What I Like

Everything in bloom in Pully

I love the "Bonjour".  The Swiss way of saying it is high pitched, a little sing song, and always with a smile. Everyone you pass in the street says it, especially in our suburb of Pully. Strangers acknowledging each other. Most often it is Bonjour Madame or Bonjour Madame Monsieur if Steve & I are together. It is such a pleasant, simple, civilized thing to do.

I love the flowers of spring.the trees have gone from blossoms to leaves in the 2 weeks we have been here. It can drizzle in the morning but seems to clear up by afternoon. I love how shiny everything looks. Switzerland's cities are very clean. I love the parks, the lake, the snow covered mountains, my grandchildren.

French Alps across the Lake

Yes, there are challenges. Using the washer is one that we think we have licked. The French language is another. Learning French at this age is not easy, but I keep hoping the effort is stretching my brain and keeping me fit mentally. I love the farmer's markets with white asparagus and tiny baby artichokes, small delicious and aromatic strawberries from Italy, and the middle eastern spice vendor. I always buy too much. I love seeing the old men dressed to the nines, in sports jacket & slacks, shirt & tie, with a plaid wool cap and wearing tennis shoes out walking their dogs. I love seeing the school children out for an excursion walking 2x2, hand in hand, chattering away. I hope to someday understand what they are saying.

Yesterday I met the Jim Wylie of Lausanne. For those of you not familiar, Jim is THE Bernina sewing machine Guru, salesperson and repairman in Santa Rosa. George (soft "Gs" ) is just like Jim in many ways. He is about the same size, loves to talk about the machines and will talk forever. He knows everything about every model. He lived in Utah for several years so his English is perfect. His shop window has at least 10 used machines of various prices. I found a less expensive machine that is about the same vintage (about 16 years old) as mine in storage in Portland.  It comes with a one year warrantee. It looks almost exactly like mine so the learning curve will be nonexistent. George will also buy it back from me if I want, of course at half of what I paid. We'll see.

His shop is across town from our place so once again we borrowed Jed & Helga's car. The sewing machine weighs about 40 pounds and would be awkward to shlep to and from the bus stop and up our hill. We are lucky to have this option but we both really love having a fabulous public transportation system and not having to drive on a daily basis. I brought some sewing to work on and I am looking forward to starting up sewing again, on the next rainy day!

Posh Squash Pully, Switzerland

This morning I planted Posh Squash Pully, my deck garden. Two planters of herbs, thyme, chives, parsley, mint, oregano, plus strawberries and one tomato plant. I would like to get  another tomato plant but it is early in the season for tomatoes so I will hedge my bets and wait a couple of weeks.

Springtime in Lausanne

Grandpa reads with Tern and Auke

Tern is at the age that walking is impossible. His preferred methods of mobilization are skipping, jumping and running. His energy is unending,  his creativity in play is amazing, and his sense of direction astounds. He can tell us how to get to every park by bus knowing the bus number and where to find each bus stop. Auke is stringing words together in phrases in English! His first phrase was "bus coming".

 We have been here this time for only one week but already it feels like a month. This week has meshed seamlessly with the first three weeks and we are getting to know our surroundings.

Spring is in full bloom in Lausanne. The forsythia blooms  have come and gone as have the cherry blossoms. Tulips are on the wane and violets and wisteria are out in force. There are many community gardens here and I have begun to see individuals our there turning soil and planting. Each year Jed has a city garden in two large planters which hang off his deck. He has grown many herbs, raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes. 

The children's train in Pully
 Jed, Auke, Tern with Wendy Shapiro, Tyler & Robbie

Yesterday he took me to his wonderful  local garden store. We bought compost to replenish the soil and plants to replenish the ones past their prime. Last week Tern and I pruned and cleaned out the dead plants. This week it is Steve's job to install a dripper irrigation system and my job to plant our plants.  

When at the garden store I could not resist making my own kitchen garden so I bought a couple of planters and herbs, tomatoes, and strawberries. It has been a long time since I had a vegetable garden of my own. Hopefully our visa will come through and I will be here to taste the results.

Sunday in Pully Port Parc

We signed up for a gym today. It has lots of classes, a great weight room and all the amenities. It takes 15 minutes on one bus to get there. We start officially tomorrow. We also had our first French lesson today. Our teacher is a young woman with three young children who teaches in her home. She has an au pair who attends to the youngest who is not in school while she teaches us. She is very professional and we are comfortable learning.  We hope to be fluent by the end of our time here. Tern is helping with pronounciation and vocabulary. We will do our homework.

