At the moment, it is a cloudy and rainy day here in Zurich. Despite this fact, I feel like the clouds in my head and energy are beginning to clear. I hope that I am not speaking to soon! For the last week and a half, even though it's been sunny and beautiful, I feel like I have been walking around in a bank of clouds and fog. Most expat wives go through depression about 3-6 months after the move. As my sister Linda said to me, "Martha, you like to do everything at an accelerated pace". I guess she's right. Hopefully, I'm over this depression baloney. As I have said repeatedly to people, it's not that I want to go home, it's just that I want to feel "at home" here, wherever "here" is. I think that if I can accomplish that in 6 weeks, I'm doing pretty darn well!
In an attempt to help myself feel better, as well as the kids and Duke, I invited new friends over for dinner Friday night. They are a family from Germany. The two girls go to school with Kim and Ross. (Ross has a crush on the older girl who is his age. Good grief!) The younger one is a tomboy extraordinaire! The parents both work for Zurich, which is an insurance company. They have been here for about 2+ years.
They were very helpful in making us feel more comfortable. The biggest help was their explanation of the Swiss German Language. They gave us actual spoken examples that made it all to clear that we are dealing with a COMPLETELY different language. It was nice to know that I wasn't going mad.
On Saturday, I ran to the local "home depot" called Bau und Hobby. I bought some plants and soil so that I would have something to do on Sunday when everything is closed. In the afternoon, we were invited to a BBQ at the lake. This was an invitation from someone Duke works with. She is from the U.S. but moved here 10 years ago when she married her husband who is from Switzerland. They invited other friends of theirs so we got to meet some others people. Only one of them was Swiss, I think. The rest were from France, Germany, and the US. This city is truly an international city. We had a lovely time as the kids were able to play on a playground or "spielplatz" and they were able to climb the trees. Rustle was never without a stick to chase in the water. By the time we were ready to go, he was barely trotting back with the stick. It was actually pretty funny. :-)
On Sunday we took the kids for a walk along a path in the woods behind our house. We happened upon some ruins of an old castle/fortress from circa 1240 c.e. It was fascinating and the kids were in heaven. They said it was a perfect place to play their game "Order" ( I think this is a take off on the H.P. Order of the Phoenix.)
In the afternoon, I planted the roses and other flowers I bought, as well as some carrots and broccoli. Our backyard is a lovely oasis. We have that small pool ( that still needs to be cleaned) and the patio with a table and chairs. It is just wonderful to sit out there in the sunshine and look across the lake. Now with the flowers I planted it should be even better!
To end the weekend, I dug out my spinning wheel and started to spin up some of the wool I brought along. I haven't spun in ages and it was just so relaxing to sit and spin while Duke watched his surf movie. He was showing me a clip that was filmed in Morroco. Why Morroco, you ask? Because we've been invited to go there over the kids' spring break. :-) Isn't this why we moved here to begin with?! I guess I had better rent "Casablanca" as I haven't seen it in years, since that is where we will fly into. Good thing we have the AppleTV!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Things that Run Through My Head
Tulips, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Fasnacht, Bratty Boys, Slow Government Agencies, Orchids, Runaway Dogs, New Neighbors, Incomplete German Phrases, to name a few, are the things that run through my head these days. Let me start at the beginning of the list.
Tulips and Orchids: I bought some beautiful pink tulips with white edges around the petals. Easter is coming soon and so the stores are filled to the brim with flowers, easter bunnies and chocolate. As if we haven't already indulged in enough chocolate as it is! Kim wanted in on the flower extravaganza too, so i bought her a little baby orchid. The flowers here are beautiful and I couldn't resist the pull of having something so cheerful on my dining room table especially after the recent world events.
Earthquakes and Tsunamis: my heart aches for the people in Japan. It aches even more when I know that the events are what the earth needs to "reboot". My prayer is that the people in the world find something deeper within themselves that allows for a sense of peace and understanding.
Fasnacht: this is the Swiss version of Mardi Gras albeit a VERY watered down version! We went to a parade with the kids and friends. The basic idea is that each group dresses up according to some theme. There was everything from vampires to Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. It was fun for the kids as they got a bunch of candy out of the deal.
