Sunshiny Day

Hiya all y'all. Well, much has happened since I last wrote. Many people have visited and we've taken them all over the country, German-part, French-part, Italian-part. I continued with my Deutsch course and actually know a bit of German now, but there is ever so much to learn. We travelled to Denmark for Christmas and had just a wonderful time there with Lis and her family. AND-ah, for those of you who don't know, I was ultra-fortunate to find a job that I really love in Zurich at Kraft Foods. Oh, and we're going to be moving back to the apartment where we first lived when we came here on April 1. With the grand piano for Rand, yeah! More on all that to come.

Well, to start small, today was just glorious in Zurich. I don't know where those blue skies came from, but we loved them. The funny thing is, I've been enjoying my new job at Kraft and living here this winter so much, that I haven't even minded all the overcast gray days. But today was a day to get outside. We started this morning by taking the train downtown and attending sung Eucharist at St. Andrew's Anglican Church. We have been going to the Baden Catholic Church (cathedral actually, see pic on side with one of the Christmas angels suspended over all) lately, and while we enjoy the experience because of the edifying space, well, the services are entirely in German, and as I think you all know, we're not Catholic. I was also mystified at first because Communion only included the bread, not the cup. I still don't know why: the priests have the wine, but it just doesn't show up for the parishioners. So, it was a nice change to understand not only the language but the service as well. The sermon about the 40 days of temptation of Jesus was intelligent and relevant, which was a relief. And it was interesting to see them take the children up to the rail for Communion and the priest blessing them. The choir was quite good and the hymns not too tone-deaf, but of course I'll always miss the Baptist gospel hymns and really getting to SING. I think we'll probably go back, although next time we'll try the International Protestant Church which is in the French Protestant Church building, right next to St. Andrew's. All the churches with services in English seem to be in two blocks there, so that makes it easy.

After church, we headed to a cafe, Bohemia, where they have a brunch menu. Pictures of Hemingway and Che Gevara on the wall. And they actually had a menu item called American Breakfast, with, get this, 2 fried eggs, bacon, potatos with onions, an "exotic" juice and coffee/tea for around $26. Not kidding. This is living in Zurich. We didn't actually order this. Anyway, we had just gotten our coffee when Rand saw one of his colleagues from work and we invited him to join us which was lucky because he entertained us mightily. Turns out he owns a farm outside of Edinburgh where he keeps animals, mostly rare breeds, and has a petting zoo there for children. The story went on, but he appears then to also be the chairman for the Rare Breeds Society in Scotland. How wonderfully strange is the world.

After our lovely brunch (with mimosas, I forgot to mention!), we headed out into the sunshine toward the lake. The lakeside was full of people strolling, enjoying the day, and you could see all the mountains at the other end of the lake perfectly. When I first came to Switzerland, I didn't see those mountains for many months and didn't believe the picture postcards they sell with the beautiful old city, river and then these stunning snow-covered mountains at the end. But it turns out it's true! They're just covered by clouds or fog much of the year.

We could see that one of the bridges across the river was crowded with people, so we figured it was one of the ubiqitous Swiss carnivals going on. As we got closer to one of the plazas, there were all these really brightly colored indigenous people from the Andes, playing and dancing to pan flutes. They couldn't have been more out of place or un-Swiss, but it makes one smile. We went a little further and there were floats lined up to head into a big parade, and next were the Gugga bands! It was another Fasnacht parade! And here I thought Fasnacht was done because in the service, he said it was the first Sunday of Lent. I guess the parties are just too fun to stop for Lent. So we walked amongst the musicians and partiers for an hour or so, entirely enjoying the day, and getting covered in confetti. Did I mention that I love Zurich?

Easter Dinner -- Francais style

It was hard to be away from home for Easter of course, but we were so fortunate to have our friends, Dominique and Daniel, invite us to a wonderful Easter dinner at their flat. And even more lucky because Mama and Papa Flahaut were there to help with the traditional French cookery.

Mama was resting when I captured Dominique and her dad in the kitchen, finishing up things. It was a communal effort and preparation took days, but the result was wonderful. They apologized for not having the traditional lamb for Easter, but we had no trouble making do with the coq-au-vin. Important to have dark meat, children, for the flavor. This was after the first course of avocado mixed with tuna meat and olive oil and stuffed back in half avocado skins. Yum! The cheese course after the main meal was wonderful, with, I think it was, five different cheeses from three different countries.

