A little Schweiz & a little Frankreich

We took a trip down to Switzerland to visit one of the companies that has a relationship with LJ. We had a fantastic week of fancy dinners, great food, really nice people, and beautiful scenery. Before we headed home after that week, we drove up into France, explored the French countryside and stopped for lunch in a town called Colmar. It's not well known by the tourists, and the locals (French, Swiss, and German) all love it because of this fact--and its charm. This area has been battled over by the French & Germans and thus has a very French-German flair. Then, we visited our friends, Jen & Andy, at their home in Germany before heading back to Neuenrade.

We love road trips!

The photos start in Switzerland. A few posts ago, I added a few from Zurich when we just arrived. Here are photos from Luzern. It's a beautiful town that is large according to Swiss standards. It has an old, well-known bridge called the Chapel Bridge and picturesque mountains in the background.
 
Left: photo from a town called Aarau (where our hotel was located). That's a real traffic conductor!
Right: Random scenery from Luzern

There are lots of interesting buildings we saw and photographed in Luzern. A few of them are below.

Standing in front of the Chapel Bridge with the Swiss Alps in the background

Here's Pinocchio's restaurant (we didn't eat there)

...and here I am with Pinocchio!

We visited the Dying Lion Monument (originally built by a Danish sculptor) Mark Twain classified this as one of the most "dark" pieces of sculpture in the world.

Here's what the we saw as we walked along the Chapel Bridge. It's really charming and many of these paintings are hundreds of years old. The bridge itself was constructed in 1333 and some of the bridge burned in a fire in 1993. The burned portion has since been reconstructed.

Though we visited Mt. Titlis before Luzern, the photos are in the wrong order. Here they are... and this first one is of the world's first revolving gondola. It cost about the equivalent of $60 U.S. dollars to take this to the top. And we didn't even ski!

There are a few of these because I couldn't decide with gorgeous Alps photo to choose!

Here's a typical Swiss countryside photo... it was breathtaking!

On top of Mt. Titlis, there was a glacial cave. I'm not really sure why. There are glaciers on the mountain, but I don't know why they created this feature. It was free to enter (with ticket to the top).

Here are a few photos from the top. It was incredibly sunny + brightness of snow (which is why our eyes look closed).

Here's Ray pointing to Jungfrau (another popular mountain).

I'm standing with Alexandra, our tour guide for the day.

Standing at the top, 10,000 ft above sea level

Getting caught while throwing a snowball!

Dorky cutout photo.

Changing countries now... we're in France (again)! Last time we were in France, we had my parents visiting! I still can't believe they were able to come travel around with us in Europe. This photo (below) is of the Statue of Liberty... obviously we're not in New York. We were driving in Colmar and saw this, so I shot the photo. It turns out, the guy who designed Lady Liberty was from Colmar. Here's the tribute to him, we assume.

I thought it was a cute town and managed to find some beautiful things to shoot...

And the journal... for anyone who still keeps up with this after 169 entries! I'm almost done...

Dienstag 23.02.2010 (day 162)
We woke up and had breakfast downstairs in our hotel. I drove Ray to work while also managing to break a level that pulls the seat in the company car forward and backward. I wasn’t forceful or anything—it just broke. I headed back to the hotel after dropping Ray off at the Swiss company where he learns all about machine logistics and all kinds of (boring) technical things all day. I was able to watch The Bachelor in the comfort of our hotel room. We put a “do not disturb” sign on our hotel door whenever we stay somewhere because we often leave out items we don’t want others having contact with (i.e. jewelry, paperwork). We also feel that it’s a waste for them to replace towels and make our bed when we’re gone the majority of the day. Anyway, yesterday, we came back from dinner to a bag of fresh towels we never requested. Today, though the sign was still on, the housekeeper knocked on our door. They must really want to clean our area! Haha. I headed out for lunch but had a concern that I would spend $20 on a slice of pizza considering my $19 eggroll last night as an appetizer. I went for the obvious—McDonald’s. While I don’t have much to order there except French fries and salads… at least I knew that it would tie me over until dinner and the cost wouldn’t be exorbitant. Well, what costs 1/3 of the price in the U.S. costs 3 times as much here! I had a $1 (in the U.S., here = 3 Swiss Francs), and $3.50 SMALL French fries. Ouch! As unhealthy as it was… I just needed to eat for the sake of it. I headed back to the hotel after a little driving around and sent some emails, researching some teaching ”stuff”, and got ready to head back out to pick Ray up at 4:30. We came back to the hotel and he was able to pseudo fix the seat lever I broke. Really, it’s a wire that must be replaced, but it’s possible to rig it. We were picked up by two people from the finance department for a dinner near a lake. We drove around, up down, and around the Swiss countryside and finally arrived at the lake where we had dinner. They brought out an incredibly large appetizer plate with about 30 mini dishes of choices, bread, salads, and vegetables. After, we had dinner. I ordered what they recommended as a Swiss specialty. Honestly, it looked like 2 inch tall isosceles triangle seasoned and deep fried made of what seemed to be fish skins. I really don’t know, but it wasn’t worth SIXTY Swiss Francs! It was inclusive of the appetizer and dessert---similar to the appetizer being in small dishes of miniature sizes. Our dinner was close to $300 and I ate fish skins! We’re completely shocked by the cost of everything here. They drove us back to our hotel after a bit of an awkward dinner (two finance people = no sales or schmooze background = silence a lot) around 10:10 p.m. We’re ready for some sleep… that’s for sure!

Mittwoch 24.02.2010 (day 163)
I was SO tired today. It was one of those days (maybe it’s just me) that you just cannot keep your eyes open. I was in a funk the entire day, but luckily we actually did have some interesting stuff going on! We met at the company at 8:45 after our hotel breakfast and left with Peter to a company in the same group (they are owned by the same group and use their products, too) that produces rubber. It’s a really cool process and we had a small presentation about the company and background from the managing director before taking a tour of the company production floor. It was really interesting and we really enjoyed it. We saw the machines that they first blend the chemicals to create the rubber, the mixing machines, the melting & rolling machines, the cooling machines… and many more. I imagine a candy factory is similar in their production. We had a great time and since the factory itself is less than two months old, it was brand new as well and quite spacious and clean. After, we drove with Peter near another lake about 15 km from Zurich and had lunch at another hotel restaurant. Hotel restaurants are very popular in Europe because they aren’t chain hotels like all over the U.S., so the food is one-of-a-kind and usually quite gourmet. Of course, this is like my 10th gourmet meal in a row (aside from McDonald’s yesterday)… so we could go for something cheaper at some point pretty soon here. Again though, the food didn’t disappoint. After lunch, we headed back to the company, spoke with someone who is taking us to dinner tonight and the woman who is taking us out for sightseeing tomorrow before heading back to our hotel. We watched last night’s American Idol (yay!) and rested before heading downstairs at 6:45 to be picked up for another fancy dinner. He said we could dress casual, though. It was actually a really nice dinner with a guy, Heinz, and a woman, Iris. We went to a 300-year-old courthouse for dinner that’s obviously a converted restaurant. I had curry again. I had it for lunch and now for dinner. But, I love curry and it was even better for dinner! We had good conversation and the time passed very quickly—though we still ended up back at our hotel at 10:30. Tomorrow I have a feeling I’m going to struggle keeping my eyes open… again. It was a nice day and we had great meals, again. I do believe Papa John’s is calling my name real soon, however.


