Bern, books, and by-the-way
My Swiss Washday
Soon after I moved to Bern in 1988 as the young wife of a Swiss man, I met a delightful American woman named Margaret, who had been the young wife of a Swiss man in the 1930s. She’d married a farmer, and when we spoke, she was still living in a Bernese farmhouse. I was…
The Luck of the (One-Sixteenth) Irish
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! When I was in elementary school, it was customary for anyone who didn’t wear green on March 17 to be pinched by their classmates. I made an effort to remember my “something green” every year, but I must have forgotten at least once, since I can recall crying as a seven-…
Direct Democracy at Work
On March 8, the Swiss are voting on whether to add three amendments to the constitution. These “initiatives,” as they’re called, have been proposed by one or more politically active citizens who have gathered 100,000 signatures within 18 months to demonstrate sufficiently broad support. The government has decided to offer a “counter-proposal” to one of…
Meet the Muskox
Last month, in mid-December, I experienced muskoxen for the first time. I ran my hand down one of the animal’s massive horns and stroked its brown wool coat. I grabbed handfuls of its soft, downy, and extraordinarily warm underwool, called qiviut. I even got to feed dried lichen to two young oxen. No, I was…
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Kim Hays 