Monday, March 16, 2009
New Pictures
Hi! I just wanted to give a quick update that we put some new pictures up on the Picasa site... I'll do a real blog update soon.
Friday, February 20, 2009
No Baby Yet
The due date has come and gone. Oh man, this is torture! First thing she comes out, she is grounded. I think 2 weeks of no TV, no cell phone, and no boyfriends should teach her a lesson. She'll probably cry when we tell her, but it's best to lay down the law early.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
What the heck happened to January?
Well, it's official. I've failed to attain my lofty goal of blogging at least once a month, which might be excusable had I any type of "actual responsibility" to keep me from it. Maybe I'll make up for it by writing a real long, real senseless one... yeeeahhhh, that's it!
Ahhh, January... the door to the year. This January was a good one, as far as Januaries go. Epic, really. Let me start off by saying Happy New Year! This is the year that Eric and I will have our first child, both turn 30, celebrate our second year of marriage, and watch Rudy Fernandez dominate in the NBA Slam Dunk contest. Beautiful.
January started with a bang, literally. Everyone we know in Zurich was away for the holidays so Eric and I trammed it into downtown to watch the fireworks. The streets were swarming with revelers, lovers, pranksters, and drunk gay guys who tried to throw the porta-potty that Eric was using over a barricade into the freezing River Limmat. Don't worry, I stepped in and sent the guy packing before he got it more than a few inches. He just shrugged and danced off, no doubt dissapointed that not everyone was as caught up in the New Years spirit as he. And unfortunately Zurich's world-renowned fireworks show was severly disabled by low cloud-cover and too much smoke so we couldn't see a single actual firework. We knew they were there because we could hear them, so we slow-danced in the slushy, black snow amidst the chaos and had a big New Years smacker.
On January 3rd, we packed our bags and headed to Spain! My sweet husband insisted that we take a "babymoon"... one last hurrah before the poopy diaper fairy arrives! We flew into Malaga (the hometown of Antonio Banderas!) and then took a train to Sevilla where we stayed for one week in the home of our friend Elias' aunt. Spain was incredible. It was warm, sunny, full of life... and full of food. It was a pregnant woman's paradise. You go to a bar on one corner, use the bathroom, eat delicious cheese, jamon, and fried tapas and then move on to the bar on the opposite corner and repeat. You do this all night long. When I say bar, it's not like a bar-bar. It's a bar, but at 11:00 p.m. there are just as many people under the age of 6 and over the age of 80 as there are in between. Whole families are in there and people are singing and laughing and eating. It's beautiful.
Sevilla had amazing architecture and beautiful scenery. There is an enormous Gothic cathedral in which Christopher Columbus is entombed! The Spanish have great pride in the prosperity and discoveries of their forefathers. Really they have great pride in everything Spanish, right down to the food. Elias considers "jamon" (thinly sliced, specially cured pork) to be holy. Honestly - holy... it MUST be on it's own plate and when you take a bite he just watches you and a smile slowly spreads across his face and every time he says, "And Bryn, what do you think of this... this jamon? It's beautiful, no?" There were orange trees everywhere. They lined the streets and filled plazas... and there were flourescent green parakeet-looking birds just flying around. There were street exhibits for the sculptures of Rodin and Dali. And did I mention the tapas? Sevilla was wonderful. You should go.
While there we celebrated the festivities of The Three Magic Kings. It is the part of the Spanish holiday season in which gifts are exchanged and people feast. Instead of Santa, the 3 Magic Kings come on January 6. The night before there is a huge parade, unlike any I have ever seen where hundreds of children ride on big floats and dump bags and bags of candy onto the crowd. It was crazy and I was all for it. I was down on my hands and knees, crawling between people's legs and fighting with little kids to grab as much candy as possible because I'm eating candy for two.
After Sevilla, we went to Cadiz for 2 nights. Cadiz is said to be the oldest Western city, dating back to 1100 B.C. It is also the city that Columbus's second journey to the New World dispatched from. It was the perfect combination of old world architecture, history, white sandy beaches, and tapas. It was chilly, so we spent more time in the bar than we did at the beach, but hopefully we can go back when the weather is warmer.