Donnerstag 25.02.2010 (day 164)
Today was our day dedicated to sightseeing. We were looking forward to seeing the Swiss mountains (well, I was. Ray’s already seen them and gone canyoning in them!). We met with Alexandria downstairs after breakfast at half past 8 (halb nuen in German). Did I mention how completely exhausting this fancy dinner eating, being entertained thing is? I mean… if you’re reading this, you probably don’t feel sorry for the two of us: expensive food, wine, sightseeing when many are slaving over desk jobs and counting the minutes until go time. Well, I can honestly say that being “on” at all times is something very difficult to do. It’s more exhausting, in my opinion, than doing the entertaining. When you are doing the entertaining, you at least have adrenaline to fuel you through. It’s like you live off the adrenaline and crash later. In this case, we’re crashing every single night (and admittedly, I crash in the car sometimes…) and waking up still totally asleep. This day was no different, despite the sightseeing. We drove to Mt. Titlis and joined the many skiers and snowboarders (sans boards and skis) on the various gondolas to the very top. We began around 1,000 ft., and arrived at 10,000 ft. at the top. The last gondola we took was a rotating one—going over 360 degrees while moving up/down. They boast it being the first in the world. Since I’ve never seen or been to another one, it was the only one as far as I was concerned. The view at the top was gorgeous, of course. It was around -12 Celsius with a wind chill and blowing snow. We took photos, walked around a bit, explored a totally random glacial cave they carved at the top of the mountain for you to walk through (like a small scale cave), and sat down for another expensive meal. We had a spectacular view of the mountains below and that was really great. After a 2 hour lunch of strictly entrees and a soda, we headed back down on the gondola. We shared a cable car with 4 children and their ski instructor on the way down. They were the cutest kids and what we saw them do made my day. They were playing “rock, paper, scissors” in their native language of Swiss German. They were saying “schere, stein, papier” (scissors, stone, paper—see the resemblances?) as they were counting before the reveal of their choice. They were cracking themselves up, and we were also cracking ourselves up just watching them! We reached the bottom of the mountain and hopped in the car with Alexandra towards the city of Luzern. We entered the gorgeous city that of course had a river running through it and parked at the main train station (Hofbahnhof). There are 4 bridges in the city and we went on the most famous one—the Chapel bridge. It’s made of all wood and was built in the 1300’s. There are other charming bridges around and they have really old paintings above your head as you walk along. It’s a covered bridge, so it’s nice to shield from the elements, too. It has a water tower in the center of the bridge where it bends and it has at one point or another served as an archive, treasury, and prison. Part of this bridge also burnt down in 1993 and some of it has been reconstructed. On the other side of the bridge, we walked around shops and took lots of photos of delicately painted buildings. The country has so much charm. We walked in some stores, bought our Switzerland boot ornament (we did a tiny bit of hiking on the top of Mt. Titlis, so we get a little credit!), and walked toward a “Dying Lion Monument” created by a Danish sculptor and finished in 1792. I think Alexandra told us that Mark Twain called it one of the “darkest” sculptures in the world. We headed home around 5:00 and arrived to our hotel around 6:30. It rained the entire car ride back, so we’re happy we got a lot in during the day hours. We were so tired of fancy dinners and knew we didn’t have dinner plans with anyone tonight, so we found a pizza takeout place (gotta love those Turks with their pizza/kebab places) and bought our food. Overpriced, but nothing ridiculous by European standards. We brought it back to our hotel and ate. It was excellent and we were so happy to be able to relax and arrive home way earlier than 10:30 p.m. We watched an episode of American Idol and learned more about our housing situation. The house appraised for $10,000 less than we agreed to pay. While this doesn’t worry us, it changes the contingencies put on us by USAA who is funding out loan. In addition to the appraiser registering it as “too expensive in a declining market”, we also knew this was the perfect house for us that we could live in for 30 years and be content given size, open space, looks, location… everything. And, it’s not a declining market. It’s slowly working its way up, but of course it’s the end of a recession and banks are afraid. Luckily, we still have the money, but we’re still dealing with two things: we are buying a house for over its value and we’re hoping the *cheapskate* sellers will drop the price (doubtful), and the mold situation. Keep in mind, it’s a super clean house, but we’re just paranoids. Any slight “off” smell and I’m placing 20 questions. As I should be, thank you! They actually did find a lose tile in the basement bathroom and water was leaking under the stairs. They have a ton of stuff down there, and as I suspected, there was damage to their boxes and mildew on some of the fabric and items they had stored down there. Take heed, people—if you own too much junk and have to store it in weird and crowded places where you can’t access your pipes or check for issues, it’s time for a visit to the Salvation Army. I mean, really. They offered us $100 to fix the problem ourselves. Our attorney thinks they are just trying to shut us up and skate out without having to do too much. The mold test itself cost us $300 and they are only willing to front $100 for us to figure it all out ourselves? Obviously, they’re cheap and don’t want to deal with this. We counteracted with a statement that we expect them to fix the problem, or compensate more for us to fix it. $100 can barely buy a phonecall with a professional. And… if their stuff wasn’t under the stair storage area anyway, our inspector (which we paid) could have accessed it and seen the damage and saved us the $300 mold investigation. Our inspector thinks this may be the cause and consulted their inspector to take a tape sample and test it for the mold. If that’s the cause, we can easily fix the problem and clean the air. Again, this costs money. While we’re fine with money, we don’t think it’s our duty to have to fix a problem when they advertised 3.5 bath but we cannot use one of them because it needs to be repaired. In addition, we will need to put a new roof on the house this summer/fall and that will be a cost out of our pockets—paying $10,000 more is really more like $20,000. But, we want this house. It is perfect for us, despite the wear we’ll need to address. We’re just not two people who have an interest in going to the cleaners over it.


Freitag 26.02.2010 (day 165)
Blessings today. We’re thankful and still nervous. But mostly thankful. I woke up with Ray to have breakfast downstairs. Breakfast hours are 6:00-10:00. Pretty standard… except, at 8:40 a.m., we received a call to our hotel room from the reception asking if we are planning to come down for breakfast. Have we been here that long that they’re learning our normal hours of eating? I mean, we still had a full hour and 20 minutes to eat before it technically closed for the day. We arrived downstairs and there was only was table besides us. But, does that mean they call all the rooms to check if anyone plans to eat before shutting down early? It’s not that small of a hotel. I believe it has 5 or 6 floors. Weirdness. Another weird thing is that every day we place the “do not disturb” sign on our door, we are given a new bag of towels. Not soap, but towels, yes. Another strange thing. Ray went off to work and learned more about the company’s logistics and products in greater detail, and presented some ideas for them and their web development. I stayed in and nerded myself out on the Internet and stared at new houses just in case ours falls through. We’ve been on a wave of emotions the last couple days thinking we could afford it, then the mold, then the mold was resolved, or maybe it wasn’t, the appraisal was too low, they were requiring more money down above our funds, calls, emails, and more communication between attorneys, the sellers, our agent, inspector, and us. Ah. What a long and draining process. But, we pray. God knows what we need and if this isn’t it, he will work it out. It’s just crazy to think that we have 20% for a house we can totally afford and it’s still difficult to purchase it! Financially, we are fine… but it’s just so weird coming out of a recession and searching for a house because everyone is being cautious, including us. Ray got home for lunch and told me we were having lunch at the “Golf restaurant” next door—but my hair was still wet from a shower. So, I hurriedly half blow-dryed my hair and received a call telling us our lunch guests had arrived. We walked about 30 feet to the restaurant and had some Indian dishes for lunch. I could seriously eat Indian as often as Mexican food. I love it and I intend to have as much as possible when we are out for meals—which has been all week (did I mention how done we are with that?). After our lunch, we had some ice cream/sorbet. I tried the grapefruit and Ray had the Pistachio ice cream. They were both amazing. Ray also tried a small tart-looking dessert that was made of maroni (those nuts that gave me food poisoning in Austria back in October I never want to see again) and we tried a small fruit from Asia that looked like a small yellow cherry tomato but tasted like a strawberry. Really interesting and tasty. We got some good news after lunch from our lender, USAA, that the amount they want us to place down is inclusive of closing costs… taking us back where we started. I’m telling you, this whole home-buying process is a crazy one! I think it’s magnified even more being overseas. We headed out around 5:45 for Peter’s house to have some traditional Swiss food. He and his wife prepared a traditional Raclette grill for us. We had some Prosecco Italian champagne, then wine, and grappa, also. Needless to say, I’ve had plenty to drink this evening! The grappa was chocolate flavored and was very strong. The Raclette was amazing. It’s basically a heated plate and you take a variety of vegetables and seasoned uncooked meats and grill them on the plate. You take pre-cooked potatoes and cute them into bite-sized pieces on your plate and place a piece of thick white cheese under the grill to melt while the meat/veggies cook. When the meat/veggies, and cheese are melted, you pour the entire amount on the cut potatoes. It’s incredible. It’s not fondue, but I surely get excited about purchasing one (eventually after this whole house thing!) and having Raclette dinner with a chocolate/peanut butter fondue for dessert. Doesn’t that sound lovely? You’ll have to come visit us for some of that! We headed back to our hotel at 10:15 and are about to head to bed at 12:15, exhausted once again. We had a great dinner and nice company and we’re looking forward to seeing Peter and his wife, Olga, again sometime in the future.

