Chris and Roby's Visit

Earlier this month we had a great time visiting with my brother Chris and his partner Roby. They had a whirlwind week in Europe and spent about half the time with us and the other half (I can't understand why) in a beautiful historic farm house in the rural hills of Italy outside of Florence.

After sleeping in late to recover from some jet lag, Elliot, Gertraud and I took our visitors down to the Hopf Bonhauf (main train station) where, on Wednesdays, they have a spectacular farmers' market with yummy treats from all over the region. We got some great brats, bought some interesting pesto, and stopped by the display for the goods produced in Glarus, which holds special meaning for the Roe boys. We grew up near New Glarus, Wisconsin. New Glarus was settled by immigrants from Glarus, Switzerland, back in the 1800's. The person at the exhibit was not from Glarus originally, but was familiar with all the Swiss names we knew from New Glarus (Zweifel, Marti, Hefti, etc).

After wandering around the Aldstadt (old part of the city) and enjoying a proper cafe and Kuchen (coffee and sweets) at a street cafe with a view of the lake and city, we met up with Elena (Gertraud watched the boys), had a nice time visiting a wine bar and then topped off the night with a traditional Swiss mean at a historic restaurant that served as an armory back into the 1400's.



The next day featured a grand hike (the video of the cow bells was from that hike) along a ridge that overlooks the city of Zurich. We ate an early dinner at a gasthouse the overlooked the lake and headed back to the apartment where the boys, Gertraud and Elena produced an original play written by Isaac and Gertraud to the delight of our guests. The next morning we bid Chris and Roby a fond farewell as they set off by train to Italy. We hope they visit again before we leave next year and hope some of you reading this post will visit us as well.

A Birthday Hike to be Remembered

Elena's birthday was last Saturday. She has a big paper with an impending deadline, and she was determined to postpone her birthday celebrations until the darn thing was finished so she could enjoy it without the looming thoughts of the work yet to be completed.

However, the weather in Zurich had been picture perfect, Indian Summer all week and it was just killing Elena that she might be wasting some of the best weather of the year on work. So, on Saturday we set out on a big hike to Bechtel, a hilltop which is just north of the southeast end of Lake Zurich. All four of us spent a wonderful 9 hours out of the house, traveling there and enjoying the scenery (Elena's mom was at her friends birthday party in Germany). We saw loads of cows - many with the wonderful bells - and hiked to a nice restaurant and park at the top of the hill. We thought we had stumbled onto another great festival at the park on the top of the hill, where we saw and heard a traditional polka band (pictured here - talk about memories for me - my parents would go out to hear similar bands when I was growing up). Turns out it was a private party for a local hiking club - we gladly gave up our spots at the common tables and went to the restaurant nearby and had excellent schnitzel, bratwurst, rosti and, of course, beer.


After some concern that we had missed the last bus (after practically running down the hill for nearly an hour), we made good time home with a camera (and memory) full of wonderful portraits of the day. To boot, we finished reading as a family the second Harry Potter book on the train and bus ride home. What a great day. Happy birthday, Elena.

The Sounds of Switzerland

Here is a brief clip of a herd of Brown Swiss cows that we stumbled upon on our hike in the hills surrounding Zurich during a visit from my brother Chris and his partner Roby during early September. This has special meaning for the Roe boys, who had Brown Swiss cows on their farm growing up in Wisconsin.

Campus Meadows - Harvesting Technology

As a farm boy, it is hard for me to walk by the freshly mowed campus meadows that Elena talks about without fond memories (read - I'm glad I don't have to do it anymore) of hay production on our dairy farm in Wisconsin as a young lad.

While there was a lot of physical work involved in 'making hay' when I was a boy - with my main tasks being unloading the hay bales (35 - 50 lbs each), I was shocked today when I saw the cut hay from Elena's campus meadows being rolled down the hill by two guys with rakes. They were getting it ready for the loose hay harvestor that we saw the other night on a picnic near the meadows.

While the Swiss are highly technically advanced in nearly every aspect of their country, it seems that the best technology for our campus meadows still seems to be good old elbow grease.

campus meadows

This morning I took a slow (emphasis on slow) jog through the forest that lies directly behind our apartment. To get there you just have to go up a short hill to the ETH Hoenggeberg campus and then the forest and its endless crisscrossing 'Wanderweg' paths open up before you. As I ran up the hill to the forest I noticed that they were cutting the grass around campus. It smelled so sweet and I realized that this wasn't just grass (much less lush green grass fed by chemicals and a societal aversion to weeds and kept trim by gasoline-fed riding mowers), but rather a cornucopia of clover and flowers with thick long stocks of grass that was being cut and carefully laid out to dry. I thought, wow, if I were a cow, I would definitely want to be feasting on this during the winter.

They have a holiday called what???

'Boy Shooting' is the literal translation of Knabenschiessen, a holiday specific to the city of Zurich. German speakers who are unfamiliar with the holiday, or those who get the automatically translated web page for the event from google, are taken aback when seeing signs advertising the event. The event falls on the 2nd weekend of September and even spills over onto the following Monday - schools are closed all day and offices are closed in the afternoon.

By now, you have probably figured out that 'boy' is the subject, not the object, of this succinctly named holiday. This was a great relief to Isaac and Elliot, who thought they may have to take cover for the weekend (I just made this up, but one might imagine someone had this fear at some point). It seems this holiday was developed as a marksmanship contest for boys (originally, but now extended to girls as well) ages 13 to 17. Who would have thought -- peaceful, neutral Switzerland, not in war for hundreds of years -- grooming dead eye marksman with contests for kids. Sounds more rural southern US than northern Swiss. Of course, I think every male in Switzerland must serve some time in the military, and it might not hurt to have some interest in military skills such as shooting before this mandatory service.

