What we love (and don't love) about Switzerland

So at dinner tonight, I asked everyone what they like and don't like about Switzerland - here are some of the responses:

Bennett: He likes the chocolate, and the cows. When probed on the cows, he commented that they make such good milk here. We asked if the milk tasted any different, and he said no. Perhaps just the fact that he has met cows here (which you don't often get the chance to do in California) now makes the milk a bit more personal.

Karl: Trams. Actually, on our ride home today, Karl asked to stop so he could take the tram the rest of the way, that is how much he likes it. He can quote any tram # and describe it's route - he has amazed us when we are in the middle of a part of town we have never been before but he can tell us exactly what tram line runs through.

Eric: He likes that the pace of life here is a bit slower - and it really feels nice. It is puzzling, but somehow being on the hamster wheel of life you don't often think there is any other option but to keep on spinning. Eric also commented previously how much he likes our house here. We finally did the final push to unpack - see Bennett lost among the boxes - and now it really feels like home.




Sue: She loves the walking - that you walk everywhere, and you find the time to do it. At home the Safeway was a 10 minute walk from our house and we would rarely think to do it (because we were on that hamster wheel - can't get off - too much to do!), where here she has frequently walked to work (30 minutes) - even in the rain! The other thing she loves is the outdoors - the forests, the mountains... here is a snapshot from a recent weekend hike:



The nature is really breathtaking, and we can't wait until winter to do it all with snow as well!

For the things we don't like, Karl mentioned cheese, which is just a continuation of his cheese ban from California. Bennett, a cheese lover, chimed in that what he does not like about Switzerland was the cheeses he doesn't like - can't argue with that reasoning. But the winner of things not to like in Switzerland, with resounding agreement among all of us is the smoking. Even though it was just banned in restaurants in April, it is still common and prevalent at tram stops, walking down the street, and any teenagers hanging in a doorway. And to make matters worse, one of our childhood memories is here:



Candy cigarettes! Karl and Bennett are fascinated by them, and beg for them often. They will chant until the cows come home how bad smoking is for you, but the allure of the candy cigarette - a little naughty without being harmful - is this a habit in the making or a passing fad?

And it goes without saying that one of the things we don't like about Switzerland is that all of our family and friends are not here! We are slowly making new connections, definitely helped by school starting again - but nothing replaces old friends! Don't forget us, because we are not forgetting you!

a new era of Monopoly

So - this has nothing to do with Switzerland, except for the fact that if we had been at home, we would have had a TV and might not have had to find other ways to entertain ourselves. See, we seem to have had bad luck with our electricity conversion: first blew the cable converter (actual smoke came out) by plugging things in the wrong order (we actually still don't know what we did wrong, as we thought we understood electricity but obviously don't). Two weeks later, for no apparent reason, our TV then stops working as well. So now we are here with no TV, no videos, so what do we do...

Someone had the bright idea to bring out the board games, and we played Monopoly.

Now I have not played Monopoly in years - might be decades. Last I remember playing Monopoly was in high school at Greg Flynn's house with Bob Miller and possibly Keith Porter - up until 5 am making alliances and destroying people. I remember the game being long, and you had to make the right alliances or you were out fast.

So what surprised me is how my boys, age 9 and 7, could pick up the rules so fast and quickly understand concepts like mortgages and rent. Of course mom and dad helped a little with the strategy, and made deals happen in their best interest (to the point that they always won) but after a few games they started getting that, too. They have become obsessed - who can play Monopoly every night?

The other funny thing is that we actually read the rules, and again it could be time, but I don't remember half these rules: three doubles and you go to jail? You can only borrow money from the bank? I was just reading an opinion piece by Jon Carroll of the SF Chronicle where he discusses the concept of Monopoly "house rules" - and now, after reading the real rules, realize that most of our alliance making and deals that I had assumed were how the game was played was actually our version of the game. What is even funnier is how quickly "house rules" become part of the game - one of our visitors played with the boys (as we were exhausted after game 7 in one week) and he introduced a "house rule" of getting $500 every time you landed on Free Parking - and the kids felt so cool - like it was their personal game.

Already the kids are developing their Monopoly "norms": Karl hides his money so know one can know what he has; Bennett loves to make the stacks of money in order for everyone at the beginning of the game, and during the game surrounds his stack with all his properties in a sort of fortress formation. It is also great to play with Eric - who grew up with a whole other set of strategies and house rules - way more aggressive than I remember, and truthfully he hasn't won yet...

So if you haven't played in a while, or thought your kids were too young to play, think of dusting off the game and play one night. Would be curious to know your "house rules"...

And the photos that wouldn't fit...

Let's not forget the Zecs...And now a picture from the Casendinos...

Photos from our visitors this summer

Yes - we have had seven different families come by this summer - here are some great photos from their stays. We don't have any of the Casendinos, but hopefully they will send snaps from their camera after they return to the US later in August...

Hope you had a great summer too!

So who did Uncle Ben sleep with?

