sey085

There is an ancient riddle that goes something like: What starts off on two legs, then four, then three, occasionally one leg, then finally two again? The answer, of course, is: me, on my first trip with the Club Alpin Suisse! The way it works is such: Friday nights are meeting nights -- you go to the club headquarters (they own an entire fricking building in the city center) and there are bulletin boards where you can sign up for the various upcoming activities. All the people doing a specific activity gather around a table and talk about the logistics of the event. As this was my first meeting, I wasn't really clear on how one should act, but I signed up for the only event that weekend that wasn't completely full, grabbed a beer from the bar, and chatted with people while I waited for my meeting. The guy leading my hike was about 60 years old and had the look of an aging player: shoulder length wavy gray hair and a square jaw. Of course, these expectations were pretty muc...

Many of you, beloved readers, may remember that I have been without my precious California Driver License for the last few months (see here and here ). Although not a huge inconvenience, this has forced me to do things like carry my passport for identification purposes and has prevented me from renting a car on more than one occasion. As I noted before, the state of California has not been particularly helpful on this matter, probably due to the fact that it is busy self-destructing and doesn't have much time to help us ex-pats out. All I could get from the CA DMV was a business-card-like object with some of my license info, a signature in blue pen, and a note saying that "the original license was reported lost or stolen" on it. Clearly, it would not do. Fortunately for me, though, Switzerland is remarkably cool when it comes to getting a driver license ( un permis de conduire ). In exchange for jumping through a few hoops, they will gladly give you a Swiss licens...