Zurich 4 Year Anniversary

It's hard to believe that four years ago today, we arrived in Zurich. It's amazing to think that in just four years how much our life has changed. We were so frugal then! We were kidless then! I was a working woman! We've doubled in size since then!

I wish I'd written more and taken more pictures of leaving, the plane ride, arriving, etc. I guess I was too sick and overwhelmed to think of these things at the time. Here's one of the first pictures of Tal and I in Zurich. We are on the Limmat with St. Peterskirche behind us.


We spent our first weeks and our last few days in hotels in the heart of Zurich. My head was spinning on the way in but I sure savored every glance out the window and piece of architecture on the way out. Man I miss those cobblestones...and about a million other things.

Right now I have the German song, "Das Hat Die Welt Noch Nicht Gesehen" or "the world not yet seen" playing on my computer. I must have heard it dozens of times while driving around Thalwil, running errands. Every time I think about our experience in Switzerland, I tear up and my heart gets warm. I feel gratitude for what we experienced together as a young little family. I feel gratitude for the opportunity to have lived in such a beautiful place and to have met so many wonderful people from so many walks of life, people I would have never gotten to know otherwise but have changed my life for the better. I feel extremely blessed to have two babies born there, and to have had such a wonderful experience with their deliveries. My mind was expanded, new ideas presented, and my point of view changed forever. Snails will always be schneklis to me.

Now, the song my John Mayer "Half of My Heart" is on and I can't help but think of how half of my heart will always be in Zurich. These are a few pictures out of MANY that have great meaning to me.

Our little 2 bedroom flat...the middle floor of the orange building

The view of the lake from our living room window. Across the street there was an empty lot on the lake

Our kitchen - I love the clean, sleek, OPENness of it.

The sailboats on the lake, the alps in the background, our daily breath of life

Now I'm going to go have a good cry and then go to bed. Bis spaeter, Zurich.

Going Home on the Boat

After my German lesson this week, Tal met Kelsey and me for a walk around Zurich. It was a cold summer day so I was grateful for the sweater and beanie from Kelsey's aunt Mary Jane. I'm so glad she got to wear it because it's so cute. We walked by the boats and the one to our town was about to leave so Kels & I jumped on and had a great time. We met a family from Brazil and they just loved Kelsey. Luckily they spoke some English and Spanish so we were able to communicate. It reminded me why I love the latin culture.

The Dinner Party, The Date, and The Snowman

In honor of The Office coming back on and Tal being done with the GMAT, we threw a "Dinner Party" on Friday night with fellow Office fans. It was a potluck so the food was great and we got to hang out with some of our friends. We don't often do things like this at our house since it's tiny, but it worked out okay. Everyone sat on the rug or on couches and I think enjoyed themselves. Here's the kids playing in Kelsey's room.

On Saturday, we finally went on a date! I don't know why we tried Mexican food again in Europe but we did. It was the best I've had here (El Mejor, Rapperswil) but you would have asked for your money back in the states. I think we've finally come to terms with the fact that the best Mexican we can get here is in our own kitchen. The owner/cook/only English speaker's last name was LANG! She said, "your last name is Lang and you don't speak German?" I said in German "Ich spreche ein bisson Deutsch!" Anyway, it was nice to be able to leave Kelsey with a babysitter. I loved being out with my best friend. It was great to be able to talk and eat, undistracted by a baby. I guess she cried a lot but eventually fell asleep. Poor babe, but she's gotta learn! Here's Tally and our fajitas. They were not the sizzling kind but I loved the sauce they were in.

Sunday we had GREAT, SUNNY weather and took a long walk with our friends the Bergs. They're expecting a little girl in August and I can't wait!

On Monday I had German lessons so we went up to Zurich. It was the Zurich holiday Sechselauten where they set fire to a snowman named Boogg. It was raining and we didn't want to stay in Zurich all day so we didn't get to see his head explode. We saw it last year and it would probably scare Kelsey too! We did get to see them setting up which meant we got to get up close and personal with Boogg.

We went and got a Nutella/banana crepe afterwards and it was SO good.

Here's Kelsey on the train ride home watching the little boy next to us. She kept wanting to go crawl or walk over to him. She forgets she's still a baby.

Oh, and I made my most favorite batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (thanks Erin). I ate three for lunch yesterday. Not the best diet for a breast feeding mother, I know. I couldn't fight the craving...

A Trip to Zurich

One round-trip train ticket: $6


Missing my German lesson because I'm an airhead and I left at the house at the time my class starts: Frustrating, but not costly

Renewing my one year half fare card: $150


Seeing this couple at die Post and getting these photos: Priceless



You don't see this everyday in Switzerland! I felt as though I has stepped into a different time and place...like maybe shrunken and placed in some body's garden. Or stepped into Leprechaun Land. Or maybe it was Santa & Mrs. Claus disguised and on vacation. Although, she had a beard and a snaggle tooth.. Either way, Kelsey cried the instant she looked up and saw the man whose arms she was in. Poor girl! The entire post office must have been wondering what kind of mother I was. Kelsey, I hope you can laugh about this later!

