Culture clash, part 2

Possibly the high point for unintentional comedy in Vanuatu came on our last night. Everyone at the meeting had been invited for dinner at a restaurant right on the ocean about 20 minutes outside of town. When it came time to go back to the hotel, a driver pulled up in a big van--not a suburban minivan, but one of those big vans that everyone had back in the 1970s (you know, with faux wood paneling on the outside, only instead of faux wood paneling, this one had "SHARK" painted on the side). There were over a dozen of us crammed in, representing places like Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, etc. (We blended right in, as you can probably imagine.) As we started the long drive down a bumpy dirt road, the driver turned on a bright blue neon light on the ceiling inside the van to give it a nice disco ambience to go along with the blaring tropical music. All of a sudden the next song came on at full volume and it was about the last thing you would expect to hear on a full-moon night in a neon-lit van full of Pacific Islanders on a dirt road in Vanuatu: "Stand By Your Man" by Tammy Wynette. This was followed in short order by Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights". That's the kind of thing I couldn't invent if I tried...

(We have a couple of hours to kill in the Singapore Airport while waiting for our next flight, and they conveniently have free internet access...)

Vanuatu verdict

Definite thumbs up, although as Gretchen posted earlier, I ended up working all day and so didn't see very much other than the main town of Port Vila. (I didn't go swimming once--I may have to file a hardship when I get back to the office!). In some ways it feels very similar to the Caribbean, but overall friendlier and lower-key, at least compared to other places we've been. It's definitely NOT a place to go for fancy resorts--there isn't a huge tourist infrastructure, and it's very much a developing country, but it's very relaxing if you don't mind "roughing it" a little bit. I would definitely go back if given the chance (although being halfway around the world from both Europe and the U.S. doesn't help)...

Next stop, Sydney

We will be leaving in a couple hours for an overnight stay in Sydney. I actually wish we had longer there because I love that city, but we are also both anxious to start our vacation in Malaysia. I've really enjoyed my time in Vanuatu and would definitely recommend it to others as a vacation destination (if you can handle the long flight from just about anywhere in the world except for Australia). I've found the people to be very friendly, and there is so much to see and do here on this beautiful island. (And I've only been on one of the 83 islands in Vanuatu!) Unfortunately, Kirk hasn't been able to see much because he's been working almost the whole time, but who knows, maybe we'll be back someday...

Topless snorkeling?

A funny thing happened to me today. As I was getting ready to jump off a boat to go snorkeling, the clasp on the back of my bikini top broke off. Thankfully it happened before getting into the water, and thankfully there was nice woman on the boat who tied a knot in the back of my top as a temporary solution, and thankfully I had Kirk's rashie with me (a long-sleeved shirt that he bought in Austalia last year to protect him from the sun which made me feel like a very cool surfer girl) so that I could proceed with snorkeling for a couple hours without worrying about giving the fishies a show! Sorry for the misleading subject heading, but I thought it might get your attention. Kirk likes to laugh at me for always traveling with multiple bathing suits, but now I can prove to him what a good idea it is.

Culture clash

This morning there were three of us in business suits standing in front of the hotel trying to find a taxi to the central bank. Without our flagging him down, all of a sudden an ancient, bright-red minibus (Volkswagen van) with "Bob Marley" painted on the front swung a U-turn and asked where we wanted to go. I'm sure we were quite a sight climbing into this ramshackle van (plastered on the inside with Bob Marley posters) in our suits, but I have to say it was a lot of fun...

Money, money, money

This is a first: right now my wallet includes Swiss francs, Euros, US dollars, Australian dollars, Singapore dollars, and Vanuatu vatus. The only thing we're missing is Malaysian ringgit...

Where's Vanuatu?

I finally know where it is-- now that we're here! Greetings from an Internet cafe in Port Vila, Vanuatu. We arrived here safely Sunday afternoon after a long, but fairly uneventful and low-stress, trip. And our luggage made it as well so we have no complaints. It is so amazing that we are here and I am so grateful for all the wonderful opportunities we have to see the world because of Kirk's job. (especially when it means he works and I get to play!) We're staying in a nice hotel that is just a couple minutes walk outside of town. I just spent a few minutes wandering around the town, including an incredible outdoor market where it occurred to me that, yes, I am a world away from my life in Switzerland or in the US. What a fascinating place. I guess it's somewhat like the Caribbean, but everytime I've been there we've been at some resort set apart from the town, but here we're actually in the midst of where locals live and work. This afternoon I plan to take a taxi to hike around some waterfalls and then a ferry to a nearby island to do some snorkeling. Meanwhile, Kirk is giving a number of presentations at his conference with bank supervisors from the region. I am looking forward to spending a vacation together with him in Malaysia!