We took a rest then and went out to their large terrace to chat and have little Easter chocolate treats. Rand and Daniel enjoyed discussing the Sorry State of the World and All Its Inhabitants. I enjoyed Daniel's story of how much trouble he has Getting Things Cut at work. It involved much bureaucracy and foolishness. I took a couple of turns conversing with Mama Flahaut, which consisted mostly of her steady stream of French consciousness and my furrowed brow or once in a while nods of comprehension as I understood a stray word or two. But it really didn't matter at all; just being together is what's important.

LET THE SUN SHINE!!

So the sun is finally shining on our cold EuroWorld here. We've had so many lovely days now -- I'm in heaven. The Swiss kept telling us that this was an anamalous winter, but I don't know that we quite believed them... Of course, now we hear that it's too warm and sunny for the norm too, oh my. And the clouds, where have the clouds gone??

It's been such a revelation seeing our world in color again; Baden looks quite new and Zurich is just fabulous! So as the sun shines, Rand agreed to venture back into the city again and here we are. The Sunday before Easter we just wandered along Zurichsee (the large lake where Zurich sits) for a little essen und trinken. The water is of course filled with sailboats and yachts; what's the good of all that international banking money if you can't get out on the water? And yes, that is a palm tree where we were having our afternoon drink, at Acqua (http://www.acqua.ch/outdoor.htm). The tables were set up on the rooftop and also on the dock outside. We went up to the rooftop (of course!) and watched the water with sunglasses on. We would see the occasional muscleman paddling a kayak, looking just clumsy as anything because he could barely twist his arm muscles around his shoulder socket. He went fast -- how German! Or then there was a couple in a little row boat about to ram into a stationary sailboat. Since he was paddling, we figured we knew what he was saying and what she was saying. Can't you just hear it?

So when I found this place my first thought was, "Oh, good, we can go here on sunny afternoons now like we went to Top of the Hill at home." Tee hee hee. See the first little picture on the left? This was our view on the side of the building looking away from the city. I thought it looked so Mediterranean. Weird, and lovely.

Funny thing, we ordered two beers and when the waiter told us the cost, we both heard "50 Franks". This stunned us a both a moment until I asked him to repeat that. Oh, fif-teen Franks, well, that's a little better, we're now down to nearly $13 instead of $43! For, did I mention, all of two bottled beers? When the wait understood our confusion, he laughed and said, "Well, this IS Zurich after all."

I was carrying around a pocketful of change (Rand never uses it, so yeah, extra money for me!) and as we walked back around the lake toward the city center, I carefully counted out ten more Franks and got Rand to agree to ride the huge ferris wheel there where the city center runs into the lake. I can't remember the last time I was on one, but I won't forget this one very soon. Not exactly a cornfield for a view. Oh wait, no, that's the Grossmunster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grossm%C3%BCnster).

Our last stop was to have an ice cream and sit on a bench overlooking the lake. And it was a really good ice cream too, orange filling covered with dark chocolate. Yum!

When we're ready to leave, we have the option of walking back to the main train station (the Hauptbahnhof), which takes maybe 20 minutes, or to catch one of the many many trams that run all over the place. This time we opted for a quick tram ride back to the station and just caught the fast train back to Baden. Now that's a good day.

A Good Weekend

Hello All, I know I have been very amiss in giving frequent reports of our goings-on. I will try to rectify immediately. First, I just have to mention that the sun has been shining for about two hours today and I was out for a while to see it, wonderful! But it's still 34 degrees, so my bones remain chilled when I go out.

So our weekend was a very social one. Yesterday was one of those perfect days. We had invited (planned well in advance) our upstairs neighbors, Richard & Michelle, to brunch and I quickly introduced them to our traditional mimosas. They hadn't seen such before, but adjusted fairly well, finally deciding, I think, that it was a pretty good idea. I had planned to make my coffeecake, but that was given up as brown sugar couldn't be had anywhere! So anyone who comes to visit, remember the brown sugar... We had crepes instead.

The conversation was lively and varied. We learned about the years they lived in Turin, Italy, and we told them about traveling and teaching in Turkey. We learned about their work, got some German/Swiss German lessons, discussed (of course) some political questions and the new and old US administrations, etc. They're also giving us suggestions for where to go in the mountains. We keep hearing that you have to go to the mountains here to see the sun!!

We also learned an interesting fact about Italy versus central/northern Europe. Apparently in northern Europe, they build for the winter and the cold, sensibly, and as Richard said, "In Switzerland, we know how to heat." But in Italy, even northern Italy where it's still cold, they don't. They still have a more Latin mentality and tradition and build for appearance and for celebrating summer. We had already experienced this in northern Italy in October when we FROZE in our hotel because the Italians said that it wasn't yet the date, the official date, to turn on the heat.

