August 8, 2004

Well, it’s our 23^rd anniversary, and what a nice way to spend it – arriving in Lugano! (although tired!) First of all, we arrived in Milan on time, walked right through passport check, and our luggage was first off the plane in just 2 minutes. Everything was so convenient. We bought our tickets for the ExpressBus to Lugano and our bus was waiting right outside. It was not a long bus ride, and just as I expected, the mountains suddenly appeared, and then, around a bend, there was Lake Lugano – such an incredible site! The steep mountains just jutting out of the water and small towns perched up high or clinging to the edge. Breathtaking!

The bus stopped at the Lugano train station, where we were met by Berny’s friend, Virgilio. He was so nice and helpful. After putting the luggage into the car, we went back into the station to change some money (this station noted for the best exchange rates) and to buy a one-year, half price train ticket, which will get us ½  off on all trains in Switzerland for one year. We also bought a special ticket for anywhere in Ticino (the Italian speaking part of Switzerland) for 1 month – since it was ½ off in August to promote taking public transportation. Fortunately I had my stash of passport sized photos that was recommended that we bring – since we needed them for both of these special tickets. Then Virgilio took us to Berny’s house in Comano.

Comano is a small town of about 500 people uphill from Lugano. Berny’s street is like most residential streets here – very narrow – room for 1 ½ cars – if you need to pass, someone has to pull up along someone’s driveway. His house looks like a ranch, but it actually is two stories. As we enter, we walk down a staircase to his front door. Since we are on a slope, we are still on the ground floor! At the entry level is another “apartment” (but this is a house with two separate apartments), and they have a balcony overlooking the back yard. There is one bedroom (the other was made into an office) a kitchen, a large living room – dining room area (which has large picture windows which overlook the garden and the mountains surrounding Lake Lugano), a dressing area for us, two full baths and a ½ bath. Plenty of room for us. My only regret is that I am in the office as I use my computer, and that wonderful view is around the corner in the living room! I wish I had wireless here!

Well, Virgilio showed us how to use the appliances and where things were located in the house. Our only setback was that the internet didn’t work! Virgilio lives in Zurich, and he came into town to help us. He arrived a couple of days earlier, and everything was fine – until a storm came thru and he found the house with the entire electric panel tripped, and since then our modem doesn’t work – but everything else is okay (except for a small TV, but we have the main TV). So we are still working on getting that fixed, but in the meantime I’ve dialed in to a free internet service – but I have to watch my phone minutes!

So our first day in Lugano we tried to stay awake until evening – which we did. Virgilio also took a ride with Rick to show him where the two schools were that he will be teaching at, and also the grocery store and also to show him how to drive Berny’s Mercedes Smart car. I didn’t go with them because the Smart car only seats two people. It’s a hybrid between a manual and automatic. No clutch, but you have to shift up, but not down. Then, Virgilio left about 3pm, and Rick and I kept busy unpacking and organizing, and we also went out to dinner at a local restaurant. Fortunately there was one open in town, since #1, August is very quiet here and in Italy because the locals leave town on vacation (people actually leave this place?) And #2, it was Sunday, and most places are closed. We ate a nice pizza outside and then after returning home, we decided to take a dip in the built in pool before going to bed. Berny’s back yard is actually terraced into two levels. The level right outside his house is his yard, but then there are steps lower to another yard with a swimming pool. That part belongs to an elderly German couple who owns the apartment above us, but they only come for about 2 weeks out of the year. We were told that we could use the pool if it’s available. So we had a nice mountain swim – with a great view!

August 9-10, 2004

Ahhh, I slept late on Monday morning – needed the rest! We spent the day putting away our belongings, and we also went to the post office to pick up one of our boxes which had arrived the previous Friday. We brought our pick-up slip to the post office, and the lady was so nice – she knew we were coming and of course knows Berny well. Everybody says Buon giorno to us and is very pleasant. I had heard that the Swiss could be very reserved, but that must be the Swiss German part! Actually, our Fulbright Alum in Washington told us that the Swiss keep to themselves (they had lived in the German speaking part) but then said that when they went to Ticino, everyone was so friendly and it was so refreshing for them.

