Up and Away in Chateau-d'Oex

We embarked on our first real adventure Saturday. True, we did go snowtubing toboganning in Leysin a few weeks ago. And, the Saturday after we finally got our car registered we took a drive to Fribourg and Neuchatel. But, this Saturday was our first true Swiss adventure: we visited Chateau-d'Oex (sounds like chateau day) for their Festival of Balloons. Many of you may have heard of the huge hot air balloon event that takes place in New Mexico every year, but there's another huge one that takes place over 9 days every January right here in Switzerland, and on Saturday we decided to make the trek.

When we got up in the morning, it seemed like it would be a dicey proposition. Although temperatures were around 40, the lake was covered in haze. Of course, as we've found over the past month, the lake is pretty much always covered in haze in the winter. Temperatures haven't been that cold here -- nothing like Minnesota -- usually hovering right around freezing. And, while the lake water is pretty cold, it's not frozen, so you have a classic temperature inversion and that leads to lots of fog and haze. But, that's not very comforting when you're planning on making a trek go visit a hot air balloon festival!

Of course we decided our first true Swiss adventure had to include a voyage by train, so we nixed the idea of driving to the festival. First we took a train from Pully to Montreux, and it was a lot of fun for me to see our daily voyage from the vantage point of the train rather than the car. The train line runs right next to the lake road, so it was pretty much the same journey until Vevey, but this time I got to really enjoy the view. Then, we hopped on  a panoramic train up over and through some mountains to Chateau-d'Oex. It was a fun trip and thankfully, when we popped out of a long tunnel on the other side of the range the skies were crystal clear -- perfect for watching balloons.

Surprisingly, given his obsession with trains, Calvin was complaining the entire train ride, wanting to "just get there" and thinking the train ride was taking too long. I took out my phone in the past few minutes to show him the countdown to our arrival, which was a big mistake because as far as I know it's still sitting on that train car today. Neither Swiss rail, Goldenpass (the operator of the panoramic train), nor I have seen or heard from it since. But, we're here! On to the balloons!

View from the train station at Chateau-d'Oex. We brought Flat Stanley
along for a family friend.

Do you remember Breitling Orbiter? I didn't. It was the first balloon to make a circumnavigation of the world in 1999. Well, it launched from right here in Chateau-d'Oex! Who knew?

Breitling Orbiter gondola in Chateau-d'Oex Centre.

Wow! Cool! Lots and lots and ... lots and lots of balloons being launched. Pictures don't really do it justice, but here are some to view. There were balloons of every shape and size -- some gondolas could fit a dozen people, and we saw one balloon that didn't even have a gondola, just a two person bench hanging from the balloon.

Looking down on the launch area.

Can you tell Elliot thinks this is REALLY COOL?

Laura and Elliot are having fun.

Maybe he was tired? Hungry? It wasn't Calvin's best day....

No, pictures don't do it justice. Plus, we need a
telephoto lens for this kind of work.

It was fun to see the few that came down through town. We don't
have a picture but saw one going down the street within 20 feet
of houses on each side.

We were perched up near a church on a hill overlooking things and decided to walk straight down the hill rather than on the long curving path. This was a mistake. Elliot wanted to roll down the hill, but I told him that was absolutely prohibited (it was a BIG hill!), but it was also a really STEEP hill, so like it or not Elliot went tumbling down after a ways. I think Laura lost her footing a time or two, as well. My feet slipped a few times in the mud, but I managed to keep my footing -- I was pretty worried about tumbling down that hill with Calvin strapped to my back. On the way back we walked AROUND the hill.

Steeper than it looks. Anyway, you'd have to be an idiot
to go straight down this hill....

Who are the idiots? Still a long way to go.
Elliot hasn't gone tumbling -- yet.

We had been up there. Elliot looking fine after doing
his part to reenact Jack and Jill.
Seriously, it's steeper than it looks (and slippery)!

Rewarded with closer view of the action, though.
This is the two-seater.

Looking down on Chateau-d'Oex from the tram.
It's sort of a break in the balloons right now.

We planned on watching the balloons in Chateau-d'Oex for five hours or so, but after an hour of standing there the kids got bored and started running around, Calvin was complaining about wanting to get back on the train (the same one he hadn't wanted to be on in the first place), and we found things to be getting repetitive. Watching dozens of balloons launch at once is pretty fun but... Well, we decided to find a place to eat an early lunch and come back for the "shaped balloons" launch. Finding an open restaurant at this time of day required an aerial tram ride and chairlift ride to the top of a ski mountain, but that may be a story for another day.

Riding the chairlift back down from lunch. That's Chateau-d'Oex
way down in the valley.

In the end, we ate lunch, I finally discovered I was missing my phone, Calvin's incessant whining was driving me further into a fit, and we decided to skip the shaped balloons and take the train back to Pully. When we popped back onto our side of the mountain we found ourselves back in the haze. Ah, home!

It's amazing what static electricity can do to Elliot's hair.

Picking up brochures with pictures of trains on them
made Calvin much happier on the ride home.