The other exciting development that blew in with the month of January was getting our new apartment! It's great and feels like home. I found a bunch of second-hand furniture on my various Expats-in-Zurich web forums and we got the rest at IKEA. Eric rented a van and drove around picking things up, so all I had to do was pick out what we "needed". He only backed into one post and I only picked out a few things that are absolutely without-a-doubt unneccesary, so I'd say we both did a pretty good job.
The only bit of turbulence the experience brought was meeting the UK's biggest d-bag. I found a couple of items in the expat classifieds that someone was selling way down the lake. Our van rental day didn't work with their schedule so they agreed to deliver the stuff to us if we paid for travel expenses. I thought "Sure, fantastic, lovely!" I really don't even know where to begin with this guy because it was all so great. The first thing is he was a carbon copy of David Brent from the BBC "the office". Between each sentence, and frankly between most words, there would be a long pause and he would just stare at you like you were the daftest bloke in all of limey Zurich.
We bought a chair and a sideboard... but he brought an extra box of kitchen crap that they had in the cellar and said he would sell us the whole box for 20 CHF. I saw some baking dishes right on top so I was like, "Okay cheerio, you got yourself a deal". Despite my immediate "yes we'll take it", he felt compelled to pull out and describe in detail every item in the box.
Pulling out a small ordinary serrated knife: "Now, this looks like an ordinary knife. Very. Useful. I have 2 at work. Brilliant knife. Cuts nearly anything. Incredible."
Pulling out a cheese slicer: "Now this is a (said very slowly) Thick. Cheese. Slicer. Raclette. (Apparently nothing on my face gave any indication that what he was saying had actually registered because he continues on about the cheese slicer for some time as if I have the brain capacity of a petrified tree stump... and eventually sells it to himself...) You know, (he shakes his head grimly) the wife put this in here. I'd like... I'll keep this."
Pulling out a tea kettle: "Right. You're Americans. We call this a tea kettle. (Very long, intense stare in the eyes) Fill it with water. Boil. Brilliant."
Pulling out some weird bent skewer tong things: "Right. (He clearly struggles for a moment here) This is useful for... numerous things."
Pointing at a box: "Right. Do you ever make... Toasted. Sandwiches. ("Like grilled cheese?" I ask... he looks at me like I am the less-gifted cousin of a bag of gravel and shakes his head. Disgusted, he gives up and doesn't bother finishing this description.)
Anyway, what we bought from them required 2 trips so we got to see him again later in the week. I dont have the strength to even begin on his child rearing advice... but it began with "Right. Do you know even the slightest thing about having children?" and went on for a good 20 minutes while he went into every room to investigate which baby items we had and gave things a good shake to make sure they were properly assembled.
So, that about wraps up our whole month of January. Here we are, February 3rd. My mom is coming in 9 days to spend a month with us, helping out with the baby. It's hard to believe that little baby is supposed to be here in 2 weeks on the 18th. I'll put up some new pictures on our Picasa site tonight after Eric gets home from work so everyone can see this monstrosity. Consider yourselves warned, 'cause it ain't pretty.
Sorry for the long delay between blogs. I'll try to stay on top of it better with baby updates. As for this one... long and senseless. Mission Accomplished.
Ahhh, January... the door to the year. This January was a good one, as far as Januaries go. Epic, really. Let me start off by saying Happy New Year! This is the year that Eric and I will have our first child, both turn 30, celebrate our second year of marriage, and watch Rudy Fernandez dominate in the NBA Slam Dunk contest. Beautiful.
January started with a bang, literally. Everyone we know in Zurich was away for the holidays so Eric and I trammed it into downtown to watch the fireworks. The streets were swarming with revelers, lovers, pranksters, and drunk gay guys who tried to throw the porta-potty that Eric was using over a barricade into the freezing River Limmat. Don't worry, I stepped in and sent the guy packing before he got it more than a few inches. He just shrugged and danced off, no doubt dissapointed that not everyone was as caught up in the New Years spirit as he. And unfortunately Zurich's world-renowned fireworks show was severly disabled by low cloud-cover and too much smoke so we couldn't see a single actual firework. We knew they were there because we could hear them, so we slow-danced in the slushy, black snow amidst the chaos and had a big New Years smacker.
