So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, and goodbye

We're still here, it's just a lot of what we've been doing has nothing to do with Zürich or Switzerland. However, whenever we hear the local church bells ring, it does remind me of living in Zürich. We didn't live in the direct line of fire of church bells, so the sound is still charming.

Okay, so what did we learn?

1. Don't name your blog after a particular place.

2. Maybe read the tax laws a little more carefully before you move abroad. Don't ask.

3. Explain to U.S. Congress that maybe they could've waited another year to pursue the tax evaders so we could keep our Swiss bank account a little bit longer to deal with 2009 Swiss taxes.

4. We had a fun time living abroad and if Zürich Daddy Geek has his way we'll do it again.

And don't worry, we haven't stopped blogging. We just have a new address. Come visit us at our new blog!

And the last thing we want to leave you with is a link to some cool pictures taken of the Space Shuttle Discovery over Switzerland. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can click on a cool shot that includes Luzern, the Zürichsee, and Zürich.

Some Bright Lights

Last night Zürich Daddy Geek and Little Geek Girl went for a walk and saw the first firefly of the season.

And this morning ZDG and I were woken up at 6 am by a severe thunderstorm.

European numbers

Little Geek Girl lived in Switzerland for 15 months. She refused to speak German, but she's acquired some European habits with regards to numbers.

Here in the U.S. when we count to three with our fingers, we first hold up our index finger, than our middle finger, and then our ring finger.

Here's LGG demonstrating the European way (thumb, index finger, middle finger).

She counts with her fingers the European way about 50% of the time.

Numbers are also written a little differently. The one has a little serif, and the seven has a line through it. Here's some of her handiwork done at kindergarten.

I think her numbers are okay for kindergarten, but they might think differently in first grade.

The last place you look...

You know that silly saying, "You always find something in the last place you look"?  Well, that was the case for us.

The weather has been gorgeous and we definitely need to take the bikes out for a spin.  Little Geek Girl's helmet came on the air shipment, but we needed to find the adult helmets.  Yes, we could ride without them, but, what kind of example are we setting, and did anyone notice I am a total klutz?

We thought they would be in one of the boxes marked "toys", but nope.  "Ornaments", no.  Finally, every box has been unpacked (unfortunately not put away yet), except the four boxes labeled living room books.  I open three boxes and they mostly have books (hooray, my cookbooks!).  I get to the last unopened box and I note that it's kind of light for having books.  And there they are, two helmets, the video camera, and miscellaneous toiletries.  Interesting interpretation of living room books.  At least it motivated me to finish unpacking.

!@#$% Check Engine Light

During grad school and our postdocs we were a one car family. However, when we moved to the suburbs in Colorado, we had to become a two car family. And when we moved to Zürich, we happily became a no car family. No paying for a parking space, no maintenance, no insurance, no worries.

However, back in the U.S., we could survive without a car, but it might mean no ice cream or milk in the summer, because the grocery store is 2 miles away and the buses aren't reliable. Yes, there are grocery delivery services, taxicabs, and insulated bags, so a car is not necessary, but it sure makes life easier. Thankfully we only needed one car because Zürich Daddy Geek can use public transport (when it's on time) to get to work.

It had been many, many years since we shopped for a car. Back in 1993 when we were living in different states, I bought a car from a colleague of ZDG's uncle and ZDG's dad helped him buy a truck. After that we kind of just inherited cars from various family members. And beggers can't be choosers so you take what you can get.

And now we had to choose a car. But we decided to look for an older car on Craigslist. And who knew that there was such a glut of 2000 - 2002 Honda Civics out there. But first things first, we had to get a local bank account. Because no one is going to accept an out of state personal check. And unlike Switzerland, where ebanking between personal accounts is a piece of cake, it's not as easy here. So after a first weekend of preliminary test driving, we realized we better get some moolah out of our old accounts into an easily accesible location -- how about the credit union in ZDG's building?

Okay, now we can shop for a car. After a couple more test drives, we made an offer on a vehicle, the guy wanted cash (as in lots and lots of hundred dollar bills) and we arranged a handover. I drove ZDG to the handover spot and headed home to feed LGG dinner and ZDG took the car for another spin and took care of the paperwork and the seller drove off. And the car wouldn't start. And did I mention it is now pouring rain?

Fortunately, the seller came back after ZDG called him and gave him a jumpstart and ZDG got the car home. However, the next morning, the car still wouldn't start, so I went across the street to the handy dandy auto part store to buy a new battery for ZDG to install. And we also joined AAA.

Luckily, city hall is in walking distance, so I can easily register the car. Except that it needs the emissions tested, so they give us license plates and we have a month and half to get the emissions tested. Something else to do. And, oh yeah, maybe we should have the 60K service done. That was done last Thursday. (And they recommend changing the timing belt, but we're hoping we can go a little bit longer before we have to do that expensive maintenance). And then last night (Monday), the !@#% check engine light turned on.

So this morning I called the mechanic to drop the car off. The code said transmision torque convertor circuit (gulp), but we hope that it was just a fluke. They reset the code and took it for a long drive and so far so good. So please keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I got some good walks in. The weather has been lovely, with blue skies, 70 deg, and a light breeze. So I walked 2 miles home from the mechanic's. Then 3.2 miles to the hosptial for a doctor's appointment, and then 1.2 miles to pick up the car. So I got to check out some more neighborhoods.

But life was a little less complicated without a car. Let's hope that I won't be writing about the car again any time soon.

A Quick Grandparental Visit

My parents were in the area as part of an 8-day bus tour. Last night we drove up to meet them at their hotel to say hello and get some hugs and kisses.



It's always good to see Agong and Wai-Po. Hopefully they'll be back soon and for longer.

Um, excuse me?