Ah, home! Can you see the haze over Montreux behind Flat Stanley?
That's what most of our days here have looked like.
(Not that we're complaining!)

Random Observations Photo Essay

I was out and about today and thought I'd just take some photos about things here that I find amusing, different, or just worth commenting on. There's not much of an organizing theme and nothing important going on here, but you can get an idea of the little differences I see from day to day.

1. Parking is usually a tight squeeze. Granted there are more small cars here, but there are a lot more tight spaces, and they usually have big columns impinging on one or both sides. This is under a mall with a pretty big grocery store in Lausanne. I tried to park our car in the space you see on the right, but it was a no go. WAY too tight for the Touran. Or, maybe I'm a wimp.

2. This is part of the skiing section at a sports store chain in Lausanne. Just the skis and a tiny portion of the boots. It doesn't include the space devoted to helmets, goggles, snowboards, clothing, avalanche probes, etc. It's a fairly large store in Swiss terms, but nothing approaching a sports mega-store in the US. I guess people like to ski here. That might also explain the absence of many overweight people and the surprisingly large number of people moving around on crutches....

3. It's amusing to see foreign language books for English on the store shelves.

4. Swiss efficiency, part 1. The carts are all chained together in the parking lot, and you have to put a 1 or 2 franc (typically) coin into the cart to detach it from the other carts. Then, you bring the cart with you into the store, use it to transport goods to your car, and return it to the queue of carts to retrieve your coin. Would a $1 to $2 charge keep me from stealing a shopping cart if I wanted one? No. Is it enough to convince me to walk the 20 yards metres back to the cart queue? Absolutely!

5. Swiss efficiency, Part 2. All of the shopping centers have a dry cleaner on the bottom level just inside the doors from parking. Sometimes shoe repair, too. Convenient place. You're going to the shopping center anyway, you don't want to carry this stuff with you through the hallways, and probably cheap rent below ground....

6. Swiss efficiency, Part 3. This is one of Laura's favorites. The parking garages have counters to tell you how many spaces are available. These things are great, you can see the sign count down by one number when you drive past. Then, the levels and sections are split up with sensors and signs to tell you how many spaces are available in each section. That way you don't waste time driving through full sections when there might be more spaces available on a different level. There's also a sensor at the exit of the section, of course, so that the sign counts up by a space when a car drives out. This particular garage had another feature I hadn't seen before with lights to show empty or full spaces. You could drive through a section of red lights to see a green light down the row and know that that space would be available. (The individual space lights are hard to see, but you can see it if you click on the picture and explode it to full size.)

So, these were just amusing observations from my day today. I have now visited nine different furniture stores and haven't been able to find the side table I want. Maybe it's time for me to change my list of requirements?

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Minor administrative policy change: I have changed the website rules to allow anonymous comments for now, so if you see something you like (or don't) let us know in the comments! Positive feedback (or any feedback, really) keeps me motivated to keep placing posts (hint, hint)!

Birthdays and Baking

Calvin turned 4 today! He was very excited. Actually, he was pretty upset when he woke up on Saturday morning and it still wasn't his birthday yet. He complained that the nights are so long and it wouldn't be his birthday for a very long time.

It was a delightful birthday. Elliot was very conscientious and kept thinking of things for the "birthday boy" to do, like letting him push the button to raise the shades in our bedroom. Mimi and Granddad got to participate in the opening of presents via Skype, and Elliot was very happy to give Calvin a present this year. We also had some new expat friends visit after dinner to sing happy birthday (first in French, then in English) and watch Calvin blow out the candles. It was very cute to see him get shy when everyone was singing for him. That's typical Elliot behavior, not Calvin!

Grandparents join in for the birthday celebration!

Calvin mysteriously turns shy during the birthday song.

We also baked a cake. Overall, things went surprisingly well! We couldn't use our normal recipe because there doesn't appear to be such thing as baker's chocolate here. And, even if there were, I doubt we'd be able to use it. I've looked at every single bar in the chocolate aisle of the grocery store (no exaggeration, every bar) and all but one kid's brand have nut cross-contamination. So, we had to find a recipe for chocolate cake that used cocoa powder. But, all in all, it worked out, and the cake wasn't too bad!

The boys enjoyed baking the cake, too! (Sshh, don't let Laura's old
food-safety coworkers know we let the boys eat raw cake batter!!!)

There was one annoyance. Swiss vanilla is sold in 5 gram packets, which we think is roughly equivalent to a teaspoon. Although it took a long time to find, that in and of itself isn't so bad. But, it also costs about $1 per packet. First visitors to Switzerland, please bring us a bottle of vanilla! It's really not asking too much....

Two dollars worth of vanilla.

Haut Lac et les écoles suisses

(Haut Lac and the Swiss schools)

As you know, we're living in Pully, basically a suburb of Lausanne, which results in a 38 - 47 minute train journey each way for Laura to get to her work in Nyon. We didn't choose Pully simply because we wanted to live on this end of the lake, we chose it because it's a good compromise distance between Laura's work and the boys' school. Haut Lac is in Vevey, about a 15-20 minute drive from here, depending on traffic.

