Zurich and Italian Lessons

Ciao mi amici,

We rode the train to Zurich last weekend to visit our friends Coy, Kacey, and their son, Townes. I worked with Coy in Memphis for two years before he started a rotation in Zurich back in 2005-ish. He has been in Switzerland since that time and we have kept in touch ever since. Coy and Kacey have helped us a lot in figuring out what to expect when we were on our way here and 10x more since we have been here. We have been looking forward to the chance to meet them in their stomping grounds to get shown around a little bit and to catch up.

Zurich is about 2 hours and 45 minutes away from Lugano by train. It's basically straight north on the other side of the Alps. The train ride gave Malinda some time to study an Economics book that she borrowed from one of her classmates. It gave me time to listen to my iPod and make fun of Malinda for studying. See the video!



I left work early on Friday (Malinda did not have class) so we could get to Zurich in time for Zurich Oktoberfest. When we arrived and went to the Oktoberfest area we found out there was at least a two hour wait to get in, and it was raining, so we ditched that plan. We ended up going to some small little bar down the street. We just ordered "a beer," and got some awesome local brew called Hurliman. We can remember it because Malinda decided that it sounded like "girly man" from Hanz and Franz on Saturday Night Live. Side note, there is a store in Zurich called "Pomp You Up!" We also ordered a Gruyere (cheese) sandwich and some olive dish. It was probably the best cheese sandwich I have ever had. We were told before we left by another friend who had lived in Zurich for 2 years that everything there was very expensive, but that it was also the very best stuff you would eat. I definitely remembered that conversation at this bar. Malinda was really impressed with the sandwich as well as the quality of the napkins.

Zurich is a really cool city. It is much bigger than Lugano and has lots of stuff going on. Coy showed me a fairgrounds type area that was empty as we walked by. He explained that the Swiss have a tradition similar to Groundhog's Day in the US. Except their's is a million times better... They build a huge bonfire (like 30 feet high) in the middle of the fairgrounds. On top of the bonfire is a giant snowman made out of something flammable (not sure what exactly, but I pictured paper mache). They determine how much longer winter will last based on how long it takes the snowman's head to EXPLODE after they set the pile on fire! Did I mention that the snowman's head is full of FIREWORKS?!?! I can't believe American's didn't come up with that. The stupid groundhog and shadow make no sense. Blowing up a snowman's head makes perfect sense, and it is completely cool. You know where we will be when spring approaches....

Zurich has a couple of old churches in town, the Grossmunster (translation "daddy church") and the Fraumunster (translation "momma church"). I'm sure I mangled the spelling there. I don't know if there was a baby church, but if there was I'm sure it was just the right size. We walked through both of them and saw some cool stained glass that was not really stained glass, but different colorful rocks sliced very thin. It's hard to explain, so we probably should have taken a picture. Sorry. On one of our visits there was a small group of stringed instrument players (3-4 violins, cellos, bass, etc.) practicing Vivaldi. It was really cool!

We continued developing our European culture by going to the Apple store where Coy bought a Time Capsule (see Apple's website) and I got a Swiss power cord for my own Apple equipment. The first store we went to was sold out of what Coy wanted, so we had to go to another and it was also packed. So invest in Apple.

We also saw a black Lamborghini while we were walking around, so we took a picture. Malinda loves this picture of her, so I promised I would post it. There you go my prancing beauty!

Coy and Kacey treated us to some English style coffee (they just got back from spending 6 months in London) and Swiss fondue. It was great and a lot of fun catching up.

Zurich is definitely a place we could see ourselves visiting often. Most people there seem closer to our age compared to Lugano, where most people on the street seem a little older. There also seems to be a lot more going on nightlife-wise. But, in fairness to Lugano, we haven't really tried to find all there is to offer and don't have someone who knows the town to show us around.

New subject. Today was the first day of a 3 week, intensive Italian course for me. I'm not going to work. I just go to class from 8:15 to 11:45 each day to get Italian lessons. Today's lesson seemed to go by really quickly for me. I learned how to say stuff like: "what is your name?" "my name is Ryan" "May I introduce you to Malinda?" "Pleased to meet you", etc. I also learned the various forms of the verb "to be" like: "I am," "you are," "he is", "they are" etc. It sounds easy, but it gets complicated with masculine vs. feminine and formal vs. informal. If you ever took Spanish or French (or Italian I guess) in high school, you may remember this stuff. Hopefully, by the end of this course, I will pick up on more stuff being said to me and may actually be able to communicate in Italian like at least a 2 year old. This would be a big success for me since I am starting from zero and 2 year old's get 2 full years.

So, I need to get to some homework, so I'm going to wrap it up. I hope everyone is doing well, and I look forward to seeing you all soon and impressing you with my 2 year old level of Italian language skills. Arrivederci.