En route...

Greeting from the lounge at the Singapore Airport. We're bleary-eyed but so far, so good. It's a pretty amazing airport--at 7:00am it was absolutely bustling with an incredible cross-section of people. Gretchen is already getting a pedicure (this is really a business trip, I promise!) We had a bit of an adventure at the Zurich Airport when we checked in because they couldn't figure out whether or not to check our bags all the way through to Vanuatu (we have to stay the night in Brisbane tonight and thought we would keep our luggage with us). To complicate things, no one there had actually heard of Vanuatu (which shouldn't be surprising since probably 98% of the world hasn't heard of Vanuatu)--they thought it was in Australia--so they really weren't sure what to do. In the end they said we had to check our bags through, so we had to pull our bags off the luggage belt to get a change of clothes--we felt a bit like refugees with our things strewn all over the check-in area. But all's well and now we're just waiting for the next leg of our trip...

The friendly skies

Lest anyone think our trip to Vanuatu is nothing but a boondoggle, this is what we have to look forward to in terms of getting there:

Friday morning: Train from Basel to Zurich
Friday afternoon: Overnight flight from Zurich to Singapore
Saturday: Fly all day Singapore to Brisbane, Australia
Saturday night: Stay overnight in Brisbane
Sunday: Fly from Brisbane to Vanuatu
Monday-Wednesday: Give presentations (2 days of flying for 3 days of meetings--ugh!) while Gretchen tries to find where Survivor: Vanuatu was filmed (we're staying on the same island)
Thursday: Fly Vanuatu to Sydney
Thursday night: Stay overnight in Sydney (visit friends Jen and Jonathan and their new baby Quentin!)
Friday: Fly Sydney to Singapore, then another flight to Langkawi

At this point we stop complaining and enjoy a week of what we hope will be sheer bliss, followed by...

Friday: Fly Langkawi to Singapore
Friday-Saturday: Spend the weekend visiting with our friends Tracey, Sean, and their kids (who just moved to Singapore).
Sunday: Red-eye flight from Singapore to Zurich
Monday morning: Train from Zurich to Basel

So, that's 8 flights and 2 train rides in 2 weeks--but it should be a great adventure and we're really looking forward to it. Things will probably be even slower than usual around here, though...

A quiet week on the blog...

... but that doesn't mean it's been a quiet week! Kirk has been working insane hours and I have been having fun playing tour guide for our friends, Kim and Byron, who just left this morning for Italy. Of course the sun finally came out for the first time in a week just as they were leaving. Regardless of the really crappy weather, we had a great visit with them and it was fun to show our first visitors around Basel and its surroundings. Yesterday we took a train to a town a couple hours south of here called Thun. It's at the foot of the Alps and on a beautiful lake. I'm looking forward to going back sometime in the spring or summer when you can go out on a boat and tour around the lake. Apparently they stopped running on October 17, so we just missed the prime boat season. Today I have spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and packing for our BIG trip. We leave tomorrow!

Megan rocks!

Yes, Megan, you get your very own post on our blog. That's because I am just so excited about getting a video in the mail today with a little sample of recent American reality TV! I just finished watching an episode of Survivor: Vanuatu. I'm hooked! Too bad I can't actually watch any more episodes... at least I can read the updates online. I wonder if I'll be able to talk a tour of the Survivor site during our upcoming trip to Vanuatu... Thanks, Megan, you rock!

Taste of Seattle

It's a good thing Kim & Byron came all the way from the Seattle area, because the weather followed them--it's nothing but rain, rain, rain here. Actually, they evidently had nice weather yesterday in Luzern yesterday, but by and large it's been cold and damp the whole time. Welcome to Switzerland in October...

Speaking of Wisconsin

Thanks to Stacy for pointing out that today's New York Times Magazine has a little blurb about cheese curds:

Cheese Curds
By LOUISA KAMPS

When I moved back to Wisconsin, my home state, two years ago, I couldn't help saluting the first huge sign I saw, just over the Illinois-Wisconsin border, for cheese curds -- those squiggly, squeaky chunks of young cheddar we learn to love early here in America's Dairyland. Right along the Interstate to Milwaukee, there's a cluster of cheese-curd, porn and firecracker stores that has always made me wonder about the guy who would indulge in all three; but driving a distance to score curds alone -- well, that makes sense to almost any Wisconsinite.

On field trips to cheese factories when we were kids, my schoolmates and I peered into vats of bright orange cheese-to-be as dairymen in coveralls explained that curds were simply cheddar in its freshest state, separated from whey and salted but not yet pressed into shapes for aging. They squeal, most volubly within a day of their making, we learned, because their binding proteins are still superelastic, like new rubber bands. Gnawing on sample curds on the bus ride home, I marveled at their sound: balloons trying to neck.

