Mark Pospesel (Coding and Other Stuff)
Coding, tech, living abroad, travel, hiking, vintage plastic bricks
Happy Dreikönigstag (Epiphany)! We’re not religious, but we celebrate by eating Dreikönigskuchen. The one we ate this morning was so good that we bought another in the afternoon! My wife was “king” again for the second year running, which is only fitting.
I often walk past this unassuming little chapel. It just sits there chilling next to a barn and a farmhouse. One day I realized that it was over 350 years old, so more than 100 years older than the United States. Carry on, little chapel. No doubt you will sit there long after I am gone.
That viewpoint I hike to is on a ridge overlooking the north side of our valley, which also means I get to see the next valley over. It’s basically just farmland.
Swiss farm fields. Some of the farms have little self-service stores where they sell their products. On this morning’s walk I bought Lebkuchen (gingerbread) and fresh eggs.
Decided to make egg drop soup for dinner, but first I needed to run out to the store (i.e. the neighboring farm) to get eggs.
It’s been six years now since we arrived in Switzerland. This is not quite a record for longest time in one town, but it’s getting close. This is certainly the longest I’ve been at the same address in my adult life.
So what’s happened in the past year since I wrote this post?
In August I attended (and spoke at) the last ever 360iDev conference.
Last Fall I did an online German test prep course, and at the end of October I passed the A1/A2 German language test that I will need to apply for permanent residency.
I continue to be active in the Swiss RPG “verein” (a non-profit club). I play regularly in a West Marches style game and a few months ago I began running the Tyranny of Dragons D&D campaign for a group of five players. I have hosted games as a DM at Zürich Pop Con, Fantasy Basel, and Free RPG Day.
I try to get out into nature as much as possible, either hiking, snowshoeing, or stand up paddling. I think I prefer showshoeing and winter hiking to downhill skiing these days as I get older.
For most of the year I continued in my role as iOS Chapter Lead for YML and heavily focused on building out a portfolio of robust, highly-tested, open source Swift packages that could be used across projects to accelerate delivery, improve accessibility, and reduce bugs. But in May after two years in the role, I was finally caught in a round of layoffs that have swept the tech industry.
I used the suddenly free time to take a six week in-person super intensive B1 German language course (for comparison, I studied for two years at the A2 level). I will consolidate my knowledge by taking another test prep course starting later this month which will culminate in the B1 Goethe exam in November. I will also enroll in a local German conversation course to help me practice.
We would like to stay here another two years until our son finishes high school.
Happy 732nd, Switzerland! 🇨🇭
This morning when I took the SUP out on the lake, someone was practicing the alp horn. I had that part of the lake all to myself, so I was able to relax on my board with a view of hilly pastures, farm houses, and forest while listening to alp horn music. Very Swiss. Would do again.
For the past six weeks I have been taking super-intensive in-person B1 German lessons. I studied A2 German for two years from Fall 2018 through Spring 2020, but then COVID came and I also became incredibly busy at work (first with BlockFi and then with Y Media Labs). I did an online test prep course in the Fall of last year (which helped me pass the A1/A2 language test that I will need to apply for permanent residency), but that was just a refresher and didn’t cover any new material. So it had been three years since I had learned any significant German.
When I found myself suddenly idle at the beginning of May, I realized that I had been granted an opportunity to continue my studies. I decided on a so-called “super intensive” German course that would cover the entire B1 level of German in just six weeks (with three hours of class every weekday). The language school location was not the best for me, but the closest schools offered nothing comparable. So for the last month and a half I’ve spent three and a half hours each day commuting to and from the language school. Fortunately Swiss public transport is top-notch and I can read, relax, or study on the trains and buses. Between the classes, the commute, and the homework, this was essentially a full-time endeavor.
The first week (and especially the first day or two) was especially tough as I adjusted myself to German-learning mode for the first time in three years. I’m proud to say that I completed the course and even aced the end-of-term test. My hope is that this will open up opportunities for me to do freelance development work with local companies (those that might not operate in English), although I may need to learn even more German. Regardless it will be helpful for my day-to-day life.
My goal is to take an online test prep course again this Fall and then take an official Goethe B1 German test in November. I also intend to enroll in a weekly German discussion group that will meet locally on Thursday evenings.
Frohe Dreikönigstag! (i.e. Epiphany) In Switzerland for this week only they bake Dreikönigstagkuchen (literally “3 kings’ day cake”) which comes with 6, 8, or 10 parts. One part contains a plastic wise man, and whoever gets it is king for the day. You even get a crown.