On January 3rd, we packed our bags and headed to Spain! My sweet husband insisted that we take a "babymoon"... one last hurrah before the poopy diaper fairy arrives! We flew into Malaga (the hometown of Antonio Banderas!) and then took a train to Sevilla where we stayed for one week in the home of our friend Elias' aunt. Spain was incredible. It was warm, sunny, full of life... and full of food. It was a pregnant woman's paradise. You go to a bar on one corner, use the bathroom, eat delicious cheese, jamon, and fried tapas and then move on to the bar on the opposite corner and repeat. You do this all night long. When I say bar, it's not like a bar-bar. It's a bar, but at 11:00 p.m. there are just as many people under the age of 6 and over the age of 80 as there are in between. Whole families are in there and people are singing and laughing and eating. It's beautiful.
Sevilla had amazing architecture and beautiful scenery. There is an enormous Gothic cathedral in which Christopher Columbus is entombed! The Spanish have great pride in the prosperity and discoveries of their forefathers. Really they have great pride in everything Spanish, right down to the food. Elias considers "jamon" (thinly sliced, specially cured pork) to be holy. Honestly - holy... it MUST be on it's own plate and when you take a bite he just watches you and a smile slowly spreads across his face and every time he says, "And Bryn, what do you think of this... this jamon? It's beautiful, no?" There were orange trees everywhere. They lined the streets and filled plazas... and there were flourescent green parakeet-looking birds just flying around. There were street exhibits for the sculptures of Rodin and Dali. And did I mention the tapas? Sevilla was wonderful. You should go.
While there we celebrated the festivities of The Three Magic Kings. It is the part of the Spanish holiday season in which gifts are exchanged and people feast. Instead of Santa, the 3 Magic Kings come on January 6. The night before there is a huge parade, unlike any I have ever seen where hundreds of children ride on big floats and dump bags and bags of candy onto the crowd. It was crazy and I was all for it. I was down on my hands and knees, crawling between people's legs and fighting with little kids to grab as much candy as possible because I'm eating candy for two.
After Sevilla, we went to Cadiz for 2 nights. Cadiz is said to be the oldest Western city, dating back to 1100 B.C. It is also the city that Columbus's second journey to the New World dispatched from. It was the perfect combination of old world architecture, history, white sandy beaches, and tapas. It was chilly, so we spent more time in the bar than we did at the beach, but hopefully we can go back when the weather is warmer.
The other exciting development that blew in with the month of January was getting our new apartment! It's great and feels like home. I found a bunch of second-hand furniture on my various Expats-in-Zurich web forums and we got the rest at IKEA. Eric rented a van and drove around picking things up, so all I had to do was pick out what we "needed". He only backed into one post and I only picked out a few things that are absolutely without-a-doubt unneccesary, so I'd say we both did a pretty good job.
The only bit of turbulence the experience brought was meeting the UK's biggest d-bag. I found a couple of items in the expat classifieds that someone was selling way down the lake. Our van rental day didn't work with their schedule so they agreed to deliver the stuff to us if we paid for travel expenses. I thought "Sure, fantastic, lovely!" I really don't even know where to begin with this guy because it was all so great. The first thing is he was a carbon copy of David Brent from the BBC "the office". Between each sentence, and frankly between most words, there would be a long pause and he would just stare at you like you were the daftest bloke in all of limey Zurich.
We bought a chair and a sideboard... but he brought an extra box of kitchen crap that they had in the cellar and said he would sell us the whole box for 20 CHF. I saw some baking dishes right on top so I was like, "Okay cheerio, you got yourself a deal". Despite my immediate "yes we'll take it", he felt compelled to pull out and describe in detail every item in the box.
Pulling out a small ordinary serrated knife: "Now, this looks like an ordinary knife. Very. Useful. I have 2 at work. Brilliant knife. Cuts nearly anything. Incredible."
