speaking german and swiss politics

I have now had 2 german classes (1/week). The class is called "survival german" so I'm supposed to be learning how to communicate well enough to live here like a native. In the first week we learned how to ask someone's name, where they live, and for phone numbers. In the second week (yesterday), we learned to ask if people are sad, happy, married, single and/or drunk. So, as far as I can tell, we've learned how to pick people up at a bar....

which didn't help me this week when we got about 10 email messages in german from the president of the university. As it turns out there has been a big political controversy here, resulting in the president refusing to resign, then resigning. It hurts my information-addicted (gossipy) soul that I can't understand much of the background, but my friends tell me its a little bit like the harvard president controversy except in this case it didn't take over a year for the resignation to take place.

in other news, knitting has grown to 10 people, and they have taken to calling it the "knitting club" which makes my head hurt. last week I forgot to bring extra needles for teaching and ended up having to teach someone to caston on chopsticks.

oh, and my homesickness abated when I saw my mom last weekend - she brought me chocolate chips and brown sugar so I can make proper cookies. and dvds of american television. she totally rocks.