When it was time to get ready for the movers, I thought about leaving Little Geek Girl's German books behind.  However, she wanted to keep them and after leaving so many of her toys behind in Colorado when we moved to Zürich, I decided not to make too many things disappear.

Now remember, LGG refused to speak German in kindergarten, even though she would frequently correct our pronunciation.  But now, for her before the lights turn off book, she's looking and trying to read a German book on fairies.  She's a weird one.  But look at her parents.

So much to blog about...

...so little motivation.

Well, first I wasn't motivated because I would have to go down to the lounge to blog. Now, I have so much that I don't know where to start. The loud noises of the new apartment? The fact that my new kitchen is probably twice as big as my Zürich kitchen but has less storage space? Buying a used car and not having it start after the seller drives off (okay after new battery, at the mechanics right now for a check-up)? The beautiful azaleas, rhododendrons, and irises blooming?

How about some pictures of Little Geek Girl for now and hopefully I'll catch up soon.

Springtime is for pretty dresses:


LGG is happy to be reunited with her trains. Henry the tank engine's plastic face fell off as a result of the move, but that should be easily repaired with some Superglue.


My lovely Mother's Day painting.


Another pretty girl in a pretty dress.


We're having one of LGG's classmates who also lives in the building over for a playdate this afternoon, so I need to straighten up and resist the internet and the books.

Online again!

Woohoo!  Twenty days after ordering our internet, we finally have it.  Unfortunately I had to miss Little Geek Girl's Music Show, but she seemed okay with the idea.  She's very excited about the chicks hatching out of the incubator at kindergarten.  Three out of the ten chicks have hatched.  So far they have been named Peep, Shadow, and Diamond.

Now I have to be careful not to be sucked into the internet.  There's unpacking to be done!

When all else fails, call them toys

After the movers left, we were kind of amazed to see that there were 13 boxes marked toys.  I knew that Little Geek Girl had a lot of toys, and that there were probably books and clothes mixed in with the toys, but 13 boxes of the medium and large size!  

However, when we started unpacking, we realized that the movers decided near the end of packing decided that if they couldn't decide what to call the stuff in the boxes, they would call them toys -- ie towels, misc tubs, definitely not toys.  Kind of like what Angela ran into with the packers calling everything "linens" over on Continental Drift.  I was thinking that I was going to have to do a serious weeding out of toys, but there weren't as many as we thought.  And we've already decided to give the Duplos to a friend's son, so there's hope that we can try to thin out the toys a little bit.  In the meantime, LGG is thrilled to be with her toys again and there are toys everywhere.  Zürich Daddy Geek leaves for a business trip tomorrow, so we have tomorrow to play and straighten up.

When we moved from Colorado to Zürich, we were afraid we might have to pay for some of the shipping, so we went through everything to make sure nothing was packed that we didn't want move.  During this last move, things were so hectic that we tried to thin things out, but we didn't go through the rooms as thoroughly as we should have.  And therefore an ant trap was packed with LGG's toys.  Fortunately the icky stuff didn't get all over her toys, but next time, look for ant traps before the movers come.  Hopefully we don't find too many more unpleasant surprises.  I'm a little disappointed they didn't pack her books by themselves (they were mixed up with clothes and toys so some of the paperbacks are bent) but I know our books were packed separately and hopefully survived the journey.

Nein, danke

We've been here four weeks and I haven't had any of the usual language difficulties I run into (of course it might help that we're in the country of my mother tongue rather than switching from German to Italian or French).  Except that tonight when the waitress came to take our check, I told her "Nein, danke.  We're not ready yet."  I didn't even know I said the first part, but Zürich Daddy Geek was nearby and heard me.

However, Little Geek Girl is learning Spanish in kindergarten, so when I find my big pile of notecards it will be time to make new notecards.

The movers came early and unloaded and assembled.  We took LGG to the doctor and she has a tickle in her throat that seems to be bothering her, but she probably makes it worse trying to get rid of it.  I had called my doctor earlier and she prescribed some cough syrup with codeine for me, so hopefully I'll sleep tonight.

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff!

So the doctor diagnosed an ear infection, and possibly a sinus infection too, so I'm on antibiotics.  My hearing is still diminished in that ear, so I'm going to call and see if that's normal.  I'm also going to call because both Little Geek Girl and I are still coughing an awful lot at night.  Her cold ended about two weeks ago, but she's still coughing.  My nighttime cough sounds different than the daytime cough and it sucks.  

Tomorrow the rest of our household goods arrive!  I look forward to having furniture, but I'm not looking forward to unpacking and dealing with the stuff I put off dealing with in Zürich before we left.  We moved some broken electronics (iPod and camera) but I thought it would be easier to Freecycle (there's got to be a kid out there that wants to take them apart) or dispose of here than in Zürich.

Five days until internet in the apartment...

Okay, okay, I'm going to the doctor

Dear aunties and cousins, I have scheduled an appointment for tomorrow to have my ears checked.  No more fevers at night and I think it's getting better, but yes, it's better to be safe than sorry.

So, now for the compare and contrast with Switzerland part of the post.  In Switzerland, everyone is required to have health care and you are required to prove it within three months of arrival.  We actually didn't choose our company right away, because we were waiting until we had a permanent address and the insurance rates are dependent on your residence.  So even though we arrived in the country on January 10, we didn't sign up for insurance until the beginning of April.  But if anything had happened health-wise in those first three months, it would have covered it retroactively (because of course we had to pay the premiums for those months).  

Zürich Daddy Geek and I never had a need to go to the doctor while we were there, so we don't know how hard it would have been to get an appointment, but it was pretty easy to get Little Geek Girl in with a pediatrician. 