We applied to four international schools before we came to Switzerland, and Haut Lac was the only school in which both kids were able to be placed. So, it was really chance that placed them there. But, in the end I think we were very lucky. Haut Lac is a bit unique in that it has about 50% expat and 50% local population, so it's not exactly a "typical" international school that is essentially all expat community. We hope that this will keep things pretty well grounded, although to be honest, the local kids I'm sure come from pretty wealthy families as well. (True story: another expat family that we know with kids at the International School of Lausanne had a child who came home asking if he could go to Monaco for the weekend with a friend from the school....on the family's private jet. It's a different world....)

Haut Lac: The tall building houses the lower grades
on the lower floors.

It's pretty clear that Haut Lac is going to be a great school for the kids, and one of the biggest differences is numbers. Elliot needs a bit of extra attention to stay focused in school, and that's simply easier for the teacher here. For example, Elliot's first grade teacher at Hale in Minneapolis was a really good teacher, but she admitted to us that she simply couldn't give Elliot the attention he deserved with 27 other kids in the class. Now, Elliot's class numbers 14 kids. Calvin's is roughly the same with two teachers!

Elliot modeling the Haut Lac uniform.

Uniforms: I never was a big fan of uniforms in principle, but I'm a full-convert now. Man, how easy is it to get the kids dressed every day! Every day it's the same thing: white Haut Lac polo shirt, green Haut Lac sweatshirt, black or gray pants, black shoes. Simple! The boys' closets are overflowing with all of the other clothes they have. I guess we'll be buying fewer of those now that we're here, which will be a good thing considering how expensive all the clothes (along with everything else) are in Switzerland. By the way, how much would you expect we paid for 4 sweatshirts, 6 polo shirts, 2 school bags, 2 pairs of Haut Lac sweat pants (for gym), plus 2 gym bags. Answer: $450+.

Location: Haut Lac is French for "above the lake." I guess that's technically true, and the secondary school campus is up the hill a ways, but the boys' building is literally on the lakeshore. (Well, I guess not quite literally -- there is a pedestrian path between the building and the water.) View from the lunch room or playground is directly across Lac Leman at the French Alps. That's a view that I hope I never tire of or take for granted. Also, on Fridays we have putzed around on the lakeshore throwing stones into the lake or finding things to add to Elliot's Swiss "colekshun" (good phonetics anyway, Elliot).

Calvin (short) and Elliot (tall) playing along the lakeshore after school.

View from in front of Haut Lac looking east (toward Montreux and Valais).

Finally, the interesting part: Haut Lac hours (unlike many of the international schools here) pretty much follows the public school hours here in our canton of Vaud. That means 8:30 to 3:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It means classes are done by noon on Wednesday. Yes, in part of the great Swiss conspiracy to ensure women stay at home, Swiss schools are only half days on Wednesday. (Vaud is better than many of the Swiss cantons. Geneva, for example, has no school on Wednesdays.) Just to ensure that women find it difficult to work the other four days a week Swiss cantonal schools send kids home for lunch every day. Kids have a long lunch break -- about an hour and a half. Older kids walk home and back to school by themselves (that is from the age of about 6 or 7). Younger kids need to be accompanied by a parent. Most kids walk to school by themselves -- there's not much busing in the cities. It make it seem like there are schools everywhere because four times a day the streets are littered with clumps of kids walking to or from school.

By the way, there's an apparently extremely good Swiss school less than a five minute walk from our apartment. Our neighbors all assume our kids are going to school there and are appalled when they find that I drive 15 minutes to Vevey to bring them to school.* To the Swiss this is nearly equivalent to traveling the the US every day to bring out kids to and from school. They all think I'm completely nuts for making the drive. Of course, it takes me about half the time it used to take me to drive to work, and it's along the lake road, which makes it much more scenic! I actually find it very therapeutic.

Man, I hope I never get tired of this drive!

* Our biggest problem with sending the kids to a Swiss school is that they're taught in French, which seemed like too big a transition for the kids this soon. Haut Lac is taught either mostly in English (English section) or half English/half French (bilingual section).

We're Back (with apologies from the administrator)

Wow, I see that the last post was on January 10, the day before the boys started school! That was almost two weeks ago, and I've missed posting. I hope you've missed updates, too. The truth of the matter is I thought I'd have all kinds of time to post to the blog after the boys started school. But, I'd also been counting on that time to get things accomplished and get us settled, and that's been taking a lot longer than I'd anticipated.

Anyway, we're back. I've got a post coming up on the boys' school (Haut Lac) and Swiss schools in general. Within the next three-four days you will finally see that tour of our apartment that I promised. And, I'm hoping to get Laura to contribute a guest post on Swiss punctuality.

In the meantime, here are two pictures of us enjoying the real "LeDeck" (our balcony overlooking the lake) for the first time last Friday. We enjoyed cheese, salami, wine (for the adults), etc. as we watched the sun set over the lake last Friday evening. It's usually in the 30's during this time of year here, but we've had unseasonably warm weather and last Friday it was in the 50's.

