Toast for dinner again

It is after lunch today and I am going to grab a few minutes to write my latest saga while Nicolas is busy scrubbing in the kitchen sink. I wish that I could say that he is washing up, but of course it will be more of a mess after his fun with dish detergent and scrubbing brush...including a giant puddle on the floor.

Today we had two great adventures before lunch. First, we went to the local library to get a library card (I have already finished off the books I brought to read, and need some fluff). Oddly, for a country that ostensibly supports public education, the library system is almost punitive. To join the library costs $45 a year (kids can get cards for free, but of course they are not allowed to check out adult books with them!). But then they really get you with the little things: $3 to reserve a book from another branch of the Zurich library; $3 a day per late item; $5 for a replacement card; and the best of all: if you call the library information line it costs $1.50 a minute! The good thing is that they have lots of German books and videos for kids, and a small and very odd selection of fiction in English. Luckily, I am not too picky. Apparently, the main branch has more in English, but of course I have to go there in person to find out, since it costs so much to get the books sent to my branch. I can also renew my books online as long as they are paperback; hardback books cannot be renewed. No one seemed to be able to explain this in English...

Discovering all of the rules somewhat diminished my sense of accomplishment in finding the library. But then we moved on to a walk in the old center of Zurich. The old part of Zurich is charming: lots of cobblestone pedestrian streets and alleyways, old buildings with expensive jewelry and high fashion clothing shops at street level, and massive churches tucked in between other buildings. We accidentally happened upon the Frauen Munster and went inside. This is the church that has the famous Marc Chagall windows, which are lovely. Even Nicolas and Timo liked them. And the organ player was practicing so we got to hear what they kids have only seen on sesame street so far. They were even well-behaved, which made the entire visit nice.

One of the things I am surprised to find here are lots of orthodox and hasidic Jews in Zurich. I realize this is a very cosmopolitan European city, but I would have thought with the Swiss troubles with Jewish war acquisitions that this would not be a particularly friendly residence for European Jews. Clearly I am wrong.

Our other projects the past two days have included more investigation into some kind of play group for the kids (no luck yet) and purchase of our 1/2-price train cards in advance of our trip tomorrow south of Basel. We spent $150 each on cards that will then make train travel inside of Switzerland half price. It seems somehow counter intuitive, but we hope it will work out. We have basically decided to do without even car-sharing. The public transportation works very well from where we live, and I think we will just try to use the trains for longer trips. Except for our upcoming visit to my German in-laws, where we are hoping to do a massive grocery shop-up! Of course, that will only make sense if we can get our refridge a bit cooler. As it is, nothing is very cold and things turn bad quickly--pretty disheartening when you pay $2 a quart for milk! Yesterday when I bought two chicken breasts for the kids (the "cheap" German imported chicken.) I looked at the label: $26.99 per kilo! Makes you want to be a vegetarian--until you look at the price of tofu. Happily, we ended our adventures today with another visit to Google for lunch. This time everyone was well-behaved (helps that we just walked and rode the streetcar for 2 hours) and a delicious free lunch was had by all. That means I can get away with toast for dinner again!