Enjoying the Bruce Springsteen concert.
From my balcony. One km away.
30 June 2009
This just in ...
The US and Switzerland have gone to war ... over taxes. I guess that soldier I saw yesterday at the tram stop was actually being used for combat?!?
As of last week, US citizens are not allowed to open up any sort of bank account in Switzerland. Period. Sorry for the inconvenience, thank you, good day.
Those who already have them, are lucky they are allowed to keep them. For now.
This Thursday we are going to an Independence Day BBQ hosted by the US Embassy and the Marines. I'm going to complain. Should be fixed by Friday morning.
As of last week, US citizens are not allowed to open up any sort of bank account in Switzerland. Period. Sorry for the inconvenience, thank you, good day.
Those who already have them, are lucky they are allowed to keep them. For now.
This Thursday we are going to an Independence Day BBQ hosted by the US Embassy and the Marines. I'm going to complain. Should be fixed by Friday morning.
29 June 2009
No man left behind
In Switzerland every male age 19-34 is obliged to serve in the military. 18-21 weeks one time, then 3 weeks each year. From time to time, co-workers will be on military leave for a week or so to go march around, learn something fancy or kill some cows. Our apartment is actually just a few blocks from the Bern army base. So we see soldiers around the neighborhood all the time. They're in uniform, but unarmed.
And it turns out, Mondays are "pack up yer gun and head off to the army base days." Fridays are the opposite. You are not allowed to take your gun with you except to/from the base and home. Guns are NOT allowed in restaurants. Leave them in the car, was one suggestion. Duh.
But anyway.
So this morning, an entire battalion/squad/section/group/whatever (40 dudes or so) needed to "get to work" as it were. From the Bahnhof to the base. You take the 9 to get there.
So they're all waiting at the Bahnhof for the 9. Backpacks, luggage, berets etc. They're all packin' heat. Extreme heat. Fancy euro-style foldable weapons of extreme death and destruction. Swiss Army knives - the ones with the toothpick and nail file - very dangerous. The works.
The 9 arrives. They take an extra long time loading themselves into the tram, because, well, it's hard to load that many soldiers onto a tram with all their stuff. Plus civilians.
They fit everyone on ... except for one guy. They pushed and squeezed, and one guy wouldn't fit in. Tram leaves. Single soldier standing there. Alone. Left behind. Pulls out his cell phone, calls his section leader "Sarge! I've been separated from my squad! Help!!!"
He took the next tram.
And it turns out, Mondays are "pack up yer gun and head off to the army base days." Fridays are the opposite. You are not allowed to take your gun with you except to/from the base and home. Guns are NOT allowed in restaurants. Leave them in the car, was one suggestion. Duh.
But anyway.
So this morning, an entire battalion/squad/section/group/whatever (40 dudes or so) needed to "get to work" as it were. From the Bahnhof to the base. You take the 9 to get there.
So they're all waiting at the Bahnhof for the 9. Backpacks, luggage, berets etc. They're all packin' heat. Extreme heat. Fancy euro-style foldable weapons of extreme death and destruction. Swiss Army knives - the ones with the toothpick and nail file - very dangerous. The works.
The 9 arrives. They take an extra long time loading themselves into the tram, because, well, it's hard to load that many soldiers onto a tram with all their stuff. Plus civilians.
They fit everyone on ... except for one guy. They pushed and squeezed, and one guy wouldn't fit in. Tram leaves. Single soldier standing there. Alone. Left behind. Pulls out his cell phone, calls his section leader "Sarge! I've been separated from my squad! Help!!!"
He took the next tram.
28 June 2009
Typical Swiss Sunday
In Switzerland, Sundays are for meant for family time. I've read blogs where people get yelled at if they do "work" on a Sunday - laundry or cleaning or some such thing. I have never experienced this. You can pretty much do whatever you wish, be it laundry or activities with one's family.
But in general, the Swiss usually end up jumping on a train and heading out somewhere each Sunday to go hiking or swimming or just to simply spend the day seeing their country. And today we did just that - we jumped on a train and headed down to Thun. Thun is a small medieval town on (where else) Lake Thun about a 20 minute ride from Bern. In Thun we ate sandwiches and ice cream along the river Aare while we waited for the next ship leaving Thun. It didn't really matter where we were going - we had promised little N. we were going on a "boat ride".
From Thun you can catch a ship to any number of towns along the lake shore for about CHF 15. The entire round trip would have gotten us back at 7pm so we decided to just jump on a boat (ship) and get off at Spiez, spend a few hours and then come back.
Spiez was a cute little town. Mostly filled with resorts and boating clubs. I could see taking the train here and spending more time at some point. Especially because from the lake, it's all up hill. Need to bring back the bike I think. And there was a nice playground. Which N. never saw because he was fast asleep by the time we got there. Switzerland tires him out I think. It's either the extra stimulation or the fact that he wakes up so early now again.Wow - what a spectacular view along the way. A camera can't even do it justice. It was a tad hazy, but at times you could see all the way from the lake up to the snow capped mountain top. I couldn't shut up about it. I'm sure I drove Alison nuts.
27 June 2009
22 June 2009
A Little Monday N.
On Saturday we walked all over town. Here we are stopping for a quick game of chess wherein I attempted to make patterns out of the pieces and N. simply undid everything.
Not the best picture; hanging out at the park with his friend Alma.
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