Samstag 27.02.2010 (day 166)
What a great day we had! We slept in (yay!) and packed the car before heading to our free breakfast… then off to the grocery store, S.P.A.R. before leaving Switzerland. We had about 5.5 Swiss Francs left that we wanted to use up, so we bought a few Cola lights, a Rivella (Swiss sweet drink that looks like soda but is actually a 30% milk derivative and so weird), and some cookies. Though, we later found out we had one more Swiss Franc left and now have nowhere to spend it—it happens to nearly all countries we visit! Anyway, we headed on the highway toward France to visit a town everyone was boasting about, Colmar. It’s a cute French town that has been battled over between Germany and France for many, many moons. It looked like exactly that—it had quaint German looking buildings and French was spoken exclusively there. We walked around, enjoyed a few shops, bought a postcard, explored around a few beautiful churches and some canals, and purchased some Wok food from a small take-out restaurant for 8 Euro! We couldn’t believe how cheap our lunch was compared to all the meals we’ve been eating the past week. We bought a postcard in a store across from the Wok place and gave him a 2 Euro coin. The postcard was .35 Euro cents. He gave us back change as though we paid with a 1 Euro coin—but we were positive we paid with the 2 Euro coin. Anyway, Ray mentioned that he had just been ripped off and I went in and explained in English/German (to a French guy) that I gave him a 2 Euro coin and wanted my correct change. He obliged, though not believing me. Interesting…but don’t try to rip this girl off! We headed on the highway through France, paid more tolls to the French in the form of 7.90 Euro, and saw a gorgeous amount of countryside. We drove from Colmar through land that had one castle after the other. It was just spectacular. We ended up driving through Strasbourg and saw a gorgeous church (from the Autobahn) and headed on into Germany. We actually headed back into Germany the same way we entered/exited when we drove through France to Paris and Versailles with my parents back in early January. It was a case of déjà vu, but many things are around these parts since we’ve been around here awhile now. It’s amazing how much more comfortable we are with speaking, making purchases, and exploring. There’s almost nowhere we’re uncomfortable to be. It’s not the exact same level or feeling as being in the U.S., but we feel like we belong here. I’m not sure when that finally kicked in. After entering Germany, we drove through the German vineyard region along the Mosel River and we love it every time. It is absolutely spectacular and the river is just so serene and calm. Aside from Rothenburg ob der Tauber, this might be my favorite area in Germany to drive around in. Rather than enter through Bitburg to Ehlenz, we drove another way this time through a town I think was called Bickerdorf. We ended up at Andy & Jen’s house around 5 p.m. and had an excellent dinner with them. Andy made homemade lentil soup and bruschetta. It was delightful and we talked from the moment we walked in until nearly midnight. We played a few fun games: Jacks & 5’s and another game that’s similar to Balderdash but it’s called Malarcky. We say it every time… but it’s so nice having friends who we can just enjoy a simple meal with, laugh, share, talk, and just be ourselves with. That’s something that excites us a ton about heading back to the States in 16 days. Though it’s rough trying to connect, once you have found good friends, you just cannot replace that bond and the great times. We talked for 7 hours and didn’t waver a bit. We had a blast. Today was just an overall fantastic day that we were happy to have shared with friends and one another. Also, it doesn’t hurt that it was about 14 degrees Celsius the entire day: spring is in the air! There’s certainly something about green grass, sunshine, and warm temperatures that can cure any funk and make your mood a little brighter. Now, time for bed…

Sonntag 28.02.2010 (day 167)
After a great breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes at the Burghdorf’s house, we set out on the road back to Neuenrade. It’s about a 3-hour drive from our houses so we arrived around 2:30 p.m. We only stopped off to refuel at an Aral station and were rushed with intense winds. They were out of control today! The temperatures are well above 10 degrees Celsius and just about all the snow has melted and the fall leaves are being blown around again. We took a new way home that we don’t think we’ve ever taken and it was pretty nice. When we got home, it had started to rain a decent amount and we rushed inside to get out of the wind/rain. Just to see greenish-brown grass on the way back up to our German house was refreshing. If yesterday didn’t fill us with excitement, driving home today and seeing the area that’s been completely white since October covered with green, we were for sure excited. We were super lucky this week/end to have every day we acted as tourists (Thursday on Mt. Titlis in Switzerland and yesterday driving through into Colmar, France) sunny and beautiful out. Now that I’ve experienced my first year of 4 seasons, I am thrilled for the springtime to come, the birds to sing, and the flowers to grow. It sounds cheesy, but I’m ready. We unpacked a bit, did some laundry, had dinner and watched the US v. Canada Olympic Hockey game. Actually, make that watching the game. No report on who has won yet being just before halftime. Ray spent some time creating work presentations and I spent a large part of the afternoon/evening researching furniture, appliances, etc. While we won’t have the money to purchase lots of furniture in the beginning stages of our home ownership, we will eventually and I was scoping out some possibilities and styles we might consider. We do need to purchase a fridge immediately and I found some models we can look at and possibly purchase. I’ve recently discovered the following items online: Canopy furniture & Sears Outlet. I’m a huge fan of both and we will most likely be using them for some purchases. Sears Outlet sells mostly refurbished home items and store models up to 75% off list price. I found some serious deals on there, but they’re only as good as the stores that carry them. Because they are outlet items, they vary by location and require some travel or flexibility. Okay, now I’m off to finish the last load of laundry, watch the rest of this game, and head to bed. Tomorrow, I vow to work out for 30 minutes. Typing it better be a motivation. Ha!


