'Merica.

We just returned to Switzerland from a really great 10-day trip back home. It was the perfect combination of fun and relaxing – we got to spend a lot of time with both of our families, visit a few friends…and my dad earned his Aggie Ring! We had a celebratory party the following weekend, and it was so special to be there. We were thankful it worked out too – my busy season is coming up at work, so I was happy we were able to squeeze it in.

I’ll be honest: coming back to Geneva this Saturday was really, really hard. We don’t know when we’re going to visit the US again, so these goodbyes to friends and family were a lot tougher. Not only that, but we SO enjoyed the 10 days of ease and convenience that is being American in America. I could come up with countless examples of what I mean, but below are a few that really stuck out to me (and in a few cases, moved me to tears):

Garbage.

SO EASY. You just throw it away. In America, we buy garbage sacks by the box – you want 200? Buy 200! Only want 50? No problem! And anything you want to put in that sack, you’re free to do so. Recycling is good and encouraged, but if you choose to throw away some paper or crumpled-up foil, it’s not a big deal (at least in Texas).

Not the case in Switzerland. Sometime in the recent past, the powers that be decided that this country needed to recycle more, and they took drastic measures to make it happen. For any garbage that we do not recycle, we are required to use specific, sanctioned garbage sacks that we purchase from the municipality. The local grocery stores keep these behind the counter, and you ask for them when you check out. A 15-liter sack (about 4 gallons…what most of us might use for the trash can at our desk) in Gland, the small town where we live, costs about 3 francs (3 dollars). Yes, that’s ONE tiny garbage bag. And yes, we still pay a garbage collection fee. If you are caught using a non-sanctioned garbage sack, you’ll be fined…and there are people who make a living digging through your “illegal” garbage sack, trying to figure out who it belongs to.

The purpose of this is obviously to encourage people to recycle as much of their garbage as possible; which is great, yay recycling! It’s just an adjustment. All recyclable material has to be separated out for their separate receptacles, which you drop off yourself, because there’s no recycling pick-up. And if you get caught recycling ANYTHING on Sunday, you’ll be fined. All of these rules mean that we have multiple stacks/bags of recyclable material around our apartment alllll the time.

So yeah, keeping up with our garbage is hard. The next time you walk the 20 steps to your garage to take out your trash in your giant kitchen garbage sack, full of anything and everything you could possibly want to throw away – think of me. Better yet, think of Andy, he takes out our trash. 

Grocery shopping.

Those of you reading this who live in Texas- I want you to pause right now, bow your head, and thank God for the blessing in your life that is HEB. While we were in Beaumont visiting the Giblins, we stopped by their HEB Plus…it’s essentially heaven. We didn’t need much, but we walked through the whole store, just in awe. The selection! The variety! I stopped in front of the coconut water section and teared up. There’s a WHOLE SECTION dedicated to coconut water. There were at least 20 different kinds to choose from. That’s insane!

As a reference point – we can’t find spinach in our local grocery store. I found this stuff, which is close:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerianella_locusta but not the same. Peanut butter is really expensive (most people don’t buy it), milk and and eggs are not refrigerated (apparently they’re ultra-pasteurized, but it still weirds me out), and there isn’t nearly as many options to choose from for any given product. Don’t get me wrong, we’re definitely eating well here – but the grocery store is a struggle.

Online banking.

I’m going to assume that pretty much all of you that are close to my age, and a lot of you who are older, pay most (if not all) of your bills online. It’s so easy, so convenient – type in your username, type in your password, type in your credit card number, click click click, done.

You probably check your bank balance on your bank’s website – username, password, you’re in. You can send other people money, set up transfers, all kinds of stuff. You might even have an app on your phone where you can do it too!

It’s not a thing here. We bank with UBS in Switzerland, and they have a system they refer to as “e-banking”, which is an incredibly generous name for it. An “e-banking kit” consists of (i) an e-banking card and (ii) an e-banking card reader. The card reader plugs into the computer, and you insert the card into the card reader, which generates a code. Type that code into the website, it generates another code to type into the card reader. Enter that code into the card reader – and it generates ANOTHER code to type into the computer. Then you’re in. So if you don’t have your card reader with you, there’s no e-banking.