They also told us some American jokes, or maybe they're urban myths. The first was about the Americans who went to see some beautiful little Swiss villages with the castles and old buildings, ala Baden.
After looking around for a while, they finally asked someone when the village closed...

Oh, and I forgot to mention that it was snowing all day, from the time I was cooking in the morning, all through brunch, and all evening too.

After they left, it was still light and I took a walk down to the ThermalBad to soak. It was still snowing, so when I changed from the indoor to the outdoor pool, I was warm in the water with the snow falling on my face. These are some pictures of the walk down there, which takes about eight or ten minutes.

And when I came out afterwards, all toasty warm, it was twilight. Here's what it looks like from the outside of the bath area. The fence and greenery are surrounding the outdoor pool. You can always see the steam coming up from the warm water.

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!

Kerzenlicht Auf Der Ruine Steine

Candlelight at the Castle Ruin. This was our Christmas with Masha, bundling up at 5:30pm after the sun had gone down, and heading into town to the top of the hill where the ruined castle awaits. We took Masha here on Christmas Eve in the dark as well and Heather on New Year's Eve, but it was best on Christmas because they had placed covered candles on the narrow steps all the way up. And the way up is really delightful. You find a narrow entrance to an alley stairway tucked off the main shopping street and head up. There are apartments in the medieval buildings with doorways, landings, even little patches of grass, tucked in here and there. In one window, you can see into a teeny kitchen with granite countertops (where aren't they?), somewhere else there's a wrought iron gate entering a tiny yard with a strange monkey embedded in the ironworks, somewhere else there's an elaborate colorful sculpture built around a little mailbox, reminding one of Aladdin's lamp. And as you look behind you down the alley, you see a colorful lamp hanging over the stairs.

Once you make it above the buildings, you can see the town clocktower and then all the town and valley begins to spread out below you. In the distance in one
direction is a purplish glow which we imagine must be Zurich. The castle itself has two parts intact which are always lit so you can see it from all around. On Christmas, it was lit with changing colors, green, purple, red. And there were people just everywhere, holding candles, pulling out bottles and food to share, talking with friends and relatives, basking in front of the small bonfire. There was supposed to be music but we didn't hear anything. It was apparently in part of the castle which was still standing where people were in line, and the walls were so thick, no noise escaped.

Here we were, Christmas Eve 2008. Happy Holidays!

Cold on Brugg Bridge

Hi All. Sorry it takes me so long to add new entries, but here's a quick one. We went to neighboring Brugg this weekend. It's also an historic little Swiss town, also on the Limmat River, and apparently is a river/rail/motorway crossroads town. We went on Sunday, so of course nearly everything was closed, but we did find one cozy little coffeeshop where we had zwei Cappucino.

Now up until this day, I had been doing really well with the cold. Rand had a day in Zurich when he about died -- didn't wear proper warm pants, and this was my day to freeze clear to my eyeballs, also because I didn't wear warm 'nough pants (because as you can see, I have the heavy fur, heavy gloves, and wrapped scarf). You can't get away with anything here when you go outside. Plus of course we depend on public transportation, which I love(!), but it means you have to be prepared to be out in the elements. No car awaits you.

Anyway, I wanted to show you this picture of an old stone wall on one side of the bridge -- the Black Tower, constructed at the end of the 12th Century. 'Tis the oldest standing structure remaining in Brugg’s old town today, according to my sources. If you click on the picture, you can see the carved face and barred windows. Pre-Gothic. There's a picture of the actual tower showing where we were on the bridge at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugg.

Frohe Weihnachten Und Ein Gutes Neues Yahr!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
To all our beloved family and friends: you know we miss you and wish you all very warm holiday greetings.
As some of you know, we had a fellow expat come stay with us for a few days at Christmas. This is Maria, our friend Tatiana's daughter, who has been living in Darmstadt, Germany since May and feels she has found her new home. We had a lovely visit with her and I was happy to have someone to ply with holiday goodies.

