Living on a mountain
Living on a mountain
Something I cannot seem to get over is my life on the top of a mountain. Recently, a friend living in London made a joke and asked if we still had snow up here. We do! All those Pizes around my apartement in a 500 year old building are white and I literally need a different wardrobe on my weekly trips to Unterland, Zurich. On the other hand – I have never been as tanned in April as now. The sun on my large balkony is my best friend on my free days and I am very happy to be living 1800 meters closer to it than most of you.
Living in a village
I am a city girl and proud of it. However, the time I spend on duty, which takes not less than 30 hours at a time, and in Zurich, which is three train ride hours away, I do spend in small village of some 1000 people up on the mountain I described above. I cannot really call it living as it mostly consists of eating and sleeping, or even only sleeping, judging by what I just had for lunch: ten tiny mozzarella balls, five tomatos in the size of a grape and four walnuts I loaned from my flatmate’s assets. Since Coop, our only „supermarket“ is five hundred meters downhill and therefore equals a mediocre challenge, and Volg, our dwarf shop is closed on Wednesday afternoons I am off work, eating is rather limited to the canteen at work. We also have a pizzeria, unfortunately though, without any ventilation, and a bar slash pub slash restaurant which remains the only entertainment for the whole village. Sad to say, so it is for the whole school of 300 pupils, too. But the water is wonderful, we do not have any calk being so high up, and there are actually sources for bubbly mineral water in the area.
Socialising
As I get older, I do not seem to require as much socialising as I used to. I am quite happy reading and chilling on my own when I do not need to be going anywhere, or working. Swiss culture is, in my experience, based on eating together and I adore it. Meeting the people I live in the same house with every week around someone’s birthday dinner, or celebrating a holiday of one of the numerous nationalities we have inhabiting the building, makes me feel content with where I am and what I do. Even if I could always do without the mountain, I have learnt to accept it.
Something I cannot seem to get over is my life on the top of a mountain. Recently, a friend living in London made a joke and asked if we still had snow up here. We do! All those Pizes around my apartement in a 500 year old building are white and I literally need a different wardrobe on my weekly trips to Unterland, Zurich. On the other hand – I have never been as tanned in April as now. The sun on my large balkony is my best friend on my free days and I am very happy to be living 1800 meters closer to it than most of you.
Living in a village
I am a city girl and proud of it. However, the time I spend on duty, which takes not less than 30 hours at a time, and in Zurich, which is three train ride hours away, I do spend in small village of some 1000 people up on the mountain I described above. I cannot really call it living as it mostly consists of eating and sleeping, or even only sleeping, judging by what I just had for lunch: ten tiny mozzarella balls, five tomatos in the size of a grape and four walnuts I loaned from my flatmate’s assets. Since Coop, our only „supermarket“ is five hundred meters downhill and therefore equals a mediocre challenge, and Volg, our dwarf shop is closed on Wednesday afternoons I am off work, eating is rather limited to the canteen at work. We also have a pizzeria, unfortunately though, without any ventilation, and a bar slash pub slash restaurant which remains the only entertainment for the whole village. Sad to say, so it is for the whole school of 300 pupils, too. But the water is wonderful, we do not have any calk being so high up, and there are actually sources for bubbly mineral water in the area.
Socialising
As I get older, I do not seem to require as much socialising as I used to. I am quite happy reading and chilling on my own when I do not need to be going anywhere, or working. Swiss culture is, in my experience, based on eating together and I adore it. Meeting the people I live in the same house with every week around someone’s birthday dinner, or celebrating a holiday of one of the numerous nationalities we have inhabiting the building, makes me feel content with where I am and what I do. Even if I could always do without the mountain, I have learnt to accept it.
tinkerblond - 9. Mai, 08:36
To improve your diet
Ingredients:
Salt
Pasta
1 Spoon of olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1/3 small, fresh chili (take out everything that is inside)
100 g fresh or frozen spinach
pepper
2 spoons of plain yoghurt
1 spoon of freshly pressed lemon juice
How to prepare it?
1. prepare the pasta (check the box for instructions :-) )
2. heat up the olive oil and sauté garlic and chili
3. add spinach, season with salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes (fresh spinach) or 4 minutes (frozen spinach)
4. take pan from stove, add yoghurt and lemon juice and let it stand for about 1 minute
5. mix the sauce with the pasta
Enjoy!
Not my invention, hence the source: Brooks Brown, Celia: Vegetarisch für Gäste, München: Christian Verlag, 2003