Sad Realization, probably part 1

I have just realized that two important things are absolutely, completely missing/non-existent here in Geneva, both of which I think are required for happy living.....ranch dressing.....and....peanut butter. Sigh. How could people live a quality life without peanut butter?

Where Does It All Go?

One benefit of not going to Italy this weekend (if there can be such a thing??) is the practical availability of time to unpack all of our furniture and household goods that were shipped here via ocean freight from California. Doing this has been sort of an unworldly experience, for two reasons.

First, even though we have a fairly large house by Swiss standards...nothing fits! I had a gigantic kitchen with oodles of storage in California - perfect for my equivalent of a Crate and Barrel kitchen section I have thanks in large part to 'donations' from Grandmother over the years. Here's an example of my downsizing requirements. In San Diego, the kitchen had six drawers. In Geneva, we have ONE drawer. Period. One. Seriously? One?!!? I'm clearly 'creatively challenged' to find places for all of these things. But, I'm good at that...so it'll work out.

The second ephiphany has been: never let your husband supervise packing alone, at any cost. Here is a list of items I have unpacked (so far) that have bewildered me. Really.
1. Half of a box of Cheerios yes, opened, and yes, carefully shipped in a crate on the ocean. Anyone interested?
2. A small bundle of unmatched socks. What are the odds we will really find their partners here?
3. An empty jar of pasta sauce. Fully sealed, it apparently just couldn't stand to stay behind on its' own.
4. Dirty laundry. Please!
5. Empty grocery bags. Now, I know what you are thinking - maybe that was a proactive move. Yeah, my husband doesn't think like that....but nice try!

If anyone can top this in their moves - please leave a comment - I'm looking for some reassurance!

Sciorpero!!

We have been in Switerland for over a month now and still no big weekend excursions such as I have mandated (to myself) as a stipulation for living here. So, last weekend, I decided: Basta (yes, my love for Italian transcends even the French lessons I am taking...plus, I don't yet know how to say 'enough!' in French!). A few sufficency checks reveal: Milan is only a 5 hour train ride away. It's cheap to get there, cheap to stay, and aside from fantastic shopping, many things to do. Plus, the trains are some sort of special 'swinging' cars that can soar even faster around mountain passes - PERFECT!!

Tuesday prior, I book a fabulous yet cheap hotel, right in the heart of the city. Wednesday, we inquire with the dog boarders - but, they are all booked up! So, no point in buying train tickets until THAT is resolved....which it does Wednesday afternoon, so Thursday I haul myself back to the train station to finalize the last purchase...only to find out that Italian trains are on STRIKE! Dismayed, I realize that planning travel at the last minute may not be the smartest idea, and we put off Milan one more weekend, sigh.

Epilogue: The Italians are fickle - the trains were back up and running the next day and now I know not to take the words 'train strike' with such gravity as I would in the US....or maybe not as strikes seem to happen as often as the wind shifts....and here I thought public transit was the absolute ideal in Europe!

Bastille Day Bites!

Having been short-shrifted on American Independence Day (save for some exciting patriotic radio!), I was really looking forward to some excitement in Geneva for Bastille Day - the equivalent day for the French. Now, granted, Switzerland isn't France, but considering that French is the official language of Geneva, and that the city is surrounded on three sides by France (and one side by a lake...) it seemed reasonable there would be some celebrations and fireworks. Alas....or should I say, ne pas sont.....there was nothing! To add insult to injury, we could at one point HEAR fireworks....but of course, they were a few miles away, deep in the heart of France, so not even a slight glimmer or spark would show. So much for making an effort to join league with the French - even when they celebrate, they find ways to leave you out! Dratted French!

Geneva Makes Wine! I had no idea!

It has been a busy week or so - last weekend we had our very first houseguest! My friend I. from the LA office came into Geneva over the weekend before a work-related meeting we had on Monday. She was very accommodating as we still don't have our furniture, including beds, shower curtains, coffee cups, or the other nicities of life! Still, we had fun - Saturday we visited some local wineries in Geneva.


