The first evening, Harald hat eine Kuchen gebacht (he baked a cake) and the house smelled soooo good. We were already starting to get snowed-in in Singen, as we sat around and talked. We had tea and cake. Later for dinner we had salad and fresh salmon, with snow peas. I got the royal tour.
Snowed-in in Singen
Monday morning, Harald hat auch Arbeits frei. (It was his day off.) While Fabienne slept, Dagi and I took the sled out, as it had snowed all through the night. It’s true, the weather is much nicer where they live, on top of a small mountain. Up there it’s cold enough so they get snow, rather than rain. It’s clean, white, fresh snow. A total Winter Wonderland. We walked up the hills, and talked about the boyfriend I left behind (that I had been there with 18 months ago). About how it’s similar to Dagmar when she came to live in the U.S. for a year, and before that to London and Paris for 9 months, leaving Harald behind.
We sledded down, and I got bruised hips from sitting in the Kinder seat (child’s seat). When we went back we had, you guessed it, tea and cake. Dagi went to teach her English class at the company WEFR. The three of us, Hari, Fabi, and Cheri took the sled. I stayed a bit longer, each time sledding further and faster downhill.
In the evening, we had a Zurich Gulash, like the one Raphael had made for us at mom and dad’s in 1989. We drank a wine from Provence, from a winery Dagi and I visited in 1994. That night we watched a German film by Doris Dörrie, about a woman who turns 30 and is still not married. To acquaint me with German filmmakers, and I may be able to writer about them.
Snowing and Snowing
It kept snowing and snowing, all through the night, into the next day. When we awoke it was so pretty outside. I slept until 10:30. We had a beautiful, leisurely one-and-a-half-hour breakfast. We spent the day la-la-machen, talking, tanzen (dancing) and just Be-ing! The day was beautiful, still, quiet, peaceful, and relaxing. We talked about Dagi’s plans to write a textbook and open her own language school. About my writing plans and possibilities. We looked at old pictures of Fabienne’s first birthday in France.
Later on, Doti the fun neighbor girl came over, and we all played with Fabienne. All of us ended up dancing to the Gipsy Kings and decorating the house with rainbow streamers for Fasching. It was really fun. The whole time it was snowing outside – we were really snowed in. Over a foot of snow had come down non-stop durch den Tag (throughout the day).
Finally, we decided to brave it, and get bundled up to go outside. Cheri worked on shoveling the drive, and did a damn good job! We sledded a bit and took pictures in the snow. I decided to take a nice evening walk in the schoene (beautiful) Winter Wonderland. It was beautiful!
Evening came, and we had a great, relaxing snowed-in time, too. We made Swiss fondue from the fondue set we borrowed from Dagi’s French friend, Brigette. Even had a Gallo California Chardonnay. Enjoyed convo and leisurely dining, while die Fabienne schon ins Bett war (Fabienne was already in bed). We stayed up to watch the news, as the snow held up some Austrian travelers who had to stay overnight in local schools wegen den Schnee (due to the snow). We saw silly Faschings people on the late show. No news as far east as Kosice.
Tuesday 9 February, 1999
This is an excerpt from my Kosice Journal, documenting my exodus from a (relatively happy) bustling life in beautiful San Diego, to (voluntarily) take a post teaching English in the newly independent eastern capital of Slovakia 🇸🇰 during a very cold winter 1999.
