Friday, October 15,
1982
Found a four-leaf
clover.
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| Four-leaf clover |
Shortly before 15:00
I was piepsed/beeped to let me know
the new physiotherapist, American Marsha C, had arrived already. I went
down to escort her to the Personalhaus/staff
residence to show her the room (my old one, newly painted) and around the Personalhaus. At about 17:30 we walked
down to the old town to Au Vieux Valais for a fondue dinner. The restaurant was
crowded but we were shown to a table to share with another couple. We had Nüsslisalat/lamb’s leaf lettuce/mache
salad, a fondue with onions, potatoes, and garlic in it, and tea. We didn’t
finish eating all the bread pieces, but we took care of all the cheese. Paid
the 30 CHF/$15 bill and headed back through the lighted old town to the Personalhaus. Marsha had brought
chocolate chip cookies from home! Yum! We planned for the next day and I let
Marsha get to bed.
Marsha came from Charleston, SC, but grew up in Massachusetts.
She studied German to take this job. She seems to want to do some traveling, so
I may have a weekend traveling companion. It will be nice to have someone to
“hang around” with.
Saturday, October 16, 1982
Marsha C was ready to go at 9:45, and we took the bus from in
front of the Kinderspital. It was the first time I took the bus in that
direction, which took us first up to Beaumont and then down past Rolex, since
the bus passes the Kinderspital/Children’s
Hospital in only one direction. We got off at the train station, but went first
to the post office. Marsha asked me to buy stamps for her, so I showed her how
I do it. I give the clerk a letter for the U.S. and she puts on a stamp, and I
ask for a certain number more, bitte! None of these complete sentence questions
you have to do in language class! At the train station the ticket man insisted
on speaking French to us. We caught the 10:34 train to Bern, arriving at 11:00.
I wanted to see if the Bern Loeb had a better selection of clothes to choose
from; not really. We wandered down the shopping street all the way to the bear
pits. There were three bears in each pit, including three cubs in the back pit.
They were all pretty active and the cubs were really frisky, running around,
going through a hollow log, wrestling, and climbing the bare tree.
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| Bern bear pit with vubs |
We went to
Wendy’s for lunch, then caught the 13:08 train back to Biel and did some
shopping. I finally used my gift certificate at Loeb’s for a pair of
peasant/prairie (?) blouses. We walked to Mühlebrücke to catch the bus back to
the Kinderspital. I am going to miss
my only form of exercise of walking to and from the Personalhaus/staff residence!
We had a boil-in-the-bag dinner of veal and Spätzle/soft egg noodles or dumplings,
with a salad and chocolate chip cookies. After washing dishes, we went down to
watch TV (another first for me!). The only channel that came in was fortunately
in German. There was a show in dialect with a folklore band and yodeling group.
After a bunch of commercials was the “news.” We were joined by one of the medical
interns, who was on call. Marsha told him she wasn’t going to be able to
understand him, and he obliged by speaking in English. He was very nice. I left
after the news, but Marsha stayed even though she had been tired. The next show
was a doctor’s commentary, and I didn’t think she was really interested, or
would be able to understand. Were their hands really inching towards each other
as she and the intern sat side by side on the couch together? Good night!
Sunday, October 17, 1982
It was pouring rain this morning, but it let up at noon and
Marsha C was willing to walk around Biel a bit. We first headed down
Zentralstrasse to the Fremdenpolizei/immigration
police to check the hours, then up to Zentralplatz to check out the banks. Down
Nidaugasse to the local post office and library. It sprinkled rain as we went
into the Kongresshaus/Convention
Center to see the swimming pool. It stopped raining by the time we passed the
train station and headed to the lakefront. Back along Seevorstadt where someone
asked in French where the regional hospital was located. Hmm, was that hospital
in Beaumont/Vogelsang the regional hospital? We couldn’t help him. At
Mühlebrücke someone asked in German for the Stadttheater/City
Theater. That I could point out. We continued to Migros and back up to the Kinderspital/Children’s Hospital from
there. A leisurely two-hour walk.
