Perhaps you have read our earlier blog entries: our wonderful weekend adventures. Our weekdays, however, are not so exceptional. Jon is working as he would back home, with all the challenges and frustrations that has always entailed. I (Mary Carol) am living the quiet life, where the nearly daily trip to the grocery store is my big thrill. I have begun to accept the high prices of food. Of course, I try to shop carefully, but when I get to the counter, I just stick Jon’s credit card in the slot and press “ok”, barely looking at the total. We have TV, mostly watching either BBC or recorded shows from our home set via slingbox.
Jon has joined two choruses so some nights he’s off to Bern to rehearse. Occasional Thursdays he or we join a few Autodesk employees who hang out in Turnhalle, a cafe-bar in downtown Bern.
I water my few veggies on the balcony, spend some hours every day researching possibilities for our trips, listen to a little German TV or translate part of the newspaper, and often partake of that most popular Swiss activity: walking. Jon and I are starting to say the Swiss drive and ride bikes like they have no place to go but walk like they do. Nordic walking—with poles and a sense of determination—seems quite common.
