Thursday, February 10th, 2005

I realized today that I always write about what I’ve done, but don’t write about how I feel. And then it dawned on me that I didn’t write about one of the most important things that happened to me in Switzerland. Not only did I get to see a new country and catch up with an old friend… I also got to explore a new friendship with Anja!

I said before that Andi, Anja and I all worked at the same place in England. However, by the time I got there in 1999, Anja was no longer working and just came to visit Andi when she could. She was there when I first arrived, and would come over from Switzerland from time to time, so I did know her then. However, she devoted much of that time towards hanging out with Andi, which is completely fair and right! It must have been tough being away from each other for such long periods of time.

Well, during my stay in a their home in Basel, Anja and I got to know each other much better through things like cooking tasty meals together (which I already mentioned!), walking around Basel, playing a card game I brought along (she’s quite a gamer!), basic chatting in general, and (perhaps most importantly) watching Eastenders together on BBC Prime! Hehehe… for those of you that aren’t familiar with it, Eastenders is one of the most disgustingly addictive British soap operas around. We had a lot of fun (well at least I did!) just chatting away about anything and everything. She even put up with me when I just laid in a stupor on their couch one day for a whole afternoon!

Anja has been a nurse for a fear years and has been working in palliative care for a while now. It was very interesting to hear about her job and her personal experiences. I was very interested because I have friends who are nurses, as well as a bit of familiarity with the Hospice system in the US because of family experiences. So it was quite good to hear Anja’s perspective on the work she does. She had just started some additional palliative training and found herself to be the youngest (by far) in the class. However, do not let that fool you for an instant. Anja is an incredibly empathetic and understanding person, and quite intelligent too. She has also had family experiences with death as well, and I’m certain that with all that combined she must be truly incredible at what she does!

I also got to know her dad, Andy, as well. We had a fondue together (which I mentioned earlier). He also took us out for dinner once, after a visit to a gigantic IKEA, and even had me over to his house for a lovely dinner and some fantastic beer! I had tried this beer before… Anja took me to one of the best breweries I’ve been to in my life. I can’t remember the Swiss name, but it translated to Jester Beer or something close to it. Ulie??? Help! I can’t remember. Anyway, just their standard lager tasted like ambrosia or manna or something incredible. It was hands down the best lager I’ve ever had in my life. And when we turned up at her dad’s house, he pulled out a huge jug of the stuff! Wow, he sure knows how to get on my good side!

Anyway, I just wanted to share this stuff with you all (and hopefully Anja, if she’s reading) because I really enjoyed getting to know her so much more. Before it was Andi that I really had a connection to, but now I feel that we are all equally very close, and that makes me really happy.

The only thing left is to convince Andi and Anja to come visit the USA sometime!