Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Wow, our first week in Switzerland has been full of adventure! We packed up our house last Wednesday, flew to Geneva on Thursday and arrived Friday morning where Rob had five minutes to shower and rush to a work meeting. We are living in a little town called Lonay. It’s the quintessential Swiss town – cobblestone sidewalks, rustic buildings with green shutters and flower boxes, a tiny market with “pain” and “lait”, and a quaint little church with bells that toll every hour. Fortunately, a little path outside our door leads to a park down the street. Our apartment is roomy but sparsely furnished. Fortunately, man from the relocation agency came over and put together a simple IKEA crib and a changing table. We had also requested a high chair. But in the language confusion, they had purchased an IKEA chair that is high – not at all a high chair. Anna Claire is just going to have to survive with a booster from the local baby products store and her IKEA “high” chair for now.

Our Lonay apartment (note the lovely shutters)

Rob and I have had our share of laughter at our “foreigner faux pas”. The first day here, I ran to the tiny market first and was trying to communicate to the cashier what I needed when Anna Claire found the candy section and chewed through a Spree wrapper. Not a very nice thing for the neat and clean Swiss. Rob and I later drove to a real grocery store. First we had trouble trying to get a grocery cart. In Switzerland, they have the kind of carts where you put in a coin and retrieve the coin later, after you’ve returned the cart. Well, we had no idea which coin fit in the cart. After noticing us make a fuss, a man who spoke a little English stopped and gave us a “fake” coin that we could use. After meandering through the store noisily discussing which products were which, we purchased our items and the cashier asked us something about bags. I nodded and she gave us a tiny bag in which to put our frozen goods. It turns out the Swiss are so recycling conscious that they bring their own bags. Here we were with a grocery cart full of items and no bags!

Another difficulty we had initially is how to close our shutters. Those cute little green shutters outside every window are more complex than you think. The first night, we wanted Anna Claire to sleep without the streetlight glaring into her eyes and I couldn’t figure out how to detach this little roller that holds the shutters open. Rob finally got frustrated and bent the rollers until the shutters came loose. We finally figured out that the rollers just have to be pulled up in order to loosen the strollers. I’m sure this is something that every Swiss child knows, but to us, it seemed so complex! Now, any Swiss who walks down the street can see where the clueless Americans live – in the apartment with the bent rollers and shutters flapping around!

Despite the little complexities of living in a new country, Switzerland is gorgeous. We took a stroll down to the nearby town of Morges and walked along a promenade next to Lake Geneva, where you could see all the boats coming into the harbor. Anna Claire discovered that ducks and geese live in Switzerland too. Our little town of Lonay is surrounded by vineyards and cornfields – not the most productive use of the hilly countryside – but certainly picturesque. On Monday we drove up a steep pass to Mont Tendre. (Yes, Rob was exploring potential bike routes.) After driving through the fog below we caught a breathtaking view across Lake de Joux of Mont Blanc. What a sight!

The view from our apartment!