Happy Birthday, America

Another exciting week in Switzerland, capped off with a 20 minute fireworks display last night at the American Club of Zurich's 4th of July BBQ.
Spain won the Euro 2008 Championship Sunday night. We watched the game with a couple thousand fans at one of the many public viewing areas in Zurich. I came away thoroughly impressed with the level of interest in the tournament and the organization of events in Zurich and Zug. I kept asking myself if this sort of thing was possible in the US. The only events that could draw similar interest/enthusiasm would be March Madness and the BCS. Holding either of those tournaments in one region of the country would draw a ton of interest and excitement. I hope to add more thoughts on this one later.
After Euro ended, I headed to Milan, Italy on Tuesday to pick up my parents. They had just toured Italy for a week, and they came to Zurich to visit for a few days before heading back to the US. We toured Luzern and Zug on Wednesday, which was Kristina and my 2nd anniversary. Driving up the Zugerberg and watching 5 paragliders float around for an hour was definitely a highlight. We ended the night with a delicious anniversary dinner at the Rathauskeller, our favorite Zug restaurant. Thursday we visited the Lindt-Sprungli chocolate factory in Kilchberg, then we grabbed lunch at a bierhalle in Zurich, and took it easy that night. My parents flew out yesterday morning at 10:30am. I had a great time relaxing with them and touring them around my new home.
After seeing my parents off at the flughafen (airport), I headed into Zurich. Made my first trip to Globus (an upscale grocery store similar to Whole Foods), where I bought a bunch of sushi-making stuff (rice, seaweed, wood roller pads, wasabi, etc). Also picked up a copy of "Hoi," a new book on understanding Swiss-German. Took a run in the afternoon, jumped in the lake and took a nap out in the sun before heading up to an Americans in Zurich July 4th celebration. Kristina had a work picnic to which spouses weren't invited, so I decided to hit up the 4th of July party on my own. Turned out to be a lot of fun. I met some nice Americans living in the Zurich area, and had some interesting conversations about US politics and education, major league baseball and beer. Felt good to talk about "normal" stuff again. Hopefully we'll keep in touch with some of the new friends. The BBQ itself was pretty cool. We had burgers, corn on the cob, brownies, apple pie and ice cream, and there was a raffle, that included a weekend in Paris. Entertainment included a decent "well known country singer Bonnie Jeanne Taylor" and one of the better fireworks shows I've seen in the last 10 years. Hard to believe we were sitting there watching fireworks on a random hill in Switzerland, but it happened. Fun stuff.