Swiss Christmas Party, take one

The other night we went to a Christmas party thrown by the language school where my husband is taking German classes. The party was held at a Mexican restaurant here in Zurich (in case you’re wondering what Mexican food in Zurich is like, click here), and was attended by around 80 adult students of this … Read more

Crazy fun with onions. In Bern.

Today fellow blogger Jill and I headed to Bern for the Bern Onion Market (or Zibelemärit in the ridiculous local language). This is a festival that happens once a year in the Swiss capital to celebrate onions and the silly things you can do with them. From what we saw, little old ladies and men … Read more

Thanksgiving, expat-style

I’ve spent at least a half-dozen Thanksgivings outside of the US, most of which have been celebrated in one form or another in the company of other expats. There’s usually a scramble to find cranberries, or canned pumpkin, or even sweet potatoes, depending on what country we’re in. Whole turkeys are also not always easy … Read more

A toast to the Christkindli and his Markt

If there’s one thing the German-speaking world does right, it’s Christmas time. Christmas markets pop up everywhere selling lots of things you don’t need. Glühwein (hot, spiced wine) becomes available on every street corner, as do roasted chestnuts, to warm you on cold days. Twinkling little lights hang above all the shopping streets (OK, the … Read more

Merry Christmas!

Without Halloween and Thanksgiving to hold it back, Christmas merchandise apparently starts running wild as soon as the leaves on the trees start to turn. Are there really people out there who stock up on chocolate santas two and a half months in advance? While completely immune to the charm of chocolate santas (especially milk … Read more

The running of the cows

This past weekend we enjoyed that quintessential Swiss experience, the cow festival. These are celebrated in small farming towns all over Switzerland at the end of summer, when the cows are brought down from their summer grazing spots in the mountains. This particular fête désalpe (which as far as I can tell is French for … Read more

Boy Shooting: not as fun as it sounds

Today is a half day of vacation for many of the workers of Zurich. They all have the afternoon off so they can go watch children shoot at things. The holiday is called Knabenschiessen, which literally means ‘boy shooting’ (despite the name, girls are allowed to shoot at things too, at least since 1991). This … Read more

Zurich raves, part two

We went, we saw, we photographed. We managed to see quite a bit of the Zurich Street Parade without getting stuck in any giant throngs of people, so I was happy with the whole experience. It was basically, as expected, a smaller version of Berlin’s Love Parade, with around 800,000 ‘ravers’ expected this year (fewer … Read more