hanging out and chasing lizards

Sorry for not blogging sooner - life is just flying by here. We have been to Geneva (or thereabouts), Italy - Sue even got back to California in the mix. There were so many funny little stories to tell, and yet nothing so exciting that it had to be told. We have tucked in lots of hiking and lots of eating, lots of biking and lots of sleeping. Sounds like we never left California...

Being here is different,though. We had a nice picnic in the park with a set of parents and kids from the school: a couple from Toronto (husband here for some banking job) and another from Houston (husband in the shipping business). They had been here 9-12 months, and said that you never really feel like you are here. I don't know if that is a function of thinking this is temporary, or not fitting into the culture, or the fact that it feels like vacation everyday because you are surrounded by people who talk a foreign (to you) language and hence you logically conclude that you must be on vacation. I have hope that when we move to our "permanent" housing in July that we will feel more settled - but then the parade of California friends will start arriving, bringing on that vacation vibe - practically the entire summer. So maybe, in September or so, when everyone is gone and the kids are back in school, maybe then we will start to feel settled in and "at home"...or maybe...

Our friend Aslam drew a graph on a piece of paper the other night. He said he had gotten the chart from a friend who had been an expat a while back. Imagine a line drawn from left to right showing time marching on, with a little hill at the beginning, followed by a huge trough at least 5-10 times as big as the hill, followed by an flat line that is a small amount higher than where you started. He said this is your mood on an expat assignment - excitement at first, followed by a long, large deep depression, followed by some level of acceptance that makes you a tad happier than you were when you arrived but not as high as the high you had on the little hill when you first got here. It was actually quite depressing because I could imagine it isn't far from the truth - isn't this supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime, this amazing life experience you can't have just staying at home?

Well, when we went for a bike ride this weekend, we passed by a set of garden plots. It is quite common here, as so many people live in apartments, that they can rent a piece of land (probably 20' X 30' or so) and have a nice garden, often with veggies, flowers, an occasional pond and most often a shelter with table and benches and a grill. So as we passed the garden plots, we saw group after group - be it family or friends - with wine and beer and the grill going, out for a Sunday meal together. That to me, was witness to an amazing life experience. Getting together with friends and family to eat and celebrate nothing more than the joy of another weekend is really as good as it gets - anywhere in the world.

But wait - I finally rememberd a story worth telling - and I have a picture to boot. On one of our great hikes in Italy (props to the two boys for being good sports and keeping up) we found a bright green lizard with a bright blue head. You would have thought we were in Costa Rica or something - what is a technicolor lizard doing in Northern Italy? Anyway, Eric and Karl became obsessed chasing this lizard to get the perfect picture - they must have spent 15 minutes chasing it from one bush back to another - you could see the poor thing breathing its little lungs out from exhaustion (I was praying it was not some rare almost-extinct species). Finally they chased it up the tree, and - wala - our nature photography at its best.

Anyone who can ID the lizard for us gets a prize!

Ciao!

The Three Year Old Man and the 1017 CHF Parking Garage Fee

In the last few weeks we have really begun to settle down and start a routine: Eric getting the kids to school, Sue getting to work, dinner together in the evening, homework and then off to bed. A quick yet welcome disruption to our routine was the final arrival of our air shipment. It had been delayed for a week or so due to the volcano, but finally arrived bringing a series of Christmas-like events of toys (for the kids) and shoes (for Sue) that had been absent for the last four weeks. Now it is surprising how once you don’t live with something for four weeks, you really don’t miss it anymore (except shoes). So we are now in a mix blessing state of liking all the new things we are rediscovering traded off with the fact that more stuff needs to be put away and more stuff needs to be cleaned up. It is amazing how little you can actually live with…

One of the recent trips we took was up to Schwieberdingen (outside of Stuttgart in Germany) to visit Sue’s cousin Michael Hatbauer, along with his wife Iris, 6 year old daughter Sina, and 3 year old son Tom. Michael had spent the summer with us when we lived in Emeryville, so we have the close relationship with him that comes from having lived in tight quarters for longer than a few days. So we were welcomed with open arms, but only seconds after arriving, Michael had an announcement to make: die ganze Wochenende sollen wir nur auf Deutsch reden (the whole weekend we only speak German!)! Eric protested, but again Michael knows Eric – so there was no arguing. About half way through the weekend Eric had a bit of a breakdown, and he admitted that he felt like a 3 year old man with his struggles with the language (though truthfully Tom was speaking better German than Eric). To his credit, Eric did a great job, and the kids even joined in the German fun – Eric is more committed more than ever to learning German – and as he is using it everyday we expect fast progress.

