OMG American Airlines

A few years ago I started flying a lot to and from Switzerland. I accumulated a LOT of frequent flyer points. I was able to use these over the past weekend to upgrade my seat, my wife's seat, and my two children's seats to business class on American Airlines. We paid for economy. This is actually an amazing thing when considering how many people also wanted to upgrade. I guess suffering so much through the past afforded me a one-time luxury, which I really needed to take advantage. I'll come back to why.

During boarding, the announcer called us "business ass classengers". Twice. I picked up on it the first time, Kris refused to believe me when I tried to tell her. Then , both Kris and I heard it the second time. It's funny enough that she said this. It's more funny to know how true it is what she's saying, even if she's slipping by accident.

During the reshuffle process, Kris and I were seated together. Not bad at all. The kids were spread across the plane. Also, not bad if you're a business ass classenger since you don't have to hear two pre-teens fight about touching each other's arms on the arm rests, or putting their shoes under the other's seat.

The first business ass classenger to see one of my children looked at my son, my 9 year old, and promptly looked around as if he were on Candid Camera. Kris darted up to him from a few rows back.

her: Sir? Would you be willing to trade seats with my daughter, just over there?
bac: Ha. When I saw him, I knew I would be moving.
son: Yeah, I'm not so comfortable around strangers.
bac: You'd be surprised I'm not all that strange.

Family settled, the plane was delayed by two hours for replacing a valve sensor in the right engine. I'm happy to wait as long as it takes for a cross-Atlantic 9 hour journey, just to be safe.

Back to why I needed the advantage this time... I somehow chose this 9 hour flight to mature a flu to the point of severely high fever, serious dehydration, and a dramatic disoriented wheelchair ride off the plane in NY. Had I been sitting in coach, I can't imagine going through all of those hallucinations for so many hours with so many people crammed around me. I think they lucked out, too. Kris not so much, but everyone else...

Back to rehydrating.

Summer

So... Where is everyone? Oh. It's the beginning of summer. School is out. Vacations begin.

I learned this. I learned because over the past several weeks, "end of school year" activities have intensified. This is another cultural thing Europeans laugh at Americans about. "You Americans and your work... Who has time? Who.. has... time? But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time?"

I am told not to plan for major software releases during the summer. No one is around to test, or accept the risk of such a schedule.

So... Where is everyone?

I'll be in Kansas City trying to find ways of shipping Chipotle vegetable burritos to Switzerland.

There's clothes for that

I now frequently walk to work, and always in my work clothes. It's about 2.5 miles one way. I do at least wear tennis shoes because they're far more comfortable for those distances than the leather shoes with hard soles. As of today, no less than 6 times I have been offered a ride by passer-by co-workers taking pity on me. It's usually an awkward moment. They see me walking on the sidewalk, recognize me, and out of generosity pull off to the side. The conversation usually goes like this.

them: Get in.
me: I'm fine. I'm just walking to work today.
them: (blink)
me: The weather is finally getting nice enough.
them: (blink again, looking around) It's raining.
me: Ok, I need the exercise.
them: Uh, ok. Guess I'll see you in another hour for our meeting.

It actually has been raining too much, but I'm stubborn. I realized the other day that when I moved here, I didn't bring more than just a few casual items, just mostly work clothing. It must have been a mindset for me. When I traveled here the previous two years, I only brought work clothes, and maybe a couple of casual items. I'm fine if I want to go walking around on the weekends in shorts and t-shirt. But if I want to bike, swim, jog, or workout, I'm currently limited to an office suit.

Guess I'll need to make a few visits to a sporting goods store, so that I can fit in wearing garb that matches the thing I am doing. Probably will get less offers to ride to work...

Car

This just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Nevertheless, Kris NEEEEEEEEDED to have a car. After months of walking, training, cabbing, and imposing on exceptionally patient friends, we now own a Switzerland-ready 2004 Hyundai Tucson.

Cars are very very expensive here. So is fuel. So is insurance. So is parking. So is breathing, eating, living, and being. I used to think my carbon footprint was considerably reduced from my excessive American lifestyle. Now it's time to rethink.

Perceptions

I had dinner with my European friends again last night. I very much enjoy getting together with them. This happens maybe once a month. We usually find some pretty nice restaurants in the area, something requiring a bit less than business attire, but a bit more than shorts and a t-shirt. It frequently results in a bash-the-American final round. I think after the first few times of watching me squirm and be uncomfortable, it has become an engaging sport.

My personality is such that I loooooove to shock my wife's extended family with fully inappropriate comments. Such comments result in everyone laughing awkwardly, moaning at me, not really knowing how to react to the ridiculous things that come pouring out of my face hole. I feel like I am trying to be funny during these moments, and occasionally my timing is not bad. I guess what goes around comes around.

Last night, we ended up a few tables away from Zurich's red light district. Kris had originally contacted a restaurant we had previously found. They said they couldn't reserve a table for eight on a Friday night, but they referred us to "other restaurant" they also owned, an Italian restaurant. Since the food was great at the original restaurant, we thought we couldn't go wrong. We weren't that disappointed. The food was not bad. The view from inside the window, however, made for a good laugh with graffiti and industrial buildings nearby.

As the night continued, we evolved into the squirm-testing. The conversation somehow started with cleaning women in the men's restroom, moved to naked sauna laughing, and finally landed on "isn't every white American male a member of the Ku Klux Klan?"

Check, please?

Rain

May is supposed to be the month where the sun starts showing up more frequently. The sun has become lazy.

In some ways, I'm okay with this. My August experiences here were insufferable with missing air conditioning. The temperature is perfect now. But the rain continues and continues and continues. It makes people here a bit cranky when no sun-minutes are granted. It tends to ruin weekends, days out doing stuff, keeps us locked in too close together, unless you're like me and rain doesn't matter... yet. Maybe I have a higher tolerance for it. Or maybe I'm a sparkly vampire.

Food prices

I guess after one year I am still shocked at food prices in Switzerland. I don't have the impression that Americans realize cheap corn is at the root of cheap food in America. I love Jose Pepper's in Kansas City. Feeding 8 at this restaurant equates to around $60. I laughed about this when I was last there. For the same money in Switzerland (we found one Mexican restaurant that we love), I can only afford the pitcher (1 liter here) of margaritas. On top of that, I still have to purchase another $100 of food... for two adults. Yeah.

There is a huge difference in costs between here and where I am from. People from here will claim the quality is better, and so the delivery costs are reflective of this quality. Maybe.