Sunset over Lac Leman

The boys enjoying cheese (notice school uniforms).

Funny differences about Swiss apartments

It doesn't take long for you to really realize you're living in Switzerland when you arrive. Pretty much the day you walk into your apartment for the first time, you understand you're not living in the United States anymore. There are many differences, but here I'll just gloss over a few of the more amusing/interesting differences between American and Swiss housing.

First difference, of course, is that far fewer Swiss own their own homes. Nationally, about 35% own, but it's somewhat lower in urban areas like ours. Also, unfortunately for us, renting is extremely expensive here. Our apartment, which is slightly smaller than the house we left in Minneapolis (in livable space, not counting storage), rents for about three times what our mortgage was in the US.

But, enough with that boring stuff. Here are a few interesting things about renting in Switzerland:

• Storage space (that is, lack of it): When we were looking at apartments we wondered why everyone had these cheap IKEA wardrobes taking up valuable real estate in all the bedrooms and impeding access in hallways. Then we noticed: no closets! We're actually fortunate to have good closets in the bedrooms in our apartment, but still struggle to find places to store everything.

Blast door leading to the room
housing half our building's caves.

• Storage space, part 2, The "Cave": Every Swiss apartment seems to have one. They vary a bit in size, but ours is pretty standard. It's about 8 x 12 feet. Okay, Minnesota folks, that's your basement. Everything that isn't going in your living space, or a closet if you're lucky, is fitting in that space. Are you ready to take on the challenge? Interesting tidbit about caves: many of them are in what was once the house/apartment bomb shelter. Up until only 10 or 12 years ago, every Swiss home was required to have a bomb shelter, including blast door, portable toilet, bunks, emergency exit, etc. There was an inspection process, too, so you had to keep your bomb shelter in usable condition. I'm not sure who they were afraid was about to attack....

• Storage space, part 3, The "Box": If you're lucky, you may be able to pay extra for a garage in Switzerland and not have to park on the street or in a parking space. This garage is called a box, and that pretty much describes it. Unadorned, formed-concrete walls, one garage door, no other access, just enough space for a (small) car (forget about storage). In Minneapolis we had a very narrow garage and had to shimmy sideways to get in and out of the car. Here, I park against one wall and we all have to shimmy sideways to get into the car, then climb across the seats to get to the passenger side!

• Appliance Size: I'd planned to post a photo of our washing machine to give you a sense of the miniscule size of Swiss appliances, but it's hard to get a sense of the scale. I'll just say this: I thought we had a mini washing machine when we arrived and then found out from other expats that our washing machine, by Swiss standards is exceptionally large. I will admit that when I pull out the two (twin) sheets I can fit inside I am amazed that I was able to fit more than a pair of socks in there.

One of our light fixtures.
Tres chic!

• Light fixtures: When you move into your apartment it is pretty much completely empty, including light fixtures. In Switzerland, light fixtures are considered furnishings, and you take them with you when you move. We were lucky that someone had put in bare bulbs -- in many cases you'll find bare wires sticking out of the ceiling -- so at least we have light in the evening. Tomorrow we're hoping to go (somewhere?) to find light fixtures. Switzerland being Switzerland, I'm sure the store will be able to recommend some very expensive electricians to pick them up and install them sometime next week....

• Window "Blast Shields": Okay, they're not called this, and they're not blast shields. But, all I can think of is Star Wars, "But Ben, with the blast shield down I can't even see, how am I supposed to fight?!" All of the windows in Swiss apartments have shutters, or more commonly these rolling shutter "blast shields" that slide down over the glass. I've copied a picture of the shutters part way down in our kitchen, and you can see the rod you use to crank them diagonally in the right hand part of the shot. They're very practical, I guess, for keeping sun out of the house and potentially deterring intruders. They're also practical for us, because it means we don't need to buy window treatments -- just roll down the blast shields at night! Considering the Swiss predilection for holding onto their "furnishings" (see light fixture bullet above) I'm sure we would have been stuck finding window coverings for the whole darn apartment....

Well, as I said, I could go on and on. But, I think that's a good start for now!

Important Programming Note: I've been getting a few requests for pictures of our apartment. The boys start school tomorrow and then I'll have time to get some of the crates and barrels that are littering our apartment out and will put together some sort of photo tour. Stay tuned!

Great Things about Switzerland, Part 2

Our commune (village) of Pully has its own vineyard and cellar, and wine from the 2010 vintage is being sold during the month of January 2011! I mean, seriously, how cool is that?! Click here for a link to the page describing the vintage and sale. It's in French, which may give you problems, but basically, the gist of the page is that the community grows its own wines (white and red), that they've received some awards lately, and that they're for sale this month. I guess I'll be making a trek down to Pully Centre soon!

Pully coat of arms: Note the grapes!

A "typique" Swiss day

Today we decided to pretend we were real Swiss on a typical Saturday. Or, at least, we decided to pretend we were the people that are pictured in the postcards on all of the regional Swiss tourist offices and have a Swiss-image tourist impression of a "typical Swiss day."

