my swiss souvenir

the tchotchkes may break, but the memories will last

happy birthday to us, part 2

Henry had a milestone birthday on Friday (okay, he's 40).  We kicked it off in style with a surprise party for him on Friday night, starting with drinks on the dock, followed by a dinner cruise on a restored canal boat, followed by dancing and one too many drinks at the nearby bar.  Let's just say we partied like it was 1999, when none of us was anywhere near 40.  The best part of all was the excellent company!  We are so lucky to have such great friends after being here for such a relatively short time.  I was also thrilled that I mostly succeeded in surprising my husband and completely succeeded in giving him a good gift, because it is really a challenge to give him anything that he wants or needs.  I felt so loved and happy that it felt like my birthday, too.  Here are some pictures of varying quality from the first few hours of that special night, including some blurry attempts at capturing our lovely view.
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knowing better

Today I went for a run while my car got serviced.  The neighborhood there is quite business-oriented, with lots of large office and apartment buildings, car dealerships like mine, warehouses, "big box" stores, and even a small army barracks and training center...not exactly the kind of place people normally think about going for a run. But this time I actually knew better.  Last night I quickly looked at the map to confirm what I already suspected: there is a small patch of woods within a five minute walk of the garage.  Without any further preparation, I showed up at the garage with my running shoes on and said, "I'm going for a run. Are the woods that way?" The service manager didn't bat an eyelash and said yes.  I headed in the right direction, and sure enough, there were woods, walking trails, and even a marked running route called the Geländelauf (lauf means run) there waiting for me.  I ran for about five kilometers and then walked around a bit to explore further and take pictures.

What a lovely run and walk I had.  The trail took me along a creek, through freshly plowed fields, and of course through the forest.  I saw...
-a blackbird gathering materials for its nest
-a mallard diving for food, later having a nap, later hanging out with his mate
-horses quietly soaking up sunshine near their stables
-a group of children and adults from a daycare out for a walk
-a little black salamander I almost ran over
-a Schäferhund (that's German Shepard) clubhouse
-signs reminding us to watch out for frogs crossing
-more primroses than you could shake a stick at
-a waterfall
-a pair of magpies chattering to each other from their respective treetops across the stream from one another
-a huge rabbit hutch
-a group of private garden plots
-and of course, many, many people, mostly with dogs
Best of all, I got to see a little house for beekeeping up close.  I have often seen these small houses, always at an edge where forest meets field, and wondered what they could be holding in all their brightly-colored little drawers. The answer: bees!  Each "drawer" seems to be a little separate beehive with a special slot for them to fly through.  It was amazing.

This is something I like so much about living here.  Even if you live somewhere without your own green space, or a view of anything even resembling a green space, you can usually get to quite a nice one in five minutes if you want.  Also, almost everyone wants to, and they are out enjoying it as often as possible.  That, of course, is the reason it's there--these lovely spaces don't happen by magic, and certainly not in the middle of a valuable area of commercial real estate.  It still feels like magic to me, though: all I have to do is show up with my running shoes on.

Photos: today's sights, including the bee-house. Also, a sign on the road I take to drive there that explains how the road is closed at night due to frogs. How cool is that?


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should have known better

Last week I decided to go the Marni at H&M sale.  For those of you who don't know (or care) what this is, a super-cheap clothing store called H&M does occasional partnerships with designers where they create a special collection of clothing and H&M releases them on one day with lots of hype.  I have never done anything remotely like this, but I thought it would be fun to try.  Since this is Zürich, it also seemed pretty harmless, since shoving and shouting in stores thankfully isn't really our style here.  Besides, the idea of scoring any dress at less than 300 CHF seems like bargain-hunting at this point--to score a designer dress at that price point sounded like a dream come true.

Anyway, I should have known better.  No, there wasn't any shoving or shouting.  At least I don't think there was--I never actually made it in.

To start at the beginning: my friend and I were having coffee a couple of days before the sale and decided to walk down to H&M to scope it out.  Since my friend is on crutches she was really just humoring me; even in Zürich crutches are probably pushing it at an event like this.  There were some rules posted in the window which we carefully read, and said things like "you can only buy one garment in one size" and "there is a three-day return policy."  I also went online and found the same list.  Both places emphasized that the doors opened at 9:00 a.m. on the day of the sale.  No probs.

