House Pictures, FINALLY!!

Obviously these aren't professional but now everyone can be envious of the luxury I live in everyday...you know where I sit and watch my stories and eat my bon-bons...

Master Bedroom:

Master Bathroom:

(washer and dryer in the master bathroom, awesome!)

Guest Bedroom:

Guest Bedroom Balcony:


Living/Dining Area:


Kitchen:

(Can you find the fridgerator?)

(there it is!)

Office:

Guest Bathroom:



Storage Room/Closet:

(this is EVERYTHING we brought to live for 3 weeks)

Kitchen Balcony:

Stairs to the Second Story Terrace:Terrace View:

Merry White Trash Christmas!

My, very empty, house looks like Christmas morning after WT (that would NOT be Webster Team) Santa came to visit! Minus the Ford on blocks out front and mom feeding the baby while talking to her baby's daddy (who happens to be her brother) with a cigarette in her teeth.

There are brown cardboard boxes EVERYWHERE, with plenty of 'wrapping paper' (recycled packing paper) strewn about. I have NEVER been so excited to see some of this crap. I will never leave the house again without my Brita pitcher or my half eaten jar of Jif reduced-fat peanut butter. I just about cried of happiness when I unwrapped my American Charmin Ultra Soft toilet paper.

Now where to put all of my 'presents'? That is a wonderful question you ask. ON THE FLOOR!! That's right, I took all the crap that I never thought I needed until I had to live without it out of the box and then put it on the floor. In essence doubling the white trashness!

I have laundry baskets full of semi-clean clothes, ziplock bags full of half used medicine, random ingredients to a meal I would never wish to make, and enough toxic cleaning supplies to kill every living thing in Lake Zurich next to my wonderful (yet perfectly straight) pile of WT 'Christmas Wrap'.

And the best part? White Trash Hanukkah will be here before you know it! Eight days of moving boxes and wrapping paper (oh, and more crap I didn't know I had to have until I moved half way around the world).

...now, where did I put my matches and lighter fluid?...

One Small Step for Crystal...

One Giant Leap for anyone else in the world.

Today I left the house all by myself (hey, that's quite a feat!). I'm still not feeling 100% today but I think I was getting a little bit of cabin fever since I haven't left the house since Wednesday.

I finally woke up about 9:30 and showered. I decided not to waste too much of my limited supply of makeup (really, who to I have to impress anyway) but I did put on my KU t-shirt. (Hey, I don't care if the game DOES start at 3 am...I'm still going to show my pride! - Take that Webster Family ;) ) I piddled around the house until about 2 when I decided it was either now or never. I had to leave the house no matter how 'unamerican' it was out there or how little I could communicate with others.

I got my winter coat. gloves, scarf, Megros bag, plastic bottles, plastic bags, keys, and purse and ventured out on the long trek to the grocery store (it's like 50 steps from my building's front door). I deposited the plastic in the 'pet' (pronounced peet) containers and then across the street put the plastic bags in the bag holder. Ok, I can do this...to the grocery store!

I walked through the GIANT revolving door into the Megros. I got me a basket (not a cart this time...the smaller I am the less I'm in the way). First, to the soda (I've been craving a Diet Coke - since I can't get that Coke Light will have to do). Megros only has Pepsi - now I see why Ursula said there will be some things we like better from Megros and some from Coop. Fine, I'll get some apple juice - no apple juice. Are you kidding me you have apricot juice but no apple juice? So I got a couple liters of juice with colorful fruits on the cover, and they're even 100% fruit juice!

Next step cereal, Yeah Special K Chocolate is on sale! I got 2 boxes. Kyle has bought a couple bags of the chocolate 'oats and hay' kind of cereal but come on - hay is for horses but grass is cheaper :)

A quick pass through the candy aisle (got some sour watermelon 'gummibonbons' because they were on sale and am now VERY disappointed I didn't just go for the chocolate like I wanted) and on to the milch (milk) aisle. The bio-milk was on sale so I thought we would try it out.

I went to look for dishwasher salt. No, I don't know what it does but I do know that the dishwasher needs it. Kyle looked for it the other day and couldn't find it. I had no luck either.

