Oh the adventures we will have...: January 2012

So Christmas was a little different this year... we spent Christmas Eve in Dresden, Germany and Christmas Day in Prague, Czech Republic. I can't remember the last time we spent Christmas in Europe - oh wait, that's because we never have before! It definitely was different and hard to not be with our families, but we were able to experience something completely new and unique to us at the European Christmas markets. You'll find a few photos from our trips to both cities in the blog, if you are interested in seeing more photos just let me know and I'll send you a link to all of the photos.

First, we went to Dresden because of the good things we heard about their Christmas market and it was all true. The atmostphere of the European Christmas market is absolutely magical, and in Dresden you can tell that the locals put a lot of time and effort into preparing for this month long celebration. Take a look for yourself...

Aside from the Christmas market we were able to

visit a

nd see some beautiful historical buildings including a palace and opera house - many of which were nearly destroyed during air raids of World War II. Luckily we fit all this in before heavy rain and sleet moved in for the evening and to our surprise everything shut down by about 3 pm on Christmas Eve (we expected things to close early, but not quite everything including the stores in the train station, which meant 3+ long hours of just sitting and waiting), but later we found out that Christmas Eve is the bigger holiday here for many places and many things were instead open on Christmas Day.

Onto Prague and all I can say is if you have not been there is go there. Especially for you history buffs out there... the history there runs very deep and gave us a new appreciation for growing up in the U.S. We were able to visit the castle quarter of the city and walk across the Charles Bridge and learn more about his reign, saw the astronomical clock which was a marvel when it was built hundreds of years ago and still is today, we visited the Jewish Quarter and learned about centuries of discrimination and hardship and visited the communist museum to understand better how the country has come to where it is today.

The evolution from communism to democracy was especially highlighted as Vaclav Havel died just a few days before we came. Havel is one of the most important people in the Czech Republic's history as he was the primary figure in leading the country to a democracy. As a result we were able to more truly see just how much he was respected by the entire country as they came out in mourning.

In addition to receiving a big refresher to our world history studies we tried to partake in as many Czech traditions as possible. We visited the Christmas market here as well and although the crafts and handmade goods were not as impressive as in Dresden, the atmosphere was once again nothing short of magical. Check out these two videos for a taste:

We also had the opportunity to take in one of the locals' favorite operas - Don Giovanni - in the Estates Theatre, which is where Mozart himself premiered his work a few hundred years ago. A beautiful and intimate venue was the perfect introduction to our first opera.

The other local traditions of course involved food! For the most part the food meant dishes of hardy meat and potatoes, especially pig's leg! Coming from Zurich we felt as if we were able to eat like royalty since the food was so cheap (really it was pretty close to the cost of eating out in the midwest), but we are still trying to figure out why on some menus they included the weight of the food. I guess it was a good indicator of what we were going to get, and maybe one we should have paid a little more attention to before ordering - especially when we figured out after Steve received his food that he ordered nearly a one pound hamburger!

In addition to trying all the local foods wherever we visit Steve is going to work on sampling as many different European beers as possible. He did pretty good in Prague, but his tastings were not complete without a trip to a local brewery and beer hall. We visited perhaps a little too early in the evening to get a complete taste of the atmosphere - no crazy drunkards or dancing on tables, but there was some good singing and coins being thrown into the tuba for an encore. Mostly, it allowed us to capture a glimpse of what an European beer hall is like and one that will just get us prepared for a trip to Munich and potentially Oktoberfest down the road...

Finally a few random things that left us pondering as we left Prague. First we saw two wedding parties out taking photos at various historical spots on a Tuesday afternoon. We tried to do some research to see if it is a tradition to get married on a Tuesday in the Czech Republic, but found nothing. Second, in Prague the subway lines seems to be a good three or four stories underground. We're sure that there is a logical reason to this, but still are surprised since we have never seen them so far underground before. We assumed this has something to do with the terrain or the way the city was constructed prior to the subway being introduced, but regardless it still made for a scary and exciting trip down to our line on some very steep and long escalators!

