Snowshoe

I had borrowed a pair of snowshoes from a friend/swiss lady in our home group from church (a post in itself is how we have found a church!!) this past weekend. We initially put Hannah in her car seat and attached it to a sled (called a sledge here due to the large UK influence on the English vocab) and took her along with us. Unfortunately this contraption (John had seen others do the same thing on his company snowshoe hike) was a little top heavy and after Hannah tipped twice, we called it quits. But then on Tuesday of this week John had to come home sick, so I thought while Hannah and he napped I would set off again on the snowshoes. It was great!!  It was a little cloudy so the pictures didn't turn out great but nonetheless the fact that I can head out the door straight up the mountain is great. The mountain right out our back door is called the Stanserhorn and that is where I headed to snow shoe. We are also excited that the weather is turning warmer (although it never is as cold as Iowa) the forecast for later this week is 8 C!!  Below are some pictures of my snowshoe hike. Oh and John said he was going to write a post about how friendly and helpful everyone has been.... we'll see!!

Stans is where we live, Stanserhorn is the mountain

That is Stans down there, this was after about 50 minutes of going up!

Cross country skiers tracks... wish we had our shipment with our skis!

Hannah- lover of food

Hannah started to eat solid food a little over a month ago and I have yet to find a food she doesn't enjoy, except carrots and plain oatmeal! Definitely a daddy's girl :) Luckily I have learned to disguise it with pears or bananas.
I am completely surprised at how much she can eat- again a daddy's girl! I am happy to have the time to make her food purees since I am not working. Plus baby food here is expensive. Below are some pictures and a little video of Hannah eating (not the best example but she gets REALLY excited to eat!)


http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=alhZxZLVzDQ

Banana and Avocado are my favorite

The bib tastes SO good

Sunny Day

Mountain view on our run up the valley near Stans



Love the paved trail/narrow roads around here!

Yesterday was a fabulous day here! The sun was out and it was 4 degrees Celsius (40 degrees F). Our day consisted of a run, a walk (our mode of transportation besides the train until our bikes arrive), a trip to the grocery store (that is most everyday), and German class!  Hope your day was great as well!





Yes Hannah is in there :)  Loves the stroller!

 

On our walk to German class- the lights in front of us are from the Pilatus runway (near Johns work).

 

 

 

This is how we roll

Currently in Switzerland we are doing life without a car. The public transportation here is actually really good. Below is a picture of Hannah and I on one of our many train rides!

Will you be my valentine!

Sun, flowers and a coffee date with some English speaking ladies in town..... Happy Valentines day!

New Toy

Today Hannah and I went on an adventure to IKEA. I was actually impressed at figuring out a great train/bus schedule. We took 2 trains and 1 bus to get from Stans to IKEA in Rothenburg and the same to get home. We only had to wait one time for a train, and only 15 minutes!! I call that success. I went there to scout out stuff for our apartment that we get to move into in a few weeks and to maybe find a toy for Hannah. I found a fun little toy...I think she might get the hang of it sooner or later!

"Mom, Thanks for the new toy!"

"Look at how strong I am!"

 

"I think I prefer to put the mallet in my mouth."

Fasnacht

The Tuesday after we arrived a crazy Swiss tradition called Fasnacht. It begins the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and lasts about 5 days. From what I understand from peoples explanations it is to wish away Old man winter- bid winter farewell ( that could be completely wrong but that is what I gathered). It consists of costumes: simple to elaborate, marching bands: playing funny Swiss music, parades: of the bands and costumed groups, confetti, Swiss food stands, and drinking.  Below are some pictures and a video during one of the MANY parades. It seems like a fun tradition but I think I might appreciate it more after being here for a year and not having a baby still adjusting to the time change while loud music is playing at 4 AM.

Enjoying the Parade from the balcony

 

 

Hannah sleeping through the LOUD parade

 

 

Mt Pilatus in the morning sun

Job Interview?

 

 

I have been amazed at how small the world is. In college I lived in Chile for 4 months and for 1 week I stayed with a family in which the husband was Chilean and the wife was Swiss. Well long story short, they live in Switzerland now and her sister is a physical therapist. She also used to work at the hospital in the town that we are now living!

Not a bad view- this is the backside of the hospital

 

 

So, I met with the head therapist on Friday as He needs to hire two therapists working both inpatient and outpatient. I mostly just wanted to meet with him to see if there was ever a chance of working as a PT here. Basically he said if I can learn enough German to carry a conversation and know the technical language I could have a job.  I am hopeful that in a year I might know enough German to work, although He was much more optimistic and said 6 months. I guess I have to sign up for a class!! I have to say that no one wants to be in the hospital, but at least these folks have a good view!!

 



Arriving

Just arriving at Zurich airport- looking a little tired

We were to say the least a little skeptical of how Hannah would do on the plane ride over here. Our flight was overnight and we were hopeful the plane would be empty and she could just sleep in her own seat. We were blessed to have 4 seats to ourselves. Hannah got to fall asleep in her car seat 1.5 hours before the flight left and woke up 10 minutes before landing- Praise the Lord!!
We were smart enough to rent a car for the trip to our temporary apartment instead of using the train. This was nice since we had a TON of stuff!

The farmhouse is the brown one behind John

Part of Stans, right down the hill from the farmhouse

We are currently staying in a furnished "holiday" apartment, which is inside of a farm house. The farm family lives on the 1st floor (what would be second floor to us Americans) and we are on the 2nd floor. It is just a small bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen. It has been nice getting settled and not living out of a suitcase. We have begun our search for a permanent apartment, which is a post in itself.

Homeless

For two weeks we experienced the nomadic lifestyle. We wanted to spend time with family prior to leaving for Switzerland and what better way to stay with each of them for a few days?
We had all of our storage items, five suitcases, and all of Bear's belongings packed neatly (or at least we thought) into a little uhaul trailer on the back of our Subaru.

On the ride up to my parents house we began to question if the uhaul trailer was working properly. It seemed to be bouncing up and down ALOT!  The little over 1 hour trip took 2. When we arrived we sadly found all of our stuff to store/give away in Pennsylvania broken.


Just an example :(

Needless to say, this was just added stress to our transition to Switzerland. John spent many hours on the phone with uhaul and have been very disappointed by their customer service, or lack there of. We ended up renting a minivan which proved to be a much more comfortable way to travel to Pennsylvania. Now I just pray the items we shipped over to Switzerland fared better!!

Leaving

The last month prior to moving to Switzerland was very busy. I was hoping to get this blog started before we left, but that did not happen. We were quite busy keeping our house clean for the numerous showings we had, selling our cars, completing a ton of paperwork to be able to move to switzerland, ect. ect. 




You never realize how much stuff you have until you begin to sort through it all. Everything we owned had to go into these catagories: ship, sell, store, goodwill, give away, trash.  Through this process I realized again that I am not, whether good or not, very attached to by belongings. It really did not cause me much sorrow to get rid of things. I found it quite nice to get rid of possessions that really just made for clutter in the house.

Leaving people is the hard part. We had lived in the Iowa City area for 5 years and had made many great friends through work, church, school, and interests. It takes awhile to make strong friendships and that is one of the things that makes me most anxious to move. And then there is leaving family. That is not fun, especially when you have a cute 6 month old daughter. Needless to say we are thankful for modern technology so our families can hopefully see Hannah grow and change.