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.