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.