Soccer Tourney & Goodbye to the Barlows

There's not much of an update from us, just waiting for the timer to go off. It's like when the brownies are in the oven, almost done and smell really good but they still have to cook for 10 more minutes. Those 10 minutes seem to go by a lot more slowly than the entire time it took to cook. Yes, our little bun still has about 2.5 weeks of baking time and hopefully not a minute more.

This weekend, we said "see ya later" to our friends, the Barlows. It's not goodbye as I'm sure we'll see them again down the road. This is just half (well, technically more than half) of the family.

We're going to miss you guys!!

Last weekend, the entire Zurich stake had a fussball tournament. Tally played (obviously I didn't - I look like I'm holding a soccer ball under my shirt and some of the kids really thought that was the case).

Tally realized how out of shape he was. He has since gone running and will hopefully be in better condition next year. He just started working with the young men in church doing activities, so I'm sure there will be a lot more soccer in his future.

Swim on the Lake

Despite the unseasonally rainy weather (while the rest of the world has red & orange, Switzerland has blue and green on a weather map), we had a particularly sunny day and we took full advantage. After work, we went for a dip in Lake Zurich. It was very refreshing and a good workout for me. I thought it would make me feel more bouyant but instead, it felt harder to swim than ever before. We didn't stay in for long - it started getting choppy and the storm light came on so we decided it was time for some of Janelle's great cooking.

It's always a bit cold at first so Tally had to coax me in slowly after he already jumped in. It wasn't so bad.

Burn Frosty Burn!

Sechselauten. It's a Zurich holiday we celebrated on Monday, April 16th. This is one of those holiday traditions that is disturbing to outsiders but normal if you've grown up with it. I can't help but wonder if this is how foreigners see Halloween... Anyway, this is how Zurichers celebrate the end of Winter. They have a mock snowman filled with fireworks on top of a haystack. They light the haystack and cheer as the snowman burns. If his head blows off in less than 15 minutes, it means it's going to be a hot summer. Here's the website http://www.z-z-z.ch/Index.php in case you want to check it out. We're in for a hot summer this year which is unfortunate considering I'll be in my third trimester.

An unsuspecting snowman relishes in the spotlight. Thousands of people have gathered just to see him!

Frosty recognizes maybe the center of attention isn't the place for him.

AHHH!

Those pieces of burning snowman are his head blowing off.


There was also a parade that came down the city streets which caused problems when trying to meet up with my hubby & friends. There were thousands of people packed along one or two streets city streets. To my single girlfriends, here are plenty of Swiss men for you to date...




After a few hours, Tally and I finally found eachother later that night back at our place. This is our view of the city from our balcony at our corporate housing apartment.


On Tuesday, Janelle & I got to go to the Bern Temple. It was so beautiful and it was nice to see that the church is the same everywhere ... except the language.





Then on Thursday, the American girls got together and went to the Lenzburg Castle. I didn't get any good pics of the whole thing, but I got a lot of pictures of some cute kids (not posted)!



Alyssa & the kids in the dungeon!

Here is a pic from the pamphlet to show you what it looked like.

Playing around with my new camera.



More of Zurich from this week of us just hanging around.
I love this style of this building.

Tal & I overlooking part of Zurich.

We just learned the outcome of when this happens...

Sometimes if you stand back a bit you get the best shots.

Zurich - Home Sweet Home

We made it to beautiful Zurich! We arrived March 17th and it snowed for the first 5 days. About a month later, we feel like we're in the middle of summer. The weather has been unusually hot for spring and we've been reaching temps of around 80 degrees. The heart of the city is Lake Zurich. We love all the boats and the view of the Alps in the distance. Tally's already excited to wakeboard. We'll have to become friends with someone who has a boat. Although there are a lot of cool cars (which Tally will show you once he's got a good collection of pics), most people use public transportation. We're getting used to not having a car and are becoming pros at the train, tram and bus systems here.

Here is our new place that we move into on April 23rd. Ours is the one in the middle with the balcony. On the other side of the street there are houses and then the lake. The next picture is the view of the lake from our balcony.


Here is one of three parks by our house. We can't wait to lay out and BBQ!

Or go surfing...just kidding. Although we did see some surfboards down by the lake. We're not quite sure what they do with them here. Maybe they surf behind the boats like Uncle Todd.

This is the main city park. The kids closest to the camera were smoking something more than cigarettes!

There are lots of random statues around. This happens to be one of our favorites.

Here are some other cool pics we have taken...