Montag 01.03.2010 (day 168)
It was a lazy, yet somewhat productive day for me. While I didn’t get out of bed until an unmentionable hour, I did manage to fulfill my entire list of tasks today. I wanted to sort through and name the photos from Switzerland, France, and house pictures I took on inspection day. I also went through our food stash and calculated how many and what meals we can make with our current stock, and what I need to buy at the grocery store. It seems like this task is done so often in our recent history. Before we left Redondo Beach, I did this. Before we left Chicago for the first time, I did this. And, now, for the third time I’m making this list. For the last time, hopefully. Stability is calling our names. I made us lunch and Ray came home to eat with me. The day was so bright and sunny (though started out rainy and drizzling) that we figured we’d better get our behinds moving since spring is around the corner and go out for a run. So we did. We ran up and around the route we took on our walk back when the weather was super snowy and this time, not a lick of snow on the ground. It’s amazing since I’m so used to seeing and dodging the white stuff everywhere I turn and watching the ground to make sure I don’t accidentally slip on the ice lining the streets. We have a big blue water barrel outside our door and it’s been frozen solid since early December… or even earlier, I can’t remember. It’s about 25% thawed out now! After our run, we walked down to buy a stamp, but realized we didn’t have the correct change (such a weird machine: requires exact change, or multiple coins to create exact without going over 5 coins… so no pennies!), so we walked back home. We had TJ’s Indian for dinner with rice and veggies and carried on with our nightly routine of technology geekfest on the couch. Hah.

Dienstag 02.03.2010 (day 169)
On this day two weeks from now, we’ll be arriving in our new town for a permanent move. It’s surreal to think SIX months have gone by. After Ray left for work, I got to business. I did just about nothing for the first 1.5 hours except email, reading CNN stories, and catching up on the world that went on while I was asleep. Being 6-9 hours ahead of all US time zones can lead to missing a lot of what’s going on in my neck of the woods. After, I went for a run in the 41 degree (Fahrenheit) weather because the sun was shining. Nevermind that I was the only one running or wearing shorts. I came back home after nearly dying on a 2-3 mile run (pathetic, really), got ready, and fixed lunch for us before Ray got home just before 12:30. We’ve been eating a hodgepodge of meals because we’re trying to use up the supply before we are off in 13 days back home to the states. After lunch, we headed back to work. As soon as I opened the door, we saw SNOW! I couldn’t believe it. We were hoping that the snow was over for the season. I mean, after all, the Germans told us that we wouldn’t be seeing very much snow at all because they just don’t get that much—haha! Well, we had a lot of snow and apparently it’s not over. Though, by the time we arrived at work, it was a mild drizzle-snow. The sun came and went for the rest of the day, trying to pretend like spring is in fact just around the corner. Oh, how I cannot wait. Buying a new house, moving, decorating and all that during the spring! Nevermind again that Chicago can get snow until nearly May. Well, when we got off work, it was lightly snowing again. Bummer! We headed to the market for a few items and then back home for dinner and to watch the past 3 episodes of Amazing Race that I taped today during my fit as I sat and waited for the season finale of The Bachelor to be uploaded. As I sit here at 11:20 p.m., it still hasn’t been uploaded from yesterday! I guess I should be lucky that I can even watch episodes of shows all the way here in Deutschland. But man am I excited to watch things in real time. We had a pretty relaxing evening and nothing else really to report.

Raclette & Roshambo

This past week, we've been having such a good time. We visited Switzerland where we had some excellent food and for the first time, tried Raclette. Here's a description: hot plate on top where you cook veggies/meat. Underneath the hot plate are cheese holders. The cheese melts, the veggies/meat cook, and you place all of this goodness atop some cooked potatoes and dig in. I have full intentions of buying one of these super grills for future entertaining. Who will be coming to visit us?

Okay, now for the second topic of the post, Roshambo. You know, rock-paper-scissors. This game is well known by every single child or adult as far as I know. Well, until now, I was only able to confirm this existed in America. Now, living across the Atlantic in a little country (haha) called Germany for six months and now traveling down to the south in Switzerland (where they speak Swiss German... so kinda still German, right? Though, Swiss German is a whole different ballgame to speak and understand IMO), we have seen people from other cultures.

We were taking a gondola down from Mt. Titlis and shared a gondola with 4 children and their ski instructor. It was super quiet until these awesome kids realized that they needed to spice things up a bit. I was looking out the window but had to look back as I heard two children laughing hysterically while saying three words over-and-over. Those three words sounded a bit familiar to my ears... being somewhat trained in children's games, simple German vocabulary, and the fact that most people don't think saying three words over and over again is that entertaining.

What were these kids saying? You guessed it:

Schere-Stein-Papier. 

Much like our words, they are recognizable. Schere are scissors. Because, scissors sheer things, after all. Then, on to Stein. Unlike most people think (and we mistakenly thought during our first month pre-Oktoberfest in Germany though this is well known throughout the world as "stoneware" including those beer mugs), a Stein is not a beer mug. It actually translates in German as stone. And finally, Papier. It even looks like paper.

So, breaking this down further, the kids in Germany say, "scissors, stone, paper" in that order and with those terms.

I just love watching kids have fun, interact, and teach me things! After this, of course I wondered where on earth this game originated, why kids across the world find this so amusing, and how they interpret it for themselves.

Oh, and rule change, Swiss-style. Rather than the scissors being smashed by the rock, the scissors are squeezed into the top of the stone (picture it as your fingers being pushed into the top of your opponents fist if you were the scissors and your opponent, the stone).

In case you care, there are court cases, rules, and tournaments to read about here about this lovely and simple game...

A Few of MY Favorite Websites

I read A LOT of blogs. Ever since we moved to Germany for 6 months (that time flew by!), I have been reading a lot of blogs to stay connected to the world, learn how other expats cope, etc. I found a lot of really great people with really interesting stories. Some of those people are listed on the right of this page. Others, I follow in blogger just to get their updates. I am following a cool teacher in Germany, teachers in Illinois, people in our new neighborhood, and all kinds of good stuff--in addition to my real-life friends. It's honestly more interesting than television. There are also crazy coupon cutter (most stay at home moms) ladies who teach me a whole lot about saving money. Since we're in the process of {trying to} buy a house, it's nice to be in-the-know. Though, I don't think I can ever be as devoted as these ladies.

Aside from learning a ton about saving money--something I'm already fairly good at--I learned about some new websites that I now used daily or as time allows. Here are a couple of those:

ShopAtHome - This site is awesome. I buy stuff online ALL the time and actually prefer it to shopping in stores. I usually get free shipping codes and things end up being cheaper. I have recently gone to this website and typed in the store I want (recent purchases made from The Body Shop, Macy's, Godiva, Barnes & Noble) and they give you a percentage back from your purchase. For example, we bought chocolate for my wonderful sister-in-law and got $1.92 back. I am up to $14.04 just for using the link to any website on Shop at Home. It takes zero minutes extra and it's totally great.

Swagbucks - This one is more work and I'm still not sure it's worth it... but since I just earned a $10 Amazon card just for using their search engine (which is a little annoying, but if you use it once a day, you'll have about a $10 gift card ready for redemption in a maximum of 3 months since usually it will award you 10 free "bucks" per day). I like that I'm getting a free $10 Amazon card, though, I'm not going to lie. Some people get really into it and have purchased like a Wii and other expensive items just on free Amazon cards... so if you're dedicated, you can make some dough. I'm just a lazy user... so it took me a couple months.

Redfin - What a great website for home buyers who are prepared. If you are on a time crunch, want to save money, want to make your own decisions, or just plain hate the idea of a real estate agent running your home-buying show, this site is the best for you. I am not advertising or getting any compensation. We are buying through them and they've been incredible, quick, accomodating (buying a house and dealing with logistics while 7 hours ahead and a big ocean in between is tough!), and professional. If you think of buying a house now or even in the future, it's nice to watch the market and the options for awhile. We did this for over a year before placing our offer and I am happy to say we are pleased with all of the people who have helped us in the process.Though, I think Redfin only works in big cities, for now.

