Monday, February 7, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
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...
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...
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Church
Andy, Carsten, and I had a wonderful weekend. We finally made it to church, which was a blessing. We went to the International Protestant Church (IPC) in Zurich where we met quite a few people with American English and Midwestern accents to boot! We met someone who grew up in Ames, IA (where my Dad went to college), someone from South Dakota, and someone from Oklahoma. I also was able to meet a few moms (with even younger babies than us!), and they invited me to a Moms and Tots group that meets on Wednesday morning (it's complete with babysitters!). It was so nice to connect with people again, and I think I finally started realizing how isolated we are out here. I've noticed that when I'm out I try to say and I pay attention to people, but for the most part I don't even listen to what people are saying because I have absolutely no idea... :). The church service was long, but fairly traditional, which is what we like and is good because there aren't a lot of English-speaking church options to choose from.
We had Carsten's first train ride on they way to church, which was very close to a disaster. Church is at 11:30 am, so we had to leave our train station at 10:30 am. We tried putting him down for a nap at 9:30 am, which did not happen, so by the time we made it to our train he had been up for 2.5 hours, which is on the long side for him. He absolutely did NOT like the brake noises (compressed air whooshing noises when the brakes released, which are really quite loud), and since there were about 15 stops that occurred about every 2 minutes, he had no chance to fall asleep on the train. Poor guy... Anyway, long story short, after this ride I think we were both thinking that I was never going to leave Egg again. However, our train ride back (even though he was still tired and hadn't had many naps because of church) was terrific. He loved looking out of the windows, and even though the brake noises still startled him, he wasn't upset by them. Hooray! Looks like I can leave Egg by train after all, I just need to make sure he's not on the verge of a melt-down before we go :).
Last week we had a few rough nights with Carsten. We have been putting him to bed asleep, but that no longer is working because he'll wake up MAD after about 30 minutes of being set down. So we spent 2-2.5 hours per night trying to get him back to sleep. We decided on Friday night that we'd like to be done with that, so we've decided that it's ok for him to cry. Friday night he cried 45 minutes straight, and we felt like horrible parents, but Saturday and Sunday nights he didn't cry at all! I think the trick with him is trying to make sure he's awake when we set him down, that way he knows where he is and that the expectation is for him to sleep. Last night (Monday night) he didn't do as well, but he only cried for little while. Needless to say, Andy and I are enjoying having some time to ourselves after he goes to bed (about 8 pm most nights).
Carsten has also decided that laying on his back is not the most fun place to be as he'd rather be sitting up (he still needs supervision & some help to do this), hanging out with me, on a walk (he gets excited when he sees the baby bjorn), and even tummy time is preferable to being on his back. He'll lay on his back and play sometimes, but it's usually the best after he wakes up in the morning, and he gets progressively less tolerant as the day goes on. This is a little stressful for me because it means there are a lot less times that I can go and do other things (like dishes and writing papers). He also takes very short naps (mostly 30 min naps), so it's hard to get things accomplished at these times as well. Here's some photos of him at tummy time:
And here are some other goofy photos: :)
We had Carsten's first train ride on they way to church, which was very close to a disaster. Church is at 11:30 am, so we had to leave our train station at 10:30 am. We tried putting him down for a nap at 9:30 am, which did not happen, so by the time we made it to our train he had been up for 2.5 hours, which is on the long side for him. He absolutely did NOT like the brake noises (compressed air whooshing noises when the brakes released, which are really quite loud), and since there were about 15 stops that occurred about every 2 minutes, he had no chance to fall asleep on the train. Poor guy... Anyway, long story short, after this ride I think we were both thinking that I was never going to leave Egg again. However, our train ride back (even though he was still tired and hadn't had many naps because of church) was terrific. He loved looking out of the windows, and even though the brake noises still startled him, he wasn't upset by them. Hooray! Looks like I can leave Egg by train after all, I just need to make sure he's not on the verge of a melt-down before we go :).
Last week we had a few rough nights with Carsten. We have been putting him to bed asleep, but that no longer is working because he'll wake up MAD after about 30 minutes of being set down. So we spent 2-2.5 hours per night trying to get him back to sleep. We decided on Friday night that we'd like to be done with that, so we've decided that it's ok for him to cry. Friday night he cried 45 minutes straight, and we felt like horrible parents, but Saturday and Sunday nights he didn't cry at all! I think the trick with him is trying to make sure he's awake when we set him down, that way he knows where he is and that the expectation is for him to sleep. Last night (Monday night) he didn't do as well, but he only cried for little while. Needless to say, Andy and I are enjoying having some time to ourselves after he goes to bed (about 8 pm most nights).
