Thursday, July 28, 2011
New Friends
I just realized that Claire and I have either gone to friends' houses or gotten together with friends every day this week! And tomorrow, we will go to another friend's house to play. Our mom-baby social life is much busier here than it ever was at home. It has been astonishingly easy for me to make friends here. There are so many men who have been transferred her for their jobs and along with those men come their wives and children, and all of those wives and children are looking for friends, just like Claire and me. So with a little searching, it has been easy to connect with these women and then meet up. Being so busy makes it very hard to be homesick!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The Weekend
What was forecasted to be a very rainy weekend following a very rainy week has turned out to be much nicer than expected.
Yesterday, Claire, Gordon, and I drove over to France for some shopping and lunch. I finally found a bike after searching for one since we moved here. It's a bike that's meant for riding around the city for errands, so it has a bag rack on the back and a basket in the front. It will be perfect for our almost daily grocery shopping trips. When we got home from France, we rode our bikes up to the store to get some essentials. It was so nice to be able to ride our bikes there rather than drive. And it was so much faster than walking, of course.
This morning, Claire and I headed out to Lausanne to an English-speaking Catholic church. This was our first time there. The priest was great and all of the parishoners were very welcoming. It's amazing how a Catholic mass is the same in Switzerland as it is in Mokena. It made me feel right at home.
After church, we drove back home, changed clothes, and we all went for a bike ride to Montreux. It was about a 5 mile ride along the lake. We had lunch there and then rode back home. I am so happy that we both have bikes now and that we can go for these family bike rides. Switzerland is a very bike-friendly country, so it's easy to get around on a bike. On the way back from Montreux, Claire fell asleep in her bike seat. I put her in her crib when we got home and she's still out. We must have tired that little pumpkin out!
This evening, if the rain holds out, we'll go for a hike in Vevey. I sure do love our weekends here!
Yesterday, Claire, Gordon, and I drove over to France for some shopping and lunch. I finally found a bike after searching for one since we moved here. It's a bike that's meant for riding around the city for errands, so it has a bag rack on the back and a basket in the front. It will be perfect for our almost daily grocery shopping trips. When we got home from France, we rode our bikes up to the store to get some essentials. It was so nice to be able to ride our bikes there rather than drive. And it was so much faster than walking, of course.
This morning, Claire and I headed out to Lausanne to an English-speaking Catholic church. This was our first time there. The priest was great and all of the parishoners were very welcoming. It's amazing how a Catholic mass is the same in Switzerland as it is in Mokena. It made me feel right at home.
After church, we drove back home, changed clothes, and we all went for a bike ride to Montreux. It was about a 5 mile ride along the lake. We had lunch there and then rode back home. I am so happy that we both have bikes now and that we can go for these family bike rides. Switzerland is a very bike-friendly country, so it's easy to get around on a bike. On the way back from Montreux, Claire fell asleep in her bike seat. I put her in her crib when we got home and she's still out. We must have tired that little pumpkin out!
Monday, July 18, 2011
We got it!
Today, our relocation agent called and gave us some great news. We got the apartment we really wanted! The apartment will be empty beginning September 1. Then they will clean and repaint and then we are free to move in.
This apartment is great. It's in a relatively new building, the rooms are spacious, we will have a parking spot in a parking garage, and it is in a fabulous location. It is about a 5 minute walk from Gordon's office, it is literally above a grocery store, about a 3 minute walk from the train station, and a 3 minute walk to the lake. It has its own park and there are many parks within just a few minutes' walk. To make a good thing even better, the rent is well below our budget that we had set for ourselves.
Now we just have to furnish it!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
This apartment is great. It's in a relatively new building, the rooms are spacious, we will have a parking spot in a parking garage, and it is in a fabulous location. It is about a 5 minute walk from Gordon's office, it is literally above a grocery store, about a 3 minute walk from the train station, and a 3 minute walk to the lake. It has its own park and there are many parks within just a few minutes' walk. To make a good thing even better, the rent is well below our budget that we had set for ourselves.
Now we just have to furnish it!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday, July 17, 2011
A Day at the Zoo
On Friday, Claire and I met up with a large group of our mom and kid friends at a local zoo. In total, there were 8 moms and 11 kids in the group! Our group of friends here continues to grow. The group includes people from Canada, England, Ireland, the Slavic Republic, and of course, the USA. All of the moms are very nice people and Claire loves playing with the kids.
Here are some photos from our Zoo adventure.
This zoo was much different from a zoo in the US. The animals were so close! We could have touched these monkeys if we wanted to.
Here is a lioness, staring at us!
These bears were pacing, making me a little bit nervous!
Claire loved walking around the zoo like a big girl. Here she is following her friend Robyn down a path.
A wild boar.
A raccoon.
A peacock that was just wandering around. Fortunately, when Claire tried to touch her, she jumped up onto the fence so Claire couldn't touch her!
.Ostrich
These wolves were so cool. I loved watching them.
After all of the zoo fun was over, everyone had an ice cream treat. Claire thoroughly enjoyed hers!
Here's a small part of our group, with a large part of our strollers.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Apartment Search
I have a lot to catch up on as far as blogging about our adventures here. Right now, though, I want to write about a different kind of adventure, the adventure that is our apartment search. The housing market in this part of Switzerland is crazy. There are many more people looking for apartments than there are apartments available. That means that when we look at an apartment, we have to decide on the spot if we want to apply for it. Usually, there is more than one person who applies for each apartment, so we just have to wait to see if the owners choose us.
I saw an apartment that I loved last week. It was in a new building, so everything in the apartment was shiny and new and beautiful. The location was great. It was close to the train station, close to Gordon's office, and walking distance to grocery stores. We applied for this apartment, but we haven't heard the answer yet. We do know that there were other people who worked at Nestle who applied for this apartment before we did, so our chances are not good.
Today, we went out searching again. Today was the first time Gordon was able to go with me on the "housing tour" as it's called here. We saw 5 places and we loved one of them. It's in an even better location than the place we saw last week and it's about 600 dollars less per month. We are definitely putting in an application for this one and I really hope we get it. If not, we will continue with our search. The good news is that there are places in good locations that are not only affordable, but very nice. I feel better after today's search than I have after any of the other times we had gone.
In other news, I bought my ticket yesterday for Claire and me to fly home in October. We'll be there for FOUR whole weeks and we'll be home for Halloween! Claire and I will fly to Washington to visit Gordon's mom while we're in the states. As an added bonus, we'll get to see Roxy and Indy (our dogs) at Gordon's mom's house!
I saw an apartment that I loved last week. It was in a new building, so everything in the apartment was shiny and new and beautiful. The location was great. It was close to the train station, close to Gordon's office, and walking distance to grocery stores. We applied for this apartment, but we haven't heard the answer yet. We do know that there were other people who worked at Nestle who applied for this apartment before we did, so our chances are not good.
Today, we went out searching again. Today was the first time Gordon was able to go with me on the "housing tour" as it's called here. We saw 5 places and we loved one of them. It's in an even better location than the place we saw last week and it's about 600 dollars less per month. We are definitely putting in an application for this one and I really hope we get it. If not, we will continue with our search. The good news is that there are places in good locations that are not only affordable, but very nice. I feel better after today's search than I have after any of the other times we had gone.
In other news, I bought my ticket yesterday for Claire and me to fly home in October. We'll be there for FOUR whole weeks and we'll be home for Halloween! Claire and I will fly to Washington to visit Gordon's mom while we're in the states. As an added bonus, we'll get to see Roxy and Indy (our dogs) at Gordon's mom's house!
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