IrishOboe

Due to certain circumstances I am spending a rather large amount of time with a sweet young Swiss gal.  It is she who is teaching me some phrases and I forgot to mention that she also told me that if you say you have a boyfriend it is assumed you’re sleeping with him.  Stephan didn’t tell me that part, but I’m hoping the social dynamics change once out of high school.  Anyway, today SG came bubbling to me in Swiss German, and though I caught her greeting the rest sounded like beautiful, cute, unintelligible nonsense.  I started laughing, but her story was funny so she kept going.  It wasn’t until the end that I confessed my ignorance and the whole story came again in High German.  Trial by fire – it’s the only way I’m going to learn, I guess!  It reminded me of my favorite scene in “Finding Nemo,” so hence the blog title.

Today was a good day.  I got good work done in the practice room, managed to concentrate well enough in classes, enjoyed seeing people again, and didn’t stress too much about all I have to do.

Folks are starting to come back from vacation, which is a lovely thing.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay long at coffee hour because I had to get back home for Veronika’s Epiphany party.  Dreikönigstag has more of a tradition in Switzerland than it does in the states.  Veronika had nine people over for fondue and a special cake with small king hidden inside.  Whoever gets the piece with the king gets a crown on his head and I’m sure more happens but with a bunch of middle-aged single folks getting a paper crown is about as wild as it gets.  I found the cake really delicious.  It was a kind of cross between cake and whole wheat bread and biscuits.  Yum.