Learning French and Feeling Gray (1/6,9/1982)

Wednesday, January 6, 1982

This evening was my first French language class at the Migros Klubschule/Club School. Migros is our supermarket, but they also offer continuing education-type classes. Since the elevator was acting strangely, took the stairs to the 4th floor (our 5th floor). Herr, excuse me, Monsieur Bloch had a class of 14 students and the lesson moved quickly using a tape recorder for listening, speaking, and some dialogue in pairs, from 18:30 until 20:00 with one break. I am doing okay, learning French through German.

French class ID card

Class schedule and receipt

Saturday, January 9, 1982

Train day pass

Took the 8:20 train to Zürich, leaving a half hour late! Snow had turned to rain, and ice on branches was bending them low or breaking them. The streets were slippery with slushy snow. Fortunately in Zürich, the 10:11 train to Schaffhausen did not leave until after we arrived at 10:30. Passing through Neuhausen, I glimpsed the Rhein/Rhine River and a bit of the Rhein Falls. Because it was pouring rain in Schaffhausen, I decided to just head back home. Took the 12:12 train to Zürich, leaving 15 minutes late (what’s happening?!). In Zürich, the 13:10 train to Bern was going to be 20 minutes late, so I checked out the travel agencies and they were all closed like they were in Biel. After arriving in Bern at 14:45, I went to the American Express office in the Loeb department store for week-long ski package information. Here the Swiss Railway travel agency was open so I checked out their brochures. Took the 16:41 train to Biel, leaving only 10 minutes late. Went window shopping for skis and ski boots.

There has been so much rain and cloudy skies, that I have been depressed; not really “blue” but gray! Jan & Kirby who had gone back to the States at Christmas remarked they were amazed by the blueness of the sky there; something we had taken for granted!

I have been debating whether to stop working in Switzerland when my visa expires on June 30th, or renew the visa. I have had job offers from Buffalo (since my family moved back there), East Orange (NJ), Pittsburgh, metro-Washington (DC), Syracuse (NY), and even a faint possibility of a job in Japan!

Buffalo is having another blizzard, so soon after the Blizzard of 1977. The weather has been really extreme all over the world, with extreme cold in England and mudslides in California.
Now that I read “Time” magazine and Jan & Kirby’s old International Herald Tribunes, I am more up-to-date on current affairs than I was in the U.S.!