Now we're in the U.S.  In California and Colorado we had always been pretty happy with Kaiser, but we weren't sure how good it was here and so we decided to go with a PPO.  I sent a couple emails out over the weekend asking locals for practice recommendations.  I call the first one, they're accepting new patients, but not until July.  The second practice, no appointments for two weeks, but I can call back this afternoon to see if they have any cancellations for tomorrow.  Finally, third practice, I can get an appointment for tomorrow.  What if I was in excruciating pain?  I think I need to call LGG's pediatric office to find out their policy on same day appointments.

Ear Infection

We have been very lucky that Little Geek Girl has only had one ear infection.  Well, this time it's my turn to have the ear infection.  Thursday night my ear was completely plugged up and quite painful.  It got a little better after some decongestant and ibuprofen.  Friday night I had a high fever.  I think they usually work themselves out even without antibiotics so it just depends on how painful it gets.  At least our health care cards arrived in the mail yesterdy so I don't have to explain to someone that we *do* have insurance, just not the cards.  

Just another little stumbling block on the transition back to life in the U.S.  

And ten more days until internet in the apartment.  We're not counting or anything.

I'm not ready for Costco

We lived in Zürich for 15 months.  Long enough to survive the stress of finding an apartment in a tight housing market, settle in, and realize that we would have been happy to stay longer, but life happens and here we are back in the U.S.

Today I went to Costco to get a membership and a vacuum cleaner, among other things.  (Mom had been paying for my membership previously but I decided that maybe I'm old enough now to pay for my own membership).  Costco is a warehouse store where you can buy large volumes of stuff at reduced prices.  The joke was that in Switzerland, you would pay twice as much for half as much (the anti-Costco).  

However, I'm not ready to buy tons of stuff at bargain prices.  Although that's what I'd do in Zürich.  If my laundry detergent was on sale and I had a free hand, I would buy it.  And then I ended up giving away two bottles of the stuff when we moved.  I don't know why, but I'm just not ready to do it here.  

New Country, New Colds

One of the first things I wanted to do when we landed back in the U.S. was to get Little Geek Girl a physical, so she could attend school as soon as possible.  Our insurance coverage wouldn't start for a couple of weeks, but I was willing to pay out of pocket to get her in school sooner rather than later.  Last week I took her in for a physical and on Thursday she had her first day of kindergarten.  

The school is located at the top of a hill and there isn't a lot of parking, so all of the kids are strongly encouraged to ride the bus.  However, I drove her in and picked her up the first day.  She's the 24th kid in her class (compared to 14 in her Zürich kindergarten).  Kindergarten is all day and they eat lunch at school.  On the first day, LGG didn't eat much lunch and was starving when I picked her up from school.

On the second day she took the bus with the other kids.  We were a little concerned because in Zürich she never wanted to sit next to a stranger.  But, she got in line to get on the bus and in the afternoon she got off the bus.  She said she knew she was at the right stop because she recognized the sign for a nearby business.

On Sunday she was complaining about a headache and Sunday night she had a fever.  So we kept her home from school on Monday and Tuesday.  The school handbook doesn't outline specific things for keeping your kid home from school, but we figured high fever was probably a given.  It's funny, for the fifteen months that we were in Zürich, she only missed two days of school and here, she's already missed two days of school.  She had colds while we were there, but they were usually during the holidays.

On Wednesdays the kids are let out two hours earlier and she was feeling better, so she's off to school now. 

Which way does the door swing?

I'm back in the lounge using the internet to research dentists and a German-to-English translator.

After 15 months of living abroad, I am now utterly confused on predicting whether a door should be pulled or pushed.  By the time we left Zürich I was at about a 75% success rate, and here I'm only at 25%.  One day I'll figure it out again.  Maybe

A tale of two Sundays

We still don't have internet access in the apartment, but in the lounge of our building there's free wifi.  But there's still lots to do, like choosing our benefits and filing moving expenses, so blogging will be sporadic.  But we did manage to file our taxes on time.  We need to decide what to do about this blog because we're obviously not in Zürich anymore, but since a lot of our posts will inevitably be comparisons to our life in Zürich, we'll blog here for now.

Our last Sunday in Zürich was a potentially stormy day.  Little Geek Girl was very eager to try out the hotel pool, so she and Zürich Daddy Geek went upstairs to try to pool.  Meanwhile I made arrangements to meet friends at the University of Zürich Zoological Museum, aka the stuffed animal museum.  After showers and a quick lunch, we took the tram down to the museum.  We met our friends there, who had never been, and had fun showing it off to them.  Then we went to the Poly Terrace to look at the view and let the kids run off some steam.  We had saved some of LGG's birthday sparklers and we lit them so everyone could have lots of luck.  The kids were hungry, so we decided to go to Zeughauskeller for dinner.  Then ZDG took the kids up to the playground by the Lindenhof so the moms could chat a little bit.  The ferris wheel for Sechselauten was set up at Burkliplatz and we decided to ride on the ferris wheel.  As we were walking along the river it was 7 pm daylight time, and the bells from the Grossmünster, Fraumünster, and St. Peter's were all ringing.  We didn't live too near any church bells, so they're a pleasant sound to us, and it was a bittersweet sounding farewell to downtown Zürich.  After the ferris wheel ride we said farewell to our friends.

On our first Sunday in the U.S. we desperately needed lamps, because our apartment didn't have them in the bedrooms or living room.  It also happened to be Easter Sunday and Target was closed.  But IKEA was open, so we drove to IKEA, dropped LGG off at the playplace and purchased some lamps and Poangs so we don't have to sit on the floor while we wait for our sea shipment to arrive hopefully at the end of May.  A little different from no shopping Sundays in Zürich.

