Here we are, almost the end of February. I can't believe it's almost March. Did I say the same thing last month? Probably. The time is going by so quickly, especially now that the weather is getting a little nicer. I'm off work for two weeks, and my original plan was not to do any traveling in order to save money. Well, I decided to ditch that plan because... well, because I want to travel. No use sitting around all day like I do during the work week. So last Friday evening, Mario and I hit the road to head to Switzerland to visit two of his friends.
After less than three hours, we arrived at the apartment where Simon and Sofiane live together in (correct me if I'm wrong) Winterthur, which is near Zurich. They and Mario know each other from high school in Germany, and they're both working at the Zurich airport. Oh, and Sofiane's from Algeria, which is pretty sweet. And thanks to him, I know they do have jeans and cars there. Just not nice ones.
I was expecting their apartment to be dirty. You know, two young (well, age probably has nothing to do with it) guys living there. You'd think there'd be some dirt on the ground or crumbs on the tables. Nope. It was clean. Just how I like things. So I was happy. :)
For those of you who aren't familiar with Switzerland, just as I wasn't before I'd gone, there are four official languages. Zurich is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, so I was once again in for a whole lot of German. But I got a surprisingly amazing amount of English out of this stay, too. Chapeau, boys.
That night Mario made dinner. After eating, the four of us sat around the table for hours just talking. I can't tell you how good it is to have company. And on top of that, it's new company, so there's even more to talk about. At this point I don't remember what all we talked about, but I can tell you we came up with a pretty awesome scenario for giving birth to twins in an airplane over two time zones on the night daylight savings starts (or ends? I've always been confused by that.). I won't sit and explain, but we talked about it long enough that it merits some recognition in this entry.
The next day we drove about an hour to a mountain called Säntis. We went up in a nice roomy cable car, and all I can saw it that it was awesome.
I don't know if I'd ever been on top of a mountain before that, despite all our family vacations out west. I was rather fearless up there, which should not have been the case considering the amount of slip my boots have on the bottom. But I never fell. And if I had, I could have easily fallen off the top of the mountain. There wasn't much protection at some points. But whatever you do, don't tell my mother that. She will freak out.
We ate at a cafeteria-whatev inside a building on the mountain. It's really not worth mention, except for the fact that I paid 15 francs for some average-tasting pasta and a bowl of cantelope. Fifteen francs is about $15. Simon paid 17 for a plate of fries and a Coke. Really? But whatever, you have to get over it, otherwise you'll go nuts counting every last penny... or whatever. (I later learned they don't have a word for the different coins themselves, and even if they did, it would surely not be penny.)
As we were leaving to catch a ride down, I couldn't help overhearing this family I'd been hearing all day. There was clearly a mom, a dad, and some kids. The mom was speaking what to me sounded like Spanish. The dad was speaking English, and the kids were, too. But they still responded in English to their mother's Spanish. Anyway, I was trying all day to figure out where they could be from. It was an English accent I couldn't recognize. So anyway, before getting back on the ride down, I asked the man about their language situation. Turns out he's from England and his wife is from Peru. Among everyone else in their gang that was there, they spoke Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, and Romansh. Some were from Scotland, some from England, some from Switzerland, and the mother from Peru. And I'm sure there's a language or country I've missed. In any case, this family was awesome, and I was intrigued.
After the mountain, we went on a walk through the woods (I guess it was the woods?). It was so much Switzerland I couldn't stand it. I mean, imagine Switzerland in your head. How do you picture it? Well, that's what it was like here. It was just great. The path was slippery, and I had quite the time making it through without falling. But again, I didn't fall, and all was well. Next time I come to Europe, remind me not to come in the winter. My boots might not even make it home with me.
After the day in the mountains, we went to the airport to buy groceries. The car ride there was great. I slept a lot of the way, and I found it really fun and relaxing to just listen to the others speaking German. I loved it, listening to a language I understand almost none of. It was one of my favorite things about the long weekend, just hearing the sounds and making no sense out of them. Anyway, I think that's rather funny, going to the airport for groceries. I'm assuming that since Simon works there, it's the most convenient place he knew of to get food. We went to buy food, and I was happy just being at the airport. I've always liked being in airports. People there are always so busy. They're all on missions like they have somewhere important to be. Probably because they do. And so I felt important.
Back at home, I played Bananagrams with Simon and Mario. (Sofiane was still at work.) That's the best game, in case you've never played. You should. We played two rounds. First round I won. I thought it was unfair since my first language is English and theirs isn't. But we played again, and they BOTH finished before me. That was equally unfair! I was so impressed with their English, though. It's amazing how good they are, and it makes me feel really stupid about my level of French. If I'd wanted, I couldn have told them things weren't words when they asked. I should have, but that also would have been unfair. Anyway, then we attached all three of our boards. We found a place to connect them, and it worked!
Would you have one of your fingers cut off for any certain amount of money?
Do plants go to heaven?
Those, among other questions, were discussed that night.