When I got my first cell phone bill here, I went to the provider’s website and tried to pay it – again, not a thing. My paper bill that I had received in the mail had to be taken – wait for it – to the post office. Yep, you walk into the post office with your bill and enough cash and give it to a postal worker. He takes your cash and pays the bill.

I know what you’re thinking. “But Steph, how do you know that he’s going to pay your bill? How do you know he isn’t going to just pocket your cash?” EXCELLENT QUESTION. As far as we can tell, you don’t know. It’s a risk you take, and everyone is fine with it.

Drinking glasses.

And beverage size in general. This is serious – the Swiss drink every kind of beverage out of a shot glass. I’m not kidding.

 

The cup on the left is my water cup that I brought with me from the US. The middle cup is for coffee, and the clear cup on the right is for water. Our executive assistant walked into my office the other day and we had the following conversation:

 

EA: “Where did you get that giant cup?!”

Me: “Oh, I brought it with me from the US.”

EA: “Why so big?!”

Me: “Um, well…I guess we Americans just get thirsty…”

 

A water glass at a restaurant is the same. If you order water (“de l’eau”) at a restaurant, they’re going to bring you Evian. For free water, you have to specify that you want tap water (“carafe d’eau”). So then they’ll bring you a “carafe” of water and two glasses – but their carafe is roughly the size of a medium drink at a drive-through, and the glasses are shot glasses. Realistically, I think we could each drink about 3 carafes during a meal, but the waitresses don’t walk around with refills. I don’t understand how everyone here stays hydrated.

 

So there’s my 5 minutes of whining of the little things I miss from the US. We’re going to Gruyere this weekend to tour a cheese factory and a chocolate factory, so I guess I’ll just have to persevere and suffer through. J

Giblins' Guide to Paris

We had an AWESOME 3-day weekend in Paris! The weather was near perfect and we got to see SO much. Here’s everything about our trip along with a few tips and tricks if you’re planning to go yourself.

Logistics

We took the train from Geneva to Paris. The train was the best transportation option for us for a couple different reasons: (i) it’s pretty cheap, and (ii) apparently Charles de Gaulle airport is pretty far outside of the city center, while the train station is in the middle of it. By the time you go through airport security and get a taxi or something to the middle of the city, we’ve heard that the train is actually faster than flying (the train ride is a little over 3 hours). 

What we did not previously know about the train – people are loud and obnoxious. You know how on an airplane there’s a general understanding that you should be quiet? I’m not sure what makes a train different than an airplane, but this is not the case on a train (at least not this train). The ride to Paris was a long one. BUT, we learned our lesson for the way back and had a movie to watch with our headphones, and it was much better. PRO-TIP: Not all trains have WIFI (ours didn’t). Make sure you download anything you might want to watch before you get on the train. 

We stayed at the Hotel Ares Eiffel: http://ares-paris-hotel.com/en/index.html It was beautiful, very comfortable, and super close to the Eiffel Tower. We didn’t spend much time at the hotel and didn’t eat any meals there, so I don’t really have much else to say about it, but we were happy with our choice. 

We traveled by metro pretty much the whole weekend, and I highly recommend it. It’s incredibly cheap (EUR 1.80 per trip per person), and we found it pretty easy to navigate. We also took an Uber one night to dinner, which was EUR 20 for about a 25 minute ride. We had heard from friends that cabs were too expensive, so we didn’t even try it. 

Day 1 

We started the day with a city bike tour with Fat Tire http://paris.fattirebiketours.com/tours/paris-day-bike-tour . This ended up being our favorite activity of the entire weekend. It’s a great way to see the city and get a feel for all of the major landmarks, and our tour guide was very knowledgeable. Highly, highly recommend it! 