Swagbucks & ShopAtHome give you a kickback if you promote them and your friends use them. I hate spamming friends on facebook, twitter, or email... so I figured if you cared, you'd read this blog post. And, since I actually use them and like them, I don't mind promoting them anyway. I won't post it again... but this are some things I've learned lately about stretching a buck (aside from my uber-excellent economics teacher in high school who taught me to use a credit card for every purchase, but pay it off in full every month). Of course, with that, we also get cash back and free flights, pay no interest, and have a list of all our spending to boot!

Switzerland and the death of a Camera...

We're in Switzerland! We arrived on Sunday afternoon and quickly drove in to see Zurich. Ray has been before but this was my first experience in Switzerland. We drove... then stopped in traffic for way too long before parking and walking into the center of the city. We snapped a couple photos with our new (cheap) camera and carried on to drive towards our hotel--about 45 minutes from Zurich.

This whole camera thing: as we toured houses last weekend, I took our camera out to take a few photos of the very first house on our list to visit and the camera wouldn't take a photo. The lens was abnormally in the "out" position and wouldn't retract. It read "lens error, restart camera." We have a Canon Powershot S5 IS that looks like this. Now, picture it with the lens out and not taking photos = two very unhappy campers. We have only had the camera for 1.5 years (though from the sound of things we read on the Internet, we are lucky to have had it functioning for that long!) and it already died on us. We researched on the web and found thousands upon thousands of complaints from fellow camera owners. I can't speak for other camera makers, but I know Canon has a serious lens issues that have obviously not be resolved if that many horror stories were written to read. In true spirit, I added our experience to the list in hopes that Canon would consider fixing this issue for future customers. Because, as of now, we are no longer Canon customers or owners of a functioning Canon camera.

But what to do when you're leaving back to Europe for a few more weeks and visiting a few new countries to boot? Well, obviously, we needed to shell out some more cash for yet another camera. Between the two of us, this is our 4th camera in less than 4 years of our relationship. Well, we each owned two when we met and those broke as we dated... then we bought the 3rd one together before our marriage... and now we purchased our 4th.

We walked into Best Buy and purchased the cheapest digital camera they sold. Hey, if we're going to buy a camera on the whim and figure it will break in a matter of months like the rest of them, it makes no difference, right? So, anyway... if you're still reading... that's the reason our camera photos are of less quality from here on out (...until we invest in another quality camera. If those exist. Sorry, bitter).

Anyway, I think these photos from Zurich actually turned out decent! Despite my decent tech knowledge, I couldn't figure out how to space between these photos! I've never had a problem before, but I think the new camera is causing me trouble. I'll just write here and you can scroll down. I will figure this out. But, for now, I just want to get to bed!

I posted a photo of an old El Camino car. It was really weird seeing one of these in Switzerland! I also took a couple photos of people dressed in weird costumes. They are dressed, we think, because of Carnival that takes place during Lent. People dress up in crazy costumes and drink ridiculous amounts of alcohol for no reason. I also took a photo of confetti we saw lining the streets of Zurich. We didn't actually see the festivities, just what was left over from them...

 ...It's been awhile since I posted a journal. Three more weeks and I retire from writing daily! Here's what has been happening as we see it...

Mittwoch 10.02.2010 (day 149) --in Chicago
It’s already Wednesday and I cannot wait until Saturday! I woke up at 4 a.m. to a 4.3 magnitude earthquake! Being from California, I know all about how they feel. I knew this wasn’t the snow trucks plowing outside that shook our house. When I turned on the news at 7:45, they confirmed my intuition. I can’t believe it. I guess having an earthquake in this area is extremely rare. I started the day off right with yogurt, a bagel (with cream cheese, thank you), a banana, and Tropicana orange juice. It’s lovely having all the comforts of home. The weather outside is in the early 20’s, but the wind chill all day felt like 6 degrees—so needless to say, I made a conscious effort to stay home today. I did, however, venture outside during the day to walk to the mailbox and clear the foot of snow from the top of the car in the driveway. The company car is here for Lothar to drive, but since we pick him up from the hotel and take him to work, it just stays here. Until our car is off of blocks, I’ve been driving either this one or Mike’s car—but I prefer to drive the red car. It was definitely cold outside to say the least. I received a call from Sandy, the head of IT at the company, asking if I’d like to come over for dinner. Though I have a sinus headache, I decided to go. She and her husband are such nice people and they treated us to dinner one night before in September, too. I talked with Solange and caught up today and Ray called a few times as well. Around 6:15, I headed out to have dinner with Sandy and her husband in the same city we’re staying in, Downers Grove. They live near the high school Ray and I would go running at during the summer. It was really nice seeing them again. We had a delicious dinner prepared by Sandy and some good conversation. I love how nice people are here in the Midwest. It’s going to take some getting used to, for sure! I came home around 9:30 and called Ray. He’s doing well sitting in his enormous Hyatt hotel room with a super large television, he says. He had prime rib for dinner with the rest of the crew and was in for the evening. We talked for a bit and then I watched American Idol on the Internet since I missed it while it was airing earlier tonight. Thank goodness for the Internet! It’s around midnight so I’m getting ready to call it a night! I have a big day tomorrow—buying toilet paper, gas, and visiting a store down the street I’ve never been to!

Donnerstag 11.02.2010 (day 150)
I think I’m acclimated to the time here. I was doing okay the past few days, but it’s perfect now. And in just one week’s time, I have to change my time zone again… and 3 weeks later, it’s back here. Oh, the life! My day was relatively uneventful, but I did accomplish a few things on the small scale. I woke up at a reasonable hour and ran some errands to get gas and buy some toilet paper. I know, try and contain yourself about how exciting my day was. It was really nice and sunny today. Nevermind the 20 degree weather and the slight wind chill that made it feel in the teens… but I have to be honest; I’d rather have sunny skies and cool air than gloomy skies and warmer air. I just love seeing the sun shine. I think I’ll handle Chicago just fine. Though, I think I’ll like summer and fall the best. I visited Aldi market today as well (I actually bought the worst toilet paper ever there). Aldi is a German company owned by the same two Germans who own Trader Joes. They are a discount carrier and the ones in the U.S. look similar to the German ones. I don’t shop there in Germany because they have random brands, inconsistent selections, and it’s not as nice as the others in general. Well, Aldi in the U.S. has similar attributes. It offers a more consistent variety of foods Americans eat and there are almost no name brands of items. I’m not against buying store brands, but I will always reach for the name brand if they are the same price. I saw a few brands, but they looked more like reject items and something Big Lots would sell or something. Frankly, I’d rather shop at Big Lots! I did buy tortillas that were priced at $1 and toilet paper just because I didn’t feel like driving to another store. They have great deals… but you certainly can’t do all of your shopping there. This week they were offering 44 cent avocados. That’s super cheap. But, it’s not worth shopping there solely for getting a 50 cent deal. Unless I happen to be driving by again, I won’t be shopping there regularly. I’ll still with my upscale Trader Joe’s, Dominick’s (Safeway in the Midwest), and Target. The rest of the day was also uneventful. At home I had lunch and worked out for 20 minutes before I got light-headed and had to stop. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been getting sinus headaches lately, the house was too hot, or what. But, I needed to stop. I talked to Ray and found out that House Hunters won’t be picking up our show it looks like because they’ve already done too many shows in the Chicago area. Bummer. It was fun to try! One of the houses on our long list (not the list we’re visiting Saturday) is now off the market. No big deal… it was one of our least favorite that fell into our categories anyhow. That’s about it for today! Ray traveled today from Atlanta to Dallas and of course, it’s highly unlikely for it to snow in Dallas at all (let alone a lot this winter) and it was snowing there… but not in the east or Midwest! Haha! A lot of flights were canceled and schools in the Dallas area were closed, but they all seemed to be pretty lucky with their travel plans. Let’s just hope Ray makes it out tomorrow… because I miss him and we have a huge day on Saturday!!!

