We'll be back online soon...

Auntie Geek is visiting us during her birthday and once again helping a lot while we move (she spent the Christmas holidays helping us move out of our house). However, since this move involves a lot less stuff we have a little more time for fun.

On Saturday we decided to go to Strasbourg, France. We had visited Strasbourg once before in 2000 and Auntie Geek had never been there so it sounded like a fun place to go. It was a 2.5 hour train ride with a transfer in Basel and we were in the land of Euros and more importantly, tarte flambée. We had a quick lunch in a busy-looking sandwich shop. Grilled slices of bread were topped with jambon and fromage (ham and cheese), salmon and sauerkraut, or goat cheese. Then we spent the afternoon wandering the streets and admiring the Cathedral, La Petite France (an area with canals and timbered buildings) and drooling at the food in the windows of bakeries. LGG had a couple of rides on the carousel and we watched a "sweeping Winter away" parade with witches and brooms. The main reason we went to Strasbourg was for the tarte flambée which was as yummy as we remembered.

On Sunday we returned to the Uetliberg to walk to Saturn. Rather than continuing on to visit the rest of the planets, we turned back and walked down the steep trail to Albisgütli, which LGG did all by herself. Then we met one of ZDG's colleagues at the Sprüngli Cafe at Paredeplatz for coffee, hot chocolate, and pastries.

This morning was the handover of the keys and the delivery of our stuff. One of ZDG's colleagues also helped us take a couple loads of flat packed IKEA furniture over to the apartment and then ZDG and Auntie Geek spent the afternoon building LGG's loft bed and chairs. We'll finish moving everything over tomorrow morning with the rental car and continue building. Tonight's our last night in this apartment.

We're not sure when we'll have internet access at the apartment, but we'll be blogging again as soon as we can.

How to avoid paying for a parking permit

We have an apartment!  Zurich Daddy Geek wanted to post about it and our other activities, but he's been busy with insurance, the movers, and oh yeah, work.  So, I'm patiently waiting for him to fill in the details on the apartment hunt, our day trip to St. Gallen, and our second trip to Mt. Rigi sledding.  

Last Thursday when we were in IKEA scouting out furniture so we could could sleep, eat, and sit we received a phone call from the movers in UK.  Unfortunately we didn't have enough minutes to call them back (we have a prepaid cell phone).  The Easter holiday slowed things down and ZDG didn't get a chance to call them back until Tuesday.  When he found out the truck was ready to deliver on Monday the 31st.  Or we would have to wait another 3 or 4 weeks.

After a phone call to the rental agency we found out that we would get the keys and be able to take possession of the apartment on Monday!  Stuff!  No bookcases, closets, or wardrobes to store it, but stuff nevertheless.  Although we only have 42 (or maybe 47 I can't remember now) boxes of clothes, toys, books, and sporting gear, it's being delivered on an 18 meter truck.  So now we have to figure out where to park it.

Today I went down to the central Zürich parking office to find out if we need a permit.  It turned out that we needed to contact the local police station.  With amazing foresight, ZDG insisted I take the cell phone, so I was able to call him with the phone number.  He called me back to tell me where it was and off I went.

For the most part I've been able to get away with very little German.  Usually when I ask "Sprechen Sie Englisch, bitte" the answer is yes.  However, today I was require to speak only in German and I survived.  At the police station I told them that we needed a parking permit for a moving truck (aka "ein sehr gross Auto" in ZMG-Deutsch).  However it turns out that they need more notice (at least a week) and/or there wasn't enough street parking to reserve for a moving truck.  I was hoping he wouldn't tell me we couldn't receive the shipment.  His solution was to contact the garage that was next to the apartment building and ask them if the truck could park in their parking lot.

So off to the garage where I ran into one of the managers.  I was pretty sure he didn't speak English so I just used my very primitive German and very slow talking to request parking in his lot (even though we didn't know what time it would be) and I'm pretty sure he said yes. 

Otherwise let's hope the movers can get those 42 boxes into the apartment before someone calls the police. 

It's still snowing in Zürich

Actually it has stopped for now.

