Laowai

I still marvel at all the details that you must follow to do proper Swiss recycling. For example – a little yogurt for breakfast? Well make sure to leave time to do the 3 part recycling.

Here’s my yogurt – mmmm – they do have great yogurt here.

Here are the instructions for recycling. See the symbols along the top. First you have some cardboard, there’s a part that goes into the trash (lots of plastics don’t get recycled here), and then there is some aluminum recycling to do.

So here’s my recycling and trash separated. The aluminum top goes into a bin in our kitchen and when it gets full I drop all the aluminum in one of the big bins scattered around our town. The cardboard goes in another bin in our kitchen and then once a month there is a cardboard pick-up day so I bundle it all up (neatly) and put it near the street. Finally the non-recyclable plastic goes into our trash. 

Aaaaaaaaand now it’s time for dinner.

We went again to a Zurich Oktoberfest this weekend. It’s not my thing especially, but it’s entertaining enough. Seeing everyone dressed up in their lederhozen and dirndles makes me smile. There’s lots of chanting and singing and getting up on the benches to dance. I also think it’s amazing how the massive tent is set up inside the main Zurich train station. As someone said we were a bunch of Americans acting like Swiss who are acting like Germans.

I’m very tempted to make my own dirndle – maybe…

I hope you have a lovely Fall day.

And some big baby swans:

We felt a hint of chilliness in the air and promptly declared IT’S FONDUE SEASON!

And I tried another muffins with holes baked doughnuts recipe. 

The Swiss are tidy beyond belief. Did I tell you about the time I saw a crew cleaning up along the highway. You know mowing the grass along the edge and cleaning up any liter. And the last man in the crew followed along with a push broom – sweeping the edge of the highway! Two more examples. This week I noticed a truck at our apartment building. I’ve seen it before but not known what it was. Well it’s the truck that cleans the garbage dumpsters at all the apartment places. It has a spray hose and the guy checks for bits of trash inside and then gives each of the rolling dumpsters a wash. And lastly this two page note was in my mailbox.

Someone left what looks like some lint on the rug in the entrance area to our apartment. It was carefully documented and the note basically says this won’t stand. Gosh I’m glad it wasn’t me. I’ll never be neat enough to be truly Swiss.

On a more positive note – Claire and I were driving home yesterday and saw a couple who were just married riding on a big farm tractor. The tractor was decorated with a big red heart and sunflowers on the back and the bride was sitting up there in her pretty dress. I wish I had snapped a picture. It made me smile.

Brian advised me not to drink this beer.

I read a lot of blogs but one stands out – Posie Gets Cozy. I’ve been reading her blog a long time and she consistently has the most inspirational words and pictures. This time she inspired me to finally break down and buy a doughnut pan and make doughnuts. They are basically muffins with a hole in the middle since I don’t want to do the fry type. But they are fun. I’m waiting for the girls to wake up so we can find out how they taste. 

Bea’s Simpsons obsession is going strong. We had to pull over super fast when she spotted this Simpsons theme ice cream truck. STOP THE CAR, STOP THE CAR MOM!!!  

Claire rode a sausage at a butcher shop. Of course.

Bea and Brian spotted a big salamander when they went for a walk after dark.

I’ve been doing some sewing.

And last but not least – Hello Mr. Fire Hydrant.

From our apartment you can see a tall mountain far in the distance and on clear days you can just make out that there is a building on top of that tall mountain. Well we finally went to to see it yesterday. Brian had the day off for boys shooting day so we headed out after the girls went to school. The mountain is called Santis and it’s the highest mountain in the Northeast of Switzerland. I promise I did not make Brian go up there – it was a bit of torture for him but it was his idea. It’s not the sort of mountain top that offers tons of hiking. The gondola station is just perched really high on a pile of rock. I think it’s amazing that they can build a big building up there with plumbing and restaurants and everything. It was beautiful and it made me a little dizzy looking out from the platforms at the top.

It seems like now that it is September we are getting to do the hiking that I was hoping to do all summer. And, after lots of begging (by Bea) we did our first camping trip in Switzerland. We didn’t go far or for long but it was a nice weekend. And I took lots of photos! 

We went to the canton of Glarus – to a lake called Klontalersee. It seems campgrounds here are a little different from what I’m used to in the US. Instead of private spots in the woods that you find at pretty state park campgrounds, you park in a parking lot and set up your tent with all the other tenters in a big grassy area. And another funny difference. There was a nice clean (naturally) building with bathrooms and showers and a spot to wash your dishes. Near the dish washing sinks there was a machine to put a coin in so you could pay for some hot water. Crazy! I ended up washing our dishes with cold water because I didn’t have a coin with me. 

The color of the lake showing through the trees was wonderful.

I have to thank my mom for bringing Dad’s old tent to us in her suitcase last month. For some reason when we moved I didn’t ship our tent. I think maybe we had a camping trip planned after we had our stuff shipped. Anyway – many many thanks to Grandma for making this trip happen. 

Here’s the lake as the sun went down. It has a dam at one end and it seems the water was very high.

In the morning while the girls were still sleeping I went for a little walk and enjoyed the reflections on the lake.

We have been to this lake a couple times before but it was really nice to see it when it was quiet. Sitting around our campfire as the sun went down and then in the morning soaking in the scenery before the busyness of the day began. Isn’t it so true that the light is best at the beginning and the end of the day. 

Later we went for a hike and of course we saw some cows.

Here’s one last photo taken from atop the dam on our way home.

Over the weekend we went for a hike in the mountains with our friends the Coyle family. It was not the best weather. First we hopped on a funicular – the steepest one in the world! And then we took a chair lift even further up. 

When we saw that it was a complete white out we retreated back down the chair lift to where it was slightly less cloudy.

We ended up having a really nice long hike (although the kids may disagree). The cows charmed us and we ended with a lunch that included lots of cheese – mmmm.

We’ll go back another day – a clear day to do the hike at the top of the chair lift.

I took a trip across the lake to the town where we used to live – Maennedorf. I wanted to go to their little brocki (the used stuff store). I found some fabric – well old aprons that I will use as fabric. Aren’t they sweet.

Before I got back on the boat to go home I had a few minutes to visit a beautiful bit of art. It’s a bas-relief sculpture in the park right by the boat dock. It has the most lovely muted turquoise and blue colors along with white and pops of yellow. I love the expressions on the faces of the people. I love the texture in the flowers. I love how the people sort of melt in with the background. I love how it is divided up with uneven lines – almost like a quilt. I love this art! It was made by a woman named Maja van Rotz. I couldn’t find much information about her* but she had a studio in Maennedorf for many years and she died in 2006. 

* I went looking for info about the artist at the web site for the local culture museum. They are having an exhibit titled 400 years of school Maennedorf. Ha – that itty bitty town has some OLD history!