Things I didn't learn while living in Switzerland: How to speak German; How to speak Schweiz-Deutch (Swiss-German); How to speak French; How to dress for a rave; How to avoid drinking 1-2 beers a day; How to stop complaining about climbing flights of stairs.

Useful things I did learn: how to be on-time if I have to and how to make authentic cheese fondue.

As I mentioned before, back when this blog was an interesting tale about my adventures abroad, cheese fondue is the only traditionally Swiss form of fondue. And every region of the small Swiss countryside has its own recipe for the preparation of cheese fondue built around the locally available cheeses. The lovely Swiss lady who lived down the hall from me (one of the few Swiss friends I made in my multinational work environment) taught me her family recipe. By family recipe, it includes the very specific pattern to stir the cheese whiles its melting. I can't get the local cheese she used from her local dairy in Thun, but, I do a pretty good approximation of her recipe. Unfortunately, many tourists are turned off by Swiss cheese fondues, because the restaurants there (and here) seem to dump way to much white wine into it because that's what they think the tourists want. Another important ingredient is kirsch, a liquor that is fairly difficult to find here in Houston, but my European traveling friends have kept me well-stocked.

Thus, I made fondue a few weeks ago after a trip to Whole Foods. Notice the braids making me even look Swiss. Oh, and my t-shirt of cutter aunts from the Ecuadorian amazon. Aren't I just a wonder of multiculturalism?

(Photo by Gavin)