And the last thing to note is that for the first couple of days, ZDG and I kept forgetting to put on our seat belts.  After 15 months of using public transportation I guess we got used to not buckling up.  I think we're used to it now, and LGG is keeping us honest.  ZDG has been taking the bus to work and today was LGG's first day of school and tomorrow she'll start taking the school bus.  Again, very different from being able to walk her to school 10 minutes away and her walking her by herself almost home.

Temporarily Offline

We had a great time in Paris, and even though we had an internet connection, we were so busy we didn't really have time to post.  I feel kind of silly now having packed a small suitcase of toys, when Little Geek Girl spent the trip walking and playing all over Paris and then drawing or reading with us when we were in the apartment.  Unfortunately, one of us came back with an intestinal bug, so things have been moving slowly in Geekworld.  The comical thing is that I had been hesitant to go to Africa without getting all the shots and food poisoning strikes in Paris.

We arrived in the US Thursday night and we're getting ready to move to the apartment today.  Yesterday I picked up some airbeds from some friends, but, we still need lighting, so LGG and I will make a trip to IKEA.  We haven't had a chance to set up telephone or internet service, so I'll be offline except for when I go to the library or Panera Bread for free wifi.  

Thanks everyone for your good wishes and thoughts.  We'll be back soon.  

Don't tell the cow bread that we got locked out and had French toast

Greetings from Paris, where The Geeks are having a one week holiday before returning to the US.  Zurich Mama Geek and I have been here twice before, including once with Little Geek Girl when she was one.  Needless to say, LGG doesn't remember much, so it's a good chance to reintroduce her to one of our favorite cities.

After a very drawn-out discussion of where to go on our holiday, the actual doing of assembling this trip went pretty quickly.  Once we decided on Paris, we decided we wanted an apartment for the week and in only about one day, we found a place and booked it all online.  It took us only 10 minutes to decide to fly rather than take the train.  Once everything was pinned down, we decided that Auntie Geek really needed to come help ZMG celebrate their birthdays together - and in only 30 minutes we found a mileage ticket for AG, and she was set.    So, other than the four weeks of 'where should we go', we were actually really quick - for us, anyway.

Today, we closed up shop in our hotel in Zurich and arrived here.  After we met the rental agent here and got a quick lesson on how to make everything work in the flat, LGG and I headed out to the Jardin des Tuileries to visit the carousel and trampolines, stroll a bit, and watch people floating boats on one of the small ponds.  Then it was off to the supermarket for essentials and then out to dinner.

Well folks, we are certainly in a high-security building.  It turns out we need both keys to the apartment, not just one of them.  We rapidly discovered we were locked out, with dead cell phones, and the number for the agency was inside the flat.  Arrrgh - super stress moment, and ZMG and I started brainstorming on how we could solve the problem.  In the end, it was handled within about 30 minutes, and after our heart rates returned to normal, we moved off to a nearby brasserie for dinner.  

Which leads to the title of this post.  I had pâté and onions with toast, and LGG swiped some of my toast to see if French bread really was as good as ZMG and I have been telling her.  Of course, this put her in conflict with her current favorite bread, which comes in a package with cow print on it and tastes a bit like King's Hawaiian bread.  We call it 'cow bread'.  The problem is: if French bread is better, then how will the cow bread take to being relegated to second place?  So of course we can't tell the cow bread about the evening's events.

So: nobody tell the cow bread that we got locked out and had French toast, OK?

Handover is over

Yesterday was the handover and it happened without a hitch.  Well, two minor hitches.  

First, the handover was scheduled for 1 pm.  So I enter the building and go upstairs to the apartment around 12:55 am.  And the front door to the apartment is open and the guy from the cleaning company, two representatives from the management company, and the new tenants.  Oh yeah, we forgot, this is Switzerland where everyone arrives 10 minutes early.  I took the new tenants downstairs to show them the cellar and laundry room and when we came back upstairs, Zürich Daddy Geek had arrived and the management company ladies started going through the apartment noting all of the marks on the walls, etc.

At one point it was time to check the interior door keys.  Interior doors are locked with keys that kind of look like skeleton keys.  As soon as we moved in, I took all of the keys and put them away, to keep Little Geek Girl from playing with and possibly losing them.  After the movers left I looked at the keys.  Four of them were oriented one and the other two the opposite way.  So were the doors.  So I just put the keys in the door.  However, it turns out, each door has a unique key and at first the management company ladies were concerned when none of the doors were locked.  Then I explained what I had done and they returned all of the keys to their proper doors.

On the forums and mailing lists there are often horror stories of landlords bringing out the white gloves and checking the taps for mineral build-up.  We took care of cleaning issues by hiring a cleaning company which would guarantee cleanliness issues.  We were also a little worried about being assessed for damages to the apartment and having to deal with making claims to the liability insurance company.  I guess we took care of that by taking a 20 year old apartment that had not been recently renovated.  We've had the outside blinds serviced, the dishwasher and refrigerator replaced, and not been charged a thing.  When it was time to sign the paperwork, the representative told us that everything was in order and we would not be charged anything.  Whew.  

The Kindergarten Garden

Some Swiss kindergartens go into the woods once a week. However, Little Geek Girl's kindergarten has such a lovely garden, that they don't need to go to the woods, not when they have all this room for fun and adventures.

Here's a photo of the outside of the building. LGG's kindergarten is downstairs.


Here's LGG climbing the big structure. These types of structures were starting to be installed in Colorado when we left in 2007.


Here she is at the bottom of the slide at the bottom of the garden.


And here she is in a fun place to play amongst the trees.


And after several tries, here's a picture of her jumping mid-air on the trampolines. Sometimes after kindergarten she'll tell me she's so tired because she jumped over 100 times.


We will definitely miss the lovely Bergacker kindergarten garden.