Carsten has also decided that laying on his back is not the most fun place to be as he'd rather be sitting up (he still needs supervision & some help to do this), hanging out with me, on a walk (he gets excited when he sees the baby bjorn), and even tummy time is preferable to being on his back. He'll lay on his back and play sometimes, but it's usually the best after he wakes up in the morning, and he gets progressively less tolerant as the day goes on. This is a little stressful for me because it means there are a lot less times that I can go and do other things (like dishes and writing papers). He also takes very short naps (mostly 30 min naps), so it's hard to get things accomplished at these times as well. Here's some photos of him at tummy time:
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| He's a thinker! |
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| He's become quite adept at eating his burp-cloths now. |
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| So bright-eyed! |
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| Our smiley boy. This picture absolutely melts my heart :). |
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| This is what happens when Daddy dresses Carsten :). |
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| This photo was Andy's idea - this is Carsten's hair after bathtime :). |
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Egg
Egg is located on a hill, and means 'edge' in the local dialect. We took a walk on Sunday and learned that we're on the outskirts of Egg (about 2 blocks and you're in the country!), so we live in the Egg of Egg or the Shell of Egg if you will :). It's a pretty town with lots of residential areas, which is a nice way of saying there's not a whole lot going on, and this is fine with us for the most part. We have easy access to several grocery stores and it has a general store (houseware items), which is most of what we need. However, we have not found any clothing or children stores, so we'll likely have to shop outside of Egg for those items. The train runs right through the center of town, which is where all the grocery and other stores are located as well (about 4 blocks away). There's also a couple of restaurants, one downtown (it's good!) and one at the end of our street (less than 1 block away!), which we're looking forward to trying. I don't have any pictures of the downtown area yet, so these are just from the pictures of our walk out of town.
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| Egg! This is the pretty downtown church, which we can see from our house as well. |
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| View of Egg from the hill we were on. You can also see the valley below. |
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| Our street! Quaint, right? :) |
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| Restaurant at the end of our street. |
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| Except for the style of the buildings, the farms look similar to home :) |
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| The farmhouses were mostly HUGE, and a lot of them had the barns attached, like this one. |
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| The Alps! We're going to get our camera fixed sometime soon - sorry about the spot! |
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| Carsten slept the whole walk. Don't worry, he was toasty ;). |
New things we've learned:
- toilet paper has rectangular sections, not square
- microwaves are also tiny
- all appliances are terribly expensive (a cordless phone was ~60 franks and that was the absolute cheapest phone)
- our laundry area downstairs has clothesline all through the room (installed), which is really nice
- our phonejacks are old by even Swiss standards and almost no one sells adapters anymore:
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| Phone jack is the top 4 holes, then 2 cable outlets, and then three Swiss outlets on the bottom. |
- train passes of any kind are expensive. Just to get into Zurich (45 min ride) is 10 franks each way. Fortunately, Andy gets a 1/2 off pass from the university, but even a monthly pass is still expensive. But hey, at least we don't have to drive the roundabouts :).
- Milk comes in a box (2 L max) and the lowest milk fat we can find is 1.5 %. They call it 'milk drink' once the fat has been reduced. Also, the boxes don't need to be refrigerated until opened because they are ultra-pasteurized, which is weird!
- Orange juice that isn't from concentrate is only 50% juice; I find this strange and not at all tasty.
- You have to label your produce at the market (i.e., weigh them out and put a correct price sticker on them). This is difficult to remember and if you have a fussy baby, not at all fun.
- Milk comes in a box (2 L max) and the lowest milk fat we can find is 1.5 %. They call it 'milk drink' once the fat has been reduced. Also, the boxes don't need to be refrigerated until opened because they are ultra-pasteurized, which is weird!
- Orange juice that isn't from concentrate is only 50% juice; I find this strange and not at all tasty.
- You have to label your produce at the market (i.e., weigh them out and put a correct price sticker on them). This is difficult to remember and if you have a fussy baby, not at all fun.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Our Flat
We're finally starting to get our flat in order, so it's time to post pictures of where we live!
We took over our flat from one of Andy's co-workers, who also very generously sold us most of his furniture (couch, dining room table & chairs, dresser, wardrobe, and tv stand). This meant that we walked into a mostly furnished place and all we needed was a bed, shelves, dishes, and furniture for Carsten. And it also meant that we could sleep on the couches instead of the floor when we arrived :).
Ok, here we go!
-We live on the third floor of a four-story building, so when you open our door, to the left is our living area and to our right is a little nook where we're putting some shelves and the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom is there as well. We should note that if you like anything in our flat, you can most likely find it at Ikea :). Oh, I should mention that we aren't done putting Carsten's bedroom together, so once we get there (by the end of the week), we'll post pictures of his room.
