The Swiss let loose in August!

Over the past 9 months I have come to the conclusion that for the most part the Swiss are a pretty conservative, keep-to-themselves culture. It is difficult to get to know them on a personal level, and they barely say hello, excuse me or show any other sign of common courtesy out in public. Not to mention some apartment buildings even have regulations on "quiet hours," and they are a society that believes firmly on no work (not even pulling weeds) on Sundays.

Crowds of people for Street Parade... not a typical day in Switzerland!

So to say they "let loose" during the month of August might almost be an understatement. Part of this I guess is due to the fact that schools only let out for about 5 to 6 weeks during the summer here, half of which falls in the month of August (don't feel too bad, kids get plenty of time off throughout the rest of the year for ski holidays and such) and as a result many parents take several weeks off of work (some are forced to as many daycares also shut down for this same time period!). Although many of these people go to the mountains or out of the country during this time, the people left in Zurich find many activities to keep themselves entertained and a bit more social then they are the rest of the year.

The month kicked off with the Swiss National Holiday on August 1. This is just like our 4th of July celebration, except with a twist. While we think of parades and BBQs, the Swiss find themselves enjoying a farmer's brunch on this holiday. We of course decided to partake with several of Steve's co-workers and made our way to a "city farm" in a suburb of Zurich and had brunch with 400 other people. Unfortunately we forgot to take any good photos, but we will get some next year as it was a lot of fun, good food and a definite must as next year Emma will be ready to test out the little petting zoo this family made available to children with some of their farm animals. It was fun to eat fresh eggs, potatoes, cheeses and jams outside in an partially covered barn. And at $30 per person for unlimited food this was an absolute steal by Swiss standards (normal brunches here run at least $50 - $80 per person). We enjoyed the rest of the beautiful weather that day at the lake with friends and perhaps next year Emma will be ready to take in the fireworks as well!

On our way to the parade (yes, open containers are legal here
every day of the year)

Although the Swiss National Day was a pleasant surprise of the Swiss culture, by far the more shocking surprise of the month was the Street Parade, which is an annual tradition that takes place on the 2nd Saturday in August. I guarantee you that this tradition is not so broadly embraced by the entire Swiss population. I am not sure how to entirely describe it... according to Wikipedia it is the most widely attended technoparade in Europe and is said to be a demonstration of freedom, love, and tolerance with reportedly a million people in attendance. The parade did not start until around 3 pm, but parties started all over the city earlier in the morning and lasted into the wee hours the following morning. Once again, like Fasnacht (Swiss Mardi Gras) it was a reason for many people to dress up in completely random costumes. We enjoyed the time pre-parade with some friends that lived near the parade route and made our way out to the route a few hours before it started so we could see all the crazy spectators. However, it quickly became apparent that once the parade started it was time for us to head home. Not exactly the place for children (let alone newborns) each parade float features a different band and dancers on the floats, and the music is played so loudly that many people wear earplugs! It was about the furthest thing possible from the typically conservative, quiet Swiss lifestyle. Yet one thing Swiss still remained true, as it is still technically a political demonstration it is completely peaceful and safe. While other European cities had similar demonstrations in the past such as Berlin, many of these turned violent and dangerous. Not the case in Zurich where people continue to be some of the most law abiding citizens in the world.

Emma got a feather to wear for the parade

Unexplained street parade costumes

Finally, on another recent weekend, although not near as big of a deal as the previous two events there was a "swim" held in the Limmat River, which flows through the center of Zurich. I had heard it was quite popular and had sold out. I assumed it was a competitive swim for roughly a half mile down the river. And perhaps it was competitive for a small group of people, but as we observed while we watched part of it that the majority of people simply "float" down the river. And not just that but they do so with rafts and duck inner tubes. Perhaps my favorite part of the day other than seeing hundreds of people bobbing down the river with their duckies was seeing them jammed onto the trams and buses with them going home after the swim!

