Saturday, November 7, 1981
This was supposed to be an ordinary weekend of
doing chores: shopping, cleaning, laundry, sewing repairs, etc. However, I
decided to take the 12:52 train into Bern, arriving after 13:00. I tried
calling Rosie S who had moved into her own apartment, but she was not at
home.
I went Christmas shopping. Found a lot of
Christmas cards and spent nearly 50 CHF/$25. They gave me the free ruler even
though I didn’t spend the full 50 CHF. I checked out the Loeb department store
Christmas window displays. Several St Nicklauses circling around with all sorts
of gift ideas.
I tried to call Rosie again, but no answer. Took
the 14:41 train back to Biel.
In my recent train rides I have been seeing
piles and piles of a harvested root vegetable, a lumpy object, in fields and in
railroad flat cars. They are too big to be potatoes and they have greens like a
turnip. (I was to later find out these are sugar beets.)
Back in Biel, street vendors sold roasted
chestnuts.
Back at the hospital, the flag was flying upside
down. A mistake or did someone die?
Saturday, November 14, 1981
I have been here for four months!
Caught the 8:20 train to Zürich where the sun was
peeking through the clouds. Arrived about 10:00 and headed down Bahnhofstrasse/Train Station Street to
window shop. Thoroughly explored the Globus department store for gift ideas,
then Jemoli. Arrived at Sprüngli Confectioners and saw that they had Advent
Calendars with a piece of chocolate for each day. Bought one for 34 CHF/$17.
It did not fit into my canvas tote, nor into a store bag, so I had to carry it
under my arm. There was no flea market today. Checked out the Swiss Handicraft
Shop. Returned up the other side of Bahnhofstrasse
to window shop. Name brand watches are out of my price range. Stopped at a Sprüngli
branch store to buy a 300 g/10-ounce box of truffles for 15.50 CHF/$7.70.
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| Train day pass |
I caught the 11:10 train to Bern. I dozed off and
awoke to find the ground was covered with snow! It was coming down in big
beautiful flakes. Arrived in Bern at 12:30 and called Rosie S. She had a
visitor but took a few minutes to answer some professional questions. Then
Christmas shopping in Bern. Bought non-Christmas items at Loeb department
store. At the Bastelzentrum I found a cow bell for Kathy. I saw some kids with
McDonald’s balloons; I didn’t know there was a McDonald’s in Bern. Went into
four more department stores and toy stores. As I headed back to the train
station I found the McDonald’s. Had a Big Mac Attack!
Caught the 15:41 train back to Biel.
Tonight I was invited to accompany Jan and Kirby
to the S family’s house for dinner. I had worked with Michael and Lucas
before Elisabeth came back from her course. But they had originally been Jan’s
patients and now she had them back. The boys were initially shy, but then Lucas
talked and talked and Michael ate and ate. I gave them the Advent Calendar as a
hospitality gift. We had appetizers of salty flaky pastries made by the men of
the family. At about 20:00, the kids went to bed and we began dinner. First a
salad with a wonderful dressing. A venison stew in a peppery sauce and Spätzle, squiggly doughy egg noodles or
dumplings. Also baked apples with currant jelly and cranberry sauce made by
Kirby. After dinner we watched the landing of the Columbia Space Shuttle. Then
we had pineapple and currants with whipped cream and coffee. At 23:30, Andreas
had to go to work at Electro-voice and had to check on the sound engineers
covering a jazz convention at Biel’s Kongresshaus. Said our goodbyes and
thank-yous to Madelein. A real Swiss dinner! I think this was my first venison; it was pretty
good considering I liked the peppery sauce. I loved the “Spätzeli”!
The caffeine in the coffee kept me awake, though.
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