Sunday we did nothing. Seriously. I slept until 12:30. It was gross and rainy/snowy all day, and it was fine to stay in. I made Rachel Taran's Magic Soup (somehow it gets a new name every time I refer to it) for dinner that night, and just as we were sitting down, Simon casually told me that Teen Mom was on TV. WHAT?! That is nothing to be casual about. I went to see which episode it was... but back up a second. Back in October, I downloaded itunes just for the purpose of finishing the last season of Teen Mom since it wasn't over when I left home in September. Well, the final episode was never on itunes. I don't know why, but I've been wanting to watch it forever, and I'd been looking forward to it when I get home this summer. Well, guess what episode was on TV that night?! THAT episode!!! It was only 20 minutes in, so we paused it, finished dinner, and then the three of us watched Teen Mom together. Thanks guys. It made my night. :)
At some point I had mentioned that I'd never seen Star Wars. So we watched Star Wars. Yeah, I'm serious. I went to Switzerland and watched Star Wars. And I'll just say I have no plans to watch any of the rest in the series. We might as well have watched it in German, because that was like a novel to me. And you know how I feel about novels.
Monday we went to Zurich. It took two trains to get there, but it was short and exciting. This was the most non-touristy touristy city I've ever been to. It didn't feel like a big city. It kind of felt like home, in a strange way. There aren't really any super-well-known attractions in Zurich. Just a whole lot of space and not a lot of people! Well, that's at least how I felt. We saw Lake Zurich and a bunch of chocolate, as expected. We walked around the old town, which is always the most charming part of a European city in my opinion. We saw some churches, took some pictures, and headed to the trains again. We took a longer train ride this time (I think) to Üetliberg. It felt more like a hill than the mountain that it is. We walked up and up and up, and I once again tried not to fall. But my trusty boots held up. The path we were following was also part of a planet walk (well, not really sure what it's called). There were to-scale displays of the sun and the planets in the solar system, spread out throughout the path so they were the appropriate distances apart. It was quite amazing to see how small we really are in the grand scheme of things.
When we reached the top of our mountain, we were supposed to have this awesome view of Zurich. But we didn't. It was too foggy out, and we saw nothing. I mean really, nothing. Mario's intense fear of heights kept him from climbing the tower on the top of the mountain, but Simon and I went up anyway. And this is what we saw:
Hey, at least I can say I went up. Here's the tower from below:
Back in Winterthur, we spent lots of time looking at language exams online and talking about ones we've taken in the past. I seriously could sit for hours (um, well I kind of did) talking about languages. Not just the languages themselves, but what it's like to learn them and become good at them and just everything that goes with knowing multiple languages. And to talk to these people who are clearly as interested in the topic as I am. It was a fun mix of teaching and learning, both English and German. There were things I recognized, thanks to my German 101 class at UWEC, and I'd randomly interrupt and ask if I got it right. I'd randomly come up with things to teach them, like what a garbage disposal is. I was more than impressed with their knowledge of the names for our fingers. I definitely don't know what the thumb, pointer, middle, ring, and pinky fingers are called in French. And I learned that squirrel is hard to say in any language other than your first, no matter what language you speak.
Okay, here's something for thought: I realized this weekend that I have a difficult time expecting people to speak English to me. You see, when you're out and about doing things, people will speak to you in German. Of course they will. And if you don't know German, they'll speak to you in English. I'd feel a lot less guilty about that if English were my second language rather than my first. It was hard to accept that I just get to be the spoiled one when traveling, and people will do things "my way." If that makes any sense? It just seems that everyone knows English. With that said, check out this sandwich I found at the store. I got a weird look from the man standing behind me when I took it. I guess his English just isn't up to par.
Tuesday was really cool. We went to Rhine Falls, the largest waterfall in Europe. Not really much to say about it. But here it is!
And after that we walked around the center of this little city called Stein am Rhein. Its medieval center reminded me of the beginning of the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, when Belle is walking through town singing about all the people. The fountain just did it for me!
And that was about as much excitement as we could handle for the day. But wait, it gets more exciting. Simon had mentioned he can play the violin. I kept wanting him to play for us, and we never remembered until it was too late at night. So that night I made a point to remember before it was too late. We played Pachelbel's Canon together, he on his violin and I on the piano. (HA! Why does that sentence sound do funny to me? It reminds me of that line about a kerchief and a cap from The Night Before Christmas. I don't know if it's gramatically correct, but it just kind of flowed out of my fingers.) It was way fun, and when we finished, he told me he didn't even know it, that he was just playing it by ear the whole time. I was impressed. Then I played one of my faves from piano lessons a million years ago, and he played with me, by ear! I was impressed again. So that started me on this kick of trying to remember everythin I once knew how to play. So while they were preparing dinner, I played the piano, looking up videos on YouTube to help me remember the fingerings I couldn't remember myself. I still never got them right. But I decided it's my new hobby. I'm going to re-teach myself everything I learned as a kid. Oh, those dreadful nights after dinner when Mom forced me to practice. I hated piano lessons so much, but they served me well, and I swear I will be able to play again. Reading piano music on the spot though, that might never happen. Hmm, now I kind of want to get my clarinet out and see what I can do with that. But now that's just getting waaaay off topic. So forget about that for now.
My short time in Switzerland was everything I expected and better. It is so nice to have a real home to stay in rather than a hotel. And real people to show me things. We ate dinner together every night, and it kind of felt like a little family, even thought it wasn't and was only for a short time. And even if we stay in... That's a vacation!!! It's called ralaxing, and I like it. Not to mention I love any chance I get to sit on a couch. I miss sitting on couches. I can't wait to sit on my couch at home again. But I'm sure once I'm there, I'll be missing not having one to sit on.
I still have all of next week off, too, and I've got some traveling arranged. Hopefully it'll be a lot warmer where I'm going than it has been here. It would be a nice change from the cold weather I've seen in almost all my travels so far this year.
1 comment:
Rachel Taran's Magic Soup...I like the sound of that :)
Btw, I love reading about your adventures!
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