A is for...

Hi, my name is Amy and I am an apathetic, apolitical American (pick your A).  In less than 48 hours, the 2012 election will finally be over and we will have a president elect.  No more listening to debates asking the big questions no single human being can answer (or should be responsible for answering).  No more bogus Facebook posts where people you previously perceived to be normal morph into over opinionated jerks.  And, eventually, all those annoying yard signs will go away.

My days in Switzerland taught me a lot.  But, the thing they taught me more than anything - you are how you act.  When I moved to Switzerland, I knew nothing about their political system and though I now know more, I care even less.  The people of Switzerland and their attitudes and behavior are what remain with me.  People around the world know so much about American politics, but what do they really know of us, American citizens?  I like to believe that if they got to know the average American, it would change their beliefs about America.  We are pretty swell folks.

Therefore, It is my firm belief that America and its culture are not defined by its leader.  They are defined by its people and their actions and behavior.  So choose Obama, choose Romney - I don't really care.  Because, at the end of the day, what really matters and what really makes America the best country on earth are its citizens - not a man in the White House.  

Yes, I have my opinions and my vote is all but cast but, dammit, I expect more.  Right now, I don't really think it matters who is President of the United States.  And, I think that's sad.  In 2016, I want to see less division and more unity.  Less nitpicking, name calling, finger pointing and blaming.  I challenge the next presidential candidates to spend LESS time an energy on name calling and the latest sound bite and more on truly understanding what matters most to Americans.  I challenge them to spend LESS on advertising and more on bi-partisan policy making that brings our country together and helps support the centrist vision so many Americans have.  Call it Democrat, call it Republican, call it Repubicrat...just make it more real...and less bogus...make me less apathetic - give me a reason to listen...and care.

This is the day...

I have been overwhelmed with requests to update this blog.  I take this as a great compliment and am happy so many of you not only read the blog but want to read it more.  The name "Switzernoogans" doesn't exactly apply anymore, so I am now officially accepting suggestions for a new name!  If you have a suggestion, please leave it in the comments area.

Today was a great day. Exhausting but great.  Today, we FINALLY got our household goods from Switzerland.  After 5 weeks in transit and 3 weeks in the U.S. Customs system, we finally got all the "stuff" we have been waiting for.  Imagine, for a moment, you have lived without the contents of your ENTIRE house for over 10 weeks!  You don't think you will miss it all that much but that stuff really starts to matter at around week 7.  Stuff like having more than 7 pair of underwear, more than 3 sets of exercise clothes and then there are the toys.  If I had a nickle for every time one of my children asked me "When will I see my Barbies, Build-A-Bear, (insert item here) again?"

As many of you know, we have been living with my amazing parents since May 29th.  They have been patient, loving and kind to us and we owe them BIG TIME.  I wouldn't blame them if they didn't want to see us for a few months after we finally vacate their home!  Honestly, it's a miracle we can all still stand the sight of each other let alone actually still like each other but somehow we do. 

To see this big truck pull in front of our rental house in Knoxville, TN was a sight for sore eyes.  That ugly brown box contains the stuff that allows us to start the next chapter of our life here in the U.S.  It's amazing how HUGE the house is and the connected 2-car garage is an added bonus.  Add to that the laundry room and I almost can't stand it!  I get excited just THINKING about that laundry room!  (Laundry will get it's own post in the near future as it was a source of never ending torture for me in Switzerland.)  So, thanks to all of you along the way who have been interested in our experience,  listened to our woes, listened to my parents woes about having their house overtaken or otherwise helped to make our transition back to the States smoother.  We are almost done and look forward to the day where the ins and outs of this situation are a distant memory!

Never-ending relo

So, here we are again, giving you some crazy news.  This time, the news is we are moving back to the USA.  Here are the details:

When: Amy & the girls will be camping with Amy's parents in Knoxville for the summer starting June 1st.  Poor Kurt is stuck alone in Switzerland til the end of the summer.

Why: Ever shifting corporate priorities

Where:  TBD

Castles, Castles everywhere!

We needed to get away this weekend, so we took an overnight trip to the village of Hohenshwangau in Germany.  Here there are two castles both inhabited by Ludwig II, King of Bavaria circa 1864.  The older one is Schloss Hohenschwangau the newer one is Schloss Neuschwanstein.  Neuschwanstein is the castle Disney used as a model for the Sleeping Beauty castle.  Hence, our obsession.

 Why is there a photo of a lone suitcase?  Because I am just going to take a moment to pat myself on the back.  We have really embraced the whole European minimalist thing and I packed everything this family of 4 needed for the trip in one, small carry-on bag.   Now, back to the story...