All in all, the trip to Dresden and Prague was considered a success for our first big European adventure and after an exhausting five days we were more than ready to return to Zurich. And although I've never been one to be partial to airlines I'd have to say that Swiss Air left quite an impression on me... for a flight that was less than 1.5 hours we received fresh sandwiches on baguettes made that day (none of those plastic wrapped sandwiches that can be preseved for six months) and we recived swiss chocolate. I look forward to flying in that type of luxury again!

So my New Year's Resolution was to blog once a week... well that didn't happen right away, so we are going to start a few weeks late and try to catch all of you up on everything that has gone on the last month.

Let me start by saying, it's still surreal. There are many days that I wake up and have a hard time believing that yes in fact I do live in Switzerland and this is now my daily life. I most often realize it when I go for a run. Sometimes it's when I run down by the river and the lake and other times it's when I run up the hill away from the city center where you can get great view of the city below. It's amazing to think that this is my life and I get to experience all these amazing things - we truly are blessed for such an opportunity!

To catch you up on some of the most memorable experiences and learning moments for us in the last month in Zurich I formed a top ten list... here we go.

Going to the Movies... I've already mentioned more than once how expensive it is to live here, well I was once again reminded of this when Steve said he really wanted to go see Sherlock Holmes in the theaters. We're not big "going to the movies" type of people to begin with, so usually when one of us wants to really go, we go. And the surprising thing about Zurich is that you can find many American movies not only in a local theater, but in English. Enough people know how to speak English here and they actually prefer to watch the movie in its original language just with subtitles. So we were lucky and able to find a theater close by playing the movie in English. What we didn't quite expect was the price of the movie - about $22 per ticket! We were taking guesses that it would be at least $15 per person, but I think our jaws about dropped when we heard the price. One thing we did learn was that we got assigned seats, and we had a really good seat, maybe next time we go to the theater we will ask for the worse seats available and see how expensive they are for comparison. Regardless, we won't be going back to the movie theater any time soon, it's going to have to be a really good movie!
The Turkish Consulate... Our temporary apartment was across the street from the Turkish Consulate. I didn't really think twice about it or the fact that armed guards stood outside of the building all day. They always looked bored to death and I was more concerned that they were being humored by me when I walked by with my arms full of groceries looking like I was about to drop something. Anyways, that all changed one Friday afternoon when I heard what sounded like chanting going on outside of the apartment, and that is exactly what it was, a protest with several hundred people outside of the consulate. It made my afternoon quite exciting and dull at the same time as I couldn't leave my apartment since the police were out in full patrol with the street blocked off and tear gas guns in hand. Later I found out that the Turkish army had killed many innocent civilians in the middle east and that is why the people had been protesting. Luckily it all ended peacefully, but I still wonder what happens to the very on time Swiss transportation system when something like that happens and a route gets blocked - trust me, I've seen how upset the Swiss can get when their train or bus is running just a few minutes late.
When using public transportation... It's amazing the things you see and experience when using public transporation on a daily basis. There have been two highlights for me in the last month. The first moment was while riding by myself and the young man sitting behind me asked me something in German that I didn't understand, when I asked if he could repeat himself in English he asked me if I had "nose paper" he could borrow. I'm guessing he was asking for a Kleenex because then I heard him sniffling, but I couldn't help but almost burst out laughing at his translation. The second highlight was trying to decipher the signage on the trams and buses - for those that have ever assembled Ikea furniture it is kind of like that (more to come on Ikea later), but they are all stick people telling you what you can and can't do. Most of them make perfect sense - don't put your feet on the seats, don't play music (in case you have your guitar with you), etc. But the one that has us most puzzled is this one below... I guess it means to not damage the train, but really I think most people might use a means other than a saw to damage the train or try to take the seat with them!