Paris Interlude

In 2007, when we decided to come to Zürich, I declared that we would go to Paris in April 2009 to celebrate my 40th birthday. However, last fall I decided that maybe we should go somewhere new, but then preparations for moving kind of took over our lives. So, after considering many places, we have decided to go to Paris. Pretty funny, huh? Little Geek Girl really wanted to go to Italy (can you say gelato?) and it would have been warmer there and easier to feed her, but it's my birthday and I say we go to Paris. Great food, great sights, did I mention great pastries? And we're getting an apartment so we should have more room if we need to spread out, relax at home, or cook noodles for LGG. And we're using Zürich Daddy Geek's frequent flyer miles to fly Auntie Geek over so she can give us backrubs and babysit. I think that's a fair trade for a trip to Paris, don't you?

Some of our favorite things to eat in Zürich

On Wednesday, we happened to have lunch and dinner at a couple of our favorite haunts. Little Geek Girl doesn't like cigarette smoke (and who can blame her) so that limits the number of places we go out to eat.

For lunch, she was insistent on going to Nimmi's, an Indian and Sri Lankan place, for rice and mango juice. Nimmi's is located at Josefstrasse 137, 8005 Zürich. I think I found this place mentioned on English Forum, and then when I read this review, I knew we had to try it.

Kottu Rotti with lamb:


and Iddiyappam veggie plate:


Note: The kottu rotti, veggie plate, a plate of plain rice, three drinks, a lollipop and tip came the grand total of CHF 40.

The other place that we go to that is very touristy, but the food is good and they have a non-smoking section is the Zeughauskeller. I had still not yet had my very own wienerschnitzel, so I decided to order the small wienerschnitzel plate with veggies. Check out how "small" it is:


Underneath the schnitzel is some fennel and you can see green beans, carrots, spinach, potatoes au gratin and under the lemon are some peppers. Yum.

Empty Apartment

Movers have come and gone.  For the air shipment we've used up 150 kg out of 200 kg allowed, but we don't know how much volume that takes up.  Hopefully there will be room for a table and/or chairs, or more toys and books for Little Geek Girl.

The dryer is officially dead.  I thought the hauswart fixed it, or it was just a minor malfunction.  But he called the appliance people and the technician came this morning and decided to declare it dead because it was running too hot.  The apartment management will have to decide whether to repair the 16 year old dryer or replace it.  I can wash, and if there's room on the drying lines, hang dry clothes, but we'll probably have to borrow a washer/dryer over the weekend.

The apartment is empty except for the laundry detergent, which I will pick up on Friday when the cleaners come.  Now it's time to print out those cancellation letters, go visit the Notary and check things off the list.  

Good news in the free newspaper this morning.  Cafe Schöber, after being renovated for a year, has just reopened.  So we can try their world famous hot chocolate before we leave.

Another Snowy Moving Day

When we moved from Colorado in December, 2007 it was a snowy day.  Once again, we move on another snowy day.  It's not really accumulating, but there are flakes coming down.

Yesterday we started the process of de-registering.  Go to one office and fill out a form.  Go to another office, oh, it's too close to closing, come back tomorrow.  We need this magical piece of paper saying we're officially leaving the country so we can cancel most of our services.  The electric company was easy, we were able to call and give an address for the final bill.  But Cablecom and the insurance companies want a registered letter.

Movers are packing away.

Little Geek Girl likes her hotel room (it's decorated especially for a kid and has several large stuffed animals from IKEA, plus her own stuffed donkey to take with her) but she's not too crazy with the change in routine.  I woke up early to meet the movers (and unfortunately I thought they were arriving at 7 am and missed the hotel breakfast when it turns out my notes said they would arrive between 7:30 am and 8 am and they arrived at 8 am).  ZDG had to deal with LGG wanting to eat breakfast before changing clothes.  Eventually he got her changed, fed, and to kindergarten.

Whew...

I think the hauswart came and brought the dryer back to life.  Onward.

If it's not one thing, it's another

1. Our residence permits finally arrived today.  And we're probably going to go de-register today.  Pretty good timing, huh?

2. Little Geek Girl is pretty sad about the moving.  She's having trouble sleeping.   We all are.

3. The tumble dryer is no longer tumbling.  I've called the hauswart, thrown the laundry in the neighbor's dryer and am hoping she doesn't mind too much.  When we moved from the U.S., it was the washing machine that broke a month before we were supposed to leave.

4. Most things are sorted.  LGG should be home for lunch soon and she can pick her toys for the hotel and the air shipment.  

Another tooth gone

That second loose tooth finally came out. Actually Zürich Daddy Geek pulled it out Friday night. Here's a shot with her showing off the missing spot. You can also see the gap in the upper teeth because her middle incisors are getting loose.

Can I control the weather?

One of the things I like about our Swiss apartment is the underfloor heating. It makes the tile floors in the bathroom, hallway, and kitchen all the more comfortable. Earlier in the week it was getting warmer, so I decided to turn off the heat. Well, the day after I did that it started getting cooler, and then yesterday morning we had snow flurries. Last night, Zürich Daddy Geek decided it was too cold and turned the heat back on. This morning we have blue sky and it looks like it will be a glorious day. I wonder what will happen if I turn it off again?

Too bad we'll probably be inside organizing. At least we don't have to clean since we're paying a king's ransom for a company to do it and guarantee the management will accept the apartment. Technically we're supposed to clean the inside of the windows on the double paned glass and I think that's definitely something left for a professional. Plus there's the bird poop on the window sill outside of Little Geek Girl's room. Someone else can do that.