In this artisanal age, when plain and simple mass-produced cheese is falling from favor, even in Wisconsin, it is reassuring that locals remain loyal to cheese curds. Sure, there's oohing and ahing at farmers' markets here over pricey organic chevre made by earnest newcomers to the cheese trade. But the fast action is still at the stalls, manned by farm boys in feed caps, selling curds and curds alone for three bucks a bag. It's not postmodern appreciation for a down-home and, frankly, homely food; it's the nicest kind of regional pride. A young friend from Los Angeles whose father grew up in Wisconsin came to visit this summer, and when he told me he'd tried cheese curds for the first time, I asked the inevitable. ''They squeaked like heck,'' he replied, narrowing his eyes to emphasize the sheer weirdness of the experience. ''And not just a little, but, like, 'a-squeak-a-squeak-a-squeak' with each bite.'' As Wisconsinites love to say, Atta boy!

Louisa Kamps is a contributing writer for Elle magazine.

Go Badgers

Gretchen was very happy to wake up this morning and see that yesterday the Wisconsin Badgers upset #5 Purdue in a thriller. The first thing she thought about was how happy her dad (who, when Gretchen was a girl, taught her to sing "If You Want To Be a Badger", which later became the father-daughter dance at our wedding) would have been...

A very European day

We set a new record for ourselves today by eating meals in three countries in one day, because, well, why not? After breakfast at home in Switzerland this morning, we drove with Kim & Byron up to Freiburg, Germany, which is a nice university town with a great farmers market, and had lunch there. (It was also my first time on the German autobahn, and I have to say it was fun to drive 100mph legally and not feel like I was actually going that fast). After a short interlude at home, we headed over to neighboring Bourgfelden, France for dinner. Best of all, despite our Virginia tags we weren't stopped at any of the border crossings (although we cheated tonight by driving through the unmanned crossing).

Making amends

For those who were concerned about my earlier post about the last election (Gretchen was not happy that I posted that, by the way), our friends Kim and Bryon brought us a present from Seattle (all are welcome here, however--ExPatter is an ideology-free zone, and in the inimitable words of Rodney King, "can't we all just get along?"):

Zoo madness

In a couple of today's papers there is a story about how the hippos at the Basel Zoo killed one of the zebras (they're like the Crips and Bloods of the animal world, those two). I tried to do a translation of the story, and if I understand correctly, they were actually such good friends that the zebra would often eat out of the hippo's mouth (there's an appealing thought), but this time the zebra accidentally bit the hippo's lip, and when the hippo reacted, the other hippos jumped the poor zebra. There's probably a metaphor or an allegory in there somewhere--"Don't bite the lip of the hippo that feeds you", or something like that.

We voted!

It's official-- I just got back from the post office where I mailed our absentee ballots back to Arlington County. I share Kirk's sentiments about missing the "I voted!" stickers. Do you think I should have asked the lady at the post office if she had any?

Feeling enfranchised

Well, Arlington County came through and got our absentee ballots to us, so last night we filled them out and hopefully will get them in the mail today. Not that our vote will really count because, barring a small miracle, Virginia isn't exactly a swing state. Still, I hate to miss any election, let alone a presidential election. The only bummer? We didn't get the usual "I Voted!" stickers. (By the way, are there any other countries where you get a sticker, or anything else, for doing what should really be a basic civic duty?)

Oh, yum!

I was already planning on just picking up a sandwich and eating at my desk, a decision that was confirmed when I looked at one of the lunch options in our restaurant today: Suri Leberli, which is described as "finely sliced pig's liver in sour sauce."

Doing something useful

Yesterday I dropped off my membership form and had my volunteer training at Centrepoint. Centrepoint is an international organization for expats living in Basel. Their office downtown serves as a resource for people looking for information about living in Basel and helps to get expats connected with other expats. It houses a small English library, and has English DVDs/videos for rent. They also plan social events and language lessons for their members. Starting in November (after our upcoming travels) I plan to volunteer at the office a couple times a month. Kirk has often reminded me that I may not be able to live this fantasy life forever and that someday perhaps I will have to return to the workplace (oh, the horror!) so I guess it might not be a bad idea for me to find some "useful" things to do with my time. (other than being a hausfrau, that is...)

First guests!

This Friday our first-ever guests from the States, Kim & Byron, arrive from the Seattle area. We're really looking forward to getting to play hosts! Hopefully Grady feels the same way...

These are Gretchen's people...

Only in Wisconsin.

