Italy, Zurich and everything in between

After much deliberation (and when I say much, I mean MUCH), Duke and I decided to take the kids to Italy for the first week of spring break.  I found a villa in the Tuscany region, nestled below the two hilltop towns of Monte San Savino and Lucignano.  These two towns are just 40 minutes from the now extremely famous town of Cortona.  (More on that later.)

We decided that it was cheaper to drive than to take the train so after having consulted a handful of resources, we decided that we should leave earlier than we thought so as to avoid the major traffic in the tunnel that allows for easy passage through the Alps.  Our first stop was Genova where we stayed for two nights.

This is a city that I never got around to visiting while I was spending various semesters and summers in Italy.  It is a very old (duh, everything is old in Italy) seaside town that has its own flavor. We spent the day exploring downtown and of course began our culinary tour of this gastronomically gratifying country.  Among other things we sampled, we were able to try the farinata, the local pesto and the fresh seafood. After checking out the Duomo, seeing the various fountains and doing a little shopping, we stopped for lunch.  After we had gorged ourselves in pizza, lasagna, and simple pasta pomodoro, we left the restaurant to slowly waddle back to the hotel.  When one does the "waddle" it leaves more time to discover hidden gems as you can't walk past them too fast and miss them.  Low and behold, there was the house that Chrisopher Columbus lived in with his parents!  What a cool way to have a history lesson and I think the kids were impressed!  The biggest hit though, was the tall ship that was open for tours that had been made by a movie company, although it was quite authentic.

Cool boat!

The lady of the ship.

I wish I had some cool quote from "Pirates of the Caribbean" for this picture, but alas, I am not that cool. I can only quote Spaceballs.

This is where Ross gave us is lecture on how the tall ship is laid out.  Impressively, he was correct on about 99% of it!

The "belle" of the boat.

After doing the cursory tour of Genova, we headed to our main place of residence for the week.  I happened to find a beautiful little villa that would suit us just fine for the week.  (Never mind that the shower sucked and the heat roasted you in the attic and you froze on the main living floor.  This IS Italy after all.)

It has been photo shopped for color, but other than that, this is what it really looked like!

We spent Easter at the villa with the highlight being a gourmet, home cooked Tuscan meal at the main residence.  This meal was to die for!  It started with usual antipasti made up of cured meats, olives, bread and cheese.  It continued with homemade spinach and ricotta raviolli with a lemon zest and olive oil on top.  The secondi course was Florentine Bistecca (steak) with rosemary and olive.  Dessert was a creme with rasberry topping.  We finished eating at the fashionably late hour of 10:00pm.

 Monday morning we started for Cortona.  Cortona is the main geographic focus of the book and movie "Under the Tuscan Sun".  I was aware of this town before this book ever came out. As a matter of fact, I found out about the book while I was in Cortona singing opera in the opera house that is situated in the Piazza Signorelli of Cortona.  I was blessed to have been able to sing there two summers in a row.

The walk up.

Santa Margherita

Having vivid and very fond memories if this place, I thought it would be wonderful to take my husband and children to visit this beautiful, sleepy historical hilltop village.  Well, it's still up on that very steep hill, it's still beautiful, but sleepy?  NO.  Unfortunately, after the advent of the movie, that little sleepy town will never be sleepy again, I fear.  But, we did walk up to the top to see the Santa Margerita Chiesa (which was closed!) and we had a wonderful at a restaurant just off the Piazza Signorelli.

Unfortunately, it rained.

The next big trek was to the Coliseum in Rome.  This was a marvel to all of us.  Truly an amazing accomplishment, but one always has the question in the back of one's mind, accomplishment at what cost?


We spent the rest of the week exploring various small towns in the area.  I will give you a pictoral tour with captions, rather than try and describe it all!

Kim ordered clam pasta in Rome.  I have never seen a child love their food THAT much!

A little boy from Germany was at the table next to us.  He obviously was happy to have ANYBODY to talk to besides his parents!  Of course, the fact that they all had iPods in common didn't hurt things.

Duke climbing down the path in Cortona.

The view behind Kim is of the Tuscan valley and part of Cortona.

In true Kim form, she liked the flower above her head and wanted a picture with it.

Keeping himself entertained before dinner.

Keeping herself entertained before dinner.  FYI, that dinner was FANTASTIC!!!!  It was in Sienna.

Can you tell that my allergies decided it was time to make an appearance?  My eyes were a MESS!  But Kimmy sure is cute!

Nothing like a playground to keep the kids entertained!

