More Dinners (3/22-26/1983)

Tuesday, March 22, 1983

Elisabeth Jordi told us we would be picked up at 18:30, but I saw Michel in the parking lot at 18:00. Marsha Cotter and I went out to meet him, and he drove us to Werdthof the back way via Jens. Elisabeth met us at their farmhouse apartment and showed us around. We sat in the living room and I had a Coca-cola while the others drank white wine. Michel set up their brand new slide projector and screen, then went into the kitchen to cook! In a while we sat down to eat geschnetzeltes veal Züricher style à la Michel! With Rösti, followed by beet and Nüssli salads. red wine accompanied the meal. Later there was coffee and ice cream, with Rumtopf/fruits soaked in a rum concoction, and whipped cream whipped up by Michel. Next we sat in the living room to see their 15 rolls of slides from their two-month trip in Africa in January and February! We saw their plane, and Mt Kilimanjaro from the plane. Landed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and took a train north. We went to Serengeti National Park to see all kinds of animals and birds. To a clove island and Ngorongoro Crater, about ten miles in diameter and holding all kinds of wildlife. We saw elephants, ostriches, lions, gnus, leopards, hippos, rhinos, crocodiles, huge tortoises, monkeys, water buffalo, giraffes, a lion eating a zebra, a bird attacking a snake, etc. We climbed up Mt Kilimanjaro, over 4000 m/13,000’, to see a beautiful sunrise. Wide-open spaces, solitary trees, sunsets. We went to Livingstone, Zambia and crossed over to Botswana and Rhodesia to see both sides of the mile-across Victoria Falls. Then we hiked down the Zambezi River, seeing the natives, and native villages meant for tourists. Next to Johannesburg and Lesotho where Elisabeth had a friend working as a physiotherapist in the mountains. The slides were wonderful! We talked for a while, with African music in the background. Michel and Elisabeth drove us home at 23:00. Now I want to go to Africa!

Friday, March 25, 1983

After work I went with Marsha C to Fr Dr Jo D’s apartment in Evilard.

View of the Alps from Evilard

Marsha made a dinner of chicken, carrots and mushrooms in a sauce of sour cream and cream of mushroom soup. Plus a cold green bean and fennel salad. I made flag placemats. I left at 22:40 to take the funicular down on a crisp cold night.

Funicular ticket

Saturday, March 26, 1983

At 10:00 I met Jong-Soon at the post office to help her copy and collate and mail off her résumé. At 11:15 we went to the Seeland Restaurant across from the train station, and had to wait 15 minutes until they started serving meals. We drank apple juice, and then our little green salads came. We had piccata Ticinese (pork fried in an egg batter) and risotto (with stewed tomatoes on top). The menu was only 9 CHF/$4.50, for two pork cutlets each. By the time we got home, all the snow from this morning had melted. I had coffee with Jong-Soon, then went to Jan & Kirby’s house to drop off ingredients. Hurried back to go with Jong-Soon to the 15:00 showing of the movie “Tootsie” at the Lido.

"Tootsie" movie ticket

Afterwards we stopped at Klara Sr’s apartment at Untergasse 36 where we will have our international dinner party. Klara was getting ready to go out, so we took a quick look around and made arrangements for Monday. We headed back home in a snow flurry.

Then I went to Jan & Kirby’s where Kirby helped me to make a Japanese curry stew while Jan ironed. The stew was too spicy hot for Jan and the cucumbers in vinegar was not sweet enough for Kirby. Kirby also found one of my hairs in the food (how embarrassing!) and because the hair was so thick, he thought it looked like a pubic hair (how mortally embarrassing!). We drank Japanese green tea, and later had coffee with lemon sherbet with candied lemon peels in it. And a cookie, sort of like a soft Chinese cookie/an almond sugar cookie? We played UNO until I left at 23:00.

Time to turn the clocks forward.