We took over our flat from one of Andy's co-workers, who also very generously sold us most of his furniture (couch, dining room table & chairs, dresser, wardrobe, and tv stand). This meant that we walked into a mostly furnished place and all we needed was a bed, shelves, dishes, and furniture for Carsten. And it also meant that we could sleep on the couches instead of the floor when we arrived :).
Ok, here we go!
-We live on the third floor of a four-story building, so when you open our door, to the left is our living area and to our right is a little nook where we're putting some shelves and the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom is there as well. We should note that if you like anything in our flat, you can most likely find it at Ikea :). Oh, I should mention that we aren't done putting Carsten's bedroom together, so once we get there (by the end of the week), we'll post pictures of his room.
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| Living room (you can see the dining room off to the right and the patio as well) |
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Carsten's play area
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| Our new bed! We were sooo excited when this came :) |
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| Our wardrobe! Now all we need is a lion and a witch... |
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| Bathroom! |
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| The only closet. |
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| Our light fixtures will eventually be here... |
Carsten 4.5 months :)
Well, here's the update I know everyone has REALLY been waiting for: Carsten!
Playing: He's been changing a lot lately, not in looks, but in what he's able to do. Around New Year's (4 months) he started intentionally grabbing toys when you held them in front of him, and then actually played with them! Before then, he mostly just grabbed them and whacked himself in the face (poor guy!). So it's becoming more and more fun to play with him, which is nice. About 2 days ago, he also started grabbing his foot, which is pretty cute, and he also started chewing on his lips, which is not so cute (hopefully he grows out of that!).
Physical Prowess: This kid is strong! He's been standing in our laps (with little assistance) since about 2 months of age, and this skill only gets better and better. When he's standing he also likes to lift his feet up, one at a time, which is a skill that was practiced a lot at my parents house - thanks Mom! He also seems to really enjoy standing and being upright, which could mean that we will have an early walker on our hands, so we probably better babyproof soon :). Carsten has rolled a couple of times from front to back (both directions), but in general, he doesn't seem very interested in rolling. Sitting up on the other hand, is something he's trying VERY hard to master. He spends a lot of time on his playmat grunting while he tried very hard to sit up (he ends up in a V position that most yoga folks would be proud of!). This means that he hasn't been as happy in the playmat because inevitably, he ends up tired and frustrated that he can't sit up. So usually we give in after a while and prop him up on pillows on the couch or the bed while we do other things (nearby things of course).
Smiles and Laughter: Carsten is generally a happy baby, which is so nice! He likes to smile and over New Years (4 months) he started laughing at us, so we usually spend a lot of time trying to get him to laugh because it's just so cute :). One of our favorite moments with him is getting him up from a nap or a good night's sleep because (generally) he's so happy to see us he just sits there and smiles at us. It's also fun that he really seems to be recognizing us.
Sleeping: Carsten is generally a fantastic sleeper, and we are very grateful for this :). Since about 2 months of age, he's been sleeping 8-10 hour stretches during the nights and generally goes to bed between 9-10 pm. We have bathtime every night as part of his routine (he LOVES bathtime - he just sits there and kicks!), and this really seems to help signal bedtime for him. We had a couple of rough nights over New Years when we went to my parents, but I think this can be mostly attributed to congestion. And after a week of being in Switzerland (with a few really late nights), I think we've slowly moved him onto a good schedule. He actually went to bed before 10 pm last night, which was SOOO nice :). He also typically sleeps until about 9 am, which is nice because then I get to sleep in :). Once he's up for the day, he usually plays and eats and then takes a 30-60 minute nap around 11 am. I used to try really hard to keep him sleeping (i.e., rock him or hold him), but now I just plunk him down in his bed around this time. He's not always very happy about it, but if given about 15-20 minutes, he usually settles down and sleeps, which is nice. We're still working on figuring out the other times during the day when he likes to nap, mostly because I think he takes short naps. He seems to take about 30 minute naps 2-3 times during the day after his morning nap, and these dont' have much of a pattern after that. I will say that when we're on the move, like traveling by car, plane, stroller, or the baby bjorn, that he seems to take those opportunities to nap (he likes motion!), so that's really quite nice. Sometimes he'll even fall asleep on his playmat, which I don't usually intend to happen. All in all, we feel very lucky to have him do such a great job of sleeping, and we definitely hope this continues :).
I'll figure out how to post video soon :) He's also very vocal, but it's hard to post pictures of that...
Playing: He's been changing a lot lately, not in looks, but in what he's able to do. Around New Year's (4 months) he started intentionally grabbing toys when you held them in front of him, and then actually played with them! Before then, he mostly just grabbed them and whacked himself in the face (poor guy!). So it's becoming more and more fun to play with him, which is nice. About 2 days ago, he also started grabbing his foot, which is pretty cute, and he also started chewing on his lips, which is not so cute (hopefully he grows out of that!).
