wine

Once upon a time, some brilliant and well-connected individual decided that as the weather gets colder and there are fewer tourists interested in round-the-lake boat rides, the sightseeing ferries of Zurich could be put to good use as a...trade show venue? So they all get tied together at the Bürkliplatz docks, a couple of smaller boats serve as restaurants, and there you have it, the yearly "wine ships." Taste wine until you feel tipsy...or maybe that was just a little wave?...

So there we were, Daniel and I, wine tasting at 2:00 on Thursday afternoon, because that was the only time we could go together without logistical drama on the home front. It was, as you might expect (hope?), relatively empty. We'd run into a woman who goes to our church. She was manning a both of Portuguese wines. And while Dan talked to her, I was talking to her booth partner, a Polish woman in her early 40s. Or anyway, she was talking to me. About her plans to offer training courses for expats, because there are so many expats in Zurich and she thinks it's very important for them to connect and make friends. I think this, too! But I could not for the life of me hold up my end of this conversation. I'd already dismissed her in my head. I couldn't think of any good questions to ask her, struggled to maintain eye contact, and wished I could just give up and sip my wine and listen to the conversation next to me. Or honestly, just sip my wine.

I'm terribly lonely, and I'm terribly picky about who I hang out with. These two things may be related. Also, I'm afraid this bodes badly for my prospects of getting a job where interaction with strange humans is required.