'Tis the season

Every food has its season here, and fall is the season for game. In that spirit, today for lunch I had Hirschmedaillons an Ginsauce...medallions of venison in gin gravy. I can't say I'm a big venison fan, nor for that matter do I like gin. It wasn't that bad, but let's just say I'm not running out this afternoon to stock the refrigerator with venison steaks.

Truth is stranger than fiction

If it's really true that our President can't get through a debate without being coached electronically...well, I don't think there's anything I can say to make that funnier than it already is.

This just in...

...from The Borowitz Report:

October 12, 2004
BUSH, KERRY ALLOWED TO CARRY WEAPONS IN FINAL DEBATE
Potentially Fatal Showdown in Tempe

As President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry prepare for their final debate tonight in Tempe, Arizona, the Debate Steering Committee has rewritten the ground rules for the televised showdown, allowing both men to carry concealed weapons with them onstage.

"We've heard the criticism that the debates have been too choreographed and controlled," said Jean Stovall, a spokesperson for the committee. "Hopefully, the promise that gunfire could break out at any moment will go a long way toward changing that perception."

Although the national television ratings for the second debate slid precipitously from the first one, Ms. Stovall denied that the introduction of concealed weapons is designed to "goose" the ratings of the third installment.

"This is all about giving two men who despise each other very, very much the means by which they can slay each other," Ms. Stovall said. "If that results in higher ratings, well, that's just gravy."

Both candidates took time out of their busy campaign schedules today to select weapons to carry onstage with them in the third debate, Mr. Bush choosing a Smith and Wesson six-shooter and Mr. Kerry opting for a combat knife from his tour of duty in Vietnam.

"I expect a lively discussion of the issues tomorrow night," said Mr. Kerry, brandishing the gleaming six-inch blade for reporters. "But if that bastard gets up in my grille, I'm going to cut him."

In other campaign news, President Bush toured areas devastated by Hurricane Ivan, and Sen. Kerry toured areas devastated by President Bush.

Speaking of great music

Heard this morning on the way to work: "Xanadu" by Olivia Newton-John (featuring ELO). Words fail me...

Top 10

The latest top 10 CDs, according to the local paper:

(1) R.E.M. - Around the Sun [I actually just picked this up...not bad]
(2) Lunik - Life Is On Our Side
(3) S'bescht Mundart-Album wo's git 03 - Sampler
(4) Bryan Adams - Room Service [yes, you read that correctly--Bryan Adams]
(5) Rammstein - Reise, Reise [be sure to catch the Amerika video if you haven't already]
(6) Joss Stone - Mind, Body & Soul
(7) Baschi - Baschi
(8) Celine Dion - Miracle
(9) Die Toten Hosen - Zurück zum Glück [great band name]
(10) Phil Collins - Love Songs, a Compilation...Old & New

So the top 10 includes Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, and Phil Collins...doesn't get much better than that.

It's the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I discovered a new favorite place today. I was in search of a great pumpkin (not just the kind you can buy at the grocery store), and while driving through our neighborhood today I followed signs to "Kürbis Markt", which translates into "pumpkin market". It was an amazing sight, and it was much more than any pumpkin field I've seen in the US. It was at an actual farm, and there were some goats and chickens and pigs and other animals that I didn't recognize all living together in a fenced area behind the market and the barn. Clearly people lived there as well because I saw their laundry hanging out to dry next to some of the rows of pumpkins that were for sale. I have NEVER seen so many varieties of squash and pumpkins. I was really only interested in what they called the "Halloween" pumpkin (the traditional American jack-o-lantern type pumpkin), but if I knew anything about cooking and eating squash I would need to go shopping there again. After picking out the perfect pumpkin and a few decorative gourds, I went "inside" to pay. Imagine my surprise when no one was there to take the money. Instead, it was on the honor system with a box marked "Kasse" where you leave your money. My visit to the Kürbis Markt was one of those simple pleasures that remind me why I love living in Basel.

Going for a drive

There's nothing quite like going out for a drive on a beautiful, sunny day. As much as I still get a little anxious about driving in a foreign country and annoyed with the frequent stares at my Virginia plates, and as much as I've totally adjusted (and really enjoy) running all my errands on foot and/or tram, I realized today that I still love the freedom of driving. I took the car out today for a trip to IKEA and until I got behind the wheel I had no idea how much I had missed driving a car (I hadn't driven in a few weeks). I guess you can take the girl out of America but you can never really take the American out of the girl. Or something like that.

Must-see

Since yesterday was a miserable, cold, gray, rainy day, we decided to stay in and watch a movie. I had picked up "City of God" last time I was in New York but didn't get around to watching it until yesterday. Freakin' brilliant. It could have been a run-of-the-mill shoot-em-up action film, but the narrative, character development, and cinematography made it so much more than that. Even the violence, while plentiful, wasn't gratuitous at all. One of the best films I've seen in a while. (OK, so it's one of the only films I've seen in a while, but still--BIG thumbs up. Even Gretchen, who detests violent films, liked it.)

