Laowai

Collected by Bea:

Well I guess Claire liked the interview format we did the last time she had a school trip because she kept asking “when are you going to interview me mom?” I guess it’s a tradition now.

So here’s her interview along with some photos from her teachers:

Me: Tell me about the place you went?

Claire: We went to Leysin. It’s in the French part of Switzerland in the mountains. My teacher used to live in that area.

Me: How was the bus ride?

Claire: Fine. They showed movies and the bus is really nice with a bathroom even.

Me: Did you sleep well?

Claire: Sure

Me: What was your favorite activity?

Claire: I guess I would have to say earth works. That’s where we put charcoal on our faces and brushed our teeth with charcoal. We were learning about nature. We learned about trees and bees too. We played a camouflage game in the woods. Our counselor had to spot us. Eva got stung by a horse fly.

Me: What was your least favorite activity?

Claire: The team building activities on the first day were super boring.

Me: What made you laugh on this trip?

Claire: When we were on our hike we stopped for along time and everyone was telling jokes. 

Me: Did you see any animals?

Claire: We saw deer in a fenced area and we saw bees. On the hike we saw horses and they followed our PE teacher and of course we saw cows.

Me: Did anyone cry?

Claire: No, but two people went home sick after they were barfing.

Me: How far did you hike?

Claire: Not sure. We went up a mountain and down again. It didn’t seem that far.

Me: How was the food?

Claire: Most of it was better than our last class trip (undercooked pizza). I didn’t like the chili. But I did like the breakfast – yogurt with cereal in it.

Me: Do you know that your mother got to tour a potato chip factory for a field trip?

Claire: Yes, you told us a billion times.

Me: Anything else you want to tell our readers about your school trip to Leysin?

Claire: Not really.

Brian took the day off – wow that never happens – and we went for a hike. We went to a mountain area called Stoos and did a ridge trail hike. Unfortunately it was cloudy. Grrrrrr. 

But it was still great to be out and we had a teeny tiny bit of clearing for a few minutes. It was a good day. Here are a bunch of photos.

The picture below makes me laugh. There were some nice photos that identified all the peaks you could see in the distance. But look how many peaks we could see… none. Just white everywhere.

Today Claire comes home from her four day school trip to the mountains. Can’t wait to get one of her hugs!

I’m still enjoying my sunflowers. They attract a lot of bees and lately birds too. The birds come several at a time. I love to see them bobbing around on the stems and pecking at the seeds. I don’t like it so much when the birds come right into our apartment. And further, the other day the little flock was scared off and one poor bird flew into our window and died right on the patio.

Brian finally convinced me to go for a ride on the tandem bike with him (I don’t have a photo). It was really strange being out there doing the thing that he does so much – loves so much. It didn’t take long to get used to balancing and working together. I sort of felt like a little kid getting pulled along. I kept closing my eyes for minutes at a time just because I liked the sensation of hurtling down the road with the wind bumping into my ears. I guess it’s kind of like my life. I’m satisfied to let Brian do the hard pedaling and the steering while I hang out close behind him. I hope we go again. Maybe I’ll be able to help a little more on the hills.

I bought a puzzle at the brocki last week. I had been working at it on and off all week. And then I was surprised to wake up on Sunday morning and see Brian working on it. Claire helped some too and they had it all done by noon. Don’t you just love a good puzzle!

I went to the cut-your-own flowers place that’s near our house. I picked dahlias in fall colors. Dahlias always seem almost plastic and too perfect to me.

Claire is off to Leysin Switzerland for a class trip on Tuesday. She’ll stay in the mountainous area for 4 days. They get to do lots of outdoor activities – hiking and even rock climbing. I hope she has fun. Here’s a photo of the camp where she will be staying. I told Bea we would start her Halloween costume while her sis is away.

And Brian is traveling too – he’s on the road a lot lately. 

Last week he was in Barcelona:

Now he’s in Dubai:

And next week he’s off to the US.

Sigh.

We went for a little hike – to a mountain called Rigi.

We started off and it was disappointingly cloudy. But then when after we got on the cogwheel train the clouds cleared. How refreshing it was to come out from the fog and be able to gaze into the distance and feel the sun on our cheeks. Then the clouds were below us for our whole hike.

There’s the cogwheel train – we hiked from the top of Rigi and met the train part way down the mountain. I really love these fall walks!

We went to the Transportation Museum in Lucern over the weekend. The big map of Switzerland is one of my favorite spots. Everyone has to put big wool slippers on to protect the map.

Claire took this photo. It’s hard to take a photo of Brian and me and not cut Brian’s head off.

There are nice trails all over the countryside and it’s easy for Brian to find us somewhere new but also close by. Often he gets an idea for where to take us while he is off on his bike. This little walk – not even a hike – was so pleasant. The air was cool and so comfortable and we got to have a great view out over all of Lake Zurich and the City of Zurich too. Fall is really my favorite season!

I’ve not had the best couple days – nothing earth shattering. Just not feeling my mom mojo. It’s all too boring to even go into. So I’ll just try looking at the bright side.

I basted my quilt when it was really sunny. And I’ve started the quilting.

Our sunflowers are smiling at me.

And – despite the super annoying difficulties that come with trying to source good craft/sewing supplies in Switzerland – I’ve started a new hobby.

This weekend we tried to go for a hike but after we drove up and had some lunch it started storming. We never go to do our hike but the girls did go round and round on this swing by the restaurant.

So on Sunday I wanted to go to a museum – the Museum Tinguely in Basel. 

We stopped for doughnuts – they have a Dunkin Donuts at the main train station in Zurich.

Jean Tinguely was a Swiss artist who lived from 1925 to 1991. Here’s a little info from the museum web site:

As a creator of kinetic works of art, Jean Tinguely counts among the great pioneering artists of the second half of the twentieth century. At the heart of his work was a preoccupation with the machine. What interested him most was how machines work, how they move, the noises they make and their intrinsic poetry.

The sculptures were made of junk – hunks of metal and wheels and plastic toys thrown in here and there. They were wacky and noisy and you could press buttons at the museum to get them moving.