On Monday, both Berny’s mom and his dad phoned us. Our phone rang more than it does in Wheeling! In the afternoon we took a ride to see if Rick could remember where his schools were (like Virgilio had showed him). He did great, and went directly to the schools! We couldn’t find the nearest Migros grocery store (noted for the lowest prices in expensive Switzerland) as Virgilio had shown him, but we found ourselves quickly in downtown Lugano (it’s SO close!) and found one there. We shopped for some basic food, but I didn’t want to stay long, since Berny’s dad said he’d stop by at 3pm. I wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get home, since previous Fulbright alums had told us that after first moving to a foreign country, plan on everything taking twice as long. I wanted us to have plenty of time to find our way home. Well, sure enough, we had parked in a parking garage (no free grocery store parking here!) and I had specifically asked a man in French how we are to pay. He said we could pay from our car upon exiting. WRONG! There we were, at the gate, with an unpaid ticket, with a line of cars behind us queued up the spiral exit! Fortunately, there was a tiny spot to pull off, and with our tiny Smart car, Rick pulled to the side (after I got out and had the guy behind us back up a bit) and I went to find the payment machine. That done, we found our way home with no problem.

On Tuesday I woke up early and decided to take a walk. Now, I haven’t really explained much about Comano. We live in an area of newer homes, and of course everyone tries to position their homes to get a good view of Lugano and the lake and surrounding mountains. I walked around the nearby streets, but often found myself stopping when I found a spot with a fantastic view. Basically, we have mountains everywhere, but the ones surrounding the lake are especially beautiful since they are so steep, and put that with the local palm trees, I found myself humming that South Pacific song “Bali High” – or at least I think that’s what it’s called! I feel like I’m on those South Pacific islands.

This day was a day to explore by bus. We took our local bus to the train station, and on the bus we met Doris, who happened to be a previous landlady of Berny’s! She knew him well and it was so fun to meet her. She recommended walking into the center pedestrian area of Lugano right from the train station. I never realized how close everything was! It was just a five minute walk downhill, and there we were in the little narrow, steep streets with all the vendors selling fruits and meats and everything else. We bought some sandwiches (Italian style, of course) and sat on a bench on the lakeside and enjoyed them.

We needed some more things for the house (like extra hangars, etc) and were told that the downtown Migros (where we had gone on Monday) has all those things on the upper floors. We didn’t realize that on Monday. So, seeing that everything is so close, we checked our map and found the store and bought the items we needed. Then, to get back up to the station, we took the funicular, and caught our bus back to Comano. There was a stop for our bus next to the Migros, but since our ticket covers all transportation for the month, we wanted to take the funicular for the fun of it! Now, a bit about Swiss buses. The local buses are called postal buses. Yes, the post office I guess runs these buses – they even do banking at the post offices. And like Swiss watches, they are ON TIME – to the exact second! It’s great to know exactly when your bus is coming!

On Tuesday evening Rick and I put together a dinner on the back patio. The weather has been very pleasant here – although a bit cloudy on Monday and Tuesday. But let me tell you about cloudy weather! Now, cloudy in Chicago is boring, but cloudy in the mountains means you see pockets of low hanging clouds lower than the tops of the mountains, and the fogginess paints a different picture by the minute. It’s not boring at all, but interesting and mysterious in itself! It’s awesome!

Our nighttimes have been very quiet. It’s so peaceful here. Tuesday night it rained, and Rick said he was awake for a while – just to listen to the rain. He said it sounded just like those noise conditioner machines that have a sound of rainfall, but this was the real thing!

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

We got up early this morning to go to the train station to take a train to Milan to get our visas (where the authorization papers were waiting for us). Things went well, but of course, never perfectly! We arrived at the Swiss consulate, where we were helped by a very nice young woman. She said we needed 1 passport size photo of each of us (and of course I had a bunch at home and left them there since I didn’t know we’d need them!) and then we had to fill out the visa application form – which we did in Chicago back in May; but since that was never sent to Milan, we had to fill it out again – minor inconvenience. So we had to go down to the subway station to take our pictures in the photo booth and go back to the embassy. Then, everything was in order and we got our visas – finally! Now, most people don’t know the hassles we went through with these visas, but believe me, we are very relieved!!!!

