A Few Days in London

We took advantage of a few days' school vacation at the end of May to visit London with the whole family. It's such a great city - with so much to see!

We stayed in a hotel in the Old County Hall building right next to the London Eye and just across the Thames from Big Ben and Westminster. We took a double-decker bus tour the first day, seeing the sights of the city, and stopping off at the Tower of London. What a great place - we took the tour and learned about all of the beheadings that took place there (not that beheadings are great, but the tour was very interesting), as well as seeing the crown jewels (pretty cool to us girls) and an military arsenal exhibit (a big hit with the boys).

We could have stayed all day at the Tower of London, but decided to see some more sights aboard the double-decker bus and stop next at Madame Tussaud's. What's a trip to London without going to the original wax museum (and none of us had been there before). Well, needless to say, we mingled with the stars!

We rode the London Eye on Friday morning - getting some amazing views of the city. The London Eye is a ferris wheel (built for the millennial celebration), with clear plexiglass "pods" that go around and allow you to get a view of all parts of the city (it takes 30 minutes to go around 1 time). It sounds great, and it was, but also just a bit stressful with William doing somersaults on the railing, pushing off with his feet against the glass window!

We then saw the royal guards marching behind 10 Downing Street, before marching down the parade route to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. This was definitely the highlight for Nathan and William. They could have watched the guards marching for hours. I must say, it is very impressive, and we all learned a bit more about this tradition.

In the afternoon, we took the Underground to the British Museum of Natural History - an amazing museum (and all of the national museums in London are free!). We saw so much - a dinosaur exhibit with a giant animated dinosaur that moved its head in response to heat and movement of people, a great bugs and insects exhibit (which was particularly relevant, as that was what Nathan had just studied at preschool), birds, jungle animals, all kinds of other things.

And, we went to a special butterfly garden exhibit, with butterflies flying all around us.

Outside, Nathan also had a chance to chase some pigeons - by the time we move back to the US, he may well have chased pigeons in every major European city!

On our last day in London, we went to the Courtauld Gallery, a great little museum with some beautiful Impressionist paintings, to Trafalgar Square, and to the Winston Churchill museum. The Winston Churchill museum was great - with 2 parts to it: a museum about the man himself, and the war room museum, where you got to see the actual rooms used by Churchill and his staff during the war!

London is a beautiful city, and we even had pretty good weather while we were there. Before we went on the trip, we watched "101 Dalmatians", as it is set in London. So, when William told someone we were planning to go to London, he said, "Yeah, they have a lot of dogs there!" (I guess it didn't work as well as "The Sound of Music" for our Salzburg trip did). But, now when we see Big Ben or the London Eye in the background on the news (all our English language TV channels are British), the kids all say, that's where we were!