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| Carsten chewing his lips |
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| Carsten sitting up with Daddy |
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| Carsten falling over... :) |
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| Carsten in his 'V' position |
Smiles and Laughter: Carsten is generally a happy baby, which is so nice! He likes to smile and over New Years (4 months) he started laughing at us, so we usually spend a lot of time trying to get him to laugh because it's just so cute :). One of our favorite moments with him is getting him up from a nap or a good night's sleep because (generally) he's so happy to see us he just sits there and smiles at us. It's also fun that he really seems to be recognizing us.
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| smiles :) |
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| Carsten sleeping :) |
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| splash splash splash! |
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"Hey!!"
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I'll figure out how to post video soon :) He's also very vocal, but it's hard to post pictures of that...
Thursday, January 20, 2011
We've arrived!
Greetings to all our friends and family from Switzerland! We arrived last Friday morning (Jan 14). Just to warn you, this is going to be a long one and to help us keep track of the days, I'll post dates.
Jan 12: day before we get on the plane!
We had a great 2 weeks in Orange City with my side of the family and we got to see a few friends and extended relatives, which was great! We found it more and more difficult to say our good byes to grandparents and immediate family as our moving day was more imminent. But we also were grateful to have time to say goodbyes, which is not always a guarantee when moving. Also, we planned in a few extra days to pack, which we were very grateful for since it took us all of those days to get ready. We were also blessed by having two extra days with my mom since she had snow days at school :).
Here's a picture of my parents' living room as we were packing - can you find us? :)
Jan 13-14: Flying out!
My parents generously took off Thursday to take us to the airport, which was very helpful because we needed their van and new car (a shiny Pontiac Vibe :) ) to transport us and all our belongings to the airport. We got to fly out of Sioux Falls, which was nice and close to their house. We ended up having 15 checked bags (I know, it's a lot, but considering that's all we took, not that much for a family of 3). We had our most difficult goodbye with my parents because it was REALLY the final goodbye and the last time we'd see family for a while. My mom held on to Carsten until the security guy cleared our passport and tickets, and I was a little worried we wouldn't get him back... :). We definitely miss our families and our friends already :(.
Carsten did amazingly well with the flights, and for the record, if you really want babies to be quiet, perhaps you shouldn't be so loud as to wake them up from their nap (i.e. talking LOUD, slamming lavatory doors, etc.)... Additionally, we never realized how loud flight announcements were, but they are SO loud! We actually asked the flight attendant to turn them down, but apparently there are only a few announcements they are allowed to adjust the volume for. From Sioux Falls to Chicago, Carsten slept the entire way & we got a seat for him, which was an amazing way to start off our travels! Then from Chicago to Philly, he slept part of the way, and would have slept more, but the girl behind us was obnoxiously loud and kept waking him up :(. In the Philly airport, we had to almost run to make our connection, which, in retrospect we probably looked pretty funny. I had Carsten in our Baby Bjorn, our stroller/carseat was full of stuff and Andy was pulling our two carryon suitcases. They were boarding, so we didn't get a chance to see if we could have an extra seat for Carsten, but the lady who took our tickets was super nice and told us which seats to sit in to have bulkhead seats and a seat for Carsten (SO NICE!). Carsten was awake for the first part of this flight, which was fine since it was evening, and then he fell asleep during turbulence (gotta love it!) for the last 3-4 hrs of the flight, which was amazing. Andy and I had some trouble sleeping due to the giant screen about 3 feet in front of us, but we did manage to get some sleep as well. When we got to Zurich, our bags/boxes were the first ones off the plane! We were afraid that they wouldn't have made it since our connection was so short in Philly, but all 15 made it! The arrival of all our bags was such a blessing for us. I felt very conspicuous taking bag after bag off of the baggage carousel, especially since we had all our bags before 75% of the plane :). Andy managed to hire a porter, and we were waved through customs, which was very nice. Two of Andy's new coworkers, Beiping and Uli, met us with their vehicles, and small SUV and a station wagon. The porters we hired were amazing - they fit all our luggage in the cars and we were still able to ride! It was about a 25 minute ride to our flat, and they helped us move the boxes up to our place on the third floor :). Beiping (we took over the partially furnished flat from him) then stayed with us in town and pointed out the various grocery stores, and then helped us register and get a bank account (this was a life saver since he spoke German!). And to top all these blessings off, Carsten, our amazing child, slept through all of it (landing, getting bags, getting in and out of the car for errands, and lunch). After Beiping left, we started unpacking and Andy got a few groceries so we could have supper. Our evening was a bit rough because Carsten didn't go to bed until 3 am, which was to be expected since he slept until 1 pm that day. All in all though, a smooth move and Carsten is a trooper.
