Visibility: none. We're in a cloud again.
Here's an update on my new life as a full fledged resident of Switzerland. I've spent time away from the Chalet--when I went to Delemont--but today was my first Chalet-Free day on my own.
I went out last night and didn't get home until 1:30. The advantages of living in town are numerous. A five minute walk home from the bar is the main perk in my mind. But the events leading up to that were:
I went up to the Chalet to cook dinner. True, it was my day off, but since there are no visitors at the Chalet currently (tomorrow that will end) I wanted to take advantage one more opportunity to experiment with the menu. I made a vegetable chili. Jen says that the kiddos won't eat it, I say they will if they're hungry enough. Everyone else said it was pretty good. However, I don't expect to get much in the way of personally delivered negative criticism though, so I don't put a lot of weight on the after dinner polls I take.
After dinner we all had a staff outing. We walked down to road to a food-shack run by a nice man named Ham. He calls it Ham's Bistro. It's not really a shack, he's got tables and chairs in there but it's still half way under construction In any event, it was warm and friendly and had that grass-roots-did-it-myself-atmosphere that one finds in diners in small towns. We all sat down and looked at each other awkwardly while Ham offered us various soft drinks from the cooler. I was waiting for someone else to ask for a beer, but apparently we were all waiting for someone else to order a beer on the Chalet's tab. So after a few minutes of hemming and hawing we all ended up with hot chocolate and ice cream bars. What a disaster. There was a lot of awkward staring and nervous laughter but after about 20 minutes everyone loosened up and we had a pretty decent time. Ham is an especially nice guy, he seemed pleased that "english people are so polite, they always say 'Yes, Please'"
To make up for the lack of spirits at the All-Staff-Outing Ben, three summer vols and I went to the Alpenrose. The last time I went to the Alpenrose, they wouldn't serve me a drink so Katie (the center manager) had to go up and buy one for me. How dirty is that? "Hey boss, they won't serve me booze, will you get me some?" She thought it was funny--especially since you only have to be 16 to buy beer in Switzerland. Seriously, I guess I'm getting a little too cocky thinking I can pass for at least 16. Anyway: this time I was served a drink by a cranky looking waitress. We had a good time--hence my late arrival home.
So I rolled out of bed at 11:30 this morning. I took a nice chilly shower and had some delicious Swiss-Granola cereal that comes with chocolate chunks, but I put a banana on it so it's healthy.
I went out around 12:30 to buy myself some spray-on-waterproofing for my rain coat since I discovered that my raincoat is not very much good at keeping me dry after 8 years and more than a few trips through the washing machine. But, of course this is Switzerland and all the stores are closed from 12 to 2. So I went for an impromptu hike. Since nearly every road here is a Wanderweg I started heading up a road I didn't recognize and I figured I'd end up back in town soon enough. And I went UP for an hour and 45 minutes before I decided that hiking in the fog with a headache isn't much fun, so I turned around and came home half frozen. I think I almost made it to the top of the mountain, but I'm not sure since I couldn't see more than about 20 feet up the road. Even if I had made the top, the summit wouldn't have afforded much of a view. Perhaps I'll make another summit push next weekend.
My apartment has no hot water. Did I mention my chilly shower? So when I came home half frozen it would have been awfully nice to take a hot shower.
I've had the heat cranked to the highest position for the past 2 days and I think I finally started to notice a difference around 9 tonight. I'm hopeful that perhaps the water heater just needed like 60 hours to really get going and I'll have a hot shower in the morning. Right. Here's to optimism.
Confidential to Hannah: Happy Birthday!!!
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