 We have signed on to the English speaking expat website and we are getting emails for hikes none of which we have been able to attend yet. Weekends are family time and we have a chance to catch up with the kids. We have a couple of irons in the fire regarding our visa. Steve seems to have been offered a job at IMD. He has yet to be contacted with the details so we await confirmation. Our appeal for a visa extension is still in the system and we await that decision also.

The Washer Saga

A washing machine is such a boring subject until you break one which I managed to do yesterday. It caused an avalanche of problems. I, being the nice person I am, do not do laundry on weekends as our machine is shared with two other families headed by single, working moms. Monday was very busy so Tuesday was the day.

Avenue de Bellevue 1, front view,  our apt ground floor

This simple task takes on a new dimension in Lausanne. In our basement behind the washer there is a magnetic key pad with each person having her own magnetic key. The key goes into one of two slots in the wall reader. You have to keep the key in for several, read many, seconds until it reads your number and determines whether there is enough money in your prepaid account. When the money available is verified, you have about five seconds to choose a program. We still don't know how it adds money or who is paying.

I was told that the regular program was the one to use. Unfortunately, this takes an hour and forty two minutes which is a ridulous amount of time in my opinion . Yesterday I decided to try another program. It said fin (fine washables) so I hoped it would be shorter. It was only 54 minutes, but what I did not notice was the 6" square piece of the front panel at the bottom left of the machine that seemed to be hanging open with a wide plastic pipe coming out of it.

Having never noticed this before I ignored it as any non mechanically inclined person would. I put the powder in, shut the door and pressed start and water came gushing out of the afore mentioned pipe. I tried to stop the machine but it was impossible (french accent here). I ran upstairs and got Steve. We spent 10 or 15 minutes trying to figure out what was going on. With no luck, we tried to open the washer and remove our towels but non, non ! The door would not open. 

We returned to our apt and tried the neighbors. No one was home. We emailed the neighbors and Annabel(from upstairs) told us she would look at the situation soon but she was having company that evening and we would have to wait. We kissed our new towels goodbye and waited. She gave us the landlady's name and phone number.
 

Avenue de Bellevue 1,  back view
Our apt lowest decks the width of building
with basement window below

After much discussion we decided it wouldn't be right to leave the building without a  washer so we called the landlady. She spoke mostly French. We  back and forthed for a while. She kept asking who I was and where was Rebecca who is the official renter of the apartment. By then I knew I made a mistake to call the Madame. She said she would call a repair man. Steve emailed Rebecca in Copenhagen and she went ballistic that we called the landlady who isn't supposed to know she is subletting.

Today we were still waiting when we managed to ambush our other neighbor who told us all was fixed! Sacre bleu! Why didn't anyone tell us. We ran downstairs to find the towels all washed. And yes, I did not break the washer after all. 

To end this much too long story, it turns out there is a reason the washer is in the basement on a concrete floor next to a drain. This hidden pipe must be released and drained after every two loads, so the excess water can drain out of the washer. When you see the little metal flap open, you must close it before starting the machine. Who keeps track of the last time the drainwas emptied?

That is the way it is always done here so no one thought to tell us about this feature.  To all of you out there, bless your American washer and while you are at it your dryer as well. Hanging clothes is only romantic in movies. Hopefully, we will not be evicted and Rebecca will not have her lease terminated.

The Transition

Playground adjacent to our apartment with two great kids,
Alps in background.

After 2 1/2 weeks of sorting, donating, discarding and packing I thought the hard work was over. But moving isn't that simple. It turns out to be a many step process that will not be finished for us for a while. Nevertheless, we are happily on our way to beautiful Switzerland.

In a nutshell the move went like this. We set aside two weeks to pack which wasn't enough time. Matt arrived a few days before scheduled departure and saved us. Things were going smoothly but not moving along fast enough for our deadline. Son-in-law Matt surveyed the boxes, organized, boxed & crated paintings, picked up the U haul truck and Zoe in Santa Rosa and immediately started loading the truck. Zoe & I continued packing. Then all in a whirlwind, the truck was full, all 26' of it, we had our last party at Drovers Close , said adieu to our wondeful friends, and were off early on Monday morning.

