My wife's campaign to destroy Grand Casino Luzern is proceeding apace. She is continuing to sow dissent and discord at every opportunity. I have learned during my time here in Switzerland that Europeans tend to have a very different relationship between employees and management. The employees have a tendency to just take their lumps from management, to figure that "this is just they way things are", and to suffer in silence. Perhaps it's a holdover from the distant past, a reflection of the relationships between the nobility and the peasant class in feudal Europe, whereas the peasants had almost no power, and the nobility had almost all of it. Who knows?, but I have learned that cultural legacies like these can persist for centuries, regardless of how times have changed. Whatever the reason, most of our fellow coworkers just grumble to each other about how awful the job is, then proceed to lick management's ass, or at the least not cause any ripples. Also, many of them are from other, often less-priviliged countries, and are afraid to complain and risk the possibility of losing their job. I think America is very unique, in that it is the only culture I know of that aplauds the idea that not only anyone can....but everyone should....claw their way to success, that unacceptable situations should never be tolerated. Only Americans are so bold and demanding in life(or you could say "such assholes" as well, but I'm trying to be positive here). They often get what they want because they do what it takes to get it.  Not Europeans so much, although that fails to explain my wife, as she is European! I often say nowdays that she is more American than I am, and that's no exageration. She is doing everything in her power to change a situation she finds unacceptable in the time she has left. She is encouraging everyone to either stand up to management and demand change, or to quit en masse and leave the casino without a staff. She is trying to have everyone go see a lawyer, explain the horrible work environment and the advantage that the casino management is taking of them, the laws they are supposedly breaking, and to initiate a class action lawsuit. I believe she has a few more dealers on the verge of quiting. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't have much longer to achieve her goals, seeing as how we only have a week of work left -- but I wouldn't put it past her!

Here's an interesting fact about the casino here in Lucerne, that might surprise just abouuuuut......nobody: there is a particular ethnic group of people that tend to frequent the casino and its gambling tables much more regularly and in greater numbers than other ethnic groups. Can you guess which one? -- I'll give you a hint: This groups name starts with an 'A', has three letters in the middle, and ends with an 'N'. It also has multiple ethnic subgroups that have names that start with 'C', 'J','T','V','I', among others. Yes, as I'm sure you have guessed by now, Asians represent themselves in the casino far, far more than any other ethnic group. I'm sure everyone who works in a casino and reads this blog is flabbergasted at this revelation..........not. Some nights at work, here in the middle of the middle of Switzerland and Europe, I feel like I am in China.

Now, there are a lot of stories and analyses in the news today about the ascendancy of China, its massive population and work ethic, its surpassing of the GDP of the economies of Germany, Great Britain, and Japan, the inevitability of its eventual dominance over the global economy and everything else, and its potential effect on international affairs and relations. However, from what I witness and observe on an almost daily basis, I really don't think we have too much to worry about. For starters, they are not just addicted, but absolutely obsessed, with gambling in any and all forms. Gambling is not just an amusing entertainment to enjoy with friends on rare occasions, it is like eating and breathing for them. I'm not sure if they would choose to live without it. Furthermore, they are the second worst gamblers the world has ever known -- after the Swiss, of course. They gamble because they are compelled to, not because they know how to! They do almost everything wrong, believing in their own 'luck' and superstition rather than cold hard statistics and money management. On top of this, if the time they take to ponder, discuss, argue -- and finally decide, to make a bet is any indication of how capable they are in the global marketplace, then we are aaaaaaallll good. Add to this their often complete lack of personal hygiene, their inability to dress themselves with any sense of style or fashion, and their tendency to pick their nose, hawk up loogies, chain smoke, and smell. All we really have to do to put a halt to their designs on global domination is to have American companies build a bunch more casinos in Asia, and keep bringing them to Las Vegas, and eventually we will get all of our money back! Problem solved.

Speaking of cultural differences, lets talk about some more of the differences between Europeans and Americans that I have witnessed and experienced. After all, that's what this Blog is all about! Although many women in Switzerland choose to work and pursue careers, which they are free to, and encouraged to, do if they so desire, it seems that many more than in America choose the alternative of not working, at least when they grow older. I see a lot of women working who are in their twenties and early thirties, but very few who are older than that. Maybe older women are out there working in great numbers, but simply at jobs that do not put them in as frequent contact with the public, I don't know. What I do know is that women on average start having children over here at a much older age than in most parts of the world; well into their thirties, and even into their mid-forties is not uncommon. I've seen pregnant women walking around here that look like they should be grandmothers! At least! At this stage in their lives, they often choose to stay home and care for the children. Personal incomes in Switzerland are such that most families can survive on just the man working, although they do have to be more frugal. Contrary to Americans, they are much more satisfied with fewer "things" in their lives, and most often live in smaller homes, or apartments, own only one,small, car, rarely eat out, use public transportation often, and simply.... live simply. As I've mentioned before, "getting rich", and striving to fill their lives with as many material possessions as possible is really not a priority here. It seems that older women here are often content to give up their jobs or careers, and become career moms. Younger women, though, especially those in their teens and early twenties, do seem to be more insecure and less socially developed than women from other western countries. From what I have seen, they are more "clingy" and desperate for attention and approval when around the opposite sex. I'm not sure of the causes behind this. To be honest, the Swiss in general are all less socially developed than many other western countries. It's really just a small country, of rich nerds!

Many cultural and ethnic relationship dynamics here in Europe strike me as disturbingly "Old World". Do you think that all these countries,representing all these different cultural backgrounds, religions, histories, different languages, different ideas, beliefs,and ways of "seeing" the world are all going to get along "lovey dovey"? Or that all theimmigrants coming here from other, generally less-developed,second or third-world countries and cultures are just going to blend seemlessly into the whole? Don't kid yourself. Most people dislike and distrust anyone different from themselves. I would hazard to guess that most Americans would naìvely conclude that something like the Holocaust could never happen again, that it was a cultural aberation of unique time, place, and situation, that Europeans, and especially Germans, have thoroughly learnt their lessons, are still contrite, and feel horrible about it all.  Ha, Ha, it is to laugh. I am here to tell you that with little provocation(and if they could get away with it), the Holocaust could happen tomorrow. Jews are not well-liked over here, and, along with the Muslims and former Yugoslavian country's immigrants, they are blamed for much of society's ills. They are viewed with suspicion at best, and open hostility and vitriolic hatred at worst.  Unfortunately, they do not try and make it easier for themselves. European Jews, in general, are not like most American Jews. They do not "blend" in, they do not try and assimilate into greater society.  They do everything in their power to differentiate themselves, and thus make themselves an even greater, more obvious target. They are very openly Old School. They are immediately identifiable, for they always, at the least, wear their yarmulkes(even the children), and at the most, old-fashioned black suits, black wide-brimmed hats, and the curls cascading down the sides of their faces. They speak their own language(or English), go out of their way to not associate with those not of their faith, partake of very few social events, sports or activities not of their making, live in their own neighborhoods, marry only their own people, go to their own schools, shop in their own stores, eat their own food, work in their own businesses, bathe infrequently, and have virtually no social skills or identifiable sense of humor, at least among Gentiles.

Overall, there is a lot of suspicion, distrust, and discrimination between and amongst all the European countries, but especially between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, most particularly towards the former Yugoslav countries, and specifically against Gypsies, no matter where they come from. Some of this discrimination may be seen as harmless, but it is nonetheless insidious. Of course, America can be, and has been, just as bad. This is not a competition. Americans are just as capable of discrimination and racial hatred and distrust as anyone from anywhere. Neither am I trying to say that Europe is a cauldron on the point of boiling over with hatred and "ethnic cleansing", but it is also far from a utopia of racial tolerance and comeraderie. Many ugly things lurk just below the surface.......

So, on a more upbeat, carefree note, I just celebrated my birthday on the 14th, and my wife and I went up to the resort of Engelberg by train for the day! We took gondolas and chairlifts up to the top of the mountain, and went innertubing on a glacier in the middle of summer! It was very cool, and incredibly beautiful. Thank you, babe! Most of the pics in this post are of that day. Ciao.

In the gondola

Timi's ready to tube!

At the tram station

Ridin' the tube conveyor belt!

A very dirty glacier

On top of the world!

On the train ride to the mountain

Blowing out my candles

Uniquely Swiss

I'm going to continue to write blogs about everyday experiences and so on while I'm here, but since I'm running out of time, I'm going to try and stuff as much info about the differences between Swiss culture and others as I can in posts like this one. I have culled some of these Swiss idiosyncrasies from my own experiences as well as from other blogs and forums that I have read off the Internet. This is just another random list, by no means complete, of some of those differences, and I will try not to judge any of them as 'good' or 'bad'. You be the judge.