People and a few duckies floating down the river

Aside from taking part in these Swiss traditions the past few weeks we have done a few other fun things as well. Emma played hostess to her first house guests, our friends Kristin & Jon, who made a quick stop in Zurich at the end of the European vacation. In less than 48 hours we managed to fit in a tour of Zurich, a beautiful hike overlooking the city, and encouraging them to eat and drink as much traditional Swiss food as possible!

Quick stop along our hike

Kristin & Jon eating meat on a hot stone... a fun Zurich dining experience where you cook your own meat - the bibs are to keep you from getting burned from the sizzling meat!

Last week Emma got in another overnight away from home, as we went to visit dad while he was working out of town in the beautiful Swiss resort village of Engelberg in the heart of the Alps. Overall the two hour train ride with just mom and Emma went pretty well, and it was well worth the night spent visiting dad, especially when mom was even able to get in a beautiful run along the base of the mountains. Although Steve has yet to go to a non-beautiful spot when he goes out of town for work, this one by far tops the list and if the view from his hotel room was this amazing all the time it would be hard to stop us from going every week for a quick visit.

View from Steve's hotel room in Engelberg!

And finally this past weekend we checked one more hike off our list. Unlike the others I didn't think this one was quite deserving of its own blog post. It was along the Rhine river in the northwest corner of the country and just a few miles from both the French and German borders. The second half was nice as it wandered along a tiny path down the river, but the first half was less than spectacular as it made it's way through part of the city of Basel and some more industrial areas. I am not quite sure how it qualified as one of the 32 top hikes in Switzerland, but we're guessing it did as it was meant to showcase a different region of the country. Or perhaps with all this amazing beauty we are just becoming a bit of hiking snobs...

  

The best part of our hike along the Rhine - going with friends Laura & Dana!

August was certainly a fun month for all of us, but we can't wait to see what September holds especially as it includes our first out of the country trip with Emma!

Don't step in that!

That seemed to be the theme of our hike last weekend as we wandered through what seemed like cow pasture after cow pasture! We were definitely surprised that a marked Swiss trail just meandered through what appeared to be private property. But then again many things are different here, and we'll just chalk it up to another thing that would never be allowed in the U.S. Regardless, we are very thankful that someone decided it was acceptable to put a trail there as the scenery was spectacular!

The Wildenmannlisloch trail is in the Appenzell region of Switzerland, which is about a 1.5 to 2 hour train ride east of Zurich. Our journey started and ended with cable car rides as the hike was at about 5,000 feet and situated perfectly with views of the valley below and still higher jagged mountain peaks above us. The cable car on the way up was far from the typical modern car we have grown accustomed to taking throughout the alps, it instead looked like the first one they probably ever constructed! We were a little worried that it was going to be a manual pull, but luckily it was run by electricity, otherwise it would have indeed been a long ride up!

Dad & Emma in the valley below ready to take the cable car to start the hike

 

Old school cable car

Beautiful views of the valley on the ride up the cable car

Dad & Emma riding in the old school cable car - can you believe we fit 5 adults & 2 kids in it?

Start of the hike... these signs are all over the country and they all look like this because there are so many different trails!

Some parts of the trail thru the field were simply marked by paint on the rocks

The hike took several hours and in addition to beautiful views, making friends with some cows, trying to avoid one cow that seemed slightly crazy, and weaving between presents left behind by the cows, we also got to explore some small caves along the way. It was yet again another amazing day of playing in the Alps with Emma!

View of the Alps from inside a cave

Just passing another cow...

Hiking in the alps with a 7 week old requres a few more things in the backpack and stops along the way, but no one minds it when this is the scenery around you!

The crazy cow! It was running faster than I've ever seen a cow run right before we shot this video (I actually don't think I've ever seen a cow run before)!

Emma's first overnight!

