Christmas - Switzerland Style

Christmas in Switzerland is a lot like the States. The stores are catching on to the commercialization, and most people take off work Dec 23 through Jan 2. Tom says the trains and his office have been empty this week. Guess everybody is off skiing!

Tom managed to conquer yet another cooking challenge - mince pies. When making real mince pies you start fermenting the fruit compote in the summer, so we did the next best thing and went to the world's most expensive grocery store and bought mince meat. Here are a few examples of the things that were on "sale", and people were buying a lot of things there...

yes, those are apples $14 each! They were big, but $14, really!

Here's London broil for $11/100 grams. That works out to $50/lb. Yikes!

We got the mince meat, and Tom got creative...

Ahh Tom, those are such cute mini-pies!

There are nativities everywhere. Down the street there is one with the traditional Christmas border collie guarding the baby Jesus. Polly, who knew you were so talented?

They don't understand that Baby Jesus does not go in the manger until Christmas day, and the Wise Men do not arrive until Jan 6. We have taken this a step further. We move the Wise men each day, and it has turned into a giant game of hide-and-go-seek in our household.

There is a really neat toy store in Downtown Zurich, designed to separate you from your money. At the front entrance there is the candy section, with the irresistible bins where you buy candy by the pound. Once you herd your children past that section, there is a slide that takes your children to the lower level, and you lose them in a toy section. In the back of the store there is a bar, that also serves dinner and coffee. Why would you ever leave, you ask? Because after a short time there, you can't afford the train ride home!



Well we managed to get everything for Christmas, with lots of help from family and friends in the States. As expected, everyone got KILLED with extra taxes and shipping costs, but there were some things that we couldn't find here, and we wanted to make sure that the girls had a nice Christmas away from their friends. Christmas Eve started much like you all had, with the threat of snow. Here is the view of our patio...



Poor cold St. Francis! We got all dressed up for the Christmas Eve service.

Like our Charlie Brown Christmas tree? The midnight mass was actually at 10 pm to accommodate the train schedule. I got to sing "Oh Holy Night", and was accompanied by our choir director who improvised on the piano, adding a different stylistic twist to each verse (think Windham Hill-George Winston). He did it all without written music, and it was really different and fun. The girls just sat there, staring, mouths open, while I was singing. It was truly amusing, and I had a great time.

Christmas was our typical chaos, and Santa and the family really came through for the girls.

The girls are in book heaven now, thanks to the joint effort of many people buying them each a kindle, cover, and credit for books. Tom and I got them little iPOD shuffles. Here is what we see all the time now:

Hey girls, could you put those down long enough to actually leave the house? Let's go see Europe!

The Austrian Family Betor

What does every good Swiss family do over Christmas vacation? Go skiing, of course! Unfortunately we were really late on making reservations, and almost everything in Switzerland was booked up. The website said "2600 hotels in area, 7 available". Well, we looked around and found a fantastic ski-in, ski-out resort in the Obergurgl/Hochgurgl area in Austria. We decided to take the train to save money, hassle, and to generally be "green". That and because I really didn't feel like practicing tire chain installation on the car. The ride out was beautiful and relaxing...

until the train came to a sudden stop. Seems like a rail had broken ahead, and they had to go fix it. That was more than a little disconcerting. We changed trains, and hopped on the bus. The bus ride took one and a half hours, up windy mountain roads, connected by quaint little villages. I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't so car-sick.

The hotel was really beautiful and had a perfect location. It was "half-board", a concept that was new to us. The price included a huge breakfast buffet, late lunch snack, and a five course dinner. Now Tom and I consider ourselves fairly wordly, and eat a lot of different foods, but I have a physical aversion to eating any animal that could be a pet. Our dinner consisted of variations of rabbit, veal, deer, lamb, duck, suckling pig, and even roasted calves head. We finally decided that it was best for me not to ask what I was eating. We had roast beef one night and we snarfed that right up. Even the "childrens' buffet" was very European. The girls had a choice of salmon, risotto, or baked potato one night. Not a chicken nugget, hot dog, pizza, or burger in sight. Luckily our girls like salad, otherwise they would have starved.