Jan 15: Ikea!
Andy's coworker, Uli, lent us his station wagon so we could set up our house more easily; this has been such a blessing! However, his car is a stick (I've never drove one and Andy has only done it a couple of times), so between not really knowing how to drive a stick and not knowing the area, our trip to Ikea was fairly stressful. There are MANY roundabouts, which are terrifying because most of them you can't see across the way, so all you see is a car coming at amazing speeds AND since we're driving a stick, stopping is not our favorite option :). Additionally, I was the navigator and couldn't seem to find our way back to the highway, which would have made it much easier and faster to get to Ikea. However, we did finally make it :). Once there we found out that it was the last day of a sale and a Saturday, which meant TONS and TONS of people were at Ikea. This made it a little difficult to get things done (we don't read German, so we picked things out by how they looked), but we did manage to get a bed ordered (we had been sleeping on couches in our flat) and we got dishes, which were both crucial to making our flat a home. Carsten was amazing throughout the store and even took some naps. I felt a little bad for him since at the end we were rushing to try to get out of the store and he started falling asleep facing out in the baby bjorn. I did manage to get him turned around so he could nap though :). Carsten only took until 2 am to fall alseep, which was still waaay too late in our minds :).
Jan 16: Be careful what you eat...
Andy made a very quick visit to the grocery store on Saturday where he picked up some apple juice (nothing is open on Sundays here). I poured a glass of the apple juice for breakfast on Sunday morning, and proceeded to drink a few swallows. Much to my surprise, it was NOT apple juice. In fact, it was apple cider vinegar. Note to self: make sure what you think you are drinking is ACTUALLY what you are drinking. Needless to say, I was ill for a while... but no worries, I felt better in the afternoon. We went over to Andy's coworker's (Uli) house for brunch with his family. The food & company were great, but I definitely did not drink the apple juice... Also, they carbonate apple juice here.
Jan 17: We got our bed!
We slept in this morning, and then made our way over to Ikea to get a few more items that we were not able to get on Saturday (some book cases and a diaper changing station/dresser for Carsten). Carsten again was great - he really seems to love watching people and therefore couldn't be happier than when facing out in the Baby Bjorn. The Ikea people were delivering the bed we bought on Saturday at 3 pm, and we barely made it back in time to meet them. We spent the evening putting together our Ikea bed, which let's just say it took 5+ hrs to assemble. Andy was so great putting everything together (I helped some) and I think we were both motivated to finish so we didn't have to sleep on the couches again :). We finished the bed around 11:30 pm and celebrated by having some Italian wine and Swiss chocolate! I would like to note that both of us are impressed with the Ikea packaging (so amazing!) and the pictoral directions are surprisingly great. And, the bed was comfy :). Carsten finally starting going to bed earlier, well, earlier meaning 12 am. His timing is still somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, but we'll keep working on it slowly. Each day we run errands, we can't believe how great Carsten is. He's so happy and adjusts to our lifestyle very well, which is such a blessing.
Here's a photo of us putting together our bed - we did have to assemble EACH of those slats...
Jan 18: Grocery stock up!
This was the last day that Andy was scheduled to be home to help set up the house, so we took the opportunity to take Uli's car to the grocery store to try to stock up on basics like flour, sugar, olive oil, etc. The store was small, but surprisingly nice. We were able to figure out where (& what!) most things were. We think we were careful to avoid another apple cider episode. Again, Carsten was fantastic in his Baby Bjorn - I think we'll be using this a lot in the next few months! We were so focused on getting groceries and he was so good, that we forgot he was there :). When we got home I put away groceries and made a pasta bake (btw, a 9x13 inch pan barely fits in our small oven!), and Andy put together the changing station/dresser from Ikea. It took him about 3 hrs to assemble it, and I think we'll both be happy to be done assembling Ikea furniture (we have 2 shelves left). We're very happy to be done changing him on the floor, and we're also excited to get his clothes moved out of a suitcase. We were able to talk to a few family members on Skype tonight, which was very nice. We've been feeling a little isolated (no one from Andy's work lives nearby and very few people seem to speak English in Egg), so it was nice to see familiar faces :). Hopefully, once we get our internet hooked up, which is soon, hopefully, we'll be able to talk more. Carsten went to bed at 11:30 pm, so his bed-time is improving! :)
Jan 19: Andy's off to work!
