Old Friends
I've been in the Old World now for nigh on 5 years, in this time I've only made a couple of trips to my native Seattle, mostly to see my mom when she was so sick. This, combined with the fact, that many of my friends from back home no longer live in the area and most people don't make regular trips to Europe, has led to me not seeing many friends for quite some time. In the last six months though I've been catching up on visits and friends lives. In the fall I saw Ashley in NYC and Lisa in DC, while visiting the east coast, then Heather in Bologna. The weekend before last I met up with my friends, Carrie and Brian, in Geneva where they were staying with Brian's brother, Pat, who works as a physicist at the CERN project there. This last weekend I met up with Hilary and Richie Rich in Friedrichshafen. Four years, nothing and then all of a sudden I'm seeing lots of my old friends.
Carrie and I met in the wildlife Program back at UW and they both are now working for the Forest Service in Hepner, Oregon. I had never been to Geneva before, so it was nice to see the city while visiting with them. The city wraps around the southern end of Lake Geneva with an incredible view of the Alps and the Jura (a low mountain range nearby). We walked around and took some touristy pictures, catching up on each other's lives and talking about UW and what not. In the evening we met up with Pat, the physicist, and had dinner at a restaurant that served cheese fondue a gogo (I have no idea what was "a gogo" about the fondue...). It was funny, because you were allowed to smoke anywhere in the restaurant (Switzerland isn't quite as modern as Baden-Württemberg, so smoking is still quite allowed), but cheese fondue was only allowed to be eaten in the way back due to its pungent odor. So, when Carrie and Pat ordered the cheese fondue a gogo, we were ushered from our table to one in the way back by the kitchen to protect the other diners from our stinky cheese. The swiss are a rather strange folk. The CERN project, the large particle accelorator spanning the borders of Switzerland and France, was having open house that weekend, so we got to have a look around. It was fascinating! I don't think it would have been half as interesting though if Pat hadn't been explaining everything to us in easy to understand, layman's terms. I now know more about particle physics than I had ever hoped to learn. It's also nice to see what my tax dollars here are going to. Carrie and Brian were flying out early the next morning and I had a 3 hour drive home, so we said our good byes at around 7 and away I went. I hope that it won't be another 5 years before we see each other again!
The detector (is actually really, really huge)
Hilary was one of my roommates at ZTA and after we graduated from UW, she moved to New York to go to the CIA. No, not the Central Intelligence Agency, but the Culinary Institute of America! She was here in Germany in the fall, well better said, she was in Bavaria, which only marginally belongs to Germany looking at restaurants, because as I was very surprised to hear, she'll be opening a German restaurant in the Medford / Ashland area of Oregon, complete with Lederhosen, Dirndls and Oompa music. I didn't even know she liked German food, it is pretty good though, tasty Schnitzel... anyway, we didn't get the chance to meet up then, but she was just hear doing a stage at the restaurant "zum Wildschutz", and we met up halfway between Munich and Freiburg this last weekend. I caught her up on the events of my life and she shared all the gossip from the zeta sistas back home. They're going to be opening the restaurant, which is for the moment being called "Frau Kemmlings" which is Hilary's married name, on my birthday with an Oktoberfest. I've been invited to the fest to "make it more authentic" and would be expected to show off with my German. Well, I may just have to go! Although, leaving Germany on my birthday to go to a German restaurant in Oregon does seem a bit obsurd.
So far, that's who I've seen. I hope that I'll get to see the rest of you in the near future!
- Libby
Carrie and I met in the wildlife Program back at UW and they both are now working for the Forest Service in Hepner, Oregon. I had never been to Geneva before, so it was nice to see the city while visiting with them. The city wraps around the southern end of Lake Geneva with an incredible view of the Alps and the Jura (a low mountain range nearby). We walked around and took some touristy pictures, catching up on each other's lives and talking about UW and what not. In the evening we met up with Pat, the physicist, and had dinner at a restaurant that served cheese fondue a gogo (I have no idea what was "a gogo" about the fondue...). It was funny, because you were allowed to smoke anywhere in the restaurant (Switzerland isn't quite as modern as Baden-Württemberg, so smoking is still quite allowed), but cheese fondue was only allowed to be eaten in the way back due to its pungent odor. So, when Carrie and Pat ordered the cheese fondue a gogo, we were ushered from our table to one in the way back by the kitchen to protect the other diners from our stinky cheese. The swiss are a rather strange folk. The CERN project, the large particle accelorator spanning the borders of Switzerland and France, was having open house that weekend, so we got to have a look around. It was fascinating! I don't think it would have been half as interesting though if Pat hadn't been explaining everything to us in easy to understand, layman's terms. I now know more about particle physics than I had ever hoped to learn. It's also nice to see what my tax dollars here are going to. Carrie and Brian were flying out early the next morning and I had a 3 hour drive home, so we said our good byes at around 7 and away I went. I hope that it won't be another 5 years before we see each other again!
Pat, Carrie and Brian, on the way down to look at the detector
The detector (is actually really, really huge)
Hilary was one of my roommates at ZTA and after we graduated from UW, she moved to New York to go to the CIA. No, not the Central Intelligence Agency, but the Culinary Institute of America! She was here in Germany in the fall, well better said, she was in Bavaria, which only marginally belongs to Germany looking at restaurants, because as I was very surprised to hear, she'll be opening a German restaurant in the Medford / Ashland area of Oregon, complete with Lederhosen, Dirndls and Oompa music. I didn't even know she liked German food, it is pretty good though, tasty Schnitzel... anyway, we didn't get the chance to meet up then, but she was just hear doing a stage at the restaurant "zum Wildschutz", and we met up halfway between Munich and Freiburg this last weekend. I caught her up on the events of my life and she shared all the gossip from the zeta sistas back home. They're going to be opening the restaurant, which is for the moment being called "Frau Kemmlings" which is Hilary's married name, on my birthday with an Oktoberfest. I've been invited to the fest to "make it more authentic" and would be expected to show off with my German. Well, I may just have to go! Although, leaving Germany on my birthday to go to a German restaurant in Oregon does seem a bit obsurd.
Herr und Frau Kemmling
So far, that's who I've seen. I hope that I'll get to see the rest of you in the near future!
- Libby
posted by The Bickford Sisters at 4:26 AM
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