The Geneva wine area is only about 20 minutes away from our house, and features about 50 vintners! We tried two: Cave de Vallaires (sorry, no English on this site) was our first and favorite: blink and you miss it (and you'd hate to), we were lucky the vintner spoke enough English to talk to us, and we sampled 3 nice whites, including a 'Chassalas' (Chaste-e-lay), which is the local Swiss wine made with grapes and highly recommended with fondue, and the absolutely never-tasted-before Reserve de Comte, which can only be described as wine + honey = magic. The prices are also amazing = topping out at $15/bottle for their 2006 production. I love it!

Our second winery was Les Perrieries, which was definitely more of a 'business' winery than a small craftsmanship. They had a formal tasting room, English-proficient vintner, and in our hour there, visited with several locals who literally just stop in for a taste of wine, a little conversation, and then leave. Such is life! The wines here however, were not as magical as the first place - but still a fun experience!

The rest of the week was filled with business meetings and a quick business trip to Frankfurt for 3 days, during which I sadly accomplished no shopping. Good thing I bought some wine last weekend!

Castles of Cheese

Last weekend, Jay and I drove just a bit north of Lausanne (about 90 minutes away) to Gruyere, Switzerland, home of the famous (at least in Switzerland) Gruyere cheese. Also home, to our surprise, to a pretty amazing castle and village. The castle is apparently one of Switzerland's most 'photogenic sights', and was definitely the most impressive we've seen so far. It has huge rooms and was preserved from the 1500's. Inside the castle wall is a small village with buildings that date back 400 years or so - and have functioning shops and restaurants, which we shopped at, including of course buying cheese and fresh bread. Then we went down into the local village of Pringy and visited this great cheese factory, where we learned how cheese is made (neat!) had samples, and then finished the day with a formal meal of fondue and rosti (which is basically a type of hashbrown/comfort food - yum!).

You can view the photo set here!

Cash, Please!

We finally started shopping around for cars and learned new cars are VERY expensive here! To just live in Geneva a few years, it didn't seem worth it to buy a new car. So, we started looking around for a used one, and luckily there is a thriving cottage industry for used cars at work, so I started checking the listings. It's an amazing variety - ranging from really typical things like Suburus to Porshes (as if - I didn't even show Jay those listings!). Finally, the right car came along - a 2001 BMW 325i, with all the driving performance Jay wants plus some nice luxury features, which I suppose would be for me.

The seller was a Russian guy, who was very nice and certainly talked up the car! Of course, it's easy to sell performance when you are driving down an average Geneva street with lights every 500 meters. He's very eager to sell us the car because he is moving back to Moscow in a few weeks, so he offers to negotiate with us, the whole 9 yards. We call later in the day to confirm the deal...and all of a sudden there are mysterious other buyers who popped up from no where, desperately wanting the car. I decided not to budge - there are other cars, right? Sure enough, the other buyers weren't deemed as worthy as us, so he finally relented and the car was ours.Now, there are all kinds of hoops to jump through to buy a car. You have to have your final, valid work permit, proof of car insurance (purchased ahead of time), and of course, the money.

We agreed on 18,000 CHF for the car - and I had to figure out....how to pay someone for a car in Switzerland? Bank transfer? Money order? So, i asked the seller - and he said...cash. As in, to quote him 'stinky, smelly cash'. Nice. At first I thought I'd just go to the ATM to withdraw a few thousand every day, but my first withdrawl (4,000 CHF) was like 3 inches thick! So, I sent Jay off to the bank to withdraw the balance - and we decided it was definitely the largest amount of cash we'd ever held in our hands. I can't imagine how people walk around with fat wads like that all the time!

Finally, with cash, permit and insurance, we meet to make the deal - which involves also going to the DMV to exchange driving plates (plates are registered to a person, not to a car, so I had to buy 'mine' when I got the car). No one spoke English, the Russian also didn't speak French, so really, I have no idea what I signed, but at least everyone was very nice about it!

The car is just fine though - drives great and our first BMW (hopefully not the last!). Everyone laughs a bit when they hear how 'old' it is - 6 years is ancient here, apparently, but we like it, and if we buy another one, I'll have the whole process down.

Haven't forgotten...

Don't worry - posts forthcoming this week, to cover the following recent excitement:
- buying a car from a Russian who demanded payment in actual cash
- buying a couch in a furniture store where no one speaks English
- visiting another, even better castle
- touring an active cheese factory
- thinking more about buying that beautiful SMART

Hope I've enticed you - stay tuned for more!