Bratty Boys: I had to intervene at school for Kim on Friday. She had been complaining about some boys in her first grade class teasing her. By Friday she reported that they were kicking and punching her. I still don't know what the boys' problem was but the teacher and principle intervened and the boys apologized to Kim. When I asked her if the boys seemed genuine she said in a very serious tone, "Oh yes!". I thought that was pretty cute! So hopefully the crisis has been cleared and school will become and fun place for her. Both kids seem to like their teachers, although Ross isn't really excited about having a male teacher. HAHA!
Slow Government Agencies: so Duke and both of the kids have their residence permits and I am STILL waiting for mine. The issue with this is that I can't leav ethe country until I receive it. I REALLY hope it didn't get lost in the mail due to our move. The last thing I want to have to do is go and track it down with the government and language barriers. ( I shouldn't complain too loudly. Everyone here seems to speak English. It would be just my luck that the person I need to talk wouldn't speak English at all!)
Runaway Dogs and New Neighbors: yesterday the doorbell rang in the late afternoon. It was our neighbor from right next to us. She had come by to introduce herself. I invited her in and we had a nice glass of wine together. (She is from Norway and her husband is from El Salvador.) In the chaos of her kids and my kids going in and out, Rustle got out again. I didn't know it until the doorbell rang again and it was a young man with Rustle in a leash! He said that Rustle had gotten into their house! I thanked him for bringing him back and apologized profusely for Rustle's bad behavior. Five minutes later, the doorbell rang again. It was the lady from the house that Rustle had infiltrated! She was very nice and just wanted to know if Rustle had been "fixed" as their dog had just had puppies. They really wanted to keep her from getting pregnant again so that they could get her spade!
Incomplete German Phrases: of course during all of this, I was cursing my lack of vocabulary in German. (luckily, she spoke English as well.) My next project is to get into a German class! All I have for German right now are incomplete sentences that are SO incomplete that they are merely incomplete phrases! Argh!
There isn't much else to report, or maybe there is and I just can't think of it all right now. Settling into a new country has it's challenges, one of them being the inability to keep track of time and events. So much seems to happen, yet it feels like nothing is happening. The linear time line seems to be getting more fuzzy each day. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older. Haha!
Tulips and Orchids: I bought some beautiful pink tulips with white edges around the petals. Easter is coming soon and so the stores are filled to the brim with flowers, easter bunnies and chocolate. As if we haven't already indulged in enough chocolate as it is! Kim wanted in on the flower extravaganza too, so i bought her a little baby orchid. The flowers here are beautiful and I couldn't resist the pull of having something so cheerful on my dining room table especially after the recent world events.
Earthquakes and Tsunamis: my heart aches for the people in Japan. It aches even more when I know that the events are what the earth needs to "reboot". My prayer is that the people in the world find something deeper within themselves that allows for a sense of peace and understanding.
Fasnacht: this is the Swiss version of Mardi Gras albeit a VERY watered down version! We went to a parade with the kids and friends. The basic idea is that each group dresses up according to some theme. There was everything from vampires to Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. It was fun for the kids as they got a bunch of candy out of the deal.
Bratty Boys: I had to intervene at school for Kim on Friday. She had been complaining about some boys in her first grade class teasing her. By Friday she reported that they were kicking and punching her. I still don't know what the boys' problem was but the teacher and principle intervened and the boys apologized to Kim. When I asked her if the boys seemed genuine she said in a very serious tone, "Oh yes!". I thought that was pretty cute! So hopefully the crisis has been cleared and school will become and fun place for her. Both kids seem to like their teachers, although Ross isn't really excited about having a male teacher. HAHA!
Slow Government Agencies: so Duke and both of the kids have their residence permits and I am STILL waiting for mine. The issue with this is that I can't leav ethe country until I receive it. I REALLY hope it didn't get lost in the mail due to our move. The last thing I want to have to do is go and track it down with the government and language barriers. ( I shouldn't complain too loudly. Everyone here seems to speak English. It would be just my luck that the person I need to talk wouldn't speak English at all!)
