******: Trains

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Dad picked me up at 8:30 AM but I was through customs by 7:30. I feel burning in my nostrils like they have been inflamed over time -- whenever I make a transatlantic flight. I walked through customs with my four pieces of luggage -- my suitcase, backpack, guitar, and violin and waited there in front of the sliding doors for the next half hour. I stood and watched everyone around me while I thought of how to act while watching everyone around oneself. Women were crying out of joy and possibly nostalgia as they hugged over an steel rail. Swiss men in red track suits posed with arms crossed waiting for their teammates to come through customs. It was about five minutes before three other Swiss track and field giants wheeled through the customs doors with 20 ft. long parcels. They had to have been the polevaulters of the team -- there is no other instrument of track and field that could conceivably be packaged in a 20 ft. long case.

I stood and watched a woman about my age wait with her mother. She had short trimmed red hair and it was slicked down a little bit -- maybe she was wearing mousse -- and she wore a denim jacket and well-fitted jeans. I was imagining why she was waiting there and then a few moments later an older man with short white hair and white beard walked through the gate with an oversized package. Rafting in British Columbia was what I thought he had just returned from and the only german I could pick up was him telling his daughter how beautiful she looked. I just stood there taking turns looking at the floor, sliding doors, staring at nothing and everything all around me.

***Dad***

Dad showed up and we went walking. I shook his hand and told him how tired I was. Dad stopped for a cappucino and I for a water and then we went into the silent car of the train. In a lot of the Swiss railcars, I have noticed that there is a "Silent Area" for trains. It's as quiet as a doctor's room in there -- what's fascinating is that I can barely ever hear the train itself move when we are at full speed. This mode and technology is so perceivably easy from the inside. Too easy. I don't trust it.

The train ride was swift -- we moved through Oerlikon, Zurich HB, Thalwil, Baar, and then finally to Zug. I was trying out my new camera and tried to set the shutter speed low enough to get my father's reflection off the train window and the movement from outside as we were approaching the tunnel

***Oerlikon Station***