Last stop on the bike tour

After the bike tour, we wandered over to Notre Dame and got the absolute best ice cream I’ve ever put in my mouth. http://www.berthillon.fr/ I’m not exaggerating. Do it. 

 

For dinner, we went to a very nice French steakhouse http://sacreefleur.e-monsite.com/ We had reservations, but it looked like they turned away pretty much everyone who tried to walk in without one. The restaurant is very close to the Sacre-Coeur, a Roman Catholic church and basilica. It’s stunningly beautiful, and it’s situated at the highest point in the city, so you get a great view as well. 

Day 2 

After wandering around a bit in the morning, we took a lunch cruise down the Seine with this company: http://www.calife.com/english/Croisiere/Diner_croisiere.html . It was very relaxing and the food was great. It was about 2.5 hours long though, so just make sure that you want to spend a good part of your day on the boat. 

After lunch, we walked up and down Champs-Elysses and window-shopped. We tried the macarons at Laduree, and on the recommendation of one of my coworkers, also tried the macarons at Pierre Herme http://www.pierreherme.com/ . Both delicious, but I think we actually liked the Pierre Herme macarons more. 

We went to part of the evening mass at Notre Dame, which was interesting but a little strange to us- aside from the service being in French (obviously), they don’t close the cathedral to tourists during the service. So while the priest is talking, choir singing, etc., there are tourists milling around the chapels on the sides and snapping photos. 

Day 3

We got to the Eiffel Tower around 9:30 am and waited about 20 minutes in line for tickets. PRO-TIP: If you’re physically able, take the stairs rather than the elevator. There are separate lines for elevator and stairs tickets, and the elevator line was CRAZY long. It’s 669 steps up to the second floor – you’ll feel the burn, but it’s completely doable. PRO-TIP: There are young gypsy women walking all around the Eiffel Tower, holding papers and asking if you speak English. Ignore them. They’ll ask you to sign their “petition” and then charge you EUR 20 for doing so. We had previously been warned of this so didn’t make the mistake ourselves, but we were approached several times.

View from the first floor

An accurate pictoral representation of my marriage - orange/carrot/ginger juice for Andy, a Pimm's cup for me

After lunch, we went to Eglise du Dome and the Musee de l’Armee. This is where Napoleon is buried, and the museum is all about the entire military history of France. I was done after about 1.5 hours, but Andy probably could have stayed in there all day. 

Napoleon's tomb - apparently he's inside 7 different caskets in there

General tips

• Don’t plan all your meals. We really enjoyed having a couple reservations but also had the opportunity to wander around and find a café that looked good to us.
• Eat all of the pastries. All of them. Croissants just taste different in Paris…and by different I mean heavenly.
• Wear comfortable shoes. Even when you’re taking the metro, there’s quite a bit of walking involved.

This was such a wonderful weekend for us –not only is Paris an incredible city, so beautiful and full of history – but we also loved our first “big” European trip. We can’t wait to do it again…next on the list for October is Nice, France!

Travel to-do list

One of our primary motivations to make this move was so that we could travel as much as humanly possible while we're here - and this weekend we're crossing off the first city on our list! We have such an incredible visit to Paris planned, I should have plenty of pictures and touristy advice when we get back.

So here's our wish list of places to go so far - this list is ever growing:

1. Switzerland -
• Zurich
• Lucerne
• Interlaken
• St. Gallen
• Zermatt
• Lugano 
• Neuchatel
2. Netherlands -
• Amsterdam
• The Hague
3. Germany -
• Munich
• Stuttgart
• Frankfurt
• Hamburg
• Berlin
• Cologne
4. France -
• Paris (this weekend!)
• Bordeaux
• Monaco
• Nice
5. Czech Republic -
• Prague
6. Hungary -
• Budapest
7. Austria -
• Vienna
• Salzburg
• Innsbruck
8. UK -
• London (January 2016)
• Bath
• Edinburgh
9. Ireland -
• Dublin
10. Norway -
• Oslo
11. Iceland -
• Reykjavik
12. Denmark -
• Copenhagen
13. Sweden -
• Stockholm
14. Italy -
• Como
• Milan
• Venice
• Florence
• Rome
• Cinque Terre
15. Croatia -
• Dubrovnik
• Split
16. Slovenia
17. Greece -
• Thessaloniki
• Athens
• Crete
18. Spain -
• Barcelona
• Madrid (November 2015)
• Valencia
19. Portugal -
• Lisbon

So yeah, we're a little ambitious. If you've ever been any of these places, we welcome any and all recommendations!

