1. We went to the movies in Zurich and I ran into people I know. Which was super, and remarkable because I don't know anyone.
2. We came back to Aarau and went to the shop at the train station that stays open late (-ish) to buy some bread and we had to fight past crowds of boozy teenagers to get in! As it turns out the Aperto (the shop) is the place to hang out and buy cheap (-ish) beer and be cool if you are a grotty 16-year-old (who is allowed to buy beer but possibly is being refused entry to pubs*, or doesn't want to pay their prices). A grotty, freezing, horrible train station tunnel. Aah the joys of being a teenager.
3. I heard that Australia's status as a continent is controversial. Although every Australian schoolkiddy will tell you that Australia is the largest island and the smallest continent, apparently Switzies need to go to the crap press (Heute, which is one of those free newspapers heavily associated with public transport) for reassurance. Happily my knowledge of geographical terms in german (Kontinentalsockel, hee hee), or rather my ability to guess their meaning, is good enough for me to be assured that our teachers weren't lying to us**. And while we are on the subject, I would just like to make plain my opinion that any of those "Seven Summits" mountaineer types who haven't climbed Mt Kosciuszko are nothing but climbing snobs*** who are having themselves on. So there, Reinhold Messner****.
* Which they do a bit around here. Apparently there is one place that likes to only let in people over 21 in order to keep out the basic training army riffraff who are often around. Apparently there is a lot of basic training goes on near here.
** That being said, please don't follow those links to the stuff about the continents, because depending on how much of it you read you might come to the conclusion that the teachers were lying and that Australia is not its own continent but only part of one, which is kind of sad and boring.
*** The fact that my parents could drive a mini minor to the top of the highest mountain in Australia (back in the olden days when the path was open to vehicular traffic, anyway) means nothing.
**** I have nothing but the highest respect for Reinhold Messner.
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*** Actually, I think they had to walk the last hundred or so metres. Also, I don't think the mini ever made it back to Sydney, the engine fell out on the way back or something.
Yeah, I was trying to minimise the unnecessary waffle by leaving out the less impressive details.
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