being swiss family blaser

getting around to writing about our trip has been so intimidating for some reason that i've put it off until now. we've been home a week and a half, and i don't know if it's because i'm depressed that we had to return to lamar, or because i have no idea which pictures to post, or because i'm still in denial that we're not on vacation anymore... but i haven't known where to start. so at this point i'm just going to bite the bullet and go for it, come what may.

our trip was wonderful and wild and fabulous and freezing and delicious and divine... and over much too soon.

we finally arrived (24 hours late) to a crazy snowstorm, which hampered efforts to get our luggage off the plane, and then hampered efforts to drive home from the airport in the form of a little fender-bender about 10 minutes after leaving the airport. we were driving through zuerich and the guy behind us slid on the ice at the red light where we were stopped. but no harm was done, thank goodness (since it would not have been much fun to return a wrecked rental car...), and we made it home slowly but surely.

we couldn't even park in the driveway when we got home, there was so much snow. mami, papi, brandon and kayla had taken the train and weren't there yet, so out went pesche (in his birkenstocks) to shovel the 8" of snow that had fallen over the previous 5 hours. our cute neighbor lady was outside when we pulled up, and she was so excited to see pesche again that she came right over and helped with the shoveling, too. friendly, helpful people...welcome to switzerland!

by about the 3rd day all that snow was gone, though. the temperatures went up a bit, it rained for a day, and voila, green stuff under all that white. which was fine with me, but the kids were pretty disappointed. they had enjoyed playing in it and really had fun while it lasted. on the downside, the temps dropped again after that, and for the remainder of our trip it hovered in the mid-to-high-20's during the day. (did i mention it was freezing?)

it was so nice to be 'home' again. visiting with family, speaking german, eating delicious foods- especially yummy crusty bread and (as kayla took to calling them) 'stinky cheeses.' but especially just being with family again after so long. i realized daily how much i miss pesche's family. they are wonderful people and i truly couldn't have asked to be married into a better family.

the day after we got there we had to go to the town hall to request new swiss passports for me and anna, and renew brandon's. we had been told by the consulate in san francisco that we could either take a trip there to appear in person, or take care of it while we were in switzerland. all they needed was a phone call/e-mail from the city in switzerland so they could send confirmation and permission in writing and it would be taken care of.

now, the swiss do things very much by the book. so the lady at the town hall told us that without written confirmation from san francisco she couldn't help us. we kindly explained that san francisco had told us she needed to request that confirmation. she, in turn, kindly explained to us that we needed to request it.... and so on and so forth. because of the 9-hour time difference, we had to wait until later that night (after the town hall had closed, of course) to call san francisco and find out what was up. pesche was told, once again, that she needed to request it and was given an e-mail address for her to use.

the next morning pesche went back to the town hall and told frau lustenberger (how'd you like that name?) again that she needed to e-mail san francisco. she started to disagree again, but pesche cut her off, handed her the e-mail address and asked her please to just try. at this point she agreed to 'do her best' to help out and then took all 245 francs (about $220) that it cost to do so. she sent the e-mail, we waited the weekend, and then on monday found out she had received the confirmation and was 'hoping it would work out, but wasn't sure.' whatever. we were just happy that the whole thing was in process.

and the best part of this particular story? despite all the back-and-forth, despite it being christmas vacation, despite everything, our passports arrived by certified mail the afternoon before we returned to america. 5 blasers, 5 swiss passports. how cool is that?

we bought frau lustenberger some really yummy chocolates as a thank you gift!

a few things i had forgotten (or chosen not to remember, depending) about switzerland:

1. that a small big mac value meal will cost you Sfr. 11.30, which is $10.17. and a 10-pound turkey costs $46.00. food is very expensive.

2. that the fresh croissants and buns every morning are incredibly addicting.

3. that you have to bag your own groceries, and you'd better be quick about it, because people are waiting behind you in line!

4. that the streets and parking places are incredibly narrow. i spent a great deal of my time in the car with my eyes closed, praying that the car/truck/whatever next to us wouldn't take our side-view mirror with it.

5. that a liter of gas (diesel, in our case) costs Sfr. 1.60. now, there are about 3.8 liters in a gallon. doing the math, that makes diesel $6.08 a gallon. and unleaded wasn't much less than that.

6. that fresh christmas trees are put up just a couple days before christmas, and how much fun it is to smell and decorate them, usually with real candles. this year, however, there were too many toddlers and curious kiddos to make that completely safe, so we opted for lights.

7. that the alps are amazing and beautiful and i miss them so much.

8. that the pace of life is so much less hurried and frantic than we are used to here. very nice.

9. that swiss/german/austrian people go outside and enjoy it even when it's 20 degrees outside. we nearly froze to death at the zuerich zoo, but hey, we were getting some fresh air! you wrap up that baby, put it in the stroller, and take a walk outside despite the cold. they say it's healthy. and it probably is...

10. that swiss german sounds a lot like singing if you really just sit back and listen.

11. that smoking is still allowed in all the restaurants.

12. that little kids don't need to speak the same language to get along, so why do we adults have such a problem?

13. that most homes don't have dryers, so you need to plan a full day for your laundry to hang out to dry.

14. that i love that country and wonder sometimes what the heck i was thinking when we moved back here.

there is so much to tell, but i would probably bore everyone to tears with a travelogue, so i think i'll just put together a slide show and let you enjoy the scenery. i still need to download a few pics/videos, so stay tuned!