From the 22nd of December to the 11th of January I was in Switzerland visiting family and friends.
The weather was unseasonably warm right around Christmas and the following week.
I arrived on the afternoon of the 23rd at Zurich International airport with two extremely heavy bags. After dinner my mother insisted on opening one of our presents early, which she ordered and had sent to California for me to bring.
The gift was Days of Wonder's "Ticket to Ride" board game. Its a high risk, high strategy board game revolving around the premise that you (the player) are one of up to five railroad barons on one of several maps (depending on which version of the game you buy, or which expansion maps you invest in) ranging from the best part of North America, all of Central and parts of Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, India and Switzerland. Having played at least five games with a host of different competitors, I am as of yet undefeated.
Our family's Christmas celebration was very low key. Fondue for dinner and then we opened presents. I'm not sure when this part of the tradition crept into the position of annual recurrence, however the rest of my family assures me we've been doing this for years (I have little recollection of this) After the gift exchange we all went to our separate corners of the house.
Now as I was attempting to adjust to the local time zone, I made the fatal mistake of staying up late a few nights in a row resulting in the desired adjustment to be perfectly normal to stay up until 02:00 and sleep until 11 or 12. (I don't normally sleep that late, I'm very much a morning person) So this adjustment to my body clock proceeded to mess me up the rest of my time in Switzerland. This however, was the accidental first experiment in jetlag, its effects, and how to best conquer and control it. I now intend to experiment with every chance I get
On Christmas Day we had Joshua (of the Ratpack), his mom and sister over for Brunch, which was very tasty! We had Eggs, French Toast, Dim Sum and Noodles. I'm not a big fan of Dim Sum I'm afraid.
In the evening my sister, father and I drove up to my Aunt's house (My father's sister) to have dinner with all of his side of the family. It was good to see them all again. My second cousin Samuel is currently completing his first 21 weeks of Boot camp and Army Service. My aunt, uncle and the rest of the family are all doing well. A tradition I look forward to every year is going out after dinner with Samuel and his younger brother Simon to smoke a cigar and catch up on life, the universe and everything.
Between Christmas and New Years I hung out with Charlie T and Joshua L. They both came over and spent the night on New Years Eve. We had Black & Tans, played both Mario Kart and Super Mario Bros. and had a great time. We sorely missed our brother Caleb who is currently in South East Asia doing missions work.
On the 2nd of January at around 12:00 my father and I picked up my friend Kaitlin S. from the main train station in Zurich. I met Kaitlin on a missions trip to Ireland in the Summer of 2011. She's from Perth Australia and was in Europe traveling for a month and a half or so during her summer vacation. We walked around Baden, went sightseeing in Zurich and visited the medieval town of Gruyere and the thermal baths at Charmey. She left on the morning of the 5th to fly to Berlin to continue her travels. We very much enjoyed having her at our house and hope to see her next time she travels through Europe!
For the rest of my holidays I hung out with a plethora of my Swiss friends including: Jonas S. who's studying veterinary medicine at the University of Zurich, Nadine K who lives in Austria, but is from Switzerland and usually visits family and friends over Christmas in Switzerland, Scotty W. the Pastor at the church my family attends and Simone M who having graduated the local trade school is now studying to become a nurse and working at the local hospital.
Another highlight and tradition is sitting out in my garden, in the middle of winter, with Silvan W, a few beers, some bread and sausages around a fire. I've known Silvan for around 4 years now and consider him one of my closest Swiss friends. I also was able to see Darja K another close friend from my school years in Switzerland!
So, before I knew it, the time had come for me to fly back to California and bid all my friends good bye until I return to the Alpine Confederacy in May
I also finished reading Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) and the V for Vendetta Graphic Novel (David Lloyd & Alan Moore)
I saw in both "Anna Karenina" and "The Hobbit" in the cinema. Both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.
With the past month I also saw "Lincoln", "Wreck it Ralph", "Rock of Ages", "Total Recall", "The Expendables 2", "Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter" (Which wasn't as bad as I expected it to be) and had the fortune to be able to watch a pre-screening of "Dead Man Down" which is scheduled to be releases in March of 2013. I enjoyed all of them, but also had few expectations for each. I highly recommend Lincoln however. I found it to be very witty, well written and excellent cinematography!
That pretty much sums up my Holiday!
