Brrrrr... The zoo can be cold

Yesterday morning Little Geek Girl decided that she was a tiger and needed to go see the other tigers at the zoo.  It was also a good opportunity for Zürich Daddy Geek to see the penguin walk.  In the winter, if the temperatures are less than 10 °C, the Zürich Zoo penguins are taken for a stroll through the zoo.  So, we split up, ZDG and LGG went ahead to the zoo and I ran a couple of errands.

Since I had only had dessert for breakfast and lunch, I decided to take the Seilbahn Rigiblick to the top and walk across the Zürichberg to the zoo to bask in the sun and get a little exercise.  It was a sunny, but hazy day.  I met up with ZDG and LGG and we growled at the tigers.  We then visited the new baboon and ibex exhibit and then went to play at bug world.  Note to self:  if there's snow on the ground and you're going to a playground, bring the waterproof mittens.  LGG did a good job of not getting herself cold and wet.  But even though we were dressed in layers, it was cold up there on the top of the Zürichberg.  The high was around 3.5 °C and we decided to head over to the rain forest, which was a very comforting 24 °C.  It was also high humidity and my glasses fogged up immediately and stayed fogged up for quite a while.  But it was nice to defrost and watch for bats and lemurs and other creatures.

Afterwards we headed down to the city to meet a friend and her daughter for coffee and then we went out to dinner.  ZDG leaves for India tonight, so today we visited the pool in the morning.  It was nice to go when it wasn't too crowded and we had the diving pool to ourselves.

Dessert for Breakfast

I think my favorite part about holidays is dessert for breakfast. A big feast, scrumptious desserts, a good sleep, and then wake up in the morning to dessert for breakfast.

Our Thanksgiving Raclette menu:

Deviled Eggs
Breadsticks

Green salad with pomegranate seeds
Cornbread and gorgonzola dressing (gorgonzola melted at table)
Raclette fixings (cheese, potatoes, turkey, bresaola, prosciutto, pickles)

Creme Caramel
Dutch Apple Pie

Here are the adults after the kids have finished their pasta and been sent away. A piece of bresaola is being warmed on top of the grill, and I'm scraping some melted cheese onto my plate.


We had to end the party at 10 pm when the almost 7 year old fell asleep. Remember, he had a full day of school. There was a break between dinner and dessert for viewing the local Christmas tree and throwing some snowballs.

Fun on the ice and in the snow

This past weekend a lot of snow was forecast, but it didn't come when predicted.  Friday was cold and rainy.  Saturday morning we woke up to snow, but really only a light dusting.

On Saturday we went to the local ice skating rink.  Inside an ice skating competition was being held, but outside, the rooftop rink was open for lessons and free skating.  We've been taking Little Geek Girl ice skating for several years now, but it was only last year that she was confident enough to start standing on her own.  This past weekend, she really wanted to use one of the push bars, but we convinced her to try standing on her own, and after a while she was able to do it again and gain her confidence back.  While we were at the rink, it would snow shower on and off again and that evening it started to snow again.

On Sunday we had planned to have a stay at home day.  However, we woke up to no cable/internet (the horror!) and no hallway/laundry room lights.  So we decided to go up to the Uetliberg for a snowy day walk.  We were up there by 9:30 am, which is the earliest we've ever made it up there.  We went along the Planet Walk, brushing the snow off of the planet models as we went by.  LGG enjoyed making bear foot prints in the snow for us to follow and making footprints in the snow.  We were home before 3 pm, so it was nice to have been out, but still have time to nest at home a little bit.

Most of the snow came on Sunday night, but we were pretty impressed at how quickly the streets and sidewalks were cleared.  However, getting LGG to and from school takes a lot longer when there's snow on the ground.  

Don't touch the switch!

Apologies to anyone who is using Google Reader (or equivalent program) and got to see the very early draft version of this post.  Anyways, now that I'm frustrated that I lost my post, I'm just going to make it short and sweet.

Swiss Appliance lesson of the day.  Don't turn on/off unknown switches.  After the refrigerator and freezer were serviced back in September, I noticed that the switch on the left in the photo below was off.  So I turned it on.