After our return from Italy, the kids and I spent the week at home doing various activities like sitting by our pool and visiting castles.  Pictures are below!

Kyburg Castle was a great place to take the kids as it was quite interactive, including period clothes for them to try on.  Of course, they were WAY too big for them, but it was fun anyway.  The above picture is the sundial on the outside of the castle wall.  Except for daylight savings time, it was right on the money!

The woodwork was gorgeous.  I could have used a few of those pieces in my house in Hamilton.

Now THAT'S how you make a furnace that adds to the decor!

This castle included not only a chapel but a jail.  Nothing like catering to both ends of the spectrum.

Dress up time!

My knight in shining armor!

Actually, this is more like my knight in shining armor.

Kim am spinnerade. 

The doorways were painted to look like they had woodwork around them.  Seems to be fairly common during this era.

Off they go!

After all that excitement, we needed down time.

Bathing beauty.

Man that sun is bright!

Princess Frog!

Ahhhhhhhhhh...happy hour.  My favorite time of day!

And last but not least, the kids did seem to get along pretty well after spending all that time together.

Wednesdays

You know, Wednesdays always seem to get a bad rap, and for good reason.  You wake up on Wednesday morning thinking that you still have THREE days to go until the weekend.  It's not like when you wake up on Thursday morning and think, "Oh good!  Only one more day until Friday and then it's the weekend!"  And if you wake up on Wednesday morning and the weather is bad, ugh, it seems even longer until Friday night!

You may ask, where is she going with this?  Well, let me elaborate.  Usually we have activities during the week that help us to look forward to our day.  Some of us have a job, some have school, we have volunteer activities, after school programs, ballet, piano lessons, soccer, clubs, coffee with friends, lunch with friends, play dates, the list goes on and on.  When you move to a foreign country, getting these activities going can be a massive challenge.

Obviously if you have a job to go to, this paves the way to meeting new people and establishing new relationships.  If you go to school, this facilitates the same sort of connections.  Of course, if you don't like the people at work or at the school, or if they are difficult to get close to, this can be much more of a challenge.  On top of this, language and cultural barriers pose yet another challenge when one wants to get involved in other activities.  Yes, I know, I signed up for all of this willingly.  It still doesn't change the facts that moving to another country is overwhelming in positive and not so positive ways.

This isn't to stay that Duke is having problems at work.  He likes his co-workers very much.  But it is a commentary on the kids' school.  Unfortunately, they don't seem to be very compatible with the children at this particular school.  Ross has found a friend that he gets along with quite well, but Kim is having a harder time.  Between the language barrier and the reserved nature of the little girls in her class, she is having a hard time finding that girl friend that she so desperately needs too feel accepted and included during playground time. (I must say that they are both making a valiant effort despite the odds and are, in my humble opinion, enormously successful thus far.)  On top of this, they need after school activities, but with the language barrier hanging heavily over my head, I have been dragging my feet about finding places for them to go.  (The language, at first, was kinda fun to see what I could remember.  Now I am just remembering how I could only get so far with a conversation and then I run out of vocabulary.  VERY frustrating.)

So what does this have to do with Wednesdays?  Luckily for us, Swiss schools have an early out on Wednesday.  So we have taken the opportunity to use this to our great advantage!  Every Wednesday afternoon has now become a time for an outing to downtown Zurich.  The kids and I drive back from the school to our train station in Erlenbach where we park the car and hop on the train to Stadelhoffen Bahnhof .  This train station is one block from the Zurich Opera House and the lake and most importantly is 30 seconds from MacDonalds!  Now, normally I call that MacYucks but after being away from your home country for a long period, you start to crave even the crappy food of your motherland.   And on the plus side, the burger they use here is much better than in the US.  Maybe that's why it costs three times as much....

After indulging in high calorie burgers, chicken nuggets and fries, we explore local shops.  Yesterday we found a store that carries foods from other countries, which of course includes food from the US.  I finally found some brown sugar to make chocolate chip cookies and El Paso taco seasoning!  After salivating over all the cheeses and chocolates, we finished the afternoon with gelato (Italian ice cream) that we ate by the huge fountain in the park across from the Opera House. 

This is why Wednesday no longer fills me with dread of "hump day".  I think I am going to rename it to "weekly skip day" or "hooky day" because it feels like we are skipping school and playing hooky but it's totally legal!  On top of it, I get to spend amazing quality time with my outstanding children.  You can't beat that!

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!

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!

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!

....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.

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).