Freitag 12.02.2010 (day 151)
Still feeling kind of sick and it was bad enough today that I wasn’t even interested in being inside Target! Gasp! I woke up and after breakfast, I got ready and put makeup on. I figured getting ready and getting out of the house would improve how yucky I feel, but that didn’t work. What did work was rolling down the window while driving. The fresh, crisp air was fantastic. I bought a few things at Target, picked up a Subway sandwich for lunch, and headed back home around 1:00. I took some medicine to calm my headaches (it feels like a migraine that hasn’t gone away for a few days) but it barely put a dent in the feeling. I rested up until I had to drive to O’Hare to pick Ray up from the airport. I went to Target to stall before picking Ray up and then started driving to the airport. It’s not a horrible drive, actually. I received a call from Ray saying they had landed but that it would be a few minutes before they exited the plane and I was worried that I arrived too early. Well, as I was exiting a toll area about 2 miles before O’Hare, I noticed about 5 cars pulled over on the shoulder. I also pulled over. Don’t worry, everyone was going very slow around this turn and is no less safe than being parked on a regular street. As I sat there, 5 more cars pulled up. It turns out, this area is used by locals who obviously know what they’re doing to stall before they get word that the person they are picking up is ready. Ray called so I drove in. Arrivals were a nightmare. I think from now on we’ll be doing all drop offs and pickups in the departures area—which is considerably smoother. We headed home and headed to get excited for our big day tomorrow. Day #1 of our house hunt!

Samstag 13.02.2010 (day 152)
Rough, rough day. It started by getting an email update from Redfin that our absolute favorite house just went under contract. Literally one day before we could get in! Ugh. It happens… I was just hoping we would be lucky. Neither of us were feeling very good this morning, so it was already a rough morning. We met a showing agent at the first house on our itinerary list. It is the largest and most expensive house on the list and we didn’t have any photos of the inside from online. We weren’t too excited. House #2 was even less exciting. House #3, we fell in love with but carried on. House #4 and House #5 were contenders, House #6 was acceptable but not for us, and House #7 was something we highly considered putting an offer in. It was a bit custom, which would be hard for resale. It was really spacious and fantastic for entertaining and had a Naperville address. But, it was too far south. We drove back to House #3 and decided to place an offer on that one. We went to lunch, went back home, called our agent, he ran comparables (and so did I), and started the offer process. We wanted to start it immediately, but unfortunately our agent was obviously busy today and on top of that, it was moving day for him. Ugh. Finally, he printed the contract and we placed a first offer. He asked us to meet him at the house and we would get all the signatures… but as we pulled up, so did another couple. We waited for our agent and sat out in front of the house (hiding a bit down the street) for about 40 minutes and they never left. We finally couldn’t take it anymore thinking that they might also place an offer, so we told our agent and met in a 7-11 parking lot to hand over the papers. He called the sellers agent (which we had to wait about 2 hours for) and he faxed her the offer. We were the first offer, so that’s good. The bad news is that there could be more on the table if they don’t get back to us like fast. We heard nothing back from our agent tonight, which means he heard nothing back from the seller’s agent. This is the most nervous, scary, exciting, unpredictable, vulnerable experience we’ve ever been involved in. It’s just so hard having to wait for others. Since we’re really decisive and proactive people (we were ready to place an offer within 2 hours of touring all houses on our list!), we find it frustrating that we have to wait for so-and-so to call another person to get a counter, etc. We pray that God can find us the place for us… because the way it looks now… we either get this house, or we go back to Germany empty-handed and crying. God has it under control. That’s such a hard lesson for me to learn. Hoping for positive news tomorrow.

Sonntag 14.02.2010 (day 153)
I slept 3 hours last night. I had so much adrenaline and nervous energy that I just couldn’t. It’s also freezing today. But whatever… we bought a house! Here’s the whole story: I woke up at 5 a.m. and we tried a new church (though we already scoped it out 5 months ago and had a feeling we’d love it) and knew that would be home for us. Church, check. As for the house, we didn’t hear anything until about noon when we received an email from our realtor telling us that the agent will be talking to the sellers at 2:00 and that he would contact us ASAP after hearing back. No call until about 5:00 and we were getting pretty bummed and sad—knowing we might be up against another bidder. There were people touring yesterday and this morning, all after us. There were likely many before us, too. It got lots of buzz, but no one else pulled the trigger—fast enough anyway. They countered our offer, not throwing in the refrigerator (oh well) or carbon monoxide detectors (oh well again). They countered about $6,000 less than list. We countered contingent upon a 1 hr callback for $4,000 less, making the house nearly $10,000 less than list. The truth is, we were willing to pay list because it was so nice. But, our realtor was confident and he ended up calling us back within 45 minutes rather than the 1 hour contingency we tentatively set. We got it! We are set to sign the contract papers tomorrow morning and get the ball quickly rolling since they are eager to sell (they’re already moved out, but the house is staged) and we’re eager to close quickly. We leave Thursday for Germany and arrive back here on March 16^th. We close March 18^th and move in that weekend. U-N-R-E-A-L! Tomorrow morning we meet with our agent to sign papers, get the inspector and all the other stuff moving before we hop on a plane! Things will move fast from here on out and we’re still praying that everything takes off without a hitch and there isn’t anything wrong with the house. It’s hard to think anything could be—considering all the amazing upgrades it has. Who would upgrade a house that nice if there were significant problems? We did see something about well water in the disclosure, but we will get to the bottom of that tomorrow morning. We walked around Barnes & Noble (that’s actually where we got the call from our agent, Patrick) and then had dinner at Bd Mongolian. We of course called close friends and family to tell them the news and drove around the neighborhood for 20 minutes just in awe of God’s love for us. We are so blessed. I must pinch myself.

Montag 15.02.2010 (day 154)
I’m writing this a day late… but I think I have a pretty good memory of what happened (yesterday). I still hadn’t slept much because we were so excited to sign the papers for our new house! We met with Patrick, our real estate agent, at our new house to get things moving around 9:30. We walked in and it felt even bigger and better than I remembered! It’s so gorgeous and we’re thrilled. We stood in our gorgeous kitchen and signed papers and discussed the process we had to get moving immediately. Because we head back to Germany on Thursday, we had to hire an attorney (the procedure in Illinois), hire an inspector, carry out the inspection, set up financing, put down $5,000 in earnest money, and sit back and wait. That’s a lot of people to get on board with only 3 full working days! We started by calling USAA for our financing in the morning. Then, we met Patrick and filled out the contract paperwork. Ray went to work after that and he called to set up an inspection and talk with our attorney about the paperwork/process. In the meantime, our realtor was prepping the paperwork and sending it to the seller’s agent to get the signatures from the sellers. At lunch, we had to drive to the Re/Max office in Naperville to drop off the earnest check we forgot to give to Patrick in the morning. Then, back to work for Ray and I stayed home trying to figure out my life. This whole teaching thing is going to be hard to set up. I’ve applied to every school district in the area (about 6 total) and have received zero calls. You aren’t supposed to show up at the schools because everything is done online. I love the online idea, but it doesn’t give me a chance to show myself. I also realize that no one hires in the winter…especially not people who live in Germany! I think I’ll have to cross this bridge when we come to it in March. Even then, I think it’s going to be tough. I want a job also to help with the finances. Initially, it’s an expensive relocation. We don’t have much furniture (that’s okay…we are totally content with less until we can buy quality furniture), I don’t have a car, and we’ve put down all of our savings to purchase a house. It might be a few months before we’ll be able to afford a car for me. Since Ray will only be working 4.5 miles (door to door, we calculated) from home, we can share a car for awhile. Since I don’t have a job, it’s a bit easier to work out a schedule. I also will be spending lots of time at home in the beginning getting things all situated. It will all work out. It’s just crazy buying our first house! Everything does have a cost. After work, Ray came home and we headed out to Best Buy to buy the cheapest digital camera they sold just so we could have something to take with us back to Germany for the next month. We still have a little traveling coming up, so we knew it was required to have a camera. The picture quality will obviously be lower, but at least we’ll have been able to capture some of those memories. I prefer buying online and taking time to research, but this is one of those cases where we simply didn’t have the time to sit around and wait for the mail to arrive or the deal to come up. I watch the Bachelor (for what I could stomach) and Mike came into town tonight. Ray was supposed to attend a dinner, but for some communication reason, he didn’t go. There will be more, for sure. I also blogged a little today… now…on to tomorrow….