Pulling out a cheese slicer: "Now this is a (said very slowly) Thick. Cheese. Slicer. Raclette. (Apparently nothing on my face gave any indication that what he was saying had actually registered because he continues on about the cheese slicer for some time as if I have the brain capacity of a petrified tree stump... and eventually sells it to himself...) You know, (he shakes his head grimly) the wife put this in here. I'd like... I'll keep this."
Pulling out a tea kettle: "Right. You're Americans. We call this a tea kettle. (Very long, intense stare in the eyes) Fill it with water. Boil. Brilliant."
Pulling out some weird bent skewer tong things: "Right. (He clearly struggles for a moment here) This is useful for... numerous things."
Pointing at a box: "Right. Do you ever make... Toasted. Sandwiches. ("Like grilled cheese?" I ask... he looks at me like I am the less-gifted cousin of a bag of gravel and shakes his head. Disgusted, he gives up and doesn't bother finishing this description.)
Anyway, what we bought from them required 2 trips so we got to see him again later in the week. I dont have the strength to even begin on his child rearing advice... but it began with "Right. Do you know even the slightest thing about having children?" and went on for a good 20 minutes while he went into every room to investigate which baby items we had and gave things a good shake to make sure they were properly assembled.
So, that about wraps up our whole month of January. Here we are, February 3rd. My mom is coming in 9 days to spend a month with us, helping out with the baby. It's hard to believe that little baby is supposed to be here in 2 weeks on the 18th. I'll put up some new pictures on our Picasa site tonight after Eric gets home from work so everyone can see this monstrosity. Consider yourselves warned, 'cause it ain't pretty.
Sorry for the long delay between blogs. I'll try to stay on top of it better with baby updates. As for this one... long and senseless. Mission Accomplished.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everybody!
Well, it's Christmas Eve! We've been sitting around mostly... listening to Christmas tunes, doing a few Christmas crafts and thinking of all our dear friends and family scattered around the globe. Since there is no snow in Zurich (but apparently loads in Portland - what's up with that J.C.?) we busied ourselves crafting a flurry of homemade snowflakes so we would be guaranteed a white Christmas. I hope Santa comes soon because Eric is turning every piece of paper in this house into a snowflake. I should seriously probably hide the cash and our birth certificates.
**Rocky, Eric made you a special snowflake... a very special snowflake. I wouldn't allow him to take a picture and send it though. I'll let you guess why. (Hint, he said to tell you it smelled like garbage.)
NORAD is reporting that Santa is somewhere over Australia right now. While we wait for him to make his arrival in Zurich, we plan tomorrow's Christmas feast and Eric is accidentally drinking a whole bottle of wine by himself, determined to ruin Christmas. :) Anyway, we already know what Santa is bringing us. A trip to Spain! On January 3rd Eric, baby, and I will be flying to Malaga and spending a week in Sevilla, Spain with our friends Elias and Irina. Elias, a native SPANIARD!!! spends most of his time talking about his beautiful country... or just talking, period. If everyone in Sevilla is as friendly as he is, we'll have a great time. We will get to experience the day of the Three Magic Kings, including a parade on the 5th and a gift exchange on the 6th. After that we will travel to the Southern coastal town of Cadiz where we get to stay at a 4 star, beach front hotel for a mere fraction of the normal price. Thank you economic crisis!
Our other Christmas present is a new apartment! We move in January 1st. It's nice and a little less expensive than where we are now. It's not perfect, but one can't be too choosy with this housing market. It's a one-bedroom attic flat with a nice, cozy, wooden, peaked ceiling. It kind of reminds me of our adorable cottage back on Belmont Street. It's not too far from Eric's lab and there is great access to public transport. We are going to have to furnish it and will most likely be sleeping on camping pads for a few weeks. I expect that won't be a whole lot of fun at 35 weeks pregnant, but it's part of the adventure! I promise we will have it up to snuff in time for everyone who is coming to visit us.
In baby news, everything is going great! She keeps herself busy at nights by karate-chopping my internal organs and seeking out/freeing little air pockets, creating constant opportunities for my embarrassment and for Eric to laugh at someone's gas other than his own. We got some more baby equipment and are slowly getting ready for her arrival. It really is amazing...