Tom booked the most interesting two story suite with views of the slopes:

Those funky fences are actually avalanche guards, a huge problem in the Alps. We rented skis on the premises and I upgraded to the premium skis just for the fun of it. Now this is like going first class and being expected to return to coach in the future. The skis cost 1000 euros new ($1300), and they were incredible. The first two days of skiing were great, once we figured out that blue slopes are like green in the states (although steeper), red were like blue, and black is black, no matter where you are. Even the blacks were groomed, so there was very little that we did not drag the girls down. Samantha loves to pretend that she is scared, but if you let her lead she will scare you with her speed. We found ourselves saying "go that way really fast, and when something gets in your way, turn." (name that movie, David!)

The views were incredible, and you could ski downhill up to 8 km at a time if you joined the trails or "pistes" correctly. I know you can't see our faces, but the dude in the red is not a ski instructor, but Tom.

And the little girls in pink are unmistakable...

There were gondolas going everywhere...

and the skiing was great until the wind picked up...

The logical thing to do when the wind picks up is go to the highest point, right?!

The visibility was squat, but at least the trail was only as wide as a road, with only the red sticks to guide you which side to stay on to avoid the avalanche zone and straight drop off on the other side. We decided to warm up and rest at the mountain hut. Hot chocolate is the best thing about skiing according to an expert...

No mountain hut is complete without a guard deer.

Here is our village, from about a third of the way up the slopes. Yes Samantha, we are skiing down. The best thing to do is not look down!

After the second day, Samantha and I decided that we were done for the day, but Nicole and Tom were up for something a little more exciting. The trails in Austria are poorly marked at best, and they found themselves not on a black diamond run, but in waist deep powder, minus one ski and one pole, in an avalanche zone. Tom practiced his "glissading" skills (fancy mountaineering term for sliding on your butt), and then skied the rest of the way with Nicole on his back. Luckily the skis were insured, and the guys at the pro shop were not interested in going back to look for it. They should show up in May 2011! Nicole learned a valuable lesson about not panicking, Tom proved that all those mountaineering courses were actually valuable, and I learned that ski rental insurance is not a rip-off.

The final day of skiing was pretty horrible, with most of the trails closed due to high winds making the lifts too dangerous (think Maine), so we went down 3 trails with a thousand of our closest friends (who knew so many people were there?) into choppy, nasty trails while they were trying to groom the trails mid-day. We bailed and hit the spa early.

The spa facilities were spectacular, and the prices for services were actually reasonable. We decided that this is because every hotel had a spa in the area. We didn't spend any extra money, because the basic facilities were fantastic. There was a childrens' spa in the snow, where our girls hung out most of the time...

They love swimming in heated outdoor pools. We quickly discovered the difference between a "textile spa" (filled with British men with speedos that are at least two sizes too small), and the regular spa, filled with men that I wish were wearing those speedos! There were saunas from 30, 50, and 100 degrees celsius, salt scrub showers, relaxation ergonomic chairs with headphones to drown out those around you, and the occasional spa-visitor that was appropriately unclothed. It was quite an experience.

Now it is back to reality. What do you mean I have to cook again?! At least I know what we are eating back at home.

What happened to the Betors?

I've been a very bad Frau.  It has been ages since I have posted, and I apologize.  So much has happened over here, but things are finally slowing down. 

We threw ourselves into the Christmas Chaos at church, and loved every minute of it.  We joined the choir at church, but had no idea that many of the members that we met only come for the Christmas performing season, then they return to their homes up to 100 km away.  We performed "Lessons and Carols" with 20 songs at our church twice, once in St Gallen, and once in the historic district of downtown Zurich.  Each performance was standing room only, and one was in a cathedral that sits over 600.  I felt like we were back at Duke Chapel.  The music was hard, and Tom really took one for the team and learned all the Tenor parts, even to hymns that he has been singing 20+ years.  We loved the challenge and the comraderie that comes with a effort like this.  We had some magical Christmas moments across Switzerland. 

Our first concert was in St. Gallen (eastern Switzerland), a beautiful old Catholic Cathedral with gold and murals on the ceiling.

and we emerged from the cathedral to a soft blanket of snow...

