The Canadians are finally going to help the U.S. with the war on terrorism!

They have pledged 2 of their biggest battleships, 600 ground troops and 6 fighter jets.

After the American exchange rate, we ended up with 1 canoe, 2 Mounties, and a flying squirrel.

St. Nicholas Day! Ho ho ho, and a pile of peanuts and clementine oranges

So, yesterday was a very confusing day for me. First I went down to the cafeteria, and they were giving out free little bread men and tangerines (clementine oranges). This was delicious, but it seemed strangely kind from our normally prudish cafeteria staff. THEN, at 2 p.m., a feast of candy, champagne, peanuts, cakes and orange juice magically appeared in the coffee room (this had the unintended side effect of completely stopping all work for the rest of the afternoon). I couldn't figure out why the generousity at such a random time. I should've looked at my calendar.

Instead, it took me until I was at the grocery store and saw a man dressed as Santa Claus handing out peanuts to children. Finally I figured it out. In Switzerland, December 6 is ST. NICHOLAS DAY!

Santa Claus actually comes on December 6 from his home atop one of the highest mountains in the Alps (where he can look down from above and watch them). Unfortunately for the poor little Swiss children, he doesn't bring any presents. Instead he takes the bad little kids and puts them into his sack. The good little kids get to recite fun poems for him (Sanna Nicha Nacka.. starts one of them) in really THICK Swiss German (I know its thick Swiss German, not from any linguistic ability of my own, but when the women were telling us the poems last night, the High German speakers' jaws dropped and their eyes widened and they said they didn't understand a single word of what was just said).

If Santa likes their poems, they get a plate of peanuts, tangerines, and chocolate (strange combination!).

The story of comparitive Santa Claus's

It could make a good cultural study about different Santa traditions. For instance, the traditions in Italy are very similar to Switzerland, but Santa comes on December 14 (also bringing a plate of peanuts and oranges). In Spain, Santa comes on Christmas like in America, but he lives in Scandanavia, not the North Pole, and he rides his pet donkey (the children leave out plates of grass for the donkey to eat). In the Netherlands, they think Santa comes from Spain. In Iceland, Santa's mother is a hideous troll who EATS the bad little children.

But don't worry too much about the presents...

The Swiss children actually do eventually get presents on Christmas day. The presents aren't brought by Santa, though, they are actually brought by the Christ-Child (Kristos-Kinder). The Christ-Child is actually neither Jesus nor is it a child. Instead, the Christ-Child is an angel. So, what happens is one parent takes all the children hunting for the Christ-Child on Christmas morning. They wander the streets yelling "Christ-Child! Christ-Child! Where are you? Come out, we want to meet you!" And then, when they come home, there is a decorated Christmas tree waiting and presents all around, and the parent who stayed home says, "Oh, darn, you just missed the Christ-Child, he just flew away a few minutes ago. He says hello!" and all the children are disappointed that they missed him!

Read this entry later

So, if you aren't bored yet, later I will update the entry to include my plans for the weekend and my tale of serious sexual misconduct at the work place. BUT, no time now, because I have some side tube manual writing to do..