I guess I should wrap this up so we don't leave Santa waiting. I think we'll snuggle up on the couch and watch a pirated Christmas movie or two while Eric puts this bottle of wine to bed and I eat the baby's weight in cheese and chocolate. What? It's Christmas! We miss you all and hope you have a very, very Merry Christmas.
Love,
The Hayden's
Monday, December 1, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving only to members of Beaver Nation.
And if I said Happy Thanksgiving to anyone not of Beaver Nation prior to Civil War, I hereby retract it. (Not counting my mom, since as a parent to a Beaver and a Duck she is exempt from pledging allegiance to one or the other... plus she probably has no idea what I am talking about and can't be faulted for that.) Eric and I will remain in seclusion in Switzerland following the loss of the beloved Beavers for the next 2 years.
Oh, we put up a few new pictures at Picasa!
http://picasaweb.google.com/thebrynster
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
28 Weeks Later
Oh man. So, I spent a little time watching some birth videos today. Uh........ hmmmm......... I'm going to do that? I guess the realization is a little late but it hit me right in the face ala Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. I'm pretty sure they didn't show any videos like that on Choices and Challenges Day at St. Mary's. Or maybe I was *skipping* absent, but I think I would have remembered something like that. I guess it has been working for eons, so no reason for me to spend any more time figuring out an easier way to do it. Puts away graph paper, protractor, and calculator
It's weird how your perspective changes as your life changes, too. Now I covet people's strollers instead of their bikes. It's Petit Bateau and Bonpoint instead of Kate Spade and Joe's jeans. We got a crib, as in a place where babies sleep not as in a place where rappers live that they give tours of on MTV with fountains of Cristal and live-in, round-the-clock booty shakers. Folks, it's a stark reality... I'm on my way to becoming one of those people. One of those mom people. The Dirty Diaper Club. And I'm totally excited about it!
Everything else is going really well. Eric is making good progress in the lab. I couldn't possibly describe any of it - something about rna transcription evolution ham sandwich. Maybe he'll update his old science blog! He can probably summarize bio-chemistry better than me, which isn't surprising considering that I don't even know what day it is. (January?)
We're still looking for an apartment. People have said that it takes as long as 8 months to a year to find (and get approved) for one here. So we aren't discouraged. I do hope we find something before baby comes so we'll have extra room for all those guests we're expecting?? Someone?? Anyone?? You're coming to visit us, right? crickets chirping, tumbleweed blows through blog
It's weird how your perspective changes as your life changes, too. Now I covet people's strollers instead of their bikes. It's Petit Bateau and Bonpoint instead of Kate Spade and Joe's jeans. We got a crib, as in a place where babies sleep not as in a place where rappers live that they give tours of on MTV with fountains of Cristal and live-in, round-the-clock booty shakers. Folks, it's a stark reality... I'm on my way to becoming one of those people. One of those mom people. The Dirty Diaper Club. And I'm totally excited about it!
Everything else is going really well. Eric is making good progress in the lab. I couldn't possibly describe any of it - something about rna transcription evolution ham sandwich. Maybe he'll update his old science blog! He can probably summarize bio-chemistry better than me, which isn't surprising considering that I don't even know what day it is. (January?)
We're still looking for an apartment. People have said that it takes as long as 8 months to a year to find (and get approved) for one here. So we aren't discouraged. I do hope we find something before baby comes so we'll have extra room for all those guests we're expecting?? Someone?? Anyone?? You're coming to visit us, right? crickets chirping, tumbleweed blows through blog
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Just an update!
It's been awhile and my mom is starting to get lippy with me about me not updating this. (I love you mom!) Things are going great! For starters, Obama won - so yeah, we'll probably come home in 2 years afterall.
It snowed really hard here last week and we got a few inches... it was so beautiful! I wish I would have taken some pictures. I'm sure there will be many other opportunities........... many, many, many, many others. It is soooooooooo cold. Which is unfortunate because I really have very few clothes that still fit. I have to invent all kinds of new ways of bundling up which usually leaves me looking like I blindfolded myself and jumped in a Goodwill bin, rolled around until some clothes wiggled onto me and called it good.