Learning German

We've been living here in Switzerland for almost 10 months now - how time flies! There are 3 official languages in Switzerland - German, French and Italian, each spoken in a different part of the country. Here in Zurich, German is the official language. But, it's not "Hoch Deutsch" (high German) which is spoken in German and Austria, it's "Schweizer Deutsch" (Swiss German). Yes, there is a big difference! Swiss German is not a written language, so newspapers, most signs etc. are all written in high German. Swiss people understand high German and will usually change over to speaking high German if you ask them to. At church, all of the talks are usually in high German - just the little kids classes are in Swiss German, since that's what they learn first at home. As a foreigner, it's best to learn high German first, then try to learn some phrases in Swiss German.
Well, we've all learned a lot of German - and we've also learned what a difficult language German is to learn! It's important to us that people don't always have to switch to English - and it really is fun and rewarding to learn a new language. Dave had spent a year during college in Berlin, then he took a 2-week intensive course when we first moved here. So, he's doing pretty well. I started from scratch - listening to Pimsleur CDs a few months before we moved here. I take private lessons - 4 hours per week until Meredith was born, and now 1 1/2 hours a week. Elise has about 3 hours of German class each week at school, and Nathan and Will go to a bilingual preschool, where there are 3 German speaking teachers and one who is a native English speaker. So, they understand a lot! Elise signed up with a couple of her friends from school for a German camp for a week in August, which will be great for her. And, Will will continue at the bilingual preschool one more year (while Nathan will move on to ICS with his big sister!).
Dave and I were asked to give talks in our ward at the end of November, after being here just 3 months. We each wrote out our talk in English, then someone from the ward translated it for us. Dave, of course, did very well with his talk, with people commenting on his great German accent. I went through the German version of my talk in excruciating detail with my German teacher beforehand to simplify it and make sure I could pronounce everything and sound somewhat like I wasn't reading a foreign language! It went pretty well. We've been asked to give our next talks at church in August (they plan way ahead here), so more opportunity to practice! And, I was recently called to be the Relief Society president here in our German speaking ward, so I need to speak even more German!
We knew before we moved here that this would be a great opportunity to experience and appreciate different cultures. Learning the language is certainly an important and fun part of it - being humbled all the time (when my vocabulary and grammar sound like a preschooler's), and gaining incredible respect for so many people here in Europe who are multilingual!
Bis bald!

ICS International Festival 2009

Elise's school held their annual International Festival last Saturday, and it was so much fun! It began with a parade of nations, with kids dressed in the colors (and sometimes costumes) of their countries, carrying flags. It was really amazing and inspiring to see how many countries are represented by students at school. For example, the 9 girls in Elise's classroom come from Argentina, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, England (and Elise from the US). Pretty amazing!

This was Elise's big performance day. She has been part of several extracurricular clubs / classes throughout the year, and many of them performed at the festival. First was primary band, where she plays the piano / keyboard. She started taking clarinet lessons in February at the local Musik Schule, so next year she plans to play clarinet in the band. Later in the day she performed with other third graders on the recorder, then with ICS singers. They sang several songs along the theme of the earth and friendship across the world. And, finally, she performed with the Scottish country dancing group. This was a class held during lunchtime that she didn't initially sign up for - until a few of her friends told her how much fun it was.











The other highlight of the festival was all the food booths from the different countries. It was so fun to eat Norwegian waffles with brown cheese, South African dishes, Argentinian samosas, (fruit rollups from the US for the kids), and Swedish chocolate cake (and there were too many other booths to try!).

As far as classes for the kids, Elise has been able to participate in the clubs / classes that performed at the International Fair, as well as girls football (soccer) an art class and a jewelry making class. All of these activities are taught by teachers either during lunch or after school, and kids have an opportunity to sign up each term. So, there was no extra cost for anything, and she was able to do it all at school - no driving around for mom! So easy!

Elise also takes piano lessons from an American woman and has participated in the Royal Academy of Music assessments this year (she passed her theory test with distinction, and has her practical exam tomorrow at one of the other international schools across the lake). She has been taking horse riding lessons since we got here, and is also doing a swim training class. When we went in December to the nearby pool for Elise to be assessed for a class / trianing group, the director said that she must join the Meilen swim team "for the good of Swiss swimming." They thought she was an amazing swimmer! I couldn't help but imagine what they would think if they saw all the great swimmers every year at OMPA! With the new baby coming, we didn't want to join the swim team (they practice 20 minutes away), but perhaps we will join this fall. And, Elise will definitely join the ICS swim team that starts in grade 4.

Nathan and Will have lots of classes at their preschool, including Sakadula (music) and yoga. They go to art class on Friday mornings, and they now both take swim lessons at the nearby pool (Nathan took during the winter, and now Will has started in his own class). I also take the boys to an English-speaking playgroup sometimes, where their favorite part is the singing time at the end.

There's always plenty to do (and, of course, we're still trying to take vacations to explore Europe as often as we can)!

