dominique and Daniel, who both began working at Alstom at the same time Rand did, so they were all in orientation together. We've already seen them a number of times for dinners and we've introduced them to the ThermalBad as well. Dominique made us her specialty, spaghetti Bolognese, just as she learned it in a little Italian village years ago...

Dominique is a unique combination. She's very vivacious and energetic, and extremely French, as she says. She loves to cook and adores chocolate, yet she's an expert metals caster. She says she can look at a molten alloy and tell if there's something wrong with it and what. I couldn't explain quite what she does now at Alstom, but suffice to say, she's living in a man's world and even more so in Switzerland. But she has so much personality and energy that she barrels ahead, changing everything she can around her. She loves reds, purples and oranges, with vivid red hair. She shines and shimmers amongst the grays and blacks of der Schweiz.

Daniel is a specialist in materials at Alstom and is the calmer half of the couple (like me). He hails from blue-collar Detroit, and worked on his PhD while working in the factory. Since then, he left the Midwest and lived in Germany for eight years before they made the move to Switzerland. He's relieved to be working and commuting less than he did in Germany so that he can improve his quality of life. Yeah, Baden!

Sorry, I didn't get pictures of either couple yet. Will work on that. Ciao!