The weekend with the Hatbauers was a ton of fun. There was lots of eating, and lots of Kaffee und Kuchen! We went to traditional May Day festivals in the town Iris grew up in – complete with May pole, little girls dancing and weaving ribbons around the base, and an umpah band right out of the Music Man with men fashioning handlebar mustaches. Perhaps our little town of Corte Madera should erect a May Pole??? We then spent Sunday on a great hike through towns to a Besenwirtshaft Festival – effectively a farmer’s cooperative / wine inn which once or twice a year throws a weekend festival of bratwurst, French fries, and potato salad along with big beers and local made wine. All was good except Bennett’s non-stop whining on the hike, but you can’t blame the kid as it was raining slightly and was his fifth or sixth big hike (>2 hours) in less than three weeks. Mom and Dad – can’t we just stay in and watch TV once in a while?

We celebrated Karl’s birthday this Monday – the big 0-9! We went out to dinner (now a special treat – I still gag at ordering a $5 soda for the kids) and Karl got his Swiss Army Knife (don’t you give your kids knives on their birthday?) but he really lit up at getting a cactus – just like his Oma! After dinner the family headed to Sue’s work as she had taken the car that morning to drive her boss around. She parked in the nearby garage, but had gotten an exit ticket from her admin so we could leave cost free. We were all a bit tired and bordering on cranky but got to the car and started driving out of the garage – only to find that the ticket would not let us exit, but that we owed 17 CHF. With a heavy sigh, Sue backed up the car and parked next to the exit and Eric got out to pay the ticket so we could just get home.

Time passed. And passed.

It must have been close to 15 minutes when Eric finally came back, with one of the garage attendants. You could hear Eric getting friendly with the attendant in German:” mein Sohn Karl hat Geburtstag heute!” echoing off the garage walls as he approached. “You won’t believe this “, he started as he got to the car. Turns out he found the kiosk and put in the ticket, and then followed it with a 20 CHF bill to pay the ticket – turns out that it then asked for more money – 997 CHF as a matter of fact. So our little exit ticket must have been another exit ticket I had from entering the month or so before – asking us for 1017 CHF, instead of our naïve assumption of the bargain price of 17 CHF. The kind attendant, probably mystified by the outrageous ticket as well as tired from Eric’s broken German let us out for free. Nice to know there is a limit to how expensive things can be, even in Switzerland…

This weekend it is off to Geneva to visit Suze and Didi – old friends from Genentech. And stay tuned - Eric will tell you tomorrow about the tram wreck he was in…

The Art of Garbage

Now one of the first things that really changed us already was garbage. The rules here around garbage are so extraordinary, that if this system was implemented in the US it would change the country overnight. What could possibly change the way you think about garbage? Well, let me explain...

First, food here is really expensive. Eric was notorious at home that if he wasn't in the mood for leftovers, he would eat what he wanted and throw the left overs away. Here, with basic meat for a meal costing $30 or more, you can virtually see little $$ on each bite. We are getting used to the prices slowly (Sue will probably go crazy next time she is in a supermarket in the States), but it still makes you cautious to eat everything. The other reason you don't want to throw it away is...

Here in Switzerland, you do not have a monthly fee for garbage service - you pay for every bag. In Basel you actually pay 2 CHF (about $2) for each special garbage bag (the little kitchen size bags) - here in the suburbs you can buy plain old trash bags, but you have to put these tax coupon stickers on each bag. So even though at home you pay a monthly fee that probably adds up to about the same, when you put that sticker on the bag, you are completely concious of the money you are spending to throw things away - so you do everything you can to not throw things away. There is less packaging that comes with food, so that helps. I think in the first week we actually only used one bag - much less than we would use at home. In the US when you have a whole garbage can to fill, you don't even think about it. Heck, if you make more than your can full, you go to the neighbors and borrow some space from their can - not here, no way.

And that brings us to recycling. Obviously, with the concern here about garbage, recycling is a big deal, too. Now in the US they come to your house and pick up the recycling - it is probably the only way we would actually do it. Here, remember, you don't want it in your trash because you would have to pay more - so they don't come to you - you have to bring it to recycling "stations" around the city. It isn't quite clear what to do, as each recycling station may only take some things - glass only, no plastic; glass and cans, plastic bottles only. So we have had a pile building up in the kitchen, that once in a while gets smaller when Eric can find a place to take those things - inevitably some things come back home as we can't find the place to drop them off.

