The air shipment arrived today. We're not sure who's more excited – the kids or the dog. The boys coerced John into immediately hooking up the Xbox and pretty soon we had a lovely video of our living room being broadcast to the States as the boys played with their friends online. Technology definitely makes the transition easier. I'm looking forward to the Xbox and its camera relocating to the attic/playroom of our new house. I'll be less likely to get "accidently" broadcast across the ocean. Abbie got out her American Girl doll, put on her Hannah Montana outfit, and thoroughly enjoyed playing by herself. (Guess who else enjoyed her playing by herself?) Lucky found her basket of toys and proceeded to paw through them, leaving toys strewn throughout the apartment. She has dropped every Frisbee and ball at our feet, but we were too busy digging through boxes to play fetch. Plus, I don't think the neighbors below us would enjoy the indoor fetch games we played back in Pleasanton.
Don't feel too sorry for the dog, though. Today, she swam in Lake Zurich. We tied the 30 foot leash to her and let her swim out a bit. Based on her reaction to the ducks, we think she might have swum all the way across the lake in pursuit if left to her own devices. The Swiss thought we were hilariously funny – quite a few dogs here go without leash and I'm quite sure they've never seen a dog swim on leash before. Then again, it looks like their dogs did a bit better in obedience school than our Lucky.
We'd like to thank the American government. It seems the Swiss no longer have any desire to have American clients. They've stopped accepting accounts from U.S. citizens. Much easier than dealing with the legal battles, I suppose. Unfortunately, we don't think we can live here without a bank account. John has asked for assistance from his company, so we're hoping to have a solution in the next few days. In the meantime, the dollar is crashing.
Dinner tonight was steak, broccoli, and baked potatoes. Very American, except the kids insisted we put a little gruyere and emmenthaler (swiss, swiss cheese) on their baked potatoes. They also like the Swiss biscuit/cookies – a little biscuit with a big piece of chocolate on top. I like them too! As I've been saying, a country where their main foods are bread, cheese, and chocolate can't be all that bad! Dinner was only a little later than anticipated, as I only turned the light on the oven instead of turning on the oven itself. It took me a good 30 minutes to notice, as I was playing a game of Facebook.
I'll leave you with this final image of the boys reunited with some of their favorite things from home. Meanwhile, I'll be pondering the math question, "If it takes a full day to unpack a little air shipment, just how long will it take me to do an entire house?"
7 comments:
Hi Marci - It's so fun to read your posts and see your pictures. Wonderful! Seems like you're having a wonderful time so far...Keep blogging!
It is a chore to unpack. You could always have the movers unpack, but I don't know how that would work. Some people have it done though.
Happy to see Brendan's t-shirt.
The oven light thing had us both laughing.
Hope there was room for all of the stuff. Where will you keep 5 bikes?
Hi Marci,
I am so glad that you are keeping us posted on your daily events. We loved the pictures of Lucky. I too would have had Cooper on his long leash!! We hope to get Timmy up to date with all the Xbox stuff so that he can hook up with CJ and Brendan.
That's great! Always fun to get shipments - glad you sent the xbox that way.
Yes, I told you - banking for us was a nightmare as well. We could get a local account but not an off-shore one. At least in Europe they generally don't charge an arm and a leg to use your American ATM card!!
I did the oven light thing once or twice as well!!
If the movers unpack, they leave the contents of the box on a table or floor. They don't put anything away. I'm undecided if that helps or just makes a huge mess. The bikes are in a storage area in the basement of our apartment house, so not so bad. Holly -- we can't get any back account! And here I thought banking would be easy in Switzerland. There's a bank on every corner!
Maybe your landlord will take Paypal or some other Swiss or European equivalent. But, then there are the utility bills too. Maybe you can pay them by credit card or EFT from your US account. Otherwise, it sounds like you will be making many Schwab withdrawals and making lots of cash payments.
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