T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
Posts about travel and life in Switzerland
Recently a gigantic grey box has sprung up in downtown Zurich, right next to the lake. Its bright orange signs let passersby know that it contains something that has to do with the The Gates. The Gates was an installation in Central Park by artists Jeanne-Claude and Christo, whose famous works include the Wrapped Reichstag … Read more
In a shocking twist of events, the city of Zurich has reversed its no-mariachis-on-trams policy! The pictures were quietly replaced over the past few days. A little internet research revealed that the Mexican consulate complained to the city about the signs after having received many angry calls from the community. The replacement of the signs … Read more
We just got back from a glorious long weekend in Mürren, an excessively adorable little skiing village in the Swiss Alps. To get there one must take an incline railway to a cog-wheel train to the town. Once you get to the town itself, the only way to get your luggage to your hotel is … Read more
Nevermind that Lent has already started – Zurichers braved the snow by the tens this weekend to revel in the streets with a bunch of funnily-dressed marching bands. I’m guessing that Zurich celebrates carnival the weekend after the rest of the world because all the good bands are busy during the real carnival playing in … Read more
Saturday it snowed all day long… …and into the night. Not bad for a camera phone, eh? So far we’re at a foot and a half, and it’s still coming down. I’ll let you know when it stops. 2:00 AM update… still snowing. We just went out and made snow angels. And at the … Read more
Nobody warned me substantially enough about Swiss German. To call it “Swiss German” in the first place is ridiculously misleading… it implies that the language is, in the end, a kind of German. Kind of like “American English”… to get from here to British English, all you have to do is say “boot” instead of … Read more
And this is just what I can see from my couch. I will never get tired of winter.
The powers that be recently got together and decided that the signs inside Zurich public transportation were unacceptably lacking in humor, stereotypes, and surrealism. Much to my delight, they fixed all three problems at once, making my daily tram rides a lot more entertaining. Care to guess what the following diagrams are trying to tell … Read more
Yesterday we went skiing in Flumserberg, which is less than an hour away from home. With slopes that close to home, how can you not learn how to ski? When we left Zurich in the morning, it was overcast. As we drove up the mountain, it got worse. I was dreading the thought of trying … Read more
Last Sunday we drove with some friends from Geneva to Estavayer-le-Lac, a small town in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. This journey was motivated by my friend Alison’s and my burning desire to see a bunch of dead frogs that had been lovingly gutted (through the mouth), stuffed with sand, and posed in scenes from … Read more