We visited with Christel later in the afternoon, and I found
out she speaks English! I also found out the medical intern was heading for the
pass and his name is Pierre. After dinner, Marsha went down to the TV room and later
Marsha went for a walk with Pierre! I had gone out to see if a prospective running
route was lighted for night runs, but it was not.
Tuesday, October 19, 1982
Jan drove over to pick up Marsha C and me, and then went to
their house to pick up Kirby. We drove to Meinisberg in hopes of going to a
restaurant for their “wild” specialties, but they were closed. We went back
through Biel to Aarberg, and on top of a hill we stopped at the Waldschenke
restaurant that had a Wild-Spezialität/specialties
menu. We ordered a Rehrücke platter to share among us. It was excellent! Tender
deer meat, oh, I mean venison, with a whole lot of garnishing: canned pear and
peach halves, grapes, glazed chestnuts, marroni/chestnut
cream, chopped red cabbage, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, and we ordered Rösti/Swiss potato pancake. Plus a
couple different gravies and cranberry sauce. The second helping came with Spätzle/soft egg noodles or dumplings,
which Kirby brought to the attention of the waitress just to make sure we
weren’t eating someone else’s meal, but the waitress went and got us more Rösti, too! We topped that off with Café
HAG/decaffeinated coffee and chocolates from Progin that Kirby and Marsha had
bought during an afternoon walk downtown. Kirby paid the 150 CHF/$75 bill,
claiming it was his birthday!
Friday, October 22, 1982
After dinner, Marsha C and I walked downtown, first stopping
at the library where Marsha got a card. We checked out some books, and
continued down the main drag past a couple closed tearooms. Marsha wanted to
treat me to a tearoom experience, because I was so nice to her during her first
week in Switzerland. Well, of course! I know what it’s like!
We ended up at the l’Odeon next to Progin Confectionary. We expected to be
able to get pastries, but no! I had tea and Marsha had coffee. The milk and
cream came in tiny pitchers. The décor was dark red and black with dark wood
furniture. There were back-to-back benches, newspapers on racks, and magazine
in plastic covers. There were crowds of people and tables were shared. Most
people talked, some didn’t, and Marsha and I just watched. I was facing the
room and Marsha was facing the wall, but fortunately there were mirrors so she
could also see what was going on. The waitress and barmen were all Italian,
shouting out the orders. The tabs were rung up on a burgundy register and the
register tape got longer and longer. On the tables were little baskets with nut
and pretzel packages. Smoke and the buzz of conversation filled the air. A
people-watching paradise! We decided to try another tearoom, the Savoy up on
the first floor above the closed pub, and this one had pastries. The outdoor
balcony was closed, and there were only a few people. I had a spiked chocolate
mousse and Marsha had a slice of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte/Black Forest Cherry Cake with a Henniez Mineralwasser/mineral water that she
loves. We then took a walk along the Quai up to the dark city park, then over
to the post office and up the mountainside to the Personalhaus/staff residence by 21:30.
Saturday, October
23, 1982
This morning I went
to the travel agency at the train station to get flight cost information for
New York and India. Returned home through the Zweibelmarkt/onion market, a fruit and vegetable market in
Neumarktplatz. Back at the Personalhaus/staff
residence, Marsha C wanted to go downtown about 13:00. The Zweibelmarkt was cleared out in the afternoon. Since it was
raining, we did some shopping, making our way to the train station. Marsha
wanted some pastries, so I coached her in order to have her go in the shop to ask
for them herself. At the train station I coached her so she could purchase a
half-price train pass, and we got some additional day passes. We bought 100
grams/3.5 ounces of roasted chestnuts for 2 CHF/$1 as we waited for the bus
back to the Personalhaus/staff
residence. Decided not to go to the 16:30 soccer game in the pouring rain.
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