Spring Has Sprung

These crazy sun-starved Europeans are really into summery weather. I first noticed this in Norway, when it seemed the entire population would leave work in the afternoon, go to parks, take most of their clothes off and then lie around in the sun until it went away (which in the height of summer was never. Which may go some way towards explaining why Norwegians have such serious tans). One of the more wackily appealing traits of Norwegies is that they are really into these little portable barbeque things, and so they would all be there in parks in the summer, semi-naked and eating sausages until the small hours. Interestingly, I once read somewhere that Norwegians eat more hot dogs than anyone else in the world, which doesn't seem at all surprising when you stroll around Frogner Park on a summer's evening. And apparently It's Canadians who eat all the doughnuts.

Anyway, spring has sprung and even though there is a dearth of Scandies with sausages, it is really noticeable that winter has gone. There are flowers galore (and I do mean galore), and I keep getting sunburnt, and people are wearing sandals and shorts and no coats (actually, today I went outside without a jacket for the first time since I arrived here), and all the restaurants and cafes in Aarau have now got their outdoor seating in full swing. Actually, it's quite nice because the streets in the main part of town are car-free and so there are tables in the streets and flowerpots and people dawdling around, and it's all really summery and pleasant.

All of this outdoor loveliness means that you can't walk through the town at busy times without running into someone you know (which is really something, considering I hardly know anyone here), and everyone seems somehow friendlier. Every time I go out for lunch with Reto we spot at least a handful of his colleagues, all smiling and waving and wishing us en guete, and people are sharing park benches and throwing bits of their sandwiches to the birds that flock around and so on. Even the waitress in the cafe that we usually have coffee at has become far friendlier in the last week or so.

More interesting is that whenever I am wandering around town without Reto, stray men inevitably flirt with me. I suspect this might be weather-related, because it didn't happened so much before last week. The charm of it all is that because they are always speaking in german or swiss german or whatever, I have no idea what is going on and can therefore convince myself that it is something charming and witty and excellent, instead of being sadly shown that they are oiks yelling "oi love, show us yer tits then", as oiks so often do.

Of course maybe I am just flattering myself and they are not flirting with me at all. Maybe they are smiling and winking suggestively, but yelling "get out of our country, you messy-haired, laundry-rule-flouting foreigner". Hmm.