Because of limited opening hours(most stores close by 6pm during the week, by 4pm on Saturdays, and are closed completely on Sundays) most -- especially grocery -- stores are packed, particularly on weekends. I don't just mean "packed", I mean "bat shit crazy Japanese subway at rush hour" packed. So packed that they have crowd control police on scene! Obviously, people who work normal 9 to 5 jobs have very, very little time to do their weekly shopping, except on Saturdays. On one occasion, my wife and I were enjoying hiking around the mountain resort town of Engelberg, not far from Lucerne, this past winter. We got back to the car around 5:00 pm, were a little hungry, so decided to look around for a cafe to grab a little bite to eat. We don't normally eat out, but we were hungry! Unfortunately, there wasn't a cafe or restaurant in the town still open for business. Let me clarify this: Engelberg is a large ski resort, whereas the mountains close down for skiing around 4:30 in the afternoon. At this time, hordes of famished, thirsty people pour down off the mountain and return to their hotel rooms, condos, and so on, eager to grab a bite and a beer and a little social time, and what do they find? A bunch of closed cafes and restaurants, the owners and employees having shut down and gone home to be with their families. This is not,  I repeat not, America.

Prices rarely vary from Grocery stores to convenience stores, or any other stores for that matter. If a sandwich or loaf of bread costs $5 at a huge grocery store in the suburbs, it will also cost $5 downtown, or at the gas station store, or at the store at the top of a mountain, or at the store at an amusement park. Same with gas prices; pretty much the same everywhere you go.

On top of their limited daytime hours, many stores, post offices, banks, etc, close for a long lunch, sometime from noon to 3pm!

Business and apartment building are rarely made from wood here. They are mostly built from concrete, steel, and stone. So are roads, freeways, tunnels, bridges, and so on. This requires cranes. There are always a lot of buildings and roads under construction or renovation, so there are always a ton of cranes around. I mean a ton. In any small village, there might be 5 or more building cranes dotting the skyline. I remember when people were impressed when Las Vegas had 15 or more cranes around the city......a city of almost 2 million. Here, in a town of perhaps 50,000, there could be that many. No kidding.

There are lots of photo radars in most towns to catch speeders, and the fines are huge, usually hundreds of dollars. They simply mail you the ticket, minus the photo. If you dispute it and it turns out it really was you, then the fine moves up into the thousands. There are very few accidents here. Do not speed in Switzerland.

There are random driver license/registration checkpoints set up by police.

Custom license plates are not allowed. Most license plates start with two letters representing the city you are registered in, such as LU for Lucerne, followed by six numbers and letters.

Parking spaces are small! If you own a slightly larger than average car, than it often becomes quite difficult to park it.

There are many, many great, economical small cars here in Europe. Dozens of different models with dozens of different features. You can really get a nice, luxurious, fashionable little car here that gets great gas mileage for a reasonable amount, at least outside of Switzerland.

Most cars are still stick shifts. Since most people here do most of their driving in cities, this make no sense whatsoever.

Almost all mailboxes are the same here, with a small section for letters above, and a larger door for packages and advertisement below. Everyone has a small plaque with their names inscribed on it, and another plaque that they use to indicate whether or not they want advertisements delivered to them.

All doors only lock with a key, so there is no way to lock yourself out of your home. Most doors also have handles, not knobs, so that if you can't use your hand to open the door(e.g. your hands are full of groceries), then you can use an elbow or your hip or whatever.

There are no smoke detectors in apartments.

Swiss keys are not like American. They have no notches, but rather a bunch of circular indentations. Much harder to copy or fake.

One can rent sheep here, and this is frequently done, to keep your lawn or field cropped nicely, as well as fertilized along the way.

Stores, factories, industrial, and residential areas are not separated into sections like in America. Sometimes you will find retail and commercial centers within apartment buildings and neighborhoods, and vice versa.

All children's names must come from a government-approved list. If the child is from another country, than his/her name must be proven to be acceptable within that country, via an official statement from that country's Embassy. There are no Dweezil Zappas, Moondusts, Apples, or Shitheads(pronounced Shuh-teed!) here.

Eating out is outrageously expensive here, yet groceries can often be found quite reasonably. Because of this mysterious disconnect, few people eat out very often. Also because of this, restaurant food is most often mediocre at best, with mediocre service. With no vibrant dining culture in Switzerland, there is very little demand to make excellent, innovative meals. I consider this epically tragic.

