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
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
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. :)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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. :)
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. :)
Monday, October 20, 2008
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
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
Friday, October 17, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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!
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