Go figure

R's field trip is real! E went with her to the station to make sure she made it to the meeting point.  The station has several levels and can be a little disorienting. He was the only parent there.  All the other kids had come on their own. I love that! R has only been in school for a week, and she is completely confident on the trains.  Also the trams, it seems. She told me that some of the kids in her class have to ride a tram to another school for gym class.

R called to let us know she had arrived. The kids were given a couple of hours of free time and she and her friends did a little hiking. At least that is what E understood. Who knows? Setting the kids free on a mountain doesn't make sense to me, but this whole trip has been a culture shock. She was definitely on a mountain top enjoying the weather and the view.  If we can trust wiki, it's something like this.

A few random things:

- After school today S, the littles, and I went down the road to buy a pencil box (etui) for S. Keeping pencils organized at school is a big deal.  We were told there were two shops in town with the right kind of etui. Both stores were closed, along with several others we saw. It was 3:30 on Monday.  Weird! We know there are different opening hours here - for example, everything is closed on Sunday aside from some shops at the Zurich station. Also, some places have long lunch breaks and some are only open in the afternoon. I thought we were safe at that time of day.  We will try again tomorrow, because we also found out that Amazon Germany won't ship certain things here.

- The grocery stores are tiny. Again, I knew that. But I did expect out local Coop to be bigger than an average Cumberland Farms convenience store. (Yes, I'm referencing Cumbie's to try to drag in unsuspecting Rhode Islanders doing a google search.)

- Some S-train cars have spots for strollers, but not all.  You have to watch the train go by as it stops to spot them and then make a run for it.

- You can buy jam in a bag to refill a jar.  It's called a re-charge bag.

- Usually, no one minds making change for large bills. We have been trying to use cash and I have been stuck with only a 200 franc bill.  No problem! However, there are signs all over the place warning people not to try to use a 1000 franc bill. I thought the first sign was a fluke or  joke. It wasn't.

- I was watching tv last night. It was the Big Bang Theory.  I have seen all the episodes so many times I hoped I could pick up some German. Afterwards, a show came on which seemed to be about a man going through a midlife crisis as he turns forty and his way of dealing is to be put in a box and delivered to some new odd place every week. That's not the weird part. He was delivered to a nest of bizarre young hippies in Berlin. They looked like they ought to be sitting on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, back in the 90s.  Raggy clothes, dreads, tattoos, piercings, face paint, rants about facism, everyone apparently living in a nest of rugs and blankets on the floor of the apartment, and the most coherent one expressing a wish to move to South America because it is dangerous and he could feel like he was living an authentic life even though he expected he would be killed by a jealous husband there. Anyway, their plan for the day was to stand naked outside a Burger King and yell about sexual liberty and the rain forests. Here is the weird thing. None of the nudity was censored, including a horrible piercing which should have been. In fact, in many scenes everything other than the nudity was blurred in order to obscure the many many advertisements in the area. I stopped watching when the police arrived and acted very bored with the whole thing. I wonder if this show is reviled as much as Honey Boo Boo is?

- Speaking of police, I often see two policemen waiting on the platform when our train comes in, and once they see there's no trouble they slowly wander away. I will have to pay attention and see if they are  required to be there for every train.

- In the Zurich station there is a big construction area which is shielded by a huge tarp/curtain showing an orange jumpsuited playmobil figure pushing a wheelbarrow. R and I laughed because it was cute, and because we imagined the reactions of macho grizzled American construction workers if one day them came in and saw they were being represented by a happy playmobil doll. Then, who came by but a macho grizzled Swiss construction worker wearing an orange jumpsuit and pushing a wheelbarrow? I love the work jumpsuits here for all different jobs.

- There is a church and clock tower just down the road. It chimes once for :15, twice for :30, and thrice for :45 past the hour.  It also chimes the hour. For pm hours it chimes the hour, for example seven times, and then in a lower tone chimes seven more times. At first I thought there were two clocks. Then R pointed out that the double chime is only in the pm. I think that is weird. I can think of very few circumstances under which someone would be caught outside (thus relying on the chimes for the time) and have no idea whether it was morning or evening. Most of those circumstances I can imagine involve a person who is either not much concerned about the time anyway or a person who has been drinking heavily and won't appreciate the extra bells.