Hello from Geneva!
For our closest friends and family we (I) had promised to
start a newsletter to occasionally keep those who are interested up to speed on
how the transition is going. And, if no
one is interested then at the very least it is somewhat cathartic to write it
down J
I pride myself in being a light traveler so it goes without
saying that traveling with three kids, two car seats, 5 extra large suitcases,
five carry-on bags, blankets, “Bubba the bear”, and so on and so forth, was an
exercise in and of itself. The logistics
of trying to get all those bags, plus the kids, into a car to shuttle them to
our hotel for the evening felt like planning for a military invasion of a small
country.
Luckily for us, the relocation company decided to book a
Swiss school bus for us as our rental vehicle (I’m not joking, it is the same
van bus our kids ride into school) so that we could fit everything. Unluckily for us, said vehicle (which, I
might add, was a manual) was not particularly conducive to fitting in small
Swiss parking garages. After facing the
prospect of reversing this manual transition beast backward up a spiral parking
garage entry ramp, we opted to hold our breath and try our best to squeeze
in. Luckily, due to Jim’s maneuvering,
we made it with centimeters to spare on the clearance, but all’s well that ends
well.
Because we didn’t have a nanny set up during the first week
we were here and the kids hadn’t started school yet, they spent the first week
with us in the office every day – which was a little less than optimal for us
but pretty amazing for them given they were constantly showered with candy and
spent most of the day playing (loudly) at the foosball table. Anderson may or may not have jammed a car
into one of the ball ramps but – to be honest – I’ve never seen anyone actually
use that table in the office besides the kids so I think there’s (hopefully) no
harm done.
The kids are now settled into school – it is a British
boarding school that sits right on the banks of Lake Leman and looks straight
out of the pages of Harry Potter. It is
lovely and the kids love it so far – Claire has adopted a British accent mostly
by choice, but I do expect it’ll start to influence their patterns of speech in
a more unintentional way as they spend more time there. Also, chips in our house are now “crisps”,
soccer is now officially “football”, and erasers are now “rubbers” (I know, I
know... we’ll need to drop that one ASAP when we get back to the US).
The transition has had its difficult parts. As Gigi (my grandma) put it – there are
always the “foxes that spoil the grapes” – a series of small and
inconsequential challenges that lead you to the point where you find yourself
in the grocery store on a Friday night in tears because you don’t know what
baking powder is called in French or German and your phone doesn’t have a
signal so you can’t just google it and
darnitijustwanttogetoutofheresokidsstoplosingtheirminds!! And although we’ve started to meet some
people through church and the school, it is still a little lonely.
That being said – Geneva is one of the most beautiful place
I’ve ever been. On our drive to work
each morning we see the sun rise over the alps and on clear days, Mont Blanc
rises brilliant and white over the lower peaks to the forefront – and I swear
that view will never get old. The Swiss
are incredibly nice – a bit guarded and very private (every house has a huge
hedge around it) and although we’re trying to learn French, you can manage
pretty well with just English in most places.
So far my very favorite Swiss moment was coming across a local des Alpes
festival purely by accident in Gruyere – it was only the sound of the cowbells
echoing across the hills that clued us in.
Every fall the Swiss farmers bring their cows down from grazing in the
mountains (“des alpes”) and because they love their cows, as all people should,
they dress them up in amazing floral hats and put huge cowbells on them to mark
the occasion.
We miss you all – we hope to have visitors! We moved into our new house, which has a
lovely “garden” (yard) and a swimming pool.
Much of the house looks like it was part of the Barbie’s Dream House
model circa 1993, but it has lots of space for guests J
Take care, keep in touch, come visit.
Much love,
Haneys
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