Cultural Thoughts: SPRING BREAK: Basel

After Geneva, I headed to Basel to spend a little over a week with Patsy and Paul (and Meg, Andie, Kaj, and Kiri). Ironically, though, even though it's where I spent over half my vacation, I have zero pictures from the visit. We did take a day trip to Lausanne where I took a bunch, but from actual Basel, none.

The lack of photos says nothing about my time there. In fact, except for something that I won't get into here, it was a near-perfect week, full of relaxation, American snack food, and TV. The only better vacation I can think of is Holden Beach, which is all the same people (plus more) except, you know, at the beach.

Highlights (aside from just spending time with everyone and getting to sleep in):

Getting to know Kiri and Meg. Even though I see them each year at the beach, I had never really spent a long period of time really interacting with either of them. I guess in Kiri's case, that meant doing puzzles and coloring with her, but with Meg it was nice to hang out and talk since we never really had before.
Part of that hanging out included going out a couple of times to experience the wild night life of Basel. The first time was with Mo, too, since he stopped by for two nights on his way to Zurich for the weekend. We went to Paddy's Pub (a little nicer than the Paddy's from Always Sunny) and met a few Swiss people as the bar was closing, then went with them to a couple clubs. It was a late night, and the next morning we were all feeling the consequences, but it was a lot of fun. Our second night out was to a high school party for some girl's 17th birthday. Her parents had rented out part of a club and one of Patsy's high schooler neighbors invited us, so we decided to go. Even though we were 3-5 years older than everyone else there, it was didn't feel too weird, and ended up being quite fun.
Celebrating Andie's birthday. Mo decided to stay an extra night, and got to be there for Andie's birthday. It was good to have him around since the house was full of ten teenage girls and Meg was babysitting, but they were happy to include us in their night of tacos, John Tucker Must Die, and family histories kicked off by Aunt Patsy. Once they got to Never Have I Ever, though, we decided to call it a night.
Catching up on season three of Chuck on my own and re-watching the first season of Greek with Andie and Meg. Chuck was one of the shows that I got behind on while being in Paris, but it's one of my favorites and I was glad to have time to get up to date, and Greek is a fun one to see again, especially since it had been a couple of years since I saw those early episodes.
Playing tennis and helping out at soccer with Meg. Just to get out and do something, we found some nearby tennis courts and played on Monday. I haven't played in a while (haven't really played any sport since being abroad), so it was fun to get on the court, even if tennis isn't my strongest game. Then on Tuesday, I went with Meg to help out at her soccer practice for 3-4 year olds. She just started doing it the week before, but figured I could help since it's more babysitting than coaching, and she was right. The kids (one in particular) were a handful, but it was fun to chase them around for an hour.
On Sunday, Patsy, Paul, Meg, Kaj, Kiri, and I all took a day trip to Lausanne, where my Dad lived and went to high school for four years. It was a 2-hour car ride each way, but it was a beautiful day and a really nice town, so it was completely worth it. We saw Dad's old high school, Château Brillantmont (now Brillantmont International School), the hotel where he lived for the first few months they were there, and their old house in the country; took a paddle boat ride on the lake; and walked along the boardwalk with some ice cream. Now, some pictures: