Subject: *********
It's snowing!!!!
Hi everyone!
I just wanted to write something quick before I leave tomorrw- I'm off to Split (Croatia) first thing tomorrow morning, and won't be back until late on Friday. I'm really looking forward to this trip- from all the pictures I've seen, it looks absolutely beautiful. All old stone buildings with tile roofs, very Mediterranean. ...considering it is RIGHT on the Adriatic I guess there's a good reason!
It snowed a bit this morning, and there were some little kids trying to sled on the hill right outside my window, but without much luck- there is only a light dusting of snow, and the grass is still showing. But they were so cute! I took a walk up the Uetliberg for a while this morning before I left for the ETH, and it was so nice out- quite chilly, but with my scarf and gloves I was nice and toasty. At random points along the paths there are upside-down tree trunks replanted into the ground so that their roots are sticking up in the air. There is a face carved into each one of these trunks, kind of like a totem pole. I've found three so far, and they're all a bit different, each with a goofy face, and I laugh a little every time I walk by one!
I stopped to take a picture of one today, and a man passing by told me that they were put there as a part of a social program- unemployed people carved these faces, and then they were planted along these paths! Isn't that cool?
I've decided I really like walking along the Uetliberg because it reminds me so much of camp- all the paths crunching along the leaves, with a little bit of snow on top. And the climate and vegetation are very similar, so it has very much the same feel to it. Mom, I was almost wondering if you were walking around at camp at the same time....until I realized what time it was, and that you were probably just waking up!
There are so many streams running down the slope, and they all run down over a series of steps, built out of three or four round logs, stacked on top of each other log cabin stye. It looks kind of neat to see a whole "staircase" winding it's way up (down?) the mountain, until it goes around a bend and you can't see it anymore. Even though they are so clearly manmade, they seem to fit so well into their surroundings- very clean, simple, but well-built. Today some of the water had frozen on these stairs, so there was an extra layer that I thought looked really cool (no pun intended!) in this whole arrangement.
I walked along further, and almost stumbled upon the massive stone ruins of a building I don't know how many hundreds of years old. (It's on one of my maps, I just had never taken this path before) It was just sitting there on top of a ridge, in the middle of the woods. There is a steep set of wooden/dirt stairs carved into the hillside, but not much else denoting it's existence. There are only about three or four walls left, all built of big chunks of stone, mortared together, each about 3 feet or a meter wide, and varying in height from about a foot, 30 or 40cm to tall enough to have an arched doorway. There were places where the mortar had been patched recently, and so it was lighter, and had a different look to it, but other than that the whole thing was so dark and worn, with moss and lichen and stuff growing on it just like it would on any other bare stone in the woods. I walked around it a bit, climbed on its walls, and tried to imagine the time when it was built, its stones still bright and unweathered. It has a beautiful view of the lake in the valley below, and a great location, tucked away into the folds of the mountain. But I think it must have been brutal to live here then. I wonder if it was a military defense point, or if it was somebody's home? It wasn't very big, but it seemed to be built with much care. Its unremarkableness amazed me. This is a country old enough to have things hundreds of years old just sitting here, weathering, watching the time pass, without any plaque from a historical association denoting its significance (Chingach dying in his care Pioneer?) or any type of enshrinement whatsoever! It just IS.
People keep asking me if I'm happy living in Triemli, and are always surprised when I say that I am. The Personalhäuser tend to be a bit impersonal at times, because they're so big, with such a mix of people.
But I think I must be lucky, because there are some great people living on my floor, who I talk to a lot in the kitchen- I think that's the meeting point on the floor- sometimes for hours on end. I also have a room on the "better" side of the building, in my opinion; my window faces right out towards the Uetliberg, rather than in towards the city.
I love being able to watch the weather and the sunsets, and the little kids on the little rolling hill (just BETWEEN me and the mountain!). And I love being able to walk up/along/around the mountain, always finding new things and getting a new perspective! (And besides, even though I'm clear on the other side of the city from the ETH, I think it takes me just as long to get to class as it does people who live right in town!) So yes, I think it's a good place to live. :)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!!!
Take care! I miss you!
Lotsa love,
Cor :)
No comments:
Post a Comment