Now, Milan in August, well, it is totally dead. Most stores and restaurants are closed, because everyone goes on vacation for the month. So we promptly went back to the train station and grabbed a bite to eat there and hopped on the next train to Lugano.

Upon arrival back home – and it’s already feeling like home –it felt comfortable to be back in Lugano – we decided to take a walk to the town just west of Comano. When we were on the train to Milan, I had seen an American couple looking at a map – exactly the kind we wanted, with Lugano and all the streets of the surrounding towns. I asked the man where he bought it, and he said by the train station, but he and his wife never used it and it was a waste for them to have bought it. I promptly bought the map from him, and we used it to walk to Cureglia. It was very close, but a steep walk downhill. The views were fantastic, and we really enjoyed the town, with its little narrow streets and window boxes overflowing with flowers. At a little shop we bought some cheese and also some lettuce for salad, and enjoyed talking to the shop owner. I’m doing fine with my Italian, and I understand everyone almost perfectly. And I am especially proud of Rick, who is surprisingly understanding bits and pieces, and is not afraid to speak with his limited vocabulary. I’m excited to hear how he’ll be speaking Italian after one year!

Our walk back home was just as nice, but of course all uphill! No problem, we just stopped to rest on someone’s brick wall and enjoyed the view of the valley below and mountains around us. Back in Comano, Rick said our town had some old areas like Cureglia. I hadn’t seen those streets yet, but he had, as he has been going out jogging in the mornings. I was so excited to see that I was living in a town with quaint little ancient streets too! I can’t believe I’m living here! I’ve already had this fear come over me that I am going to be very depressed when it comes time to go home. This is such a beautiful place – what will Wheeling feel like next year? There is just no comparison. It’s scary to even think about the final days of our stay….

So I end this journal for today, after having a wonderful pasta dinner with Rick on the patio!

August 13, 2004

We woke up to a perfectly clear sky – our first very clear day. Rick and I took a walk uphill to the beautiful lookout point we found yesterday – and this time we brought the camera. The sun was just peeking over some of the peaks, so Mount San Salvatore was bathed in sunshine, but Lugano was still in the shade. We took some pictures and decided to come back in about an hour or two for more pictures. We had a good walk exploring some new streets of Comano. I’ve noticed that when we look at a map back in Chicago, places are much further than they look on the map. Here in Switzerland, everything is much closer! It’s great! Downtown Lugano is really only a few minutes away. We decided that since it was such a clear day, we should take the funicular to the top of San Salvatore. From our house, we can see where the funicular is, and also at night, there is a line of lights that run up it and we can see that too.

We took our Comano bus downtown and switched to a bus to Paradiso – the town going up the slope of Mt. San Salvatore. From there we got on the funicular to the top. Midway up one has to change ‘cars’ because the angle of the mountain gets steeper. We really picked the most beautiful day to take this quick trip. Such clear skies gave us unbelievably breathtaking views – we were in awe. From the very top we took many pictures, and we were even able to find out house in Comano on the slopes above Lugano because 2 doors down from us there is a big white multimillion dollar home, so it was easy to spot. That was so cool! We just spent about 1 ½ hours just soaking the beauty all in.

After taking the funicular back down, we took a walk to the lakefront. We stopped at a little shop and ordered some sandwiches which we ate along the lakefront – enjoying the view. We realized that the town on Paradiso was just easy walking distance to the lakefront of Lugano, so we walked along this lakefront which was absolutely beautiful and a great jogging place! Berny had told Rick he could jog there on flat ground – what a place to exercise! And like I said, everything is really much closer than we thought! We never really needed to take the bus to Paradiso in the first place!

