More of Life at The Importner

By the end of Eugen’s first week away, I'd received a post card from him, it was pretty enough, but I felt extremely miffed when I turned it over and found just a hurried signature - no mention of the weather or how the job hunt was going - just his name! But I felt a little better when Sylvie rang over the weekend to find out if I'd heard anything. It seems that no one else had received a card from him at that point, so at least he’d given me some thought.........

It was a long second week, wondering what he was going to do. I didn’t hear anything more from him until I got a call saying that he’d been back for 3 days and was preparing to leave again. But not for Italy. He had been in touch with an old friend in Holland, and was going to stay with him until he found a job.

Silvie says he’s stupid! But I know how much Eugen wants to travel, and being able to speak German, French and English meant he could work almost anywhere. He would get by in Holland with his English and German and would no doubt be speaking Dutch within a week!

Friedel, Eugen eldest sister, rang to say how sorry she was that Eugen was moving on, it seems that, with both mine and Eugen’s arrival in Switzerland, they had all had high hopes of Eugen settling down....... I’d been afraid that they were thinking that - and more afraid that Eugen would be aware that their thoughts were going in that direction, and that would eventually frighten him away, but I didn’t think it would be just yet. It seems the whole of Eugen’s family had had high hopes of welcoming a third Freda into the family lol!

Instead of spending my days off with Eugen, I would jump on a train and explore all the pretty villages around here. I did feel a little self-conscious when I went into any of the little café’s and gave my order in stumbling German, the Swiss don’t like speaking ‘Hoch Deutch’ and I found it almost impossible to understand the Swiss dialect, but I got by and enjoyed taking photos of all the beautifully painted houses.

Two Irish sisters have come to work in St Gallen, we meet often at the Neugasse for a chat, I can’t say that it makes a nice change to be speaking in English, because I seem to speak in little else lol! Everyone wants to practice their English, so when my German speaking friends are with me, they want to speak in English :-/

Frau Geiger is always asking me to explain the English anomalies. She was puzzled by the word ‘busy’ and askedme to explain it. I did my best, but she made me laugh when she responded with "Oh I see now - right - I go busy!"

I have been kept well informed with what is happening in London, I am in regular correspondence with all my friends. Jenny and I are in almost permanent contact, she says she wants to do something with her life. She has been taking driving lessons and we have hit upon the idea of buying a van and converting it so that we can travel around the world in it. It means that I will have to have some savings, and because I don't earn very much and everything here is so expensive, I am never going to be able to save anything whilst I am working here. Much as I love Switzerland, I have to make a decision as to what I am going to do next - my six month work permit is coming to an end and I have to decide if I am going to pay for another six month permit........