The opera was very nice last night. I think it was my first cultural performance since LGG was born. The music and singing were great. The sets were okay. If anyone is wondering, everyone is required to check their coats at the Zürich Opera House, so don't ignore the signs and try to take your seats like we did. The usher was very nice about telling us to go downstairs to check our coats. On our way home it was snowing and we worked our way down the slippery hill verrrrryy slowly.

This was our view this morning.


Auntie Geek and I are off to Bern today, which is the Swiss Capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Sight.

Is it Spring yet?

Little Geek Girl keeps asking if it is Spring. Because in her head, thanks to the Winnie the Pooh movie "Springtime with Roo," Spring comes after Easter.

What do you think, has Spring arrived yet? Photo taken this morning.


Auntie Geek arrived last Wednesday and we've been busy. On Thursday we dragged her to IKEA. Good Friday was a windy, rainy, snowy day and we stayed inside until the storm cleared and went for a post storm walk. Saturday we went on a day trip to St. Gallen. Easter Sunday we had a little Easter egg hunt for LGG. The day started off nice, but ended up snowy. Monday we had a great time up at Mt. Rigi sledding. This time we went on a less scary run (three times!) and I didn't die. Photos and details will follow. Tonight Auntie Geek and I go to the opera (Cosi fan tutti).

Flat Stanley visits Zürich

We are quite exhausted from the apartment hunt. That will be another post soon. I promise.

And now for something fun. Flat Stanley came to visit us via the power of the internet and we took him on a tour of Zürich.

Last Wednesday was quite rainy, so visited the public transport and a museum.

Flat Stanley on the bus.


Flat Stanley on the funicular Seilbahn Rigiblick


A visit to the Zoological Museum. Also known as the stuffed animal museum.


On Saturday it was a beautiful day, so Flat Stanley strolled around downtown Zürich with us.

Looking down the Limmat River towards the Zürichsee.


In front of the Grossmünster.

Brother, can you spare a rappen?

It's late on a Friday night in Zürich, but currencies are still being traded actively. As of 2 minutes ago, my favorite currency exchange site, www.xe.com, is reporting this rather amazing figure:

1.0000 USD = 0.9988 CHF or 1.0000 CHF = 1.0012 USD

That's right, folks: one US greenback is now worth less than one Swiss Franc coin.

Of course, average people like us won't get this exchange rate; this is the "mid-market rate", which is the average of the "buy" rate and "sell" rate used by firms that exchange very large amounts of currency. The rate most of us would get will be less, well, perhaps 'beneficial' might be a decent word for the idea that no matter whether one is selling dollars for francs or vice versa, you wouldn't get the amount of the other currency you'd expect given the rates I quoted above.

But still, this is quite something. As recently as December 2007, the exchange rate was 1.000 USD = 1.125 CHF and one year ago, it was 1.000 USD = 1.213 USD.

One of our favorite fellow expat bloggers, the Global Librarian of Expat-Experience, wrote in a recent post that it might not be the best time for Americans to be heading across The Pond for vacation - sorry, Auntie Geek. But if you're paid in Euro or Francs, it sure is a nice time to go shopping in the States. Hmmm, maybe it's time to buy that unlocked iPhone in the States, after all.

Waldtag

During LGG's first week of kindergarten, the teacher was sick. Since we were new, the substitute did not know to give us a Quartalsplan (quarterly plan). So now that I have one, it turns out that Thursdays are "Waldtag"--outside days.

The class walked down to the bus stop, took the bus up the hill a couple of stops and walked through the woods to a fun playground on the Käferberg. She is already excited to take Auntie Geek to the playground when she visits next week.

Some prices at the grocery store

For those that are curious, here are the prices of various things at the grocery store. Keep in mind that because of the lovely exchange rate, the dollars and CHFs are essentially equal.

200 ml bottle of shampoo/conditioner (6.8 oz) = CHF 5.20

milk = CHF 1.75/liter, or 7 CHF/gallon

chicken breast = CHF 8.30 for 244 grams, or 15 CHF/lb.

That's right. Don't think about it. We just buy the food and eat it.

Also, rather than paying a fee for waste disposal, you pay for special garbage bags. They are about CHF 2 for a 35 L bag, which is about 70% the size of a US "tall kitchen bag". Teaches you to squeeze your trash really really flat.