Dienstag 16.02.2010 (day 155)
I was a good sleeper this morning. Since I only had a total of 8 hours the last two nights, I really needed it. I crawled out of bed at 9:30, nearly 2 hours after Ray & Mike left for work and got myself together for the day. I was on a mission to run errands today. I started at the post office, then I headed to the bank and on to the library. We have a weak Internet signal at the condo and I wanted to spend some time searching around for area opportunities for the summer. If I cannot find a teaching job and they aren’t accepting substitute applications, I am hoping to find some kind of job that can allow me to get out into the community, perhaps use some teaching skills (whether it be camp counseling, instructing, tutoring…), and meet people. I sent a resume and cover letter to the Naper Settlement—a huge historical park in downtown Naperville that has camps and tours for visitors. They are accepting applicants for the summer months to work as educators, counselors, etc. I have no idea if it pays $5/hour or $50. I thought it would be worth a shot either way! I plan to call local school districts to find out if they are accepting substitute applicants at this time (though they rarely do at this time of year) also. I headed back to the condo and worked on some paperwork and various little things I wanted to send out before heading back to Europe. Tomorrow I’m visiting our storage unit (I’ve been avoiding) to drop off some of the stuff we brought back from Germany that has been cluttering the condo since we arrived. Then, I’m doing some laundry, checking the P.O. Box once more for any stragglers, hoping my new bedding arrives (otherwise it will be sitting on the porch for a month probably. Haha), and packing. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. I hadn’t received a phone call from Ray all day because he was having a big presentation today about hydraulic sales in the U.S. I imagine they went to dinner with the sales team after as well. I sit here, watching American Idol and relaxing before our big airplane ride. I cannot stand long plane rides. Frankly, I don’t really even like planes… but it’s required we take them to travel. I think we’re going to have a great last month in Europe. Exciting!

Mittwoch 17.02.2010 (day 156)
I packed up the car with items that needed to go into storage this morning before heading over to our new house for the inspection. That’s a scary process! I arrived 10 minutes early and the inspector and agent were already inside. I walked in and the inspector was upstairs filling sinks, turning on faucets, and turning on all the appliances he could to see if things were functioning properly. Along with his kit of goodies, he checked just about everything anyone could. It was a learning experience, but a bit depressing all at the same time. You just signed up for a 30-year debt and now someone is going to come in and tell you what little things (and big things) you’re also going to have to invest in that you’re being ripped off with. Ouch. Way to move straight from the honeymoon into your first fight. Anyway, it was nice walking around our lovely new house and learning all these flaws. It would’ve been better if Ray was there with me to learn and have the inspector teach us both—but someone has to pay for this place! Ray had some meetings and there was just no other way around it. So, I walked solo taking copious notes and photos for us to inspect later and figure out. Some alarming notes: he thinks the roof may need to be replaced at some point in the future, driveway/walkway uneven and need to be redone (not pertinent), some botchy installation of lighting in the basement, possible musty smell in basement… which also lead us to getting a mold inspection along with the radon inspection. Just write those checks, right? It feels like play money, but sadly, it’s not. It was great to know every bitty light cover or outlet function because I actually had a chance to get to know the house and look for areas to watch out for. After the inspection (lasted 3 hours), I headed to our storage unit to drop off some items and retrieve our ski gear for next weekend in Switzerland. Then, off to the post office where I checked out P.O. box. I wish there was an ability to know whether there was anything inside so I didn’t have to make the trip. I feel like that will happen eventually… checking if you have mail and the quantity online rather than in person. I wouldn’t have gone had I known we had no mail. Unnecessary trip. I came back to the condo and started some laundry, began packing, called to set up dental coverage and select a dentist, spoke to our real estate agent, inspector, and wrote more checks. Ray and Mike came home and then Ray headed out to have dinner with Lothar and Woody. I stayed and talked with a few people on the phone (soon to be turned off for the next month, sigh), had dinner, and finished up the laundry. We leave tomorrow for Germany again! I don’t mind the destination… just the long plane ride…….

Donnerstag 18.02.2010 (day 157)
This morning I spent the majority of the time just getting our belongings together, cleaning the sheets/towels/dishes and preparing the condo for any other guests that may come to stay. I also called the Illinois DOE and asked them to resend my credential and deficiency statement telling me what I need to complete in order to clear my credential from a temporary credential to a permanent status credential. They said they’d tried sending my credential to me twice, only to have it returned both times. Ugh. I asked them to resend it a third time and I’m hoping that it will be waiting for me when we arrive back on March 16^th. They did tell me my deficiencies though: APT test, and multiple subject tests. California is currently (I checked through certified mail) getting my scores together to send to Illinois. And, I already signed up for the APT test—so it looks like I was already familiar with the deficiencies and I’m taking action to get rid of them. We were meant to receive a package by FedEx by 10:30 from USAA about our financing and it arrived at 10:27. Way to cut it close FedEx. But, at least they can say they made it on time! We had 1 hour to fill it out, sign the papers, and get it in the mail. Ray came home, we signed, and he took it back to work for sending. Phew. So much going on. A limo was there to pick us up at the condo at 11:50 and we were at the airport 30 minutes later. As soon as we went through security, I received a call from our inspector who also is our mold inspector. He called to tell me that the musty smell was surely mold of some sort. Unfortunately. It was in a small amount, and we realize that many basements have some sort of must or mold… but the idea of any just scares me. Luckily, there were no signs of a single black spore—meaning the toxic stuff that often goes undetected was not evident. But, at the same time, it’s important to get that all out in the open and figure it out. We are now hoping our attorney and realtor can provide some clarity on how to approach the situation with the home owners. We want them, ideally, to disclose any concerns or issues they previously had that we could remedy before going through with a costly purchase. I would never be able to live with myself if anyone were to become sick from our house. What an expensive investment that would’ve been. In my first year of teaching, I had a student who was always sick. His parents had him tested for everything under the sun and couldn’t crack the code. He was absent over 50 days, I remember. It was vivid in my mind and we even had them reported for the situation. Finally, someone recommended a mold inspection close to the end of the school year. It turns out, the level of mold in their house was off the charts. The irony is that because he was always sick, his parents would keep him home from school…sleeping just feet from a wall that was completely covered in spores. He was staying home to continue getting sick. Anyhow, I had to relive that since we have something (on a smaller scale) to deal with. But nonetheless, it is something to deal with. We boarded our uneventful flight back to Germany around 2:00 and took off before 2:30. Unfortunately, tail wind was not in our favor—making the flight over 8 hours. We watched 3 movies and I liked none of them: An Education, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Truth About Lying or something like that. They were all either immoral, depressing, or sacrilegious—in that order. I also thought Where the Wild Things Are would be scary for kids just like the reviews said. We got almost no sleep and landed just before 6 a.m. Germany time—brutal. While we would just be hopping in bed in Chicago, we’re now entering daylight having lost a night’s sleep. Nothing new though. We’re getting used to it, strangely. It’s just amazing that you can go from one continent to another in a matter of hours. Hours! We taxied from the airport to pick up Lothar’s car at the Frankfurt factory and then off at incredible speeds back to Werdohl and our lovely little town of Neuenrade. Strangely, it feels normal being here. We like Germany. I guess this post is a Thursday/Friday post… but we’ll pretend like I’m not writing this at 7:30 a.m. while Lothar is driving the Autobahn. But, I am.

