Klosters

Since our flight home for the holidays isn't until Monday, we decided to spend our last weekend in Switzerland exploring the Alps. We headed for the town of Klosters, which is near one of the biggest ski resort areas in Switzerland - Davos. In fact, the ski areas of Klosters and Davos are linked. Supposedly, Davos has better skiing, but Klosters has the better town.

We had a suite booked at the Silvretta Park hotel in Klusters. It was the only place that could take 5 of us on short notice. The reviews on Trip Advisor were mixed, but it did get high ratings from families, so we decided to give it go. We loved this hotel! We had a suite which consisted of one bedroom with a typical Swiss double bed (two twins shoved together) and a living room with a small kitchenette and fire place. The hotel had set up 3 rolling beds in the living room for the kids, but there was still plenty of room for the couch, chair, and table. There was a small bath with a tub and a shower. (Pictures of the room are included in the slide show at the end.) The room came with "half board." We weren't entirely sure what that meant, but reading the Trip Advisor reviews led me to believe we would get breakfast and dinner. We were right! The food was great, and the kids loved having all-you-can-eat options. It reminded them of dining on the Disney Cruise. Dinner the first night consisted of a buffet with a cheese bar, 2 soups (one a great mushroom, dijon mustard flavor!), salad bar, cold salads and cold cuts, fresh bread, and hot entrees such as spaghetti, moussaka, chicken piccata, vegetable lasagna, and many more. Breakfast the next day had a cheese and bread spread, croissants with homemade jams, bacon & sausage, made to order omelette, cereals, yogurts, etc. Again, very tasty with plenty of options for everyone.

After we checked into the hotel Friday night, we walked around town. As advertised, Klosters was really cute with some fun shops and restaurants. On the walk, it dawned on us that we had a problem. You see, we decided to bring the dog with us. Friends had assured us it was really easy to travel with the dog in Switzerland. They told us to just leave her in the hotel room when we went skiing or sledding. It seemed like a great idea at the time, until we realized that we were checking out Saturday morning and couldn't leave the dog behind. We decided to stop at the tourist information center to see if the dog could go sledding with us. Yes, this request would be met with disbelief in the States, but the friendly people at the tourist center didnd't find it an odd request at all. In fact, one of them said that she had taken her dog in the past, but it might be hard on a Saturday as the slopes are busier and some people don't like the dog running around. We figured with no other choice, we'd give it go.

So on Saturday morning, after checking out, we took the local bus (ticket included in the hotel cost) to the resort of Madrisa. We went to the ticket counter and explained that the 5 of us wanted to try sledging (the English word for sledding) and we had brought our dog. The agent said, "Well, the dog is free, but she will have to walk or run down." Hmm. We'd never considered the idea of renting Lucky her very own sled! And that was that. Oh, the price was great -- we paid for a "family" pass for 55 CHF. Here's Lucky checking out the view from the gondola.

At this point, John and I busted up laughing. We were imagining a poor ticket agent in Lake Tahoe after we explained that we'd brought our dog along for the day. I'm thinking they probably wouldn't have been so accomodating!

At the top of the mountain, we rented sleds for 12 CHF each. John and Abbie decided to share a sled.
The sled run was gorgeous. It was 8km long and took an hour to get down. On our first run, we saw 2 other people, both hikers, the entire way down. We asked the first hiker to take a photo.
The scenary of snow covered trees and mountains was absolutely gorgeous.
Lucky looked a bit tired towards the end, so I gave her a lift for a few minutes.
The run exited in the town of Saas. From there, we caught a bus back to Klosters and gondola ride back to the top.
Lucky didn't want to get into the gondola the second time, but we just picked her up and tossed her in. We had lunch at the top where we ran into a family from Australia (although the husband was Scottish) we had met in the morning at the hotel. We convinced them to try the long sled run, so we did see them at times on the second run. Otherwise, we didn't see anyone.
Poor Lucky went from being 2nd down on the first run to dead last on the second run, so we decided not to kill her and make her run another 8km. That was a good decision, because it took an hour for the bus to come! We wouldn't have had time for a 3rd run anyway. You return the sleds at a sport shop by the bottom of the gondola -- very convenient!
On the way out of town, we drove up to Davos. Davos has some great hotels, and I'm sure the skiing is wonderful, but we were glad we chose to stay in Klosters. John is already talking about heading back for his 40th birthday weekend. Of course, that's ski week and there aren't too many places available. We will definitely do more sledding! It's a lot of fun, and a great way to exercise the dog. She's very calm this morning.

Here's the slideshow of the rest of the photos.

Sledding

Last Sunday, C.J. decided that he wanted to go sledding. The problem was that we only had about a quarter inch of snow. He said, "No problem! Let's just get in the car and drive until we find some snow." So, off we ventured. We pointed the car in the direction of the white mountains and just drove. We found snow quickly, but we couldn't decide were to stop. We didn't want to insult any farmers by sledding on their fields. Eventually, we found a hiking trail with a parking lot and a few other people sledding in the general area.
I can tell you who had the most fun that day, and it wasn't any of the two footed family members! She was exhausted. It's hard work chasing everyone up and down the hill! Just imagine if you had to run in snow that came halfway between your knees and your armpits! We're glad she has her furry, winter coat.
It was freezing, but we all had a great time. Here's 80% of the family on a chain slide.

