The Start of the Adventure - Part 1 Zurich

After an almost sleepless night, waking up at 5 am to catch the first bus to the train station, taking the first direct train to Paris (6 am), changing train stations in Paris, getting on the TGV in Paris (after it had been delayed due to a snow storm in Paris) then taking the TGV just across the Swiss border into Basil before being told to switch to a regional ICE train to get into Zurich, finally getting into Zurich two hours late. I finally found Sue! Although I have asked this question many times, I found it hilarious that one of her first questions is how we were connected. And this is the story in brief. She was a foreign exchange student for my cousin, who I call my aunt, but is technically my dad’s first cousin. So Sue stayed with my great aunt for a year back when she was younger. So my aunt only saw it fitting that I would go visit her while I was on study abroad.
So then after about 12 hours of travel in total (it seems that my life tends to be that way huh?) then a 45 minute car ride into the Swiss country side, and I got into their home just before dark. What little I was able to see of the Swiss country side it is beautiful! Now I’m in their kitchen making jokes about my blog, their tractor of a car and eating strangely delicious Christmas cookies with some sort of spice and some tea. Ah, how nice it is to be in a home! We are having potatoes and meat for dinner tonight, very traditional, and very good for the cold weather.
So it’s strange to be in a house again where I can’t understand what the people are saying. I just got over that in my French home! Now I will have to learn some German! AH there are too many languages in the world and not enough time.
Chef Put-Put then fed me cookies and tea while we were talking about family, friends, my time in France and everything else. While waiting for the kids to come home from the slopes (oh the Swiss) or school, we prepared dinner. To prepare this dinner, potatoes were boiled, then shaved and seasoned. There was a pile about 10 inches high, and this is no joke, of potatoes that were fried into a large hash brown patty. Then some meat and mushrooms were cooked into a seasoned cream sauce and finally a salad with a homemade dressing was put on the table and everyone dug in!
An interesting fact that I have just learned is that foodie in Swiss-German means “ass”, or I think the more literal translation is “big ass”. So they had a good laugh about the name of my blog because they thought it meant “Big Ass in France”. But really I explained that I like food, and foodie starts with F, just like France. Then I think they understood – but still found it amusing. After dinner we sat around and talked for some time, then finally people started to drift off (and I started to drift off to sleep! Been awake for over 17 hours now and traveling almost that entire time) then there was a fire light in the fire place, and I found my cozy nook to write in on my baby computer that everyone is so enthralled with!
Peace, Love and Swiss Cheese!