Clouds are Clearing

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!