Ali – It’s hard to believe but a year has gone by. It’s July 31, 2017 at 6:30 am and I’m in the Zurich Flughafen waiting for my flight home
. You may be surprised to hear I am taking Condor Air, which was the disasterous seasonal airline we flew when we moved to Switzerland that stranded us in Frankfurt. I am, naturally, headed first to Frankfurt so we’ll see how that all works. Maybe I won’t be leaving Europe after all!
This past weekend I got my Swiss life all packed up, saying goodbye to a few friends and crying in a few more large Swiss beers. I also did one last trip to the Flussbad, and I will miss its hepatitis-free water.
However, I have already been in touch with my city and state representatives to ask them to clean up the Baltimore/Maryland waterways. So who knows what hepatitis-light Flussbads may be in my future along the Jones Falls.
In my last couple days I got in two last Swiss experiences. First some friends took me to Bauschnäzli, an artificial island that was an old Zurich fortification from the 1600s that is now a restaurant where you can go listen to live music and watch elderly Swiss people dance (note: those are Maya’s friends, Lil and Sarah, dancing and not Swiss old people).
I was looking for an opportunity to use the rest of my Lunch Checks
, which I call my Swiss food stamps. They are a work benefit that gets you half off restaurant and prepared food. But before you get jealous, may I point out that restaurant food is about twice as expensive here so I’m only paying what you would pay in the states. I think our beer plus fries bill came to 130 CHF.
The second treat was a very very very Swiss restaurant that my Greek Swiss friend, Alexia, and her dad took me to out by Pfäffikon (so out of the multicultural Zürich city center). I didn’t take pictures, which is a shame (lots of cowbell), but I ate the local Swiss dish: horse. Yup. The Swiss farm and eat horse, which for Americans I think may seem like eating the family dog. The matron of the establishment came out to make sure it was cooked to my liking – not that I had any clue what she asked because of the heavy Swiss German being thrown at me. In Swiss German es ist gut? becomes something like eschguet? I just smiled and nodded at whatever she said, like a good foreigner. Anyway it really was indistinguishable from medium rare beef in taste and is prized for its leanness – its true, you rarely see obese horses.
Well that’s about it for me. I’ve had my airport capuchino and last butter gipfeli. I’ve been told I should at least keep up the blog until I get back to regular life in the US, so I can document my culture shock as a returning American. Then we will see what the future brings to the Swiss Family Abraham.
Good bye Switzerland. It’s been fun. 
