Grüezi! Gruyère ummm.... Gesundheit!??

Before anything else, let me just say Swiss German is a bit ridiculous. Its not really a written language because they can write things in multiple ways (but they write it anyway). It sounds like German, but with a few French and Italian words thrown in. And just for good measure, a few things they just made up. People actually go to other part of Switzerland just to learn that region's way of speaking....

Needless to say, I understand nothing really. The best part is that I was in Spanish speaking countries long enough that my mind registers hearing a foreign language and before I realize it, I unconsciously just assume that they must be speaking Spanish (since its a foreign language I have been around a lot lately) and try to begin replying. However y conscious mind realizes how ridiculous this is so I switch to English, sometimes midword or sentence. The best is when y mind is a second later in catching up and I get really confused... Its not really that bad though. There are so many expats here (Zug is known for being a tax haven and for cherries) that most everyone speaks English at least to some

degree.

Anyway the first week or two here was really nice, apparently it was unseasonably warm... then the snow came. Switzerland started living up to its stereotype. We had several days of snow and daily high temperatures of 32F... But thats what you expect here, no one freaks out and the world goes on like normal, so unlike home. I haven't let the cold or snow keep me from running, its just cold. But when you are in this situation, you learn how to be on your own, or you go crazy (really probably a bit of both).

Saturday I didn't do much, watched movies and TV on my laptop (TV is all in German...) but Sunday I caught the train (which are nice and always on time) over to Lucerne. Lucerne (or Luzern) is one of the postcard type Swiss cities. It has an old town, bit of the old wall, a cool Transport Museum and other stuff to do. I went just to get out a bi. I walked over to the Transport Musuem (also has an IMAX and Planetarium) and wandered around a bit.

The museum was really cool. There were buildings for each Airplanes, Boats, Cars and Trains. There were all kinds of displays and plenty of hands on exhibits.

There was even a rack full of cars that the audience got to vote on which car the machine would pick off the rack to bring down to the viewing area.

Afterwards I walked up to the old city wall and wandered

around. By then I was pretty frozen so I just went home. I am getting a bit bored but have to remember I might as well enjoy

lazy days when I can, soon I have a 6week work trip through Singapore to get to Australia for a month (3 different locations) then a weekend stop over in Hong Kong for a two week job in the Philippines. Its going to get busy!