Baby Update

Yesterday we had our first Swiss Dr.'s appointment. It went really well... they wanted to go ahead and re-do all of the tests, exams, etc., so they were done to Swiss standards. It was fun because we got to have another ultrasound, and a little awkward because I don't think Eric was expecting to be in the room with they "surprised" us with a full pelvic exam.

They are much more cut and dry here. Things like during the ultrasound, when the Dr. said "okay, now we look to see if the baby has the club feet" and "now we look to see if the baby will have a normal face". The good news is that everything is great! However, it got me thinking about all of these little things I hadn't been thinking about. Of course I had worried that there would be abnormalities with major organs or something serious along those lines, but I hadn't considered that maybe the baby wouldn't have a "normal face". But not to worry, the baby has a normal face by Swiss standards. :)

Schaffhausen!

Saturday we took a journey to Schaffhausen, home of the thundering Rhine Falls - the largest waterfall in Europe (or so the brochure claims). I don't mean to sound like a jerk... but it's hard to beat the waterfalls we have in Oregon! It was really great, though. The town was beautiful. Historic, medieval, all Europylike.

We visited the Munot fortress, built in the 16th century. It sat high up on a hill above Schaffhausen, surrounded by vineyard. Then we toured around the windy cobblestone streets admiring the murals and fountains that were everywhere. Next we headed to the falls, where we were able to take a boat ride to a cliffy-rock that sat in the center of the falls and hike to the top. It was so beautiful!

For pictures, visit here: http://picasaweb.google.com/thebrynster

Apartment Hunting

There's a housing shortage in Zurich. I got a little first-hand experience with this cold, hard fact when I "arranged" to go view one I found online that looked pretty good. It was on the river, in an okay part of town (by no means central) with pretty average rent for Zurich... more than we wanted to pay. It was about 2,500 fr./month which is about $2200! It is pretty crazy how expensive it is to live here. Unfurnished. 6th Floor with no elevator. 1 bedroom.

I show up................................ along with at least (literally) 50 other people. It was elbow to elbow in there, and people were totally jazzed about what a great place it was. Not being able to speak the language and ask any questions, combined with the fact that it took me and my continually expanding baby bump 15 minutes to walk up the 6 flights of stairs made it a pretty easy decision. We'll keep looking.

We made it!

Okay, well we made it 2 weeks ago, and I am just now getting to this! It's been pretty busy, but we now have a bank account, health insurance, a post account, and are registered with the canton of Zurich. We have taken the trams and buses all over the place and a map of Zurich finally makes some sense to me!

It's nice here. There's a river that flows through the city, just like in Portland, but this one comes from a HUUUUGE lake right in the center of town. It's really beautiful. You can also see the Alps! It's been sunny and clear so we've been doing lots of exploring.

Our temporary apartment might extend into the realm of "semi-permanent". There's a shortage of housing around here, and it's nice enough that we can stay there until we find something we really love. It's only a 5 minute tram ride to the city center and all of the essentials are within walking distance. But it's definitely one of the parts of town where "people live". I've always only been to the cool city centers and old towns when travelling before and wondered " this is so great, but how can people afford to live here???" Well, I learned they don't live there. They live where we are living... in the dirtier, less interesting, completely normal and boring outskirts. But it's still awesome!

So, we had been under the impression that Switzerland was super safe. It definitely seems that way. You see 5-year olds taking the public transportation to school by themselves. People just leave their bags and coats on community coat racks in a big room at the university. Bikes are just leaned up against walls on busy streets unattended. So, we were really disappointed when Eric's pride and joy (no not me) was stolen from right outside his office. His bike that he cherishes and babies - GONE! It was a sad day of filing reports and posting signs. There were a few beers and lots of reminiscing. We somehow got through the night. THIS MORNING: I came into work with Eric and as we walked through campus, we looked through all of the bike racks scattered around and low and behold.............................. his bright orange Lemond Poprad was tucked away among the other bicycles... not visible from the path, but there it was, unlocked. So, WE STOLE IT BACK!