After we arrived downtown, we found a big department store called Manor. It had a grocery store in the basement, so we went to explore. I liked this one better than Migros, and most of the prices were similar. They had a bigger selection which I liked! Even though it’s downtown, it’s not far, since downtown Lugano is only about a 15 minute bus ride!

After arriving home, I decided to check out this internet again. I called the Tele2 internet provider company and talked to a technician. So far I’ve always been able to find someone on the phone who spoke English. My line was okay, but they said to send the modem back and they will repair it or replace it. So since it was late in the afternoon, I quickly packed up the modem and brought it to the post office. It’s great having the post office and our bank (which is the post office) just a few steps from our house.

August 14, 2004

Another beautiful, clear day in Comano! After getting some laundry done this morning and hanging it out (we have to take advantage of warm sunny days to dry the hard to dry things!) we decided to take a walk to the next town to the east of us. On the way would be the closer school that Rick will be teaching at. Berny had said that we could walk to the school, but that it was downhill – so getting home would be uphill! Well, when he said downhill, he meant downhill! Right from our door the entire walk was a very steep decent. There was a footpath and steps all the way. By the time we got to the bottom we knew we didn’t want to walk back up!

We then continued into the town of Canobbio. Things were quiet because it was Saturday – but then, every day has been quiet around here! A lot of people are still on vacation. We found a little restaurant and ate some sandwiches before continuing on. We decided to just keep walking downhill until we found a bus stop. We’d have to take it into Lugano to catch our Comano bus back home. We quickly picked up a bus at the Lugano stadium, made a quick transfer downtown, and were home with much less effort!

Later this afternoon I decided it was time to learn how to drive Berny’s car. It has a stick, but you only have to shift up and it downshifts by itself, and there is no clutch. Thank heavens. I don’t know if I could ever attempt a stick in these mountains! Now, the car was quite easy – just like an automatic, or at least for my first day, since I never got out of first! I started out by driving around Comano, but got myself caught in a very narrow street in the old part of town, and in our little Smart car, which is VERY little, we couldn’t make it through! Luckily Rick, who had gotten out of the car earlier to try and guide me through, was able to squeeze back into the car which he then proceeded to back it up through this tight squeeze! Bravo for him! He did it! And not a scratch on the car. Actually, if the side view mirrors were able to fold in, we could have made it, but if they do, we couldn’t figure them out and didn’t want to force anything. Well, so much for my first driving lesson here. I decided to try again another day!

After dinner we took another walk around the old parts of town. It’s just so awesome to explore new nooks and crannies in this town. It is just SO pleasant to go for walks when the views are so spectacular.

This evening back at home, I finally sat down and read the directions (in French) on this phone/answering machine/fax/copier thing that Berny bought. So I finally put on an answering machine message. Tomorrow morning we will go to our first Catholic church service at the old church in town. Should be so interesting!

August 15, 2004

This morning we went to the old Catholic church in Comano. There was only one mass this morning, so we thought it would be pretty crowded, but in fact it was very empty. I don’t know if it’s always like that, or maybe because many people are still on vacation. It was a nice service and I understood in general what they were always talking about. The only tough spot was having to kneel on the hard wooden kneelers! Ouch!

After lunch at home, we decided to take the bus into Lugano and walk around other parts of the downtown area that we hadn’t seen yet. We looked for our great map that I had bought from the other American couple on the train to Milan, but we realized that Rick must have lost it during our walk yesterday!!!! It was a great map and we hope to find another. Now, the bus service is limited on Sundays, but according to the schedule we’d have about 3 hours downtown. After arriving, we walked down from the train station and towards the big park that we had seen on the map. Only a few restaurants and cafes are open on Sundays, so the pedestrian areas were very quiet, since all the stores are closed too. But along the lakefront there were many people strolling and a number of ice cream vendors.

We made our way to the park, and wow, it was beautiful. Since the wide sidewalk is flat along the lake, Rick has decided to hop on the bus early in the morning to go downtown and take his jogs along the lake. What a view! There was even a little beach at one part. That is about the only “beach”, since these mountains just come straight up out of the water. And so now we are just relaxing at home.