Dinners with Friends (10/4, 6/1983)

Tuesday, October 4, 1983
Well, it seems Ruth D thinks Marsha C stole Urs as a boyfriend and she has been ignoring Marsha, even though they share an apartment. Marsha has been having a really bad time of it.
Somehow I got another gift from the “fairy god-friend.” After work, Michel picked me up at 18:15 and I tried speaking a little French and he tried speaking a little English. Elisabeth J was waiting at their house for us. We had an orange juice aperitif, then sat down to a great dinner. Little rounds of pork surrounded by bacon with a mixture of whipped cream and ketchup on top! Also green pepper halves filled with a spicy mushroom mixture, and rice and a salad. Then we had coffee and the chocolate chip cookies I had brought.
Elisabeth showed me her books on India and a few photographs from her trip five years ago. Then Michel showed slides from their summer trip to Spain and Portugal. Fantastic pictures, vraiment/truly! Later he said he pulls out all the bad pictures, but even so, the good ones are very, very good! Very artistic.

Photo by Michel

We listened to great music of groups I had never heard of, including an electronic harp? We had raspberries and whipped cream, and yikes! I had to excuse myself to run to the bathroom. Then the telephone rang. It was Marsha! She had to leave the apartment! What happened? She was driving to the Personalhaus/staff residence. So Michel drove me home, scaring a mouse that ran across our path.
It was after 23:00. Poor Marsha had hit rock bottom. It seemed to help to talk, and she decided to return to her apartment after midnight.

Wednesday, October 5, 1983

Found a four-leaf clover.

Four-leaf clover

For aerobics there was only Elisabeth and me, so we decided to do the parcours in Beaumont. It was dusk and getting dark. We tried most of the stations, but ended up walking because it was dark, not because we were tired!

Thursday, October 6, 1983

Jong Soon said she would come by at lunchtime, but then she called at 15:30. We decided to meet at the Burg restaurant after work. I got there at 17:00 and talked to Billy, then later with his sister who has bad knees, and then with Karl. Jong-Soon and I left to go to the Swiss Pioneers stand at about 18:30. We had French fries and a Sinalco/orange soda, and Marsha generously paid. Jing-Soon didn’t want too stay, and we ended up at the Stadtgarten restaurant. The waiter hovered over us and thought we were being slow because we didn’t understand the language. He went to get the chef who spoke German, but by then Jong-Soon had decided what she wanted to eat: Risotto Frutta del Mare/seafood risotto, a mixed salad and apple juice. I got spaghetti carbonara, and mineral water. I could only eat one serving of my dish. Jong-Soon went to pick out all the seafood from the main cooking dish, and was finished when the waiter came out to grab the dish back. He served me another helping of mine, but I was done. We paid the bill of 27.70 CHF/$13.80. We walked back to the hospital, and then I drove Jong-Soon home to Aarberg in Jan & Kirby’s car. She lives in the Personalhaus of the area hospital where she is now working. It was very nice. On our trip to Aarberg, the wipers were operating on delay and I couldn’t figure out how to turn them off. Once I got to Aaberg, I figured it out and drove home without any problems. It is fun to drive! (Jan & Kirby are on vacation in Yugoslavia and I have use of their car.)