The boys and I are off to the festival on a sunny Saturday - I'll give you an update of the festivities and if they get to shoot a real gun.

Well -- we're back from a day at the festival. It was a good time and leads to some interesting observations. It was a lot of carnival rides like in the United States - a lot of the same rides though a few novel things like you could ride an ATV. The carnival workers were very similar to those you'd find at local carnivals in the U.S. , only the carnival workers wear birkenstocks. Loud, mostly American, music blasted from speakers at each ride.

After the rides, we actually got to see some of the kids shooting. After donning military green earplugs, we all walked into the shooting gallery which was about 200 yards wide and had slots for about 50 to 60 shooters. The gallery is open, with all shooters aiming at targets in a green field with distances ranging from 10 meters to 100 meters. The freaky thing was seeing this cue of pimply 13 to 17 year olds, wearing their cool clothes and trying to act cool, walk up to their shooting station for the event.

These are no little air or pellet guns that you see at carnival games - these guns are automatic rifles. The butt of the rifle looks like an open triangle and the front is mounted on a little bi-pod (4th gun down at this webpage). There was a big clip of ammunition attached to the right side and each slot had an adult that loaded the gun and assisted the child in setting up their shoot. The kids lie down at an incline, prop the rifle but against their shoulder, and aim. Some wear a cover over one eye to improve their aim.

They take their time and, across the width of the shooting gallery -- one hears intermittent 'pops'. After most shots, particularly the first few, the adult pulls around a monitor positioned near the prone teenager that reveals a live picture of the target and where their bullet landed. the teenager than returns to their task.

The teenagers reflected the diversity of the Swiss population and would be somewhat difficult to distinguish from a group of U.S. teenagers. I saw pimply 13 year olds wearing baggy sweatshirts and jeans; hip-hop adoring teenagers with baggy pants and bandanas under their baseball caps; and even well manicured young women squeezing off rounds of high-powered rifle rounds in a measured manner. When their turn is over, and they have spent their allotted ammunition, their stand up and the adult helper printed out something -- likely a summary of their performance -- and handed it to the teenager. The teenager takes this to a central table where they receive either a form or a box with some type of reward. They then slide across the chain behind which the general crowd stands and move back into the ocean of Zurich teenagers waiting their turn to in this uncommon coming-of-age experience. Sometime on Monday, they will determine the best marksman, who will go down in the record for perpetuity.

Some of my thoughts wondered to other parts of the world, where teenagers and younger children take up arms out of necessity. While I grew up in a rural culture where many people liked hunting, our family never partook. We did have a shotgun, but I was frankly afraid of it, even though I appreciated the rabid skunks and raccoons that were removed though its force. Needless to say, the images of 'boy shooting' will not fade soon.

Isaac and the Bully - What Ever Happened?

The last time I wrote, I talked about an incident where Isaac and some of his 'Auslander' (foreigners in Switzerland) comrades had an incident with a local bully. I thought I'd give you an update of what happened the next day.

Elena and I decided that we would both go with Isaac early to school the next day to bring the event to the attention of Isaac's teacher, Herr Hubler. Herr Hubler was very concerned with the event, as fighting is a common issue with foreign kids in the school. We clarified that the fight was between the 3 boys in his class (Isaac and his 2 friends, Da'Rion and Roberto) and a boy from another class. He wanted to know who the other boy was, so Isaac, Herr Hubler, Elena and I all went outside to try to locate the boy.

The boy rolled in on his scooter and Isaac recognized him immediately (I wasn't entirely sure, but I only saw him for a few moments during the post-bus fight). The boy went up to Isaac and said he was sorry. Herr Hubler talked with the boy and the boy's teacher later in the day, and it was decided that, from now on, the Swiss boy would ride in the back of the bus and the other boys would ride in the front of the bus to minimize any possible confrontation (there may have been other punishments or threatened punishments as well, but I'm not sure).

Needless to say, it was quite encouraging that the boy said he was sorry, and the tension seems to have passed. I saw the boy get off the back of the bus yesterday, while Isaac and his friends piled out the front, and all seemed quite calm. In fact, Isaac said the boy helped him build a volcano out of sand one day at recess. At least a truce, if not a turnaround in the relationship between the two. (I shared with Isaac the fact that a good friend of mine in elementary school actually beat me up once before we became friends).

Thanks to all who weighed in with advice about this and the other parenting scenario. By the way, we still often see Luca (the impish spoilsport from Elliot's maiden trampoline attempts) and play pretty nicely with him. In fact, Isaac was teaching him the finer points of throwing an American football the other day.

A fun day at a slide park

Yesterday I went to a slide park. But slides were not the only things that they had. But the have the longest slide in Switzerland that I went down three times. And then there was another slide that I went down two times. It was part of the second scariest slides and probably the second scariest slide. It went straight down and curved up at the end. There were also other slides that started really high up. But there weren't only slides, like I told you. Let me tell you about things that were not slides. Well, I practiced driving. My brother got a bee sting in the ear, like I did a couple of weeks ago. There was a ride-the-bull thing, but I didn't go on that. There was also some boat thing. You start at the end, went up up up up to the top and then you went down and splashed into the water. But I didn't do that either, I didn't have time. There were two sets of trampolines. One thing was that you got tied up around your waist a lot and you jumped higher than ever. The other one was you had to put one Swiss dollar, which is called a frank, and you jumped really high and when the money was done, you couldn't really jump anymore cause a red thing moved down at the bottom and when the money was finished it pushed up and you could not jump.

Love Isaac