Sad day

For San Diego Padres fans, today isn't so much sad because of the passing of Christopher Reeve (although of course that's sad too), but rather because of the death of Ken Caminiti. He struggled mightily with personal demons and made terrible lifestyle choices, but he was also the heart and soul of the Padres' team that went to the World Series in 1998 (where they were swept by the Yankees, but never mind), and was probably one of the more popular athletes in San Diego during my lifetime. Perhaps it sounds a little foolish to take someone who admitted to using steroids and had drug and alcohol problems when he played (eventually serving jail time) and then say "what a great guy he was" after he dies young. I dunno, maybe it exemplifies everything that's wrong with American sports, and there's probably a lesson here about professional athletes being needlessly put on pedestals for their accomplishments, but for today at least it just strikes me as a sad waste of a life of someone who helped bring fleeting joy to a city whose sports teams have often been synonymous with mediocrity.

Election 2004

All the news anyone needs can be found in The Onion's 2004 Election Guide...

Ziad

Some of the most interesting things about Lebanon were the roads and drivers. There were highway lanes, for example, but near as I could tell, the lanes were more of a theoretical construct than anything else. On-ramps and off-ramps were pretty much non-existent; cars just turned off wherever they saw fit. There may have been three stoplights in the whole city, and the few red lights were routinely ignored. A policeman (always a man) would be posted at some intersections, and when they would try to stop traffic coming from one direction, inevitably cars would keep coming through (I was in a car at one such intersection when the driver--not Ziad this time--said "watch, he's going to start yelling at this car but then he'll just laugh and walk away", and that's exactly how it played out). Cars would stop anywhere. Middle of a busy street? No worries! Despite the presence of crosswalks, walking across the street from the hotel to the ocean walkway along the Corniche was a game of run-for-your-life. And car horns! I'm convinced the horn ranks behind only the engine and the steering wheel--but ahead of brakes--in importance there. Honking seemed as natural as breathing. Needless to say, if I had tried to drive myself, I probably would have been reduced to tears and a nervous breakdown within 10 minutes.

So that was the milieu in which Ziad, the Zen driver of Beirut, operated. Day after day we would set off on various adventures, and Ziad negotiated the streets and highways of Lebanon with a quiet aplomb. All could be chaos around us, but nothing fazed Ziad. Need to turn across oncoming traffic going 70mph? Some drivers might wait for an opening and then gun it, but that wasn't Ziad's style. At the moment of his choosing--which did not correspond whatsoever to the volume of traffic--he would ease the car into traffic as if there were no question that the other cars would let us in. (This was extremely disconcerting at first, especially when on the side of the car facing oncoming traffic, but after a while I realised I was in the hands of a pro.) At one point we had pulled over to look at some monuments and realised that there were more further back down the road. Some drivers would take the time to do a U-turn, especially on a busy road, but not Ziad--no, he just put the car into reverse and backed us down the road, serenely oblivious to the (madly honking) drivers heading our way. I know very little about Ziad as a person (he didn't speak much English), but from what little I saw, we could all learn a little about just relaxing and going with the flow. So, to Ziad I say a hearty "Kesak!" (supposedly Arabic for "cheers!")...

It's turtleneck weather

This morning when I walked Grady, it was 50 degrees, gray, and foggy. Now it's 5:30 pm, and it's gray, raining, and still 50 degrees. What a lovely day! Since Kirk went into the office again today (he's had a fun weekend!) my project for the afternoon was to try to organize my clothes. It felt like a perfect Sunday to stay inside and watch football, but alas... we're in Basel. Instead, I kept myself busy by getting out my turtlenecks and sweaters and packing away my sandals and shorts. (I didn't pack them away too far-- I need to get them out in 10 days when we leave for Vanuatu/Malaysia/Singapore!) Speaking of football, what's up with the Pack this year? They suck! Oh well, at least my beloved Badgers are doing well.

We all make mistakes

An exchange while sitting on the couch watching a re-broadcast of last night's presidential debate:

Gretchen: "How on earth did I vote for him four years ago?"

Me: "I choose to overlook that part of your life."

Alte Damen

Every now and again you come across really cranky old Swiss ladies in Basel (not all the time, mind you--we've met some really sweet old ladies on trams, in shops, etc). Anyway, tonight I was on a tram when the doors started to close as an old lady was starting to board, so I hit the button to open the doors before they closed on her. Rather than smile, say "danke schön", etc., she did the natural thing--she hauled off and whacked the door--hard--with her umbrella even though she was already on the tram. Then she marched straight back toward what must have been her favorite seat, because the guy who was sitting there got up so fast he must have thought she was going to whack him with her umbrella if he didn't get up.