Well, scratch that, because we started the day with a typical American breakfast of buttermilk pancakes. I found buttermilk at Coop! Our first real American breakfast! (We even found a meat resembling American bacon!) Okay, let's forget about that and move onto our "typical Swiss day."

The day starts with us driving down to the Pully Centre train station with Laura's passport (and passport photo) in hand so that she can buy her monthly Swiss train pass to make it slightly less expensive to get to work. You dummies -- Swiss train network offices are closed on Saturdays and Sundays. How typically Swiss!

Moving on, we depart Pully Centre without a monthly train pass but with high spirits for a great day.

Leysin. Beautiful? You decide.
 (Picture by Roland Zumbuehl, Arlesheim, courtesy Picswiss)

Pull off the motorway for our first fill-up of gas. $65 (equivalent) and <11 gallons later we pull back onto the motorway. Our destination: Leysin, a small resort town up in the mountains less than an hour's drive away. Our mission: snow tubing, or as they call it here, tobogganing (I know, I know).

Leysin is distinguished more by its proximity to Lausanne, not by its massive skiing or picturesque beauty. Although I feel ridiculous (and perhaps typically Swiss?) for saying that. Had we been snow tubing toboganning at this place anywhere within a day's drive of our home in Minneapolis I would have been awestruck. Now, two weeks in Switzerland and I'm thinking, it's okay, not much of a view....

Before we begin our snow tubing toboganning it's time for lunch. We again decided to do the typical Swiss thing and picnic. Driving through Leysin, though, we're having a hard time finding a place to do this. Had we gone directly to the snow tubing toboganning place we would have found a ridiculously cool snow cave with picnic bench inside just to suit our needs. But, we're not typically Swiss enough to think of this. So we drive around Leysin looking for a park bench. We finally spot one and make a quick maneuver to pull into a little turn-out next to the road. But, looking at the park bench, we reconsider (as it's in the shade), and there's a nice view over the valley directly in front of our car. So we lay our blanket down in front of the car, position Laura and me against the drop-off (another typically Swiss thing: no guard rails in front of death-inducing drops) and sit down to eat. Only after sitting down do we realize that we have parked in the neighborhood dog-business area. We are literally sitting on top of and surrounded by massive quantities of dog poop. I think everyone except Laura had already stepped in it, too. I'll leave the next few minutes of our adventure to your active imaginations, but while it's sort of funny to think back on, it was definitely not fun at the time.

What to say about snow tubing toboganning? The boys had fun. Here are pictures to prove it.

Oh, all right, there is something to say. The Swiss seem to be utterly unafraid of lawsuits. There were no restrictions as to how many tubes you and your friends could link together. The runs were ice-slick fast and heavily banked. The place offered free helmets but didn't insist that anyone wear one, etc. It was fun, but also very not-American.

Raclette cheese pulled out from the raclette grill.
It's not quite ready...

My meal with sides. Note potatoes with
yummy, gooey raclette cheese!

So we return home. What to eat after a day in the mountains? A typical Swiss meal, of course! No, not fondue. This is raclette, a traditional meal from Valais, the neighboring mountainous French-speaking canton. Here's how the meal goes. Pick a bunch of things to lay on a plate. It's really up to you, but typically would include some dry-aged meats, small pickles, pickled onions, maybe some fruit like sliced pears, perhaps some bacon. Then, boil some small potatoes. Put the potatoes on your plate along with whatever you like from the side dishes. Then, take raclette cheese, and put it inside a raclette machine that melts and browns a little bit the cheese. Pull your melted, gooey, yummy cheese out and scape it off over your potatoes (raclette is apparently French for "to scrape"). Pair this with some white Swiss wine and Voila! Oh. My. God. I think I have a new favorite meal. Seriously, like maybe better than prime rib meal. Laura thinks I'm insane. (But she really liked it, too. Still, the best meal? Jared, you're crazy!) I may be crazy, but I know what I like.

Absence of (initial) stress!

UPDATE: Saturday, Jan 8 (next morning)

Stress has returned. Still, last night was fun while it lasted!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

During dinner today, Laura remarked how no one seemed stressed! No snapping. No temper tantrums. But, really, you could just see that all four of us were relaxed and contented at the counter.

Laura started work on Wednesday, and three days in the office was enough, I think, for her to feel like she'll be able to do this. It's manageable, if a lot.

The boys have been playing well together the last few days. I think they're feeling like the apartment is home. They realize that while there are lots of cool (or not so cool) new and different things, there are plenty of things to keep them grounded, too. And, our family is together. They saw the school on Monday, and I think they're looking forward to starting next week and meeting some friends, but right now they're doing great just being friends.

For me, the apartment is still not settled, but it's much better than it's been. I've been able to accomplish about 1-1/4 tasks per day with the kids home. I'm looking forward to school starting next week. Give me one day and I think I can get the pictures hung and the cave in order. I need to make a trip to Hornbach (the equivalent of Home Depot), but I'm not trying to bring the kids there while I wander around for hours. But, at least I know where it is!

