Salimarkles Have Arrived!

We are setting off on an adventure and I thought it might be fun to document some of it. Realistically, I can get to about 5 blog posts before giving up completely. So let's just see who this goes ok?

We speak no German. Nor French. But luckily, a lot of people speak English. And we are supposed to be learning German - I say supposed to be because it's coming along very slowly so far. 

Amaya's first Swiss German words were "schoggi kuchen" (chocolate cake) - she can be a very quick learner when she wants to be.

First, we had to get out of Oakland though. I knew the moving overseas would be intense but those last few days were something more than intense. In 5 days we:

- Moved out of our house, and then into two different rentals
- Threw a going away party

- Got our visas to Switzerland

- Final dentist/doctors appointments

- Sold one car

- Gave back the lease for another car

- Picked up a rental car

- Got Daji off to his appointments so he could immigrate

- Who knows what else but it seemed like a lot. ;)

Then we boarded the 12 hour flight from SFO - ZRH. The little guy slept most of the way since we took off after his bedtime. Amaya watched a few of her favourite movies and then finally fell asleep. She kinda lost it after that though. Hence this lovely pictures (taken by a colleague who had the "fortune" of being on our flight).

Unfortunately, that also meant they were firmly still on SF time so we were ALL up for several hours all night (btw, it takes about 5 days to get your young kids across 9 time zones... so buckle up for some rough nights). 

Our first night was made extra interesting by the double homicide at the end of our block.  Now, this is a really rare occurrence in Basel so we were very surprised. Unfortunately, it's not quite as rare in Oakland. We actually had a double homicide down the street from us right when we moved to Oakland as well. So in a  perverse way, we felt a little more at home.

Nonetheless, after even more days of errands (getting registered in Basel-Stadt - where we made quite the impression with both kids running everywhere and screaming), we were ready for some fun. We found an awesome little animal park just a 15 minute walk away. It was a lovely walk along a small river with a playground to boot. We also went to the Basel zoo, which is awesome! There was a baby giraffe, baby hippo, and baby lions. 

After only a week here, we moved from the first, temporary apartment (which we actually liked a lot!) to our permanent place (which we liked even more!) It's in Gellert, which is only a 20 min walk from work for me, a 10 minute walk from Amaya's school and very close to just about everything... the train, the tram, the grocery store, etc. It's awesome! So far, we only have temp furniture but we did finally get our air shipment. 

Now there are a few interesting (both good and bad) things about Swiss places.

• They don't come with lights. You get wires sticking out of the wall. So, yeah, you need to get your lights. And you also need an electrician to install them. David and I aren't great at decorating so this took five hours on our first Saturday in our new place to accomplish. The kids and us were very done by the end of that. 
• A lot of Swiss places also come with these full window blinds that you can raise and lower. They. Are. Awesome. They are the best blackout shades you could want. And obviously provide good privacy too. 
• European rooms in general are smaller than what we are used to in the States (even from SF). So, too, are the kitchen appliances like the oven. However, ours comes with a steamer. I don't know why this amazing invention hasn't turned up in the States. Also awesome. Makes your veggies so quickly and easily and they taste amazing. Possibly my new favourite find here.
• They are insanely well insulated. It's been about the same temperature in Basel and Oakland recently but there is a huge difference in our level of comfort because there are no drafts. It also means no one can hear our kids screaming their heads off (very important for that initial transition period I mentioned where they were up all night).

In the midst of all this, our little man turned 1!!! Can't wait till he starts speaking some Swiss German. :) Zum Geburtstag!

More to come! (I hope).