Weddingbee Blog

Our Story: Part I

Our Story: Part II

In Part II, I finally saw Mr. Funnel Cake face to face.

Now, I am kind of a shy person to begin with (before you know me and I become a crazy extrovert), yet I didn’t seem to have any trouble deciding to meet a perfect stranger in a foreign land. Alarm bells should have been ringing about meeting strange men like this, but Mr. Funnel Cake just looked so good natured! So I said “hello” to Mr. Funnel Cake and introduced myself, and then we walked to the botanical gardens to start our fun.

I have to interject here that in introducing myself to Mr. Funnel Cake, I had something to clarify: His email did not match the name he would sign as, and so I was a little confused why I was writing to a “Kay” and getting responses from a “Patrick.” Mr. Funnel Cake clarified that both “Kay” and “Patrick” were his names. Patrick was his middle name and was easier for foreigners to say because “Kay” rhymes with “hi” and has a big “ch” throathy gurgle at the beginning. So to simplify things, he said he usually told people to call him Patrick if he was abroad. He told me I could call him either…which didn’t really answer my question. Thus began my time where I knew him as “Patrick.”

At this point I had met a few people off the internet, usually after contact on a forum, and I always find the experience funny. It’s somehow like hanging out with a friend that you don’t know yet…so the social interaction and conversation is a bit different than with your normal friends. I seem to have inherited some of my father’s enviable small-talk skills, though, because I can carry on a conversation all right if there are any potentially awkward silences.

Mr. Funnel Cake and I wandered around the botanical gardens, exploring for a while and getting to know each other. I had my big camera with me, of course, so I was snapping away. In fact, I almost remember Mr. Funnel Cake telling me something about his mother and Brazil when I took this picture of the dying flower. It’s funny how something that seemed trivial at the moment I now wish I could look back on in more detail.

I really enjoyed talking to Mr. Funnel Cake. After the botanical garden, he asked me what I had seen around Zürich. And even though I’d already had an international friend at the Rotary House I was living in show me most of these sights, I had Mr. Funnel Cake show them to me again so we could keep talking. He also knew all the correct names of things and some background history he learned when he was a child.

Image by Wiki user Paranoid via Wikipedia

We visited all the typical sights of Zürich: the lake promenade, the Lindenhof, Niederdorf, the Fraumünster, Grossmünster, and the Bahnhofstrasse.

Now, at the botanical garden Mr. Funnel Cake seemed friendly enough, but it was inside the Grossmünster church that I learned Mr. Funnel Cake was truly a real gentleman. I had been to this large church with my friend before, but we hadn’t paid admission (it was only two CHF back then—now it is four CHF!) to climb the tower. Mr. Funnel Cake asked me if I wanted to go up and paid both our tickets without asking. On the way up he walked behind me, which I noted because I remember being nervous that I wouldn’t walk up fast enough for him. (It was a lot of stairs!)

At the top was an incredible view of Zürich where Mr. Funnel Cake pointed out more sights. On the way back down, he insisted he go first, and I asked him why because it seemed like he wanted me to go first on the way up. I think he told me to, in fact.

So Mr. Funnel Cake explained something that he was taught about staircases. According to something like the knights’ code of chivalry, a man should walk behind a lady on the way up the stairs and in front of her on the way down so he may catch her in case she falls and fight off attackers that might be following or coming in front. He then went on to explain why the staircase curved in the direction it did—so it would aid right-handed sword fighters. I think I had some minor “Prince Charming” thoughts at that point…I mean, I had never had an American boy treat me like this!

Image from Wiki user Roland zh via Wikipedia

After that, we tried to visit Cafe Sprüngli to try some of the famous birchermüesli I was supposed to try, but the place was too packed so we ended up going to Gran Cafe for a coffee, which again, Mr. Funnel Cake treated me to. It was a little fun (for me) to talk to Mr. Funnel Cake because we had to play what he calls the “guess the word game,” where he would wouldn’t know a word in English, so he would try to describe what he meant until I got it. I found this a very amusing game, whereas it made him nervous and intimidated. Mr. Funnel Cake hadn’t had a lot of English-speaking practice since school, so he was a little rusty. I just thought it was great to be talking to him, and I liked when I “won” the game and guessed the right word.

In the evening, though, it was time to say goodbye. Mr. Funnel Cake told me he would love to stay longer (and I would have too!), but he needed to go have dinner with his family. (Aww, a family guy…how could I blame him for leaving?)

So with great hesitance I said goodbye, and I headed back to my room at the Rotary House.

On a side note, going through my old emails with Mr. Funnel Cake makes me smile immensely. I realise now he used to address me in different German ways in the salutation and closing, to sneak some German or Swiss-German in. Very sweet.

**All photos are personal unless noted**