Dappled Air

Swiss Mercenaries I was just looking through my quarterly magazine called 'Swiss Review" that arrives regularly like clockwork in my house and an article about the history of Swiss Mercenaries caught my attention. In school we were taught that the Swiss soldiers had a reputation of being fierce. The Swiss guard at the Vatican started out like that a long time ago. As the center Cantons are primarily catholic it stands to reason that only catholic men can join the guard and many are from those central Cantons. I am not sure for how long this article is going to be reachable through this link as I had to go searching for it, I am putting the content here: Switzerland – a warfare service provider Mercenaries do not have a good reputation. The Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi attempted for months to prevent his fall from power in October 2011 with foreign troops. The UN recently warned of a worrying rise in the number of mercenaries in Africa. The use of “external mil...

Yesterday I received a phone call from my mom in Switzerland. She told me that she could just not go to bed yet until she found out what a baby shower was. She had just received a written invitation for the baby shower of my daughter-in-law in November. She asked, are they going to wash the mother before the baby comes? We both had to laugh at that thought. Then I explained to her that it was an American tradition of having a shower (party) for the future mother to help with some of the baby items they will need. After reading the info at Wikipedia about baby showers, I realized that bridal and baby showers (parties) are a typical North American thing and as I could hear by my mom's puzzled question totally unheard of in Switzerland. Related articles by Zemanta Frequently Asked Questions for Baby Shower Things To Know When Hosting A Baby Shower Details Of Baby Shower Thank You Cards

Today I am celebrating my 34th anniversary of arriving in Canada. I had met my husband in a kibbutz while working there with a group of Swiss volunteers. Once I returned to Switzerland I had to find a way to get to Canada. The only option I had was as a mother's help in Toronto , Ontario , which was 1500 km away from where my future husband lived in Saint John, New Brunswick . The culture shock and the language difference where quite big. I spoke English, but not very well. Reading an English newspaper took ages and even then I didn't understand all the words and had to look them up. Now after 34 years, I am told I still have a slight accent, but I don't have any problems with English any more. The funny thing is, that often I use very antiquated English expressions, I have no idea where that comes from. I am also famous for combining two expressions into one. Example: Every so once in a while, which should be 'every so often' and 'once in a while'. I have ...