The King's English, roasted chestnuts, and jet lag

First: Lindsey continues to become more British. Recent phrases we've heard from her include "let's give it a go," "become ill," and "you're making me cross." On the other hand, she did proclaim that she was "desausted" after we'd climbed the hill and the steps leading to our apartment, so she's still got a way to go.

Second: Roasted chestnuts actually exist. I always thought they were just a made-up part of the Christmas song. (You know, the one about kids spying to see if reindeer can really fly.) Since the weather turned colder a couple of weeks ago, street vendors have appeared near the Bahnhof (train station) and the stores. They sell roasted chestnuts. I was walking around with Lindsey today, and we decided to be real Europeans and buy some roasted chestnuts. Problem is, I didn't actually know how to eat a roasted chestnut. Do you need a nutcracker? Do you break them open with your teeth? Can you just eat them straight? I didn't want to look any dumber than I already do as a non-German speaker. So, we sat near one of the vendors in the Bahnhof for a while and watched people who bought the chestnuts. It looked like they just pulled them out of the bag, peeled them, and ate them. We mustered up our courage and bought a bag. Sure enough, the shells fall off very easily, and then you eat the chestnut inside. They were good. Lindsey didn't like them so much, but I've decided that when you're wandering around on a cold day, eating some warm, roasted chestnuts isn't a bad way to go.

Third: I've decided that overcoming jet lag is essentially an act of self-deception. You have to convince your body that it's wrong about what time it thinks it is.

I left Minneapolis at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday. After flying through Atlanta, I landed in Zurich at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, which was 1:00 a.m. in Minneapolis. I dozed for a bit on the plane but didn't really sleep. Even though my body thought it was one in the morning, it was breakfast time in Switzerland, and who wants to go to sleep then? So I just pushed through the day. I finally went to bed around 11:30 Swiss time Thursday night, which was 4:30 p.m. Minneapolis time, which means that I went 34 hours without sleep. Needless to say, I slept pretty well that night. All of this transatlantic hopping around plays interesting games with a person.

The really fun challenge will be taking the kids home for Christmas. We leave Zurich at about 12:15 in the afternoon. Three flights later, we'll land in Salt Lake City at about 11:30 that same night, which will actually be 7:30 the next morning in Swiss time. The kids will be completely wiped out. Hopefully, they will have recovered by Christmas Day. Then we'll turn it all around and go back the other direction two and a half weeks later.

When I'm dictator of the world, I'm going to do five things, in this order: 1) put everyone on 110 V electricity; 2) have everyone use the same currency; 3) put everyone in the same time zone; 4) have everyone speak the same language; and 5) create world peace.

Fourth: (Yes, this is a bonus item. I don't want Stace to see this one. She's not very good at keeping up on my blog, and even if she reads this entry, I'm counting on the fact that her attention will have wandered by the time she's read this much, so she won't ever see what I'm about to say.)

My company announced that it's going to be hiring people in India and the Philippines to do some of our content work. Obviously, they'll need people familiar with our content work to be stationed over there to keep an eye on things. Since I've spent most of my career at West in content, I might be well-suited for something like that. Once we get this two- to five-year Switzerland gig out of our systems, maybe we'll be off to another overseas adventure . . . .