Proof is in the pudding.

Coming home from a trip that you really enjoyed is tough. First, you have to leave the people you love that made the trip so much fun and adventure. Second, you have to leave the place you were visting.
In my case, I had never been to Europe, anywhere "over there". So everything was an adventure, every sight a delicious eyeful of beauty previously unknown , every turn another neighborhood or mountain; bakery or bracki; lake or river; narrow street and quaint village.
So much of the learning about another country is how differently from the USA everything is done. We only know what we have lived. We know it will all be different but not sure how. For example, we have trains, buses and trolleys. Where I grew up outside Boston, Massachusetts we had the option of buses, trolleys or trains to get around and in and out of Boston but people didn't use them as much as they do in Zurich.
Even "when I was young," once cars became the normal mode of transportation, the buses were for the people who didn't have cars. The trains were used for workers commuting in and out of Boston. The is a grassroots comeback of public transportation but nothing close to Zurich. It was very impressive to see how few cars there are, how few gas stations you see( granted the price when I was there was 1.79 Fr per liter) and how many ride the public transportation all the time. It was all very impressive. The organization of the transportation, the timing, the schedule which is in full view and easy to read at each stop, the train police who randomly check for tickets (!) and can fine you 80 Frs if you don't have a ticket...or they kick you off and make you buy one... (some personal experience there) and they are clean! Plus I had the super Swiss Miss extrodonaire to guide me through the city.
My Swiss Miss daughter, Kristen who now lives there has learned so very quickly her way around (no car) the public transportation system all written in German. She only arrived on Feb 14, 2008 and I was there on April 3, 2008 and I am so impress with how much German she picked up, studied and learned to speak in that short time. She took Spanish for 4 years but that only helps in certain parts and certain restaurants. When we went out to eat fondue with her husband, Mark the night before I left, April 17th, the waiter, an older gentleman, spoke strong hard boisterous German. Later, after he complimented Kristen and spoke that she reminded him of Ursella Andres (or was it Rachel Welch?...it was some European beauty from the 60s)
the conversation got funnier and Kristen started speaking in Spanish and he was from Spain!
What a fun night and Mark at times was blushing at the comments he made in German about Kristen. Anyway, the waiter and Kristen had a nice Spanish conversation and he even showed up photos from his hometown which she had been to. Oh if only all waiters were so charming.
Since I arrived 3 1/2 days after they moved into their first apartment (from corporate housing) I helped. I like to help, no complaint here. They had bought some furniture from IKEA it is what everyone has over there. It is cheaper and available. The prices of furniture were outrageous. K & I went shopping for beds for them to get catalogs and ideas for K to show M.
Even the non IKEA stores have furniture that all looks like IKEA. Beds are low to the ground and not much of a frame, headboard or footboard. Kristen likes the bed low so it works for her but when I left they still hadn't ordered a bed.
They had purchased a craft table for K that is a good height for her to stand and work at and two storage tables that are like large night stand size with narrow but wide drawers. They are cool. I might go get some for me. She had put them together except for the drawers. So, that was our first project. I also call Swiss Miss, Miss IKEA. She is so so good at the putting together. The IKEA directions are only pictures. No words. She said that must help keep the cost down. I told here I would gladly pay and extra $5.00 for just simple words like, left side, right side, top or bottom, up or down! Next we tackled the 3 large wardrobes they bought.
The apartment (which is large, clean, white, bright, has good flow and is on the first floor) has only one (ONE!!!!) closet. It is in my room...oops, I mean the craft room or 3 rd bedroom.
Mark will have 1/2 and Kristen will fill up the other 1/2 with her crafts....along with those other two pieces of furniture we put together... She is a bargain shopper and when you find a deal and you know the real price, sometimes you have to buy it because you WILL need it in the future.
This craft/project stuff was one of Mark's biggest problems with his wife. Don't the vows state "thru craft and projects, thru knitting and purl, I will cherish you since you are making our apartment a home>>>" Kristen likes projects (there's that apple again) but she also get bored or tired (as all crafters do) with the same one for a long time till it is done, so she starts another.
This means piles of stuff to Mark. Here and there, table and chair. Rightly so, it can be cluttery.
So, If I understand right, now Kristen has a room. Projects can be done on the craft table w/o hurting her back and without messing up the dining room. Items can be stored in her 1/2 of the closet and in drawers and photos boxes and baskets etc. When guest come, they will have a day bed that pulls out like a trundle to be a full size bed in their own area of the large craft room. It was great for me when I was there and it is far away from everything else giving M & K privacy.
I was surprised at the food in Zurich. It was expensive (actually everything is very expensive there ). Sandwiches are meat and bread or cheese and bread. Not sliced bread but baggets. No mayo or mustard. There were some at a place K found that had lettuce and tomato etc on them but they too were different...but good and different can be good, it just takes some getting used to. Then when you go home, you miss it. I took Kristen and I out for lunch twice and lunch, salad (chopped up vegs and a very vinegar almost cole slaw dressing..but good) and a pizza once and the other time was salad and steam veg and veal in a sauce....Each time lunch was almost $50 Fr. And now with the dollar doing so poorly, the exchange is almost even. $50 lunch for 2
wow, things are feeling cheap here at home! I certainly didn't mind spending money on my baby girl, we had wonderful times for the entire time...I was just surprised.
I asked Mark how much a secretary (OOPS, sorry all you youngsters who need to have the "right" word to explain an old fashion job) ...administration person makes....I have no answer yet. He sometimes takes a long time to reply. He's a lawyer you know. I do know they must be making $60k in order to survive. There was no Marshall's there. Even the 2nd hand clothes stores were expensive and had lousy choices.
We went for a hike. Yep, me with my new joints went for a 15 minute hike! It was a hill by the Alps standards right above the city. I don't know the name of it, German you know. We took a train up and saw lots of walking trails and there were train stops in quaint villages. Better and better views at each mile...km. At the end of the train ride was a little cafe where we had lunch. K&M shared a wenersnichel plate and I had a sandwich. We needed food for the hike to the top.
I took some photos from the cafe not knowing their were going to be greater views 15 minutes later. An easy hike/walk up a wide gravel path to a beautiful area. A hotel, a tower to get even higher and overlooks. Mark went up the tower and took great photos and K & I went to the overlooks. Waving like fools to Mark who never even saw us....he was taking photos of course.
What a beautiful sight, the large snow covered Alps, Zurich coming into spring, the river and the lake LeMatte. From where we were we could see lots of green behind where K&M live. After asking around in the next few days, they found out that it is a huge area of trails. Very near their apartment. So exciting to have such great trails available without a bus/train ride. Just out the door and up the hill or two or three streets later. They went the weekend after I left and had a great relaxing time. Not to say that I was a stress, just that they had fun!
All in all it was great. I met Shannon who is an American woman (5 months pregnant) who Kristen met at a mosaic class for Ex Pats. They get along great and I am so glad she has someone who she can speak with without having to watch everyword in German. Shannon and her husband are very much into the outdoors and have passed along good info to Kristen about places to go. I hope they get together as couples and hit it off as they say.
I wish Kristen was living next door and we could just hang out and be buddies as we already are. I want to win the lottery so I can help make all my kids lives easier and their bills go away.
Then we could all live without stress and with more fun, smiles and freedom. Well, I have to go to work now!!!! Sell another house so I can go back to see all the progress Kristen has made on the apartment since I left.