This particular snow was unexpected and placed a poignant end to a great concert.  Or maybe it was really special because of the spiced wine. 

The next concert was at the Augustinakirche, off the famous Bahnhoffstrasse in Downtown Zurich.  This street is something I hope to take our visitors to, because the window shopping is second to none. 

Those little lights make it look like it is snowing all the time.  Or maybe it's because it IS snowing all the time.  On the way home, in the main train station, Swarovski has decorated a christmas tree.  It has 7,000 Swarovski crystals (the annual star ornaments) hanging from the branches, and it is truly spectacular. 

Just another little unexpected pleasure of Christmas in Switzerland (other than the spiced wine, of course!)

The girls had their own Nativity Play at church.  OMG, it was a major production.  There were 60 children, custom costumes, solos, lighting, all with music written by the director.  There was every character that you could think of, and some you would never image would be in a children's play.  We had angels, roman soldiers, shepards, wise men, Angel Gabriel, Joseph, Mary, sheep, Augustus Caesar, Mary's friends, and of course, Samantha, shining like the north star herself...
 

Here's a little taste of the theatrics...

And our two little shepards, who were dissapointed not to have a solo, but they have been promised special parts for next year, which makes them very happy.

Stay tuned for the Austrian Family Betor!

and now for a brief musical interlude...

Samantha performed this solo at her school's annual Christmas program. Apologies for the poor audio/video quality, as this was recorded on my cell phone. Suffice it to say, that I'm one proud daddy.

Prayers are Answered, and Some for Patience are Needed

As many of you know, I have been stressing to get a renter into our house in the States.  We have  been very worried about our house sitting empty, especially with the temperature dipping into the teens.  Our prayers have been answered, and we will have a renter starting December 15. 

I haven't blogged lately mainly because we have been so busy in our new lives.  In the next 2 weeks we have 6 choir performances with two different choirs, a Children's nativity play, a art show, a children's music program at school, and 3 more rehearsals.  So much for slowing down here. 

Tom has been busy but not overwhelmed at work.  He has been working as a consultant of sorts, helping other pricers close their deals before year end.  He is part of a new European "mega-deal" team that will gear up in first quarter 2011.  He is somewhat frustrated not having a deal to call his own right now, but appreciates the time that he has for his German Lessons and getting home on time to have dinner with the family. 

The girls are adjusting nicely to their new school, and have taken several interesting field trips.  Nicole went to Germany for the day, to a museum specializing in cavemen and early man, and Samantha went to the Zurich Opera House.  She just finished a unit on Archeology, and they have a real excavation going on for they found ancient Roman Ruins under the new parking lot they are building.  They both have lots of homework, and are progressing towards working independently.  Our favorite time of day is free reading on our new sofas...

And there has been lots of playing in the snow...

An interesting thing happened last week.  In the midst of unpacking, our banking representative called to say that I needed to return a form that had been sent to me 2 days earlier, or our accounts would be frozen.  I immediately starting gathering to go to the post office when Tom called to say that our accounts had already been frozen. 

Hmm, not much notice here, huh?

Apparently they don't like stray marks on forms here, and Tom had to fill another one out too.  I took them personally to the bank and begged and pleaded, for the rent was due that day.  I was initially told that it would take 3-4 business days to unfreeze our funds.  It took every ounce of strength I had to not go ballistic and let them know what I really felt.  Our accounts were frozen because of another persons error.  There is a really nice manager at the bank who has taken pity on me in the past, made a bunch of phone calls, and said she would see what she could do.  She called me a hour later to let me know that everything was ok, but Tom and I were pretty shaken up and peeved at the whole ordeal. 

The next day I took paperwork down to the Stadhaus, essentially a community tax and public works office.  It is a beautiful building, spacious, light, and reeks of Swiss efficiency.  Looks can be deceiving.  Everyone in Switzerland must have health insurance, and if you do not, you loose your residency permit and you are kicked out.  I had to prove that we were legal with Cigna International Health Insurance, a policy that covers you anywhere in the world, with awesome benefits.

Here is a typical conversation :

Me:  "Gruetzi!" (hello in Swiss German, if you don't say it, they think that you are being rude).  "Sprechen ze English?"

