Back to Basel

Prosit Neujahr Everyone!
Hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays and is getting off to a great start in the "Neujahr." Our trip back to the U.S. was great. Quite hectic as you can imagine with friends and family spread apart but it was wonderful. There were many people that we wished we had time to see but we will be home soon enough and hope to catch up with everyone this spring.

Going home was kind of funny. Quite a few people said to us "oh, you look the same!" Yep - same same - no drastic makeover here in Switzerland! That struck me as kind of funny. I guess maybe some excepted some kind of change in fashion or look or something? I wouldn't say that Basel is on the cutting edge of fashion. Now if I had more time to spend in London or Paris? Then maybe!

We did everything pretty much the same. Except we did walk from Cambridge St (Fells/Canton) to Federal Hill one night and caught some flack for being European for walking instead of cabbing. It was warm though?!

The first major difference that really jumped out at me was being able to understand all the conversations around me. One really takes that for granted! But here I am constantly straining to a.) determine which language is being spoken and b. ) try to understand some of what is going on. It's good though! My German has gotten much much better and I am trying to refresh my French at the same time. But it was nice to relax and not strain at conversation.

I don't really have too much else to report right now. We haven't even been back a week yet. We spent the weekend quietly, getting readjusted and enjoying the warm weather (it's about 50 here so that is somewhat warmer than normal for Basel at this time of year). Oh and we also caught some football last night - Sorry Jets fans! YEAH Eagles fans! I am pulling for an all-bird Superbowl this year - Eagles Ravens!

Anyway, I should have some stories to share next week. Brad & Julia are coming to visit us on Friday and we are going into the mountains for some winter sports. Skiing, snowboarding, sledding and curling?! We'll see how many we get to do. I have never bee skiing so YIKES! It will be a good weekend for me if I can manage to get up and down the bunny slopes in one piece. So more to come on that next week.

Ciao for now