On the night before I started to think: this is way too easy.  There is no way that I am going to rock up at 9:00 and walk into that store.  So I decided to go online and see what the blogosphere & co. had to say about it.  In NYC people were apparently lining up at midnight to get a spot in line.  Bloggers warned that shoppers would only have 15 minutes to shop--in Hong Kong only 10--so be sure to wear leggings or other clothes that you could try clothes on over.  Well, I knew for sure that no one would be lining up all night in Zürich.  Can you imagine?  People lined up on the sidewalk at night?  That simply would not do.  And why should it?  Sounds like craziness to me.  After all, these are clothes, people.  At H&M, for heaven's sake.  But I felt--I knew--there had to be some catch that I didn't understand.  I went through the pictures of the collection online anyway and plotted my strategy--what to pursue first, what to look for later, what to avoid.

I arrived at 9:03, and was relieved to see no evidence of chaos on the street.  Inside, things were quiet as well.  There was a small buzz at the bottom of the escalator, at the top of which I could clearly see the Marni women's collection.  A sales associate was talking to an excited (small) group of ladies but I couldn't make out anything they said.  I launched into my best German (which isn't very good) and told him I didn't understand.  He very patiently and slowly explained to me that I needed an armband to shop the Marni collection, and that without one I should just come back around noon and see what was left.   I was so bewildered and exhausted from the German that I walked away.  I felt so defeated and stupid.  Of course I needed an armband!  What was I thinking?  So I called my friend, and she kindly pointed out: what armband? What the heck was he talking about?  The website and the store rules didn't say anything about an armband!

I marched back into the store because I am more curious than I am afraid of looking stupid.  Also, I already looked stupid so I really had nothing to lose.  Also, it was probably more like slinking than marching.  I spied my friendly sales associate and heard him speaking ENGLISH to a couple of fellow foreigners.  Oops.  In my zeal to speak German everywhere I go, I had forgotten I could just try English.  From my stealth eavesdropping, I heard him explain that armbands were handed out at 7:30, and that the armbands assigned you a shopping time to come back for.  He also explained that there probably wouldn't be anything left by 11:30 or 12:00 when the doors opened to the public.  He then repeated to them the same thing he said to me, which is that the Marni men's section was open.  I walked over there and consoled myself with the fact that the clothing seemed to be H&M quality at much higher prices (a very boring and cheap-looking jacket for CHF 299).

Rather than settle for my sour grapes, I decided to shop the way I do best.  I hit the gourmet market on the basement level of the Globus department store across the street and scored better than I could have ever hoped for at H&M.  I found heirloom tomatoes and basil oil for my lunch, real fresh violets and sugared lilacs for Sabrina's birthday cake, and white peppercorns for the evening's stir-fry.  Then I met my friend for coffee again and headed home happy, and full of this silly story.

photos: scene of the crime.  note the dude (wearing suit with red tie) there to manage the very orderly, quiet, and polite crowd of middle-aged ladies.

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american flags

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I know I still need to post pictures of our Ski Week last week, but I am still going through pictures, so that will have to wait.

This list has been growing in my head for a while.