Runaway Dogs and New Neighbors: yesterday the doorbell rang in the late afternoon. It was our neighbor from right next to us. She had come by to introduce herself. I invited her in and we had a nice glass of wine together. (She is from Norway and her husband is from El Salvador.) In the chaos of her kids and my kids going in and out, Rustle got out again. I didn't know it until the doorbell rang again and it was a young man with Rustle in a leash! He said that Rustle had gotten into their house! I thanked him for bringing him back and apologized profusely for Rustle's bad behavior. Five minutes later, the doorbell rang again. It was the lady from the house that Rustle had infiltrated! She was very nice and just wanted to know if Rustle had been "fixed" as their dog had just had puppies. They really wanted to keep her from getting pregnant again so that they could get her spade!
Incomplete German Phrases: of course during all of this, I was cursing my lack of vocabulary in German. (luckily, she spoke English as well.) My next project is to get into a German class! All I have for German right now are incomplete sentences that are SO incomplete that they are merely incomplete phrases! Argh!
There isn't much else to report, or maybe there is and I just can't think of it all right now. Settling into a new country has it's challenges, one of them being the inability to keep track of time and events. So much seems to happen, yet it feels like nothing is happening. The linear time line seems to be getting more fuzzy each day. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older. Haha!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Too much to post...
It has been a few days since my last post due to moving into our new house! So much has happened that it might take me a bit to go back over it all. In view of this, I will try to go over some major points of interest.
Trip to Ikea
This was an interesting trip in that we had just received the rental car and now we had to find our way through Zurich and over to the other side of the city. Luckily, the GPS's available are quite good and this wasn't too difficult until we hit construction just as we got back into downtown Zurich and the GPS couldn't route us a different way until we got out of the mess. Low and behold though, we happened to be right next to the "Technopark" where Duke works and he had a vague idea as to how to circle around.
The Ikea itself was very large but was just like ones in the US. We didn't buy very much because we hadn't really gotten into the house yet. This weekend we will attempt to fill in the gaps in the house. Apparently there are two Ikeas so we are going to find the other one as it is closer. It also has the Swiss version of Best Buy next to it and a couple of other useful places.
Brunch with Duke's colleagues and their families
This was Sunday morning. Both of these families are from the US. One is from Seattle and the other from the D.C. area originally but they were in Boston before coming here. We had a nice time and I'm sure that we will get together with them again at some point. The difficult thing with hooking up with them is that they live on the other side of the lake so it takes a bit to get over there.
Moved into the new house
The movers came with sea shipment at 8 am and were finished unpacking and putting everything together by 4 pm. It was great! We slept in our new beds that night and everyone seemed very happy. The kids are anxious for the air shipment to arrive with their toys tomorrow morning.
Kids had their first day of school
The kids also had their first day of school they day we moved in. They seem to like it just fine. Ross really likes his German class. Kim was not so excited the first day but it got better the second day. They alternate between English and German every half day or every other day, depending on the grade. Overall, I think the school will be a good choice for them.
Duke had his first FULL day of work
Duke has been in and out of the office all of last week but yesterday (Tuesday) was the first full day he put in. It's hard to say how this is going as of yet, but I think that it will be fabulous in the long run.
Driving
I also learned how to drive in Zurich this week. Not so bad if you have a good Navigation device. I was VERY glad that Duke did the first driving. It's always a little nerve wracking in a new place!
A little bit if trivia:
It seems to be so safe here that parents let their kids walk home from school over fairly large distances as well as leave them at home by themselves to run errands! It's rather nice to think that we are in area that is so child friendly. There are many children in our neighborhood and the kids seem to have already found friends to play with.
There are so many things to say that I can't seem to think of them all. I will try and write more often so that I don't forget things. Overall, we are having a very good time and we are enjoying all of the new challenges. Onward and upward!