View of both the church and castle (and some apartments)

A little over a week ago we headed out for Emma's first weekend trip away from home. We decided to go to the small Swiss town of Sion, which is about 2.5 hours southwest from Zurich. Sion is located in a beautiful valley in the Alps that is rich in history with an old castle and church. The region is also home to terraced vineyard after vineyard. However, one of the main reasons we decided to go there was that it was hosting an outdoor Irish musical festival that weekend and the headliner was to be a favorite band of Steve's.

Exploring old town Sion

We took the train down on Saturday morning and spent the afternoon exploring the town, tasting wine, and enjoying dinner outside at a restaurant downtown. We headed back to the hotel for a quick break and to get Emma changed and ready to go before we headed to the concert. As we made our way back out we saw that the west end of the valley had become filled with dark clouds and we could see sheets of rain coming down. The wind had already picked up and although it felt good on the warm day, we knew it was not a good sign as we had Emma in her baby bjorn and just two umbrellas to cover us. We walked for about 10 minutes before deciding that it was a bad idea. Although Steve had been looking forward to the concert for awhile, we recognized at that moment that our lives had changed and wasn't always going to be about what we wanted to do anymore. Our best bet was to head back to the hotel and skip the outdoor festival. However, once we got back to the hotel and saw the wind and heavy rain coming down I think we were both secretly happy that we had little Emma to thank for keeping us dry. We've already endured more than our fair share of wet excursions during our time in Europe!

Unfortunately Sunday morning wasn't much better weatherwise and we decided to skip any explorations of the castle or hikes through the vineyards and instead headed back to Zurich a little earlier than planned. Nonetheless it was still a fun, relaxing weekend away with our little family! Emma did great sleeping at the hotel in her stroller bassinet and she is becoming a regular on the train. It probably helps that we've started becoming better at figuring our her patterns and how to keep her fairly content during the rides. Yet, I'm not going to lie, it is nice that having a small baby helps deter people from sitting too close to us and often leaves us with a few empty seats near us when the trains are not as full! I can't wait for future weekend trips as a family and watching Emma explore her first year all around Europe!

Old church on a hill

View of the castle

Emma and I enjoying the train ride home!

The 32 best hikes in Switzerland... 30 more to go!

Starting point for the hike just outside
of the town of Kandersteg.

Shortly after Emma was born Steve found a list of the top 32 hikes in the country and decided that we are going to do all of them before we move back to the states. Lucky for us he decided that we don't have to complete the entire hike (some of them are 7 or 8 hours long)! I must admit I'm quite excited to tackle this next challenge as I feel like we are really going to see and experience the true Switzerland this way. We've already seen some amazing scenery in these first eight months from the cities we have visited, but I expect to see even more spectacular views on these hikes. So last week we checked hike number two off the list as we made our way to the town of Kandersteg.

The day we picked was warm by Swiss standards (low 80's), but little Emma at all of not quite 5 weeks was a trooper and continued her status as "super baby" by doing a great job on the 2 hour train ride (each direction) and the 2.5 hour hike. The hike took us up in altitude 500 or 600 meters along a glacial river, a huge waterfall, brought us face to face with some friendly Swiss cows, and finally ended at the beautiful Lake Oeschinen. And although this video clip doesn't capture all of the great views of the hike, I think it captures everything completely Swiss about it!

Here's a look at the rest of our hike in photos...

The trail followed this glacial river

Beautiful, huge waterfall!

No fences here - the cows go wherever they want!

A look back on the town of Kandersteg from part way up the hike

Cows with bells, a beautiful blue lake, and mountains.. could it get any more Swiss?

Steve was tempted to take a dip, but glacial lakes are not for the faint hearted even on the hottest of days!

Emma's first cable car ride - she rode her first gondola at 4 weeks old!

We survived the first month!

 

Well we survived our first month as parents! Did we have some diaper blowouts, major spit up episodes, and long spells of crying during her "witching hour"? Of course. But we also had many hours of cuddling, sleeping on our chests, and more and more time of content gazing along with a few real smiles! And as we already knew Emma's doctor continues to call her a "super" baby (the Swiss love to use the word 'super' and I am beginning to use it quite frequently too, especially wtih reference to Emma)!

