New Years

Before I start writing about how I celebrated the beginning of 2008 I want to say "Happy New Year!" to everyone I haven't yet had the chance to say to. I don't really have a list of people that I want to greet and I kind of lost track of the people I have already seen or talked to since last year, so please don't be angry at me in case that I have "forgotten" you.

Back to the story how I arrived in 2008: The last post ended with Barbara and me arriving in Zurich and staying there for one night. The next day we got on a train and went to a city called Wädenswil, about 30 minutes outside of Zurich. There we met with Andrea, a close friend of Barbara from High School, Ines and Ian some other random friends that Barbara met while she was in Australia and that are also friends with Andrea.

Anyway, it was us five and we went to the mountains, close to the city Schwyz. Since this place is a little higher above sea level than Zurich for example, there was a lot of snow. We actually wanted to hike a little and our aim was to get to a small cabin on the mountain, but we got a little lost. Thus, we ended up in a different cabin, got some hot tea and went back to the car. After that we made a quick stop at Andrea's parents who live in Einsiedeln and then drove to Worb, a small city close to Bern, where Andrea lives.

The next few days were filled with a lot of talking, watching movies, cooking and eating, going for walks, doing some sightseeing in Bern and so on and so on. We didn't do anything spectacular, but it was really nice, just the right mixture of relaxing and actively doing something. Basically that's all we did. On New Years eve we had something typically for Germany oder Europe or I don't know, something called "Bleigießen" (translates into "lead pouring"). You basically take a piece of lead and melt it in some kind of spoon over a candle. When it's all melted you simply pour it into a bowl of cold water and voila, there we go. The shape the lead has at the end is supposed to say something about you or your life of the next year. As far as I know though, you need to have a lot of fantasy to see anything in the new shapes. To be honest my piece of lead looked a little like a huge sperm - but the pieces of the other people looked similar...

Anyway, we spent some nice days in Worb and on January 2, the vacation was already over. After exchanging all the pitures, Barbara went back to Germany from Bern because she had a doctor's appointment, Ian had to catch a flight to Great Britain from Zurich so Andrea drove him there and I was able to go along with them as well. Last but not least Ines had some more days of vacation and stayed in Worb a little longer with Andrea who also had some holidays.

I for my part had to work on January 3 and there I am again, working and having as much fun as possible.

With that my blog is up-to-date and I wish you once again a 'Happy New Year 2008!'