You must always pay for water in a restaurant, even if it comes from the tap, and it usually costs as much as a Coke or something similar. There are no -- repeat no -- free refills on anything.

Condiments, such as mayonnaise and ketchup, usually come in squeeze tubes, like toothpaste.

Cash is used much more often in Switzerland. It also comes in more denominations, such as two hundred, and one thousand. The smallest bills are tens, and anything smaller is in coins. They have small stuff, as well as 1, 2, and 5 Franc coins. All businesses have tons of cash on hand, so they don't blink twice if you buy a lollipop with a two hundred Franc bill. Very few robberies in Switzerland.

Personal checks are never used. Everything can be paid in cash, online, or via the bank's "Multimat", an ATM-like machine that accepts little chits with the bill info on them, and then debits your bank account for the amount.

One never pays for services, such as a car repair, at the point of service. All bills are mailed to you, and you pay them in one of the above methods.

The desire to "get rich", so prevalent in America, is not an obsession here. People are usually quite content with a normal income, even leaders of large corporations. The pay difference between employees and CEO's here is much, much narrower than in America. Doctor's also do not get into medicine to "strike it rich", they get into it because helping sick and injured people is what they want to do.

Cell phones are common, but not commonly used. It is very expensive to make a call. Same with texting. However, they work everywhere, no matter how rural, no matter if on the top of a mountain. There are no "dead zones".

Nudity, in advertisements and on TV, is considerably more common and accepted here. No muss, no fuss. Sexy Lingerie ads are frequently placed outside of stores for all to see, and there seems to be a lot of Lingerie stores!

There is very little air conditioning used here. Of course, the weather in Lucerne doesn't really call for it often, but even in the hotter southern climes, it is not common.

Switzerland is very "dog friendly". Dogs are allowed everywhere, in grocery stores, malls, shops, restaurants, and they are generally very well-behaved. All owners must take classes in dog-training and care.

Here is your interesting Swiss fact of the day: There are approximately 700,000 cows in Switzerland, most of them dairy cows that live a long, productive --and pampered -- life. There are numerous laws that control the treatment of cows here. Barns must be built to allow the cows both movement inside and out, they cannot be confined to only hard, concrete flooring, their living quarters must be kept extremely clean and orderly, they must have devices installed whereby the cows can scratch, rub, and massage themselves, they must be able to get exercise each day, and to have nice views for their enjoyment and mental enrichment. The Swiss government subsidizes these cows by providing to their owners around 5 Swiss Francs each and every day, for every head of cattle they own, for their care and upkeep. That's 3.5 million Swiss Francs every day for all the cows in Switzerland! One billion two hundred and seventy seven point five million a year spent on Swiss cows. This doesn't include other forms of Swiss government support for their bovine loved ones. Another interesting fact is that in the last 100 years cows have almost doubled in size.  They are almost twice as big today as the average cow was in 1900!  I find that amazing.  Anyway, all together, each cow here costs the Swiss approximately 4,000 Swiss Francs a year, which equates to 2.8 billion. That's a lot of cabbage, or perhaps I should say 'hay', to be spending on good ol' Bessy! In comparison, however, they spend about 12,000 Francs a year to educate each Swiss child. Contrary to many myths, human children in Switzerland are still deemed more important than cows. Check out the video below.

YouTube - Swiss Cows live in better conditions than many humans

I've written a lot over the last 10 months about the abundance of rules in Switzerland. I guess all these rules, and laws, and restrictions, and regulations are well meant, and can certainly result in a lot of positive consequences for a society. When it comes down to it, though, I believe there are just too many rules in Switzerland, and, most importantly, they are enforced too rigidly and uncompromisingly. There are rules created for a human society to live by, to give structure and comfort and safety -- but in Switzerland --they do not allow for enough humanity. We have rules in America, too, lots of them. I freely admit this. Any society needs them of course, and sometimes they don't work well, sometimes they go horribly wrong -- but most of the time they do what they are supposed to. The difference with rules in America, though, is that we know why we have them, and we usually know when to relax them, or to bend them, to work around them, or to just sometimes -- for special reasons -- ignore them. The Swiss do not know how to do this, they cannot do this. They have rules simply for the sake of having rules. They live for their precious rules, but they do not let the rules allow them to live -- at least not like most cultures. This rigidity, in my opinion, lends itself to cultural stagnation, stultification. In some ways, at least socially, Switzerland is like a medieval village, cut off from the rest of civilization, blithely and smugly ignorant of the progress and changes that have happened in the greater world. I think that the Swiss' love of rules has really damaged their ability to innovate, to create, to imagine new ideas, concepts, technologies, and products. With the increase in inflexible rules that govern every micro-detail of their lives, they are becoming more and more staid, less flexible, less able to imagine different ways of doing things, and more convinced that the Swiss way is the only way.