On a fun note, ZDG was in his office this morning and heard kids' voices way down below. He looked down and saw LGG and her kindergarten class passing by on their way to the woods, looking for Easter Eggs. Good thing we dressed her warmly this morning.

Still no home for the weary

Someone told us today that the Zürich rental market is the worst it has been in the last ten years and the vacancy rate is around 0.25%. Yep. We got the word today that once again, the apartments we had applied for were given to someone else. At least I realized just in time that a showing we thought was tomorrow was actually tonight.

Part of me thinks we should stop blogging about the apartment hunt so we don't jinx ourselves. But we all know that doesn't really happen. It's just a tight market and we need to persevere. Or something like that.

It's just this blog will get pretty boring pretty quickly if we don't find a place soon, you know? So for the sake of the blog, someone, give us an apartment....pretty please?

Apartment Hunting in Zürich is not fun

The days are counting down. We need to find a place by 1 April when the tenants of the place we're staying in return.

In the last two weeks we have looked at thirteen apartment and applied to eight of them. We know that two of the places will be deciding tomorrow. There are also at least six more places we plan to visit this week.

However, if we want to get into another temporary apartment for the month of April (and get this, it's not even for the whole month of April so we'd have to stay in a hotel for 2 nights), we need to let them know by tomorrow, and we have to pay them rent even if we find another place.

So why is it so hard to find an apartment in Zürich? I think it boils down to supply and demand. There just aren't enough apartments for all of the people who want to live here. So for every apartment there can be two or three dozen applicants. And the landlords want to find long-term renters. We had an interview with the place across from the playground and school (we were one of five or ten families that made it to that stage). The little old landlady asked me if we had furniture. Uh, no, not right now, but we will. She and her sister seemed impressed by our academic credentials, but I'm not sure if they were enough to get us the place. They were also interested in getting a reference in case for some reason we didn't pay the rent. Fortunately the Swiss-German friends that we brought along to translate offered to be our references. Makes me wonder about all those Americans coming to Zürich and running off without paying rent and giving us a bad name.

Last night we ran into one of LGG's classmate's mom on the way home from another showing. She said their family ended up using an agency, because as a family of five, they had difficulties getting an apartment. ZDG is on his way to the agency now as I type.

Cold or Allergies?!

Last week LGG had a cold. Of course I caught it. It hasn't been too bad, except for the amazing sneezing fits. I'm hoping it's from the cold and not allergies. Because I'm supposed to get a break from allergies when I move to a new place, right?!

Parent Visiting Day at Kindergarten

On Monday, we all went to school together. Arrival time is between 8:10 and 8:20 am, but kids were still trickling until 8:30 am. We were impressed that most of the kids stayed seated on their chairs. At one point some of the kids got up to draw, but we're not sure why.

Around 8:30 am the teacher played a recorder and all of the kids returned to their seats. We observed the hour-long circle time. The teacher uses a lot of music, participation, and physical activity to engage the kids, but it was clear the LGG was getting bored because she couldn't understand anything. There was a "Guten Tag" song that she would not participate in, but on the walk home, she did talk about the words to the song, so we know she is listening. At the end of circle time the teacher assigned jobs to various kids (fetch the basket with all of the snack bags, open the windows). Then the kids had snack around 9:30 am.

We were impressed that some of the kids had sandwiches. But maybe they didn't have breakfast and so this was their first meal of the day. We left during snack time since it didn't make sense to just sit and watch them eat snacks.

In this school, Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2 are combined. The KiGa2 kids come back for a couple of hours on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. In order to attend Kindergarten 1, the child must be 5 by the end of April, although kids born in May, June and July can petition to start early. So the oldest and youngest kids could be as many as 27 months apart. I don't think LGG is the youngest kid, but she is certainly on the younger side. The goal of kindergarten is teach the kids orderliness, obedience, and discipline. And to change their own clothes and be able to walk to school by themselves by the time they are six.

Technorama in Winterthur

On Sunday we took a day trip to the neighboring city of Winterthur. It's about a 20 minute train ride from the Zürich Hauptbahnhof. ZDG is amused by the fact that LGG and I do Sudoku together.

