Neighborhood Happenings

It's February already? January disappeared in a flash. Phil worked hard all month and I played hard all month! Actually I didn't really play much at all, but I have gone on a few fun outings with my new friend, Ali. We climbed to the top of Uetliberg, the "Top of Zurich" and we also visited a Brocki, which is the Salvation Army of Switzerland. I have been reading a lot and trying to spend less and less time watching random t.v. My current reading selection is "The Service Profit Chain," a marketing book that is very interesting. It is probably something that anyone not interested in marketing and customer service would find horribly boring, but I think it is fascinating. Next up is probably "Beloved" by Toni Morrison or else another business book. I want to start reading the books on personalmba.com since they are all relevant to my soon-to-be-restarted career!

This last week we got a bunch of snow, and it is actually sticking around! Phil went skiing yesterday and said that there was a ton of new powder, especially off piste, and it was up to his knees in places. I took some pictures of the snow storm from our balcony the other night. I'm not sure if you will be able to appreciate the amount of snow falling from the pictures but I will post them anyway. Granted this isn't a lot of snow compared to WI and CO, but it is a lot for Zurich!



Another development today is that the empty house across the street, which appears in many of my photos from the balcony, is no longer empty. Now this is quite strange because I have been watching this house for a year and a half now, and there is never anyone there besides the lawn service in the warm months. Today a sign appeared from the balcony that reads "Besetzt" which means "occupied." Clearly if someone had purchased or rented this property, such a sign would not be there, so this is indeed odd. I saw a guy smoking on the balcony earlier and a passerby stopped to talk with him. I'm not sure what was said, but the sign remains. I took a picture to show you all how weird this is. This is my excitement for the day! I feel like the nosy neighborhood lady, but I really want to know what is going on. I should be wearing a house coat and have some binoculars, shouldn't I?