On a semi-related note, this past weekend we took a day trip to Yvoire, France - it's a tiny little village across the lake from where we live in Switzerland. There's not much to do there since it's so small, but it was a great way to spend a couple hours and eat lunch in a gorgeous setting. 



 

 

 

 

 

Trevor.

If you read my post about our first day here in Switzerland, you already know that Trevor had a rough start here. What I didn't mention in that post is that Trevor already had some health problems before we left the US. His most recent blood work had shown some abnormalities specifically related to his liver enzymes. We learned this about a week before we left Colorado, so it didn't make any sense to look into it further until we got to Switzerland. Our vet in Colorado gave us some medicine and supplements to improve his liver function, and the plan was to have a vet here look at the test results and help us understand what could be wrong and what we could do about it.

When Trevor had his stomach surgery, the surgeon in France saw the problem areas on his liver and took a biopsy. We got the results about 2 weeks ago that confirmed he had liver cancer. The vet was somewhat vague about how far along/severe it was, and suggested that we find an English speaking vet closer to our new apartment to talk us through our options.

We had an appointment scheduled for September 8 to have him checked out more thoroughly, but last week Trevor became very lethargic and lost interest in his food. Andy was able to take him in for an emergency appointment September 4, where they let us know that the cancer was too far along and there wasn't anything that could be done. We scheduled a follow up appointment for Monday, September 7 to have him put to rest.

We spent the weekend cuddling with Trevor and giving him lots of belly rubs and whatever he wanted to eat- his snack of choice this weekend was sliced salami. Trevor passed away in our apartment Sunday night while Andy scratched his ears.

Trevor was easily the most chill, happiest dog I have ever known. All he wanted in life was a porch to lay on in the sun - he would do it for hours. He ADORED Andy- both of our dogs obviously belong to both of us, but Trevor made no effort to hide that he preferred Andy. He would follow him all over the house in the morning as he got ready for work and always preferred to lay next to his feet. He had excellent manners- he was very polite about taking treats out of your hand, and loved to shake hands. Second to laying on the porch, his favorite thing was belly rubs- he loved to lay on my legs and fall asleep while I scratched his belly.

We keep talking about how we wish things could have gone differently- we hate that the last month of his life was stressful and chaotic for him, moving across the world and away from everything familiar to him. But we know that we did the best that we could with the information we had, and he (along with Sam) are the most loved dogs in the world. We only had Trevor for 2.5 years, but he quickly became our second fur child, and we’re so thankful for the time we had with him. We choose to believe that dogs do in fact go to heaven, and he's on a huge porch in the sun getting a belly rub right now.

And like any proud parents, we take way too many pictures of our adorable children – below are just some of our favorites.

He hates car rides but loves chicken nuggets

He had frequent disagreements with the rug



He wasn't supposed to get on the couch - found him like this pretty much any time he thought we were going to be gone for awhile.

 

Staredown with a deer in our front yard

During our kitchen renovations, they were confined to the living room...and super happy about it.

 

 

 

Culture shock.

We’ve been in Switzerland for three weeks now. In some ways this feels like an incredibly long amount of time, and in some ways it feels like we just got here. The first week or so was kind of like a weird vacation, but no nice hotel and going to work all day instead of exploring. But now we’ve been here 3 weeks, which is long enough to get used to some things, and for other things to really stand out as different/tough.