The best, though, was the recycling section in the "Welcome to Basel" book we got from the relocation people when we got here. They have 5 full pages of items listed in alphabetical order, so you can read where to take it. Quite handy, and useful to figure out where everything can go. It covers the gamut, from electronic equipment, to car tires to the basics like glass and plastic bottles. But the best part of the directory was the added commentary regarding how you should lead your life - let me give you some of the best examples (word for word - no editing on my part):

Cans: Try to buy seasonal fruits and vegetables as much as possible. Take cans ot the metal collection or give them to the metal collector.

Battery Recycling: When possible use carbon zinc batteries. Avoid alkali/manganese batteries - they contain more mercury. Purchase rechargeable batteries and a recharger. Also consider a plug in AC/DC adapter or charger to use with appliances. Return old batteries to the store.

Disposable Diapers: In the garbage, never the WC. Here is another case where avoiding the use of something is better than disposing of it. The routine use of disposable diapers on most babies today is one of the major causes of hte growing refuse problem. Cloth diapers, while intensive in terms of human energy are still cost effective and environmentally friendly.

Wow, think what disposable diapers costs in terms of garbage tax coupons!

tulips. volcanos, and fire

Tulips

So spring has sprung here in Basel, and it is amazing. We can grow anything in California, but we can't grow tulips like they have here in Switzerland. Not only are people's yards full of them, but the city medians and tram stops are full of the most amazing arrangements - Corte Madera Beautification Committee, eat your heart out. To go past just tulips, the magnolia trees and other trees are all in crazy bloom - it is just wow wow wow everywhere you go. As there has been little rain and no wind, it seems like it will last forever, but today was the first day I saw the beginning of the end - tulips starting to open wide; leaves starting to show up on the trees - I need to keep enjoying these bulbs and spring blooms as I can tell that they will pass soon.

Volcanos

Some people e-mailed asking us if the volcano was affecting us - so here is the update: we couldn't see any ash here in Switzerland, but truthfully I don't think you could see it anywhere (except maybe Iceland itself). The impact was huge, though - not only for Sue's company (drugs don't ship either when planes are not flying) but people at her company (stranded for a week), and our friend Rob, our official first visitor, had to take a train from Brussels instead a plane. But he got here nonetheless, and we were thrilled with his second visit, on the way back from Milan, because he couldn't get a flight back to Frankfurt to get back home. It was also an amazing sight to NOT see any planes flying all weekend - ala September 11th - made us all realize how little control we really have sometimes...

Fire

Now this is the best part. Some people have asked us what feels different - well, let me tell you, it is the joy of fire. Switzerland is every boy's dream come true - there is fire and the possibility of fire EVERYWHERE. We have gotten out frequently to go hiking - there are amazing trails everywhere, and just 10 minutes from our temporary housing there are great woods to go hiking through. And every 10 minutes or so in the woods you find fire pits - some like campfires at campsights - nice and official; some just spots off the trail where someone could not contain themselves and had to build a fire.

You think I am joking, but I am not - ask Rob - he saw it, too. He actually helped us stoke an old set of coals back into a fire.

The official fire pits are for people to come and grill and picnic - and the signs say it is ok to collect wood as long as it has fallen down (no chopping down your own trees) - but it is hard to imagine for a California girl that it is ok to start fires in the middle of the woods!

So the kids had fun adding to the stoked fire - closing it out with a pee-ing ceremony as you should put out any fire that you start. Next time we will have to make an official grill out and bring along the picnic.

What else is going on? Bennett celebrated his 7th birthday (got a Swiss Army knife), Karl is excelling at German class, and Eric lost both of their backpacks on the tram one day. All in a day in Switzerland...

Wilkommen Switzerland!!

So we can't believe we are finally here (see photo of our new doorbell)! After all the months of discussion and planning, we finally arrived here in Switzerland on April 6th. The weeks leading up to getting here were quite an adventure:


First, there was closing out the remodel on our house. Everything came down to the wire (funny how it works that way) with the final work both on the driveway (one contrator) and the interior finishing (another contractor) and refurbishing the pool (another contractor) all wrapping up in the last two weeks of our stay in California. Eric had a triple digit punch list that required daily management - at times hour by hour agendas to coordinate between people getting into the house, pick ups of various items - let's just say there was a lot to do those last two weeks just to get the house ready just to leave it.