Hey, I'm not kidding myself. We're going to have a lot more stress, probably some depression, and tough times ahead before we get into a real rhythm here. But, for now we're doing pretty well! It feels good.

Le chat

a.k.a. Ezra

Poor quality photo: Cat's are no good at following directions.

Well, yesterday he arrived. I can't say I'd really been missing him, but on the positive side, I can't say I'm not happy he's here. It does make it seem like we're really home now. The boys, for one, are thrilled that he's here. And, really, that's the whole point.

All the experts, whoever they are, really really recommend that you bring your pets with you on an expat tour, especially if you have kids -- apparently it helps a lot with the transition, providing an attachment to home. This is the reason that Laura's employer covers (most of) the cost of bringing a pet. You couldn't imagine how much it costs to move a pet overseas. In our case, it will end up costing over $3500!

Here's an overview of Ezra's journey:

• Sometime in November: Ezra gets up to date on rabies vaccine. Also, a Feline Leukemia shot. Also, a rice-grain-sized RFID chip injected into his shoulder. This is required for entering Switzerland. Ezra already had an RFID chip in his shoulder, but of course we're from the US, so we use a 9 digit transmitter that is incompatible with the standard 15 digit RFID transmitter that the rest of the world uses. So, now Ezra has two RFID chips in his neck.
• December 21: We put Ezra into the kennel at our vet. It would be nice if he didn't need to be there so long, but our house closes on December 22.
• December 27: Our vet examines Ezra and fills out required entry paperwork that will have to be reviewed and approved by the USDA. This has to happen within 10 days of entering Switzerland. We're supposed to be there, but Laura pre-paid and pre-approved on 12/21 since we're touching down in Geneva about the same time Ezra is being looked at by the vet.
• January 3: Someone picks up Ezra from the vet and kennels him near the airport. Ezra will fly out very early the next morning, before the vet is open. I'm not sure who kenneled him or how much it will cost  (but I'm sure we'll be getting the bill soon).
• January 4: Ezra is picked up from the kennel and then flies from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Houston, then from Houston to Newark. He spends the night at a "kitty hotel" at Newark airport.
• January 5: Ezra flies from Newark to Zurich, landing in the morning on Jan. 6.
• January 6: Some poor soul (who we later find out is a pleasant man named Pasquale) greets Ezra at the Zurich airport, shepherds him through Swiss customs, and loads him in a van for the 2-1/2 drive to Pully. I know how Ezra travels -- not well. 

Ezra's cage, complete with stickers.

We were just finishing lunch when the doorbell rang. The kids shouted with joy, leapt from their stools, and sprinted for the front door. They were extremely happy to see Ezra and very curious about his trip. Do you remember those old Loony Tunes cartoons when Bugs Bunny would streak around the world in 5 seconds and return to the screen with a suitcase covered in stickers and stamps from all the cities he'd been through? Ezra's cage reminded me of those cartoons with its variegated appearance: dotted with bright fluorescent stickers and labels and covered in various types of packing tape. He had some of his old food strapped to the top of the cage, so he's actually been enjoying American cat food before we switch him to the better Swiss stuff. (I mean, it has to be better, right? It costs twice as much as the special natural food we'd been buying him in the US. Like most pets, he probably eats better than we do.)

I did have to repeatedly remind the boys not to bother Ezra as we opened the cage and let him out. He tentatively moved out of the cage, and they dutifully stayed 9 - 12 inches away from him (away, not far away) as he examined every square inch of his new territory three or four times. Finally, after about three hours he came over to us and started rubbing up against us asking for rubs and pets, and since that time he's been the same old cat just as if he'd never left our Minnesota house. Apparently, cats get over the stress of moving quite a bit faster than people do!

*** One last note about the move. It required a lot of coordination and effort (and money) on our part to get him here, but we couldn't have done it without the help of a pet relocation company (another thing I never knew existed three months ago). Petrelocation.com was really great about the move. They coordinated all the flights and drivers, coordinated with our vet, handled much of the paperwork, etc. They did a great job. Maybe too great a job, in my mind. I mean, he is just a cat, right? But, I think petrelocation.com is really a great service, especially for people who see their pets as a true part of the family instead of just as a pet. (I'm kind of "just as a pet" guy, but I may be in a minority in our family on this one. ***

Great Things about Switzerland, Part 1

Toilet Paper!

I have to admit that six days ago I never thought I'd be singing the praises of Swiss toilet paper. In fact, to be honest, I didn't even like Swiss toilet paper when I first used it. However, those of you who have used professional packers/movers will understand that lots of weird things get moved to your new house. I've heard stories of trash cans getting packed...with the trash. Well, we didn't have that happen, but they did ship a half-used roll of toilet paper from our master bathroom. So, finding it cushioned inside wrapping paper, and having finished our first roll of Swiss toilet paper, I decided that we should probably polish it off. And, after using it today after an average bathroom evolution, I can tell you all that US toilet paper is total crap!!!!


