4 Orange Suitcases

The Dress

Dress - das Kleid On day 8,345 of the pandemic - I want to recognize the mad skills Klara has in thrift store finds. This dress is one of the most recent scores. Klara found it in Italy in a secondhand shop in October.  The dress was suppose to

Challah

Challah - der Zopfli I am shifting away from the pandemic this Shabbat. For a moment - just thinking about a ritual we try to keep on most Fridays. Shabbat dinner together. Of course, the pandemic makes together time a given. Shabbat dinner -  in some form or another depends

Velo

Velo -  Das Fahrrad - Bicycle -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Velo is the French and Swiss German word for bicycle. Der Fahrrad is the Standard German word. Either way you say it  - we are fortunate to have a bike room in the cellar.  It is such a great resource and space saver.

Bread Trials

Bread - Das Brot Fortunately, there is still gluten free flour available. The gluten free bread available to buy in the stores here - has mixed  favor in this house. With a lot of time on our hands - we have been working toward sandwich bread that we can enjoy.

Stay Home

Stay Home - Bleiben Sie zu Hause For everyone (well, most) this is the new norm. We stay home. We go out only to grocery shop, for doctor's appointments and sometimes we exercise outside. That depends on the day and mood of both the people in our apartment

Difficult Times, Difficult Decisions

difficult - schwierig All is calm in a normally busy airportFor those who did not know - Klara and I had been hunkered down in our house in Carrboro, while Stephan and Miriam were in Zürich. It was a hard separation but one we needed to do. Klara was going

For the Good of the Hive

beehive - der Bienenstock STAY HOME - if not for you - for your neighbor, your doctor, your parent, your friend, your community.... for tomorrow. Stay home for the good of the hive. We knew this day was coming and it had been in the back of all our minds

Big Week for K and A

Pass - bestehen Big week for Klara and me! First, we both passed our language tests.   We took the tests back in January. It was a long month until we were notified and our certificates arrived in the mail!  This was a big step for both. For Klara - it

New Year's Market

Old - Alt This is an old post I started working on over the winter break and never finished. The Christmas Markets throughout Europe are well known and spectacular. Living here, we had planned to visit a few and enjoy the atmosphere. We were able to all see a couple

Parenting Fail

Parents - Die Eltern Sometimes parents make mistakes and they don't realize until long afterward. Sometimes, they know deep down they probably will be making a mistake if they do something - but do it anyway. And sometimes, they make mistakes and know it from the start. Stephan

A Week of Break

Ski Holiday -  die Skiferien In upstate New York we always had a week in February off when I was a kid. We continued with our daily snow activities and not much else. Not sure why we had a week-long break at that point, maybe it was in hopes the

Beaver vs the Tree

Beaver - der Biber Here lives a beaverAt least every Saturday and Sunday, some mix of us will walk along the stream near our apartment. We have been fortunate enough to see lots of birds. And on one occasion the neighborhood beaver. This little one has been very busy over

The Albertina

Museum - Das Museum The start of the year has been hectic and I looked back in my drafts and saw a few posts I never finished. So, I am going to be doing a few "throwback" posts to catch up. New Year's Eve Day with

Driver's License

Driver's License - der Führerschein Within the first year of living in Switzerland, you need to get a Swiss driver's license.  The process is slightly different than moving within the states.  To prepare - we needed to provide proof that we have been driving for over

Test Time

Test - die Prüfung It has been a quiet blog week. This week Klara and I took the TELC exam. I took the first level - A1. (Klara took a more advanced level as she continues her studies and works toward proficiency). After the months of study I felt it

La Bohéme

Opera - die Oper Over the winter break - we spent half of it at home. The other half we went to Vienna for a little escape. We left on Christmas Eve via the train and arrived after all was shut for the holidays. Aware of this, we made sure

Comments!

to speak - sprechen This will be short - we finally added a comment section to the blog. So if you have a story to share, if something I post reminds you of something - or if you just want to add a smiley face - please do. I have

Family Time

family - die Familie When I think back on my childhood and the good times with cousins there are several that come to mind. Growing up as an only child and a small family in general - I really only had a handful of cousins my age. I have been

Happy New Year

Happy New Year - Frohes Neues Jahr New Year's Day in front of Schönbrunn Palace - ViennaA New Year's Greeting to our friends and family - near and far. Looking back on 2019 and the decade - I am trying so hard to summarize it -

An Afternoon in Weinfelden

Afternoon - Der Nachmittag For an afternoon, this past weekend, we headed to Weinfelden, just Stephan and myself. It is a small little town near the German border. A quick hop on the train (a note for local curiosity- we used the new EasyRide on our train tickets - it

Christmas in Zurich

Christmas - Weihnachten As you may know, our family does not celebrate Christmas. With that said, it doesn't stop us from enjoying the excitement around us. Christmastime in Zurich is a time of year not to be missed. It begins around the end of November. Between that time

Chanukah

cookies - die Kekse Special attention to the girl's plates and the Chanukiah from my childhoodThis is our first Chanukah in our new home.  I won't pretend that we all didn't feel a twinge of homesickness as the first day approached. But, we made

Crutches

crutches - Die Krücken First trip to urgent care in Zurich. We will know on Monday if it is a hairline fracture or just a bad sprain. Only 2 days of school left for the year for M -well - we will see if our decision to not have a

Konstanz

Konstanz - Constance Two weeks ago my mother-in-law came to visit for five days. (Danke Mom!) It was great to have her here. In addition to showing her my favorite coffee house ( Babu's [https://www.babus.ch/]) we got to spend a few days just relaxing. And on

Quiet Time

quiet - ruhig The next two weeks I will most likely not post.  We are fortunate to have two weeks of fun ahead. First, Stephan's mom arrives tomorrow to spend five days with us. Well, five with the girls. Stephan and I are slipping out to Germany for