open mic, free stuff and a fab film

Last night Mark and I, along with my friend Jasmine, in for the weekend from London, went to Miss Brandy's Open Mic at a cool little bar in a funky neighborhood (don't ask me the name - I have no idea ... I'll figure it all out soon...) There were some interesting acts and a few really great ones as well. (http://www.myspace.com/msbrandysopenmic)

We were all v. tired and were about to leave but decided to stay for the last act, hoping it would be better than the previous few ... it was a tiny little peanut of a girl with a guitar that looked way too big for her. Well, don't you know we were glad we stayed. She had a Fiona Apple/Tori Amos/Ani DiFranco thing going on and it was amazing the sounds that came out of that little person. Really great. (I will try to remember to figure out who she is and pass it along!)

Today after dropping Jasmine off at the airport and saying goodbye to M. for a few days (off to Frankfort till Weds. pm), I wandered around the neighborhood we were in last night to check it out during the daytime. V. cool. I think we actually almost had an apartment in the area now that I recall and can put it all together.

Said area is the 'good' end of the red light district, (which is pretty mild, from what I can tell) and v. near the only Hooters in Switzerland, M. was quick to inform me just after he looked at the apt. the first time. My immediate thought was that maybe I could get a job as the not-so-skinny, old, buxom, American chick. I mean, how hard could it be? German-Scherman - I'd be fine with "Greuzi, wings? Ya. Bier. Ya. Hooters. Ya." ... See, no problem.

Anyway - Along my journey I re-found the fabulous Brocki-Haus. The biggest and pinkest of them all. 3 floors of other people's stuff. My dream and my husband's nightmare. But as I mentioned earlier, he is gone for few days and ... not that I would ever try to pull the wool over my partner's eyes. And really, 90% of what I have ever brought home from a yard sale, thrift or antique store he has ended up loving and being thankful that his wife is so thrify and can see treasures in veritable trash.

Why look what I got FOR FREE today .... of course I will be reupholstering the seat, but its solid maple and sturdy and we need dining room chairs ... I also got a nifty Roulette wheel and chips - a whole snazzy set for a mere 7 CHF. Now when people come to visit, not only can I take their money in poker, but in roulette as well!

Instead of staying home and working on some of the many projects I have going, tonight I decided to take advantage of 'cheap' movie night in ZH - ( 12 v. 18 CHF - what a bargain - and I even sneaked in my own bottle of water and a roll for dinner ... there's that frugal, Yankee spirit again...)

I saw Once and loved it. Please go see it or at the very least listen to the music. (http://www.foxsearchlight.com/once/) I have not been this moved in a long time. Shot in only 17 days for 150k. True independent cinema at its best. I laughed, I cried (... it was better than Cats...)

It's been a great 24 hours that began and ended with fabulous music made by passionate, talented people.

my mama was here for 2 weeks

My mother just left for NH after being in Zurich with us for 2 weeks. While admittedly no one knew what to expect, (no matter how well one gets on with one's mother, 2 weeks is 2 weeks...) it turned out to be a simply marvelous time, most of which she was in our 'employ' working day and night to help us get settled.

We got to calling her Cinderella (and she referring to herself as such as well) as she really spent a huge part of her time cleaning, unpacking, organizing, breaking down boxes, reorganizing the kitchen, decorating, giving advice, being sent to bed with no tv (we have none) and not being fed properly. Such hosts we are.

We spent manymanymany hours assembling Ikea furniture, which entailed and included schleping to Ikea on the bus/tram which was about an hour each way not counting waiting for said bus/tram, fighting our way through the Ikea crowds (the Swiss are not fast shoppers and do not stay to the right when walking...), buying heavier things than we could really carry and having to create carrying 'vehicles' with twine and newspapers and our MacGuyver skills to get these heavy shelves, etc.. home ... on the bus ... in the rain ... in the dark ... with no dinner ...

Mom had her hip replaced just 2 months ago and by the time she left, you'd never know it. She was a little stiff when she first arrived (who wouldn't be after such a long plane trip) but with all the walking we did, she left looking like a champ.

