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.