A reminder to vote

We're happy that our absentee ballots arrived yesterday, so we can still do our civic duty from afar. In that spirit, the folks that gave us the "This Land" video have a new one about how it's "Good to be in DC"...

Einkaufen in Deutschland

That means shopping in Germany, for all you non-German speakers. I decided I had heard enough about how great the shopping is in Germany so today I checked it out for myself. (I'm referring to grocery shopping, by the way, and this is relative to grocery shopping in Switzerland.) I'm a little surprised that I decided to go considering how little I knew about how to get to where I was going. One friend told me "just take the #8 tram to the last stop, and when you get off you have to walk over a bridge to your right". But that's basically all I knew. After about a 15 minute walk through an incredibly ugly, industrial part of Basel that I had never seen before (past the chemical plants, etc), I crossed the "Zoll" (border crossing) into Germany, and there it was, the Marktkauf. Let me tell you, it was worth the trip. I wasn't planning on doing a major shopping trip at this point, especially considering I was on foot and not in the car. I considered it more of an exploratory mission. I mainly just walked up and down the aisles and looked at how many different types of pickles they sell, for example. The store is huge, the selection is huge, and the prices are unbelievable. I guess the trade-off for the good selection and low prices is fighting the crowds. While I looked around at the crowded aisles and watched people bump their carts into each other I thought who are all these people and why are they all shopping on a Friday afternoon? You can be sure that once we get the Virginia tags on our car changed to Swiss plates I will be making the trek into Germany quite often for my shopping. Until then, I can't deal with the hassle of crossing the border with anything except my feet or a train.

Enough already!

One of my managers (who has lived in the Middle East) describes the way you are treated as a visitor there as "aggressive hospitality", and I got an overdose of it in Lebanon this week. It started when I arrived at the airport at 2:00am Sunday morning and there was not only a driver (my man Ziad, who merits a post of his own later), but also an employee of the host agency there to meet me. I apologised that he had to get dragged out of bed in the middle of the night just to get me from the airport to my hotel, but he'd hear none of it. Later that morning, Ziad was back with another employee to show me around. We drove up the coast and stopped for a "quick" lunch that stretched to almost 3 hours, and before I knew it the table was covered with food ("You like salad? OK, we'll get one of each. You like sashimi? No? OK, we'll get just a little then. Calamari? OK, you should try both kinds." And so it went...)

[Side note: before going, our friends who visit Beirut every year suggested that it would be wise to avoid the water and fresh vegetables (which are typically washed in water). So what's the first thing that hits the table? Two types of Lebanese salad, along with some lentil/chickpea-type things that were soaked in water. It was all delicious, but yes, I paid the price later--Allah's Revenge, perhaps? (I know, too much information...)]

Anyway, that's how the whole week went--I couldn't leave the hotel without being offered to be taken someplace. Even on mornings when I wasn't feeling well, they tried to have plans for me in the afternoon. (The first day I said I wasn't feeling well, which was partly true but partly just to have some down time in my room, and I was back in my room for probably less than 5 minutes before someone called asking if they should call a doctor for me.) It was incredibly kind and considerate, but after a while it was almost suffocating. I'm used to being a fairly independent traveler, and while that's a little more difficult in Beirut than some other places (public transit is more or less non-existent), it really was strange not feeling like I could go anywhere on my own. The last day I actually had to find a way to sneak out of the hotel without being seen so I could take a walk near the hotel. It continued right up to the end, when Ziad and the same guy who picked me up from the airport both took me back to the airport at 1:00am.

Overall it was a great experience and I met some wonderful people at work and got to see Beirut and the ancient Phoenician town of Byblos, but by the end I felt like Greta Garbo: "I vant to be alone."

Back from Beirut...

What a trip. I'm exhausted not only because of my visit, but also because my flight from Beirut to Frankfurt left at 3:20am this morning. Anyway, Beirut was fascinating on a lot of different levels:

• I'm not sure what's more amazing: the rebuilding they've done since the war ended, or the remaining buildings that are still gutted and pock-marked with holes from bullets and mortars.


• One night I was sitting in an outdoor cafe (where just about everyone was smoking nargileh, or hookahs), and a woman came in with a conservative Muslim head scarf and a t-shirt that said "2 HOT".


• Speaking of odd juxtapositions, I wasn't quite prepared to see gigantic Golden Arches from the highway with "McDonalds" written in Arabic instead of English.