And then we entered into the ice age in our freezer.  It turns out that switch is only to be turned on for the first 30 minutes when you turn on the refrigerator.  Oops.  Oh well, all is better now and since it's been so cold recently I decided to take advantage of the cold balcony and defrost the beast.

How to travel from Zurich to Germany via India in under eight hours

This was a crazy day for The Geeks.

LGG and I walked to school where I dropped her off.  I then went to get my Swiss driver's license.  In order to speed things up compared to ZMG's experience, I went to the office in person with all my documentation.  I could get used to visiting government offices here -- it took 10 minutes from start to finish, and the folks helping me were friendly and polite.  (Note to the California DMV: It can be done!)

After that, off to work for a whirlwind of meetings before picking LGG up at school and getting her home for lunch before returning her to school and returning to work.  Oh, and in between seeing ZMG for 10 minutes...

Then we get to the title of this post: how to travel from Zurich to India to Germany in under eight hours:

1. Get on a train at the Zurich Hauptbahnhof and ride to Bern (elapsed time: 57 minutes).  
   
2. Buy a Bern bus ticket and ride to the Indian Embassy (80 minutes).
3. Visit the Indian Embassy, which is technically Indian soil, and pick up your passport complete with your shiny new Indian visa (90 minutes).
4. Buy another Bern bus ticket, return to the Bern train station, and get on a train back to Zurich (2 hours).
5. Get lucky, make a 2-minute connection at the Zurich Hauptbahnhof, then another 2-minute connection at your local station, enabling you to be home in time for dinner (3.5 hours).
6. Eat dinner, pack, talk with your wife, play with your daughter, read a book to her, then run to the bus stop for a bus to the train to the airport (4 hours, 45 minutes)
7. Board your plane to Berlin at the Zurich airport and then sit on the ramp for 30 minutes before pushback because you and your fellow passengers were too fast and Berlin isn't ready for you yet (6.5 hours)
8. Fly to Berlin and meet your colleagues for the taxi ride to the hotel (7 hours, 55 minutes).

Step 9 is ride to the hotel.  Step 10, of course, is post to the blog.  Step 11 is collapse.

And of course, while I was doing steps 1-5 above, ZMG was picking LGG up from kindergarten, getting her home for a snack, running her back to her gym class, and running back home to cook dinner.  Eep.  Tuesdays are like this for The Geeks.

The final part of the craziness is more personal.  A member of one of our extended families is in the hospital back in the States and we're trying to keep up with the situation there, knowing there's really nothing we can do but send good thoughts that way.  Nothing more can be said here about that.

A little bit of culture maybe...

Little Geek Girl likes to see live performances.  In 2006 she saw Go, Dog. Go! and Dragon Tales Live and last year she saw Alice in Wonderland and Jack and the Beanstalk.  This year we've been slacking a little bit.  

Last month we saw a flyer for a kids musical called D'Schatzinsle, or Treasure Island.  We've been considering going to see it, but haven't gotten around to buying tickets for it (and probably won't be able to if you see below).  Andrew Bond, an English-Swiss singer/songwriter whose songs are played in the Swiss kindergartens will be performing next Friday night, but we'll be celebrating a Raclette Thanksgiving with some friends.  So, I looked at the Zürich Opera website and saw that they were going to perform the Magic Flute for Kids -- a kids length opera.  According to the website there were very few tickets left, but we thought maybe it was a glitch in the system because it was behaving very slowly.  So on Saturday afternoon I went down to the Opera House to ask them myself.  And all of the kids' performances are essentially sold out (and I think that included Treasure Island).  Yesterday I followed up and called about Wagner's The Ring Cycle for kids, and that's sold out too.  However, the ticket seller said that they might be adding some kids performances in January, so now I get to check the Zürich Opera website every day to see if there's a new performance we can attend.

