and I say "Ich spreche nicht Deutsch"

So, the whole "I don't speak German" bit has really been working to my favor lately. The other day a horribly creepy homeless man kept staring at me & speaking in German & I just pulled out my "Ich spreche nicht Deutsch" aka leave me the hell alone. And then today on a train I sat down across from what must have been a moderately handicapped man and/or totally drugged out guy that also began talking to me, while simultaneously hitting my leg with his foot. Again, "Ich spreche" to the rescue. It took into later this week to start running into these types of individuals, so for some reason, I had assumed Zurich didn't have them. But oh no, it's like any other public transportation experience, just might have to start implementing the IPOD to stave off some of the weirdness.

Enough of the odd duck report....it's been rainy here for about the past day, but a nice sprinkling type situation (I know you all (mom) in Chicago are desperately needing some rain, so I certainly won't complain about it). Although we did get soaked last night when we were out...luckily I had eyed some umbrellas in a grocery store, so now Joe & I are equipped with our own private umbrellas. And, of course, I misplaced mine today. I went down to the Bahnhof (the main train station) to buy tickets for our trip to Munchen Oktoberfest, which is at the end of the month. I was quite pleased with myself because A.) I was in the right place. B.) I have implemented the strategy of smiling at the person who is about to help me, it goes a long way in making them more willing to help me (aka speak english). After I purchased the tickets I walked out into the main station & realized, oh mother, I'm not holding my umbrella. So, I walked back in the room where I bought the tickets & didn't see it anywhere. Finally, I made eye contact with the man who had been helping me & he held up my umbrella & smiled at me. I had just left it leaning up against wall in front of his desk & someone had turned it in. Thank goodness, since we had just spent $17CHF on that bad boy last night, I would have been ticked if it already disappeared, but the people here are freakishly honest (from what I hear) and it proved to be correct in this case.

I have to go scout out an apartment that we may go view tonight, so I have to run. For those of you who make Duchek's Do Switzerland a normal part of your work day, hope it's a good one!

PS We found the bank chocolate in bar form at the grocery earlier this week for only 1.50CHF. HeyOh! We made the horrible error of looking at the nutrition information, luckily for us we don't really understand their kcal system, so we can just forget about it. Oh and, yesterday Joe got some Sprungli truffles from his counselor at work....I won't even go into those ;0)