Even my personal trainer, Momo was impressed, enamoured and taken with her. Before she arrived I tried to explain the phrase "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ..." (he is from Casablanca and speaks English very well, but sometimes misses the idioms and dialects - he speaks 6 languages ... amazing!) so, when mom arrived and she came with me to a training session, Momo met her, spent no more than 2 minutes with her and exclaimed, "I see the apple and the tree!"

We were our usual silly, crazy amusing selves and I found myself apologizing several times to some Swiss people who are, in general, very conservative and reserved. Much to our delight, we were met with comments expressing that we should not change - the Swiss need more people like us around - they need to have more fun! (Not that we would have changed our ways anyway ...)

There is much more to tell and many more adventures I could relay, but I need to get back to attempting to stain our maple bookshelves (after one coat, I am a bit dismayed and considering painting over them...) and I have not been able to locate my cord so I can download the photos from our adventures - next post perhaps.

Thank you, mom for a wonderful visit. Next time, maybe we'll even take you out!

Candy-O

When you get a speeding ticket in Zurich, there are no police cars and lights and sirens. There is a strobe light that flashes repeatedly from atop a pole and blinds you just enough so that the camera on the pole can see the car, license plate and who is driving.

I was driving a rented vehicle recently and this is just what happened to me. I really would like to see the photo, as I imagine it looked a bit like the cover of the Cars album Candy-O, circa 1979. (But in this version, the woman is much older, much less attractive, made up, sexy, sassy, etc...). **** update **** How embarassing ... a few days after I posted this I had the itch to check out the covers of Cars albums ... turns out that while the Candy-O cover was (is) quite sexy and provocative, it was not the one I pictured while writing this post. It was the self titled Cars album with the woman behind the wheel. My apologies ...****

But still - for a moment I was on a classic album cover. Maybe there's still time ... any bands out there looking for an old broad to sit and knit on their next CD cover? Drop me a line and I'll put you in touch with my agent.

you say hello, i say goodbye...

I have been here for over 6 weeks and I am still saying "Gruezi" for goodbye instead of hello. It just sounds like one should say it at the end of an exchange as well as at the beginning. Kind of like Aloha.

By the way, for those of you who plan on visiting, what you should say is not as easy as danke shon (thank you) auf wiedersehen (goodbye), either. This is Switzerland, not Germany so Swiss German is the language to speak, which is not a written language, and sounds like a melange of German, Italian, French and ubi-dubi (10 points for all who get this reference...).

Gruezi is Swiss German (pronounced "grewt-zi") and is what most people here say for 'hello'. It is much easier than what is said for goodbye and thank you. (Goodbye is a bastardized version of the French "adieu" - sounds like 'ah-day'). Just when I thought I had it, it changed. It pretty much is a combination/variation of 4-6 things that change(s) given the time of day, the mood of the clerk, your mood, the section of town and the lunar phase (not literally, but may as well be as far as I'm concerned...)

It sometimes seems like the Japanese custom where one person bows then the other bows and it just keeps going. I have asked Mark to translate a few times after particularly lengthly goodbye/thank yous. It goes something like this: thanks / thank you / thank you very much / your welcome / no problem / goodbye / have a nice evening/day/afternoon / thank you for telling me to have a nice evening/day/afternoon / you are welcome / and you are welcome / come again / thank you / goodbye / goodbye / bye / bye ....

Really ... it's overwhelming and exhausting so I have decided to smile and nod wherever I go and no one will know if I am deaf / mute / don't speak the language / don't feel like talking / feel superior and/or hate everyone and am just trying to make it though the day without crying ...

I really need to sign up for those German classes ... soon

the French love George Clooney

I was about to do some recycling and came upon the pizza box from our last lunch in France... I had forgotten that we discussed this: George Clooney is the guy making the pizza - really.

Anushka tells me that the French are obsessed with him and he is on all sorts of things like this -

Check it out ...

14.5 hours together in a small rental car and still married

Mark and I decided to visit our friends, Anushka and Fred, in France over the Easter holiday weekend. Mark (and what seemed like the entire country) had both Friday and Monday off so we decided to rent a car and go on this road trip which we calculated should take about 8 hours.

