Landschlacht, Switzerland: 13 February 2016 “I often have to remind people I’m from the New World and all the old rules and formalized hierarchies that stifle and overwhelm others don’t necessarily apply to me. Tell me I can’t do something– are you sure, Dude? Let’s see…” The above statement was posted by an American Facebook friend… Continue reading Not from my neighbourhood
Category: Psychology
Life and death in the field of women
Frauenfeld, Switzerland: 3 February 2016 “A field of women…how bad could that be?”, was my first thought when I encountered the name of Thurgau Canton´s capital city for the first time. I have been to this city a number of times since I moved to Switzerland six years ago: for job-hunting, for bureaucratic reasons, as… Continue reading Life and death in the field of women
Omens and portents from a rodent
Landschlacht, Switzerland: 2 February 2016 I always smile when I think of this day for I recall my visits to two towns that are famous in the minds of Canadians: Punxsutawney and Wiarton. On this day in February, beneath the town hall in Punxsutawney and in a special house across from Bluewater Park in Wiarton,… Continue reading Omens and portents from a rodent
Time of our lives
Landschlacht, Switzerland: 1 February 2016 I recall with great fondness watching the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland as a boy. I found it both amusing and thought-provoking, even in my boyhood, the idea of an animal, the White Rabbit, carrying around a pocket watch, scurrying obsessively, muttering: “I´m late. I´m late, for a very… Continue reading Time of our lives
New Switzerland lost and found
Winterthur, 29 January 2016 Wearing my teacher´s hat again this day…conversation class. Topic of discussion: The Swiss Family Robinson, written by pastor Johann David Wyss (1812), edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss and illustrated by his son Johann Emmanuel Wyss, is a story about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Australia. The… Continue reading New Switzerland lost and found
The Backyard Tourist
“A desk is no place to think on a large scale”. (Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking) “An absolute new prospect is a great happiness, and I can still get this any afternoon. Two or three hours´walking will carry me to as strange a country as I expect ever to see. A single farmhouse which I had… Continue reading The Backyard Tourist
A scent of Indian pine
Landschlacht, Switzerland: 30 January 2016 As I age I am beginning to notice my mind functioning increasingly odd. I can be at home or work and be walking from one room to another and forget why I made that decision to change rooms. Yet I can be doing a normal, average activity and something or… Continue reading A scent of Indian pine
Timely sensations of sex in the city
Winterthur, Switzerland: 26 January 2016 I have very little experience of Winterthur as a tourist as I work as a teacher here twice a week. Ute, my wife, is constantly complaining that I need to get out more and acquire some culture in my life. And whenever she is at home I allow her to drag… Continue reading Timely sensations of sex in the city
Utopia unrealised
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us And the world will be as one. Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people sharing all the world. (John Lennon, “Imagine”)… Continue reading Utopia unrealised
Konstanz: City of Shattered Dreams?
In the two years just passed and in the two years that follow, multitudes of people around the globe commemorate the events of World War 1 (1914 – 1918) that involved 70 million soldiers – 9 million of them killed in action, 7 million civilian casualities, and a conflict that lasted 4 years, 3 months and… Continue reading Konstanz: City of Shattered Dreams?