Smith Visit

Remember back when my brother and SIL visited in October? Well, I finally downloaded the rest of the pictures from their visit. Without further delay, here are a few photo highlights of their trip (excluding Jungfrau which I already posted).
We hiked from our house down to Lake Zurich. We love this hike. We took the path that runs along a stream/river. The hike takes about an hour, and it's my favorite type of hike -- a gradual downhill the entire way! We took a bit longer than an hour, because Craig, being the cool Uncle that he is, explored the dragon cave we found along the way with the kids. The picture doesn't do it justice -- there are about 100 steps leading up to the cave. Lest you think Ginny isn't a cool Aunt, she made it up there too. Her picture was out of focus. The boring parents stayed below with the dog.
The goal at the end of the hike was to take the boat to Rapperswil, a town at the other end of Lake Zurich. The boat rides are included in the cost of the train/bus tickets, and it's absolutely beautiful to be out on the water. I didn't think about the fact that the boats switch over to their winter schedule in October, so we couldn't get a boat ride to Rapperswil. We ended up taking a boat ride for about 15 minutes that took us just two towns further down the lake. From there, we took a train. Oh well, at least they got a sneak peek of the trip they could take in the summer season!
In Rapperswil, we walked along the old bridge. You can see a bit of the mountains in the background. These mountains are the approximate location where I later took my parents hiking. (Or at least that's what my brother tells me -- he's a lot better at geography than I am!) We also walked up to an old castle that has a good almost-panoramic view of the area. It was getting dark at this point, so none of pictures turned out.
The last pictures I have from the trip are from our trip are from the drive to the Interlaken area. See how happy everyone was in the car? I had to include one picture of the Fall colors. Coming from California, I'm used to leaves turn brown and then fall off the trees. I love the colors! They're gorgeous. I kept pestering my brother with questions about how long it would last.

And the final shot is typically Swiss -- green pastures with white mountains. You have to love this view!

Calling the Zahnfee!

Zahnfee (Tooth Fairy), we have a customer!

After weeks of wiggling, Abbie is proud to report the loss of her first tooth. Her school friends have been giving her advice all week about how to accelerate the process. Today, her friend Lara said to "absolutely not let your Dad pull it as it really hurts," and her friend Stella said "it will definitely come out tonight!" As it was getting to be bedtime, Abbie was a bit concerned that it wouldn't happen tonight and she didn't want to disappoint Stella, so she let her Dad do a bit of wiggling and voila - she had a tooth in hand! (Mom tried to wiggle earlier in the day, but apparently is a softie and couldn't do the final tug.)


The downside to the international school -- she learns about traditions around the world and has reported that some kids in her class get presents and do special activities to celebrate the loss of the first tooth. She wants to know exactly what I have planned as a celebration for tomorrow. First we have to leave out a shoe for St. Nikolaus and his evil side-kick, now we're throwing parties for missing teeth. I can only imagine what the rest of the year will bring!

Post Office

We're headed home for Christmas. Yippee! After much debate, we decided that we should have the mail delivery stopped while we are gone. This wouldn't be a question in the U.S., but we don't exactly get a lot of mail here, so we debated whether it could just accumulate in the box. So, this morning - with the help of Google translator - I wrote a little note about my desire to stop mail and gave the dates we would be gone. I headed to the post office and handed over my note to the clerk. She asked me a bunch of questions, and consulted a calendar. Here, I thought my note would be helpful! I'm not sure why I had to reconfirm the dates via a calendar when that was the one thing I knew I had right in the note, but I'm learning not to ask questions (probably helped by the fact that I can't do it in German). Eventually, the clerk handed me a form, pointed to where I should fill it out, pointed to the other clerk, and made her point that when I was done, I should see him instead, as he spoke a little English. He again reconfirmed my dates with the postal calendar, fixed my errors on the form, and told me it would be 10 CHF. I was a bit surprised by the charge, but when I asked around, people were shocked that I'd be surprised. I'm beginning to learn that there's a charge for everything.

Caroling

One night earlier this week, our doorbell rang. Once I figured out what "that sound" could be, I opened the door to a group of kids. They immediately started speaking in German. I stared at them without comprehending a word. They spoke some more. I finally cut in and said, "I don't understand. Sprechen sie English?" The kids looked around in horror. I'm sure thoughts of "Is this a pop quiz? Is our English teacher hiding in the bushes?" crept into their heads. They eventually all turned to one boy, who I assume gets the best grades in English. He explained that they were caroling and collecting money for a charity. Other kids jumped in to explain that the charity they selected this year was to feed the poor. The organization collected food from stores that was past its date, but, they quickly explained, not bad. I asked if I could take their picture. They rolled their eyes like pre-teens across the world. I said, "Let me get my camera. And my kids." They wondered when this crazy lady would ever let them sing. We came back to the door, and I said, "Ok. Sing." They looked at each other, probably wondering if the crazy lady would expect them to sing in English. They opted to sing in German. Then, they opened up the mouth of the stick donkey they were carrying. We'd already discussed the donkey. I had asked if it was a horse, and they explained it was a donkey. I said, "Oh, right, because Sammi Claus has a donkey." They looked at the poor crazy woman, and said "No, not because of that." I put the money in the donkeys mouth, hoping it was adequate for the amount of stress I caused them and they walked off to the next house. I imagine that house had read the flier they left earlier in the week explaining their purpose. The next house probably didn't require them to speak in English either. I have to say that I was really impressed. Not only did they explain their purpose and answer all the questions, but they did it all in English, fluently.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Switzerland was interesting. John went to work. The kids went to school. I attended my German class. With the exception of my parents' visit, it would have seemed like any other day. I probably would have ignored the actual holiday and only celebrated over the weekend when we attended an expat Thanksgiving party. Fortunately, my parents were here and it gave me the needed motivation to order a turkey from the butcher (in German!). $125 and 2 weeks later, we had a fresh turkey. One plus for Switzerland: the turkey comes free of any "spare" parts. An almost mistake on my part: I didn't pre-measure. Local friends expressed concern that a 13 pound bird would fit in a Swiss oven. Fortunately, for us, it did. I would have hated to carve up my special "whole" turkey before he even got cooked!