ZDG is back from his housing hunt and was successful. We'll tell you more about that later. This weekend we need to sort what we want to take with us on the plane, what we want shipped by air, and what we want shipped by boat, from the rubbish and stuff we want to give away. The moving company will dispose of rubbish at CHF 68/100 kg and since we don't have a car, that's a bargain. I have four trash bags left and I'm saving those for whatever remaining food trash we have. If it won't make a smell, it's going into the cellar. I'm recycling all the glass bottles from our condiments and making the last run to the grocery store today.

On Monday night we'll move into a hotel. The movers come on Tuesday to pack us up and load up the truck on Wednesday. This time the movers arranged to reserve a parking space for the moving van, so I don't have to do it like I was supposed to last year. Then we will go de-register at the immigration office and write letters to cancel everything and in the meantime we need to sign our new lease, get it notarized, send it back to the U.S. and work on getting renters/liability insurance and starting our U.S. utilities.

The cleaners come on Friday and then on the Monday the 30th we hand over the apartment. LGG will continue going to school until Monday the 30th and they'll have a little party for her.

Dentistry in Kindergarten

Yesterday Little Geek Girl's kindergarten class went to see the school dentist in the next neighborhood.  She was sent home with a letter with the following choices:

--  We think your kid has cavities

--  We need to talk about your kid's teeth (braces)

--  Your kid's teeth need to be cleaned better

--  Your kid should come again next year with the class.

The fourth box was checked off so we're off the hook.  They even do fluoride treatments in class, but we never filled out the paperwork so LGG hasn't received any.  And I'm not sure she would go along willingly to have something icky tasting in her mouth.  

Since we're talking about teeth, her 2nd loose tooth still hasn't come out.  In the meantime, three other teeth have started getting loose.  We've been calling her a shark because you can see the adult tooth right behind the loose but not coming out tooth.  

So important it's in ten languages

I think Spring might really be here.  On Monday Little Geek Girl was sent home with the snowflakes she had made and now they're getting ready to redecorate the kindergarten.  No pictures of the blue sky, snow drops, and crocuses because Zürich Daddy Geek has the camera to photograph candidate apartments/houses, but it sure is nice to hear the birds and see the world come back to life.

In today's mail we received something to the parents of kids and youth up to age 16 that live in the city of Zürich.  It's such an important message that it was printed in ten languages:  German, Italian, Albanian, French, Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish, Serbian, Croatian, and at the bottom, English.  The gist of the message is that there is a new law in Switzerland that bans imitation guns such as soft air guns and paintball guns.

Hmmmm... what about those adults with a very active inner child?  How will they find out?

Time is passing quickly

Not a lot is happening here, besides getting ready to move back to the U.S.  Ack!  

We've scheduled the movers, the cleaners and the handover date.  All of the stuff that we wanted to sell has been picked up except for the TV, iron, and vacuum cleaner, which will hopefully be picked up next weekend.  Zürich Daddy Geek is on a plane so he can go apartment hunting this week.  I'm making an inventory of our belongings and finding new homes for our unused food and cleaning supplies.  

We've started saying our farewells.  Wednesday night we had dinner with one of ZDG's colleagues.  Friday morning I went down to see the lovely Global Librarian and the adorable Global Baby.  Friday night we had dinner with our Swiss friends to help them break in their new table (luckily none of the Geeks were the first to spill on the new tablecloth).  Last night we had another family come over for a super Raclette feast.  We're all pretty tired and sad about leaving when we think about it. 

 The last major thing we need to do (besides find a new place to live) is to decide where to go on our vacation.  Last night our dinner guests almost convinced me that going to Capetown in South Africa might be possible, but I'm still not sure the long flights (however, without jet lag) will be worth it for only a week.  Who knows where we'll end up?  I hope we decide soon!

Opera Houses and Penguin Walks

Zürich Daddy Geek has just returned from traveling to Australia. Here's a picture of him in Sydney to prove he did go down under:


As part of his jet lag cure and to give me a break, he took Little Geek Girl to the Zürich Zoo the day he returned (his flight arrived from Singapore at 7:20 am). Apparently most of Zürich was there this past Sunday. This reminded me that I had not yet shared pictures of our snowy visit to the Zürich Zoo while Nai-Nai was here.

If the temperature is less than 10 °C, the penguins are taken for a stroll through the zoo. You can get pretty close to them:



Afterwards, we went to the rainforest exhibit to warm up. You can see bats, lemurs, chameleons, and other critters. Your glasses and camera lenses also fog up, creating a cool filter effect for free:

Happy Square Root Day!

Today, 3/3/09, is Square Root Day.  

The weird thing about it is that earlier today, Little Geek Girl was asking me what was the square root of a googol (it's 10^50).    And now, for my learn a new thing everyday.  I always thought the number 10^100 was spelled google.  Oops.

Anyways, I think LGG is appropriately named.

A Day Trip to Lausanne

Okay, this is called speed blogging. I think this is most number of photos I've ever included in a post and I'll try to describe them all before Little Geek Girl comes home from afternoon class.

When we visited Swiss Miniatur in Lugano, we saw this model of the Lausanne Cathedral, and we knew we had to visit Lausanne to see it in person.


We would have also like to visit the Chauteau de Chillon in Montreaux, but with our upcoming move, I didn't think we could leave for more than a day trip. We took the advice of Jessica over at Swisstory and got a Tageskarte, which was less than the round trip train fare and also included local transport in Lausanne.

The train ride was a little over two hours and our first order of business was to find lunch. However, the first place on my recommendation list smelled like an ashtray, so Zürich Daddy Geek pulled out his handy iPhone and found us Les Brasseurs, which is a chain in the French part of Switzerland, but also has a non-smoking room. Little Geek Girl had her favorite chicken nuggets, Nai-Nai had a yummy steak frites, I had steak tartare, and ZDG had steak of another four hoofed animal.