And our Christmas brunch: Swiss chard and salami frittata, fruit salad, Stollen that Maria brought from Germany with her, fresh coffee and juice (although I certainly missed the loud happy Christmas at home with the huge Christmas breakfast spread in Marion -- I hear Kaye's orange rolls almost rivaled Grandma's this year). Maria came on Christmas Eve at 4pm and Rand picked her up from the train station while I finished putting away the groceries I'd been collecting all day, cloth bag by cloth bag, going back and forth from the store with as much as I could carry. Luckily the store is just right around the corner. And was it ever so busy on Christmas Eve!
You see here our dining room with the romantic large windows, high ceilings, plaster walls and ambiance. Across the road is the park that houses the Grand Casino. The flowers on the table came from Rand's "West Virginia Dad" -- THANKS ROB!! And we have the few Christmas cards that found their way to Switzerland at the last moment in the window. Oh, and I almost forgot the very special orange cookies from Sue that also made it overseas, a bit crumbly, but definitely delicious. Thank you everyone.

Baden for Christmas

Some of you have asked what Baden looks like for Christmas. Here is a sampling. They decorated the narrow old cobblestone streets with hanging strands of light, all through town so when you walk through, it feels like a fairyland. The lights come on around 4pm as it darkens. It's very romantic of course and before Christmas there are also outside tables full of pine boughs and red berry limbs, mulled wine and cheeses.



These two are by the Bahnhof, train station, practically around the corner from our apartment, and is where they've put up the ice rink, fondue hut, merry-go-round and tranparent igloo bar for the festivities. On the other end of the ice rink is a large open pit with a roaring fire that people can surround to keep warm. They also roast sausages on long sticks to keep the fat on.
As we walked past the fondue hut one night we could hear yodeling coming from inside. Female voices and beautiful. We must make a reservation and check it out -- Heather?


And instead of stars or ornaments, they mount these angel figures all through town. Here's one on the morning it snowed, looking over its little kingdom.


The large ball of light is hanging in the center of town, by the clocktower. They were selling Christmas trees and roasting chestnuts underneath. The trees were not big fraser firs. They're instead rather scrawny, Charlie-Brown-Christmas trees. They decorate them on Christmas Eve with real candles.

This is a window on a residential street, decorated for the 9th day of December. Instead of having one of those little wall-hangings with the shutters you open for the days before Christmas, they decorate real-live windows to anticipate Weihnachten. That's a little suspended angel in the middle flying over a bunch of animals, to be sheep perhaps?

Finally, a cold lone Santa floating on the river Limmat. We don't know why. And that's our Swiss Christmas!

Bubbly mineral baths -- date night?

So this is Baden (bath-town) after all and we finally made it to the public baths, ThermalBaden. The town gives tickets when you register and we put them to good use last night. You go in and change into your bathing suit -- the woman thought I was funny asking if a bikini was ok. Yes, bikinis were the thing, judging by all the teen biscuits there with their beaus. No nudity or prudery at this one.

Once you change and shower down, you enter a beautiful room with lots of cream tile and wooden beams, panes of glass and skylights around a pool with candles in lanterns scattered around the edges. It was neither too big nor too small, but aesthetically just right. And when you step in, ahhhhh, the temperature was not too hot, not too cool, perfectly warm. In one part there were places to lie with mini jets massaging you all over. All around the edges were jets of water at different levels. And at one end was a big bubbly blob that we didn't even get to. No, it doesn't take long to get used to this.

After a while in that pool, we decided it was time to try the next stop, the OUTDOOR pool. Now mind you, I'd been in every layer of every wintry thing I owned to walk down there, and here I was in a bikini, heading outside. But of course they had thought it all out (these are Roman baths after all, so they'd had some time to work out the details -- ok no, not actually the building). You walked into a separate room where the steps to the pool were, with a plastic curtain over it, so you could dive underneath and come out into -- more perfectly warm water, cold air around your head, a Christmas tree and twinkly lights on the houses across the river going up the hill, and STEAM. The steam covered the whole area and kept everything mysterious. We tried every area, enjoying the night view from different angles, and the purply-deep pink sky, including the big bubbly blob here -- you have to wait your couple's turn. It was like a whirlpool built in the pool with round tile sides and rails to hold onto, otherwise I would have been swept out to pool. And the steam was thickest here. I didn't take any pictures because of the being wet and all, but the picture above is from the website, http://www.thermalbaden.ch/.

Come on over, the water's fine!

