Guten Tag!

Greetings from Zurich! I left this morning at 830am to go to the normally calm Geneva airport. But what is holiday travel without a ginormous flock of people at every airport in the world? I waited in line to check in for 45 minutes and when I got up to the front, my check in woman appeared panicked as she ran my passport through, especially as my flight had started to board while I toiled in line.

"Oh la la madamoiselle!" she clicked and got out a small little book to find a special phone number. (Incidentally, I love being called "madamoiselle," I find it charming and much better than being called madam). I understood enough French that the computer was claiming there was no boarding pass for me to Chicago. Quoi?? When she was off the phone, she sadly told me that my flight to Zurich (now leaving in 20 minutes) was fine but my flight to Chicago was delayed until 17:45. Seventeen?!! It was supposed to leave at 12:55. Flights that leave at 17:45 are not supposed to fly 9 hours away!! Anyway she was so sweet and felt bad for me that my lunch voucher was only 20 CHF, she told me to lie and say I hadn't gotten one so I could get a better lunch. Ha!!

So, as I have still over 3 hours to kill, this post will be quite random and wandering.

I went to the ATM which is great because the UBS atms can also dispense Euros, Pounds and dollars. If you are a worldly girl like me, you might have noticed that the exchange rate on the dollar is not so good these days. Well, that's good for me, because I get a lot more Francs than I ever got dollars. I have been too lazy to actually make a transfer of funds but I needed to do all my Christmas shopping at home still. So I hit the ATM very very hard to get my dollars needed for 2 weeks of partying and shopping. I got 800 dollars (we got paid a week early for Christmas, isn't that nice??). Except they only come out in 20s....oops. If anyone sees my wallet, they are going to either rob me or turn me into the poliezi!!

I landed in Zurich and used my lunch voucher. I calculated that my lunch was 23CHF (15CHF pizza plus 5 CHF salad plus 3chf coca light) so I was preparing to pay more. Instead, the woman at the counter asked me if I wanted a free Tobelerone. Um, what?? OK!!! Maybe my little friend back in Geneva made some calls for me.

I read about 200 pages in my book and did a little shopping and now I am at a weird internet cafe. The first computer ate 5 francs and shut off after 3 minutes, which is total crap. This one seems ok.

NOW, let's talk about airports. And the Europeans that are in them. And why I don't understand.

1) MOVING QUICKLY. No one over here understands the concept of moving quickly. I mean WALKING. I was running through the airport to make it to my flight, literally running and I get behind Shuffling Sham and Sharon and cannot get around them. MOVE people! Or don't take up so much room! I don't even understand how you can even move that slow. Then, I was running through the security line (still behind Sham and Sharon) which was thank god empty except for me and them and they would NOT move to a belt or take their bags to go somewhere or anything. They both just stood there in my way, turning around in a daze and not attempting to move through the line. The kicker is I knew that they were on a flight to Helsinki which also left at 1020, same as mine (it is now 1005). Are you high?? (actually, I did mutter this under my breath, because I saw NO WAY that any person whose plane was about to leave would act like that, unless they were high)

2) QUEUEING. Be proud to know how to wait in line, my fellow Americans. We may grumble and crowd but we are NO cutters. It must be because we are raised so well - "No cuts no buts no coconuts" and taunts of "she CUUuuuuuuUUUUUt!!!" from a young age. I first learned about this phenomenon when I was in India in 2006. However I figured there are a billion people in the country and they are probably used to having to fight crowds everywhere and it is just natural. So, you would imagine my surprise in orderly, orderly Switzerland, that there are just as many cutters here!!! And unlike Indian cutters, Euro cutters are RUDE and think it is their birthright to cut you. I got in the back of a super long line to check in at the airport and this entire family suddenly pulls up next to me trying to get in front of me. I shot the woman a totally dirty look and she ignored me, but she had to answer her phone or something so I reclaimed my proper place in line. heheheh. But later while I was checking my phone, I was cut again by some ipod wearing jerk who ignored my cold stares. Why do you think it is ok to cut?!! I saw it happen at least 10 times. Forget, incidentally, about skiing or getting a drink at a bar, those places are 100 times worse than the airport. But checking in at the airport is generally such a miserable experience that it would really be doing humanity a favor if these people would learn not to cut!

Well. I'm down to about a minute here so I'll post this bad boy and go. Its now 230. And they don't sell english books here. Off to make some fun for myself in the Zurich airport and hopefully hopefully see some of you soon!

And of course gentle readers, Happiest of Holidays and New Years to you. Looking forward to more adventures in 2008!! Aufwiedersein Au Revoir and goodbye!