This week is Fasnacht, which is a the biggest celebration you have ever seen. It's like a Mardi Gras or Carnival, but it is held after Ash Wednesday instead of before. Why? Because when the Protestants took over Basel, they also took over the party. The Catholics threw a great Fasnacht party and the Protestants wanted to continue it, but didn't want those nasty Catholics participating.
So, they put their heads together and came up with a great idea--they moved it to after Ash Wednesday so that all the Catholics would be in the midst of Lent and couldn't come. They stole the party and kicked out the originators. Brilliantly mean.
But, I digress. The point is, this is a big week so no school, and Jason was off work for a day or two. And Monday morning my doorbell rang. My neighbor (incidentally, the one who informed me that the inside of my mailbox was a little dirty) informed me that all of the neighbors have been talking about how horrible we are.
We are too loud. We do too much laundry too late in the day. We use our drill all the time. We come and go at all hours of the night.
Now, I'll agree to the loud thing, and the laundry. Bad us. We don't own a drill and we don't go anywhere late at night. That is other people, but being blamed on us.
Fine.
But, as she continued (she started out with, "I hate to tell you this," but it was clear that she did not hate to tell us this. She lives for such things.), she also had some helpful advice:
1. Buy a car
2. Buy a vacation home
3. I should try to understand that other people in the building actually have to work, so they need their sleep. I wouldn't understand this at all because I don't work.
4. We should pull Sarah out of the International School and put her in the Swiss schools, so we would understand.
Ahh, it all becomes clear. This wasn't about noise. This was about not being Swiss. And I think a bit of class envy. This woman also wanted to know Jason's salary, and when I wouldn't tell her began to guess. She came surprisingly close. I suspect, given the rent here, that our income is higher than our neighbors and that she has shared that information with them.
She can't understand why we won't buy a car (it's about the chocolate croissants, not about the money), nor a vacation home since we are obviously swimming in money--as indicated by Jason's perceived salary and my status as a Hausfrau. We don't speak German very well, and we don't understand.
It's an interesting cultural lesson for us. Of course, I'll be better about not starting laundry after 5:00 p.m. (Really! That's what they want. Incidentally, that same evening we heard someone else doing laundry at 10:30. Go figure.) We'll try harder to keep our children from screeching. (Suggestions welcome.) But, the real problem is the culture and the language.
Suggestions are welcome for that as well.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Disaster Narrowly Averted
Tomorrow morning, I am going visiting teaching. This is a Church program where each woman in gets visited by two other women each month. We're supposed to bring a lesson and chat for a bit. It's a great program and I must confess my lack of faithfulness to it, for the past while.
It's not all my fault--they didn't assign me women to visit at first, because of that whole language barrier. Then they did assign me people and a companion and well, then, the sin becomes mine doesn't it?
So, my companion and I have repented and we're going tomorrow. My German is still terrible, so I thought I'd do something very American (or perhaps very Utahn) and bring cookies. I cannot speak German, but I can bake. (Ich kann nicht Deustch sprechen, aber ich kann backen.)
I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies because they are a novelty here. Despite the chocolate that runs in the streets, chocolate chips are not available. Neither is brown sugar or baking soda (although I did locate some of the latter in Germany), so no one around here makes them.
I went to get my chocolate chips out of the cupboard and they were gone! Horrors! I was sure that I had one more bag. I searched high and low and did not locate them. I did, however, find Jason's Thai Potato Chips. He'll be thrilled.
So, I searched once more and whew! Found them! It is my last bag, however. Good thing Jason is taking a trip to the US in February. Chocolate chips are very important.
It's not all my fault--they didn't assign me women to visit at first, because of that whole language barrier. Then they did assign me people and a companion and well, then, the sin becomes mine doesn't it?
So, my companion and I have repented and we're going tomorrow. My German is still terrible, so I thought I'd do something very American (or perhaps very Utahn) and bring cookies. I cannot speak German, but I can bake. (Ich kann nicht Deustch sprechen, aber ich kann backen.)
I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies because they are a novelty here. Despite the chocolate that runs in the streets, chocolate chips are not available. Neither is brown sugar or baking soda (although I did locate some of the latter in Germany), so no one around here makes them.
I went to get my chocolate chips out of the cupboard and they were gone! Horrors! I was sure that I had one more bag. I searched high and low and did not locate them. I did, however, find Jason's Thai Potato Chips. He'll be thrilled.