In order to make the dinner a bit more festive, both Abbie and Brendan invited friends to join us. Abbie's friend had seen her first turkey at the Thanksgiving Feast the school held for all the 1st graders the day before, but Brendan's friend had never seen a whole cooked turkey. They seemed to enjoy the meat, but were a bit stumped by the concept of stuffing. It's very hard to explain stuffing to a non-American. They don't understand the combination of stale bread, broth, and seasonings.

So why the picture of a frittata instead of a turkey? It was our very last Thanksgiving leftover. We finished up the turkey earlier in the week with a dinner of turkey enchiladas, but I still had some stuffing. I admit it. At home, I would have just tossed the last bit of stuffing, without a second thought. But my mom had brought the stuffing mix all the way from California. I figured we needed to enjoy every last bite. I searched online for recipes for leftover stuffing and came up with the stuffing frittata pictured above. It was good. Even the kids enjoyed it.

This year we are thankful for so much. Every year, we always express our thanks for friends and family, but this year we are extra thankful that our family members are well can travel across the world to see us. I'm thankful for good friends who stay in touch despite the distance and the internet to make us feel connected to "home". And my biggest thanks goes to my kids who have far exceeded my expectations by embracing the move and a new culture.

Amden

My parents visited for two weeks at the end of November. We drove up to Amden, which is in the foothills of the Alps. Instead of just walking around town, we decided to ask the tourist center for a nice, family-friendly hike. He suggested that we take the bus for a short ride up into the hills, where we could then take a nice 3.5 - 4 hour hike, finishing at the top of a chair lift, which we could ride down. We wondered about the dog on the chairlift, but he assured us it would be no problem. Boy, were we glad that we rode the bus. It was a long way up, but we knew, once we got to the top, it would be nice and flat; after all, the tourist center had told us that the hike had little elevation change. Wrong! This is, afterall, Switzerland. What the tour center meant to say was that the elevation was roughly the same at the starting point and ending point -- what happened in between was typically Swiss -- trails went up, and trails went down. What were we thinking? When will we learn? We started the hike by continuing to climb to the top of the hills. We were rewarded with some amazing views, and lunch at a farmer's barn. They served great bratwurst, sodas, beer, and even some Paprika (bbq) chips. John and I thought the lunch was very reasonable. My parents thought it was a bit pricey. Welcome to Switzerland!


After lunch, we realized that we had taken a wrong turn from our original loop, so we headed back to catch the path. All the while, a certain two males (John and C.J.) kept telling us that they'd "told us so", but who were we to trust? The guys with the map or the rest of the hikers who all seemed to be heading uphill to the lunch barn? Our new trail was no longer the nice, groomed trail that we had taken off course. We literally walked through people's farms. We knew we were on a trail, though, as there were regular painted rocks with yellow diamonds, indicating the walking trail. Even the farmers had markings on their houses and barns. We continued to walk downhill, until we realized that we were nowhere near the chairlift. Ok, this time we knew we were off course, but there was no way that we could take the original loop and get off the trail before dark. Remember that great bus ride at the start? Well, we ended up climbing downhill the whole way.
Lucky really enjoyed being off leash and walking with us the entire way. She especially enjoyed the field that had just been sprayed with fertilizer. You know, the kind produced by the farmer's very own cows. Unfortunately, the boys didn't enjoy the smell of Lucky sitting between them on the ride home. Lucky got to finish off her day of excitement with a bath. Fortunately, it is very easy to bathe Lucky in this house -- a very handy feature since this was not the first emergency bath Lucky has received and most certainly won't be the last.
Obviously, family-friendly means something different in the U.S. than it does in Switzerland. But, we all agreed it was a wonderful place to hike and a highlight of my parent's trip.

Here's the slideshow of our adventure.

Swiss bills

One of the more interesting cultural differences for us is the Swiss approach to paying bills.

Checks don't exist. Bills are paid in cash or through a bank transfer. If you don't have access to your bank account online, you can use bill payment machines at your bank, or just take a wad of cash to the post office and they'll handle the payments for you. I use online banking at home, so it didn't seem strange to me until I had to pay another parent for the down payment on our ski lessons. She didn't provide her bank routing information -- just a home address. I called to ask, "Do people really just put $300 in an envelope and drop it in the mail, trusting that it will get to you?" Apparently, they do.

Saving is a given. You're actually expected to be responsible with your money, save for your bills and pay them. Case in point -- we haven't received any household service bills. We were worried that they didn't get transferred properly, so we called our landlord. She said not to worry -- we'd get the water bill at the end of the year, the electricity bill would come every 2 or 3 months but be adjusted for actual usage once a year, and the oil bill would be whenever we filled the tank (every 1 to 2 years).