About 2 hours into the trip, we got stuck in horrible gridlock. We did not know whether to attribute it to holiday traffic or an accident, but regardless, it was bad. Less than 10km (about 6 miles) in 4 hours ... Needless to say, it was frustrating. But we were amazingly calm, patient and kind to one another. Wow. I don't know whether to attribute it to my mad ipod DJ-ing skills or the fact that I had the (lucky) foresight to download a few podcasts before we left, (This American Life, Fresh Air, German language lessons, BBC comedy and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me - yes, I am square) but my darling husband and I laughed through almost all of it.

The driving conditions were pretty awful as we had precipitation of one sort or another the entire way but Mark actually wanted to keep driving through it all so I remained navigator, silly song maker-upper and doler-outer of snacks and Mark held fast at 10 and 2.

France was fabulous. Anushka and Fred live in Laurens, about an hour north/west of the coast at Montpelier. They have terrific little house in a village that looks as though it has not changed in a century. There is a butcher, a baker and tiny grocer in the village and that is about it. Fresh croissants every morning - (this is where I'm sure I found the 10lbs I gained on my honeymoon. I ate chocolate croissants everyday ... no self-control.) fresh chicken and vegetables at night and cheese, wine, bread, fruit and naps during the day. Lovely.

We went antique shopping in Pezenas on Saturday and found a few peices we may purchase for the new apt. (things are cheaper than in Switzerland and you can actually find non-Ikea style items made with real wood!) Now we just need to find a way to get everything to us...

On the way back after shopping and lunch, we stopped at Anushka's tiny masse, the stone house she bought when she first arrived back in France from Portsmouth, NH about 8 years ago. She lived there for 9 months alone, no water, hot or cold, no electricity and no toilet. She says it was the best time of her life. She is amazing. I would be so afraid of the dark and quiet I wouldn't last more than a night.

The rest of our relaxing time was much of the same - sleeping, eating, laughing, drinking, walking, Mark and I practicing our (limited) French and Fred practicing his English and watching their new dog, Altier, a rescued Spanish greyhound, chase Fred as he taunted her with a teddybear. Ahh ... France.

After sleeping in on Sunday, we wished one another a Happy Easter, dunked our croissants in some fabulous coffee and headed out to their 'country house', about 20 minutes away. We had been here when we visited during our honeymoon about 2.5 years ago and it was just as great as we'd remembered. They have 2 horses that live out there and Fred and Nushka have spent just about every weekend for the past year creating new corrals and fencing for them. With no proper pile driver or post hole digger, they surely had their work cut out for them as the soil is not so much that as red clay. Very beautiful and unique looking, but tough to dig into.

They just got approval to expand this stone house and will begin work on it soon. They will rent their place in the village and live out in the country full-time. It's really a great site. Inside there is a fireplace and a loft, just perfect for a weekend getaway and soon, a life-long getaway!

The land around the house is red clay and there is strata everwhere that makes it look like a miniature version of the Grand Canyon. We joked about making a movie with Barbie Dolls and GI Joe's - but it really would be a cool location to film somthing in miniature - the trees are tiny replicas of life-sized trees, the stones could be boulders and the small depth variations, huge canyons and cliffs. If only Anushka and I were more sci-fi types ... (we met on a movie set over 10 years ago and she is working in the documentary realm now)

Determined to break the land speed record for travel between Laurens and Zurich, we got a good night sleep on Sunday, slept in again, ate a hearty brunch and hit the road, this time with me in the driver's seat.

I must admit that I was slightly worried that the mood might be different with me at the helm. Both of us would rather drive than be driven, he often prefers silence to music or talk radio and we have set into place that the driver chooses the 'entertainment', and I know we were both a bit anxious that history would repeat itself...

It did, but only in as much as the weather being terrible and challenging once again. (Snow, rain, ice, rain, snow, sunshine, rain, etc...) Even with 2 pit stops and nasty weather (and a pretty crappy car) we made it home in just over 8 hours - and we were still smiling and laughing. A true test of a partnership - we passed!

workshop week at the American Women's Club of ZH

Last week I got to go to camp. Sort of. I took classes at the American Women's Club of Zurich (AWCZ) as part of their workshop week, which takes place once a year. It was more fun than I expected and not only did I learn much, I met some people I look forward to getting to know and who knows... maybe even becoming friends ....

