The Good and the Bad

Unexpectedly, Abbie has had the hardest transition to Switzerland. Every other day she cries hysterically and says she misses home. She wants her teacher back. She doesn't understand why her Dad's job made him move. She misses her friends. She wants to stay when we go home for Christmas. The list goes on and on. Now, those of you who know Abbie probably realize that she can be just a bit emotional. Just because she cries about living here doesn't mean that she isn't enjoying being here. She likes her new teacher. She loves being able to dance at school. She has fun on the school bus every day. She has lots of friends. In fact, one is coming for a sleepover tomorrow night. We speculate that part of the reason Abbie is having a hard adjustment is that she wasn't given the opportunity to prepare mentally for the move. Unlike some families we've heard about over here who simply told their children they were taking a very long vacation to Switzerland (and kept that up for 2 years!), we told Abbie (and the boys) about the move. She could quote that we were moving to Switzerland and we would be here for 3 years. But, she didn't really get. Deep down, she thought we were going on vacation – we had just "seen the light" and decided to pack a bit more this time – allowing her to bring all of her toys and clothes for instance.

When Abbie gets upset, I make her play "The Good and the Bad" with me. She tells me her current complaints. Then she has to give me a list that is just as long, preferably longer, of the things she likes about living here. As an aside, the boys just roll their eyes when Abbie starts crying. I figure they either think she's crazy because they like living here, or they realize that no amount of complaining is going to make me immediately repack the house and head back to the States. Or, there's always the third option – they are so used to her whining about something that they don't pay attention to the current issue!

Today *I* had a lot of complaints about my house.

First, the kitchen sink is driving me crazy. It's the size of a large lobster pot. There isn't a lot of counter space either, so there is basically nowhere to put dirty dishes. Even though I have the counters pretty clean (by Marci Standards), they get completely covered by dishes several times a day. There is no disposal. It wouldn't be bad, but the "strainer" at the bottom of the sink (the thing that it supposed to catch the food) has big holes and allows just enough food to pass to clog up the next part of the drain. The drain isn't clogged to the point where you would need Draino, a plunger, or a plumber, but it does require digging out food with your fingers to allow the water to drain. It happens a few times a day. I'm tired of digging through gross water to unstop the sink. I'm now on the search for a better food catcher system. Of course, I need to find a hardware store first. The grocery store wouldn't possibly be big enough to carry something like that. In other kitchen complaints, the electric stovetop has two temperatures – hot and almost off. Sure, there are 10 digits on the dials, but there doesn't seem to be any differentiation between them other than having it hot enough to do a quick stir fry, or cold enough to wonder if the burner is even on. Oh, and all of our kitchen appliances came with great instruction manuals – in German, French, or Italian. I know, I know. English isn't a national language here, but I'm having a hard time even finding English versions on the internet. Now, I wouldn't normally need manuals for basic appliances like an oven, but the oven has – I kid you not – 8 different settings. And, no, they are not temperature settings – that's another dial. Best as I can figure, I can have the top heating element on, or the bottom, or both, or a convection feature, or a pizza feature… you get the picture. The only setting I can figure out is the convection oven, because in addition to the 8 setting knob and the temperature knob there's a random third knob that looks like gas oven settings. Now I need to learn to adjust all my cooking to Celsius and convection.