Grumpy Swiss woman behind the counter; "Nein" (crap, this is not my day!)

I show her all the paperwork, a copy of her letter to me with the list of all the paperwork that I was supposed to bring, and do my sweetest southern smile. 

Grumpy Swiss Woman: "YOU do not WORK?" (with a wonderful demeaning tone in her voice)

Me: "not yet" (by this time another person in the office has taken pity on me and has come to help translate)

Grumpy Swiss Woman:  "where is your husband?"  This one is really starting to fry me, women have no standing here and in some cantons just got  the right to vote in 1984!

Me:  "at work"

GSW:  "where is his work permit?"  OK, she didn't put it in the letter that I needed to bring it, Tom is a train ride away, and I really have to get this done. 

Me:  "the office downstairs has a copy" (we brought it the first day we were in Dietikon to get our residence  permits)

GSW:  "We cannot get it from downstairs".  Apparently efficiency does not happen in the local governments.  Now the two women have a heated discussion about how to solve this dilemna.  I'm not allowed to go get a copy because I am not a man, and apparently the city offices never talk to each other.  Great.

The GSW explained that she doubted that my insurance verification would hold up in the main Zurich offices, and that they would be in contact with me.  I wanted to say "dude, this is the best international insurance that you can get, with 2 different forms of verification that we have it, what else do you want?"

But instead I smile, "danka" (thanks), and retreat before I explode. 

Mom, thanks for the "southern lady" training, because I could get in a lot of trouble here.   

Your Guest Room is Ready!

Sorry about the lack of communication, but we have been really busy here.  As promised, six weeks after leaving Shelby, our things arrived in Switzerland.  It's a early Christmas for the family Betor. 

The truck driver did a masterful job backing it into our driveway...

Right as it began to snow, really hard.  It took 5 men 2 hours to unload the truck.  The minute they finished unloading the truck, the snow stopped, and the sun emerged to mock us. 

Tom says "hey everybody, we have stuff!"  Now, we have to unpack it all...

 Here is a before and after of your guest room...

I've decided that physics really stinks.  There is this law that says matter cannot be created nor destroyed.  They must have discovered that when trying to move to a smaller house.  It was really hard to cram 21 linear feet of hanging closet space into 5 linear feet of space.  I have had to be really creative.  Here is a before and after of our bedroom....

 

It's just that easy...

A Griswold Family Thanksgiving

Things just keep getting more interesting for our Griswold Family Thanksgiving.  After our lasagna fiasco, feast, we were really looking forward to getting together with the other ex-pats from the school and bringing some sense of normalcy to the holiday.  Tom managed to whip up a batch of toll-house morsel bars and rice krispy treats with our sparce kitchen supplies.  The girls helped as usual. 

It's funny what you miss when you go overseas, and everyone pulled out their special treat supplies that they have been hoarding.  We feasted on M&M's, barbeque potatoe chips, and cheetos to start.  Check out the centerpiece, they were gone in no time!

There is a lot of hoop-la about the turkey, but let's face it, Thanksgiving is all about the side dishes...

We ate, played, socialized, and then we ate again. 

We stuffed ourselves silly, and stuck around to help clean up, and "help" clean up the leftovers.  I snagged a little scrap of turkey, and lots of stuffing planning to use it as a side dish for my own anorexic 5.5 lb turkey waiting to be cooked at home.  Tom took pumpkin pie (it's not just for breakfast anymore!) and went home for a wonderful seratonin induced snooze. 


Sunday's highlight was a birthday party for Nicole and Samantha's taxi partner, Florian.  He is a adorable kindergartener, with a Mexican mother, German father, who just returned from a four year assignment in Taiwan.  This kid speaks four languages.  It was a pirate theme, but it basically was torture for me.  Eight preschool/kindergarten aged little boys, hiped up on sugar, screaming and swinging pointed swords and knives at each other for two hours.  I was a mess.  We escaped with no major eye injuries to find there was a village festival on our street. 

Today was the first day of advent, and "Sammi Claus" had a parade.  It was led by people cracking whips, carrying torches, and playing brass instruments.  (I know there is a joke here comparing this to my college years, but my mother reads this blog!)  Our highlight was people marching with what looked like stained glass windows on their heads.  They were 4 feet high, 3 feet wide, cut outs with colors with several large candles stuck inside to illuminate the "windows".  They were works of art, and I have no idea how they didn't all catch on fire. 