I took Art History - v. difficult to understand the woman who taught it at first - v. thick German Swiss accent. I was late (shocking, I know) and a bit concerned when I first arrived that I'd be sitting through 2 1/2 hours of only listening to her speak. But to my delight, we soon switched to viewing slides of various works of art and discussing "What is art?".

I then limped home and created tremendous blisters doing so, as I had unwisely chosen a cute but never-before-worn pair of shoes. Thank goodness my next class, that afternoon, was to be Spiritual Bellydancing and shoes were not required.

Bellydancing class was v. fun yet somewhat embarrassing at first. The teacher was great - much more into having us feel the music and doing what came naturally than giving specific instructions and techniques. This tactic is good for me I think, but also v. challenging, as anyone who knows me knows that I like direction and to know what is expected of me. I want to know the right way of doing things... (easier to break the rules when one knows what they are.)

The teacher brought in skirts and scarves and jingly hip-waist-y things for us all to wear. Not having much of a waist, the skirt she chose for me was (not surprisingly) a bit snug. It seems she thought I was a bit smaller than I looked and gave the adjustable waist skirts to the larger women in the group.

So there I was with my muffin top shakin it like I was alone in my room at 12 and pretenting to be Olivia Newton John in Grease when I look out the window to see a handful of men outside the neighboring building on a smoke break staring at us - their eyes obviously glued to our large studio window. At this point I shimmied my way to the other end of the room where the table with a pitcher of water and glasses was located, poured myself a glass, drank it and planted myself at that end of the room for (almost) the rest of the class.

In the last exercise she had us blindfold ourselves - so that we were not self conscious - and put on the really rockin' belly dancing music. The best part? She maneuvered us individually around the room so we would not bump into one another or walls/windows/poles, etc.. and guess where I was placed? Yup. Right back in front of the window. When I took the blindfold off, the same idiots were standing there, still smoking, still gawking. So I took a bow, of course.


Took 2 art classes - Mosaics and Charcoal drawing. Both lots of fun. I have done a little work with mosaics before just playing around on my own and found this class atmosphere great.


Lots of chatty women from early 30s to 70s. I sat next to one woman who grew up in Brookline, MA and just moved in September to ZH from Manhattan and another, from San Francisco who had just moved to ZH a few months ago from Park Slope, Brooklyn - v. close to where I had lived in Brooklyn. She is pregnant and almost exactly one year younger than I. Her husband is an environmental scientist. We had a great talk after the class and pretty much decided to be friends. (This sounds silly, I know but our conversation kind of went that way. We both had limited expectations of the week of classes and merely hoped that we would find just one woman we liked enough to perhaps hang out with.)

I had not finished my mirror when the class ended so I needed to take some tiles home with me and go buy some tile cutters and glue. I guess my design was more detailed and the peices smaller than most others in the class - that's why it took longer ... (it was not because I was talking too much ... I know what you're thinking...) Charcoal drawing was fun too. I am by no means an artist, but I love to do artistic things. I'd say I'm more crafy, though I hate that term and the fact that it's so overused and trendy right now ... anyway. This is my 'peice'. Bidding starts at 100 CHF. I take PayPal and cash only.
Moroccan cooking class was yummy. We got to drink wine while cooking, always a good thing and I learned about degerming garlic. I had no idea. Why did no one ever tell me about this before? Apparently the germ in garlic and even onions is the bit that causes some people's bellies (mine) to hurt. I was so thrilled to find this out and am on a mission to see if it holds 100% true. I'll keep you posted.

We made Moroccan Lamb Tagine, Couscous, Eggplant parcels, and Baklava. I was not sure I would like all of it as it was very black olive, nut and coriander heavy - all of which I'm not usually that fond of - but wow - all together and in this menu - amazing. If you come to visit us, this will surely be one of the meals you'll get!

I think I may join the American Women's Club of Zurich after experiencing this week. A good time all around and I met a handful of women I think I might just have to tea in our new place!