6 weeks and counting

So my time here in Basel is winding down. I'm a little sad but very excited to return home and spend time with family and friends. And move and find a new job and.... (did I say I was excited?).

In the meantime though, there are plenty of things to look forward to in our final weeks here. Next week is the biggest event of the year in Basel - Fasnacht. From what I can understand, it is like a big upscale Mardi Gras. The event begins in the middle of the night (4am) on Monday. The town goes completely dark and the parades begin at various points throughout the city with drums and fluting. I can't wait to see it.

One might ask, why is this Fasnacht the week after the traditional Mardi Gras celebrations that take place prior to today, Ash Wednesday. Good question. In the towns and countries around us (Germany & France), Fasnacht has already taken place. The story from what I gather is that Basel used to be run by bishops, waaay back in the day. Then it underwent a reformation and a severe split from the Catholic church. Typically (maybe I should say historically), Catholics fast and refrain from celebrations during lent. So Basel's holding Fasnacht a week into lent is a kind of dig at the Catholics. I found all this to be very interesting. Also interesting to me is that the Catholic churches here in Basel do not observe Ash Wednesday. I emailed a Catholic church nearby to ask when the masses were today. At first I thought that "meine Deutsche" was creating a communication problem when I got the email back from the church and they had no idea what I was talking about. But with some further digging, I learned that they disseminate ashes on Sunday here. Strange but true. It seems there are very few Catholics here. Thus concludes your Basel history lesson of the day.

So back to our last few weeks - our good friend Chris is coming into town on Friday. So more fun and traveling is on the horizon for Rob and me. This weekend we were going to try to go into the mountains as Chris is an avid skier. (I'm not really sure how that is going to work given the sunny skies and temps in the mid 50s for the past week?) And then Monday - Wednesday is the Fasnacht celebration. The town pretty much shuts down for Fasnacht - German class is canceled for the entire week. So to take advantage of some time off and Chris in town, we will be heading to Brussels next Thursday. I am so excited to check out this city. I'm already planning my diet to consist of chocolate, beer, mussels and waffles. YUM!

So it should be a very exciting week next week. I will do my best to document as much as I can so I can share with everyone. And the following week, Mom and Joy come to visit. I am so excited to share my Basel life with them. I will drag them around and show them some of the places I frequent and also take them to visit some neighboring towns and countries. I'm not exactly sure of the agenda yet but we will be making an excursion into the tip of Italy so Mom can see the motherland.

So that's what's on tap. Stay tuned for the recap of these new Swiss adventures.