Wild Thangs

So, it's wild season here in der Schweiz, which means the menus are presently full of 'wild' meat. This means mostly one of several varieties of deer, apparently, along with wild pork, which I guess means there are wild boar running about Switzerland somewheres. Deer is quite popular here - they serve it in the company canteen here all the time. Ack. Not my favorite. It's a great motivator for learning my German more quickly - so I can be more successful at the 'guess the mystery meat' - and then avoid it - game. Scott's a bit more adventurous than I, of course, in the meat arena generally.

Speaking of food, we finally went to an authentic Swiss restaurant, and ate 'typical' Swiss food. Scott had Wiener Schnitzel and pommes frites (good veal here, if you're into politically incorrect meats), while our two friends and I had the ever-popular fondue. Wow, it was sooo good, but just tasting it feels like an added inch on your bum...it's obviously calorically quite dense, especially when you add the large bread cubes into the mix. And it was practically flammable, it had so much Kirchewasser in it. We also had Crepes Suzette prepared tableside for dessert, also chock full o' Grand Marnier. But oh, was it all yummy. And expensive, of course - as everything is here. For the four of us, the tab came to CHF 340.00.

Well, we finally bought a car - or are in the process of buying one I should say. Go ahead and laugh at us, but we bought a Subaru Impreza wagon - we love that AWD. And even while living in Europe, we can't be bothered with the potential repair issues for a European car, and fall back on the Japanese reliability. I was raised on Consumer Reports, so sue me. It's a 2005, snow white - not really a safety color for the Alps, when you think about it, but I guess we'll live dangerously. But y'all will LOVE this process of buying a car...especially those of you who have lived through my enraging car-buying experiences of the past. We contacted this guy recommended to us, who owns a 'garage' here - essentially a car dealership, with a service department. He personally sells Renaults at his establishment (no thanks on the French or Italian cars, sorry), but he is getting us the Subaru. But get this, he comes to ME - yes, comes to my place of business to meet with me about the car. After a couple of phone conversations about what we wanted, he sourced the car and figured out all the costs, etc., and then came to my workplace to go over it with Scott and I. Then he came back again for me to sign the paperwork. And he hooked me up with an insurance broker (originally from Scotland, been en Suisse for lo these many decades) who got us insurance after shopping around for the best rates. So next, Marco (our garage owner-new friend) will come for yet a third time to my office, to pick us up and drive us to our new car. It will be clean, full of petrol, have its licence plates and highway sticker paid for and already on it. We'll already be insured, and the insurance guy will also help us to get our Swiss drivers licenses. And I'm sure you're all thinking I'm paying some huge premium for all this service, but in fact, we're not. It's a service this garage guy offers, and the price of the car would be the same as if I walked into the Subaru dealers myself, with a fist full o' francs. Everyone here unanimously tells me, without a shred of doubt, that I am paying a fair price for the car, and that the in-person service is not costing extra. Indeed, the insurance is also extremely reasonable, and was scrupulously sourced by our Scottish-Swiss-new-friend. And all this without either of us lifting a finger. How pleasant is that?!

(Working with the Scottish guy reminded me of one of my favorite old jokes: What's the difference between the Rolling Stones and a Scotsman? The Rolling Stones say, "Hey, you, get off of my cloud!"; the Scotsman says, "Hey, MacCleod, get off of my ewe!!")

I'm getting spoiled by all this service - we got our household, liability and health insurance this way too - the insurance broker guy came to my office to go over the proposal he had put together and to get my signatures, and then I was insured. And, again, for a fair and even low-ish price. The German instructor also comes to my office to teach Scott and I German. Lordy, I'm gonna go soft doing things this way, then how will I be able to deal with the sharks in the US car and insurance industries?? Maybe we'll just stay here forever.

Scott's off hiking in the Alps today with his friend Will, so maybe we'll get some photos or reports about it. This weekend, the Herbstmesse starts, which is essentially a fall festival here in Basel. There are four different locations around the city that will have booths and rides and all of that fun stuff. It goes for two weeks, so we're going to hit that for sure. I expect to find some yummy food that they only serve at fairtime - like the Swiss version of funnel cakes maybe. And hopefully some groovy shopping as well, love the markets here (the shops are good too, but the outdoor markets are fab.) And for now, I'll keep avoiding the wild menu and stick with the meat I can identify - like chicken.

What's Eating Diana Grape?

