Kyle, that isn't eye makeup - those are bags under my eyes (Day one in Zurich)

We have had quite an adventure since we left Kansas City 26 hours ago.

First, we get to the airport in adequite time to get on our flight (I would even say plenty early). We go to the counter to check in and everyone is in a frenzy. Our flight to Washington DC was being pushed further and further back because the plane was coming from Denver and it was getting caught up in the storm. So Delta transfered us to US Air and we were supposed to have a 4 pm flight out of KC (instead of 11:30 am). We were all ready to go to a couple of movies and have a few more hours in KC before we started our whirlwind trip. We walk over to the US Air counter and the agent thinks it is IMPERITIVE that we make it on the flight to Philidelphia that was leaving in 10 minutes. She has 2 other people helping her get us on that flight (I assume so that we would make sure to get out of KC) we then RUN to get to our gate before they close the door. When we get there they aren't even boarding the plane yet. About 15 minutes later they finally start boarding the plane and we have a uneventful flight to Phili.

After we arrive in Phili our (by 'our' I mean Kyle's) only goal is to find a Dunkin' Donuts. Since we have about 7 hours before out flight to Zurich we had some time...

Of course we found the Dunkin' Donuts and Kyle gets his coffee and donut. AND, we realized that we are flying business class overseas - that means we get to use the business class lounge! The lounge was great, the floor was paved with gold with gumdrop and lollypop trees. Compared to the rest of the airport I was in heaven. So, we sat in our plush loungers, in front of our big screen tv, with a coffee in one hand and a complimentary adult beverage in the other for 7 hours.

Once we got to board our plane to Zurich I quickly realized that airplane seats, no matter how much they recline, are not made of sleeping. Especially when you are a girl with HIPS...so I snoozed sitting up for about 45 minutes on the 8 hour flight - the rest of the time I was quietly cursing Kyle for falling asleep instantly. When Kyle decided he has had enough sleep and woke up I asked him if my eye makeup is all over my eyes (as it tends to do when I don't take it off at night) he studies my face for a couple seconds and nods. So I ask him to get me my makeup mirror so I can fix it before we get off the plane, when he does I take a look at myself. What is left of my makeup is fine I just have huge dark circles under my eyes - Thanks Kyle for the support :P

We arrived at 11 am Zurich time (there's a 7 hours time difference). I'm just about exhasted from not sleeping and my body thinks its 4 am. We take a taxi to the hotel after we get our baggage. We were very good once we got to our room, neither of us napped, we quickly showered and left the hotel before the bed tempted us.

Well, it's Sunday in Zurich, nothing is open in Zurich on Sunday. We spend the day walking up and down the main shopping street looking at very pretty (and expensive) closed stores and trying to figure out the transportation situation. It is now 9 pm Zurich time. I've been awake for over 32 hours and I'm absolutely exhasted, I'm very much looking forward to the bed!

But I do have a Story of the day -

As we passed our 5th Starbucks in as many blocks (Yes, it's not only in the US) some younger kids were driving around, honking the horn, screaming, and hanging out the window with what looked like the German flag. They were being VERY obnoxious (an continued to be as we could hear them for the intire 4 hours we walked around downtown Zurich). The first thing that came to my mind is that 'highschoolers over here don't have anything better to do on a Sunday afternoon either...' Kyle immediately retorted with 'Yeah, but driving around in Daddy's BMW is like a Toyota at home.'

Later we actually found out that Kosovo declared independence from Serbia and that is what the car (and apparently other cars) were celebrating. Serbia is about as far away from Zurich as St. Louis is from Kansas City....it's crazy to think that everything is so close to where we are going to be LIVING! How weird!

Oh My Electronics!!

Kyle did some researching last night...

Pretty much every big, expensive electronic item we have in our house will blow up if we try to use it in Zurich...great! No TV (my BEAUTIFUL TV), no dvd player, no cd player.

We found this out after, of course, we went and spent probably hundreds of dollars on dvds to take with us: Seinfeld, Friends, Doogie Howser, Addams Family, Munsters, Muppet Show, Entourage, Sex in the City, How I Met Your Mother, Airwolf, Night Rider, Scrubs, and (my personal favorite) Get Smart...