How To Identify an American Woman Living in Zürich:  A Guide

At two years into this expat adventure, I have picked out a few reliable “American Flags” in the way I act and dress.  These are also handy for picking out other Americans in case you want to, say, ask her if she knows where to buy a good bagel.
  • Has peanut butter, whole wheat sandwich bread, and skim milk in the grocery cart.  Some people might buy one of these, but only an American would have all three in her cart, and often.  As far as I know, there’s only one store chain that even carries that kind of bread--the same one that is the sole provider of organic skim milk.
  •  Is wearing a ponytail.  Lots of ladies wear ponytails for exercising, of course, but it’s Americans who are wearing them any old time.  I love me a ponytail, personally.
  • Has kids wearing Lands’ End coats and carrying Pottery Barn Kids backpacks.  Weird, but true.  American expats in Zurich love to buy these for their kids.  They are absolutely everywhere.  Doesn’t hurt that the companies actually ship here, either.  These brands are catching on with other expats as well, but this is still a very good indicator.
  • Is wearing exercise clothes in public (excluding school drop-off).  I am the only person I have ever seen in the grocery store wearing running tights.  Sometimes you just have to buy some (skim) milk before you can go work out!  Or before you go home to take a shower.  Believe me, I am still not the worst-smelling person in there.
  • Is wearing Uggs (applies to non-teenagers only) or flip-flops (applies to thirty warm days per year only).  ‘Nuff said. 
Photo: My model for Uggs and a Lands’ End coat, waiting for the tram to take us to her ballet class

boo boppity birthday business

Last week was Dahlia’s birthday.  I can’t believe she turned three.  I’m partially amazed that my “baby” is older than any baby I’ve ever had (the other two had younger siblings well before their third birthdays), and partially surprised because her birthday made me realize that we have lived here for almost two years now.

We had a Boo Boppity Birthday Brunch on the Sunday before her birthday with sort of a Valentine’s theme—pink and white and red and hearts.  Last week pink was her favorite color, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.  This week, of course, her favorite color is “all the colors,” followed by a list of every color she can think of.  Anyway, we don’t have a lot of space, so we couldn’t have a big party, but Dahlia didn’t seem to notice since there were still the core elements of cake, presents, singing, and balloons.  [As a side note, I felt that I must be living in some sort of bizarre parallel universe when I realized that the (real New York-style American) bagels and (real organic aged English) cheddar cost almost three times what the fresh flowers (two bunches of tulips and five pots of primroses) did.]

Her actual birthday was the same day as the children’s swimming lessons, so she also had a cupcake and candle at the pool.  Her teacher had a party for her at school as well—suffice it to say that the occasion was truly celebrated all around.  Of course I am The Most Biased Person on this topic, but I think three years of Dahlia Sunshine is definitely worth celebrating!  

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baby, it's cold outside

I mean really, really cold.  In fact, last night a new all-time low temperature record was set for Switzerland in a place called Glattalp, in the nearby canton of Schwyz: 37 degrees below zero (C).  Here it's "only" been down to about 17 below.  Normally, we would take the girls skiing on Saturdays but we skipped it yesterday because it was 20 below on the mountain.  Everyone else we know took their kids in spite of the forecast, and their reports varied from "best day of skiing ever" (due to the combination of lovely deep powder and gorgeous sunshine) to "nightmare" (due to the combination of super low temperatures and small children).

Because we are cold-weather wimps, we only ventured out for lunch.  We went into town to a place called the Helveti Diner, and had an excellent lunch with a really cool view.  The burgers were super yummy, and the fries and onion rings rocked, and we only had to brave the cold for the brief walks to and from the car.  http://www.helvti-diner.ch/

We also took the opportunity to hit the sales at Athleticum next door (ok, across the river, but still essentially next door) for some gear for our upcoming ski trip to Serfaus, Austria.  Now all my Alpine skiers have spinal protection, so I'm happy, and everyone has hand warmers and an extra layer of thermal protection so Henry's happy.  Let's hope the cold breaks soon--before our ski break.

Photos: My car's temperature gauge on Friday morning during the school run.  Notice the temperature was moving in the opposite direction of what you would expect. Then, miscellaneous shots of the cold weather in town, finishing with a picture of life imitating art (plus one).

P.S. If you want to see some awesome pictures of the cold around Switzerland, follow this link to the Tages Anzeiger coverage.  The captions are in German but Google Translate will suffice for simple stuff like this if you like: http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/panorama/vermischtes/Seegfroerni-Vorsicht-geboten/story/13679290

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go outside and play, already

Time always drags for me at this time of year.  On weekends when I can get to the mountain(s), ski season helps, but on weekends when I can't, it makes time go even slower since it "ruins" the weekend.  In other words, Henry takes Sabrina and Alana skiing, and Dahlia and I are here without them, which kind of makes Saturday seem like any other day.  And then on Sunday, those three just want to veg at home and I feel anxious and bored.  Waaah, poor me, I know.