Second, were all the festivities. Wolfe our neighbor actually characterized the last few weeks as feeling like the Christmas season - so many get togethers with friends! First, we had a going away party thrown by close friends; then Sue's brother and his clan came to visit; then there was the going-away party we threw, complete with taco truck for 140 of our closest friends; then three days later we had 20 or so people drop in for Eric's 50th birthday; then a going away dinner with the neighbors, and let's not forget Easter dinner with the Grams and Pardellas. And all of that does not include additional going away parties from the kid's friends (who will forget St. Patrick's day at Skunk Hollow with 800 gold coins hidden for the kids to find!), the kid's teachers, Sue's work... it was an amazing time to connect with friends and realize how lucky we are to have such great people in our life. A few special Thank You shouts:

- Thank you Rene and Sarah for the great going away dinner - complete with Switerland quiz!

- Thank you Jenny and Jamie for the suprise party and treasure hunt!

- Thank you Dana for the Rick Steve's book and protecting some treasures that we didn't want to move!

- Thank you Tom and Anke for feeding us our last three nights, taking the kids for a sleepover, and baby-sitting the cacti - we so appreciate all your support!



So the excitement really started on March 29th, when a random question from another coworker moving to Switzerland started a crisis: "How long will it take at the Consulate to process my visa?" What visit to the consulate? We didn't have a plan to spend time there -no one told us we had to do anything!! Logic would assume we knew this, but we had been told in December that we didn't need to do anything else. So balls were dropped, and we had to crash our schedules to get to the consulate, and through some amazing string pulling we got our visas in our passports by April 1st.

That was the day when the movers came to take everything away. We mean everything. Quick as a flash, two days later, all was gone, and we finally had the feeling that this was real, and there was no going back. We spent three nights at the Marin Suites (quite nice, actually) and tried to fit in all the last minute things: buy new school supplies for the kids (as much as is available in the US), clean the property of all final trash, install curtain rods (did not all get done), and get the kids haircuts (that didn't happen).

So our flight on Monday night was smooth as silk - and the kids must have slept at least 9 of the 11 1/2 hours (I guess when you are so small in that business class seat it really does feel like your bed at home!). We did get questioned at customs due to our cardboard boxes for luggage (any motor parts in there? anything purchased in the last 6 months?) - once we explained that we were moving here, the smiles started and all was good. Our arrival had the small hickup of no one there to pick us up, but one quick phone call remedied that, so we got to our temporary apartment in fine shape. We will be here until July when our permanent residence in Basel is available.

So Week 1 has been fine - sleeping is not so good but getting better (what fun to be up from 2 am to 5 am with Bennett who refuses to sleep and is asking questions like: why is life so long? how do you know if someone wants to be cremated or buried [and when he asked me what I want and I said cremated he started crying so I had to take it back]?), and food shopping is really expensive. But for the most part things have been really smooth - let's see what Week 2 brings as school starts for the boys...

Action on this side and that side of the Atlantic...

So here I sit, in the wee hours of Valentine's Day, having just returned from Switzerland (you have to love jet lag!). I had been there for the last four weeks for work, and Eric and the boys joined me for a week to find a home and get our bearings on Basel and what is to come. At the same time, Eric has been managing our remodel in California, getting our dream house even dreamier so we can leave it for someone else to enjoy (where is the logic in that? don't ask). Here are some of the highlights:

Basel, Switzerland

Basel is an amazing city. It only has 188,000 people, but has a big city's worth of museums, theaters, and apparently was voted somewhere the best opera in Europe (I can't find a citation, so don't quote me). It is clean, safe, charming, and has a tram system that will take you anywhere in about 10 minutes give or take a few. The Rhine river cuts right through town, so there are charming bridges as well as a river side promenade that just makes you want to get out and walk. And unlike a lot of other European cities I have been to, there is a lot of great international cuisine (we couldn't even keep count of the Thai restaurants) that really is good - probably due to the high percentage of international inhabitants.

So the last four weeks have been cold cold cold - apparently the coldest winter they have seen in a long time. The city itself must have gotten snow at least four or five times, and luckily I remembered to bring hats, scarves, and gloves which were all put to good use. Eric and the boys arrived the second week prepared as well, so the complaining was at a minimum.