After being fortunate enough to have Steve home for the first two weeks after Emma's birth he headed back to work and some out of town time, but Emma and I did surprisingly well and were lucky to have some additional visitors and helpers during Steve's time away. On the weekends we've been enjoying our time as a family and especially enjoy taking long walks together. In fact this past weekend Emma got to go on her first hike and she did wonderfully! We explored the Uetliberg area, which is just on the outskirts of Zurich and can basically be described as a really large hill with wonderful views of the entire valley that the city of Zurich sits in along with Lake Zurich. We are already looking forward to going on another hike this weekend. It looks like hiking will be our new weekend activity when the weather is nice now that it's a little easier and more encouraged for me than when I was pregnant!

Look at my cute socks!



Beautiful views of Zurich and the lake from the top of Uetliberg

 

This doesn't look real does it? I want to go back for a picnic under this tree!



Dad's good at giving baths and Emma's
head is a little stronger each time

We are also looking forward to enjoying our first night out without Emma this weekend as we celebrate our 5th anniversary! We already have such wonderful friends here that have offered to be some of Emma's first baby sitters and Emma absolutely loves them. We celebrated on the actual day of our anniversary a couple of weeks ago as a family though and it couldn't have been more perfect. Beautiful weather got us outside for a good walk followed by a visit to Zurich's first Fro-Yo shop (definitely not the same as the ones in the U.S., but a good substitute until we can get home), and Steve even cooked a wonderful dinner that Emma allowed us to eat while it was still hot and without one of us holding her!

All in all it's been a wonderful first month. We are so happy to have a healthy little girl that seems relatively content and I am lucky to be able to spend so much time with her. Although we feel like we have already done pretty good getting out and going places, we anticipate many other big firsts in the coming month as we head out of town for our first overnight away from home and Emma hosts her first overnight house guests. We look forward to the fun times, the challenging ones, and watching Emma grow and develop everyday! Our first five years of marriage have been such a blessing, but we know it is only going to get better with Emma along for the ride!



2 weeks old

3 weeks old

4 weeks old

I think you know how old she is here...

Always a helper nearby...

Emma's first play date with her friend Sienna (one week her senior)
I don't think she liked sharing her pillow as she kept hitting Sienna in the head!

Are the Swiss getting friendlier?

One week old, still unsure of the monkey!

Ok, I doubt that the Swiss are really getting friendlier, but as Emma is now a whopping 2 weeks old I can attest to the fact that they actually do smile on occasion and even offer a friendly word or two when passing on the street or on public transportation, which is more than I can say for my first six months here. I held out little hope that this would be the case since even as a 9 month pregnant lady there were very few times when I was offered any extra help or a seat on the tram when it was full. And regardless of whether or not I was pregnant there have been many times when I would have appreciated someone at least saying "excuse me" ("entschuldigung" in german) as they pushed their way through an aisle at the grocery store or suddenly stopped right in front of me while getting off the tram. But as I have come to find out this is just not common practice here as people really say very little to one another while out in public and do their very best to keep to themselves. As a result I am convinced there is a good possibility when we move back to the U.S. that we will be slightly more rude when out in public, I apologize in advance...

Now I wouldn't go as far as to say that anyone has gone above and beyond my expectations (especially not the time when we had to carry Emma and her stroller up a flight of stairs at a train station and the people coming down the stairs would not move out of the way for us) but it has been a welcome surprise to have someone smile at us when they see little Emma, ask us how old she is, or make a cute comment at her (well I think they are saying something nice as I can only understand part of the time). And luckily despite a few meltdowns in public I have yet to receive any dirty stares, and I guess Emma hasn't cried too much at our apartment yet as we have not received any post-it notes on our door from our neighbors. As a result I would conclude that her first two weeks have been a relative success, especially because it seems like Swiss babies are always absolutely perfect and never cry or I must just have yet to actually hear one.



