Monday, September 3, 2007

re-entry draws nearer

Well, I'm wrapping things up in Switzerland. Today I started out with some clothes shopping....the clothes in Switzerland are awesome and they could also empty my bank account rather quickly....and through an extreme act of self-discipline as well as a nod to the burgeoning size of my suitor bag, I bought nothing.

Nothing, that is, except for a nice, folding black umbrella when the rainstorms started up this afternoon, which was promptly lifted from me by a restaurant patron a few hours later when I foolishly left it in the public umbrella bin with everyone else's. (Funny how every time I do that, my umbrella disappears,)

During the afternoon, I met Nicola and we walked around a bit in the rain, then settled into a trendy-looking lounge with low, leather sofas for some tea.

Later, all four of us -- Tanja, Michael, Nicola, and I -- went out to a traditional Swiss dinner, followed by a visit to another Zurich landmark in a 500-year-old converted munitions building for drinks and dessert. Here's a few photos: the bow and arrow on the wall is yet another reference to the legend of William Tell, Note the size of the beers, which are being prepared with whiskey or something that was first set on fire. And though I'm not a beer drinker these days, I had to try it.

I'll miss Switzerland and really miss the superior quality of life in Europe, but I also look forward to being home and getting back to my life, my states-side friends, my crazy, lonely cat, work, and my interests, too.




finally, nice weather

Sunday turned out to be really warm (24 degrees celsius), so Nicola and I spent the day walking around Zurich, first along one of the rivers and past the park that was once filled with drug addicts but is cleaned up now...and then down to the section of Zurich that's supposed to be dangerous, at least compared to the rest of Zurich, but during the day didn't look so dangerous to me....and then we went to an outdoor African fair and ate some food. We sat outside at cafes -- easy to do here, because there's outdoor seating just about everywhere -- and then we walked down to the lake.

Lots of people were out and lots of baby strollers...has anyone noticed how BIG baby strollers are getting nowadays? These strollers were like SUVs.

Then I went to a music event that evening in a club where Nicola was DJing, and met some of her friends. One spoke English and one spoke French, but the others spoke only German or another language, so I wasn't able to chat with all of them.

Anyway, it was a lovely day. Weather-wise, I might not be so lucky on Monday.