Friday, June 15, 2012

Life At Random

It's been a while since I've shared with everyone some of the day to day going's on around here.  First off, last month Jenny celebrated her birthday (I won't say what the magic number was) and the kids treated her to an original play they created, complete with a knight and a princess.  Also, we've had tons of rain lately, but there have been a few warm days in between.  So the kids got to take their first swim in Lake Zurich.  That was pretty cool.  Ben's report was..."It's cold!"  Speaking of Ben, his class and grade put on an assembly at school, and he got to sing and perform on stage in front of everyone.  He did great.  Also, the kids recently had their "end of year" class parties at school.  So I got some pictures of them with their teachers.  It's been a year filled with changes and adjustments for them but overall they performed very well in their new schools.  The kids are enjoying all the cats that live around here.  Evidently everyone in Switzerland has a cat, and they all let them run around outside.  So the kids enjoy petting the more familiar ones that live around us.  Also, last weekend we made a trip to the Lindt Chocolate Shop at the Lindt chocolate factory.  That was a lot of fun.  Also, we found a pizza place in downtown Zurich that specializes in "American-style" pizza.  Believe it or not I'm not a fan of "European" pizza.  A traditional European pizza is made with very thin crust, and the sauce is also very thin and watery.  Also, they serve it to you uncut (no pizza slices) and you're expected to eat it not with your hands, but with a fork and knife (like you're cutting into a steak.)  But most of all the taste just seems to be kind of bland to me.  Even the pizzas we've had in France and Italy are surprisingly average to me.  So anyway, it was a nice treat to find an "American-style" pizza place in town.  Finally, we also had dinner recently with Jenny's team from work.  It was an interesting mix of Swiss, German, Dutch, British, American, and even Tibetan.  It was a good reminder for us and the kids on what a unique opportunity we're experiencing over here.  A very rewarding experience.  







































Sunday, June 3, 2012

Celebrating Number 14

This Wednesday is our 14th wedding anniversary.  So last night we took the train into town, enjoyed a nice dinner, and walked around the city a bit.  We're still getting to know our new city, but we're enjoying the experience.  One interesting thing we discovered last night...Zurich is a "quiet" big city.  We were walking up and down the Bahnofstrasse and we were shocked at how few people there were, and how quiet the street was.  The Swiss are a reserved people, and it's interesting how their biggest city reflects that sometimes.  
What's funny though is if you asked me last year at this time where we would be spending our 14th anniversary...I would never have guessed in Zurich.  It's amazing what a difference a year makes.












Atzmaennig 2.0

This past weekend we made another trip out to the Atzmaennig mountain park.  There are several mountain parks like this one around the area, and we just happened to be enjoying this one right now.  This was our 2nd visit and we are still finding new and fun things to do here.  This time Ben really wanted to try the "zip line" course.  So we signed up for a quick lesson, and then started climbing and "zipping" around the trees.  It was a blast and Ben did great.  Meanwhile Megan had fun jumping on the trampolines on the other side of the park.  Afterward we found a hilarious "splash boat" ride that Ben loved.  Even I had to try it out.  Check out the video.