Why were we in Winterthur? So we could go to Technorama -- the Swiss Science Center!

It's a lot like the Exploratorium in San Francisco with lots of hands on experimental things to do. I think LGG's favorite thing to was to generate cloud rings. There will certainly be a repeat visit!

Zopf and Nutella

On Saturday morning ZDG filled out an apartment application and dropped it off at die Post. While he was in the town center he stopped by the bakery and picked up a medium sized Zopf. Zopf is available usually on Fridays and Saturdays and it is a braided loaf made with butter, milk, or cream. It's not quite as eggy as challah. It comes in many sizes and ZDG picked up a medium loaf.

By Sunday morning, this was how much was left:



We've been here 7.5 weeks and I've been resisting the Nutella, but when ZDG brought the loaf home on Saturday morning I could no longer resist and I picked up some Nutella Saturday afternoon when I was by the store. Sunday morning ZDG and I had Zopf with Nutella for breakfast. For some reason LGG was not interested in the Nutella even though it contained chocolate. She keeps insisting that she only likes walnuts. Oh well, more Nutella for me. Which ZDG has placed on a very high shelf in the closet.

Stormy Saturday

Der Wetter im Zürich

We woke up this morning to heavy winds and rain, courtesy of a storm named 'Emma'. We had sustained winds in excess of 60 kph (35-40 mph) at times with occasional much stronger gusts; the TV reported winds up to 190 kph (120 mph) in the mountains of Austria today. There are lots of small branches down around town, and some larger ones scattered around as well, and at times it was raining sideways. Things began to calm down by early afternoon and the sun even broke through by mid-afternoon.

We ourselves had no problems, but the buildings next door weren't so fortunate. They have been under renovation since we moved in, and have been wrapped in plastic for several weeks. The strong winds tore apart some of the plastic, which then flapped furiously and very loudly. The fire department showed up, no doubt having been called by one of our neighbors, and made sure nobody was in imminent danger. Then we experienced one of those 'not in the USA things': on a Saturday morning, two whole crews from the renovation company came and spent the next couple of hours in the wind and rain taking down all the plastic and rebuilding some of the other damage. It is now much quieter thanks to their work.

Here's a side note for LGG's cousins in the States: Swiss fire trucks are bright yellow-green - almost chartreuse - with red-orange stripes saying Feuerwehr (fire department). The trucks are more compact than in the States, and look almost muscular as a result. We'll get pictures the next time we can.

Apartment Hunt Continues

On Friday night, we visited an apartment we really like. It's very central, with easy access to services, and yet in a quiet residential neighborhood. It's on the ground floor, so no worries about LGG bothering the downstairs neighbors, and it's practically across the street from a big playground and the kindergarten. It's older, so it has many nice little architectural touches, but has been renovated recently enough to feel modern. And it's affordable! We spent a couple of hours today drafting a cover letter that tries to tug as many strings as possible, assembling the application, and mailing it off. Wish us luck; we hopefully will know soon.

ZDG and LGG are spontan-you-us

We also visited an apartment this afternoon, and afterward, LGG and I decided to be spontan-you-us. Rather than heading back home with ZMG, we headed off to an indoor playplace near downtown Zürich. Unfortunately, they were full due to a kid's birthday party, so we went off to the nearby Starbucks - rauchfrei ist gut - for coffee and warm chocolate. We sat and talked while eating, and then had a nice chat with an American woman who came from Denver (!) and now lives in one of the small towns along the lake just outside Zürich.

After a while, LGG and I headed off for home. Rather than taking the most direct route once we left the tram, we wandered a bit in the streets of Höngg. And here's where LGG again showed how grown up she can be sometimes. She said, 'Dada, I'm glad you have a new job. We can spend a lot more time together now, since you're not taking trips and working so much. I love you, Dada!' (Bonus points on the heart-string-tugging, kiddo.) Then she follows it up with a big kiss and hug, and immediately the five-year-old resurfaces: 'Oh, wow, look at the worm, Dada! It's moving! Better hide, worm, or the birds will eat you!'