Afterwards we started walking on the path recommended by the tourist information office, when we were side-tracked by a little park. After being very patient on the train ride and the restaurant lunch, we agreed that LGG deserved a little time to run around. ZDG and LGG played while Nai-Nai and I basked in the sun and admired the French Alps on the other side of Lake Geneva.



After our little break we were ready to search for the cathedral. It wasn't very hard to find, and very impressive in person.

Here are a collection of ZDG and Nai-Nai's photos.








Afterwards we walked down the hill from the cathedral. Here are ZDG and LGG running down besides the stairs.


At the bottom of the stairs, we ended up at the Place de la Palud. While I was inside a shop, the others were entertained at 4 pm with music and moving figures.


If it's 4 o'clock and we're out, that's a perfect reason to stop for some restorative cake and coffee. We found a nice cafe to stop and rest. Next it was time to go see the lake. We took the metro down to Ouchy and right after we exited we saw this amazing play structure.


While ZDG and LGG played, they met an American boy and played with him. ZDG also used the opportunity to ask the boy's dad for a dinner recommendation. And it was a good one.

Nai-Nai and I admired the view of the French Alps.


For dinner we took the metro back to the cathedral area and had an excellent dinner at the Bleu Lezard. We had an excellent meal in the non-smoking room. We didn't want to get home too late, so we weren't able to linger and enjoy multiple courses, but everything we ordered was wonderful.

And it meant that ZDG could get an opportunity to take one last photo of the cathedral at night.

An excellent day. French food. French Alps.

On the train home, the theme of the kids car was space. And there was an American family with four kids for LGG to play with. So she played all the way from Lausanne to Bern.

Pictures from Bern

On our way home from Zermatt, we stopped in Bern for the afternoon and dinner. Here our some pictures from our visit.

Little Geek Girl watching the chess players (we always have to stop and watch).


Nai-Nai and LGG in front of the Houses of Parliment.


The Geeks in front of the Zytglogge (clock tower which was once part of the city's western gate).


Nai-Nai in front of the main portal of the Bern Münster.


And ZDG and LGG, who climbed to the top of the Münster while Nai-Nai and I sat inside listening to the organ play. (Today LGG asked me to name the fifty states of the U.S. and when I named Oregon, she said excitedly, "There's an instrument with the same name!").


We then wandered down to the bear pits, but somehow the bears did not get photographed. Since we were at the Altes Tramdepot we decided to stop for dinner. It was a little early, but we wouldn't have been able to get a table later since almost all of them were reserved. Nai-Nai and LGG had spaetzle and ZDG and I had rösti. We caught the 7:32 pm train to Zürich and were back at our apartment before 9 pm.

Signs of Spring

We've traded cold and gray snowy days for gray and cold rainy days.  However, there are a few signs that Spring is approaching.  The snowdrops are starting to bloom.  And today we had our first worm sighting.  Actually many skinny worms.  

Confetti everywhere

Yesterday Little Geek Girl and I went to visit the Rheinfalls with a friend and her daughter.  How could we live an hour away and not go visit the largest waterfalls in Europe?  Zürich Daddy Geek's in Australia with the camera, so no pictures for this post.

We met our friends at the Zürich Hauptbahnhof and took the direct train to Schaffhausen.  Unfortunately (for all of us) LGG's second loose tooth is painful, so most of the trip we had to listen to her whine about how much it hurt.  When we arrived at the Schaffhausen train station we looked for ticket machines for the bus, but when the bus arrived, we saw we could purchase tickets from the driver.  We took the bus to Neuhausen Zentrum.  As we got off the bus, we noticed that there was a sign on the stop saying that the buses would be out of service between 1:30 pm and 4 pm due to a Fasnacht parade.  We followed the yellow footprints down to the waterfalls.  Somehow we missed the stairs that went down right by the falls and took a farther out route as we went in search of a nice place to sit and eat and admire the falls.  The restaurant at Schöss Wörth was completely booked, so we ate at the snack bar.  

One of things I do to get ready for day trips is to take a look at map.search.ch for playgrounds.  I had noted that there weren't any playgrounds indicated near the falls, but it turns out there was a playground conveniently located so that girls could play while moms could sit and admire the view.  I have to admit, the falls were not as big as I thought that they would be, but they were pretty.

Afterward we walked back up to the city center and we were thinking of stopping for cake and coffee, when the Fasnacht parade came by.  The girls liked collecting candy, but unfortunately, the other little girl had long curly hair, and it was too much of an irresistible target for confetti bearing marchers.  We spent the rest of the parade protecting her hair from the confetti.  The Geeks didn't make it to either of the big Luzern or Basel celebrations, but I think a small 30 band parade was probably the way to go for the kids.  Oh, and we did stop for coffee and cake after the parade.

Anyways, I've made the first pass of vacuuming the confetti remnants, but I'm sure it will continue to appear for days.

She did it!

Okay, so I looked up the distances according to Google Maps.  From Little Geek Girl's Kindergarten it's a 1/4 mile walk on a not very busy street, then she needs to go down a hill next to a busy street for 328 ft, and then cross a busy street and continue on 180 ft to our building.

It really isn't very far, but it's still a little worrisome to have your child walk by themselves the first time.  But apparently she's more ready than I am.

Morning class ends and I'm in the kitchen looking out the window.  By 15 minutes after class gets out I get a little impatient, so I head downstairs.  By the time I get outside I can see she's heading down the hill.  I cross the street and meet her at her side of the crosswalk.

This afternoon she was not as slow.  About 10 minutes after the end of class I saw her at the top of the hill.  By the time I got to my side of the crosswalk, she was on her side of the crosswalk.

Happy 6th Birthday Little Geek Girl!