Trip to Ikea
This was an interesting trip in that we had just received the rental car and now we had to find our way through Zurich and over to the other side of the city. Luckily, the GPS's available are quite good and this wasn't too difficult until we hit construction just as we got back into downtown Zurich and the GPS couldn't route us a different way until we got out of the mess. Low and behold though, we happened to be right next to the "Technopark" where Duke works and he had a vague idea as to how to circle around.
The Ikea itself was very large but was just like ones in the US. We didn't buy very much because we hadn't really gotten into the house yet. This weekend we will attempt to fill in the gaps in the house. Apparently there are two Ikeas so we are going to find the other one as it is closer. It also has the Swiss version of Best Buy next to it and a couple of other useful places.
Brunch with Duke's colleagues and their families
This was Sunday morning. Both of these families are from the US. One is from Seattle and the other from the D.C. area originally but they were in Boston before coming here. We had a nice time and I'm sure that we will get together with them again at some point. The difficult thing with hooking up with them is that they live on the other side of the lake so it takes a bit to get over there.
Moved into the new house
The movers came with sea shipment at 8 am and were finished unpacking and putting everything together by 4 pm. It was great! We slept in our new beds that night and everyone seemed very happy. The kids are anxious for the air shipment to arrive with their toys tomorrow morning.
Kids had their first day of school
The kids also had their first day of school they day we moved in. They seem to like it just fine. Ross really likes his German class. Kim was not so excited the first day but it got better the second day. They alternate between English and German every half day or every other day, depending on the grade. Overall, I think the school will be a good choice for them.
Duke had his first FULL day of work
Duke has been in and out of the office all of last week but yesterday (Tuesday) was the first full day he put in. It's hard to say how this is going as of yet, but I think that it will be fabulous in the long run.
Driving
I also learned how to drive in Zurich this week. Not so bad if you have a good Navigation device. I was VERY glad that Duke did the first driving. It's always a little nerve wracking in a new place!
A little bit if trivia:
It seems to be so safe here that parents let their kids walk home from school over fairly large distances as well as leave them at home by themselves to run errands! It's rather nice to think that we are in area that is so child friendly. There are many children in our neighborhood and the kids seem to have already found friends to play with.
There are so many things to say that I can't seem to think of them all. I will try and write more often so that I don't forget things. Overall, we are having a very good time and we are enjoying all of the new challenges. Onward and upward!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
....there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Well, we signed the official papers for our house and received the keys last night. The house is actually quite large for here and is very modern. There are three main floors with a full basement leading into the underground garage. The basement has a full laundry room (with a laundry shoot that starts at the top of the house!), storage room with an extra freezer and wine refrigerator, a "shoe" room with loads of shelves and one room has the requisite vault door that is required in all Swiss buildings for emergency use if there is bombing!
The ground floor (we are in Europe after all!) has the kitchen that opens into the living room/dining room which then opens to the side to reveal a beautifully integrated sun room leading out to a small stone pool. I can't wait to use this area when it's warm!
The first floor has a large bathroom, two bedrooms for the kids and a small office that includes a fold down "wall bed". (I forget what you call those.) One bedroom and the office look out over the backyard and in the distance you can see Lake Zurich.
The second and final floor, which Duke and I will take, is more "attic" like with its sloped, but high, ceilings. This is a fairly ingeniously designed room in that there are built in closets under the eaves that slide out in massive units. There is a small bathroom up there as well so that I don't have to run up and down the stairs in the middle of the night. Thank God!
We will be moving into the house on Monday morning at 8 am. Of course, the kids have to get to school that morning as well so it will be a bit of a circus at first. Circus or not, I am looking forward to settling in.
The ground floor (we are in Europe after all!) has the kitchen that opens into the living room/dining room which then opens to the side to reveal a beautifully integrated sun room leading out to a small stone pool. I can't wait to use this area when it's warm!
The first floor has a large bathroom, two bedrooms for the kids and a small office that includes a fold down "wall bed". (I forget what you call those.) One bedroom and the office look out over the backyard and in the distance you can see Lake Zurich.