There are several aspects of our everyday life that we’ve gotten reasonably comfortable with: we can hop on the bus and get pretty much anywhere we want to go, we can go to the grocery store or pharmacy and leave with what we set out to get, and we’ve learned some basic French vocabulary so that we can successfully order in a restaurant (most of the time). I recognize how ridiculous that all sounds, but it really did take a few failed attempts at each of these things to get it right.

And we’ve also had a lot of very necessary tasks that were near impossible to complete (and that we’re still working on):

1. Getting a bank account here as an American is pretty challenging (apparently this is the IRS’s fault). We were finally able to open ours last week, once we had the document proving that we live here full time (our “Attestation”).
2. Getting said “Attestation” was not easy either – the canton of Geneva wants to know your permanent address in order to give you this document, and our current address is temporary.
3. Finding someone to rent you an apartment without an “Attestation” is also hard…so you’ve got this chicken-and-egg situation here. The good news – we found an apartment! It’s about 20 minutes outside of the city center and it’s just perfect. It’s also a sublet, which made the paperwork significantly easier. We move in August 28, and we can’t wait.
4. You also can’t get a cell phone contract until you are able to present your permanent residence permit (we don’t receive ours for another week or so). I was able to get a phone through work, but Andy is using a go-phone for now.

To summarize – the Swiss love rules/regulations and paper work. Our first 3 weeks here have been largely consumed with these administrative, get-our-stuff-together type tasks, and we haven’t had a ton of time to do many fun things…until this past weekend!

My parents came to visit us, and we had such a great time showing them a bit of our city. We enjoyed some touristy activities with them, but even more so just appreciated having some familiarity in our lives, even if just for a few days. Here are a few pictures from the weekend (Sue took so many more than I did):

 Picture with Jet D'eau #23

 Some of the best Italian food I've ever had - with an amazing view!

 St. Pierre's Cathedral

So anyway, culture shock.

In addition to the difficulties in getting settled in here, the following is just a list of our cultural observations that we thought were interesting/funny.

Clothes.

• Men wear a loooot of capri pants. And super tight full-length pants.
• Grown men (like 40 and up) pop their collars.
• We see at least 3 people every day wearing some sort of American flag or American phrase on their clothes – and they definitely aren’t American.

Language.

• About 50% of the time that we go somewhere, whoever we try to talk to is able to speak English – it’s so impressive to us. If you think about the reverse, a French person who speaks little-to-no English would have an incredibly difficult time in the US.
• We hear a lot of broken English that can be pretty funny. For example, Trevor’s vet told us that “his liver isn’t very beautiful.” Our new landlord also referred to the dishwasher as a "robot". We were super confused for about 5 seconds.
• Before we learned how to say “I don’t speak French” properly, Andy told a couple different people “You don’t speak French.” That went well.
• We can both carry a simple conversation in Spanish, which has been incredibly helpful – we find that a lot of people here speak Spanish as a second language if they don’t speak English.

Food.

• SO. MUCH. PIZZA. If we want to eat something cheap for dinner without cooking ourselves, our options are pizza or sandwiches.
• Wine is cheaper than water.
• We eat dessert every day. Gelato, pain du chocolat, tarts, pastries, custards…if we weren’t walking so much every day, we’d be well on our way to type 2 diabetes.

Other general observations.

• Cigarette smoke is literally everywhere. Even though people can’t smoke indoors or on public transportation, we walk outside a lot too – and I would say about 50% of the general population smokes.
• Apartments do not have air conditioning ever, and rarely have a dishwasher or washing machine.
• Personal space is an American concept. I'm pretty sure that the lack of personal space here isn’t just a Swiss thing, because this city is so international- everyone is from all over the world- and the Americans are the only ones who will step back and give you some space on the sidewalk or on the bus. I decided that this is one of my favorite things about American culture.

So yeah – it’s an adventure, to say the least. Every couple of days, one of us asks the other - “are you still glad we did this?” And so far, the answer is still yes. It’s hard, every day presents a new challenge; but we’re learning a lot, and every day also gets a bit easier. We’re really excited to get moved into our new apartment, and even more pumped to start planning our first trip – Paris!