• The sheer number of soldiers everywhere was disconcerting at first, but after a while it seemed totally normal.


• We must have lost power in the hotel at least 6 times a day, and that was only when I was actually in the room.


• When I was in Spain, I ate so much ham that I commented (too many times, Gretchen would say) that I felt like I should just be on a ham IV drip. Similarly, in Beirut I felt like I should be on a hommos IV drip. By the end of my stay I felt like I was sweating chickpeas. As Homer Simpson might say: "mmmmmmmmm, hommos."

More later...

The verdict is in

For those of you waiting for a report on the raclette, the verdict is in. Raclette rocks! Besides just generally having an overall good time last night with good company and good wine, I really enjoyed the whole raclette experience. How can I describe it...Everything is cooked at the table on a raclette grill. In a way, it's like fondue (or Korean BBQ) in that there are lots of plates on the table with meat, veggies, etc that you cook for yourself on the raclette grill. The pieces of raclette cheese fit into these little cheese trays that you put on the lower rack of the raclette grill so that they melt under what is sort of like a broiler. After cooking the meat and veggies, you scrape the melted cheese onto your plate (on top of the meat, veggies, and little boiled potatoes). It is lots of fun, and I plan to buy my own raclette grill very soon. We'll need to have it in time for our first visitors from the States who arrive next week! As for the verdict on my new hairstyle, I'm still not sure. We'll see what Kirk has to say when he returns home from Beirut today.

Where's my ballot?

Considering the election is now less than a month away, I was beginning to get concerned that we hadn't yet gotten our absentee ballots. I received a letter from Arlington County a few weeks ago acknowledging my application for a ballot and confirming that they would be sent out on September 20. I just called Arlington County to inquire and have been reassured that it's in the mail. Apparently, they just received the ballots on Saturday and they spent all day Sunday preparing them so they could be mailed out on Monday. As long as I have it before October 22 I'll be happy-- that's when we leave for Vanuatu/Malaysia/Singapore. Hmmm... I wonder who I should vote for...

My new "structure"

I'm back from getting my haircut, and I think I'm happy with it, but it's still too early to tell. At first, I was a little scared because as Guy explained what he was going to do it sounded a bit like he was going to give me a mullet. Then he said (in his very charming French accent) "this will be interesting for me because you have no structure". I'm assuming he was referring to my hair, but of course he could have also been commenting on my life in general. I really don't have much "structure" other than I get up in the morning, I go to bed at night, I eat three meals in between along with various other activities like learning German, walking my dog, going to the gym, and shopping. Anyway, at one point during the haircut Guy had me stand up so he could see the "natural way" my hair falls. Wow, I thought, this guy is a real professional. I never had to stand up at Bubbles on Capitol Hill!

Things to look forward to

Tomorrow I am visiting Guy for the first time. Guy is the guy who cuts Kirk's hair, and now he's going to cut mine as well. When Kirk had his first appointment with Guy several months ago, Guy told Kirk "you need more shape", so he gave Kirk a bit of a new style. I'm hoping he can make some similar "shape" suggestions for me. After my haircut, I am going out with some of Kirk's colleagues for Raclette. Raclette is a very traditional Swiss meal served in the fall and winter, and I have been waiting to try it. From what I can tell, it's melted cheese served over little things like potatoes, pickles, and onions. I've actually been wanting to buy a raclette maker, but am very overwhelmed by the selection at local stores, especially considering I don't really know what I'm looking for. Hopefully the woman who is hosting us for raclette can offer some suggestions on what I should buy. Too bad Kirk will miss it... he's been busy eating hummus and shish taouk in Beirut.

My green thumb

My big project for the day was to do some gardening and clean up the back yard. It's another beautiful late summer day in Basel, so I was happy to spend some time outside. When we moved here in March, I had grand plans of gardening quite a bit this summer, but considering I was gone for the prime planting season our yard is a bit of disaster. This morning I went to OBI, which is somewhat like a small-scale Home Depot, to buy some plants. I had planted some flowers in pots in the backyard about a month ago, but they unfortunately didn't survive our recent travels (I guess they needed water), so now I'm working on round two. In addition to potting some plants, I drastically trimmed back a couple rose bushes that were climbing up the side of the house and had grown to about 8 feet tall. I would like to mow the lawn too, but I'm not sure I can figure out the lawn mower so I'll have to wait until Kirk gets back from Beirut to help with that.

While the cat's away...

