It's been about three weeks since I visited Zurich. So I'm already a failure at blogging because this is no longer timely. My apologies.
Tobi & I spent five days in Zurich sans children. It was nice, but hardly a vacation. We toured 4 international schools (more about that later - the good, the bad, and the wait-listed), 4 flats, spent a day in the car with the relocation person, and ate pizza twice. Yeah, pizza. Twice. In Switzerland. No, no fondue. Just pizza. Apparently the Swiss love pizza. Who knew?
For those of you who know me well, you know I'm pretty nervous flyer. Like pop-2-Xanax-and-pray-this-bird-doesn't-crash nervous. So I get on the flight, which was mostly full, and my seatmate was a man named Tom. I shared my nervousness with Tom right after he told me a charming little story about a flight that crashed because of the USB ports (as I was plugging my iPhone into a USB port). Tom is from Poland, living in Lugano, Switzerland, near the Italian border. Tom was my new best friend for the next 8 hours. We discussed organic foods, the importance (or not) of ice in drinks(!!!), but mostly the differences between America and Switzerland. My favorite was our lively discussion on the metric system vs. the American system.
Tom: How many inches in a foot?
Me: 12
Tom: Why not 13?
See why I liked him? By the time the flight landed in Zurich, I felt I'd already made a friend. So Tom, if you found your way to my blog, cheers! Thanks for helping me through the flight!
Our experiences with the Swiss people were great. Very friendly people who were also extremely helpful. Tobi asked nearly everyone if they spoke English. They all do. Even the bus drivers. We are taking German lessons, but it's nice to know that we will survive on English for a while.
The school situation was hit and miss. Two of the schools don't have space for the kids, and have healthy-sized wait lists. One school was just... well, not lovely. I'll leave it at that. And the school our children will attend is the loveliest, fairy-tale-iest of the lot. Fraulein Maria would be proud. And the hills are alive with the sound of music!
We toured apartments, but none were available for April yet. So we will continue to look. I think we will end up with a lovely 3 bedroom, 2 bath that will suit us just fine. I'll be sure and post pix when we finally do manage to snag one.
Next up: Packing (and packing, and packing) and moving. Stay tuned.
Cheers!
Tiffany
What a shock that you made a friend on the airplane. What was the name of your new best friend on your flight to Vegas?
ReplyDeleteLOL - Carol! Carol was my BFF from Chicago to Vegas and held my hand during turbulence. Oh, I loved Carol! :)
ReplyDeleteI feel like we're being replaced already Vanessa. :)
ReplyDeleteSo glad your trip went well! That's wonderful that your kids will attend the most Fraulein-y school, and also nice the locals are friendly and mostly English-speaking to boot.
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