There is also no pressure about getting paid in a timely manner or before a product is delivered. I've placed an online order, and I just check the box "send invoice with product." Can you imagine an online retailer in the U.S. just including the invoice with your order? I think half the people would never pay. At least the online retailer has your name and address. I stopped at a local farm to get a pumpkin for Halloween. They had a price sticker on the pumpkin and a cash box to leave the money. You figure out how much you owe, and drop the money into a cash box. My biggest stress? Having the exact change. ATMs dispense your money in 100 CHF bills, so coming up with 22 CHF required digging through my change purse. As another example, we ordered a freezer, and I asked what form of payment they accepted. The salesperson explained that they would just send me an invoice in the mail -- a week after the product was delivered. I was there, I could have paid, but it was just as easy for them to send an invoice. Even in sports, this system works. The boys have been playing hockey for a few weeks now and I just today paid their team fees. One person told me to hold off paying until I was sure they liked the team/sport. They've been playing with no payment, and I hadn't even signed anything -- including a liability waiver. But, that's a topic for another post.

Freedom + Walking

Life is different over here. Today provided an excellent example. C.J. attended a soccer tournament that was hosted by his school, but at a local school's gym. The school was located halfway between his school and the town center (Dorfplatz). When C.J. called to ask whether I was picking him up or if he had to walk back to school to catch the late bus, I told him to just walk home -- about a 20 minute walk. C.J. said he wasn't sure how to find the Dorfplatz from his current location. I told him to just look for the church steeple and he'd figure it out. Sure enough, after about 20 minutes, C.J. knocked at the back door. He said he walked down the street, saw a sign that pointed to the Dorfplatz, and followed it. He knows his way home from the Dorfplatz -- we walk the route often.

In the States, he never would have just been "released" after the tournament without the coach seeing a responsible adult. I would be considered a bad parent for making my 11-year old child walk 20 minutes, part of it in the dark. People would be worried that he'd get lost. Here, people wonder why my kids take the school bus when they can walk to school in 30 minutes. He had a cell phone; he couldn't get too lost. Trust me, our town isn't that big. In exchange, he felt responsible and independent. And now he knows that if he is ever at that gym, it's just as easy to walk home as it is to walk back to school and wait for the bus to bring him home.

Turnip Carving

Abbie is celebrating different celebrations in school this year. Apparently, pumpkin carving (hosted by the American parents) last week was too easy. This week, the teacher assigned homework for all the kids to carve a turnip, making it into a lantern. Let me tell you, turnips aren't quite as easy to scoop as pumpkin guts. I'm not sure exactly what part of this assignment was supposed to belong to the 6 year old! The idea is to make the walls thin enough so that when you peel/carve the skin of the turnip into designs, the light shines through. You don't cut all the way through as you would for a jack-o-lantern. The local children then walk around the streets one night in a parade with their lanterns. The tradition dates back to farmer's wives using these lanterns to guide their way home at night. My advice: stick to pumpkins.

Oh, and please ignore the outfit. A certain someone is quite attached to her Hannah Montana Halloween costume!

Jungfrau

During Craig and Ginny's visit, we took a weekend trip to Jungfrau which is the highest railway station in Europe. There is a cog railway that takes you through the mountain on a 7km ride to the top. It's an amazing design and has the added advantage of keeping the view of the mountains pristine and free of roads! In addition to enjoying the panoramic views of the Swiss Alps and the glacier at the top of the mountain, we toured an ice castle. The kids had fun slipping and sliding along the walkways. Even the adults decreed the castle, "much better than expected." We stayed overnight in the town of Lauterbrunnen. Its claim to fame is having 72 waterfalls. They were gorgeous, and we can only imagine what they look like in the Spring during the heavy snow melt. We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of cowbells -- a Swiss farmer was taking his cows for a walk down the street. We told the kids that's how the milk and cheese is so good in this country -- the cows get regular exercise. (I'm sure the walk had nothing to do with changing pastures.) One interesting aspect of the trip is that many of the businesses were closed for a month's holiday. Hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. were all closed with notices that they would re-open at the end of November. I guess even hotel owners need a holiday!

Ice Skating

Because the boys didn't get enough skating last week at hockey camp (and Abbie was just a wee bit jealous), we went ice skating as a family on Sunday. Actually, 4 people skated and one took pictures. John voted that I should risk re-injuring my knee until I could attempt to do it on skiis.

The day wasn't the best day we've had, weather wise. Every so often it misted rain. We've been told, "There's no such thing as bad weather in Switzerland. There's just bad outerwear." I'm not sure I'm going to buy into that completely, but I was willing to deal with a very light rain.

We had to drag the kids off the ice after a couple hours. They did enjoy a break for Swiss Hot Chocolate, which C.J. told me was made with real steamed milk. Abbie has decreed that if her brothers are going to play hockey, she should get to take ice skating lessons. Fun stuff!

The good news is that skating is a pretty cheap activity. It only cost the kids around $2 each for unlimited skate time that day. The boys own skates, but we did have to rent a pair for Abbie.

Here are more pictures from the day:
Ice Skating Pictures

Brendan's Birthday

In our family, the birthday person gets to choose the dinner meal. Abbie chose McDonalds. Brendan wasn't very particular. He said we could go to any restaurant. It just had to be in Germany.

