Tonight I went out with some other Au pairs to the Brazilian festival in Basel. There was no Brazilian samba music, very little Brazilian food, (mostly German sausages) and I don't think a lot of the products they were selling were Brazilian. But, I had Guarana! I haven't had that in almost a year, Jenna...that is a hint! Otherwise, it was a fun Swiss street fair to go to.

An interesting fact I learned the other day about this country...you have to have a licence for almost everything. Televisions, or if you just have a cable connection in your home...you have to pay about 30 franc a month just to not get fined. Radios...on alarm clocks, on phones, in your car, another 15 franc a month. They actually drive around with radio wave sensors and will track people down who have signals from their apartment and no licence on record. That is just a tad bit ridiculous.

German...an interesting language. You pronounce every letter just like it sounds in the German alphabet, except the vowels. That is why it sounds so weird. And you can actually put words together and spell them in one. For example...Viertousandeinhundertfünfundzwenzig. (that might be spelled right)....it means 4125, it is my postal code, and the last 4 digits of my mobile number, and yes they actually say it like that, not vier-eins-zwie-fünf (4-1-2-5). So...other than counting to 100,000 I have learned to be polite, and that is about it.

Things I miss from the states...
Box mix Brownies
Fluffy cake mix cakes
Cheap and unlimited soft drinks in restaurants
Stop signs...they all have round-abouts
SUV's

Things I wish we had in the states
Good public transportation
Swiss chocolate
drinking at age 16...don't worry they can only get beer and wine until they are 18
bakery's on every corner...ahhh fresh bread

Things I am glad are not in the states
Mullets...they are all the rage here...especially faux mullets
Tight acid wash jeans...it is like I went back into the 80's
licence for electronics (see above)