Last night Eric and I attended a childbirth preparation class at the Hospital where we will be having the baby. It seemed very informative. Couples were nodding at each other in agreement after the doctor said something with an encouraging expression. Husbands were laughing at the nurses jokes as wives lovingly shook their heads in mock disapproval. People were voraciously scribbling notes when the doctor took a more serious tone. Eric and I were playing thumb wars under the table because it was all in German and we couldn't understand shit.
Everyday I discover new things about Switzerland that make me close my eyes and reflect in wondrous awe... "wtf"? I guess it's not that weird to buy horse at the supermarket in the rest of the world. It took me by surprise when I was putting some stew meat in my shopping basket and I noticed a little, tiny cartoon horse in the very bottom corner of the package. We're from Southern Oregon... more specifically, Eric is from Azalea... so it's like mandatory to eat meat with every meal. We've been here for a month now and while I can't say for sure how many times we've eaten horse, I'm pretty sure it's happened. Almost positive it was horse when I made some funny tasting hamburgers our first week. Now I pay close attention to all of the cartoon animals on meat packages. Ostrich, bunnies, goats, and one that has a wild boar, a deer, and an elk all huddled together under a tree. I've gone ahead and named that one "the huntsman's grab-bag".
Another exciting development that my new friend from Ireland made me privy to was that some channels have this "dual language function" some of the time on some of their shows where you can turn off the German dubbing and watch in English. We figured it out and have gotten to watch movies like Something About Mary and Old School and shows like House and CSI. But there's a very dark and sinister side to this new luxury. Out of desperation for english-speaking entertainment, we watched......................... Beethoven's 5th. As in part 5 of that movie about a big, quirky yet lovable St. Bernard and all of the hijinx he can get into in an hour and a half. The whole thing. After that movie we both left the room and couldn't make eye-contact for a few hours because we were so ashamed.
Welp, now that you know all of that, I'll be on my way. :)
It snowed really hard here last week and we got a few inches... it was so beautiful! I wish I would have taken some pictures. I'm sure there will be many other opportunities........... many, many, many, many others. It is soooooooooo cold. Which is unfortunate because I really have very few clothes that still fit. I have to invent all kinds of new ways of bundling up which usually leaves me looking like I blindfolded myself and jumped in a Goodwill bin, rolled around until some clothes wiggled onto me and called it good.
Last night Eric and I attended a childbirth preparation class at the Hospital where we will be having the baby. It seemed very informative. Couples were nodding at each other in agreement after the doctor said something with an encouraging expression. Husbands were laughing at the nurses jokes as wives lovingly shook their heads in mock disapproval. People were voraciously scribbling notes when the doctor took a more serious tone. Eric and I were playing thumb wars under the table because it was all in German and we couldn't understand shit.
Everyday I discover new things about Switzerland that make me close my eyes and reflect in wondrous awe... "wtf"? I guess it's not that weird to buy horse at the supermarket in the rest of the world. It took me by surprise when I was putting some stew meat in my shopping basket and I noticed a little, tiny cartoon horse in the very bottom corner of the package. We're from Southern Oregon... more specifically, Eric is from Azalea... so it's like mandatory to eat meat with every meal. We've been here for a month now and while I can't say for sure how many times we've eaten horse, I'm pretty sure it's happened. Almost positive it was horse when I made some funny tasting hamburgers our first week. Now I pay close attention to all of the cartoon animals on meat packages. Ostrich, bunnies, goats, and one that has a wild boar, a deer, and an elk all huddled together under a tree. I've gone ahead and named that one "the huntsman's grab-bag".
Another exciting development that my new friend from Ireland made me privy to was that some channels have this "dual language function" some of the time on some of their shows where you can turn off the German dubbing and watch in English. We figured it out and have gotten to watch movies like Something About Mary and Old School and shows like House and CSI. But there's a very dark and sinister side to this new luxury. Out of desperation for english-speaking entertainment, we watched......................... Beethoven's 5th. As in part 5 of that movie about a big, quirky yet lovable St. Bernard and all of the hijinx he can get into in an hour and a half. The whole thing. After that movie we both left the room and couldn't make eye-contact for a few hours because we were so ashamed.
Welp, now that you know all of that, I'll be on my way. :)
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