Elefantbach Ravine Walk

Last Saturday Zürich appeared to be one of the least-rainy parts of Switzerland. We chose this hike close to home. I use the term hike loosely, as I could have walked it in my tennis shoes.

The main attraction for this walk is the elephant statue in the stream. I had seen this statue in 2015 when I took a different route with the American Women’s Club.

The path follows a stream, and starting at Witikon, it is downhill all the way.

This forested hike is right next to towns, but it feels like the middle of the nature.

So pleasant, and it would be perfect for a hot day.

The trail ends at the Tram Museum.

More photos at glampinginswitzerland’s Instagram.

Amorphophallus titanum: Corpse Flower in Bloom

Many Thursday mornings I walk with a group from the American Women’s Club. We enjoy each other’s company as we wander along the lake, the river, or into beautiful gardens. Last Thursday we were treated to a rare occurrence, the blooming of the Amorphophallus titanum. Also known as the Stinky Corpse Flower.

Our walk took us to the Botanical Garden where we waited in this line. I think it took us at least 30 minutes to reach the flower, but it was probably longer. I did not keep track. Too busy socializing.

The Amorphophallus titanum is the largest blooming flower in the world. It has a putrid odor, like rotting flesh. Various sources have it blooming every 2-3 years, or up to every 8 years. I heard that this one last bloomed 4 years ago.

Here’s a close-up.

The line was even longer when we left.

More photos at glampinginswitzerland’s Instagram.

American Women’s Club of Zurich Turns 92

Looking back over past blog posts about the American Women’s Club of Zürich, I realize how many things I have done with the club. Since 2014-15, a few things have changed. First, there is a new location which is an easy 9-minute bus ride from my stop. One of my activities at the club is to volunteer at the library once a month. This is the largest English-language library in Zürich.

Fiction section

Last week the Club turned 92 (so it is not quite as old as my orchestra club!). There was an afternoon party to celebrate. I can always count on good baked goods at the Club.

Jucker Farm Pumpkins

It’s fall, so what better way to get into the pumpkin feeling but a visit to Jucker Farm (Juckerhof) to see the pumpkin sculptures, eat pumpkin soup and buy pumpkins.

On Thursday 7 of us from the walking group of the American Women’s Club met at the train station to take the S3 to Pfäffikon. This town is along the Pfäffikersee (Lake Pfäffikon). After our walk around the lake, we ended up at the Jucker Farm.

Every fall there is a pumpkin exhibition with a theme. This year we thought the theme had to do with fire, as there was a fire-eater and several other sculptures with flames. The flint in Flintstone must be how that character qualified. I’m not sure what the fish was. Anyway, the artwork reminded me a little of the turnip festival we went to in Richterswil in November 2014.

The schoolchildren of Zürich are on Herbstferein – a two-week fall break. That meant that Jucker Farm was quite busy with children and families. The kids played on hay bales, sat on tractors and petted goats. Don’t let the cloudy skies fool you. It was a beautiful day to be out and about.

From the farm there was a good view of the lake.

I forgot to take a photo of my pumpkin soup and cervelat (Switzerland’s national sausage), but they were tasty.

One could buy any manner of items at the farm store.

Having a Great Expat Experience

Being an expat for a year is a little different than moving one’s entire life to a new country for an indeterminate amount of time. It’s undoubtedly much easier. However, I think I packed a good attitude about living in a new place which also made our year easier than it might have been.

This entry in the WSJ Expat Blog lists 5 Steps to a Successful Expat Experience which I read about a month ago, and I was happy to see that I had actually already incorporated these steps into our experience.

     1. Drop any pretenses about how things ought to be. Even though Switzerland is not as different from the US as, say, India is, I was still very happy that I had read about the culture before I moved so that I could be prepared. I knew to keep to myself when out and about. I knew about sharing a laundry facility with neighbors, and to not play my violin too early or late, or during lunch. I knew to follow the rules about trash and riding the public transportation.

Being home, I am constantly amazed at how friendly complete strangers are. When we went through customs and immigration in Chicago, the helpfulness of the people who work there stood out.

2. Get busy and reach out. This was probably the most important thing for me. I am so glad that I not only joined the American Women’s Club of Zurich, but even more glad to have been part of the Orchestra which gave me Swiss friends and music to practice.
3. Go local. Yes, I bought local food and went without a real burrito for a year. This was easy to do since I knew when I would be coming home. I discovered new recipes using ingredients I could find in my local Coop, and now I will be making them here, too. I’m sure they’ll taste different.
4. Write a blog. Check.
5. Laugh often. Well, that’s just part of my personality. I usually laughed most in the privacy of my own flat.

I would add two more. Don’t take anything personally. The Swiss are quick to tell you what they think. Like when I said that we were going to see the Matterhorn as a day trip, a Swiss friend said, “you can’t do that.” It’s not the Swiss way to go across the country and back in one day, even if the train ride was under 3 hours. We enjoyed our day trip and I just let her comment go.

Also, learn the local language. Even though I don’t speak Swiss German, being able to (mostly) communicate in the language made a world of difference in our year.

Laughing with Sylvia Day

On Friday the American Women’s Club was treated to a little comedy improv by Sylvia Day. Sylvia is an American Expat in Zürich since 1995 and is promoting her upcoming show, Summer of Love.  For our Friday Coffee Morning she had each of us write down a line from a movie, a song, a poem, or something and put it in an envelope.

She proceeded to choose someone from the audience with whom to improvise, and their prompt from the audience was that they were sisters sharing an iPhone.