So, I searched once more and whew! Found them! It is my last bag, however. Good thing Jason is taking a trip to the US in February. Chocolate chips are very important.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
A dirty secret
Switzerland is clean. Super clean. In fact, if you come to visit us, the first thing you'll notice when you get off the airplane in the US is how filthy the US is--compared to Switzerland.
I've been under the impression that the Swiss are just naturally clean people, but I have recently changed my mind. I think their impulses towards messiness are the same as ours, but their dedication to cleaning is much higher.
Tons of people smoke and they drop their cigarette butts on the ground at the tram stops. But, every day the place gets cleaned up by a dedicated employee. Even the ticket machine gets wiped down. You see, it's not that the Swiss hands that punched the buttons to get the tickets don't have the same dirt on them as their NYC counter parts, it's just that someone thoroughly cleans those machines regularly.
(Of course, because they are cleaned regularly, there are fewer dirty hands. Dirt begets dirt and cleanliness begets cleanliness. There is undoubtedly a sacrament meeting talk in all of this, but I'll leave that for another day.)
This has been brought to the forefront of my brain because it is our family's turn to clean the church. Each family takes responsibility for cleaning the church for a month.
I have discovered that Swiss people also leave cracker crumbs and Cheerios on the floor. (This is extra curious because you can't buy Cheerios in Switzerland, yet they are there. It must be the 11th commandment or something--take Cheerios to church for toddler.*) The seminary students do not clean up after themselves, and dirty dishes are in the sink.
But, the building is always spotless on Sunday because someone cleans it. Now, a confession. When I was told how to clean the church (the list of tasks is in German, of course. I did not know the word for chalkboard, so I needed a bit of help with the interpretation.) I was told it would take about 4 hours worth of work to do the building.
Fine and good, but this is week number 3 and the longest it's taken is 2.5 hours worth of work. Hmmmm. Obviously, I am missing something. (The fact that I can't read the list probably plays into this.) I'm sure my fellow church members are sitting their during Sunday School, mumbling to themselves, "whoever was in charge of cleaning this week sure didn't straighten the curtains properly" and "what were they thinking? The cleaners didn't use a toothbrush around the light switches!"
I'm glad we only have one more week of cleaning, although it's been a good experience for all concerned. It's even made Daniel less freaked out at nursery, since he gets to play in there while we clean without the threat of an actual non-parental adult in there.
I've been under the impression that the Swiss are just naturally clean people, but I have recently changed my mind. I think their impulses towards messiness are the same as ours, but their dedication to cleaning is much higher.
Tons of people smoke and they drop their cigarette butts on the ground at the tram stops. But, every day the place gets cleaned up by a dedicated employee. Even the ticket machine gets wiped down. You see, it's not that the Swiss hands that punched the buttons to get the tickets don't have the same dirt on them as their NYC counter parts, it's just that someone thoroughly cleans those machines regularly.
(Of course, because they are cleaned regularly, there are fewer dirty hands. Dirt begets dirt and cleanliness begets cleanliness. There is undoubtedly a sacrament meeting talk in all of this, but I'll leave that for another day.)
This has been brought to the forefront of my brain because it is our family's turn to clean the church. Each family takes responsibility for cleaning the church for a month.
I have discovered that Swiss people also leave cracker crumbs and Cheerios on the floor. (This is extra curious because you can't buy Cheerios in Switzerland, yet they are there. It must be the 11th commandment or something--take Cheerios to church for toddler.*) The seminary students do not clean up after themselves, and dirty dishes are in the sink.
But, the building is always spotless on Sunday because someone cleans it. Now, a confession. When I was told how to clean the church (the list of tasks is in German, of course. I did not know the word for chalkboard, so I needed a bit of help with the interpretation.) I was told it would take about 4 hours worth of work to do the building.
Fine and good, but this is week number 3 and the longest it's taken is 2.5 hours worth of work. Hmmmm. Obviously, I am missing something. (The fact that I can't read the list probably plays into this.) I'm sure my fellow church members are sitting their during Sunday School, mumbling to themselves, "whoever was in charge of cleaning this week sure didn't straighten the curtains properly" and "what were they thinking? The cleaners didn't use a toothbrush around the light switches!"
I'm glad we only have one more week of cleaning, although it's been a good experience for all concerned. It's even made Daniel less freaked out at nursery, since he gets to play in there while we clean without the threat of an actual non-parental adult in there.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Showing off our superior manners
Daniel goes to nursery at church now. Currently, there are three little boys and one little girl. They get a snack every week. The families rotate the responsibility of providing the snack. Usually, it is fruit and pretzels, or something similar.