Little pink bunny after her first bath at home

However, I'll make sure not to celebrate too much quite yet, after all she is only two weeks old and this is my first week on my own with Steve now back to work with a real test to come as he heads out of town soon as well. But I think we've done pretty good getting ourselves and Emma out and about (could any of you really expect me to stay cooped up at home for very long?). In her second week we succeeded in running a few errands with her, taking public transportation, going to an expat 4th of July celebration, getting her passport photos taken (which was an especially big challenge), and taking newborn photos (take a look at the sneak peek here: http://www.clarebrehenyphotography.com/london-and-zurich-photographer/emma-grace-newborn-photography-zurich-sneak-preview/). Yet, we've also been very fortunate to have several friends come visit and help out as well!

I'm sure the month of July will come with many challenges and new experiences and they will be far from easy, but if we've survived the first two weeks with Emma and the Swiss surely we can tackle what lies ahead right?

Dad sleeps - Emma just pretends!

Emma Grace has arrived!

After 41 weeks and 2 days of waiting little miss Emma Grace finally made her grand entrance into the world at 7:44 am on Monday, June 25, 2012. We feel so very blessed and are in complete awe that she is actually ours! For those of you keeping tabs, here are her stats (we will be nice enough to convert them from the metric system for you):

6 lbs, 14 oz (3.115 kg)

20 inches (51 cm)

Blue eyes

Light brown hair

  

After spending five nights in the hospital we are happy that the entire family is now at home and getting adjusted to what is our new "normal." We feel that so far (in all of her 8 days of life) she has been a relatively easy baby. Don't get me wrong, we've already had our fun times including a diaper blow out on daddy and getting sick on mommy on the first day home! We have also concluded that we are jinxing ourselves if the clothing we put on her is more than half white as it is bound to mean a messy clean up later in the day!

We can't wait to see what Emma has in store for us in the coming weeks, months, and years ahead, but it is without a doubt that we will always remember our experience having a baby in a foreign country and how it differed from any experience back home (aside from the heaps of additional paperwork). Here's a look back at the past week.

  

Since Emma was being more than a little stubborn and had no intention of coming out on her own will in the near future the doctor decided that it was best to induce one week after our due date. We were told to head to the hospital at 10 pm on Saturday night to be induced with the first set of drugs with the idea that it was going to still take awhile for them to kick in and we would be able to sleep most of the night (I laughed when the doctor told me that). It was clear from the moment we arrived at the hospital that our experience with Swiss healthcare was going to be like nothing else (we admittedly went to a small hospital, even by Swiss standards, as so far I know of no Swiss hospitals that come close to rivaling U.S. hospitals in size. Just to give you an idea of the size, when we arrived there were 7 or 8 new babies there and the day we left there was only 1 other remaining baby there). We had been given no directions other than go to the main entrance which was the same as the emergency entrance. At 10 pm on a Saturday night the doors were locked and we didn't know what to do. Luckily there was an employee outside that let us in without really asking any questions (I'm guessing he took one look at me and figured out we weren't trying to break into the hospital just for fun), but once we got inside there was no one in sight! So we decided to just head up to the maternity wing.

There's Emma's ID band!

After feeling like we had snuck into the hospital we finally found a midwife and she looked very surprised to see us. Evidently there was a bell we were supposed to ring for her to come meet us at the entrance, but we had completely missed it! Even though we had done some paperwork ahead of time, I was still surprised that we didn't fill out anything upon our arrival. There was no formal admissions process, no hospital ID bands, no hospital gowns, and she simply whisked us away to a room to get started. Another main difference at the hospitals here is that midwives instead of nurses work in the maternity departments, and although I don't have a U.S. hospital experience to compare it to, I think it was significantly better as a result. The midwives were very attentive and there to help in anyway possible with suggestions and advice. Although by the end of the week I was a bit tired of feeling like someone was always checking in on me, overall I am thankful for the experience and feel that we walked home with much more knowledge and confidence than we would have in the U.S.. And luckily the majority of the midwives spoke very good english, except in the normal Swiss way they said they spoke "a little english" only to go on and speak it almost perfectly. However, it was quite comical that the one midwife that spoke limited english was the one that was on duty the majority of the time I was in labor. Yet her actions made up for it as she did a great job seeing us through the labor and if there was ever a significant communication barrier she would track someone down to help translate.