Springtime in Switzerland

It's springtime here and it's BEAUTIFUL! Everything is so green. Flowers are blooming all over our yard, and the leaves on the ivy of the house are coming out. Elise tried her hand at some nature photography and took this great photo of Chinilly the cat (she belongs to our neighbors but is often in our yard - a great arrangement from the kids' perspective). She often jumps on the window ledge outside Elise's room at night and peers in.

And, Meredith is growing bigger and getting cuter every day. She's nearly 4 months old in these photos. What a happy, peaceful little girl. The first comment anyone makes when they see her is "so viele Haare!" (so much hair). Yes, she has a lot of hair and it just keeps growing. What a little beauty...

Mother's Day

I am so blessed to have such great kids! They really are wonderful. We had a nice Mother's Day, with Dave and Elise making a nice big breakfast of waffles (they said if I didn't always get up so early, it could have been breakfast in bed!). Nathan painted a very nice cup and saucer for me at preschool, and William made a plate. They were both wrapped up very nicely, and the boys were excited to have me open them! Elise made a necklace for me. Motherhood is a lot of work (especially with kids at these ages), but 100% worth it!

Shokoladefabrik (chocolate factory)

What better place than Switzerland to try your hand at chocolate making! Elise, Nathan and Will went to a class at the nearby "Kindercity" and got to make and bring home their own chocolate (along with a souvenir apron)! Switzerland really has a lot of activities catering to kids. Kindercity is a combination kids' museum and amusement park. They have these fabrik (factory) classes that kids as young as 2 (Will) can join. Next time the kids want to do the breadmaking class! And, of course, every time we go they want to play in the fun activity areas, and ride the train and go-carts!

The actual Lindt and Sprüngli chocolate factory is just across the lake from us in Kilchberg. They have a factory store which Elise and I were very excited to find!

Plenty of Experience with Swiss Health Care!

We had a chance to experience the Swiss health care system again - this time not for nearly such a happy reason as the birth of baby Meredith. Dave spent a week in the Universität hospital in Zurich being treated for a bacterial infection!

On Sunday morning, April 26th, Dave mentioned that his elbow hurt. It quickly became red, painful, and very swollen. The swelling spread quickly up and down his arm and it seemed like he was getting the flu. Dave went to work on Monday and Tuesday, before getting an appointment with the Rheumatologist on Wednesday morning. The infection was diagnosed, and Dave was given antibiotics to take at home, but told to come back the next morning to be admitted to the hospital if the infection wasn't responding. So, Thursday morning when the redness was still spreading, Dave, Meredith and I all went to the doctor - expecting Dave to be admitted to the hospital. He was admitted, had surgery that night on his arm since the infection wasn't responding to oral or IV antibiotics, and spent the next 5+ days in the hospital! The surgery was a bit scary, as it was the first time he'd ever had general anesthesia. But the care was very good.

We have said so many times in the last couple of weeks that we are incredible grateful to be living now (not 100 years ago when the arm probably would have been amputated) and in a country with such good health care as Switzerland.

We still don't know how Dave got the infection, but it spread quickly because of the medication he takes for his chronic arthritis (the medication weakens the immune system).

Dave had a removable cast for a week or so after coming home, and he still has the Spitex (home health care) coming to check and dress the wound every other day, but he's back at work and getting into the swing of things. Again, we were so thankful for people's willingness to help us (including a priesthood blessing). Dave readily admits that he wasn't a very good hospital patient. While I kept telling him to enjoy the time to rest, he just wanted to come home!

We're all glad that he's home now, and thankful that he's doing better! As Elise wrote in a get-well poem for him, it just wasn't the same here without him!

