Zurich!

Ready for another lightning-speed, skipping details catch-up blog?

This is Zurich, which someone told me today is actually the largest city in Switzerland. Which surprised me because I'm not a city person, and even i didn't think it was all that big.



A lovely Old Cathedral.

"Pizza Go Home" This is either a failed attempt at "we do delivery" or "our pizza tastes homemade" or else some strain of anti-pizza sentiment rampant in German-speaking Switzerland.

Ah German Speaking Switzerland... I have never been in a country before in which i knew absolutely NONE of the language. I tried to learn the word for "excuse me" from Anne, who live in Zurich for 3 years of High School, but whatever she said sounded to me like a 4 syllable sneeze. So needless to say, in every crowded store we went into, I was reduced to waiting to get around people and smiling apologetically like a mute if I bumped anyone.

I tried to buy post cards, thinking I could just hold out the money and leave... but the woman behind the counter actually said something to me that sounded interrogative and I panicked, totally frozen. I didn't even reason that I could try French or English in this very multilingual city... I just stared blankly at her, like Road runner staring up at the anvil crashing down on him.

Thankfully, she must have been used to this kind of behavior and immediately said, in a perfect accent, "English? Do you want stamps?"

It really made me reflect on how foreigners feel who come to live in a place as monolingual as America.


Some more pictures:

This is a great statue, but I just realized that this angle sort of makes it look like a terrible story of abuse.


pretty!

So yes, most of the day was spent walking around, seeing Anne's old house and school, trying to understand the significance of a mysterious company building with a sign on it that said "Hebert the Nose"... and shopping/ generally sightseeing.

Also, in the more suburban part of Zurich, farther from the city center, we found this incredible slide. It was definitely a highlight of the day for me.