Kirk reports that all is going well in Beirut, other than the ocassional power outage at the hotel. I guess I'm living the bachelorette life for a few days while he's gone, and Grady is even more spoiled than usual getting my undivided attention and lots of walks. Yesterday was a beautiful day, in the 70s and sunny (is Indian Summer no longer a politically correct term?). I took the tram to a small town in the country called Fluh. Unfortunately, I don't know how to type an umlaut, but imagine one above the "u" in "Fluh". (for you non-German speakers, an unlaut is the two little dots above some vowels) From Fluh I took a beautiful walk (straight uphill) to a cathedral called Mariastein. We've been there before by car, but I hadn't walked the hill before. It was a lovely walk and I certainly got my workout for the day (did I mention it was straight uphill?). The amazing thing is that while sitting on a bench on the top of a hill overlooking the cathedral I was literally at the border with France. I don't think I'll ever get over how cool it is to be so close to other countries. Today was a very typical Monday. I had German class in the morning and I went to the gym in the afternoon. I'm also trying to get my fill of chick-flicks and Sex and the City episodes (on DVD) while Kirk is gone.

I've come full circle

When I first moved to Washington, I was totally obsessed with watching every political talk show possible. I couldn't get enough of it. Then, after working in Washington for a few years, I concluded that I could no longer stand to watch any more political talk shows because I had enough of it in my every day life at work. Not to mention that most of the Sunday morning shows were on while we went to church. But now, here I am in Basel. I crave any English-speaking TV I can get (which isn't much). Other than the news, that means I ocassionally watch Real World and other smutty MTV shows. I am happy to report that last night I discovered that CNN has "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" on live on Sunday evenings, and on CNBC Europe I can watch both the "McLaughlin Group" and "Meet the Press". I never thought I'd be so happy to hear John McLaughlin's voice. I guess I just can't get American politics totally out of my system.

A toast to Dick K.

Two years ago today, on October 3, 2002, my Dad, Dick, passed away from complications of diabetes. I will always remember him as the life of the party, a man who became friends with everyone he met, and who always had a story to share. I remember how he used to go fishing early in the morning during summers in Three Lakes so we could have fresh fish sandwiches for lunch. I remember how, as kids, when we went on family vacations to other parts of the country, (always in the car, never flying) he would get up early in the morning to explore whatever city or town we were staying in to discover the best bakery in town. I remember how he made the best steak and grilled onions on the Weber, and how he loved to fix a big pancake breakfast on special occasions (the pancakes would be filled with fresh fruit such as bananas, blueberries, nectarines, and peaches). I remember how at Christmas, when giving my Mom a gift that could have been wrapped in a very small box, perhaps jewelry, he would have so much fun disguising it in a really big box that he would fill with ridiculous junk, such as pinecones and rocks, just to make my Mom laugh. I remember how he took me to Badger football games and taught me how to sing "If You Want to Be a Badger". My Dad was practically famous for his Old-Fashioned recipe, serving them at every party and also special times when our family would get together such as Christmas, etc. I'm so glad that many of our friends had the opportunity try this traditional Wisconsin drink at my parents house the night before our wedding in 1998. Although I don't have the fixins' for Old-Fashioneds here in Basel, I plan to raise my glass (of wine or beer or something) in a toast to Dick tonight. I hope you will join me today in remembering my Dad, a great man.

The Paris of the Middle East?

That's what they used to call Beirut, where I'm off to tonight for a few days of work. I'm kind of intrigued to see how it has rebounded from the civil war a few years ago. Plus, I've never been to the Middle East, so that should be interesting (and I'm sure there's no need to worry that there was a car bombing yesterday--I mean, that kind of thing happens in Basel all the time, except here they have cow bombings). I had an interesting conversation with a friend who visits Beirut every year with his wife, who is from Lebanon. We were talking about places that might be worth visiting, and there were a few places where he said things like "you might not want to go there because Hamas (or Hizbollah) controls that area and has roadside checkpoints." While I'm not the boldest traveler in the world, I nevertheless try to go with the flow and not live in a cocoon, but I do have my limits...

Babies at the zoo

For some reason, the Basel zoo seems to always have an abundance of baby animals. I finally got to see the latest addition during my zoo visit yesterday. She is a baby rhino, or Nashorn in German (literally, "nose horn"), named Batschii. She is so cute! She was born on September 2, and I read somewhere that she is gaining something like 6 kg a day (meaning she may not be "cute" for long). Here are a couple of pictures of her hanging out with her Mom.

Did he really say that?

CNN rebroadcast the debate this morning so that those of us in Europe didn't have to stay up all night to watch it. Here's my favorite quote from Bush.

"You know, it's hard work to try to love her as best as I can, knowing full well that the decision I made caused her loved one to be in harm's way."

I read that quote earlier this morning on Wonkette and thought it was a joke because I couldn't imagine the context in which you would ever hear such a thing in a Presidential debate. But I just got done watching the debate and he actually said it.