I was feeling anxious and bored today, and also annoyed with myself for feeling anxious and bored, so I took the girls outside to try to change my mental scenery.  What a difference a little outside time can make!  Dahlia lasted about five minutes before retreating indoors to play Polly Pockets with Mimi, but the other two and I scootered all around the neighborhood (rather, they scootered and I ran/jogged/walked with them).  It was freezing and a little icy but we didn't care.  The highlight of our outing was riding through their school like they were cars.  They pretended to look for a parking place and complained there were no spots (there wasn't a single car in the completely vacant lot), and then pretended to be annoyed waiting for pedestrians to cross the traffic lane on the crosswalk.  We laughed and sweated and chatted our way through the super-gray foggy air, and it was just what I needed.

Tomorrow is supposed to be dry and I cannot wait to get out for a run.  I don't care how cold it will be, I am going. (p.s. that is not a dare, Mother Nature.  I would appreciate it if you could keep it around the freezing mark).

Photos: Scooter racers waiting for imaginary pedestrians to get out of their way.  The rest are shots of my outside playtime with Dahlie B. Jones yesterday.  I know the close-up shot is poorly framed, but she is a difficult moving target and I just had to share her sweet face.  She methodically made those tracks all over the yard and reminded me of a little bird, or the hero in Ezra Jack Keats' classic book The Snowy Day.

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stopped in my tracks

The public transportation is amazing here, as I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before. It's so timely that we notice (and sometimes complain) when the tram is even a minute or two late. The other great thing is that the trams and buses are mostly electric, so they are super quiet and more environmentally friendly. But what would happen if the power went out? Today I got to find out.

I went into town (Zürich) via our local tram called the S18 to return some ski clothes for Sabrina and get some others, since her pants are suddenly looking more like capri pants than snow pants (darn kids keep growing!), and the ones I bought for her on Tuesday don't fit, either. I was already jamming this errand into a spot that was probably too small for it and I felt rushed, but I wasn't worried because the trams are so reliable I knew that if I hurried, I would be fine.

The announcements started about the time we got to the Rehalp stop (about 1/3 of the way into town). I knew the conductor was saying that we needed to get on a bus at the Hegibachplatz stop (about 3/4 of the way there), but again I wasn't worried, because before the holidays they did the same thing due to some road works.  You just got off at Hegibachplatz, hopped on a bus, and continued on to Stadelhofen (the destination train station).  After a couple of more stops I looked up and noticed that the electronic sign board inside the train said (in German) "Power accident in the inner part of town."  Well, now I was starting to get a little worried.  I looked at the woman in the seat across from me, but she seemed unfazed, so I decided not to worry.  Just before Hegibachplatz, she looked at me and asked, "Stadelhofen?"  Oh great, I thought, this lady is more clueless than I am. I explained in German that I thought we had to get off here and get on a bus, but that I wasn't really sure.  She looked like she still didn't have a clue, but I didn't have long to worry about her because by this time I was swept up into the wave of people exiting the tram and cramming into the bus.  Now I started to worry.  I was a bit reassured by the human wave, but the electronic sign board inside the bus said that we were following the regular route for this bus, which does not go where I was going.  Sure enough, it started to turn off my route at Kreuzplatz (the next stop), so I jumped off with about half of the human wave and we all started walking towards our original destination.  That's when things really got weird.

As we walked down the hill towards Stadelhofen, there was a #11 tram just parked in the middle of the street on the side of the hill.  The conductor sat calmly inside, along with a couple of equally calm white-haired ladies.  The rest of the tram was empty.  Then I saw Stadelhofen at the bottom--it was a sea of people, dotted with a few taxis (full)...and no trams.  As I approached I realized that my bad German had struck again: apparently a "power accident" means a "power outage."  For the entire city.  Every shop, every restaurant, and every office was dark.  Since it was lunchtime (Swiss people all eat lunch from precisely noon to 1:00), the pretzel stands and roasted chestnut stands were mobbed with people who couldn't get into any of the many nearby restaurants and cafeterias.  Swarms of loud and annoying teenagers who would normally be contained by the McDonald's and other fine local establishments were all on the street, being loud and annoying.  TV camera crews were interviewing people on the sidewalks.  And everyone (including me) was snapping pictures with their phones.  I continued walking along a bit to the Bellevue tram station to see what was going on there, and found it looking like a giant child had suddenly abandoned his game of toy trains--the tracks were littered with trams stopped at random points all over.  Some were back-to-back, some inexplicably had lights on, and all of them had their conductors calmly seated behind the wheel reading the paper.  Police directed the automobile traffic since there were no lights.  No one seemed to be upset.  In fact, most people seemed to be what I would describe as calmly amused.