Andy headed off to work this morning, which was sad because I've enjoyed having him at home. He'll get to work using the train system, so hopefully he made it! It's a little strange to have him gone and in addition, we only have one cell phone, which he took, so the only way I can reach him is via skype. This is a weird adjustment because ever since we started dating, we've both had cell phones, so reaching each other has always been easy. I think we're both going to get phones eventually, but that is not a high priority right now. I'll let you know how things go for Andy sometime soon! Also, we got to see our first snow in Switzerland!
Here's pictures of the snow, Carsten sleeping on his playmat, and Carsten helping me with laundry!
So, here's a list of things we have learned about Switzerland:
- the doors don't have deadbolts (the doors actually seal differently, so I don't think you need them), and you have to lock the lock from the inside to lock your door when you're in the house.
- the windows have no screens and actually have two ways of opening (swing out fully or just pop the top out 4 inches)
- the winter seems much milder than IA, WI, or MI - we came to 50 degrees F and sunshine :)
- Egg, the city of 5,000 we live in, means 'Edge' in the local dialect and is located on the top of a hill. We can see the Alps if we walk down the street and in addition, the weather is clearer here than in Zurich. Zurich gets a lot of fog in the winter because of the lake, and since we're on a hill, we see sunshine :). However, since we are living in a smaller town, it seems that less people speak English, which is a definite downside right now, but I think it will motivate us to work on our German. :)
- The bathtubs are taller, don't trip!
- Also, the door handles are taller. I can't believe how many times I've hit my hands on them because they are at a different height
- There are no closets in the bedrooms. Our place only has one closet in the hallway, so in the bedrooms we have to put 'wardrobes'. I always wondered why C.S. Lewis was talking about wardrobes... :)
- Almost all houses have shutters, and people use them. Our place has a metal grate that goes over the outside. I think it's used to help regulate temperatures in the houses, so in the summer, it will be a good thing.
- Light fixtures don't belong to the house. We currently don't have a lot of lights because apparently people own their fixtures, so we have to buy and install them ourselves.
- kitchen appliances are MUCH smaller. We joke that we now have an 'easy bake oven' and a 'dorm fridge' and we're not actually too far off...
- you have to label your trash and pay by the bag, which actually makes sense, you pay for what you actually make
- roundabouts are terrifying and hard to give directions (i.e., take a left?!).
- apparently the Swiss are very strict about speed limits - they have lasers everywhere
- groceries, with the exception of meat, dont' seem to be as expensive as we were led to believe, which is nice. Actually, cheese, bread, wine, and chocolate are frequently cheaper than the states :)
- Kellogs cereals make an appearance in our grocery store, but have different names and are usually chocolate
- get the Europe GPS maps before you go to Europe, you'll appreciate it :)
- washing machines are free, but once again, they are tiny! One load in the states is 2-3 loads here. Note to self: do laundry more often :) You also have to use a 'key' to use the washers to indicate that they are being used.
- there was a cat hanging out in our stairwell. We've seen it outside before - don't know how it got in!
I know there's more to add to the list, but that's all I can think of now! We miss all of you and hope you're all doing well.
Jan 12: day before we get on the plane!
We had a great 2 weeks in Orange City with my side of the family and we got to see a few friends and extended relatives, which was great! We found it more and more difficult to say our good byes to grandparents and immediate family as our moving day was more imminent. But we also were grateful to have time to say goodbyes, which is not always a guarantee when moving. Also, we planned in a few extra days to pack, which we were very grateful for since it took us all of those days to get ready. We were also blessed by having two extra days with my mom since she had snow days at school :).
Here's a picture of my parents' living room as we were packing - can you find us? :)
Jan 13-14: Flying out!
My parents generously took off Thursday to take us to the airport, which was very helpful because we needed their van and new car (a shiny Pontiac Vibe :) ) to transport us and all our belongings to the airport. We got to fly out of Sioux Falls, which was nice and close to their house. We ended up having 15 checked bags (I know, it's a lot, but considering that's all we took, not that much for a family of 3). We had our most difficult goodbye with my parents because it was REALLY the final goodbye and the last time we'd see family for a while. My mom held on to Carsten until the security guy cleared our passport and tickets, and I was a little worried we wouldn't get him back... :). We definitely miss our families and our friends already :(.