Registering good and proper

One of the first things you have to do when you move to Switzerland is register with the town where you live (ala Bethlehem?) so they can track you and tax you. I did this on my third morning in Baden at the town hall Stadthaus, as pictured here. Yes, cobblestone alley, archway overlooking the river valley on that very snowy morning, pretty painting on the archway of Vikings(?) Lake Zurich pirates(?!), another medieval building meticulously maintained with big heavy wooden door. You all would have laughed at me as I came up to that big door, because it swung open wide as I came up to it, inviting me in, and just like Shaggy and Scooby, I followed it around to see who had let me in, but there was no-one-there. Hee hee.
So coming from one bureaucratic culture to another, I was prepared with passport, paperwork, pictures, cash money. After much entering of info on the computer, I was at last given my receipt and official registration letter, brochures about town almost all in German, and my potassium iodide tablets from the Swiss Army with scary instructions ("In the event of a serious nuc-u-lar power plant accident where the safety tank fails, radioactive iodine may be released into the environment...Additional tablets may be purchased from dispensing pharmacies if you require them"). So, I'm now protected against nuclear accidents at any one of the three surrounding power plants. Our realtor, Mrs. Fischer, told us all about our nuclear neighbors. She had worked at one and could even tell us who built each of them -- none brought to you by Alstom!

Did I mention the snow?

When we woke up yesterday morning, this is what greeted us. It had already snowed before I arrived, and was still lying on the ground, but then I got to see it snow for two days, as you know a big deal for a Carolina girl like me. We got up at 6am and it was so lovely in the dark. Heavy snow and Rand said at work you never heard so much griping. Apparently it wasn't expected overnight and the snow ploughs were just a' scurryin' the next morning. Our balcony (yep, that's me in my pajamas and socks in the dark and cold) overlooks one of the roads and we could see the buses carefully pulling up to the sidewalks, people getting out with umbrellas, and yes, still a couple of hardy guys on bikes.

I took a walk once it got light and these are of town. The view to the river is just a few steps from our apartment and the picture below is looking over the river valley. The other is of the beginning part of the main shopping street which intersects at the train station. Everyone should be very proud of me in the outdoors, all bundled and warm. Sorry no pictures of me yet, having a bad hair month, but will try to rectify soon.

Yes, I'm here!!

Hi All, I'm sorry this is belated, but I'm still you know just a bit stunned that we really live here. In Europe. Medieval Europe. Snowy, mountainous Europe. It's not like reality. For instance, this was my first image of the town, arriving by train, seeing the promised ruined castle on the hill. This was my second train of the morning, both made by Rand's Alstom(!). The first was between terminals at the Zurich Airport and was surreal because you could see it going through this tunnel and looking all science-fiction, but at the same time, you could hear these faint cow-bells. That's right, cow-bells. And the cows lowing. Coming over the speaker, in the train. Apparently there was a Heidi sign there; Rand said I just missed it.

Rand's gone with the wind

So I took Rand to the airport yesterday and put him on the plane. Just when little RDU airport gets its brand spankin' new terminal all set up to look like an international space shuttle hub, *poof* we leave. He's going to start on Monday, as planned.

Lesson #1: Don't think you can mess with a Swiss schedule.

Go to Atlanta, NOW

As I think we've told most everyone, we didn't know exactly when we were moving to Switzerland. It depended on the ubiquitous paperwork, and I thought there was no way Rand would get there to start on December 1. So here it was the Monday before Thanksgiving and we still hadn't gotten the word that the visas were ready when he sends the alarms-blaring email to Alstom saying oh no oh no, no visa, no go. Wouldn't you know then, Tuesday morning before Thanksgiving, I'm ready to shower for work when Rand stops me, wide-eyed, "Visas are ready NOW". I managed to reach someone at the Consulate in Atlanta to learn that yes, we have the approval for Mr. Ward, but none for Ms. Thornton. Consulate will be open from 8:30 to 11:30am on Wednesday, then -- The Holiday. One more alarm email to Alstom, I call in to work for the rest of the week (hee hee), and down to Atlanta we go. I reached Lance that morning to let him know we were coming with no notice and was so sad that we wouldn't get to see him. But I did get the fabulous places suggestions, so after traveling all day, we checked into a hotel which turned out to be right across the street from the Consulate (fabulous planning, Caroline), and went out for a late night at the Spice Market in the W Hotel where I had the most amazing ginger margaritas and a stacked green papaya salad. The hotel and restaurant were straight out of theme Vegas, so we loved it.

Oh yeah, and the next morning we got both visas, no problems, except that the Consulate wasn't even listed on the directory in the building where we thought it was. It felt like going to a secret installation that no one knows exists in the anonymous high-rise. We had to ask the security guard. Very tricksy.

Driving home not too bad, even though it was the DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING. We left Atlanta at 9:45 with the visas, weren't we proud. And I got to see the giant peach butt in the sky one more time before leaving all lovely Southern things behind.