I started to walk the aisles but decided that that was all I could handle. Off to check out and I was instantly frazzled. I did have enough sense to tell the cashier 'gruezi' but then the process all went to pot. I put my credit card in the wrong way and thought I wasn't going to be able to pay for stuff. I finally got it in and approved but the back of my card wasn't signed. The lady made me sign it. (Honestly, if you verify the signature on the paper, that I just signed, to the signature on the card, that I just signed, don't you think they'll be the same? Thanks for being on top of identity theft lady.) Well, while she's doing that the lady behind me is staring at me like I'm a freaking idiot. So, I start bagging the few things I got, but then I forgot my receipt. I couldn't have asked for it if I wanted to...bah!

Oh well, I made it out of, and back into, the house in one piece. Baby steps, baby steps...

Next time I'll think I'll try the Coop.

I ain't got no MOOOOOONEEEEEEY

...day 2 as a House Frau...

I immediately got sick the second we moved into the loft. I've basically been stuck on the rented couch for the last 2 days (which is really fine because I don't have anything to do anyway and I have no money to spend). I've read basically 2 books in the last 2 days, wasted what seems like 1000 hours on the internet, and gotten a good start on my cross stitch project.

There have been about 5 people that have come through the loft to fix misc. items. None of them spoke English so if they didn't ask me for a 'desk' or 'carpet' we basically communicated through a series of clicks and grunts (and lots of pointing).

** Side note** I've noticed one universal trait among people. Once people realize that we don't understand German they just SCREAM at us, in German, very slowly, and expect us to understand. After my face turns beet red from embarrassment I have to laugh - the same thing happens in the states when people speak to someone who only knows Spanish...

...Back to not leaving the house...so apparently, in Switzerland, people don't like to give you goods and services unless you, in return, give them some sort of compensation - like money... (I know, come on, really?)

We were under the impression that there was going to be some money in our Swiss Bank account on 1 April, 2008 (someone had told us that at some time). They were going to give us a partial advance/partial bonus. Well after a couple of days around Zürich we realized that not everywhere takes our American Mastercard and there are really quite a few places that only take cash (which we don't have any of). We've burned through all the cash that we brought with us (which wasn't much because what were we going to do about it?) and luckily our credit card works as most places (don't forget to add on the 2% convenience fee, the conversion costs, and all the other fees).

Finally I think we've gotten everything figured out: we'll wire money from our Countrywide savings account into our new Oanda account where the funds will be transfered into CHF and then deposited into our Swiss account. We've been trying to do this for about 4 days (and now it's Friday) so hopefully we'll have some money by the middle of next week.

I'm DIEING to go to Ikea and actually buy something!!

I heart Ikea (and weeney)

...day 4...

Since I've done a lot since the last time I posted I think I'll use the same format as before:

Sunday - Slept, all day. Piss off Kyle and let me sleep... We got into Zürich at about 8 and went straight to the hotel (which was another nightmare...I'm SOOO glad to not be staying in hotels anymore!!). I told Kyle I was going to take a 'nap' and then we could do something. He couldn't sleep so he got up and showered then woke me up to see if I wanted to do the same, I didn't. He left for a while and came back at noon to see if I wanted to get up, I didn't. He left again to take the trams to the loft and work and stuff and then came back to see if I wanted to get up about 2, I didn't. So, he turned on the tv (rather loudly I might add) and proceeded to watch 'friends' in German until I got so annoyed I had to get up. We finally left the hotel about 5 and took the tram to our loft to see how close it was to things (it's pretty dang close) and then decided to eat at one of the only places that is open on Sundays - the China Inn. We had some very yummy sweet and sour chicken and some acceptable curry chicken along with 2 bottle of mineral water and some Camille tea (that was for Kyle, no, I'm serious). We spent $85.

Monday - Slept, again, until like 12 noon. Ursula (our relocation lady) called at 12 and it woke me up. We got ready then had a lovely lunch of chicken McNuggets and Coca Cola Light. At 3:30 we met with Ursula to go to the registration office so that we could become LEGAL aliens. (We diverted crisis b/c although our marriage license was left at home Kyle had a PDF copy on his computer that he printed out - that stuff would never fly in the U.S. of A.) Then, we went and took possession of our loft, we did our walk through with Ursula and this really creepy old Swiss guy who's long gray hair was flying all over the place - he really reminded me of that picture of Einstein that is in like every science class ever. Alright, so we have a loft but nothing to put in it. So we went back to the hotel and took a walk down Bohnhofstrasse (the Rodeo Drive of Zürich). After I spent $80 on a new hair dryer at Coop City (Coop City is like their equivalent to Wal-mart although Wal-mart could eat Coop City for a snack in one bite) Kyle took me out for a nice dinner of chicken McNuggets and Coca Cola Light (yes again) but this time we got McFlurrys - again, they were like ice cream shots. Put 2 or 3 of those suckers together and you would get one of our smalls. Back to the hotel and to sleep.

