What do I do all day?

My mom asked the question on Sunday of what do I do all day while Mike is at work. I think this is a very good question as one would assume that a woman with no children and no job could sit around eating cheese and chocolate and drinking wine all day. Unfortunately, not so. Things are a little less... convenient here.



6:30 Mike's alarm sounds and I roll over and go back to sleep

7:30 Mike leaves for work

7:45 I get up and start to pick up the house. The putzfrau will be in today and I need to pick up the mess from the weekend. I have a glass of water and a glass of orange juice while I straigten the living room, kitchen, entry and put away the clean clothes.

8:30 I take a quick shower without washing my hair.

9:15 I take the trash down to the curb and walk to the bus stop and wiat for the bus. Take the bus to the tram. Take the tram to the Marktplatz. I grab a chocolate Schoggiweggli and walk toward the next tram stop. There is an outdoor supply store so a stop and grab a back-pack.

9:45 I'm at the Bancverien tram stop and catch the Tram 3 to Birsfelden.

10:00 I meet up with a group of English speeking residents of the Basel area and we set out for a 2 hour walk in the woods. We stop at about 11:00 for coffee (wine for me please) and the head out for the end of the walk.

12:00 We arrive back in Basel and I have a Wednesday lunch date with a very nice lady from Korea. A lady from New Zealand needs to go to the store and get a gift and the send it out. I am totally confused about the mailing of packages, so I ask if I can tag along. I picked up some cheese for dinner and learned a very slick way of sending back a small gift.

12:45 We part ways and I head for the Grocery. I keep my grocery list (which has become more of a guideline than a strict list) in my phone and my shopping bags on me at all times. The store has some nice tomatoes and fresh basil so I get what I need to make a Margherita Pizza and green salad with herbed chicken. I also pick up some coffee, OJ, milk and apple cider.

14:00 I'm headed home and holy moley this stuff is heavy! Tram 8 to bus 11 and then 2.5 blocks of walking.

14:30 We have an appointment to see an apartment at 6:15 so I need to prep dinner. I cut the tomatoes, basil, cheese for the pizza. I cut the chicken and mix in the rub. I open the vinegar and oil for the pizza and salad dressing... oh no! I bought lemon infused olive oil!!!! Does anyone know what I can do with this lemon olive oil????!!!!! I watch a little TV in between cutting and see that the US market is taking a huge beating.

16:30 Walk to the bus stop. Bus 11 to Tram 11 to meet Mike at work by 5.

17:30 We stop at a small Thai restaurant and order Spring rolls as a snack and I accidentally order huge Cokes for both of us (huge by standards here; they would be quite normal in the US). OOPS! That wasn't a cheap mistake.

18:15 We look through the two-level apartment and find that it has nice space for entertaining including a private patio off of the dining area. The bed-rooms are a little small, but we decide that we can make-do with the space. The washing situation is a shared room, but we would have 3 to 4 days a month.

18:45 We walk to the tram and change trams at Barfuesserplatz. There is a Coop convenience store, so I grab some olive oil (without the lemon) and Mike gets a magazine.

19:00 Tram to the bus to the walk home, and I am exhausted, but we haven't had dinner. Cheese plate to hold us over, and I work on the salad.

20:00 Pizza is ready! Its good, but the ready-made dough from the grocery store is a little tough.

21:30 After picking up the kitchen a little bit, I am ready for bed. Tomorrow looks about the same and I'm going to need my strength.

Am I on a Reality TV Show

First... Thank You Miss Brittnee! The tip about the Language Tools available through Google has been very helpful... even helped me figure out how to bake the "gipfle" dough I bough yesterday.

And that brings me to recount a series of events that I would rather just forget. You see... I have no clue what the hell is going on around me, and I just have to chuckle and shake my head. Yesterday was my first serious trip(s) to the Migros grocery store. Let me set the stage...

1) No car, no bag-lady cart

2) No baggers at the check-out stand

3) No Comprendo!!! Everything is written in German, French, and Italian.

OK... so I spent the morning looking for permenant housing and realized at about noon that I was starving because there was no food in the house save a Kashi granola bar. I composed a list of what I absolutely needed, got the new bank card and headed to the tram stop. There I bought my tram ticket and headed to MarktPlatz to get some cash and a SchokkiBrotli. Uh, Oh! I forgot the shopping bags!

Back on the tram to the apartment to get the bags then back to MarktPlatz to the Migros. If I go to this one, it is close enough that my cold stuff stays cold and I don't have to change trams. Then I realize that this is a small store... how small? um... 1500 square feet?

I grab what I can find.. *No cheddar? OK Manchego it is*Milk will be a whole seperate story*Thank god they put pictures on the Yogurt containers* and head to the check-out. I only got 100 CHF out of the bank, but I should be safe, right? Ya! Guet... Total is only 70... Let me refer you back to point number 2 above. I should have gone the larger store. There was only one lane open and I felt like I was in the middle of one of those check-card commercials where the whole place comes to a screaching halt while I loaded all of my food into bags. Lesson learned... the small Migros is kind of like the 7 items or less check-out lane in the U.S.

Once I finally had everything in the bags (2 large totes, a Target bag, a hot/cold thermal tote) I went out to get on the tram. Can you say heavy? OK this is where a car would have been good. I missed my stop and had to walk an extra 50 yards to the aparment past one of the old city gates pictured above. When I got back to the apartment, I was hot and tired and my feet hurt, but I still needed to get some things that the small store didn't have.

Back on the tram to the large MMM Migros on Reingasse. This store is huge! Think Super Target in downtown New York City. Escalators and elevators, restaurants, clothes, appliances. 2nd floor has household goods and I needed Dishwasher Tabs and Laundry Detergent. Doesn't sound difficult until (refer to #3) I need to get fabric softener. 15 minutes of staring at the bottles and finally I broke down and asked a young lady if she speaks english (of course she speaks english, duh!). She helped me. Thank God!!!

Oh, plastic wrap and some little zipper baggies for the food. My hands were sort-of full, but I thought I would be OK until I got to the gorcery area in the basement. Apparently a very helpful, loud Swiss man who doesn't speak english thought I needed a hand basket. Lets go back to #3. I'm pretty sure he was telling everyone in the store what an idiot I am while I unloaded my arms into the basket. A humble "Merci" and I was on my way to the basement.

Lime... hot pepper... instant coffee (another 15 minute #3 moment)... OK back to the check out. Oh crap... I was supposed to weigh my produce downstairs. And again the American holds-up the line. Another lesson learned. Huh... it was obvious my remaining 20 CHF wasn't going to cut it. I held up the new bank card and ask "werk?" "Ya" replies the cashier. *sigh*

Back on the tram to our aparment...

I made home-made salsa and Fajitas for dinner. They were sooooo good. I'm looking forward to left-overs. I don't know that I have ever worked so hard mentally and physically. No wonder I was ready for bed at 9:30 last night!