drinking some chimay and reading....

....about the swiss during WWII

mostly i keep looking up the bank the dad works for. i would imagine now they are more one the level but one has to wonder.

there are many interesting articles on the subject of the war, looted gold and the BIS bank.

i find this all very fascinating.

http://www.ronaldholland.com/tradingwithenemy4.htm

it's hard to ask joachim 'hey can i go with you to the BIS vaults to see some swastika gold' and i think that talking about hitler is a really sensitive subject especially with the germans.

the swiss have been neutral for far longer than when WWI started.....it is the involvement of the US federal reserve and US banks and the BIS that i find pretty interesting.

it's also hard to talk to joachim about it because well, he's german...his parents were alive during the war....i am sure that with the 'regular folks' of germany they just wanted the war to be over and did what they could to live and probably felt really bad about the issue of death camps. i figure i would too....dissent is not unamerican but it certainly was a punishable crime in nazi germany.

here is a photo of some clouds. i know....how peaceful!

today was a trying day to say the least....

oh the frustration is crazy.

first we go to register with the canton of basel. can't do that without swiss ID card.

call the BIS who issued my work visa....they say that they were supposed to start the process once i arrived in basel which was the 20th.

so i had to fill out many forms again tonight and take some passport like photos.

i also have to send my passport, like the real deal, to this place but not until thursday cause me and my new pal will be leaving switz i think to check out some german or french nature.



i will need the passport to get back into switz. this isn't true for the rest of the countries in europe.

i wanted to come home so badly today. i cried a lot....it's okay i cry a lot as it is. but this makes the germans feel bad cause they are an unemotional lot!

okay so if i find a flat i like i can apply with all this information i have, the contract, the work visa and various other fucking forms but i still cannot actually get a place without having a status. which by the way is an F status, which i find fucking hilarious.

hi, my name is michelle. i have the F stats. F uck status!

i feel better now and am glad i have a phone and got to call back home which was very nice and relaxing to me.

it's nice to have this communication device, no?

i am sure i will use my pre paid minutes faster than i want to.

texting is cheaper probably for us all.

the mountains are beautiful today because it wasn't as cloudy and the sun was out. i posted up a photo on facebook but will here too for those that don't have the facebook....

to top this all off, i tried to buy one god damn orange and nope! i was supposed to weigh said orange first...did i already write about this?

i cannot be sure anymore.

tomorrow i stay with just gernot while tamara takes wolfram to the play group he is in on wednesday mornings......they told me that i wasn't interacting with the kids but the kids are very very very mommy centered and no matter what if she is here then they are not going to want to play with me. to them i think i am just this visitor....little do they know that their mommy is going to work next monday!

ha ha kids.

cool thing about next week is that there is no play groups or appointments so that is nice.

i am not going to the bank because they will most likely tell me that i need my 'papers' in order to open the account.

phew. what a day of ups and downs for sure.

i was ready to call british air and get the fuck out of here but i calmed down a little and cried it all out and we had a nice talk and i let them know that even though we are friends they are now my employers and they need to act as such and tell me when they want me to do things and so on.

they kept asking me to come because their son has encephilitis (i know i spelled that wrong) and some spasticity in his legs and they trust me because my brother has cerebral palsy....part of the reason maybe that i want to do this is because i have that old catholic guilt that i couldn't do more for my brother when we were little....he got the shaft a lot in the foster homes and i tried SO HARD to help him and i told case workers and lawyers that they were treating him so badly but no one likes to believe small children.

what i think people don't get is that kids are very very perceptive and a hell of a lot smarter than adults give them credit for.

either way, ginny--there is still people chocolate and i found some today and should be in mail at some point next week on an adventure with the kids.

henry and cat--i found some wicked crazy candies that i will also send along next week.

i miss the hell out of the kids i had in my life in the dee cee and my adult friends too.

i knew it would be hard and i knew it would be harder still with the language issue....

either way, everyone's messages, emails and comments on the facebook are really making my days brighter....

i love you all so much.

guten nacht!