Talk to anyone who has worked for P&G or Kimberly-Clark and they will tell you that Americans care about one thing regarding toilet paper: softness. Chemists spend years trying to decode the secret to providing the softest swaddling of American behinds, sourcing virgin fibers from Canadian forests to create 2-ply sheets of the softest, lightest, most ephemeral material one can find. Swiss care nothing about softness -- they're all business. The goal, post-movement, is cleanliness. So, Swiss toilet paper is made up of 3 plies of sturdy, thick paper. To heck with comfort; there's a mission to be accomplished here!

3-Ply toilet paper from Sean Fallon at gizmodo.com

Two weeks ago I was with the Americans. But, after a week spent wielding the sturdy Swiss shield of paper, this afternoon I suddenly found myself approaching the task with morbid trepidation, painfully worried that the US 2-ply softness would not stand up to the task of prohibiting contact between my hand and something that I dare not speak about here (and barely want to contemplate in the bathroom). The US toilet paper did stand up to the job, but I used about three times the volume as I once used in the US, and it's a process I hardly want to repeat tomorrow.

So, as of today, count me as a strong advocate for Swiss toilet paper!

*** Added Swiss toilet paper bonus: By law (I think) European toilet paper has to be made up of at least 50% recycled paper content. The toilet paper we bought was 100% recycled, which is easy to find -- it makes up about half of the shelf space in stores. We usually used recycled TP in the states, but it was very difficult to find. My brother goes to great lengths to seek it out with the personal mantra, "They're not cutting down trees just so I can wipe my @$$." ***

Registering with the Commune of Pully

Tomorrow is a very big day. We will register with our commune: Pully (POO-yee). This is the big event that will allow us to do things like register our car, buy train passes, get a driver's license, open a bank account, get a cell phone, and most important get permission to receive our Permit B -- our Swiss residency permit. Tomorrow morning, we won't actually receive the Permit B, but if we're lucky and assertive enough, we will walk out with a "letter of attestation," which will still allow us to do these things. The actual Permit B will come (hopefully) in a few weeks.

Switzerland is unique because it really is a confederation of individual states (cantons) which are a further confederation of communes (towns or villages, basically). It's really the dream of most of my Republican friends, because the federal government does not have very strong powers. Our registration and residency, for example, is really driven by the commune and the canton. In fact, any significant federal law changes generally require a direct referendum of all of the citizens. Unlike in the US, however, every citizen is required by law to vote. And, apparently, a typical referendum can run into the dozens of pages. So, in any case, while we will have a Swiss residency permit, it is really authorized by the canton of Vaud (Voe) acting on behalf of the commune of Pully.

Tomorrow is also a big day because, assuming we get a letter of attestation, we hope to open our Swiss bank account and then meet with an insurance agent to get insurance. (What insurance? A lot of insurance. That may be a topic for another post.) Opening a Swiss bank account is really nothing like you see in the movies, or maybe it is if you have a few million dollars you want to deposit, which we obviously do not! Credit Suisse is out, because they don't give credit cards to Americans. We have heard that the cantonal bank (BCV) has a quota for the number of Americans they'll allow to open accounts. Perhaps we'll be lucky since we'll be meeting with them on January 4. Or, perhaps we'll go the route of basically all of the expats we know and open with UBS. I don't think they'll be very impressed when we want to open an account with...hmm, maybe $500?

So, I guess we'll close with a little bit about our commune or village of Pully. Pully is basically an inner-ring suburb of Lausanne. We can drive to central Lausanne in about 10 minutes, or be at the Gare de Lausanne (Lausanne train station) with a 2 minute train ride from our nearest train station, Pully-Nord (about a 5 minute walk). Pully has about 16,000 residents, and about a quarter of those are foreign nationals. It's somewhat unique in that it has two train stations: Gare de Pully and Gare de Pully-Nord. The Pully village center is located on the downhill side of Gare de Pully. Everything around here is on a hill sloping down to Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), either a steep hill or a really steep hill. Our apartment is located up on the hillside looking over the town and the lake. It would take us about 5 minutes to walk down to Pully-Nord, another 5-10 minutes to walk down to Pully Center, and another 15 minutes or so to walk down to the lakeshore. Coming back up the hill, you may want to extend those times! I guess we're ending with our apartment. So, if you're lucky and it's a clear day (we've had one of those since we got here), you can look out from our living room over the town of Pully, across Lake Leman, and see the French Alps looming over the horizon. At night you can see the lights of Evian across the water. It's really not a bad place to be....

Eating in Switzerland, Part 1

Swiss grocery stores

(This is the first in a probably unending number of posts on Swiss eating and food-buying. I already know what post #2 and #3 will be. Stay tuned, because #2 will be pretty interesting....)

My dad keeps asking about the neighborhood fromagerie and boucherie, etc. He loves the idea of traipsing out on his own and visiting with the shop owners, sampling some cheese, stopping to talk to a butcher, etc. Dad, I've got good news! I did find the local fromager -- but it's not a cute little shop in a 300 year old house; his shop is in the little concrete-form-construction strip mall attached to the train station. And, really, when it comes to buying food in Switzerland, you're essentially talking about visiting one of the two Swiss grocery chains: Migros (MEE-grow) or Coop (COPE). The only real difference, so far as I can tell so far, is that Coop sells wine and liquor, and Migros doesn't. Oh, and Migros has a medium orange logo and Coop has dark orange and light orange (oooohhh)....