Ah, the 64,000-franc question. At any given time since I moved here, I have had no fewer than four large 'bites' of some kind on my person. Right now, I have about 17, most of them on my left arm (but I've had them on my face as well - some of you who have been around for a long time will recall my Russia pictures from my first days in Moscow...when I was repeatedly accosted by large former-Soviet mosquitoes, and had a face full of red welts - just the thing to make you stand out more in a foreign country). Presumably, they are mosquito bites - but neither Scott nor I has ever actually seen a mosquito. Perhaps invisible mosquitoes have evolved over here. Speaking of Scott, he has had zero bites. Which isn't altogether surprising, since I believe I'm getting at least some of these bites at work. Right now, I'm very much missing window screens and hermetically sealed buildings. I'm beginning to suspect that the culprit is actually these very tiny bugs that I've just started to notice, and maybe I'm allergic to them so the bites are hideously swelling. So now I'm in my office, with the glass wall, looking for very tiny bugs flying around - imagine what this must look like to my esteemed colleagues from outside my office. They probably think I'm looking around for the voices in my head.

So, picture the many red welts on my arms - but first, round out this picture with the addition of many colorful bruises as well. First, I had a run-in with the security turnstile at work one morning early on, and the turnstile arms went the opposite-to-anticipated direction, pinning my right arm in the works. So, a lovely turnstile-arm-shaped bruise on one arm. Then, at a routine medical check, the phlebotomist took blood from not one but both of my arms, halfway between my elbows and wrists (strange place to draw blood - no one's ever done it this way before, but who am I to question Swiss ways?) - so now there are two very large and very psychedelic bruises on both forearms. And then (oh yes, there's more), I fell on campus the other day. Yes, fell. Undoubtedly I tripped over one of the myriad death-trap obstacles they have here, but I couldn't tell you which one. But it was one of those slow-motion, never-ending momentum, head-over-heels kinds of falls. So now my entire left arm, shoulder and knee are covered in bruises. I'm beginning to run out of clothes to hide all the bruises, and I'm worried people will start looking suspiciously at Scott.

Then there's my hair. I haven't found anywhere to get it done yet - because I must find a stylist that speaks good English, else I could end up with the dreaded 'German-red' hair. This is a shade not found in nature, but widely favored by German ladies. It's a hue somewhere between between plum and blood red, and it could be the only thing that could make me look worse right now. At any rate, I have roots of grey and frizz that won't quit (humidity - my hair's worst enemy).

I like to think I'm really looking my best right now. Which is great, because it's always advisable to make a good impression on people at a new job.

And I don't speak German at all yet, but I'm apparently rapidly losing my English skills. It took me at least a full minute this morning to remember the past tense of 'arrive' - arove? arriven? arrived? The last one finally sounded right. And I'm constantly searching for the word I am looking for to convey my meaning in English. My working theory is that I'm used to using big fancy words, and I need to make things simpler for an audience full of non-native English speakers. That, or I'm just losing my memory...again.

And, inexplicably, I keep saying things that I can't believe I said right after they come out of my mouth. I seem to have lost my internal mute button somewhere over the Atlantic.

So, all in all, it's a lot like being 15 again, but without the firm skin and hope for the future.

And for those of you who have been implyyyyyying that I'm not writing about any good things these days, well, check back later. Some days things are fab, but meanwhile, I will feel free to kvetch about the plagues that have been visited upon me.

In other news, our ship came in. And this morning, dark and early, large trucks and heavy equipment and burly Swiss guys showed up to unload our many belongings into our small flat. We tried very hard to get rid of tons of stuff before we left - and we did, in fact, get rid of a huge amount, just ask my friends and family who got all the stuff. Yet somehow, we still ended up with an overwhelming amount to put in our very wee kitchen, two small storage closets and one large IKEA armoire. How did this happen? I guess going from 3000 sq feet to 1100 sq feet is more of a downsize than we could conceive of from our large home in the states. But rest assured, I am SO happy to have my bed. I'm anticipating a good night of sleep tonight, which probably means the mosquitoes - or very small flying insects - will have an easier time of feasting on any exposed skin.

Actually, one of these days when I'm really enjoying Switzerland in all its glory, I will be sure to post about it. I do have these days - and they're usually as good as the bad ones are bad. It's just that I'm having too good a time on those days to stop and write about it. Hmm. Scott's been having lots of good days - seeing as how he has been consistently walking upright, had no collisions with large inanimate objects, and remained unmolested by insects - so maybe he'll post one of these days. At least I'll post some Swiss stories here soon - check back later.