Matt & Zoe drove straight through in the truck from TSR to Portland in 16 hours. We left a little later after a thorough survey of the house to be sure we were not leaving anything behind. We drove the BMW, also tightly packed, as far ar Roseburg where we overnighted with new friends, Lory &Paul Utz.

Tuesday was unloading day at Premiere Storage of Hillsboro, OR.  Matt and two friends plus Steve, Zoe and I spent most of the day unloading a 26' truck into a 20' storage unit. I don't think we could fit a toothpick in at the moment.

Then the Portland  adventure begins. We met on Wednesday morning with a friend of a friend from Sea Ranch. Sharon Albert's friend is a long time resident of Portland, has an important job with Tazo Tea, and is being transferred to Lausanne. This coincidence was our reason for meeting. 

At the Tazo headquarters he served us looking a very special pot of tea the leaves of which had arrived from China the previous day. We talked about Lausanne and learned that his apartment-to-be is very close to ours. We also learned that upon retirement some years from now he intends to return to Portland and so would like to rent out his charming, meticulously cared for 1919 Victorian/Craftsman home. Since his timing meshed with our return from Lausanne to Portland we went to see the house and immediately fell in love. This will probably be our landing place when we return to the US in the fall.

Front garden of our house with Tern & Auke

That afternoon we spent several hours with a realtor at gorgeous new condos in the upscale Pearl area, downtown, and in the south waterfront. I think city living will be quite a change for us but the walkability of the area is very enticing.

The remainder of the week was spent celebrating Steve's birthday, exploring hangars, visiting the OHSU fitness facility, consolidating and repacking for the trip to Switzerland, having meals with friends, getting a haircut and putting the last few items in the storage unit.
from Lausanne:
We made it! We are finally back here. The entire trip went well. We are off to sleep and will deal with unpacking tomorrow.
Goodnight.
Anita

Fondation Gianadda

This posting is being written on my ipad on the plane from Geneva to London. We are too soon on our way back to California. And it is too soon to think about the work that awaits us at TSR.

Yesterday we took a decidedly grown up day. We took the train to Martigny, a small, rural, agricultural town in the beginning of the Valais where there is a wonderful museum, Fondation Gianadda.  It was built in the fifties by the parents of a young man who died young in a plane crash. The building is mid century modern concrete with clean lines and a large open central concert area with galleries surrounding and above.

The main exhibit was of portraits from the Pompidou in Paris. There were about one hundred portraits by and of familiar and not so well know artists and including sculptures. There was a wire Calder self portrat sculpture hanging above a Bronze Brancuzi. There was a painted portrait of Picasso as a very young man engaging the viewer with his piercing eyes even then before his great career. There was a very strange Marcel Duchamp portrait that initially looked like a nude woman with blond flowing hair but upon closer inspection it was a rear end with breasts and long flowing blond hair?? There were portraits in every style from two centuries. In some cases it was surprising to see portraits by artists who were not known for that genre. My guess is that at some point everyone has to do "bread and butter" work.

In addition, this little museum had a car collection dating from the earliest powered vehicles from mostly European  auto makers. Some looked like horse drawn coaches missing the horses with engines so tiny we could hardly find them. 

The day was warm and sunny so we went out the back door of the museum to see the gardens. There was a garden in full spring bloom with several large and interesting sculptures. We learned that Martigny was largely built on Roman ruins. The city has done a great job of preserving some of the ruins. Even apartment buildings were built on piers on top of Roman ruins. Walking by, one could peek under the building and see the stone outlines of an ancient home of a wealthy Roman family.

Returning to Lausanne we stopped by to see the grandkids once more and tell them we were leaving and that we would be back soon.
This posting is being written on my ipad on the plane from Geneva to London. We are too soon on our way back to California. And it is too soon to think about the work that awaits us at TSR.

Bad, Bad, Leukerbad

Yesterday Jed took the day off from work and took us and the kids to the thermal baths in Leukerbad. Helga, his wife, is still traveling for work, and Marcelle, our au pair, is visiting her parents in the Netherlands.

It was a two train, one bus journey to the high mountains of the Valais. Leukerbad is touted as the most voluminous reserves of thermal water in Europe having continued uninterrupted since Roman times. We went to a massive spa center with as many as ten pools of varying temperatures including a huge kiddie pool with a large play structure in it and a lap pool among others.