Schloss Hohenschwangau

We had some time to kill before the tour of Hohenschwangau so we stopped for a little snack.  The girls enjoyed orange soda and ice cream!

Kurt ordered a dark German beer and Piper took a little sip.  We didn't expect her to like it but, of course, she did!

Now, back to the castles!  Here are some pics of Schloss Hohenschwangau.  You can learn more about it here  if you are interested. 

 

These trips to places often result in needing to kill a few minutes before something starts.  So, I usually try to snap some photos of the girls.  These are some I got this weekend.

Stella - complete with freckles and just a slight smudge of Nutella on her nose.

Piper being her usual photogenic self!

The next day we went to Schloss Neuschwanstein.  It has a very interesting history resulting in the unexplained death of King Ludwig II.  You can read more about Neuschwanstein here if you are interested.

 

 

The view from the front entrance of Neuschwanstein

Castle entrance

Another view from the entrance - those are the Alps in the background.

Hand painted murals in the courtyard.

The girls speculated that Sleeping Beauty must have been friends with Rapunzel and that this is where Rapunzel let down her hair.

Piper is pretty obsessed with my camera but she does a decent job of taking pictures.  She snapped this one while we waited.

And Stella, not to be outdone, took her turn behind the camera and got this shot as I held onto the camera from the front.  Not too shabby!

A fun time was had by all and our mission to see the castles is complete.  Finally.  There is a prequel to this story that I will share some day in the future.  Just call me George Lucas - I like to tell the story out of order (Ala Star Wars).  Til next time!

Day to Day Life

 This is Piper's Switzerland bestie - Phoebe!

 If we are friends on Facebook, you now about this picture.  This little munchkin informed me of the following one morning as we were walking through the train station:"Mommy there are pink donuts at the train station...I think today is a good day for a pink donut."  So, guess what she got...

 Have I mentioned how cute Stella is...no boys allowed - EVER!

 The dynamic duo

 My new laundry drying system...it's uh, quaint...

I have Kippy on an exercise regimen...it involves very long walks and she is worn out by the time we get back.  So tired, that she can't even reach over and turn on the TV...

Skiing in Austria

Piper had a week off from school in February so we took the opportunity to go skiing.  We picked Austria because it is known for it's skiing and is only about 2 hours away.  The girls went to ski school each day and made good progress.  Piper LOVES skiing and never wanted to stop (thank God the lifts close at 5:00 - that is the only way we got her to leave).  Stella likes it okay but says "it takes too much snow" (she's more of a beach kid).

Luckily for Kurt and I, skiing is like riding a bicycle so we had a few 'practice runs' and then were off!  We were both sore and tired at the end of the day but we had lots of sunny weather and woke up to fresh snow every morning.  I really don't think it gets much better than this!

We stayed a "Familen"hotel which means that they cater to families.  This place was great.  They had a huge indoor gym they converted into a large playground that the girls played on every night after dinner.  They also had child care so after Stella got out of ski school, she went to the child care so that we could ski in the afternoon.  They did tons of activities with the kids and she really liked it.  Here are some photos and videos from our trip:

The view from our hotel room

This is just outside our hotel - we could literally ski to the front entrance of the hotel!

The HUGE indoor play area for the kids.

Kurt on the 'big' lift to the top of the mountain.

Piper, ready for her first day of ski school!

Stella, not sure if she is up for ski school or not!

Amy on the 'big' lift to the top of the mountain!

The view from the top.

The other view from the top.

Kurt on the slopes.

Piper skiing down the 'bunny' hill.

Panorama at the top of the mountain.  It was sunny but SO cold.

While Piper skied the bunny hill, Stella took a little snooze in the stroller.

Our car, which had been parked for 4 days.  It had nearly a foot of snow on and around it!

Southerners on Sleds

It has been really cold here.  No, I don't think you understand how cold.  This is 'coldest you've ever been in your entire life' cold.  This is 'so cold you can't feel the majority of your body parts' cold.  This is 'you didn't think you could be this cold' cold.  As a southerner, once it gets below freezing, it's really all just semantics.  Cold = cold.