You're thinking, just get new ones over there...duh. Unfortunately it's not quite that easy. It SHOULD work with the TV, but the dvd player and cd player have to run off of European electricity but play 'region 1' dvds and cds.

Kyle thinks he found an 'all region' dvd player distributor in the US. It sounds like they take dvd players from Europe and pull out the 'region 4' part to make them play all dvds. He doesn't think this is illegal to do in the aftermarket, I guess we'll find out.

So, if anyone is interested in the dvd collections above they may be being sold to the highest bidder...

The Clock is Ticking...

We are hours from getting on a plane to Zurich (...by hours I really mean 117 - we don't actually leave until Saturday at 11:30 am). We have a lot planned for the 6 days we'll be there, the most important (to me at least) is finding somewhere to live - but we're also meeting with his new boss, meeting with our tax accountants (there's a slightly funny story about that coming up...), and figuring what we will be able to take and not take.

We've gotten to the ackward stage of packing. I've gotten through the bulk of 'stuff' we have in the house, it was either packed, trashed, or given to the goodwill. Now we're to the 'take?' stuff - things like our desks, pots and pans, and small furniture. If we have space we'd love to take it all (and not have to buy it there - again) but we just have no idea. Once we come back from this trip the packing will be able to commence. We'll know how big our house will be and how much room/storage we'll have. Also, we aren't allowed to pack anything that we are actually taking for insurance purposes so we can't do anything with a large majority of our stuff.

We have to meet with our tax accountant while we're over there so that they can prepare us for what's to come (yeah, I know I'M a tax accountant - let me tell you how weird it is to be a tax accountant going to a tax accountant...). I could go into all the crazy tax equalization calculations they go through to figure out how much tax we have to pay but no one cares about that but me. Anyway, back to my lame story, one day Kyle comes home from work with a big grin on his face - you know the kind of grin that makes you wonder what he did he shouldn't have...he informs me that we are now 'rich'. Of course, I'm thinking 'Oh really fool, let me explain to you how you are 12 kinds of wrong'. He had found out that KPMG will be doing our taxes while we are out of the country since we will be ex-patriots. At one time I had told him that KPMG only does taxes for 'rich' people, I didn't know that there would ever be a reason to further explain who KPMG actually does taxes for. Once I was able to stop Kyle from spending all of our money in his mind I realized how weird it is...

One of our bigger tasks we have to tackle while in Zurich is our electronic problem. Pretty much everything we own has to be plugged in. A lot of our smaller things can be plugged into an adapter or we can purchase another one there. (We will probably have to buy at least 1 American generator) But our TV, our poor, poor TV!! Kyle thought he had figured out every issue so that we could take our BEAUTIFUL TV with us (in case you can't tell - I think I'm actually in love with an inanimate object). One thing we didn't consider was getting a signal (apparantly the signals work differently there than they do here, don't ask me!). So, while we're over there we have to see if there is some way to get a Swiss signal to that TV. Our options are things like Tivo, or a digital box or something like that. I think we'll just have to get over there and see what can be done.

I hope to be able to post my next post from Zurich! (Maybe than this blog won't be quite so crappy...) I'll also figure out how to post pictures, I'm pretty excited to figure that out!

Until next time,
Crystal

My House Looks Like it was Robbed!

I've started packing...that's right, I've started packing. I know, I still have about 10 weeks in the states but I just know that no matter what I do now I'll be in a crunch at the end. I figure the more I can get done now the better.

I spent last weekend shredding the last 8+ years of my life. It was really kind of depressing; that my entire after college life could basically fit into 3 trash bags. But, I really did need to get rid of that stuff - I mean, who really needs cable bills from 2000?

I've also taken down just about every picture in the house. Again, this is stuff that I won't actually 'use' before we leave and it won't be going with us. I did however leave up all of the screws and nails so that I know where to patch when I decide to actually do that...

I have a feeling that from my on my house will be in a perpetual stage of trashed...needless to say no one is invited to my house ever again....

The Calendar

Take a look at the bottom of the blog. You will find our latest feature...you guessed it...a calendar. We'll try to keep it updated with trips and events. Also, to all the people that said you would come and visit (I know who you are and I expect you go visit!) the calendar should help everyone figure out timing and the like.