Ghost Town & National Pride

We said good-bye to a really sweet family this past Sat. who are going back to Atlanta and then a couple (M & J) that has been good friends with us - whom the girls adore - moving to NYC. All work related so we figure to see them again - somewhere within 'the Firm.'

As M has about 3 - 4 generations of Iowa farming behind him, I was able to ask a little about the corn the girls planted in my little garden spot. We'll see.

A good weekend but always hard to see people go - also hard to imagine never having spent part of your life with them. Makes the good-bye part easier knowing there are truly nice, caring and wonderful people all over - even when they are not part of your daily world anymore.

BUT - the strangest thing was leaving the Sat. night good-bye party. It was only 7:45 and we drove through about 3-4 little towns to get home. And saw maybe 10 cars and 5 people. We saw more goats than we saw people. ON A SATURDAY NIGHT! It was soooo weird - like the TwiLight Zone.

The Waedi Brewery was dark, no one walking along the lake on a decent (meaning it wasn't currently raining) night, no one on the main drag eating in the restaurants or having a smoke with their capuccino, the pizza men and Kebab shop men were just watching their TV and sitting around....

Euro'08 - Switzerland vs Czech Republic. Switzerland lost but - the country was practically shut down so everyone could watch. Amazing. I felt sorry for anyone who might be touring through Switzerland and not interested in watching soccer this month. Didn't I mention before that Euro'08 is making the Swiss a little crazy?

We also know that our neighbors below are watching the games closely - we hear the yells and hoots and hollers. Bart said that Credit Suisse has told it's employees they have permission to wear their Football jerseys to work during the Cup!

While I write, the Italy vs Netherlands game is on - had to interrupt my writing here to watch the teams sing the national anthems - Bart claims I'm checking out the line-up but I really am interested in the music. I fully expect the horn honking later tonight to exceed that of last nights after Portugal's win.

It's just really interesting to watch the National pride that exists here exhibited in force. These people are passionate about this sport and their home countries. We are used to seeing flags all over the place - predominately Swiss of course. However, because of the close borders, it is common to see Italian, German, Portuguese and a few (very few) French flags flying as well. These numbers have increased exponentially lately. Many people are driving around with colors flying on their cars.

I'm hoping to get some pictures. The schedule with school is crazy and I am not getting out much with the camera.

There's the yelling - Score - I hear the neighbors before I catch it from the TV!

So - with Memorial Day past and 4th of July coming - How do we show our National Pride as a collective group? Are we good at it? Wavering? Does it only come out during the difficult times or do we stay strong during the good times too?

We will be spending the 4th this year with family in SoCal - the girls are very excited to wave their American Flags. That makes me feel really good.

More yelling - had better go. No wonder Kendra can't get to sleep!