Eric had come so we could find a place to live. We had been prepared that living in Europe is different than living in the US - we had low expectations for a free standing house or large garden, but our stress was still high that we would find something suitable for our loud and high energy boys (and loud and high energy us!). We spent two days looking at accommodations - ranging from apartments to row houses, to even the unexpected free standing house with a yard. The first apartment was so dreary that I almost started crying - Eric was thinking the same: whose dumb idea was this anyway to move to Europe?. There was nothing wrong with it - it just had no character, no charm, no yard, no light, and on and on... In retrospect, I was wondering if this is a strategy: that they take you somewhere first that is really miserable so your expectations get so low that you would take just about anything.

The next place boosted our spirits - the ever elusive freestanding house, with a yard and an actual swimming pool (with 4 inches of ice - brrrr!). It had some charm, though lacked a good guest room (we would have to put people in the basement), the kitchen was small, and the area was a mix of large apartment buildings which took away from a neighborhood feel. We then proceeded to see at least 6 other places -I can barely remember them all. One that stood out was an amazing row house in town. It was old with nice character, a huge garden and huge rooms- the dining room table of the current tenants must have been at least 15 feet long! The only draw back here is that the owner was going to subdivide the building and put in an elevator in the front of the house - by our estimates ruining the space. The whole idea really fell through when Eric returned the second day to find out the walking / squeaking of the upstairs unit would wake the dead below, and that the landlord would have to put an unlocked door at the top of the stairs as a fire escape. Access to my home from some other tenants? We didn't think so.

We started to feel like one of those couples on "House Hunters" - where they show you three places, and nothing is perfect, but you make the trade offs and they finally pick a winner. However, Eric started to question if we hold off until we get here in April and then find a place we really like. My stress shot through the roof - not knowing where you were going to live meant you didn't know what to bring, and what extra furniture you needed to buy. This was getting miserable again...

Then, as always seems to happen in our lives, we had some incredible luck come our way. One of my coworkers, Aslam, had a friend from another company in Basel who was going to leave in June - did we want to look at his place? Eric went over - turns out it was just around the corner from the great big row house that was to be subdivided. Eric came back that night raving - it wasn't as big, but the finishes were nice, the rooms a good size, and it felt like home. So sight unseen by me, we made the arrangements to lease it. I got a chance to go last week and finally see it - Eric was right - it just felt like home. We will have great space for guests, an easy walk or tram ride into town and work, and a school across the street for kicking a soccer ball or playing on the playground. As it is not available until July 1st (and we need to move in April -both for my work and to get the boys in school), we will start in some temporary housing. However as it takes 6 weeks for your stuff to ship over, we will look at is as a first adventure until we really settle down in July.

Corte Madera, California

So the action here at home has been even more intense, as we are working our way through the remodel we had planned since last July. Eric has been the hero here, arranging all the necessary decisions, and making sure that nothing is missed. Eric alone was responsible for making sure the driveway and it's associated walls all pass inspection for their height and position - no easy feet, with only one or two inches of play across the whole thing!

So as our garage was going up, Eric coordinated our inside moves so the office was empty when they needed to come in there, and the boys rooms were empty when they needed to start work there. And if that wasn't enough, we also tackled our decrepit pool - all new surface, all new tile, all new equipment - we finally got our skimmer back! Makes me want to go swimming!

These moves facilitated the "purge" for moving - lots of Goodwill runs along with Big Trash pickups - though there is still a lot of stuff to do, I feel we have a handle on all of it. With 7 weeks to go, we should be able to get through with minimal last minute rushes (at least don't break my optimistic illusion).

The new additional burden is prospective renters coming through. Though we are not yet ready to "show" the house, we have had a parade of folks already coming through to look at it. This has kept Eric on his toes to keep the house relatively clean, and it appears at this point that renting it should be easy - keep your fingers crossed for us!

When this gets done it will be the last piece in place to really sink in that our next plane tickets really will be one way. Switzerland, here we come!

The Beginning!

Who would have thought? This fall everything seemed like a rush: Thanksgiving, getting ready for our house remodel project, Christmas around the corner... and yeah, we had to get ready to move to Switzerland....

I am taking a new job starting in January, managing planning and processes for the process development group at Roche. My boss and I agreed that I would be more successful if I was in Switzerland for the next few years. And so off we go! The family is excited at the adventure: learning a new language, new culture and customs, new cities to explore and mountains to hike. However, sitting here at the end of December, planning a move in March, it all seems so daunting...

What comes with us? What stays here? What gets thrown away (will this be the biggest category)? With the kids in school, Eric managing the remodel, and me at work at my new job (including traveling), it does not seem possible that we will have enough time to arrange it all. Middle of March is just 12 weeks away...

Sue