I went thrifting and swimming

Today was a rather successful day. Finally I was taken to a 'real' second-hand shop. Not just a consignment shop that sells used clothes for 20 times more than they should be. Maya took the kids and I to St. Gallen where there was a Swiss affiliated Salvation Army store...a 'real' second-hand shop. This had all the sections a store back home would have: incomplete table settings, Don Johnson records, ugly china, and a nice selection of used clothing. I hope to make this a monthly or bi-monthly trip. Today I came away with four items, totaling 6 Swiss Francs.

I picked up three different beer glasses. All are .3L, instead of the 'normal' European .5L. This is good because they just don't sell beer in half-liter portions in the US. One is even a boot.



When perusing the t-shirts, I was hoping to load up on shirts that had different things written on them in German. None really stuck out to me, until I came to this one:



After thrifting we went to a sports club (think YMCA). There we went swimming. Nothing much to report about that other than that I float about the same over here.

Brace yourselves for the next section. It may involve some gruesome pictures.


It was time
Yes, it was time. Since early August, I had not trimmed my facial hair. Until Thursday night. Things were starting to get tangly and knotty (naughty?).

After 8 months, it had grown about 9 cm. We'll just say about a centimeter a month:





I decided to have a little fun with it, so I let Tim tell me how to trim it. Here's the beginning:



During:



I wanted to leave it like this, but Tim didn't want me to:



Wrapping up:



.....aaaaaaaand......

(cue fanfare)

(play fanfare)

The nearly finished product:



Finished!:



What have I learned about having a beard such as the epically long (for me) one that I just trimmed? It comes down to this. Having a beard is one of the easiest ways to keep people from sitting beside you on the train. They take one look at you and possibly at the book you're reading and keep walking down the aisle. I enjoyed that. I always had a seat or foursome of seats to myself unless the train was really full.


Fun upcoming things

I will be heading into Germany for Easter and visiting my old friend from high school, Phil. This seems to be our only chance to catch up with one another in the entire year I'm here, so I'm taking advantage of the opportunity.

Rumor has it that the Dave Matthews Band will be playing the festival that such acts as Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, BB King, Bo Diddley, Deep Purple, and Stevie Ray Vaughn have been apart of. Held every year on the shore of Lake Geneva, the Montreux Jazz Festival is one of the most prestigious music festivals in Europe. If the rumors are true and they are playing on a Saturday night (July 4th to be exact) I will try to make this show.

With that,
Jon