They would pull out phrases from the envelope to incorporate into their dialogue.

After I got home, I looked her up on youtube and found this sketch in which she plays an American, then a Swiss, and finally a Brazilian who are in a competition for Miss Sales Associate of the World. I thought that the Swiss Sales Associate was so funny. It starts at about 3:49 in the video.

I have heard stories about not being able to return items to a store here in der Schweiz. I have not tried to return anything, so I can’t say for sure, but I would believe it. I have also heard a story that if you want to return something because you change your mind, all you have to say is that your husband doesn’t like it. Wow.

Wandering In the City Forest

Hiking in German is called wandern. Even if you are climbing up a mountain.

When I joined the American Women’s Club last fall, one of the activities listed was a hiking group, so I immediately signed up. Then I found out that the woman in charge of the hikes had quit, and no one had taken her place. I think I would have been happy to organize such a group if only I had any idea at all of where to go.

Now someone has come to lead us on such excursions, and we went on our first club Wanderung Thursday in perfect weather. One lovely thing about this city of Zürich is that you can take public transportation within city limits and be out in the woods in minutes.

Eight of us with two dogs went to the top of Zürichberg (the hill where we live) and headed straight into the woods, passing the Zoo, the FIFA practice fields, a restaurant (always a restaurant on the trail), an observation tower, a stone elephant statue, kids swimming in the stream, people grilling out and picnicking, and people riding horses.

We stopped at noon for our own picnics (minus the grilling part) and at the end for a coffee at a restaurant before heading our separate ways home on the trams. The woman with the fitbit said that we went 6.5 miles, but with so much socializing along the way, it felt about half that long.

Commuting Across Town

I don’t actually commute, but I do walk to the American Women’s Club once or twice a week, and here is what I see along the way. First I walk down my street and then down a little road that is closed to through traffic, down some stairs and past the graffiti-covered daycare building.

Then I pass the Careum Campus, a health services school where people are often outside taking a smoking break. If I pass the snack stand (on right), I’ve missed my shortcut through the University Hospital, so I backtrack a few steps.

The University Hospital (Krankenhaus in German, Spital in Swiss German) has a lovely campus with lots of greenery.

Then past the University of Zürich’s Zoological Museum and then look across the street at the beehives.

Down a long flight of stairs and over a bit to the Limmat River.

When I cross the river I am almost half-way to the club. In the heart of the Old Town I pass the Observatory which now houses the Jules Verne Bar, the Manor dept. store where we like to eat breakfast sometimes, and this water fountain.

Another little shortcut leads me through a courtyard with an artist studio, an indoor swimming pool, lots of bikes – some parked, and some I have to watch out for as they ride past. Oh, yes, and a spur from the river.

Past the Selnau Train Station comes the Stauffacher Bridge over the Sihl River (a tributary).

And then I turn down the street for the club and see one of the locals. There is a Jewish girls’ school next door to the AWCZ, and it is not uncommon to see this Orthodox dress in the neighborhood.

So that’s some of my 35-minute commute across town. When I go home, it expands to 40 or 45 minutes, depending on how fast I want to go up those hills…

The Value of a Verein

As a copy editor and proof-reader for the American Women’s Club bi-monthly newsletter, The Round Robin, I decided that it would be a good thing to contribute an article about something I have learned about living in Zürich. Many of the articles in the publication pertain to living in Switzerland, and now that I’ve been here for a little while, I thought I might have something to contribute.

So I did a little asking around and started this thread on the English Forum, asking people what they knew about clubs (Vereins). The May/June issue of The Round Robin (hot off the press!) contains this article I wrote about The Value of a Verein.

Freitag Fabrik

I had never heard of Freitag bags until recently, but apparently they are very cool. And very Swiss.

Yesterday I toured the factory in Oerlikon (just outside of Zürich, about 7 minutes by train) with the American Women’s Club. In 1993 Markus and Daniel Freitag were looking for a tough, water resistant messenger bag to wear when they rode their velos (bikes). They noticed the tarps on the trucks driving by their flat, got ahold of one, used a seatbelt from an old car and some velo inner tube to make what they wanted, and a company was born.

We learned about the sustainability of the making of these bags. First, the use of recycled materials is the most important. The factory is chock-full of old tarps. Finding prized colors (i.e. not gray) is not always easy.

Of course the tarps are pretty filthy from being on trucks for 5-8 years, so they need to be washed.

They use water that they collect on their roof for this. Pretty cool, I think, especially since Zürich gets pretty good rainfall.

At the factory they have a crew of people using templates to cut out pieces of the tarps. The art comes in trying to create an interesting piece (using the patterns and letters from the tarp) and also keeping the waste to a minimum.

The sewing of the bags is done off-site in Switzerland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Tunisia.

The bags are sold in stores and online. The trick to the online store is that since each piece is unique, each one must be photographed individually – from all sides. We watched the photographer at work.

One perk for the employees is that there is a Freitag “lending library”. They can check out a bag from this wall and use it for a bit before they return it. Here is our tour guide showing us one bag she likes.

The company is starting something new with F-abric. They were looking for suitable clothing for their employees to wear, but didn’t find what they were looking for – a sustainable fabric that was tough as well as compostable. The fabric they have created is primarily linen and hemp, all sources being European.

The tour ended, of course, with time spent at the Factory Store, part of which is an outlet. Many women in the group bought a bag, but I managed to resist, although I thought the tour was particularly interesting.