Then, there are the issues with the phone and internet. Our relocation consultant hired an electrician for us when we moved into the house. His job was to set up the phone, internet, and cable for us. I didn't really get why an electrician was needed. When he came, I just pointed him to the closest outlets and told him to set up the DSL there. I wrongly assumed that we would then be able to plug into any of the other phone plugs and get internet and phone service. John was not happy that internet was so far away from the TV. And, I forgot about needing internet in the attic. You see, we are using a Slingbox to get U.S. TV in Switzerland, so we do need internet access to watch TV. And the kids' TV (all 4 of them!) is in the attic playroom. So, I had the electrician come back today after we spoke to the relocation person about our needs and visited the Swisscom (think Comcast) office to get a second DSL router. The electrician arrived, and I explained that my big issue was that I needed internet and phone in the attic and I showed him the existing plugs that we couldn't get to work. He told me to use wireless. I should have known better, but I told him that I needed a wired internet connection for the TV. We didn't want the wireless to impact download speed. He explained that the TV worked from cable and it was working. Then, he gave me that big "Duh" look that all you females will recognize from whenever we dare try to discuss technical or automobile issues. All this occurred with his very limited English knowledge. For the record, the Swiss have never heard of a Slingbox, nor do they understand the concept. Anyway, we called the relocation person (my German translator) and she seemed to get him to understand. He told us we could only have one internet connection in the house and the rest needed to be wireless, unless we wanted to re-wire the house, but he thought he might be able to rig something through the electrical plugs. I'm still unsure why we have all these outlets throughout the house, but I got the strong message that I was being a demanding American. Go figure. So we moved on to the phones. Again, lots of nice outlets all over the house. Again, he suggested that I just use wireless headsets. Again, I was the demanding American who said that I wanted two wired phones – one that was a dual landline/Skype phone to be in the attic near the computer we would always leave on and the second landline/answering machine that would remain where he last installed it. Actually, I wanted the answering machine moved to the kitchen, but I was told that phones in the kitchen are not Swiss. He tried to get the outlet to work for an hour or so, but gave up and said that he'd need to come back next week. I'm still unsure why we have phone outlets all over the house and the owner left us several phones – which would lead me to believe that she had multiple phones installed at her house – but I gave up for today.

So, I figure I need to play "The Good and the Bad."

Here are some things I love about my house:

• I love all the windows. We have great views of our yard and the forest across the street. It's gorgeous. And quiet.
  
• Having four floors is great. And a playroom. Wow! The toys are in one central location and I can have a "quiet" living room to surf the web or read.
  
• We have an entrance to the kitchen which is great to reduce water and mud tracks throughout the house. The kids enter and remove their shoes.
  
• There is a passageway behind our house with a great shed for the bikes to reduce the walking/biking distance to town. There are even pedestrian/bike paths most of the walk (like greenbelts at home).
  
• The forest has walking trails. We can access them from right across the street.
  
• The laundry room is right off the kitchen. It's really convenient. Toss dinner in and switch a load of laundry, all within a few steps.
  
• The dryer vents outside and seems to run at normal temperatures – something we were told didn't exist in Switzerland. I thought I'd have to be drying all my laundry on drying racks.
  
• For the size of the kitchen, the cabinets are really well organized. I have a great cabinet just for spices. That space at home was lost with a vent. Here, the vent is still there but they put a tiny cabinet in front of it that is the depth of a spice bottle.
  
• The showerheads are all tall. John doesn't have to duck. He loves it.
  
• We have a covered section of the patio and another section that is covered with grape leaves. Gorgeous, and a great sitting/eating area.
  
• I get random gifts from garden – like the current mini baseball bat sized zucchini. Guess I should have gone looking for buried treasure earlier!
  
• We have a nuclear bomb shelter. The foot deep, concrete walls make the room perfect for wine storage.
  
• There is tons of storage in the attic, bomb shelter, piano/furnace room, and 2 car garage. I have no right to complain about the lack of closets in the master bedroom. Oops. This was supposed to be "Good" section!
  
• There's a school bus that comes to my driveway. They even have a late bus for after school sports! Oops. This was supposed to my house list… but I have to mention that school bus at every opportunity!
  
• We have flower beds between the floors on the house. I can make the house look Swiss with great geraniums or other flowers growing there. Mom, when are you visiting in the Spring???
  
• There are hardwood floors throughout the house.
  

I really do love the house and living in Switzerland, but I can see that as with any new living situation, there are going to be some differences and some frustrations.