Well, this Sunday the mom in charge of snack brought in some granola bars with a bit of chocolate on the outside. She cut a bar into bite sized pieces and placed it on the table with the fruit.
Our well mannered little schweinkind started grabbing at the chocolate granola bar. One of the other boys managed to grab one piece. The 3rd boy and the girl got none. (The girl didn't like them anyway--so no great loss.) So, Daniel has his hands completely full of the treat. Boy 3's mother says to him, "Daniel, can you let Raphael have one piece?"
Daniel looks up at her and shoves both fists in his mouth, getting all the granola bar in his mouth at once.
I didn't witness this in person, but heard the story from two different people. Ahh, to be the mother of Mr. Piggy. Don't mess with Daniel and his food. Gee, I wonder where he picked that up?
Well, this Sunday the mom in charge of snack brought in some granola bars with a bit of chocolate on the outside. She cut a bar into bite sized pieces and placed it on the table with the fruit.
Our well mannered little schweinkind started grabbing at the chocolate granola bar. One of the other boys managed to grab one piece. The 3rd boy and the girl got none. (The girl didn't like them anyway--so no great loss.) So, Daniel has his hands completely full of the treat. Boy 3's mother says to him, "Daniel, can you let Raphael have one piece?"
Daniel looks up at her and shoves both fists in his mouth, getting all the granola bar in his mouth at once.
I didn't witness this in person, but heard the story from two different people. Ahh, to be the mother of Mr. Piggy. Don't mess with Daniel and his food. Gee, I wonder where he picked that up?
Monday, January 4, 2010
The Perils of Being 6 Hours Ahead
Sure, we got to ring in the new year while you were still pondering what to have for your New Year's Eve dinner, but this also means that while you are still snoozing away, we have to face reality.
Yes, today is the first day of reality in 2010. After 3 weeks off school for Sarah and 2 weeks off work for Jason, this morning we set alarms, got up, got dressed and made a mad dash to the tram.
Thankfully, the tram driver saw us coming and waited for us, so we didn't have to sit and wait for 10 minutes for the next tram.
Vacation is so much better than reality.
Yes, today is the first day of reality in 2010. After 3 weeks off school for Sarah and 2 weeks off work for Jason, this morning we set alarms, got up, got dressed and made a mad dash to the tram.
Thankfully, the tram driver saw us coming and waited for us, so we didn't have to sit and wait for 10 minutes for the next tram.
Vacation is so much better than reality.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Cairo
We took a day trip to Cairo. This involved paying large sums of money, in cash (euros, to be precise) to some sketchy people, with the promise that a bus would pick us up at 4:30 a.m. Okay, they operated out of the hotel, so it couldn't have been that sketchy, but still.
The van did come at 4:45, so we had started to get a bit panicky. We drove to the airport, presented our passports and boarded a plane. Jason, helpfully, informed us that this very plane had crashed previously in Darfur. Way to instill confidence!
Surprisingly, we did not crash and nobody attempted to hijack us, even though (and this is true) almost everyone on the plane brought liquid. That's right. Water bottles, juice boxes, you know those things terrorist use. See, since the flight had nothing to do with the US, they used more sensible security measures, like multiple luggage screening and scary looking dogs. Everybody had boxed breakfasts from their hotels, so we all had liquid.
We arrived in Cairo and went to meet our tour guide. He was late, so we were a bit nervous, given the sketchiness of the whole deal. Fortunately, he arrived and it turned out to be just 7 of us in our group, along with Ibrahim, our tour guide.
Ibrahim was in his mid 20s and announced he was looking for a British wife. He also liked Russian women because they were easy, but he really wanted to marry a British girl and did we know any?
Our first stop was the Cairo museum. We look nice and well put together, which changed throughout the day. The Cairo museum was fascinating. We learned all about King Tut and had a great time.
Then we went to lunch at a boat on the Nile. It was billed as 5 stars, and I'm sure this is true if your rating system consists of 1 to 25 stars. We had a choice of chicken, fish or "meat." Our fellow group members and we decided that the "meat" was most likely camel. Yum.
After a brief stop at a papyrus museum (gift shop) we headed to the...
Pyramids! This was so awesome. We got to climb up on the great pyramid and then go down into one of the smaller ones. The way down was too steep for Daniel, so Sarah and Jason went down, and then when they came up, I was going to go down alone, but Sarah volunteered to come with me. The others in our group called her Indiana Jones because she could scamper up and down the steep ladders. She had the distinct advantage of being short enough to stand upright on the paths.
