It's October 20 today and we've made a grand total of zero blog updates since arriving in Switzerland. That's primarily due to the fact that we have no wirelss internet at our house in Chayre.
It's a very different environment here as we're in a 'holiday house' or chalet kind of thing right on the lake. Since it's pretty much off season all of other holiday houses, campers, and cabins near us are empty. So it's very quiet, we really haven't met anyone socially, but the boys can be noisy as hell outside without bothering anybody. After a month in an apartment being told "Stop jumping! Our floor is somebody else's ceiling!" or "Shhhh!", it's nice to be able to let the monkeys act like monkeys.
Anyway, our place is a log cabin/chalet built in the early 70's judging by the tile and cooking utensils and hasn't been updated since. It kind of has that cabin smell, if you know what I mean. It's right on the lake as I said and the boys were able to splash around the day we arrived before the temperature plunged by 30 degrees.
Work has been busy but we've had a good time on the weekends. Kathy's childhood friend Christine came to visit a couple weeks ago and she's always good yucks. They went to see cheese being made in Gruyere' (yeah, those chicks are WILD!) and we went to the mountains near Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen two weekends in a row.
The scenery really is eye boggling and there's one spot where you can actually see a waterfall inside of a mountain. I think it was Rick Steves who described it as "God's band saw cutting through the mountain at 5000 gallons per second". The energy of twelve hundred tons of water falling past you every minute makes you feel fairly inconsequential on the big scheme of things. Everything was wet and slipping and despite the hand rails we made a point of scaring the crap out of the kids by telling them the true story of how a 13 year old boy died there a few years ago. Apparently he was climbing around somehow, slipped, and that was that. For the first time ever, our kids held onto our hands without griping so it apparently was effective.
This weekend we plan to drive up to Fribourg as there is some kind of kid friendly town activity on Saturday night. We're going to meet a colleague who lives there and has kids similar in age to our younger ones. I think the plan is to have fondue (melted cheese) along with raclette (uh, more melted cheese but slightly denser). That's kind of the swiss diet. From what I've read, nobody poops here. Ever.
Kathy flies home with the kids on Halloween (10/31) while I head back to Hanau, Germany to work for a few more days and come home 11/5. It's been great, work-wise and family-wise, but I think we're all about ready to head home.
P.S. Bob Snyder and Mike Davitt, our friends Brooke and Jason are moving back to Minnesota from Boston on 10/25 and will be staying at our place for a few weeks as they get settled and find a spot of their own. So if you see a big shaggy looking guy with a beard lurking around our place, please do not shoot him. Do not. Patty and Kathy S, you don't shoot him either. Unless of course he doesn't answer to the name 'Jason' - in that case it's a burgler, so plug him. Thanks!
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