An International Brunch, and Early Spring Fever

Mmm, food.

The women of my Integrationskurs decided to give ourselves a little treat: a morning brunch. And since there are women from a half-dozen different ethnic backgrounds in our group, we brought traditional morning food from our respective cultures, sharing the recipes for the dishes as well (and, also, tips on where to find the ingredients for these foods: I'm clearly not the only one who has trouble cooking her favorite foods). I brought a berry-studded coffee cake as my offering.

Unfortunately, the woman who was hosting lived almost an hour away by public transportation: this was one of the very rare times when I miss having a car.  And I needed to be back home again by noon to get the kids, of course, so I'd have a scant hour and a half for visiting, for all that travel.  But Joey and I didn't have any other plans for the morning, and I'll go to tremendous lengths for good food, so we set off.

Our long trip was made longer: we ran into a friend from my class on the bus, and we were so busy chatting that we forgot to signal our stop to the bus driver. We paid for our mistake by having to walk up a long, steep hill. At least we were hungry when we arrived.

The women of my Integrationskurs

Aside from a little baby, Joey was the only other kid there this morning, and he spent most of the morning clinging quietly, sitting in my lap, but eventually warming up and giggling a little. But he was so well behaved, during what surely must have been a boring time for him, and I was proud. Fried wontons were his just reward.

It was interesting to me that every other woman, apart from me, had a big aversion to mixing their savory foods with their sweets: no one wanted to touch the tiramisu or the coffee cake until they'd finished their rice and omelette and wontons.  I'm not sure if they were just following one another's lead, or if that's something that crosses cultures.

Not I: I like my sausage and bacon with a side of syrupy waffles...oh dear, how I miss the Pancake House.  I'm finally allowing myself to daydream about the food at home, since it won't be much longer now.  Forty days!

I know I post a lot of pictures of the kids
on trams, but I just love how good
they are on the public transport. And riding
next to them, instead of being in the
driver's seat, is so much fun.

Another one for the "Swiss
Infatuation with American Indians"
blog: this full-sized teepee was at
the campground for the Occupy
Wall Street camp on our way home.

When Alex met us at home, he gave me some interesting news. He told me he'd arranged to walk a little girl in his class, Céline, who lives just across the street, to and from school each day.  And he had the conversation in German.  I asked him for more details, and he told me, "Well, she's very small, even though she's older than me."

Oh, Alex, and his love for little things.  But, as I told him, what I was really looking for was details as to what, exactly, he'd said to Céline's mother. "Well, I asked if I could walk with her tomorrow and every day forever." Since Alex was being a little vague, I talked with Céline's mother and, indeed, Alex and she had arranged for Alex to pick up Céline each morning at exactly 8:08 each morning. That's what they call süss.

Serendipitously, Ella came home nervously excited. You'll remember that she has a crush on a little boy in her grade, Felix.  Today she told me, "Mom, I think I've finally worked up the courage to ask Felix to walk home with me. I almost did it today, but all of the little first graders kept tugging on my arms, begging me to play with them, so it was impossible to be cool. And, by cool, I mean calm. So I put it off."  Indeed, she has quite a following of little kids on the playground, Alex's former classmates, and she introduces them into the games of chase and helicopter that her classmates play.  It's kind of her.

She has this American Girl book titled "A Smart Girl's Guide to Boys," and she was fingering through it impatiently as she spoke with me. "There's nothing in this book that deals with my situation. How do you think I should distract the first graders, the next time I get a chance to talk with Felix. Should I bribe them with some of my snack, do you think? Maybe I could just get them to go away by promising to play with them during the next recess? It's such a problem!"

I'm fascinated as I watch Ella navigate through this new stage in her life.  I had crushes in grade school, but I certainly never did anything about them, and I would have been mortified if the boys had suspected.  But, as she's proven many times, Ella's braver than I.  And, since her goal in this planned seduction of Felix is to become good friends with him, and maybe play after school or on the playground together, there's certainly no harm in all of this, Ella's first foray into the bewildering world of boys.