So, what does a good southern woman do when it's super cold?  She drags her family out into the Alps for a fun-filled day of sledding, of course!  After all, who doesn't want to become one with the cold?  Apparently, my children.  We all have thin, southern blood so we put on as many clothes as we have ever worn at one time and headed out.  Everyone was fine until we got onto the ski lift.  Then, the cold really set in.  It was -22 degrees Celsius and if your counting, that's -8 degrees Fahrenheit.  Remember what I said about semantics?  We are deep into that territory now - really -3, -8, whatever!  First, Piper stated her feet were cold, then it was her hands.  She started to cry (frozen tears do not feel good - nor do snotscicles).  About halfway up the lift, Stella started crying because Piper was crying.  By the time we got to the top, I wanted to cry from all the crying.  Had we seriously dressed everyone in all the clothes they own and driven 2 hours for this?  NO!.  We were GOING to sled and these kids were GOING to have fun dammit!

Everyone tromped over to the restaurant which was nice and warm.  We drug the two girls crying at the top of their lungs, took off their gear, got the hand and foot warmers stuffed into the gloves and boots, ordered some french fries and took a break.  Halfway through a gigantic plate of warm fries and a mug of steamy hot cocoa, they were feeling better.  Before long they were smiling.  So, we put the gear back on, got everyone's hands and feet toasty warm and proceeded to have an AMAZING time sledding.

The sled course was 10 km long (about 5 miles) and took us about 45 minutes to complete.  We went down twice and Piper 'soloed' on the second run.  She doesn't care too much for the brake on her sled and prefers instead to challenge my nerves by stopping AT THE LAST SECOND making me thankful we bought everyone helmets and goggles.  Stella had a great time as well and asks on a daily basis when we will be going sledding again.  And now for the part you have all been waiting for - the photos.

 Stella on her sled

 Piper and I on the ski lift (the second time around)

 Piper in all her gear

 One of many amazing views of the day

 Another amazing view

 A video of Kurt and Stella sledding

The sun was so bright it was difficult to capture this but we were literally surrounded by mountains

Tex Mex - Switzerland Style!

So the girls and I arrived safely back home about a week ago.  The flights to and fro were pretty uneventful and the girls were very well behaved.  I am so lucky to have such well behaved and (becoming) well traveled children.  On the way to the States, we had an amazing crew in the economy cabin who invited Piper and Stella up to the cockpit to see how it's done.  Additionally, Piper was allowed to help with the dinner service by passing out the freshening cloths to all the passengers.  She had a great time on both adventures.  Stella was not interested in the cockpit at all so she hung back with one of the flight attendants while Piper and I got nosy.

What Stella lacked in interest in the cockpit she made up for with her antics.  The flight was 10 1/2 hours long (thanks to a hefty head wind) and toward the end of it they served us pizza and ice cream.  It was very tasty and Stella loved it.  The ice cream gave her the extra heft she needed to carry on with this nonsense until we finally reached Atlanta.

Our trip was great - we got to see lots of friends and family and I got to check in with work which was also very good.  Oma and Pop took care of the girls for a few days and they did a great job (as usual).  The girls and I all enjoyed the familiar comfort of being back in the States and it was a great 'shot in the arm' for me mentally and emotionally. Our flight home was pretty uneventful as it was night time and the girls slept most of the way (thank goodness!).

We are now over the jet lag and getting back into our day to day routine of school and work.

This brings me to last night, when Kurt and I went out to dinner alone for the first time since we moved to Switzerland.  We could have done something normal like found a great Swiss or Italian restaurant.  But what did we want?  Mexican!  We have seen only 2 Mexican (looking) restaurants over here so we weren't sure what we would get.  We went to one cleverly named "Tex Mex" one town over in Wettingen.

We walked in and the sound of a mariachi band, the bright colors of the tiled walls and the smell of salty chips and margaritas welcomed us.  I was getting a good feeling.  We were seated and the waitress and hostess immediately realized we were English speakers and graciously spoke English to us. I had done my homework and printed out an English version of the menu from the web before going to the restaurant so we were able to choose what we wanted rather than ordering the only thing we could translate!  We both got frozen strawberry margaritas and ordered 'nachos'.  We also had a chicken quesadilla, chicken taco and beef enchilada.  The food and drink were good.  I was by no means transported to Mexico as a result, but at least they had real guacamole, real tequila and traditional mexican white cheese.  All that and I didn't have to cook making it all taste that much better!

We are currently going through a serious cold snap and snow event as you can see from my picture above.  The high for today is 18 degrees Fahrenheit and the snow is slowly building up.  There are about 3 inches on our terrace and it is super powdery.  We are planning a sledding adventure with another family for the weekend and I don't think there will be any threat that the snow will melt as the temps will hold steady at highs of 18 and lows below zero.

Next on the agenda is a ski trip to the Tirols in Austria week after next.  The girls will be in ski school while Kurt and I try not to break anything as we try to remember how to ski!

We hope you and yours are doing well and staying warm!