This is not to say that the Swiss are not clever, or unable to absorb and utilize other countries technology, or well-educated; they are all these things, as well as being industrious and productive, and they are able to play the system very well here in the middle of Europe, surrounded on all sides by another, much more massive political and social entity. Of course, they have banking, which brings in massive amounts of money, and employs a sizable portion of the population in one way or another. They also have tourism, which they are very aware of and nurture and develop very enthusiastically, seeing as it represents another major sector of their overall economy. Then they have very favorable tax rates, both personal and corporate, compared to both the United States and the rest of Western Europe. Their sales tax is only 7.6%, just over half that of the rest of Europe's average of 15%, their average total individual payroll tax burden is only about 19%, and their average corporate tax rates are around 10-12%, one-fourth that of the United States --which is another major reason the U.S. is losing so many companies overseas. Because of all these reasons and more, their unemployment rate is around 4%, half that of the rest of Europe, and less than half that of the U.S. In some communities here, less than 1% of the available workforce is unemployed!

Another factor that could, combined with their willingness to adapt other culture's advances in technology and productivity, ultimately save Switzerland's long-term future is that of immigration. Switzerland's native population has been, is, and will continue, to shrink for the foreseeable future. I've referred many times in this Blog to the incredible abundance of old people in Switzerland, and they ain't having any kids! Neither are many of the younger people. Young people in the last generation, in all developed countries, have become more interested in pursuing their own goals and interests, as well as wanting to live a higher, kids-free, standard of living than their parents did, and Switzerland is no exception. Modern generations of people, living in modern countries, want to travel and see the world, pursue higher education and careers, enjoy all the sublime pleasures and opportunities of life -- very few want the responsibility, burden, and questionable benefits of having and raising children(not necessarily my viewpoint!). Cultural priorities have shifted, and being bombarded constantly with the message that the world is overpopulated, too polluted, and going through massive climate changes as a result of that overpopulation and pollution, is certainly not slowing this shift down. And as I've also said before, kids are expensive here!

Somewhere between 20-25% of the Swiss population is foreign born, and this statistic is only rising. During the recent economic crisis, the appeal of Switzerland as a place to emigrate has only increased. It was only in These foreign born immigrants have really begun to change things here in Switzerland. They are bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things, with mixed results. Crime and graffiti are on the rise, but the immigrants also bring more tax revenue to help maintain Switzerland's level of prosperity and social welfare mechanisms. They are also having children. Lots of them. It is not hard to extrapolate and imagine the changes that all of these immigrants and their children will have on the Swiss system.

More and more Swiss are also leaving the country, and only some of them come back. More than 10% of Swiss citizens live outside of the country, mostly though in bordering countries, not too far away. In 2002 the Swiss started opening their borders to "old" EU countries, with some restrictions. In 2007, they opened their borders to even the "new" EU countries, and lowered most of the restrictions; except the main one, that you have to have a job offer and acceptance from a company within Switzerland. No one can emigrate to Switzerland without first securing employment. That is a really good law, in my opinion. In 2009, they dropped the restrictions to Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavian countries. It will be interesting to watch the changes that this new openness to immigration will produce.

The Black Forest, Headwaters of the Danube, and Europa Park!

Getting around to describing our last trip to Germany has been a long time coming. I've kept meaning to do it, but so many other things have been happening to us, or we have been causing to happen, that it just keeps getting put on a back burner. No longer.

My wife, Timi, had been wanting to go see the headwaters of the Danube river for a long time, and once she discovered that Europa Park -- Europe's answer to Disneyland -- wasn't too far away, it became imperative that we do it. I wasn't overly excited about any of the planned activities, except wanting to see the Black Forest in Germany, but I'm always open to going someplace new and checking things out, so I let her do all the planning, and I just went along! It turns out, ironically, that the Black Forest was a bit of a let down, and the headwaters of the Danube and Europa Park were the highlights.

