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.

Like Mother, Like Daughter, Take 2

Just a quick post following up on the theme of ZMG's post on reading...

It's now 10 PM and time for LGG to turn out the lights and go to sleep.  I just went in to do that, and she earnestly said, "Dada, I just want to read to here - it's only two more pages".  Which is very similar to ZMG's usual response when I point out that it's 11 PM and she has been reading for "just a few more minutes" for the past two hours: "I just want to read to the end of the chapter."  

You'll note she never specifies which chapter.

Luzern Swiss Transport Museum

The forecast for yesterday was for rain and wind, so we decided to go to the Swiss Transport Museum in Luzern. It was misting a little bit as we left our apartment for the Hauptbahnhof.

Here are Little Geek Girl and Nai-Nai in the fun seats in the back of the Cobra style trams. Nai-Nai is trying out her German looking at one of the free newspapers.


We arrived at the station and purchased Railaway tickets that combined the train ticket and entrance to the museum. Here are Nai-Nai and LGG and LGG's donut on the train for Luzern.


It's a pretty ride from Zürich, with stops in Thalwil, Baar, Zug, Rotkreuz and then Luzern. Nai-Nai enjoyed the view of the countryside and towns. As we were getting closer to Luzern I noticed that there was more blue sky and less rain, so we decided to take a walk through the town before going to the museum.

From the Luzern train station we walked towards and across the Chapel Bridge. A lot of the normal panels were covered with different panels, I believe in preparation for the Fasnacht (Swiss Mardi Gras) celebration which starts on February 19. On the other side of the river we had lovely views of Pilatus (Dragon Mountain). We then strolled through the town and up towards the Lion Monument. We then walked towards the lake and caught a bus to the Swiss Transport Museum.

After lunch we wandered throught the flight portion of the museum. LGG's favorite part was a suspended ring that multiple people could lie on and look down at video that simulated paragliding. She also enjoyed the space flight portion of the museum. There were lots of interactive exhibits.

My favorite part was Swiss Arena -- a composite aerial photo of Switzerland at 1:20,000 scale. Here's LGG pointing out our neighborhood.


Being able to "walk" on Switzerland was fun.

After Swiss Arena we continued on to the road transport and rail transport sections and then the museum closed. The museum also has a planetarium and an IMAX theater so it would be no problem to spend the whole day there.

We took the bus back to the main station and the train back to Zürich, where Zürich Daddy Geek met us and we went out to dinner. After we got home, ZDG and LGG headed off to gecko-sit for some friends who went skiing during the ski holiday. LGG loved it when the geckos chomped down on their crickets, but she also decided that she wouldn't go the next time if it was raining (wise choice, my dear).

Today we had a little bit of everything weather-wise. Rain, snow, and sunshine. One of the cleaning companies was going to come by this morning for a pre-clean survey and LGG had a occupational therapy appointment this afternoon, so we decided today was a good day to catch up on laundry and rest. Especially because tomorrow we're going to Zermatt!

Nai-Nai's walk in the woods

Day 2 of Nai-Nai's visit and we woke to partially cloudy skies.  We knew this was probably the best day of week locally and were trying to decide where to go on a day trip.  Basel for the zoo?  Luzern and the Swiss Transport Museum?  But when the bits of blue sky kept appearing, I decided to call Zürich Daddy Geek to see if the top of the Uetliberg was visible.  It was and when I mentioned that option to Little Geek Girl, she was insistent that we go up there.

After the trolley and tram ride to the Zürich Hauptbahnhof we went downstairs to look for the ZVV office on the lower level.  However, they're doing construction and the office had moved.  Even though there was a map, we couldn't find it (turns out it was on the intermediate level).  No worries, we wanted to pick up Nai-Nai's Half Fare Card, but that could wait until after our adventure in the woods.

We took the S10 up to the Uetliberg stop.  LGG wanted to show Nai-Nai the playground.  She also managed to fly off the slide and land on her rear, but fortunately we had put some rain pants on her to protect her clothes from the snow.  We then walked up to the top to show Nai-Nai the view.  It wasn't completely clear, but clear enough that we could see the Alps.  We decided to climb the observation tower.  When we started up the tower, we had noticed that they had started to cordon off the area, but no one stopped us from going up.  It was windy at the top and LGG had a little too much fun cleaning the snow off the bars of the guard rail.  On our way down we passed two policeman and a guy carrying a tool chest.  After we came down from the tower they closed access.  There were more policeman standing around looking up, and when we turned around, we saw the guy climbing up the tower.  Perhaps doing maintenance work?