I'd heard that the Bodensee area was beautiful, so we decided to do a day trip to the German side of the lake. Switzerland, Germany, and Austria border the lake. We drove to the town of Friedrichshafen, about 2 hours away. In honor of Brendan's birthday, we let the kids watch a movie in the car. The in-car DVD player is growing on me, as John and I had a nice time talking while we were driving and there weren't any whiny children interrupting us! Even Lucky came along for the ride. We didn't think we could leave her at home for over 12 hours, and we didn't have anyone who could come let her out. Upon arrival in Friedrichshafen, we walked around for a bit, quickly deciding that the best thing to do in the town would be a boat ride. The very friendly lady at the tourist center informed us that the best boat option would be a catamaran trip to Constanz, in Switzerland. Actually, it was the only place left where we could take a boat. She even insisted that Abbie was 5, as children under 6 travel for free. (Abbie was a bit concerned that we were cheating and it wasn't right, but we assured her that we had been 100% honest with the ticket agent and it was her decision to "hear" that Abbie was 5. I guess some lessons in honesty and integrity are sticking!) We took the ferry across the lake to Constanz, which is a beautiful town (and about half the travel distance as Friedrichshafen). We had a pizza lunch and then walked around -- first the town area and later a walking path by the water. The kids even stopped to play at a playground. In the late afternoon, we headed back to Friedrichshafen and drove to a restaurant by the Zeppelen hangar. I was hoping that we'd be able to see one of the blimps take off or land, but it wasn't in the cards. The kids enjoyed dinner, though, and Brendan even got a free cocktail. (I did check to make sure it would be non-alcoholic!) Some kids might be bitter that they asked to go Germany for their birthday and we spent most of the day in Switzerland, but Brendan enthusiastically said, "I got to go to Germany TWICE for my birthday!" That's the attitude I like to see! It's just one of the things I love about my 9 year old! I also love his determination, his intelligence, and his ability to set goals. Ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, and he will tell you with 100% confidence that he's going to be a CEO. In fact, he's a bit irked that our good friend Ray won't write the code for the virtual reality gaming system he has designed.

Brendan's birthday pictures.

Abbie's Field Trip

Part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program is "unit of inquiries" where the class focuses on a particular unit for 6 weeks or so. These are cross-discipline study areas and the school attempts to connect all the subjects (math, writing, etc.) to the unit. Abbie's first unit was "Work it Out" which discusses how people connect with each other through their work in the community. They started off the unit by discussing how the classroom functioned and various jobs students need in the class (line leader, paper distributor, etc.). From there, they moved on to discuss jobs in the school community. They interviewed the school secretary, nurse, custodian, etc. Finally, they talked about jobs in the community and took field trips to the fire station and a dentist. On the way, they talked about the stores they passed (bakery, butcher) and how those jobs helped the community. As part of the unit, each child had to take a field trip to visit a parent at work. Abbie could have chosen to shadow me for a day and help sort laundry and go to the grocery store, but she decided to see what John did. (smart girl!) So, one afternoon I picked her up after lunch and delivered her to John's office. Abbie can now happily report to her classroom that a CPA gets to drink soda at work and talks to a lot of people. .

Hockey Camp

Brendan has been asking to play hockey practically since he could walk. Since there are about 300 soccer teams in Pleasanton and maybe 1 hockey team in the valley, we decided to push soccer and ignore the hockey pleas. I liked the idea of driving to the local field for soccer games vs. driving all over the state for hockey games. Plus, we heard ice time is limited and you don't have fun practice times. Well, now that we are in hockey country and Brendan's new good friend plays (and loves) hockey, it was getting hard to ignore the pleas. We took the advice of Brendan's friend's mom (they're Austrian), and we signed both boys up for camp during their break from school this week.

They started off the week looking like this:

And ended the week each scoring hat tricks during scrimmages.

I was really impressed with the camp. They went on Monday and came home with a bag full of equipment -- helmets, neck guards, shoulder pads, elbow pads, jersey, gloves, shin/knee pads, pants, padded shorts, sports cup, skates, a stick, and a bag to carry it all. Who knew the real reason I should prefer soccer. Compare the previous list (plus long underwear and socks provided by mom) with soccer's equipment list: jersey, shorts, socks, shinguard, cleats, ball. Which set of gear is less likely to come home sopping wet? Which set produces more laundry? But, I digress. Besides providing a lot of gear, the camp was well organized. They split the ice into three sections and had the 6 and under crowd in the center, Brendan's group on one side, and C.J.'s group on the other side. Everyone spoke German. The boys quickly learned to listen, watch what the other kids did when the coach stopped speaking, and then go copy them. The kids weren't the only smart ones. By the end of the week, the coaches figured out that the boys didn't understand a word they said and, if necessary, spoke to them in English. Oh, the camp even provided a snack every day.

Regardless of my taunts during the week, "Wow, that bag sure seems heavy!" "Hmm. Are you ever going to be able to put ALL that gear on?" "Sure looks cold out on that ice!" the boys loved camp. They want to join the team. Will this get me out of being a soccer (oops, football) mom? Noooo. Now, they want to discuss the possibility of playing both sports. Ahhh, the joys of motherhood.

Here are some more pictures of hockey. Boys playing hockey.

Brendan is #63. Blue jersey, red helmet. C.J. is #15. White jersey, blue helmet.