Timi wanted to book us into this little spa/hot springs town, called Bad Durheim, not too far from the Danube springs in Southwestern Germany, so that we could have a "Spa" weekend on top of everything else. The town turned out to be very quaint and nice, with a huge, beautiful park and lots of ice cream cafes, but the spa facilities were so overrun with old people -- really, really old people -- just standing and sitting and shuffling around in the water, that we kind of got creeped out and decided not to go. I don't mean to say that old people creep me out in general, but such a dense magnitude of them in a contained area gives me the willies a bit. Sorry. To be honest, though, I think I might be disturbed by any single, homogeneous group of humans congregating in one place for seemingly odd purposes. A pool full of nothing but little kids? Kind of creepy. All pregnant women? Creepy. Fat people? Very creepy -- and a little gross. All men? Creepy too. All young, attractive women? Not so creepy, but a little odd.

The trip there involved driving through parts of the Black Forest of Germany, which I was looking forward to. Before we left, I imagined traveling through darkened, ominous regions of brooding primeval forest. I was hoping to get lucky and catch a glimpse of Hansel and Gretel, perhaps tell them to watch out for any cottages made of gingerbread and candy canes, and any suspicious old wart-nosed, snaggle-toothed crones. Or maybe give a shout out to any young girl skipping through the forest in a red riding hood. You never know about wolves in those parts. It would really have been awesome to espy some Trolls or Goblins traipsing and lurking around some dark glen -- but no luck with any of that. Unfortunately, the Black Forest of Germany, although pretty, was extremely domesticated and tamed. It had probably all been chopped to the ground, in phases, 15 times in the last 30o years. There was no old growth, and absolutely no ancient fairy tales gamboling about. What a bummer! Apparently, if it hadn't been for the plague sweeping through Europe multiple times during the Dark Ages, and killing off two thirds of the human population, there would be no Black Forest at all today to speak of. It was a nice drive, though.

The day after we got there, we headed down the road to the town of Donaueschingen, which means something like the "Gift of the Danube" or whatever, where the springs of the Danube sprung. It was another nice little town, where one of the springs of the river come bubbling up out of the earth, is contained by an ancient, intricate, circular stone cistern on the property of what was probably the Noble's manor who used to control this particular area of Germany in centuries past, and then trickles down and into the creek. I'm not sure why they gave this particular spring the designation of the head water of the Danube, seeing as how there is already a creek that it empties into, but apparently there are multiple springs in the area that all come together, and once they've all properly met, the Danube begins. Whatever the reason, it was interesting, and we had a nice walk around the town and along the banks of the beginning of the Danube. It was a good day, and my wife declared herself satisfied.


The next day, we headed to Europa Park! About an hours drive from our hotel, it's in the middle of Southern Germany. Timi had really been looking forward to it, but I was skeptical. I really didn't see how it could compare to Disneyland, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, or most of the other American amusement parks. After all, who had ever heard of Europa Park? I certainly hadn't before moving to Switzerland, but everyone in the world has heard of Disneyland, right? I am happy to say I was pleasantly surprised. The park was much bigger than I had anticipated, and close to the quality of Disneyland. Not quite as nice as Disneyland, but considering that it's a younger park, nobody knows about it outside of Europe, and it probably doesn't make nearly the money Disneyland makes, I would definitely give it five stars. Also, I would say there were even more food offerings, that it was mostly good quality food, and it wasn't even very expensive! No charging you $15 for a lousy cheeseburger and fries, or $8 for a churro. It was really reasonably priced, tasted good, and was served in a nice environment. Gotta say I was impressed. Maybe it was partly from our having become accustomed to Swiss restaurant food prices and quality!

That pretty well covers our last Germany trip -- and still leaves me way behind on all the life we have been living lately. I still have to talk about Timi's parent's visit, our trip to Geneva, and update our progress towards leaving Switzerland and heading back to the homeland.

Now in keeping with my intent to write at least something about Switzerland in every blog post, here is a little tidbit. There is a government sponsored and paid-for service in Switzerland called "Dial-a-rubber". If you and your sweetheart happen to be getting a little hot and heavy, but are caught unprepared, then you can call this number, and they will send a bicycle messenger out to your address as quick as can be with the necessary merchandise, and the sweet lovin' can begin again with no worries. It's part of a federal program to keep HIV/AIDS and other STD's infection levels as low as possible. What a concept! See you next blog!