First Days in Suiza

After two years in Cairo and four years in (un-blogged) Caracas, we find ourselves in Zurich, Switzerland.  We keep saying, "It's the dream!" and I hope it is.  We really believe God has ordered our steps, and that we are where we are supposed to be.  The story of how we got here is a story for another day (will I ever get around to writing it?).  For today, a quick catalog of our first two days here will have to do.

Yesterday we arrived at about 8 AM and were picked up at the airport by my principal and another teacher at my school and driven to our hotel in our new village, Baden.  The weather was surprisingly hot and humid.  After we arrived at the hotel, we basically dropped our stuff and decided to take a nap.  I went to get out my ipod to listen to as I fell asleep only to realize I had lost it.  :(  Before going to sleep, I filled out a lost and found report online with Zurich airport just in case. Our hotel room was hot and stuffy, but we opened the one small window that opens and managed to sleep a while.  We slept until about 3:00.  When I woke up, I already had an email from the airport saying my ipod had been found!  Happily, we went outside to walk around Baden.

We made our way to the city center, ate lunch at Subway ($30!) saw my new school building from the outside (looks cool, big picture windows, supposedly my room has a view of the castle on the hill!), and then walked up the hill to check out our new apartment.

We went up the walking/biking route to our neighborhood, which was quite steep and gave us all a good little cardio workout.  Our neighborhood is quiet and quaint, with many older houses and forest on either side of the narrow pie-shaped neighborhood.  We easily found our apartment building.  It backs right up to the forest behind it.

Our apartment is the ground floor apartment, which turns out to be built sort-of into a hillside, so the views out the window are not great.  However, each room has light coming in through big windows, and our living room has a big picture window with a door out to the patio.

Yesterday we were really just spying...we didn't have keys yet and our appointment to get keys to the apartment was not until today.  So we settled for peeking in windows.  The door to the building was also propped open, so we were able to explore the area where we have a storage space (almost the size of the storage unit we've been using at home for the last 6 years), the laundry room, and the parking garage.  The apartment looked great through the windows, though we are (more like I am)  a little worried we won't be able to fit our bedroom furniture in our bedroom.  Outside, the construction on the patios and yard is not finished, so it looks rough.  The inside looked ready to go.

After peeking in our apartment, we walked up the path into the forest behind our house.  It's heavenly.  So, so quiet and peaceful.  There is a nice hill which will be good for me to walk up every day.  Luke spent the walk scouting out sites to build a fort (though I am pretty sure there are rules about not straying off the path) and leaving special sticks stuck in the ground to mark possible sites.

We left our neighborhood as thunder rolled in the distance and walked quickly down the hill (by the castle!  There's a CASTLE on my way to school!) and through town so we might beat the rain back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we got dinner from room service and got to bed by 11 or so.  It rained all night and cooled the weather off significantly.

This morning, we got up early and ate breakfast before walking to the train station.  We had planned to go in to the airport to get my ipod.  We got umbrellas from the hotel and walked in the rain to the station.  When we went to buy tickets, we realized it would cost us about $100 for the 3 of us to go rescue my ipod!  We decided to wait and pick it up when my mom comes later this week.  (My mom is coming later this week!!!!)

We walked back to the hotel and crashed for an hour before the teacher who met us at the airport picked us up to go take care of getting phones.  Back to the train station we went! Our new friend brought her son along, so Luke had some company while we got SIM cards and phone numbers.  While in the train station we went to the grocery store (which is more like a really expensive Super Kroger) and bought a few things (toothpaste, plug adapters, flat iron and hairdryer --that detail was for you, Tiffany).  We came back to the hotel, where we had lunch before being picked up again to go to our apartment to get keys.

 At our apartment, we met some other school people and the apartment official people. They showed us every room of the apartment and told us about all the special rules and cleaning/airing out the apartment guidelines. This took about an hour and a half. We are definitely going to have extra furniture and other stuff, but we really did get a great apartment. Brand new, simple but very nice. 

The kitchen is small but the storage space is nice, ceramic cook top, self-closing drawers. :) It's fun having everything be brand-new, too. Other fun stuff about the apartment--there are blinds OUTSIDE every window. Some open and close with a hand crank, but the ones over the picture window are motorized. We have a closet/storage room off the kitchen -- very unusual here. Our parking space is close to the stairway up to our house...nice, it could've been pretty far away. There is a drying room downstairs to hang clothes in, and it has a dehumidifying unit on the wall. You hang the clothes, turn on the wall unit, and leave. The unit senses when the moisture is out of the room and it turns itself off.

 After we saw the apartment, signed the papers and got the keys, we left with the lady from ZIS who is helping us get everything sorted. We went first to the town hall to register. While we did that, our ZIS lady called our shipping company to find out the deal on our shipment. (More soon on that.) Today we got 100 tons of information and our ZIS contact answered all our questions. There is so much to learn and so much to do. We sat in an open-air coffee shop for literally 3 hours and went through it all. Our new ZIS friend is a force to be reckoned with--efficient, businesslike, super knowledgable, strong and unique personality. (Think Mariolga and Carmen rolled into one, ECA friends.) Luke played with an umbrella in the street (no cars, don't worry, Mom) almost the whole time by himself. (We are so lucky with this kid...)

 We arrived back to the hotel at about 6:45, and here we are, me blogging, Jason on Facebook, Luke chilling with his iPad.

 The shipment update--it arrived in Rotterdam almost a week ago, where it sits in a backlog of containers they are waiting to get through and ship out. Our shipping person here in Zurich estimates we will have it no earlier than the 9th of August--a week into orientation, and 10 days before school starts. So when Mom gets here, we will have no beds, no chairs, no couches, no tables...nada. It will be an interesting camping experience.  Those of you who know me well know that this is stressing me out some, but I am trying to relax about it.

 The weather is supposed to heat up tomorrow and be in the high 90s the next week.

 We love our new town and are looking forward to our new life here. Baden is lovely and everyone we've dealt with so far has been very kind. Must. Learn. German... Stat. As Luke said, "It's an emergency."