Well, my vacation is over. I have to start working again tomorrow, and I can't say I really want to. This has been the longest period of time I have gone without working since I was sixteen!, and I have kind of enjoyed it. I'm also a bit nervous about the whole language thing. Haven't been practicing German as much as I should have been cause I've been enjoying my time off. Ah well, I just have to bite the bullet and do it. It will be an interesting learning experience no matter what. Jumping into new experiences and dislodging your life's train from the tracks of complacency and mundanity keeps the neurons firing! A bit of a mixed metaphor there, but you get my point. Like I always say, "You only live once!".
In other news, we joined a gym today, the nice one just down by the lake, called Fitness Park. Very nice, with indoor and heated outdoor pools of various temperatures. They even heat one of them up to 36c one day a week for "Babyschwimmin" day. That is, for baby's to come and swim, presumably with their parents, it might get out of control if it was just a bunch of babies swimming around in a pool. Funny picture! Also, a salt room. Don't know what a salt room is? I didn't either. A salt room is a room where one goes after a work out to relax in lounge chairs and breathe in air infused with a lot of salt. This is supposed to be healthy for oneself, but one shouldn't overdo it, only for twenty minutes or so. I have no idea if this is really healthy or not, or what would happen if you stayed in there too long, but its pretty popular here --- I guess I should research this. The gym also has strength training and cardio rooms, and massage areas and a cafe, the whole works. I think the building it's in used to be a big house, or a hotel, because it is like 5 stories high, and the pools are on the top floor with nice views of the lake and the city. I'll add some pics in later. There are four other gyms around town owned by the same company(Migros, one of the Swiss semi-monopolies) that we can use, so even if we move out of the downtown core someday, we shouldn't be far from one, although the one we joined is the nicest we have seen. Not cheap though, it will cost $900 a year each, and that is with our health insurance discount! Some of the gyms around town here are a like a blast from the past, I haven't seem gyms like these since I was a kid. Located in dingy, sad industrial districts, little or no parking, broken asphalted, potholed streets filled with commercial dumpsters and loading docks, almost no signage, on the top of an old converted warehouse that you have to walk up five flights of exposed-metal stairs to get to, filled with equipment left over from a communist liquidation sale, and a six-foot tall steroid-enhanced female linebacker named Olga, with two short pigtails sticking out from the side of her head, telling you she "vil break you". Geez, all I wanted was some information! That was totally an exaggeration, I got a little carried away; her name was actually Helga. But seriously, some of these gyms here really are old school.
The Swiss really seem to do a lot to encourage people to have children and interact with them in public places. I guess its all part of the cultural and governmental focus on more children. Tax incentives and such. Most European countries have shrinking populations due to a myriad of factors I will touch on in some later Post. Except the countries with a large Muslim population; the Muslims are still producing offspring like rabbits. Good news that, huh? That's all for now, 'till next Post!
No comments:
Post a Comment