I've been checking out a lot of the other Blogs by Swiss Expats, and although many are very good, entertaining, and enlightening, they are also discouraging. Discouraging because, again, some of them are very good, much better than mine, and it sometimes makes me not want to write mine anymore! Ah well, I have to keep on keepin' on, if for nothing more than the sake of my loyal followers. So here goes!

Timi and I finally went skiing! This was Timi's first time ever and my first time in over 12 years, so it was a pretty exciting day for us. We went with a friend of ours from work, Vera, and we all drove up the shore of Lake Lucerne to a small village called Vitznau, and from there took one of the oldest cog-wheel trains in Europe up to the top of Mt. Rigi, one of the main mountains rising from the shores of the lake. Now, Mt. Rigi does not have a world-class ski resort on its slopes, but more like an old-fashioned type of ski area, with only four old-style Poma and T-bar lifts, and the cog-wheel train tracks going right on through the middle of the whole thing! We went to this ski area instead of one of the fancier, full-service resorts around the area mainly because it was free. We have access to free passes to the mountain and the 'resort' area and all its facilities as a perk of working at Grand Casino Luzern. It worked out well, though, because it was easier to teach Timi the basics of skiing at a small, simple resort like this rather than a big, fancy, busy resort like Engelberg. So, I spent most of the day teaching Timi as much as I could about skiing. She knew nothing, so was a clean slate so to speak. She had to learn everything, from how to carry her skis, to how to put her boots on and clip into her bindings, to how to catch and ride the lifts up the slopes, to how to Snowplow and stop, to how to crash as safely as possible, to how to get back up and into her skis. All told, I think she made a lot of progress and did very well. Why, within the first few hours she had already mastered picking up her skis and poles in a tangled heap and smashing them onto the snow as hard as she could. And her ability to swear at the top of her lungs in three languages while simultaneously hurtling down the slope on her face was awe-inspiring. Like she'd been doing it her whole life! I'm very proud of her. And so what if she accidentally skied onto the train tracks, then fell down, lost one ski, couldn't get up, and came within seconds of getting run over by a train? These are common occurrences. I know you all wish you could have seen her rip off her other ski, throw all her gear off the tracks, and then do a somersaulting flip over the train track snow berm from a stand still. It was awesome! Seriously, though, even with all of the inherent frustrations in learning something as complex as skiing, she made a lot of progress, and even if right now she has vowed to never set foot on a ski slope again, and has cursed the day she met me, I think that she has a lot of potential. Maybe I'll buy her some skis for our anniversary, I bet she would love that. Now you can never say that I don't know a lot about women!

I forgot to mention that several weeks ago we drove up to a small village in the Alps called Grindelwald. Grindelwald is the gateway to the Jungfraujoch, the tallest mountain in the Alps, also called the 'Top of Europe'. We went to see the World Snow Festival, but that turned out to be a bust, just a handfull of not so well-sculpted snow sculptures by teams from countries around the world, including the United States. Canada's was probably the best, but it wasn't really even good enough to be included in this post. The town of Grindelwald was nice, though, and it's setting was magnificent, with the Jungfrau peak and others in the background, cradling the small village of Grindelwald in their skirts.

Even though the World Snow Festival was a bit of a bust, just the trip to the village and experiencing the sights was worth it. The natural beauty everywhere here in Switzerland is unsurpassed, you really don't have to be good at taking pictures, just turn your camera on, point it anywhere, and shoot. You're bound to catch something good.

In other major events in our Swiss life, we scored a new apartment! I've already posted pics of the view from the balcony of this apartment, but no pictures from the inside. That's because I don't have any, but hopefully soon will. We made a good impression on the guy currently living there, as well as the guy who is subletting it to the guy who is currently living there! The guy who is living there now is originally from Mexico, but has lived in Switzerland for twenty years. He's fallen in love with a women who lives in Mexico, so is moving back to Mexico city. His name is Hans Peter Schwartz, so is obviously of at least half German ancestry, but I think he relates more to his Mexican side and is pretty happy to be moving back to his homeland. He had a giant Mexican flag on the wall in the dining room, which was a clue to his identity. I spouted a little bit in what is my now extremely limited Spanish, and we talked a little bit about Mexico. I think he liked that. Timi had also written a really nice e-mail to the guy subletting the place as soon as the ad hit the internet, and that had an impact on our winning the place. Otherwise, our chances would have been pretty slim to beat out real Swiss people applying for the place. It's a two bedroom, one bath, with a good-sized living room, a balcony, and a dishwasher! The bathroom is very small, but we'll have to adapt. It's also very close to the Lido, which is the main public beach and summer entertainment area in the Lucerne area, with some cool museums, IMAX theatre, and a planetarium nearby, and it looks out over a creek and walking paths up into the hills. It will be sweet in the summer. It's a little further from our work than we currently are, but we could still walk there in twenty minutes or so. The rent is $1,380 plus $60 for parking, which will be about $300 less than we are paying right now. We just have to get our current apartment rented out by the end of the month, or we will be liable for that rent as well. Wish us luck!

In my next post I will be talking about the Swiss Carnival, which is huge here in Lucerne. Stay tuned!