Wednesday Trip to Zurich

I was invited to a Moms and Tots group at IPC (church) that meets on Wednesday mornings, so I decided to go and try it. Andy kindly waited for me so we could take the train in together in the morning and then walked to the church with me (what a guy!). It was fun to be with him on the train and see what his morning commute is like.

The Moms and Tots group was a lot of fun; there were 5 moms including myself and we talked about how to incorporate Christianity into our children's lives. I really enjoyed the group, and I enjoyed speaking English (not that I speak anything else...)! The group got done at 11 am, so I confidently got on a tram that would take me to Andy's building at ETH so Carsten and I could eat lunch with Andy. I was pleased with my tram skills because I totally made it without any help! However, I have learned that having a stroller is a bit of a pain when taking the trains/trams. Some of the trams you actually have to lift the entire stroller up, and since Carsten is a bit heavy, this is getting to be a difficult task. Andy and I took a short walk before lunch since Carsten fell asleep in the stroller right as we were leaving his work building, and then we ate panini sandwiches, which were quite tasty! Andy graciously kept the stroller and took it back home after work so I could just take Carsten in the baby bjorn. This arrangement was a whole lot easy to maneuver on the transit system, so I think I'll try to avoid taking the stroller when I'm traveling by myself.

Ok, so remember the part when I was so proud of myself for mastering the transit system? Don't worry, it was short lived. As I left Andy's building, we went through the trains I would have to get on. The number 9 down to Belleview, then a short walk to Stadelhoffen where I take the S18. The number 9 is on the same street Andy's office building is on, so I went out and got that train after just a couple of minutes, and I'm thinking: 'This is great! And I'm so getting good at this!'. There's about 5 or so stops before I get off this train and the one nice thing about these Zurich trains is that they have computers saying how long the train is going to take to get to a particular stop. So, with 2 minutes left to get to Belleview, the train veers off to the left taking a different street. They said something in German, but as I don't speak German, I had no idea what it was. I panicked, and got off about 6 blocks off the correct street that the number 9 is supposed to take. I called Andy at this point and told him of my utter failure with the train, and he assured me that I was walking back to the correct street. So, I walked back and then continued walking to Belleview, which was about a mile. For the record, we found out later that the 9 had to be diverted because the tracks were closed, so if I had understood the German announcement, I would have known to stay on the train and would not have had to walk. So, this at least, was not totally my fault.

As I came to Stadelhoffen (the stop where I get the train home), there was an S18 waiting, so I held on tight to Carsten and ran across the square to get on the train. Once I got on the train I found someone who spoke English and asked if this was the correct train to get to Egg. They assured me that it was. I was so relieved to be on the correct train! So I fed Carsten and he fell asleep, which I was super excited about because that meant he was sleeping through the brake noises that had upset him so much on Sunday. Well, we got to Forch, which is about 4 stops before Egg, and the train stopped. I noticed that there was absolutely no one on the train, and asked the driver (who spoke English!) if this train went to Egg. He informed me that this was the last stop and I had to get on the train on track 3 in 15 min to get to Egg. This meant that I had gotten on the wrong train. There are two S18 trains during 'rush hour', one of which goes all the way down the line (goes through Egg!) and one of which stops at Forch. So, I had gotten on the wrong train. Perhaps I should have known not to trust the person who assured me that it was the right train when they got off 2 stops after the train left Stadelhoffen. Anyway, I hustled off the train (I didn't want to go back to Zurich!), and in the process woke my sleeping child since I had to dress him back up in his winter clothes and put him in the baby bjorn. Then we got to go wait 15 min in the cold, and then our correct train finally came, for which, I was grateful! Carsten was great, and even though I did wake him up from his nap, he was very cheerful and tolerant of waiting in the cold with me - what a great kid!

One of the moms at the Moms and Tots group invited me to a Bible study on Thursday mornings at the church. Needless to say after my experience getting home, I elected not to go...