I returned home to conquer the turkey.  This tiny little thing fit in a 9x12 pan, and should have cooked in no more than 1hour 45 min.  3 hours later, this sucker still wasn't done.  It's all about the side dishes, remember?  I sliced my tiny sliver of left over turkey in 4 pieces, and we stuffed ourselves with stuffing, salad, and pita bread.  30 minutes after the meal was over, the turkey was done.  Check out this scrawny little turkey leg...

Ok, maybe that's not a nice thing to call my husband!

A Swiss Thanksgiving

The weather channel did not dissapoint and we did have a "White Thanksgiving."

Eat your heart out Heather and Mark!  This is our view from the side yard.  The girls were thrilled, but less so when they found out that school continues here despite 3 inches of snow.  We had quite an unusual Thanksgiving.  There is a certain advantage to having no basic cookware, dishes, etc.  The Thanksgiving meal cannot be a big production, so there was more time to relax.  How does one put together a meal in Switzerland with very few supplies you ask?  First, you need a computer...

All the directions on packages are in German, so every good Frau needs "Google Translate" by her side.  We had the traditional Thanksgiving Lasagna, straight from Aldi.  The microwaves here actually have a grill function too, so you can nuke and brown at the same time.  Washclothes make perfectly good oven mitts, and a cutting board doubles as a trivet. I Found a sample piece of our granite countertop in the attic, and that is a very good trivet also.  I mixed a salad in an old cookie container, and presented it all elegantly on crumbling plastic plates.  Note the mobile pole lamp on the extension cord to provide ambience in any room you desire.  Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!

We had broccoli nuked and presented in an old measuring cup (didn't I used to use that to clean out the fish tank, gross!) We have to keep styrofoam plates under the plastic plates so they don't drip.  Why not just use the styrofoam plates, you ask?  Because they melt...

Yes, we are still using that plate. 

Nicole's classmate came to school and gave all the ex-pats a turkey from Germany.  Nicole came into the house declaring "we can have turkey for Thanksgiving!" while she presented me with a sticky, dripping, mostly frozen 6 lb turkey.  She was very dissapointed when I told her that it had to be defrosted first.  I'll tackle that project when our things arrive from the States. 

Speaking of things from the States, the current plan is that the sea shipment will be here Monday, 8 am.  I have been obscessing over the layout of the furniture, and making to scale drawings with German and American words so we can communicate with the movers.  My father would be so proud. 

It was wonderful seeing everyone on Skype yesterday.  Have a great holiday weekend.

A White Thanksgiving?!

The girls woke us up this morning with frantic shouts of, "it's snowing, it's snowing!"  Yes, winter has started here in Switzerland.  When I look at weather.com (which I do obscessively) it is getting rather monotonous...

You see this every single day. 

Luckily it is hovering around and above freezing, so we have not been inconvenienced yet.   The girls asked if school was canceled.  Not any more ladies, this is a new way of life.  I got salt for our sidewalk as insurance that there will be no significant accumulation. (Hey, that insurance worked in North Carolina, why not here?)

We had a break from precipitation this afternoon, and I decided to tackle yet more leaves in the front yard.  They never dry, they only decompose, smothering your grass.  Takes about five passes with a rake to dislodge the muddy, leafy goo and transfer it, one rake full at a time, to my trusty moving box. It took me one hour to do the front walkway area (approx 250 square feet)  Do I hear violins playing?

Switzerland is famous for working efficiently, so I couldn't understand why they used brooms resembling witches brooms for all of the sweeping.  Our house came with two of them.  Here are the girls riding the latest version of the "Nimbus 2010". 

These brooms rock!  I need one when we return to the states.  Note also my trusted leaf box and muddy boots.  We are really taking this "being green" thing to heart using this poor box over and over. 

We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately it is not a holiday for us, but I thing Tom is going to subscribe to NFL online, and watch some football tommorrow.  We'll eat too much and obscess about holiday shopping in honor of everyone in the States.