I feel horrible that it has been so long since posting. Really. Life has been a hectic whirl here: we moved locations and are now in our permanent residence in Basel, went on vacation in Greece (actually ended up doing that the same time as we moved - longer story), traveled to California for work, and tomorrow will mark the arrival of our 7th family arriving to visit - that's right, 7 in the last 7 weeks. We have been blessed with lots of friends from California who had plans to come to Europe anyway, and were able to swing by for a day or two and hang out in Basel and the surrounding areas - if you want to know how we are doing, just roam around Corte Madera or Larkspur and you are bound to run into someone who visited.

Eric has done most of the entertaining, but Sue has been able to free herself from late night meetings and travel to join in most of the time as well. We now have a standard city tour down pat, but we had the chance to take people floating down the Rhine, watched a lot of World Cup Soccer, visited a few museums, got out on a fair amount of hikes, lots of time at the Bottmingen pool, and our favorite: grilling in the forest. Eric actually said he is sick of meat and grilling - and we have been eating vegetarian all this week. We will see if we can muster up the "meat" energy for the Zecs who arrive tomorrow.

It has been fun to share our house (still in a state of being unpacked) and connect again with what is going on in California. The boys have been thrilled to have new playmates every week, and it really has made it feel like San Franicsco is not so far away.

One thing people have asked is what we miss from home. Hmmm - this is really hard, as you can anything you want here. Mexican ingredients? They have it. Peanut butter? No longer a foreign item. We even found a asian market that would give stores in Chinatown a run for their money - every spice known to mankind and things with no english that look like they are fermenting in the jar - things that are probably illegal to sell in the US (we will have to see how adventurous we are feeling...). But one thing has absolutely alluded us...

Long grain white rice.

I don't really care if it is from California - just some good old plain long grain rice. When we first got here we bought rice assuming it was long grain (it is hard to tell how long a grain is if you don't have another grain next to it to compare it to). When we got home and made it, it became quickly clear that it wasn't the right stuff - and further inspection of the label showed that it was...par boiled...rice.

Yuck.

I don't want to pass judgement if you happen to like par boiled rice. I just don't. The rice is off-white and all rolls around on the plate with each grain separate, and it really tastes like all the life and vitamins have been stripped away. I want the white stuff that kind of sticks together and feels really heavy(keep your brown rice vitamin talk to yourself. I like brown rice, too, but white rice is what I am focusing on). The asian market did have jasmine rice which isn't a bad alternative - but it isn't long grain. My last pass at the supermarket actually showed that the whole rice aisle was Uncle Ben's rice. Rows of red boxes with Ben smiling up at me - who had the marketing savvy to knock all the other rices off the shelf? Do the Swiss know what they are missing?

So last time I was in California, I, like all good Japanese tourists, bought myself 10 lbs of California long grain white rice. If you are reading this in California, realize how lucky you are. If you plan to come and visit, be sure to throw a bag in your suitcase for us!

World Cup Baby!

So life here has been racing along. Sue works long hours; Eric and the boys have been busy with school, after school activities, and getting wet in the rain. Moods have gone from high to low for each one of us, and the days when everyone is dipping make no fun for anyone.

However, what has brightenend our mood, along with most of Europe and the world outside of the US, is that it is World Cup time! The Somervilles have been gearing up since May when we bought our Panini sticker books, and started the (apparently) multi generation tradition of spending a few hundred dollars on little packs of stickers in hopes of filling up the book with all 600 or so stickers. There are stickers of the teams, each player, each stadium (takes two stickers to get the whole stadium picture), each team emblem...

It was actually working quite well for disciplining our kids, as we finally had a stick and carrot worthy of changing behavior. How many of you have been at your wits end that nothing you can think of to take away from your kid really does the trick to stop them doing what they are doing: Silly voice for too long? Too loud in the car? Want to have your sticker book taken away? Played nice with your brother? Helped set the table and clean up without needing to be asked? Hey, I think you get to have a packet of stickers...

Well all was going well with the stickers - they would get a pack every other day or so, we would slowly open them and get them in the books - when one day I come home, and every pack of stickers has been opened. "What the heck happened here?" I asked Eric. He had a slight panicked look in his eyes - "They started trading at school - we need to get all of our stickers in our books and know which ones we are missing, or else we will miss out on the trading and end up with none of the cards we need..."

Really?

Well, this started hours of work on spreadsheets with the cards we needed (they are all numbered), spreadsheets with cards we could give away, daily trading in the school cafeteria and multitudes of emails of who had what and who needed it. There was the sad story of the boy (sorry forgot his name) who finally got #172 (I don't remember exactly, just humor me), the last card he needed, and then he lost it - total devastation! There was the dinner we had a Tony's house, where you would think it was the NFL draft or something, with Eric and his (whoops - Karl and Bennett's) cards on one side of the table, and Tony and his (whoops - Josh and Brandon's cards) on his side of the table, with two hours of dealing: "Well, I can give you 422 if you can give me 112 and 565"...

In hindisight, Eric probably timed the trading just right. Both Karl and Bennett are now proud owners of full Panini sticker books to remember the 2010 World Cup and Switzerland with. Now if Switerland can just keep up their winning streak...

Videos of our trip to Italy

A little late, but thought you might enjoy these videos from Italy:

http://www.youtube.com/user/essomerville#p/u/1/okrSQB7YJao

http://www.youtube.com/user/essomerville#p/u/2/60-ANIhWqzQ