We went back down the hill to the turn off to continue the Planet Walk.  (You pass the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth and then you have to decide whether to go up the hill to see the view or turn down to continue the planet walk.  From the hill there are a set of stairs that you can take down, but then you miss Mars and Ceres and those stairs are also steep and no fun covered in snow).  We continued on to Saturn, about a mile away.  We would have like to continue on all the way to Pluto, but LGG was moving slowly and complaining about her pants not staying up, so we decided it was wise to turn around.  

We took the train back down to the Hauptbahnhof and stopped at the Marche restaurant for lunch.  We went to the main ticket office to buy Nai-Nai's half fare card and then we walked along Bahnhofstrasse to the "fancy toy store" (Franz Carl Weber).  LGG took the dragon slide down to the lower level and met us there.  We explored two out of the four floors and then we stopped off next door at Confiserie Honold to pick up some treats for after dinner.  We took the tram/trolley back to our neighborhood, showed Nai-Nai the local grocery store, and then went home to rest and cook dinner.

Nai-Nai's observations on our adventure in the woods:  She thought it was beautiful, serene, and she really liked the whistle of the S10.  The whistle made her realize that she really was in Switzerland.

Back on the home front, ZDG called a couple cleaning companies to make appointments for getting quotes.  Cleaning an apartment for move-out to exacting Swiss standards is more than I want to deal with right now, so this is definitely something we plan to outsource.  Yesterday I received a call from England requesting an appointment for a viewing next week.  That suggests that the advert was still on the internet yesterday (the agency is in charge of the internet advert - which is nice because we don't have to pay for it).  However, the advert is not longer posted today, so that gives us hope.

Grandma's Day 1 Observations

Last night Zürich Daddy Geek's mom arrived.  Little Geek Girl calls her Nai-Nai, which is Chinese for "father's mother".  ZDG used his frequent flyer miles to buy Nai-Nai first class tickets from San Francisco to Munich and then Zürich.  Nai-Nai enjoyed being treated like royalty and arrived at the Zürich Airport while it was raining. 

We got her home and she stayed awake long enough to read LGG a couple of bedtime books. We had zopf and nutella for breakfast, in belated honor of World Nutella Day.  After freshening up, we took the bus up the hill to show Nai-Nai where ZDG's office used to be, and then headed to Zürich city proper.  We walked along the narrow path along the west side of the Limmat River.  Did I mention it was snowing?  LGG was getting cold and hungry so we went to Zeughauskeller for lunch, where we introduced Nai-Nai to the Zürich specialty of Zürcher Kalbsgeschnetzeltes mit Rösti.  We walked to Burkliplatz and tried to feed the ducks but there were a lot seagulls around.  We wanted to walk further along the Zürichsee, but it was getting cold, so we decided to head home (after stopping at Sprüngli for some Luxemburgerli).

So, when we got home, we asked Nai-Nai her first impressions of Zürich.

1. The part of Zürich that we live in reminds her of Portland, Oregon.

2. It's very clean.

3. She thought the sheds in the community gardens looked kind of like a shantytown.

Stay tuned for more observations from Nai-Nai.

All good things...

You may have noticed we've been a little quiet over here.  It's been cold and the normal things in life (work, school, laundry, groceries, dishes, rinse, and repeat) are keeping us busy.  

We also have some unexpected news: we're moving back to the U.S. in April.  

In 2007 when we were preparing to move here, we really thought we'd be here many years.  We sold the house, the cars, the electronics, 90% of the stuff we had (which we haven't missed - we clearly had too much stuff).  We came here and put Little Geek Girl in a Swiss kindergarten, got our Swiss driving licenses, took German lessons, learned to (partially) read the free newspapers.  We really came to love the tradition of Zvieri (coffee and snacks at 1600).

But then a really good opportunity came up back in the United States for Zürich Daddy Geek.  He didn't apply at first, but I pointed out that he would always regret it if he didn't, so he applied.  (Four of his close friends also told him the same thing...) To our surprise, he was offered the job, so we had to decide.  It made for an interesting Christmas and early New Year.

In the end, we decided to take it.  Professionally, it's a once-in-a-career chance for ZDG.  It's also a good choice for me, and LGG has now recovered from bursting into tears when we told her.  She represented what we all felt: we've been here just a year, so we're pretty sad about the decision to leave this beautiful country and different pace of life, but it's too good an opportunity to pass up.  (We know this is true: ZDG's boss told him he'd be crazy not to take it.)

Unfortunately we made the decision too late to give three month's notice for our apartment.  We're still leaving, but if we don't find someone to take over our apartment, we're responsible for the rent until the end of September.  GULP.  So, the apartment is spruced up, my German is getting better fielding calls from people who want to view the place, and all of our fingers and toes are crossed that we'll get a call saying someone has signed a contract.

And just for the record: Zvieri will be imported to the US!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Leave us alone. We're reading.


She likes to look at books before bedtime.