Tuesday 22 January 2008

Greuzi

Now, there's an umlaut missing on the title word, but this is how the local Swiss greet each other - friends, passing strangers, shop assistants. And if you can really believe it, even a teenage boy graced me with this salutation this morning :0)


Today has been a series of mini-victories. I went into the local apotheke (that's a pharmacy to you and me) and managed to get generic paracetamol, as opposed to even-pricier branded variety. All with my pidgin German and no English. I also managed to buy 1 stamp for the UK and 5 for Zürich. Again, all with no English - and what it makes this all the more remarkable from my point was that I what I wanted was actually what I asked for, if you see what I mean.




I also managed to get my hot little hands of some fresh yeast. It comes in little
42g cubes (very precise) which sit demurely in one of the fridges. I think breadmaking will come in useful if I happen to have a particularly stressful day....

Off to ...unpack some more boxes - what else? In the meantime here are some cows - if you look really carefully you just might see the bells. Yep, cows with bells on - I look on the bells as an early warning system. Particularly usefule if like me you've been chased more than once.




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4 comments:

  1. he he he its Grüezi actually and it is Zurich dialect and stands for the high german 'Grüss Sie' whilst we in Bern say Grüessech ' from the high german 'Grüsst Euch' which is second person plural and in ZH its first person plural:) got it :):):)

    Package will go out today, finally! Sorry for the delay!

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  2. I stop saying Grüezi and you start - the universe is in balance. :)

    Congrats on your small victories! I know exactly how you feel.

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  3. And are you "auf wiederluege"-ing all over the place too? Not sure if I have spelled it properly, it's been a while....

    n

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