Onions and Turkeys

I thought that I would take a bit of time to tell everyone about two important holidays for the Amero-Swiss community: the Bern Onion Market (Zibele-Märit) and of course, Thanksgiving (now a while back).

First to the Onion Market.

The fouth Monday of November sees Bern transformed into a cacophony of noise, smells, and confetti.

The exact origin of the festival is debatable, but it seems to date back at least a couple hundred years (possibly even the 1500`s). In any case, it was a day for the local farmers to show there stuff (read onions). The party starts ridiculously early, with onion pies and champagne before dawn (we started around 10 am).

In addition to the real onions, there are strings of candy onions in a variety of colors and flavors.

The real onions are even more impressive. No bags full of random root bulbs, the Bernese farmers plait their onions into lovely strings. I imagine earnest Swiss farmers sorting through tones of fresh onions (eyes watering with the effort) till they find the perfect size and shape to fit the string.

 

Some of these braided onion strands are really quite impressive.

However, not all that is Swiss is orderly and comprehend-able. Here you can see onions in drag...why?...who knows! (but they are cute)

It is hard not to get caught up in the thrill of it all. Here is jen and me wearing onions and holding onions after having just eaten onions.

  

So, along with the whole onion motif, there is serious chaos afoot in the streets. Kids and adults run around with large plastic hammers (that make a loud noise when you smack them on something) beating oneanother mercilessly and joyfully. Also obligatory is covering every square inch of street and human with confetti.

 

It is a great party, and a fun tradition. Who knows, perhaps next year we will start a few hours earlier!

Then we needed a holiday that made sense, so we had Thanksgiving. Our friends Bruno and Sabine came over for a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. We had pretty much everything (we even found Canadian (close enough) cranberries in the store). Although, I can not recommend doing Thanksgiving in Switzerland for a large group. Even our tiny bird (Sabine for scale) cost 50 CHF. We saw a couple in the store for over 100 franks. On the bright side, neither Bruno nor Sabine had ever seen a cooked turkey (other than in the more common breast form), so we were able to wow them with a 6 lb. bird.

In Bern at last

Well, we are finally here, and we now finally have internet access (including the month in Potsdam without access before we left, it has been nearly 2 months now since we've been able to sign on from home). I think we'll make this a multi-part post. Today, I'll just say Hi, and give some info about our new locations (exciting tales from the last days in Potsdam, the move, and other tidbits will show up later).

So, we now live in a small village of about 4000 people just south of Bern. Kehrsatz has the distinction of being its own political entity, with the advantage that it is a tax haven (hurrah!). By bicycle, we are about 25 minutes from Bern (on the way there, whereas it is more like 45 on the way back), and about 15 minutes by train. The downside of both of these modes of transport is that we live ~200 ft above the train station. That may not sound all that impressive, but since it takes place over about 1/4 mile, it can be pretty nasty, especially on the bikes.

Our apartment is nice. It is hard getting used to hearing the neighbors (we were spoiled in Hannover), but everything is quiet by the time we go to bed. Jen will have to tell you all about the organ-playing downstairs neighbors.... We love the balcony. It is south-facing, so there is a lot of sun (if there happens to be sun at all). As you can see, the view is quite nice...

...but alas, the big wooded hill across from us just blocks the even more spectacular view of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau (three of the more famous mountains in Switzerland).

I suppose that will do for now. We'll get a bit more on shortly. Although, perhaps not so shortly, as Dave is visiting in 3 days!