Just like home...

C.J. had a soccer tournament on Saturday, so we felt right at home!

He plays on the "B" team for the middle school. His team is made up almost entirely of 6th graders. (The "A" team has 7th and 8th graders.) C.J. might be a bit shorter than some of the other players on his team, but not obviously so. His team lost all their games in the tournament. (See, we did feel right at home!) Call us crazy, but we have a suspicion that (a) the other teams were not made up of almost entirely 6th graders and (b) we're in for a growth spurt or two over the next couple years.

The good thing is that C.J. had a great time playing. His coach also moved him around, so he didn't play his normal defensive positions -- he played mid-field.

Veloplausch

Saturday, our doorbell rang. My heart did a little leap thinking it was our neighbor to complain about driveway infringement again, but instead it was other neighbors who enthusiastically said, "Hello, neighbors!!!" when we answered the door. What a smile-inducing greeting! Turns out they wanted to let us know the city was sponsoring a bike race/event for the family on Sunday and they thought we might be interested in joining them. We were!

Sunday morning, we gathered up the bikes and Lucky; then we headed UP to the fire station for the start of the event. Up is a bit of theme in this town. Everything is either up or down; there isn't a lot of flat terrain. I'm sure you've heard (read?) me complain about it before, but I'll keep complaining until I get into better shape!

The bike event was a route around the perimeter of the city on bike/walking trails. There were 6 stations where you had to stop and complete activities to earn points. At the end, you submitted your points for tallying and got coupons for food and drink at the local carnival in the town center. There was even an awards ceremony where each team got to pick a prize. We think we got 27th place or something very near the end, but the kids were thrilled to have our team name, Golden State Riders, called for a prize!

Our 6 stations were:

Station 1: Elementary school for our neighborhood. We had to search the grounds for 5 flags with questions about the school and answer multiple choice trivia questions. Some of the questions were:

• How many children attend this school?
• Are there more boys or girls?
• How many kids participate in child care?
• How many teachers are there?

Our neighbors were still with us at this point, so they translated the questions for us. Turns out they are a bit competitive, so they ran off to the next station. We think half the fun is reading the map and finding the various spots, so we were absolutely fine being left on our own. (Well, there was one area we took a little detour, but otherwise, we were absolutely fine!) Considering our limited knowledge of local Swiss schools, we were quite happy to get 8 out of 10 points. (1 point for finding each station, 1 point for each correct answer)

Station 2: The tennis club down the street from our house. First, we had to answer 5 trivia questions about tennis. Questions were: how tall (in cm) a certain player was, who the Swiss played in a big match last week, what were a players' twin sisters named, and others we don't remember. We need to brush up on our tennis trivia. We only got 1 or 2 questions correct. The scorekeeper translated the questions for us. Next up, we headed onto the clay tennis courts where the kids each had to hit a tennis over the net. Points were awarded for where the tennis ball landed -- in a hoola-hoop sized ring (3 points), in the inner square (2 points), in the larger square (1 point) or anywhere else (0 points). C.J. scored 2 points for our team.

Station 3: Somewhere in the hills. First up at this station was an obstacle course. The kids had to crawl through a long tube, then run towards a pole, going under a rope, over a tarp, and under another rope. Once they reached the pole, they had to run around it 15 times and return to the start. In 2 minutes, C.J. and Brendan completed the course and we got Abbie halfway through. From there, we went to a memory game where a bunch of objects were laid out on a tarp, and the boys were given a minute to study them and then had to say what was there. Fortunately, the memory recorder was a boy who spoke English, so he wasn't put off by the boys saying "flashlight, glow stick, compass" instead of the German equivalents.

Station 4: Still in the woods. We got a bit lost on the way to this stop, but we made it. We stopped to ask someone for directions. She said she didn't know the spot, but there were a bunch of bikers "up yonder", so we headed in the direction she pointed. We saw some other people studying a map, and found it together. First, we had to answer trivia about energy facts. Questions ranged from the optimal basement temperature to how you can save fuel driving to whether shutters make the house more efficient. The test giver helped translate the questions, and John and I scored a maximum 5 out of 5 points. Yeah! Next up, everyone but Abbie had to cut logs using a bike operated chain saw. It was harder than it looks! Abbie wanted to do it, but they deemed her too smal since she couldn't reach the petals. We did get a bit frustrated at this point, because we waited in line to complete the challenge and they kept taking everyone in front of us! We're pretty sure it had to do with our lack of German since no one spoke English. Sigh.

Station 5: Near the kids' school. This station was sponsored by the library. First event was a crossword puzzle. No amount of translating would help us come up with German words to complete the puzzle. The station owner took pity on us and just gave us 3 points. Next, 4 members of the team had to take books across a plank walk without stepping off the plank or dropping a book. The catch was that you had to take the planks with you as you went. We got 5 points here.

Station 6: School by the town center. This station was sponsored by the local preschool. First, we had trivia questions about the preschool. Fortunately, the boy running the station could once again translate for us. We got about 75% correct, which wasn't bad since we'd never been to the school! I got points for knowing where it was located, though! Then, we had to build a lego car. The trick was that John had the "model" car on one side of a curtain. The rest of us had a pile of legos on the other side of the curtain and we had to follow his commands to build the car to spec. We might need to work on our communication skills a bit, but the station leader said we did average, maybe a bit better.