I made two "essentials" runs to the grocery store on my own, but we all went to the grocery for the first time two days ago. I needed help, because I can't buy everything myself. In a sea of different cleaners on the shelf that I can only differentiate by color, I needed someone to be able to read the labels for me and tell me which one can be used on wood floors, for example. I assumed they were the brown-tinged ones that looked kind of the same color as Pine-Sol or Murphy's Oil Wax in the US, but is that a good way to make a choice when our parquet floors are at stake? Especially when we just found out that damage claims when renters move out of apartments in Switzerland can run into the thousands of dollars?!

So, I needed Laura's help. And, when it comes to cleaning products I have control issues, so I couldn't send her out to buy them by herself. That meant the kids were coming, too. So, we plugged "Coop" into the tomtom, looked for the biggest sounding one (Coop Supercentre, Lausanne) and headed off.

*** Sidenote: Why did I need Laura? No, she's no better at reading French than I am, but remember that Switzerland has three official languages. So, while pretty much all of the help at the store only speak French (or at least, only admit to speaking French), all of the products are labeled in German, French and Italian. And, I have a really good  German speaking wife (don't bother asking -- she'll never admit it). ***

Of course, while our main objective on Friday was to go shopping, we didn't end up striking out until late afternoon. And, of course, Swiss supermarkets get really busy in late afternoon/early evening because they close by 7 pm. And, of course, because it was coming up on a holiday weekend, the grocery stores would be closed on Saturday instead of only Sunday (and maybe even Monday), so, well, I don't need to explain. The store was packed. And, 30 minutes in, I'm still trying to decide whether I should buy the Coop brand CFL lightbulb or pay twice as much for the Philips light bulb to get the "rapid start" technology. We haven't even made it to the detergent aisle yet, to say nothing about getting to any of the food.

So, we've been in this packed grocery store for nearly an hour and a half. Laura has gone to the aisle of chocolate (seriously, the grocery stores here have a whole aisle of chocolate bars) and found the one chocolate bar in all of Switzerland that doesn't have nut cross-contamination and pulled out a couple of squares because the kids are starting to completely lose it, and I'm looking for bacon. Do you know how much meat Swiss must eat? Refrigerated case upon refrigerated case of processed meat products: lots and lots of sausage, and unsliced bacon, but how does one slice bacon, anyway? I'm trying to picture myself slicing off thin ribbons of bacon with our extremely expensive Wusthof knives, and I just can't see it. I can hear American accents that are obviously my kids eight aisles over that are on the verge of screaming, and I grab some traditional Vaudoise (our region) sausage that looks sort of like breakfast sausage (we'll find out on Saturday it doesn't taste that way), and scurry off for the last two items on my list: pasta and rice.

And, this is where I begin to understand what the word "foreign" means. I mean, pasta and rice, they're about the same aren't they? Have I completely forgotten, or aren't pasta and rice usually in the same aisle in US grocery stores? Or at least in adjacent aisles? I think of them as really pretty similar foods and meals. Both starches that can serve as either a base of a meal or a as a side. I find the pasta pretty quickly, but I just can't seem to find the rice. So, I start what I think is a pretty reasonable search plan for the rice -- it would be a good idea for a lost person. Start in the last known location, and make concentric circles working your way out. I start at the pasta aisle and start working my way further and further out. You know where this is going. Pasta was in an aisle basically in the center of the store. When I found the rice, it was in the middle of a shelf on the outside side wall of the grocery. Did I cover the entire grocery store before I found the rice? No, but I did cover a good 80+%....

So, we were finally done. By some miraculous turn of events we happened upon a cashier with no line and were able to begin the process of unloading our overflowing 1/3 US-size shopping cart of food. We had also miraculously remembered our own bags, and the check-out process went very smoothly, even though we have to bag our own groceries (Ah, I'm from Minneapolis! I've shopped at Cub and Rainbow! I can do this!). But, the conveyor moves about 3 times faster than in Minnesota. And, all of the packages are very fragile. And nearly-supersonic-speed food items are alternately crushing our groceries or my hands as I'm trying to set a world-record pace for bag stuffing. And the line behind the cashier is rapidly growing and many Swiss eyes are rolling in our general direction. And our really not very adequate shopping list (as of Sunday most of the food is already gone) came to over $400.

But, success! We're done! We escaped in less than two hours! The boys, although annoying many patrons, have not killed each other!

And, we have many (I hope much briefer) stories and excitement that we will be able to share later:

- Shopping carts and how you get them (boys were entranced by this)
- Parking spaces (you're not in the USA anymore)
- Swiss people love Swiss food (and Swiss everything), aka, how a 7 million person country can have one of the highest standards of living in the world
- Labeling your own produce
- Speaking of produce, mm yum, do they ever have good produce here!
- Swiss liquor prices (urg) but also Swiss wine and Champagne prices (yay!)
- Etc.