Yes, we're the stupid Americans... We really haven't had that many dumb American moments, well there have maybe been a few, but I think the best one yet was our experience at our first doctor's appointment here. I called to schedule the appointment and the receptionist was nice enough to speak English, but with a very thick German accent. Anyways, the result of this interaction was we showed up on the wrong day for our appointment! We were one day late - I thought she had said the sixth, but I guess she actually said the fifth. Lucky for us they were very nice about it and agreed to still see us if we waited for a little while. I don't know if our doctor in St. Louis would have done the same thing. And more to come on this subject in a later post, but let me just say I can already tell that going to the doctor over here will be a much different experience, much different in a good way.
We rented a car and... We survived! Is there any need to say more than that?
Ikea "Fun"... The first couple of times I thought it was fun, but when you have been to Ikea seven times within a two week span it starts to seem a little excessive and not so much like "fun." However, I guess that's what happens when you need to buy about half of the furniture you need for your house. It also would not have been as big of a deal, but there are two Ikeas in the suburbs of Zurich and neither one had everything in stock that we wanted - so we had to go to each in order to get what we wanted. Also, that's what happens when you have Ikea deliver your biggest items (so you don't have to rent a car again) and they forget to bring everything and we have to go back yet again to straighten our order out! The one benefit to our numerous trips is they have a "frequent diners" program and that's right, we very quickly earned ourselves a free dinner from eating there on many of nights, but it is after all one of the cheapest places to "eat out" in Zurich, so how can you resist? So now that we have completed most of our shopping trips to Ikea the second batch of "fun" starts as we put the furniture together that came in our 26 boxes!
How does my computer always know where I am...? Perhaps this is a little trivial, but I find it rather annoying that my computer always knows where I am. Sometimes I don't want my websites to automatically pop up in German or worse yet in Czech when traveling to Prague! I guess it's pretty a pretty ingenius way to stop us from watching American TV shows via the Internet, but really why can Americans watch Grey's Anatomy or Modern Family for free, but the Swiss cannot? Lucky for us we have slingbox so we can still keep up on all of our favorite shows...
Daily shopping... Although most days I do not miss having a car, I do miss it greatly when it comes to running errands and shopping on a daily basis. It gets old very quickly to only be able to buy what you can carry home, especially when you finally come across a store that carries several things you have been looking for! I expect it will get much better once we are settled in, but for now my days often entail going out several times to different stores to only get what I used to be able to get in one quick shopping trip to Target back home.
American food we took for granted ... For the most part I think we are pretty lucky with good Swiss food and nothing too different or crazy so far (other than everything just being double the price). And I have surprisingly been able to find many things at the grocery store that I had been told previously that I might not be able to find - like granola bars and Heinz ketchup. However, there are still some things that are a challenge to find or are just not the same at all. For instance, skim milk I think only exists at Starbucks, luckily I have finally found 1.5% milk at one grocery store, at all the others the closest thing I can find is 2.7% milk. I am also adjusting to the fact that eggs aren't refrigerated at the store. And how about the prune flavored yogurt I mistakenly bought at the store? I've definitely never seen that flavor before, but it's actually not bad. Finally, I'm still on a hunt to find baking soda that comes in a box. I can only find it in 2 tbsp packets... now I know when it comes to baking you rarely need more than that for a recipe so it makes perfect sense, but I like to use it to deodorize things - like my kitchen refrigerator - in which case a 2 tbsp packet isn't ideal. And trust me, when you're pregnant you smell everything and really just want to find a box of it to put in your refrigerator.
My dryer has a "smoking dry" setting... I think the highlight of my experiences getting settled into our new apartment was trying to use my washer and dryer. I had just gotten used to using the appliances in our temporary apartment when it was time to start translating instruction manuals again and figuring out how to use new ones. Don't get me wrong though I was very anxious for a new dryer as I was hoping that it might actually dry our clothes in under 3 hours time. Well, it didn't work quite that well. Instead within the first minute of starting the dryer it started to emit smoke! I quickly shut it off and tried some different settings with the same result. At that point in time I decided I better not try anymore. Steve asked me if I translated the instructions correctly and was using the correct settings, I responded and said it didn't matter - I'm pretty no dryer should have a "smoking dry" setting! Lucky for us our landlord responded properly to get it inspected and repaired and the repairman said it was much too old to fix (by the looks of it I'm guessing its the same age as the building - 22 years old), and even better he said he thought it would be best to replace the washer at the same time. Now only one more week to wait until we can actually wash our clothes!