The carnival at the end of the race was great. John and Abbie got some great sausages, while the boys and I had raclette that was made by the fire department. Basically, you melt cheese by an open flame or heat source and then eat the cheese with potatoes, onions, and pickles. The boys love this meal. We let the kids run around a bit by themselves, while John got an Octoberfest beer and we shared a table with a family from Canada. They were quite friendly and it was fun to get to know them! The kids are a bit bummed because the local kids get today off school, but we headed home early. No holiday for the international school kids!

We probably biked less than 10 miles total, but with all the hill work, we were wiped. Lucky tagged along with us and she is a tired puppy today. The course took about 3 hours to complete with all the stations and some wait time to start the activity. The big log jam was at the bike operated chainsaw. They really needed another chainsaw or two.

Veloplausch Slide Show

Main Floor!

Yesterday, I hosted the class coffee for Abbie's class. 10 parents came to socialize. It was a really nice way to meet some of the other mothers (and dad). As class parent, I'm expected to host two of these social events a year, either at my house or at a restaurant. I'm also encouraged to host one whenever a new family comes so that they have a chance to get connected and meet some parents. I think it's a great idea!

Abbie also had a second playdate -- a girl from Argentina. She was born in Switzerland and has lived here except for a 2 year stint to New York, which appears to be the most popular expat city. Everyone seems to have lived in New York at some point in their career. Geez. I hope I didn't just jinx myself!

I figured as long as I was having random strangers into my house, I might as well invite all my blog readers in as well. So without further delay... pictures of my main living floor.

Swiss Chalet Cassidy - Ground Floor

Two steps forward, one step back

A new electrician came this morning. He figured out the problem with the phone jack in about 5 minutes (a cut cord during the hardwood floor installation). By the time he left, we had all phone jacks working and a solution to our internet access in the attic (a device using the electrical lines). Now, our big question is whether we have to pay the electrician who spent 2+ hours doing absolutely nothing other than exposing wires throughout the house.

After the electrician left, I ventured out to the grocery store. I hit the smaller, local store as I wanted some cheddar cheese from the cheese counter. Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish my shopping. They kicked me out, as it was time for the store to close for its hour and a half lunch break. And to think I used to complain that Safeway closed it registers for 15 minutes around 11pm.

Then, I came home to find that our police clearance was rejected. I'm still not sure why we get these notices days and weeks apart. Do different departments access our file and send requests separtely? Don't they think it would be easier to identify all issues at the same time? Oh well. So, now we have to send an application into the FBI in the States. Their turnaround time is 3-4 weeks, so it could be 6-8 weeks for us with mailing time, etc. Fortunately, we can mail off authorization to use our credit card (which I hate putting in the mail!), as there is no way to get a certified check here. Checks don't exist in Switzerland. The whole thing is a bit frustrating as I knew that we might need an FBI clearance before we left, but E&Y told us if we couldn't get it done before we left (they gave us a week's notice, so it wasn't possible), then we should wait until we got here as the U.S. Embassy could do it. Guess what? The embassy just refers you back to the FBI website. Of course, of all the people surveyed, everyone else's local police department clearance was sufficient. And, not to name names, but I wanted to start the FBI process 2 weeks ago when our police report was requested, but someone told me that I should just wait and see what happened with our police report as he really thought it would be sufficient.

Still no iPhone...

Today was an exciting mail day. We got a letter from the Gemeinde, which is the city office where you register. This envelope contained 5 letters -- one for each of us -- with just a short message. I didn't even bother to type the contents into an online translator. I just knew that this was THE letter. The one that said our registration/identity cards were ready. I hopped in the car and drove the Gemeinde to pick up the cards. I drove, because I figured I could then proceed directly to the Apple store and pick up some jeans for Brendan, who grew between the time we packed our clothes and the clothes arrived. Darn kid. Must stop feeding him!

So, my smile turned a bit upside down when the nice lady at the Gemeinde office told me that it was not a message to come pick up our cards. Instead, it was a request for proof of medical insurance. What?!?! I normally wouldn't be upset by such a simple request, but besides ruining my Apple Store plans, I am amazed at how inefficient this registration process is. Here's a timeline for you:

Months ago, right after our look-see trip, we applied for our visas to live here. The firm asked a lot of questions, which we answered, and then they submitted the paperwork.

We then waited. And waited.

The week before our flight to Switzerland, we received notice that our visas were ready, so we rushed to San Francisco to pick them up at the Embassy. We were told we needed to fill out an application. Hmm. Seems a bit strange considering the letter we received told us the visas were approved and waiting for us, but being good little rule followers, we filled out the applications and signed them (while the children went wild in the waiting room). We were then told to go away and come back in a couple days to pick up the visas.

We picked up the visas. John got a nice multi-entry visa. The rest of us? Single entry.

We then arrived in Switzerland and immediately went to register so that we could get our permanent visa and our registration card. We took all the paperwork they said we needed. The nice lady at the office checked all of our paperwork. Everyone signed the forms. We were told that it could be two weeks to three months before we got registered.

We waited. We checked mail regularly. We waited some more.

We got a notice that they needed police clearance for John and I. We sent in the clearance we brought with us that they didn't want went we went to register the first time.

We waited. We checked mail regularly. We waited some more.

We got a promising looking letter today. I rushed to the Gemeinde office. We were told to provide proof of medical coverage.