Who would have thought The Ring Cycle for kids in July would already be sold out!  So, we're very slow at getting tickets in this town, there are a lot of people here and a percentage of them want to go to cultural events like this, and/or they don't put on enough performances to satisfy demand.  Who knows?  Now I have to determine how to find out about these events ahead of time.

Other than that we had a relaxing weekend.  Friday night we had some Swiss friends over and Zürich Daddy Geek sent LGG to her room to play and she actually stayed there until dessert.  While I was at the Opera House on Saturday, ZDG and LGG tried out a new pool.  On Sunday we all went to another pool in the afternoon.  LGG spent most of the time jumping off the diving board and ZDG and I took turns swimming laps.

Growing Up

Earlier this week we took Little Geek Girl to the doctor for her flu shot. She's gained almost a pound in a month!

Here she is at 115 cm (4 ft 9 in).  Oops.  That should be 3 ft 9 in.  She is not only 5 inches shorter than me.  Yet.  


And being silly. She's showing you her "hand snakes". They go everywhere with us. (Along with the Easter Bunny, the chocolate powder bunny, the alien, and her other "friends".)


She is also officially reading in English. It's kind of nice. She can pick up a book and read to herself while I cook dinner. And then she won't stop or respond to you when you speak to her, just like her mother. Here she is reading Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary.

Ten months later

We've now been in Zürich ten months.  We survived apartment hunting, Zürich Daddy Geek's job seems to keep changing, and Little Geek Girl is mostly settled in kindergarten, even though she refuses to speak German of any sort.  I run around like a chicken with its head cut off to keep things running smoothly, but that's probably because I spend too much time on the internet and then leave not enough time to get things done.  

Yesterday we went for another walk in the woods.  We decided to visit the ridge on the eastern side of the Zürichsee and walked the Zürichsee Panoramaweg from Rehalp to Küsnacht.  Nice views of the lake and the Uetliberg.  The last part of the walk was pretty cool because we descended into the Küsnachter Tobel--a steep V-shaped gorge.  Rather than continue on with the trail, we headed into town and took the train home.

Räbeliechtliumzug

For the last couple of weeks I've noticed some gigantic turnips at our local grocery store.  Like twice the size of a softball (I'm not quite a Valley Girl but I think I am dating myself).  I wasn't sure what they were for, but today we found out.

Last night on our bus home I noticed a lot of kids in the next neighborhood walking with lanterns.  I wasn't sure if it had anything to do with the "Swiss Narrative Night" that was being held at our nearby primary school.  I have to confess that we did not attend.  After an afternoon in the city and then home for dinner, I wasn't sure how well-behaved Little Geek Girl would be attending readings in High and Swiss German.

Then tonight I heard a loud racket outside.  I went to our balcony and called LGG to join me.  The procession started with adults carrying tall candles, followed by men carrying yokes with huge cowbells, and then followed by children carrying lanterns and a wagon carrying lanterns and more children.  They stopped briefly right in front of us so the police could stop traffic on the main drag, and then continued on.  I tried taking pictures but they didn't turn out.

At that point I figured it was time to call someone to find out what was going on.  The event is called Räbenlichtliumzug and the event it to commemorate the harvesting of the last crops.  Turnips are carved and turned into lanterns, there's a procession, and there's sometimes singing involved.  Here's the link to the German Wikipedia entry if you want to learn more.

So Zürich Daddy Geek arrives home after his flight from Edinburgh and I tell him what he missed.  Apparently he told me about this a couple of days ago, but I guess I wasn't paying attention.

Dress Up

Last night we had some friends over and the girls ended up playing dress up. Here are some pictures of Little Geek Girl in her finery. She wanted to know why the wings were so small. Because the wings are almost three years old and you've grown!

How to get a Wedgie

1. Go to pool with 5.5 yo Little Geek Girl (actually almost 5.75 yo if you're counting).

2. Allow LGG to convince you to go up to the 3 meter springboard platform, "just to look".

3. Think to yourself, "I'm not going to jump off that".

4. Believe LGG when she says, "If you jump off it, I will too.  Daddy will never believe it."

5. Realize that your daughter thinks you're a scaredy cat and if you want her to be brave, you need to do some brave things also.

