Kyle Should Be a Model

I guess I forgot to post the pictures of the stuff we got at the parade. This style of cap must be the Swiss free style...(Fun 4 You Arosa? Anybody...please...) I'm not quite sure what guild was passing out the caps, but for the rest of the day everyone was wearing them!

The bread is from the bakers guild and the sausage is from the butchers. Thats right, thats completely unwrapped, made by hand, touched by at least 2 dozen people and passed out by hand, feed to your small children on the side of the parade route - sausage. (We didn't actually it it.)
Yes, Kyle was aware that all of these pictures were being taken and even was told that they were going on the blog...

Sechselauten

Old Settler's Day + Groundhog Day + NYC NYE = Sechselauten

Yesterday was Sechselauten day. The city of Zurich gets half a day off work (that's right...a HALF of a day - because everyone is so much more productive the first 4 hours of the day then the last).

We took the tram to the Paradaplatz (it's like the tram station along the 'Rodeo Drive' of Zurich) and walked up the parade root looking at the vendors and festivities. The vendors were all very Swiss; there was the sticky cheese on toast vendor, the hot dog baguette and Goulash vendor (with no ketchup, only mustard), the Thai food vendor, the chocolate and chocolate vendor, and the pretzel wrapped in bacon and cheese vendor.

The tradition of the parade dates way back (don't ask, I don't actually know). The guilds get together and put on this parade to celebrate their professions. There are butchers and bakers (and candlestick makers), barbers, bankers, professors....pretty much every profession has a guild (now, old the men of the profession are allowed to join and attend the meetings, but don't get me started on my feelings on that). The spectators showed up with huge bags and baskets full of flowers of all kinds. As they see their local butcher (or baker or insurance agent) march past they run out in the middle of the parade to give them some flowers, and they continue to do this until the parade is over. The guild members in the parade (which does include women) are apparently dressed in their traditional garb and even some of the guilds throw out their wears.

There are even floats and bands in the parade! We listened to three marching bands. The first one played the theme song to Hawaii five-0, the second played a song by John Philip Sousa, and the last played 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' by Stevie Wonder. Doesn't anyone else find that HILARIOUS!?! Here are a few pictures to show the crazy (I guess historic) costumes.

(Doesn't this guy remind you of the crazy Muppet from the Labyrinth?)(I think this is the queen of the parade)

(These are the barbers)

(Notice all of the flowers)

After the parade of all of the guilds they walk down to the park by the lake (and opera house - where a couple of the big soccer games will be played this summer) to burn the snowman. It is a big snowman made of hay on top of a 3 story hay pile. The theory goes that the faster the snowman burns the faster summer will come, and the nicer it will be. Although the locals have a theory as well, the more lighter fluid the guilds put on it the faster it will burn...

Each guild gets a couple of minutes to ride around the hay stack on their horses and fan the fire (while their bands plays - probably the theme song from 'Friends' or 'CSI-Miami'). Here's what the snowman starts looking out like:

(Here's a video on the last 3 min of the snowman burning)

On our walk back to the house we walked past the arcade where Kyle tried to win a price by throwing beanbags at a stack of tin cans (just to say that he did) when it started to hail (what a great day for a holiday spent outside). When we got back to the parade route the street sweepers and cleaners were almost done cleaning up all of the trash...

Overall it was a pretty cool day, even though it was a terribly rainy day...

Here Comes The Rain Again...

....raining on my head like a tragedy...

(if you can 'name that tune' you get 10 points - and are beating kyle by oh, about 10 points!)

The weather here is quite interesting. I thought the weather in Kansas was fickle; welcome to Zürich in April!

It seriously rains here at least 4 times a day. I don't mean like it sprinkles and then stops for a while and rains some more...at least in Kansas when it rains it rains for like 3 days straight and then it's done. You're not teased with the thought of being able to leave the house.

Just about every morning I wake up and it's POURING, it rains for a couple of hours and clears up to look like it's going be a beautiful sunny day. Around lunch time the 'someone's about to get murdered' clouds roll in and it storms some more, clears up, rains, clears up, rains...

We've been told that the summer is beautiful here...I can't wait!

Crystal's Weight Loss Regiment

Step 1. Move to Switzerland

Step 2. Refer to step one

Not only are people weighed in kg instead of lbs (conversion rate to be determined) so the number on the scale is smaller but it's easier not to eat when you can't read what your eating. (Not to mention I still don't have any money to buy junk food...)

I went to the Migros the other day to buy a few things...rule one was to not guess what I was buying; if I couldn't see what it was or didn't know I just wouldn't buy it. I found some 'basil' sauce (basically marinara sauce) YUM. I got it home and made it for dinner, it was like stewed tomatoes with little flecks of green and brown YUCK. New rule, don't buy it unless you can SEE what it looks like, even if you know what it is.

...oh, and the basil sauce came it a giant juice box, in fact lots of sauces and liquids come in varying sizes of juice boxes, good thing I was able to use my super power of deduction to know it wasn't - otherwise I would have been sorely disappointed...

Here is a picture of the first meal I made in Switzerland (I know, I know, boiling water and heating up spaghetti sauce really isn't a meal but Kyle's lucky to no t be eating cereal for every meal, lay off!)

You see the box correctly. We had Disney brand Creamy. We decided that it's the love child of marinara and alfredo sauce - Kyle's in heaven! (you can see what I mean about the giant juice boxes?)

Thank you Joe Freach

...this is what we feel like everyday...