Sunday, August 28, 2005

Not your typical Sunday

Living in Switzerland, Sundays tend to be lazy, restful, hang-out around the house kind of days. That's because everything is closed, and you're really not allowed to make much noise (eg. mow the lawn, run the vacuum). Lots of times (if we're in town and not traveling over the weekend) Kirk will go into work on Sundays, and I do laundry (which is allowed because we live in a house and not a multi-family apartment building) and cook and maybe go for a walk. But today was not your typical Sunday. I spent the bulk of the day with my friend Sabrina and her girls traveling around various parts of the city cheering on her husband Bill who was running in the 1st ever Basel City Marathon. It was beautiful day to be a spectator, although perhaps a bit to warm to be running a marathon. My favorite part of watching a marathon in Switzerland is all the people yelling "hop, hop, hop", which I guess would be like Americans yelling "go, go, go".

Later in the day, I joined our friends Jeff and Marlis at a classical piano and violin concert featuring Mozart and Beethoven sonatas. Our friend Christine is a professional pianist, and it was the first time we'd ever seen her perform. It was beautiful and a nice change from my usual Basel activities. Afterward, we wandered downtown where there was some sort of international food and craft fair wrapping up. We were searching for food, but most booths were just packing up. Perhaps there's a law in Basel about quiet hours starting at 8:00 pm on Sunday nights. Anyway, we found a little Thai food, and it all felt quite surreal to be eating Pad Thai and drinking a Singha while sitting on a bench next to the Elisabethen Kirche in Basel.

On a totally unrelated note, I just received a text message from Kirk that his plane has landed safely in DC. I'm glad to hear that he made it there in one piece and I'm very jealous that he gets to see some of our DC friends tonight! I very rarely get sad and lonely in Basel because I love living here, but I've been feeling a bit melancholy this weekend knowing Kirk will be seeing some of very dear friends who I miss a bunch. I miss you guys!