6. Jump.

7. Instant wedgie.

Note:  LGG did not jump.  Sitting on the side of the pool, practically blind without my glasses, I watched her go to the end several times, but she wouldn't/couldn't do it.

On a lighter note...

I'm on the road again, this time in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.  I'll be here for a few days, my first visit since 1994.

I've had what I think of as a stereotypical Scottish evening.  It's misty, cold, and dark.  I've had a pub dinner with a great warm beer.  I took a walk along the Royal Mile in the mist and cold, listening to a saxophonist playing sad jazz - OK, if it were really stereotypical, that would've been bagpipes, right?  I watched a football match on TV (Celtic vs. Manchester United).   One thing that seems out of place: lots of American students walking along and chatting.

Apologies to any UK readers out there who I have just offended.

It's also Guy Fawkes Night (aka Bonfire/Fireworks Night) in the UK, so there are scattered fireworks going off around the city.  I overheard two American students talking about the fireworks; Student #1 asked what was going on, Student #2 tried to explain.  The friendly UK students at the next table chimed in with more details.  It was actually pretty interesting to listen in and hear lots of little details I didn't know about.

Time for bed.

What a day!

Wow, what a day!  As ZMG said, we voted weeks ago.  We were both pretty excited (and nervous) about the outcome, and spent much of yesterday obsessively refreshing the news sites.  Of course, time zones being what they are, we went to bed before the polls closed.

Which meant that I got to wake up early, go fire up the laptop, nod, smile, and go back to our dark bedroom.  ZMG opened one eye to ask; I got to speak two words:

President Obama.

We both smiled and went back to sleep.

This is an amazing day for the United States, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it, even 4000 miles away.  Why?  Because in just 54 years, we've moved from Brown v. Board of Education to President-elect Obama; in 51 years, from the Little Rock Nine to President-elect Obama.  As several news commentators have said, The Dream is still not fulfilled, but this is clearly one of the pivotal moments in American history -- and we got to be part of it.

Not that there isn't plenty more to be done.  What were 52% of California voters thinking?

But let's finish this on a positive note:  

President Obama.

Amazing.

Some Zürich headlines

By many bus/tram stops there are stands of free newspapers for reading during the commute.

Some headlines from this mornings' papers.

Dear Mr. President, a lot of work waits for you


High turnout brings Obama's victory


Obama almost certainly president


You can also see that last night was the Swiss premier of the new Bond flick Quantum of Solace.

Halloween Pictures

Kids and pumpkin.


Kids in costumes.


Kids ready to bob for apples.


Ready.


Set.


Wet!

Halloween Recap

Halloween isn't a big deal in Switzerland.  However, we were happy to hear from our friends that there was trick-or-treating over at their apartment complex and they invited us over for trick-or-treating and other Halloween fun.

They picked us up and we stopped off at an Asian market to pick up a HUGE pumpkin.  Zürich Daddy Geek started things off by cutting off the cap and leading the kids in scraping out the seeds.  Then it was time for the kids to get dressed up for trick-or-treating.  There was a skeleton, a teenage mutant ninja turtle, and a couple of princesses.  The dads took the kids out to trick-or-treat and the moms carved the pumpkin and watched the baby.  The kids came back with fruit, peanuts, kid candy, and pretty good adult chocolate which has been properly sequestered for later consumption.  

Afterwards we observed some Irish Halloween Traditions.  We had Shepherd's Pie for dinner and money was hidden in the kids' servings.  Then it was time for apple bobbing.  We ended with slices of cake with treasures hidden inside.  Little Geek Girl picked the piece with the ring in it, which is a sign of impending romance or continued happiness.  

After breakfast this morning LGG asked when she could have some candy.  We said after lunch.  Around 11:15 am she told us she was hungry and ready for lunch.  Keep in mind that normally we have to convince her to eat lunch because she'd rather have a snack.  Hmmmmm... can anyone guess why she wanted to have lunch early?

We forgot the camera, but hopefully friends will send us some pictures and they can be posted later.

Happy November!