Bern Day of Refugees (6/25/1983)

Saturday, June 25, 1983

Marsha C and I had French toast for brunch at 12:00. After doing some shopping, we went to catch the train to Bern. The half-price ticket now costs 7.20 CHF/$3.50. We met Helen in line, and got on the train together. Arrived in Bern at 15:00 and checked out the movie board, but there were no good ones. Went to the Heimatwerk for Marsha to get some gifts. Then we went to the new Burger King, which has the front end of a Chevy coming through the wall, and weird décor. We got drinks and decided to check out the Tag der Flüchtlinge/Day of the Refugees on the Bundesplatz/Federal Square. All around were booths handing out pamphlets and selling goods (baked goods, traditional crafts, native foods, etc.) Traditional dancers from some unknown country were dancing on a stage. The people looked Greek but were more darkly complected. We tried a “poncho” from the Chile booth, a fried dough with egg, meat mixture, and raisins in it. We saw a group from the West Sahara sing and dance, then a group from Czechoslovakia. the countries of Cambodia, Vietnam, Turkey, Palestine, Sri Lanka/Ceylon, and Tibet were also represented. It began to rain, so we returned to the Burger King for fish sandwiches, onion rings and French fries. Marsha was able to get a beer, and had a mocha shake. They did not have chocolate shakes, so I settled for a Sprite. We caught the 18:53 train to Biel.

When we arrived at the Personalhaus/staff residence, there was a note on my door saying Hans Rüdi had called to say there was a train at 9:23. So I guess he had figured the way to get to Weissenstein tomorrow. Marsha has had a full week and is pooped, so I will be going with them myself.

Sunday, June 26, 1983

Rain! I called the Ss to make sure the trip was cancelled.

I took travel notes all day for our trip to Italy.

Thursday, June 30, 1983

Can’t believe it is the end of June! Found another four-leaf clover.

Four-leaf clover

I was apprehensive about going to the Ss today, after Kirby told me Hans Rüdi was in love with me, and Jan saying she could see how Brigitte would resent me. Really?! But everything went great tonight, so I don’t know what Jan & Kirby are talking about. Although Hans Rüdi does drive me home every time and he talks a lot! I figured with Brigitte, he doesn’t get much chance to talk!