Tuesday - Our rental furniture was delivered at 8 am (well, the guys got lost so it was really 8:45). The first thing we did was see if we could hack into someone's internet. Eureka (and thank you Weeney, whoever you are)!The furniture that we rented is REALLY nice. (I'm glad I don't own it though, I really don't like leather. I sat on it in the cold weather and it took me about 4 days to warm back up.) Absolutely everything was from Ikea and I find that hilarious! After the mover guys left I was still cold from sitting on the fake leather sofa that I thought I would get under a blanket...that just happened to be on the bed they delivered...and it took me 3 hours to get warm...with my eyes closed. About 3 pm we headed off to the Ikea (this story's so good it needs it's own paragraph):

We decide to walk to the train station in Wollishofen and then take the train into the Hauptbahnhof (the main train station in Zurich - luckily it's abbreviated 'HB' on all of the signs). There we upgraded our tickets from 1 zone to 2 and then got on a train to go to Dietikon. After walking around Dietikon for what felt like an hour and not finding any of the streets that were on our trusty mapquest map. We realized we needed to be in Dietlikon....yeah, look at that for like 45 minutes and tell me if you see the difference. Ok, back on the train (after we found the station). We went back to Zurich (25 minutes) then out to Dietlikon (another 25 minutes), FINALLY we got to the Ikea. IKEA IS THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH (forget it WDW you've been outdone!). We spent the next 3 hours walking around Ikea salivating at the wonders; I guess when I say 'we' I'm using the royal tense. We had Swedish meatballs in the Ikea Cafe along with Cola Light (obviously not Coca Cola Light but it gave me the energy to get through the rest of the store) and didn't buy a single thing...yes, thats right...but thats another story all together...

When we got home we went over and met our neighbor, Keith. (Flo, his wife, is in the states right now.) He's very nice and I look forward to getting to know both of them better. Then straight to bed! (After about 4 hours of unpacking and misc. stuff)

Wednesday - Again, I slept in until about noon. Kyle things I'm being lazy and not trying to get over my jet lag. I'm saying that it's because I haven't slept more then 4 hours a night for the last month + AND I got physically sick when the movers were here on Tuesday; I've been long over jet lag now I just need to catch up! Kyle went and borrowed a power cord from a guy he's going to work with since his personal laptop had run out of battery and I was going through blog/facebook withdrawal. Finally about 3 I took a shower and generally got ready to leave the house. After we re-realized that we had no food we went to the grocery store.

Take 1 - Walk up the street to the store. Realize that to get a cart you have to pay 2 CHF (you get it back when you return the cart). Kyle didn't bring any money. Leave store. Walk back down the street to get money.

Take 2 - Walk up the street. Return to previously mention Denner Grocery store (think Aldi). Purchase shopping cart. Begin shopping. Realize they don't accept credit cards. Replace food items. Replace cart and retrieve money. Leave Denner.

Take 3 - Walk across the street to the Megros (think Price Chopper only the size of a QT). Purchase shopping cart. Begin shopping. Get into everyone's way and can only assume they are whispering profanities under their breaths as the 'stupid Americans' are trying to figure out which milk (milch) is skim based on the number of calories since they can't read the labels. Only ad items to the cart that are either from America or we can see the contents of the container from the outside. Check out - don't have a bag to put the items in so purchase a bag. Return cart. Return home.

Ok. That's all the Swiss stuff I can take for one day. I was thinking about this on the way home. They use crazy re-enforcement to get people to do the right thing. If I really wanted that shopping cart 2 CHF would not make me put it back, and really. If I already stole the shopping cart one quick blow with a hammer would knock that pay contraption right off and I could get my money back.

Also, they try to recycle EVERYTHING. In order to get you to recycle you have to pay like $2 for a trash bag but recycling is free. Paper and Cardboard is bundled and picked up 2 time a month. There are tin, glass, and plastic recycle bins EVERYWHERE. And a lot of things can be burned. The moral of the story is Americans are wasteful and already I can see it's going to be expensive being one (but I'll try to get better!).

More later! Ciao!