Now I ask you, why couldn't they make this request when we first submitted all the paperwork? If not then, why not when they asked for police clearance?

So, now we wait some more. Hopefully, our next piece of mail will be "THE" letter. Or, it could be a request for the next missing item. We wouldn't want to ask for TWO things in the same letter, afterall. In the meantime, I can't sign a cell phone contract nor can I leave the country. Well, I can leave... I just can't legally return. Sigh.

Hiking

Brendan has his overnight field trip this Wednesday, so we figured we should break in the hiking shoes this weekend. On Saturday, we took a short 30 minute hike. Here, the gang is at the entrance to the forest, directly across from our house. This part of the passageway has a lot of loose rocks. Combined with the downhill slope, it isn't the best footing. Fortunately, the main walking trails are compacted and provide excellent stability for walking or running. (Just in case we have any runners visit.)

A few meters into the forest, we have this meadow. We're hoping that we can build some sled runs into it during the winter since our yard is flat.

A great thing about hiking in Switzerland, is that all the trails are really well marked. This sign says that it would be a 50 minute walk to Kusnaucht. It also says that it is either 15 or 20 minutes to Zumikon, which is our town. It's a 10 minute walk for us to get to the town center from our house, but we go a direct route that isn't in the trails -- it's a combination of streets and pedestrian passageways.

The kids loved running into these horses. There doesn't seem to be a farm house in sight, but there is a great barn with 3 horses living inside. You can tell someone regularly cares for the horses, because there are pots with beautiful flowers surrounding the barn.


It was at this point that we turned around the first day. We didn't want anyone to get blisters in their new shoes! On the way home, we stopped to consider these piles of wood. We had thoughts of bringing our wagon into the woods with us and loading up on firewood. (John thought a chainsaw might be in order as well.) I did some online research, and it doesn't look like you can legally haul firewood out of the forest for personal use. Whoever owns the forest, sells the wood.
On Sunday, we decided to walk to Kusnaucht, which is about an hour away and mostly downhill. Kusnaucht borders Lake Zurich. There is a local bus that runs between Kusnaucht and the center of Zumikon, so we wouldn't have to walk uphill the entire way home. You can see that this path is much more compacted and easier for hiking, walking, or running.

We love that there are even stairs carved into the trails so that you have sure footing when you get to steeper hills. And, if there are sharp drops, then they add handrails!


There are streams/rivers running along some of the trails. C.J. pointed out that if we were on the show "Man vs. Wild", we'd know how to find Lake Zurich by following the flow of the rivers. Smart kid!

Just before the end of the trail... proof that I went on the hike too!

Right after this quick photo stop, we entered the town of Kusnaucht -- exactly 50 minutes after we looked at the guidepost that said "Kusnaucht, 50 min." Actually, now that I'm typing it, I doubt the sign had the abbreviation for minutes, but we knew that it was minutes!

In Kusnaucht, we stopped for a drink at a small cafe. We ran into Brendan's friend Nicola. Then, we ran into another family from ICS. Turns out he works with John; although, John hadn't met him. I had previously met the wife, who showed up at the end of our conversation. She is from the States and he is from the UK. Abbie recognized that the daughter attended ICS. We knew they were new to the school when the daughter turned to the dad and said, " What is ICS? Is that my school?"

From there, we wandered down to the train station and checked out the bus schedule. Hmmm. Looks like we still have a bit of learning to do about Sunday operations in Switzerland. The local bus from Kusnaucht to Zumikon doesn't run on Sundays! It was time for a new game plan. Fortunately, the trains do run on Sundays, so we took the train into Zurich and went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner in Old Town. The food was quite good, but it didn't satisfy any cravings for Mexican food. Well, John did point out the tortillas and the guacamole were both fresh and tasty. The fajitas lacked any Mexican flavor, but they were delicious with lots of green onions and mushrooms. The service was horrendously slow. 30 minutes elapsed between the time the kids were served and John and I were served. The server did put together a special platter for the kids with quesadillas, mozzarella sticks, and chicken wings which were basically just fried chicken wings -- they didn't have any sauce like you'd get at home (but that was a plus for the kids!).

On the way home, we made a HUGE discovery (at least in C.J.'s mind). Globus offers mint chocolate chip ice cream! C.J. said it was even better than the ice cream at home. The Swiss love ice cream, and there is a cart/stand on every corner, but until yesterday, I hadn't found any mint chocolate chip. I'd even checked every grocery store I'd entered. C.J. had branched out a bit and tried Swiss Chocolate ice cream which he said was like a frozen, really good hot chocolate, but he missed his first love. (He only tried the Swiss Chocolate after the rest of us kept getting ice cream and he was left with nothing because he refused to get any flavor other than Mint Chip. He is slowly learning that sometimes it is good to try something new!)

John and I had actually visited Kusnaucht by car on Saturday. His bike suffered some damage during the move -- the light broke off and the gears aren't shifting. In addition, the chain snapped on our last ride. We found a great bike shop. The owner didn't speak any English but we are reasonably confident that John is getting a new chain, light, kickstand, bell, and the gears fixed. I'm sure some of you are laughing about the addition of a bell to his bike -- the owner assured us that we needed one, as it is the law in Switzlerland and John would get a ticket without one. And, we did have someone use their bell to signal us to move to the side of the trail while hiking yesterday.

The big question now is just how efficient are the Swiss? Will these trails be plowed for us in the winter?