Skiing near Innsbruck

We left Salzburg and went to the Achensee Resort in Achenkirch, a town on the Achensee (lake). It was a Kinderhotel, and we had done lots of research beforehand to find the perfect hotel that had activities for all our kids' ages (and for us). The ski lift was located directly across from the the hotel, and it had a kids club with kids' activities as well as babycare. So, we all had a chance to go skiing / snowboarding. Elise, Nathan and Will all took lessons on Monday morning, then Nathan continued the lessons for the entire week, both morning and afternoon. He did a great job, and even competed in a ski race on Friday. He got second place in his group and got a medal! He was so proud. And the ski school did a great job - they had a professional announcer announcing the race - the 115th International Achensee Race, (when Nathan came, he was announced as being from the USA, backed by the new president Barack Obama, etc. etc.) - it was all so cute. Then they had a big medal ceremony before lunch, and it was all made into a video and shown on the hotel channel in all the rooms for the next couple of days! Nathan also took a couple of swim lessons while we were there. William went to the kids' club and of course charmed the teachers. And Elise skiied with either me or Dave, whoever wasn't taking a break that day! Elise has gotten to be a confident skier - she's passed me by (of course, my excuse is that this was my first time skiing this season, but I'm not sure that really mattered!). Dave snowboarded with Elise and they even went up the higher lift on the last day (and in Austria, that's pretty high!). It's great here, because the runs are really long - they have a lot of mountain to work with. Elise was also lucky enough to have 4 days of horse riding lessons in the afternoons as well. We had fun as a family at the hotel pool and also on a horse buggy ride through the town. And, I must say, the food was incredible! They had a kids' buffet and great menus for the adults... It was such a nice resort - fun for everyone - and even a good opportunity to practice our German where they don't have the Swiss dialect.

The Sound of Music

Before going on our trip to Salzburg, we watched The Sound of Music which was filmed in Salzburg (and prebooked our tickets for The Sound of Music tour on Saturday afternoon). The tour was four hours long and took us around the city of Salzburg as well as to several sites from the movie. It was really fun to see everything - including the town of Mondsee in the lakes district of Salzburgland which was home to the church where they filmed the wedding scene. We rode around on a giant bus painted with The Sound of Music characters, which was a little hokey, but seeing all the different beautiful areas made it worth it. The bus was completely full, and at one point the guide asked who had seen the movie more than 10 times, and a whole bunch of people raised their hands. I thought that was crazy, but, guess what - our family is well on our way to the 10 times mark! Since we've been home, the kids want to watch the movie all the time. And we all have those songs in our head. William charmed everyone on the bus by singing the songs (his favorite is "16 going on 17" which he sometimes changes to "16 going on 18" or whatever number pops into his head). Nathan's favorite song is "The Hills are Alive", and Elise's favorite is "My Favorite Things". We certainly won't forget Salzburg, or The Sound of Music, very soon!

Salzburg, Austria

For Spring Break last week, we went to Austria! We drove from Zurich through Munich to Salzburg, where we stayed for 2 days. Salzburg is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthplace, so we read a book about Mozart before we went. The city was absolutely beautiful! We took a horse carriage ride through the old town and learned a lot about the town itself. Then we went to Mozart's birthplace and saw where he grew up. We also saw some of his instruments (klavier and violin). Salzburg is a small city of only 150,000 people, but 2 million people come each summer to the Mozart music festival! We tasted Mozart kugeln (chocolates with hazelnut, pistachio and marzipan inside) - which none of us really liked. We took the funicular up to the top of the mountain and toured the Festung castle. And, we stayed in a castle hotel! It was a great old castle a bit outside of Salzburg - we stayed on the third floor in a big suite of rooms where everyone had their own "king bed". We had a great breakfast downstairs each morning, where the host and hostess, two lovely grandparents, told us about things to see and places to go in the area. They were so hospitable! On Sunday morning they showed us the chapel that is part of the castle, and when they found out that Elise plays the piano, they took her to the music room on the second floor of the castle where she played the grand piano. When it was time to go, the kids were running around playing on the big lawn outside and didn't want to leave! Salzburg is absolutely beautiful and so charming - our whole experience was wonderful. It is definitely on our list for a return visit!