A close-up and personal look at Switzerland
Some days the weather does strange things and doesn’t play by the rules. One day, a couple of months ago when I got up and looked outside, it was foggy. So? That can happen, like in the Fall. But wait,… Read moreA Point in Time: 1816, The Year Without a Summer
It had been a while since Ben and I last visited the States. Little did I realize that the flight over was preparing us to eat in American restaurants. Of course you only get that kind of preparation when you… Read moreEating in Restaurants
English is my mother tongue. I like to think I speak it and write it correctly, too. About 360 million people speak English as their first language. Add that to the population who speak English as an additional language and… Read moreLanguages and Dialects
How many seasons does Maine have? Two: winter and July. And North Dakota, how many does it have? Two too, but they are called winter and road construction. Luckily Switzerland has 4 seasons although road construction could possibly be used… Read moreRoad Construction
Travelling in the United States never ceases to amaze me. Driving distances, how we get there and what is considered normal. We didn’t have a lot of time to plan or pack a recent trip to the States. We ended… Read moreWe are Going Places
In Bernese “Zwee”, “Zwo” and “Zwöi” translate into two, two and two. That many, no more and no less. When Ben explained this peculiarity of Bernese he stated that it was “Hohe Schule” [higher education] which I promptly misunderstood. For… Read moreTwo, Two or Two?
Formal or informal? I’ve looked at this question from the Swiss side a couple of times. It’s pretty clear-cut; formal uses Mr. and Ms, informal is first name. After our last trip to the States I realized the American first… Read moreAre we on a First Name Basis?
Okay, everyone knows what a cheesecake is, right? Maybe. Well, it depends on where you are and what language you are speaking. Friends for Dinner We invited friends over for dinner. My friend said she would bring a cheesecake so… Read moreCheesecake, What is That?
Coming from a war generation, Ben’s mom’s slogan was “Make new things out of old things”. There are a lot of ways to describe what they did: repurpose, reuse or my favorite, upcycle. Whatever you want to call it, it… Read moreBeing Creative with Old Things
Nothing is quite as American as brownies; small, square chocolate cakes. Brownies can be gooey, fudgy, or cakey. They can be topped with icing, powered sugar, whipped cream or anything else, or nothing at all. You can add nuts or… Read moreBrownies, American Style
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