The Spring Festival

On Monday and the day before, Zurich had it's Spring Festival. On Sunday there was a children's parade. The children were dressed up in costumes from different periods ranging from the Renaissance to the 1920s. My favorite was during the time when Napoleon ruled. They wore wigs (top right) and one girl was caried in a sedan chair. I thought that was funny. Another group had a maypole (bottom right) and they went around it when the parade stopped. After that came kids dressed in world costumes. I noticed there was a Peru group, with real llamas. There were also a Thai group, whose costumes reminded me of the Khmers' wear. The parade ended with the winterman, which foretold the advent the next day.

Yesterday, there was another parade by the guilds of Zurich. The winterman was on a huge stack of wood, which was set on fire. The winterman was packed with explosives, and while it was engulfed in an inferno men on horseback galloped around it while burning debris came down. Acording to this website it took 12 minutes and 9 seconds for the winterman's head to fall off. This supposedly tells how good the summer will be. I saw this in 1998, but I was too young to remember it.

Easter

Today is Easter and I got some chocolate from Lindt (a chocolate company). I got an Easter bunny and some chocolate eggs. I'm glad that I'm having Easter in Switzerland because they have the best chocolate in the world. How was your Easter? I hope you enjoyed it. Sarah, don't get jealous about me getting Swiss chocolate you will get some too.

Snow in Zurich

Last night, it began to snow. It was great! I packed several snowballs. The ground was covered in snow. The sad thing is the snow thawed in the afternoon, so it problably won't snow tomorrow. :-(

Zoo Zurich

Last week we went to Zoo Zurich. It had tons of animals from Alpackas to Zebras. It also had a place called Zoolino for kids. There was a huge playground that was really fun. Another part of Zoolino had prairie dogs that you could see from inside a mound! They also had an interesting display on bats. Another place was a walk-in habitat called the Masoula Rainforest. Some of the plants looked like ones we had seen in Singapore.There were lots of bats. We also saw red-ruffed lemurs and once, an iguana. We had a fun time there!

Zurich

We have finally arrived in Zurich. The trams here are very interesting. They are numbered 2-11 and 13-15. The picture on the upper right shows the 9 which runs by us. Another line that runs by us is the 10. There are other forms of trains, especially for going up steep hills. The Sielbahn Rigiblick, near our house, is a funicular railway -- two cars on a long cable. The Dolderbahn (lower right) is a cog-wheel railway -- a rack of gear teeth goes all the way up the hill.