Not sure I understood everything the midwives had us do - it was 75 degrees and the hospital had no air conditioning, yet they still put about four layers on Emma. Here she is with an additional sleepsack for bed!

If you didn't notice I went into the hospital Saturday night, but Emma wasn't born until Monday morning, so it was a bit of a slow process to say the least! So much so, that another surprising moment that I don't think would have occurred in the U.S. happened - the doctor told us just to go out for a walk or go home for a few hours around lunch time on Sunday. Now, we do only live two blocks from the hospital but we still didn't expect that they would just tell us to do what we wanted for a few hours. No need to sign out, tell them exactly when we would be back, or anything. Just walked out with an IV in my arm and went home for a couple hours before labor really kicked into high gear!

First family photo shortly after Emma was born

By the time Emma arrived on Monday morning it had been a long 36 hours that didn't pass without a few surprises, like finding out I was allergic to penicillin about 24 hours into it, but as I had been told several times before nothing else could have possibly been more worth it. We were pretty much madly in love as soon as we saw her. I'm convinced she already has her dad wrapped around her pinky. And I am already relating the experience to a marathon (and not in the normal way of referring to how long of a process it is), but in the way that you feel afterwards and how surprisingly easy it is to forget the pain involved that got you to that incredible moment. But don't get too excited, unlike my normal marathon routine of signing up for another one right after I finish one I think we'll take a little time off before we have another one of these little ones! 

So happy that Emma is finally here!

One of the last major differences between Swiss healthcare and U.S. healthcare is the amount of time that you stay in the hospital when you have a baby. For a regular birth in Switzerland it is usually at least four nights and closer to seven or eight nights if you have a c-section! I spent "only" three nights in the hospital after Emma was born (after all we had already been there two nights before) and was definitely ready to go home by the time we got the go ahead on Thursday. But I was surprised at how quickly the time passed as it seemed that everyday the midwives had several different things planned that they wanted to teach us or discuss. And when we were told on Wednesday night that we could go home the next day the midwives had to rush to go through everything else that was still on our "agenda" as they hadn't expected us to leave until Friday! Then by the time we finally got everything done on Thursday our exit from the hospital was just as nonchalent as our entrance. We simply called the midwife when we thought we were ready to go. We asked if there was something we were supposed to sign or do and she said "No, you are good to go. Do you need any help on your way out?" And as simple as that we walked out the door and walked the two blocks back to our home.

Emma's ready for the long walk home!

 All in all, our first week with Emma has been nothing short of incredible. It's amazing to look back at what we were thinking and feeling last weekend in anticipation of her arrival, to the moment of her arrival, and now to how we feel after a few days of being at home. Although I have no doubt that we will continue to be nervous and worried about something most everyday, it is much different from the anxiousness and apprehension we felt as we waited to be induced. And what I do know for sure is that it's true that these little ones truly are an incredible gift from God, and Emma is one that we will continue to be thankful for the rest of our lives.

What an amazing blessing - is it really possible that we get to take her home with us?

A few other photos from Emma's first week!

Emma's favorite peek-a-boo pose, just like we saw in the ultrasound pictures!

One of Emma's favorite spots, on dad's shoulder

  

Practicing her wave

Blowing kisses

Can't wait to see how much she grows each month!

Proud daddy

Proud mommy

Supervising the newest member of the family!