I figured at this point that my errand was lost, and that Sabrina will just have to ski in capri snow pants on Saturday after all.  I then proceeded to walk...back past Stadelhofen, and Kreuzplatz, and Hegibachplatz; past the trams stopped all along the way (there were more now than before), past the white-haired ladies still sitting inside that #11 tram with their conductor, calmly waiting for the power to come back on.  I thought I might be able to catch a tram back up the hill there but there didn't seem to be any, and of course the schedule boards were full of information I couldn't decipher, about substitute buses and directions.  So I decided to keep walking, and thankfully caught up with my good old faithful S18 at the Wetlistrasse stop.  It dropped me home right on time.

Photos: These trams are all stopped in their tracks, and the buses are unhooked from the power lines above and are running on diesel instead (hard to see in these iPhone pictures).  If you want to see better ones, go to the news story on the Tages Anzeiger site http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/zuerich/region/VBZ-wieder-unter-Strom/story/22541417

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london calling, part 2

On the third day of our visit, we went to the Tower of London.  It was as creepy and elegant and old and damp and as fabulously English as I ever could have hoped.  The new camera did me proud on many amazing shots of this incredible historic site.  The kids enjoyed a lot of it, especially running around by the old catapult in the now-grassy moat and seeing the Crown Jewels, but lots of it was just too scary for them, and they only have about a two-hour tolerance for sightseeing without a break anyway.  We hit Wagamama, which is our favorite kid-friendly restaurant in Zurich, to recharge.  The coloring pages and fresh-squeezed juices were a hit as always, and surprisingly, our table had an amazing view of both the Tower and the Tower Bridge.  We had planned to hit the Tower Bridge after lunch but it was super windy and also quite gray and cold, so the idea of climbing up just to see the view (with three kids ages 7 and under in tow) quickly lost its appeal.  We took a couple of pictures and went shopping instead.  Only people who live in Switzerland think that London is a good place to score some shopping deals, by the way.

That night Henry and I went to Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental, which is supposed to be the best restaurant in London and one of the best in the world (http://www.dinnerbyheston.com/).  I was so amazed that I had scored a reservation, even at 10:00 p.m. on a Tuesday...until I realized I hadn't.  When we got there, the hostess very kindly pointed out that our reservations were for the FOLLOWING Tuesday.  Oops.  I had been looking forward to this so much, and at this point it was 9:00 and we hadn't eaten anything since Wagamama.  I almost passed out.  As usual, my knight in shining armor (much more attractive than the ones on display at the Tower of London by the way) swooped in to the rescue, and smooth-talked his way into a table for two.  We spent the next hour drinking $20 martinis in the bar waiting for our table, and the people-watching did not disappoint.  It was exactly what you would expect in a luxury hotel in central London that charges that kind of cheddar for a martini...a lone businessman reading the paper, a pair of women trolling for businessmen (so sad), another pair of women presenting their business case to a group of men on their iPad, a 50-something very short and unattractive man with a 6-foot-tall 20-something very unhappy model on his arm (even sadder), groups of very chic friends laughing and chatting...and the mom and dad out on the town for the night, trying to be cool (that was us).  The food did not disappoint, either, as it was easily the most memorable and interesting dinner of my life, and also incredibly delicious.  I ate something that looked like a mandarin orange but was actually chicken liver parfait, for heaven's sake.  Sound disgusting?  It was actually so, so yummy I wish I could have it again Right Now.

