12aug
christy feels dumb. she has moved to sweden and learned to speak chinese.
no matter how many german books i go through, i shall not learn swiss-german. and yet, everyone around me continues to speak swiss-german. unless, of course, they are addressing me personally, in which case they speak english. not german. this makes the conversations at the dinner table either very difficult for me, or very boring, depending on my mood. end of bitch-fest.
i have now seen most of switzerland. the largest waterfall in europe, the rhinefall, is quite close (by canadian standards, of course), and quite spectacular. you can get right down next to it, too, which is pretty darn cool. baby took me on a little motorbike trip through italy and the alps. we went over the stilfser-joch, which is like, 34 clicks of road with about 85 turns in it. CRAZY fun on a bike. we stayed a night on lago di garda, which is gorgeous, and perfect for swimming. we went to the tourist office to book a hotel, then we suited up, hopped on the bike, and drove fifteen metres to the hotel. as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, the manager ran out to us with a key in his hand. "duschen!" said he, pointing to the room, then, "baden!", pointing to the pool, and finally, "grappa!", pointing to the bar. (translation: shower, swim, get a little drunk.) he was great.
we went as far as venice. venice is a very special place. a little crowded, though. we went first in the evening, got lost and eventually stumbled upon a piazza and bars with outdoor terraces, where we had a drink. maybe two. then we looked at the map, got even more lost, and eventually had to ask a local to take us back to the bus station. the next day we went back and fell in love with the place, in spite of the gondaliers wanting two hundred euros for a ride in a boat, and in spite of having to pay to pee. we went over the centovalli, which is actually a road, and it started to rain. we stopped in a little catholic town at about 2000 metres, and all the women were old and dressed really nicely, and i felt like a heel in my bike clothes and wouldn't go into the big beautiful church because i didn't want to offend anyone. the hotel there was full, so we went to the next town and stayed in a one-star, which i never would have considered had there not been lightning on the road ahead. no matter, it was a great place and i would go again in a heartbeat, even though i ran out of water halfway through rinsing out my conditioner. the girl who checked us in turned out also to be the bartender and the waitress in the little restaurant they had there. she was super-duper, and i really mean that. the food was also spectacular, cheap, and unending. i couldn't even eat the dessert (included in the super cheap price) because i was so full. and that is sad. but we had grappa after, because we were in italy, and i felt much better. we eventually made it to zermatt to see the matterhorn, but the clouds wouldn't go away. so, instead of looking at that, we watched the olympics on tv. maybe we'll see it next time.
25aug
i spoke on the phone today with baby's youngest older sister. she's the one i haven't met because she is in africa. she speaks english with an african accent. she sounds nice. i don't get to meet her this trip, because they, she and her husband, are not coming back to switzerland until december, and i leave in september. that is sad.
i am published! officially! my baby was so very excited when i told him, he picked me up. after he dried his hands of course. (he was washing them when i told him).
hello, rooster. he is in the kitchen. he is called "gecku" but i don't know how to spell it.
i have read several books recently. we found a stash of english books upstairs from when the older sisters were learning. there are lots of famous ones that i always wanted to, but never did, read.
baby's mother has done some travelling. the other day she showed me pictures from london, italy, france and austria.
good chocolate is cheap here. comparatively. its too bad i have to go.
we went yesterday to the emmental to a show-cheesery. we learned how the famous holey swiss cheese is made, and could see the big vats of cheesey-goo being made through a glass window. the woman working in there knew that everyone was watching her clean things and change parts and push buttons. i couldn't clean things and change parts and push buttons with everyone watching me. she had white rubber boots on.
power status: battery charge is low. gotta go.