We then got to go on a camel ride.
Daniel was pretty unsure about this, crying, "Cow, cow!" But once on the camel, he did pretty well. Our helpful bedouin guide said, "happy baby!" The ride was about 30 minutes long and the most awesome thing ever. It was so cool to ride up behind the pyramids on camels.
We then visited the Sphinx. We told Sarah that they had just met and she should not be kissing anyone, but you know how kids are these days.
After the Sphinx we got dragged to a "fragrance" factory, which was another blatant attempt to sell us things. But, they had clean bathrooms and drinks, so who could really complain?
We headed back to Sharm El Sheik on the same plane, which (incidentally) was so filthy you couldn't see out the windows. Since everyone on the flight had up since about 3:30, there was some serious cranky pants going on. Our children performed admirably.
I did learn, while waiting to get off the plane, that if there is one thing people hate, it's waiting to get off a plane. I think we if we were trying to get off the plane to meet a firing squad people would still be groaning about how long it was taking.
All in all, a fabulous day!
The van did come at 4:45, so we had started to get a bit panicky. We drove to the airport, presented our passports and boarded a plane. Jason, helpfully, informed us that this very plane had crashed previously in Darfur. Way to instill confidence!
Surprisingly, we did not crash and nobody attempted to hijack us, even though (and this is true) almost everyone on the plane brought liquid. That's right. Water bottles, juice boxes, you know those things terrorist use. See, since the flight had nothing to do with the US, they used more sensible security measures, like multiple luggage screening and scary looking dogs. Everybody had boxed breakfasts from their hotels, so we all had liquid.
We arrived in Cairo and went to meet our tour guide. He was late, so we were a bit nervous, given the sketchiness of the whole deal. Fortunately, he arrived and it turned out to be just 7 of us in our group, along with Ibrahim, our tour guide.
Ibrahim was in his mid 20s and announced he was looking for a British wife. He also liked Russian women because they were easy, but he really wanted to marry a British girl and did we know any?
Our first stop was the Cairo museum. We look nice and well put together, which changed throughout the day. The Cairo museum was fascinating. We learned all about King Tut and had a great time.
Then we went to lunch at a boat on the Nile. It was billed as 5 stars, and I'm sure this is true if your rating system consists of 1 to 25 stars. We had a choice of chicken, fish or "meat." Our fellow group members and we decided that the "meat" was most likely camel. Yum.
After a brief stop at a papyrus museum (gift shop) we headed to the...
Pyramids! This was so awesome. We got to climb up on the great pyramid and then go down into one of the smaller ones. The way down was too steep for Daniel, so Sarah and Jason went down, and then when they came up, I was going to go down alone, but Sarah volunteered to come with me. The others in our group called her Indiana Jones because she could scamper up and down the steep ladders. She had the distinct advantage of being short enough to stand upright on the paths.
We then got to go on a camel ride.
Daniel was pretty unsure about this, crying, "Cow, cow!" But once on the camel, he did pretty well. Our helpful bedouin guide said, "happy baby!" The ride was about 30 minutes long and the most awesome thing ever. It was so cool to ride up behind the pyramids on camels.
We then visited the Sphinx. We told Sarah that they had just met and she should not be kissing anyone, but you know how kids are these days.
After the Sphinx we got dragged to a "fragrance" factory, which was another blatant attempt to sell us things. But, they had clean bathrooms and drinks, so who could really complain?
We headed back to Sharm El Sheik on the same plane, which (incidentally) was so filthy you couldn't see out the windows. Since everyone on the flight had up since about 3:30, there was some serious cranky pants going on. Our children performed admirably.
I did learn, while waiting to get off the plane, that if there is one thing people hate, it's waiting to get off a plane. I think we if we were trying to get off the plane to meet a firing squad people would still be groaning about how long it was taking.
All in all, a fabulous day!
Christmas in Egypt
What I don't have pictures of is our actual Christmas morning. We spent it at the beach, snorkling in the Red Sea. We brought a couple of rolls from breakfast and fed the tropical fishes. 20 or so fishes swarmed around us--it was like standing in the middle of an aquarium. We honestly didn't see the "don't feed the fishes" sign until after we got out of the water. Honest.
The hotel held a big Christmas Eve celebration, complete with live nativity. This included camel rides. The food looked spectacular, but honestly, pate is gross no matter how it is displayed.
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