Carsten did amazingly well with the flights, and for the record, if you really want babies to be quiet, perhaps you shouldn't be so loud as to wake them up from their nap (i.e. talking LOUD, slamming lavatory doors, etc.)... Additionally, we never realized how loud flight announcements were, but they are SO loud! We actually asked the flight attendant to turn them down, but apparently there are only a few announcements they are allowed to adjust the volume for. From Sioux Falls to Chicago, Carsten slept the entire way & we got a seat for him, which was an amazing way to start off our travels! Then from Chicago to Philly, he slept part of the way, and would have slept more, but the girl behind us was obnoxiously loud and kept waking him up :(. In the Philly airport, we had to almost run to make our connection, which, in retrospect we probably looked pretty funny. I had Carsten in our Baby Bjorn, our stroller/carseat was full of stuff and Andy was pulling our two carryon suitcases. They were boarding, so we didn't get a chance to see if we could have an extra seat for Carsten, but the lady who took our tickets was super nice and told us which seats to sit in to have bulkhead seats and a seat for Carsten (SO NICE!). Carsten was awake for the first part of this flight, which was fine since it was evening, and then he fell asleep during turbulence (gotta love it!) for the last 3-4 hrs of the flight, which was amazing. Andy and I had some trouble sleeping due to the giant screen about 3 feet in front of us, but we did manage to get some sleep as well. When we got to Zurich, our bags/boxes were the first ones off the plane! We were afraid that they wouldn't have made it since our connection was so short in Philly, but all 15 made it! The arrival of all our bags was such a blessing for us. I felt very conspicuous taking bag after bag off of the baggage carousel, especially since we had all our bags before 75% of the plane :). Andy managed to hire a porter, and we were waved through customs, which was very nice. Two of Andy's new coworkers, Beiping and Uli, met us with their vehicles, and small SUV and a station wagon. The porters we hired were amazing - they fit all our luggage in the cars and we were still able to ride! It was about a 25 minute ride to our flat, and they helped us move the boxes up to our place on the third floor :). Beiping (we took over the partially furnished flat from him) then stayed with us in town and pointed out the various grocery stores, and then helped us register and get a bank account (this was a life saver since he spoke German!). And to top all these blessings off, Carsten, our amazing child, slept through all of it (landing, getting bags, getting in and out of the car for errands, and lunch). After Beiping left, we started unpacking and Andy got a few groceries so we could have supper. Our evening was a bit rough because Carsten didn't go to bed until 3 am, which was to be expected since he slept until 1 pm that day. All in all though, a smooth move and Carsten is a trooper.
Jan 15: Ikea!
Andy's coworker, Uli, lent us his station wagon so we could set up our house more easily; this has been such a blessing! However, his car is a stick (I've never drove one and Andy has only done it a couple of times), so between not really knowing how to drive a stick and not knowing the area, our trip to Ikea was fairly stressful. There are MANY roundabouts, which are terrifying because most of them you can't see across the way, so all you see is a car coming at amazing speeds AND since we're driving a stick, stopping is not our favorite option :). Additionally, I was the navigator and couldn't seem to find our way back to the highway, which would have made it much easier and faster to get to Ikea. However, we did finally make it :). Once there we found out that it was the last day of a sale and a Saturday, which meant TONS and TONS of people were at Ikea. This made it a little difficult to get things done (we don't read German, so we picked things out by how they looked), but we did manage to get a bed ordered (we had been sleeping on couches in our flat) and we got dishes, which were both crucial to making our flat a home. Carsten was amazing throughout the store and even took some naps. I felt a little bad for him since at the end we were rushing to try to get out of the store and he started falling asleep facing out in the baby bjorn. I did manage to get him turned around so he could nap though :). Carsten only took until 2 am to fall alseep, which was still waaay too late in our minds :).
Jan 16: Be careful what you eat...
Andy made a very quick visit to the grocery store on Saturday where he picked up some apple juice (nothing is open on Sundays here). I poured a glass of the apple juice for breakfast on Sunday morning, and proceeded to drink a few swallows. Much to my surprise, it was NOT apple juice. In fact, it was apple cider vinegar. Note to self: make sure what you think you are drinking is ACTUALLY what you are drinking. Needless to say, I was ill for a while... but no worries, I felt better in the afternoon. We went over to Andy's coworker's (Uli) house for brunch with his family. The food & company were great, but I definitely did not drink the apple juice... Also, they carbonate apple juice here.
Jan 17: We got our bed!
We slept in this morning, and then made our way over to Ikea to get a few more items that we were not able to get on Saturday (some book cases and a diaper changing station/dresser for Carsten). Carsten again was great - he really seems to love watching people and therefore couldn't be happier than when facing out in the Baby Bjorn. The Ikea people were delivering the bed we bought on Saturday at 3 pm, and we barely made it back in time to meet them. We spent the evening putting together our Ikea bed, which let's just say it took 5+ hrs to assemble. Andy was so great putting everything together (I helped some) and I think we were both motivated to finish so we didn't have to sleep on the couches again :). We finished the bed around 11:30 pm and celebrated by having some Italian wine and Swiss chocolate! I would like to note that both of us are impressed with the Ikea packaging (so amazing!) and the pictoral directions are surprisingly great. And, the bed was comfy :). Carsten finally starting going to bed earlier, well, earlier meaning 12 am. His timing is still somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, but we'll keep working on it slowly. Each day we run errands, we can't believe how great Carsten is. He's so happy and adjusts to our lifestyle very well, which is such a blessing.