The second and final floor, which Duke and I will take, is more "attic" like with its sloped, but high, ceilings. This is a fairly ingeniously designed room in that there are built in closets under the eaves that slide out in massive units. There is a small bathroom up there as well so that I don't have to run up and down the stairs in the middle of the night. Thank God!
We will be moving into the house on Monday morning at 8 am. Of course, the kids have to get to school that morning as well so it will be a bit of a circus at first. Circus or not, I am looking forward to settling in.
Friday, March 4, 2011
In the beginning...
Yesterday, my mother asked me if I was going to start a blog. I told her no, that I was terrible at keeping those sorts of things going. She replied,"Too bad, you're such a beautiful writer." The first thing to go through my mind was,"Gee thanks Mom! What a nice compliment." Then I thought,"Was that just a backwards guilt trip?" So whether or not it was sheer egotistical reaction to a compliment, a guilt trip, or both, I am starting a blog about our adventures living abroad in Switzerland. Please DO NOT be surprised if this lasts for just a month or less. I am notorious for starting a journal and not keeping up with it. Most other projects I can follow through on but a journal seems neverending except for when your physical body is dead, and that seems a LONG time away from now!
We have been here in Zurich for 11 days. In that time, we have searched for a permanent house to live in, Kim and I have been to the urgent care to be diagnosed with Strep Throat, we can't get funds transfered from Wells Fargo in the US because they are stupid, the HR department of my husband's company doesn't know how to keep their ducks in a row to help with house leases or the banking and Duke is also on antibiotics for a sinus infection. Other than that, it has been beautiful to run along the lake, the kids having enjoyed playing by the water, Rustle likes swimming (of course!) and we have now resolved the lease for our house so we can move in on Monday. It actually is later than we wanted as the kids start school on Monday as well. It will be a busy day! We also were invited to go go-carting last weekend with a family from the company and two other families have invited us for brunch this Sunday.
I wish there were more exciting things to report, but honestly, these first days here are rather mundane or stressful, depending on the given day and project of getting settled. Hopefully more will come next week! Much love and blessings to all!
A very personal side note:
I am actually a bit frustrated with myself for not being more patient with the whole house process. It never helps to get tied in knots. Of course, now I am impatient with myself for being impatient. HA! Luckily, my friend Terry gave me a book before I left that I have been reading during the dull waiting game hours. It is Brooke Medicine Eagles's "Buffalo Woman Comes Singing". I have seen the book before, but have never been attracted to it. Obviously the time wasn't right, because it is now! It is wonderful to read about the idea of the "Rainbow Tribe"and to think that I have the honor of coming over here with all that I have learned from my elders on Turtle island (North America).
We have been here in Zurich for 11 days. In that time, we have searched for a permanent house to live in, Kim and I have been to the urgent care to be diagnosed with Strep Throat, we can't get funds transfered from Wells Fargo in the US because they are stupid, the HR department of my husband's company doesn't know how to keep their ducks in a row to help with house leases or the banking and Duke is also on antibiotics for a sinus infection. Other than that, it has been beautiful to run along the lake, the kids having enjoyed playing by the water, Rustle likes swimming (of course!) and we have now resolved the lease for our house so we can move in on Monday. It actually is later than we wanted as the kids start school on Monday as well. It will be a busy day! We also were invited to go go-carting last weekend with a family from the company and two other families have invited us for brunch this Sunday.
I wish there were more exciting things to report, but honestly, these first days here are rather mundane or stressful, depending on the given day and project of getting settled. Hopefully more will come next week! Much love and blessings to all!
A very personal side note:
I am actually a bit frustrated with myself for not being more patient with the whole house process. It never helps to get tied in knots. Of course, now I am impatient with myself for being impatient. HA! Luckily, my friend Terry gave me a book before I left that I have been reading during the dull waiting game hours. It is Brooke Medicine Eagles's "Buffalo Woman Comes Singing". I have seen the book before, but have never been attracted to it. Obviously the time wasn't right, because it is now! It is wonderful to read about the idea of the "Rainbow Tribe"and to think that I have the honor of coming over here with all that I have learned from my elders on Turtle island (North America).
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