The following day we really outdid ourselves with the sightseeing.  We all hit the Aquarium and the London Eye, and then Mimi and I took the two big girls to see the Lion King in the West End with our friends.  The Aquarium was fun, if not the most amazing one we've ever visited (the one in Camden, NJ has it beat hands-down).  The London Eye was another fun adventure for the kids, with interesting views of the city.  The people who shared our "pod" with us probably weren't as happy, since Dahlia took the opportunity to have a massive poop about 5 minutes in to the 20 minute ride.  It was pretty fragrant in there.  I am so glad she is potty trained now!  The Lion King lived up to all its hype--if you ever have a chance to go to the live stage show, it is so worth it.  We were all enchanted.  The magic has lasted, too--Alana just asked for the Lion King music yesterday, and the girls were dancing around the house singing the songs at the top of their lungs.

We rounded out the trip in a flurry of activity.  We hit the Natural History Museum with our friends, had another grown-up dinner out with our friends (thanks, Mimi), and then Mimi and I finally got to see the inside of that Michelin building on the last evening for oysters and champagne (it's a restaurant now, not a Michelin store).  The children had a couple more items to check off their Kids' Vacation To-Do List, so on the last day Henry took them to the zoo (#4) where there was a carousel (#5) while Mimi and I tried to get some shopping done.

There's so much to do in London that it was really impossible to do it in a week.  We didn't get inside Westminster Abbey or to any of the non-dinosaur museums, and we certainly only scratched the surface of the shopping and eating.  I guess we'll just have to go back!

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london calling, part 1

In October, we went to London for a week.  Although all of the grown-ups in our party had been there before, we were all eager to see some things again, explore new things, and share it all with the girls.  We (as often happens, it seems) had very good and funny luck that some friends happened to go at the same time as us, so we were able to meet up with them and enjoy their company as well.  The trip was jam-packed with activity.  We got a new camera and took lots of pictures, so I am breaking up our trip in a couple of posts, simply because I don't have time to go through all of the photos in one morning while the kids are in school.

On the first day we went to Kensington Palace, but of course not only were Wills and Kate not home, but also the rooms regularly open to the public were closed at the moment for renovations.  Bummer. The gardens were lovely, though.  We then went to the nearby Princess Diana Memorial Playground where the kids had a blast, and immediately checked off Kids' Vacation To-Do #1 (Play on Playground).  Afterwards we went to the Oxford Circus area and strangely enough, to a place called M&M World, where the girls were quickly able to check off Kids' Vacation To-Do #2 (Eat Sweets).  The funniest thing about that trip was the Swiss Cantonal Tree just outside.  We are so used to seeing the Swiss national and cantonal flags at home that I didn't even notice it at first.  Then I thought, "Wait!  We're not actually IN Switzerland right now."  According to the sign, it is "a token of the lasting friendship between Switzerland and The United Kingdom."  Sweet!  Definitely a good omen for the start of our holiday.

Our walks to and from the different tube (subway) stops were as much a part of our sightseeing as anything we did.  We stayed in the neighborhood of Chelsea and our local tube stop was South Kensington.  This is quite a swank part of London and full of beautiful old homes and buildings.  I think I took about twenty different pictures of the gorgeous Michelin building, which we passed every day twice.

The second day revolved mainly around the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  I was really happy that it was not cold or rainy, and that we were not there in the high tourist season.  What a zoo!  Of course, the people who ended up standing directly behind us in the crowd were from Colombia, and Henry ended up chatting to them quite a bit.  We were all exhausted from the standing around, so afterwards the kids ran around in the leaves, we ate some fish and chips in an old pub, and then we went to the famous Hamley's toy store.  It is the biggest toy store I have ever been inside, and puts Franz Carl Weber in Zurich and FAO Schwarz in New York both to shame.  Alana has a talent for attracting attention with her cuteness, and so ended up with an employee demonstrating a "magic" spinning toy flying over her head.  We are suckers, so we bought the toy.  She is really cute, you know.  We were therefore able to check off Kids' Vacation To-Do #3 (Buy Tchotchkes).

More tomorrow.

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