Here's a photo of us putting together our bed - we did have to assemble EACH of those slats...
Jan 18: Grocery stock up!
This was the last day that Andy was scheduled to be home to help set up the house, so we took the opportunity to take Uli's car to the grocery store to try to stock up on basics like flour, sugar, olive oil, etc. The store was small, but surprisingly nice. We were able to figure out where (& what!) most things were. We think we were careful to avoid another apple cider episode. Again, Carsten was fantastic in his Baby Bjorn - I think we'll be using this a lot in the next few months! We were so focused on getting groceries and he was so good, that we forgot he was there :). When we got home I put away groceries and made a pasta bake (btw, a 9x13 inch pan barely fits in our small oven!), and Andy put together the changing station/dresser from Ikea. It took him about 3 hrs to assemble it, and I think we'll both be happy to be done assembling Ikea furniture (we have 2 shelves left). We're very happy to be done changing him on the floor, and we're also excited to get his clothes moved out of a suitcase. We were able to talk to a few family members on Skype tonight, which was very nice. We've been feeling a little isolated (no one from Andy's work lives nearby and very few people seem to speak English in Egg), so it was nice to see familiar faces :). Hopefully, once we get our internet hooked up, which is soon, hopefully, we'll be able to talk more. Carsten went to bed at 11:30 pm, so his bed-time is improving! :)
Jan 19: Andy's off to work!
Andy headed off to work this morning, which was sad because I've enjoyed having him at home. He'll get to work using the train system, so hopefully he made it! It's a little strange to have him gone and in addition, we only have one cell phone, which he took, so the only way I can reach him is via skype. This is a weird adjustment because ever since we started dating, we've both had cell phones, so reaching each other has always been easy. I think we're both going to get phones eventually, but that is not a high priority right now. I'll let you know how things go for Andy sometime soon! Also, we got to see our first snow in Switzerland!
Here's pictures of the snow, Carsten sleeping on his playmat, and Carsten helping me with laundry!
So, here's a list of things we have learned about Switzerland:
- the doors don't have deadbolts (the doors actually seal differently, so I don't think you need them), and you have to lock the lock from the inside to lock your door when you're in the house.
- the windows have no screens and actually have two ways of opening (swing out fully or just pop the top out 4 inches)
- the winter seems much milder than IA, WI, or MI - we came to 50 degrees F and sunshine :)
- Egg, the city of 5,000 we live in, means 'Edge' in the local dialect and is located on the top of a hill. We can see the Alps if we walk down the street and in addition, the weather is clearer here than in Zurich. Zurich gets a lot of fog in the winter because of the lake, and since we're on a hill, we see sunshine :). However, since we are living in a smaller town, it seems that less people speak English, which is a definite downside right now, but I think it will motivate us to work on our German. :)
- The bathtubs are taller, don't trip!
- Also, the door handles are taller. I can't believe how many times I've hit my hands on them because they are at a different height
- There are no closets in the bedrooms. Our place only has one closet in the hallway, so in the bedrooms we have to put 'wardrobes'. I always wondered why C.S. Lewis was talking about wardrobes... :)
- Almost all houses have shutters, and people use them. Our place has a metal grate that goes over the outside. I think it's used to help regulate temperatures in the houses, so in the summer, it will be a good thing.
- Light fixtures don't belong to the house. We currently don't have a lot of lights because apparently people own their fixtures, so we have to buy and install them ourselves.
- kitchen appliances are MUCH smaller. We joke that we now have an 'easy bake oven' and a 'dorm fridge' and we're not actually too far off...
- you have to label your trash and pay by the bag, which actually makes sense, you pay for what you actually make
- roundabouts are terrifying and hard to give directions (i.e., take a left?!).
- apparently the Swiss are very strict about speed limits - they have lasers everywhere
- groceries, with the exception of meat, dont' seem to be as expensive as we were led to believe, which is nice. Actually, cheese, bread, wine, and chocolate are frequently cheaper than the states :)
- Kellogs cereals make an appearance in our grocery store, but have different names and are usually chocolate
- get the Europe GPS maps before you go to Europe, you'll appreciate it :)
- washing machines are free, but once again, they are tiny! One load in the states is 2-3 loads here. Note to self: do laundry more often :) You also have to use a 'key' to use the washers to indicate that they are being used.
- there was a cat hanging out in our stairwell. We've seen it outside before - don't know how it got in!
I know there's more to add to the list, but that's all I can think of now! We miss all of you and hope you're all doing well.
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