We're a little behind in blogging our adventures with Nai-Nai, but that's because someone turned six years old today. Zürich Daddy Geek dropped Little Geek Girl off at kindergarten this morning and called me to say her school party would be at 10 am.

Nai-Nai and I went up the hill to watch the proceedings. When we arrived, LGG had already been given her crown and her necklace made of cookies. She got to pick which kids closed the blinds of the room. The she sat at the head of the table and assigned the kids to their seats at the birthday table. The kids sang happy birthday and another song. Then the teacher and all of the students took turns holding LGG's hands and wishing her something for her birthday. I have to admit I was getting a little teary at this point. Here's Nai-Nai giving LGG her birthday wishes:


For the "unlikely to ever happen in the U.S." portion of this post, here's the birthday sparkler that every kid gets on their birthday:


Then the kids feasted on bread and chocolate that we had brought for the birthday celebration. I went home to bake and Nai-Nai spent the rest of the morning playing in the kindergarten with LGG.

ZDG decided to leave work early so he could pick up LGG from afternoon class. However, she chided him because now that's she's six, she plans to walk all the way down the hill to the crosswalk near our flat. We'll see how that works out starting tomorrow.

We started off with some cake. LGG had requested "cow cake", aka marble pound cake. Here she is blowing out the candles. I had put the plastic wrap to protect the cake from splatter, but it was actually more important for protection from ZDG getting candle wax everywhere.



Among other things, LGG received books (Pet Jokes, Narnia, Magic School Bus),


Clothes,


Kung Fu Panda (here she is in her Tigress pose),



and a Webkins Tiger.


Wednesday afternoon she'll be having another party with friends. It's hard to believe that she's already six years old!

We're off the hook...

On Wednesday we received the letter stating that someone would take over our lease.  Hooray!

Hopefully more detailed posts will follow, but if you're wondering, we went to the Zürich Zoo on Monday, Tuesday was a snowy day so we stayed home, on Wednesday Nai Nai and LGG went to the stuffed animal museum and lunch with ZDG, on Thursday Nai Nai went on an adventure on her own shopping in downtown Zürich and LGG and I went to a friend's house for lunch and play, and today we're going for a walk in the woods.  Tomorrow we have a day trip planned to Lausanne.

From Z to Sunny Z

It was snowy and grey in Zürich last week, and Nai-Nai is a fan of the mountains, so The Geeks took a trip to the Alps last weekend. The Swiss railways were having a sale on two deals for Zermatt, so we decided to get a hotel there for a couple of nights, enjoy being really touristy, and hopefully have good weather.

We had a choice of two train options: the fast (about 3.25 hours), slightly less scenic, but less expensive route or the Glacier Express, which is slower (about 8 hours), more scenic, and slightly more expensive. In the event, they were sold out of the Glacier Express tickets, so I got tickets for the fast train, which turned out to be a good thing, as 3.25 hours was just about LGG's limit that day.

It was snowing heavily as we boarded the bus to the Hauptbahnhof for our train to Visp, but the sun broke out as we left the station. Along the way, we ate lunch and LGG and I worked on a Sudoku puzzle together


and a bit later LGG enjoyed playing in the kid's car at the end of the train


It's a bit crazy to have a slide and small climbing structure inside a train car, but it's a really nice idea for families. The car is completely separate from the rest of the train, so kids can be as noisy as they like while they burn off energy. It was great for LGG to have the break.

We arrived in Zermatt and headed to our hotel to unpack and settle a bit. While the adults debated what to do, LGG did what she usually does:


She was utterly oblivious to us taking the picture -- normally she complains when we try to take pictures of her. She is reading The Little Prince.

The kind desk clerk at our hotel helped us make dinner reservations, and recommended a good cafe for Zvieri. We penguin-walked our way down to the cafe (the only way to walk when the ground is very icy and snowy) and after a nice snack waddled our way through the early evening streets

Nai-Nai noted that Zermatt reminded her of Mammoth Lakes in eastern California, or more correctly that Mammoth Lakes was clearly modeled on Zermatt.

Next, we headed off for a classic Swiss dinner of fondue:


Yum! (And thanks to Zürich Mama Geek, who didn't really want fondue but was kind enough to have it so I could have it -- Nai-Nai and cheese don't mix well.) Finally, it was time to head back to the hotel and bed.

Side note: LGG and I shared one room while ZMG and Nai-Nai shared the other. It might seem unfair that they had to share the bed, but (a) their room was bigger and (b) they weren't sharing with LGG. The first night, LGG woke me up by growling in her sleep and saying 'Hungry Tiger!' (which she vehemently denies, but I swear really happened). The second night, I woke up to find that she had taken both blankets -- one to be another pillow and the other for a blanket. Sure, ZMG snores, but at least she isn't a hungry, blanket-stealing tiger!

The next morning, we woke up to gloriously clear and very cold weather: it was about 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 to -10 Celsius) in Zermatt and sunny. Our special deal tickets included a round-trip on the Gornergratbahn, so even though it was -10 Fahrenheit (-23 Celsius) with a 10-20 km/hr wind at the top, off we went. As we turned the corner near our hotel, what did we see for the first time?


"It looks like a giant thumb sticking up into the air, Dada!" The Matterhorn is pretty amazing, and it was just one of many mountains we could see from the Gornergrat (3100 meters up).


After taking a bunch of pictures at the summit, freezing, and then having a nice lunch, we headed down to rent the sleds that were also part of the special ticket.


LGG and I took three rides together, ZMG had two, and then I took two solo rides at the end of the day while the rest of the gang rested in the warm cafe. Here's LGG doing her best imitation of a certain landmark:


We headed down and Nai-Nai snapped this sunset shot before we headed off to the hotel to warm up.


The next day, we headed back to Zurich via Bern to show Nai-Nai the Swiss capital; we'll post on that soon.