Our Temporary Home

Here are pics of our temporary apartment in the city. It's located on the border of a neighborhood called Zurichberg. There's a cable car outside the local Migros (grocery store chain) that Zurichberg residents take to get up to their homes in the hills. The hills overlooking Lake Zurich! It's a great neighborhood. The parks (see next post) are pretty amazing and we're going to miss living this close to everything. Thankfully, our new place (we got the apartment in Ebmatingen!) is only a 20 minute bus ride from the city and the public transportation here, in my opinion, is the paragon of efficiency in rapid transit.

More about the apartment. I love not having a top sheet to deal with when making the bed. Just a duvet is the way. How trash is disposed of is also worth mentioning. You have to buy specially labeled trash bags for CHF 2/ea. and your trash must be in one of these pre-paid trash bags. Recycling bins are located in various locations and glass is separated by color. There's also a bin for metals and another for plastic bags. The packaging of products takes into consideration that consumers pay a hefty price to throw out waste and I will dedicate another post to what the packaging looks like. I still cannot cut the milk cartons open correctly but this is one of those little things that I enjoy about being so far away from home. Having to learn a new way of doing something.

 

 

 

 

 

Zumikon Fair

The town of Zumikon where Rob's Aunt Ceci lives has a monthly fair where folks get together to eat sausages, listen to local bands, and interact as a community. We took a healthy stroll down to the main square to check it out. Grace really enjoyed dancing to one of the bands covering Nirvana. She pretty much danced the afternoon away and only the promise of bubbles could lure her away from the festivities. Speaking of festivities, I'm already looking forward to the Christmas Markets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ebmatingen Apartment

Ebmatingen is a suburb approximately 25 minutes by public transport from downtown Zurich. It's a residential neighborhood with great schools and grocery stores within walking distance. It also has lots of open green spaces and overlooks Greifensee. There's even a stall in the garage you can wash your car with a high power hose. Not something you find everyday.

 

 

 

 

 

Zumikon

We arrived at Rob's Aunt Ceci's home in Zumikon Wednesday morning. The girls quickly took advantage of Ceci's garden and the beautiful weather. We've tried in vain to find a place we like and can afford in Zumikon. Grace will be attending a private Montessori School for Kindergarten (can you believe she's starting Kindergarten?!) and that's eaten up a significant portion of our budget for housing. We felt it was really important to make this transition as easy as possible and being in a familiar environment would help.

Apartment hunting is a different animal here. We had to que up with 20 other interested parties to view one apartment. Finding a place that comes with its own W/D is a rarity and apparently so are elevators. Our application for another was accepted but we are going to let it go and let our chances ride on a great place in Ebmatingen (photos in next post). Keep your fingers crossed.

 

 

 

 

 

Farewells to Family & Friends

We spent a couple of days in Pittsburgh "homeless" before heading to Philadelphia to say our farewells to family. We visited my parents (had the best cheesesteaks...always do), spent an afternoon with Rob's brother Greg and his family, Rob's Grandmother Nancy, and my Dad's side of the family: Alice, Elise, and Katherine. Greg and his wife Linda have a beautiful home complete with chickens that lay eggs for them weekly. The grounds are impeccable and an afternoon with the Webers of Philadelphia is always so nice. Noone wanted to leave! Especially Grace who disappeared the moment we arrived. She played nonstop with her cousin Maria.

It was hard saying good-bye but my sister and her family will be here in August and my friend Ronnie, who will be riding in a portion of the Tour De France, has plans to visit in 2013. I didn't get photos of everyone but we think of you daily and hope you'll make plans to visit. We'll hopefully be back in the U.S. next summer and plan to catch up then. xo.