Freitag 19.02.2010 (day 158)
Here we are. Laptops are on our laps, we’re sitting watching Olympic cross-country skiing coverage in German, and drowsy on the couch. Back in Neuenrade, back in Deutschland. It’s actually nice to be back. The weather is slightly warmer than Chicago, though the same amount of snow is on the ground. I guess they had 3 days of intensity while we were gone. We slept the majority of the day as soon as we returned home, brushed our teeth, and managed to heat up this place. Ah, sleep. Uninterrupted, horizontal sleep. Of course, the rest of the German world was out and about, working and whatnot. We woke up around 5:30 p.m. (well, Ray woke up sometime in the middle of me sleeping for 8 hours to get some work done and make a few phonecalls regarding our trip to Switzerland) and he slept later than 5:30 to make up for that. We had Indian for dinner courtesy of my mom. Nice long hot showers completed our day and we headed back to bed after midnight in an attempt to regulate ourselves. Jetlag is rough!

Samstag 20.02.2010 (day 159)
I almost didn’t write this: we woke up at 2:30 today. We went to bed at 2:00 a.m., so it’s not all that unreasonable… but the bad thing is, this hardly helped our cause of getting back on track with the EU time zone. On top of that, we’re having a business dinner tomorrow night after our long drive to Switzerland. I’m just hoping we can make it there in one piece and awake! We are still pretty excited about moving into our new house (given all the little issues are resolved). We’re also nervous about the carpet in the basement. We read everywhere on the Internet telling us not to carpet basements. But, what do you do, then? Tile? I want this space to be usable and not wasted since we can’t floor it. Our day was super uneventful as we spent most of the day on our laptops researching. We spent a portion of time unpacking and then packing again for our week down south in Switzerland. Other than that, nothing big to report! Possibly the shortest update yet!

Sonntag 21.02.2010 (day 160)
We were up and out of the house by 9:30 this morning on our way south to Switzerland. It was a 5-hour drive that took us down through Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, the Black Forest into the Freiberg region, and finally down into Basel into Switzerland. We had a little while before we had to meet the executive for dinner, so we pressed on another 45 minutes to Zurich—which I had never visited before. Ray had been there after college, but Switzerland was new to my list of countries! A new currency, once again. The drive was nice. We passed a few castles and plenty of ruins. I always enjoy seeing structures on a hill—the idea that people actually spent time building that (most likely sans technology) amazes me. On our way, the GPS in our 3^rd vehicle (every time we are upgraded to a better ride—this one is an A6 wagon with all the fixins’) sensed that traffic was ahead and took us on a detour to bypass it. Like magic, we exited the Autobahn about 200 meters before the red lights and didn’t have to wait a minute! It was amazing. After arriving in Zurich—after paying for the 2010 pass of over 30 Euro, we were stuck in traffic. Finally, we pulled off, parked, and walked into the city just to check things out. We saw a bunch of kids and adults dressed in crazy costumes and assumed that they were dressed for the annual carnival (car-knee-val) that takes place during Lent. We don’t know a whole lot about it other than that it’s a crazy event and yet another reason to dress ridiculously, drink uncontrollably, and have one last “harrah” before the serious takes place. It’s all over Europe and although we didn’t see the actual festivities, we saw about 30 people dressed in crazy costumes. Cologne, near our home in Germany, had their carnival last weekend while we were home in the U.S. It happens on different weekends all over Europe for participating countries. We left Zurich around 5:15 to head back to our hotel region. We checked in, got ready, and met a business acquaintance (my attempt to protect company names from showing up on Google…I rarely mention company names) downstairs. We drove to a hotel restaurant about 2 miles away for dinner. The building we ate in was about 400 years old. We had some traditional Swiss food and it was fantastic! It certainly wasn’t diet food, but good nonetheless. The Swiss eat something equivalent to our hash browns and I had some mixed with veggies and covered with cheese. Oh my goodness, right? Back to the hotel we went afterwards and we have until noon tomorrow before we meet up for lunch with more business colleagues for sushi. So far, Switzerland is treating us sehr gut!

Montag 22.02.2010 (day 161)
We began the morning slowly as sun poured through the windows. We have a sheer curtain in our hotel room, so we don’t have much of a choice other than being forced to endure the brightness. We’re not the best two people at waking up. We leisurely made it downstairs for our large selection breakfast and got things together before driving a few miles down the road (nevermind that we get lost everywhere) to the Swiss company we’re spending the week with. They have good relations with the company in Chicago, so it’s natural for us to visit and learn about their products, what they do to connect with us, etc. We arrived for sandwiches. Not normal sandwiches, however. They have some kind of mayonnaise cream, meat or veggies, possibly fruit, and a gel that sits on top to make a cohesive open-faced sandwich. I won’t comment on the “interesting” flavor. We sat in on a Powerpoint presentation about the company and learned a lot. It’s nice to meet someone who has been around the business for 35 years. Since the manufacturing business is just a large web across the world of interrelated companies, we were pleased to meet one piece of this large web. We took a factory tour and were really impressed with their processes. Since this is one of the few factory tours I have been on, I was certainly excited to people cutting rubber using a knife by hand, painting the parts, and other projects. It’s like a real-life version of “how it’s made” rather than watching on TV. We sat down again after the tour for another presentation of information in the conference room, coffee and chocolate (of course—when in Switzerland…), and were joined by another piece to this large web puzzle. He presented who he was, how he is related to the industry and company (him being the president), and then we went to dinner. This restaurant was fabulous. I think this was the best meal I had in all of Europe thus far. It was that good! Aside from giving portions like the Americans (no joke) and the prices being incredibly high (I had a single eggroll on a small bed of diced vegetables at it cost 19 Swiss Francs = about 19 U.S. dollars…and that was just my appetizer! Everyone had appetizers, drinks, wine, dessert, entrees… and there were 5 of us), the food was spectacular. For a meal, I had housemade ravioli stuffed with eggplant, garlic, olives, and topped with diced red peppers, cream sauce, greens, tomatoes, olives, and an incredible shredded parmesan. For dessert, lemon sorbet. We headed back to our hotel around 9:30 and I’m about to post to the blog! For an update on the house… our attorney sent the owner’s attorney a letter of “fixation”—of all the things, including the mold concern, be addressed before we will continue with the contract and purchase. Since the levels weren’t very high, we’re convinced it will all be alright. Honestly, they also have a bunch of books, boxes, etc. down in the basement that smelled musty because they’d been down there for nearly two decades of them living there. As far as we know, it could’ve been those boxes under the stairs that were reading mold count, not the stairs themselves. The basement itself is immaculate and we’re pretty convinced that it will all be figured out. Most home buyers don’t get mold tests done and I think they should. Basements are known to be susceptible to moisture. Frankly, we’re also convinced that any house would have traces of mold—mold counts are found outside too and it’s totally natural. It just needs to be regulated at low levels inside houses. There is a humidifier that regulates the temperature and the mold was detected on the basement stairs for the most part—not the other areas. It will all get figured out. No need to worry.