I went off to swim in the lap pool as I have missed my biweekly swims at the TSR pool. Steve and Jed took the boys to an outdoor pool where the warm mineral water felt gloriously soft within the backdrop of snow covered mountains. The boys played and swam joyously. There was a jetted area and fat pipes pouring water overhead. There was a tunnel leading from indoors to outdoors. There were five floors of pools, most leading to outdoor decks and some to eating places. The elevator showed floors zero-two as well as minus 1 and minus two. There were hundred of lockers divided into groups of 100s. Being Sunday, it was very crowded mostly with Italian tourists. I was the only woman in a one piece bathing suit. There was lots of exposed skin for better or worse.

Auke was in thrall with the high slide in the kiddie pool. He could barely climb up the steps but nothing stopped him. As we stood at the bottom to catch him, he emerged from the water laughing and saying, "again, again"! This child is fearless.

Steve and I are on the fourth day of our marathon babysitting weekend. To paraphrase, "Fatigue, grandparenting is thy name." Friday we picked the boys up from school at 2 pm. and took them to Pully Port. The little train in the park has not started for the season yet but we found much to do in the playground. Several hours later we were back to our house for dinner. Jed took them home about 9 pm. Saturday we were on duty from noon to 7pm. Our neighbor and her child took us to the Tropiquarium where we saw crocodiles, penguins, exotic birds and it had another great playground. Yesterday was Leukerbad and today duty begins again at 2pm but first Jed needs our help at 7:30 am getting them off to school.

Needless to say we sleep very well at night. We have enjoyed our time with the boys and Lausanne has so many places for kids that it will be quite a while till we are bored with the venues. Today we will take them to Ouchy. This area of Lausanne is along the lake. There are many docks for sailboats and a steamboat that stops at several towns along the lake, another great playground.

It is difficult to believe that almost three weeks has passed since we arrived and we are homebound in two days.

Late addendum: After we dropped Tern off at school we thought we would go to the market. I was making soup for dinner and needed a can of chopped tomatoes. There are only two grocery chains in Switzerland. Both carry everything from household items to fresh fruit & veggies. We were at the closest market at 8:15 am. To our surprise it did not open until 9am. We went a couple more blocks to the other market which opened at 8:30. Markets open late and close early, by 6 pm or 7 pm. They are open only a half day on Saturday and not at all on Sunday. The Swiss believe in having a life, even for the grocery clerks.

View From Our Dining Room Window

It hasn't taken long for our daily patterns to change, and the new normal to feel good.
We wake up later, shop at the market everyday, walk or ride busses everywhere, see our grandsons almost everyday, have lunch at various cafes, and eat dinner much later.
We haven't yet carved out a life for ourselves outside of our kids but we will. There hasn't been time yet. I know I must bring more comfortable walking shoes since by evening I feel like I've walked a marathon. Again I am grateful for hiking at TSR and for Denny's body pump class which is very popular here. It is not a surprise that Europeans do not have an obesity problem like ours. We do not miss driving.

We shop at the market daily as we only buy what we can carry. We each take a backpack and a large plastic reuseable grocery sack, but it is a long climb uphill to home. We limit canned goods, and it is a big decision whether to buy the 6 or 4 pack of toilet paper, for space rather than weight. We are also restrained by the size of our very small refrigerator  and our miniscule freezer. There we can just about fit one container of fabulous Movenpick ice cream, an ice tray, and a small poulet.

Food, restaurants, clothing, gasoline, are more expensive here than in the US. If one could live on wine, bread, an local cheese, one could live very reasonably. Though we are enjoying these things our diets require additional items. Fruit and veggies are quite high and things that are commonplace at home are difficult to find here, like limes or ground turkey or a small ceramic teapot at less than 50 Swiss francs.

 I am glad so much of the meat comes in packages with pictures as well as words. There is a picture of an animal on the meat or cheese package, a  little chicken or a cow or a lamb or a horse. Yesterday I wanted to make a turkey loaf. It ended up being a chicken/ pork loaf as turkey was not to be found.

I am making a list of items to bring back here when we return. There are things that I wish I could bring but weight makes it unreasonable. There is no such thing as boxed stocks for making soup. The only thing availabe is Knorr boullion cubes. My kids bring home Skippy peanut butter when they visit the US. I will bring Dove soap bars. We will definitely bring home our winter clothes and return with summer clothes.

The forsythia and magnolia trees are blooming. The past two days have reached 70 degrees. We have had only 2 days of rain in 2 1/2 weeks. Life is excellent.