The Transportation Museum, Part 1 of ???

We made our way to the Swiss Transportation Museum here in Luzern today – WOW, could there be a better museum for a trio of boys???  It was amazing!  We got a membership and will definitely be regulars there!  Trains, planes, cars, gondolas, hands on exhibits, an area to rent different types of transportation – bikes, scooters, etc. – a Planetarium…it just went on and on!  We could spend days there (and if we total up the hours spent by the time we leave Luzern, I’m sure it will be days worth!).  The boys loved it and it was fun to spend a few hours just having fun as a family after how crazy these last couple of months have been.

Our first weekend

We woke up to a rainy morning.  Dave and the boys spent the morning putting together the IKEA furniture we got last night, the boys loved helping out!  And Alex turned out to be very handy with the little screwdrivers!  By noon the cable box still hadn't arrived, and we found out that the post is done by noon, so it looks like we’ll have to wait for Monday…

Our plan was to take the boys on an adventure, but after a quick trip to pick up our second rental car, it was clear that we all needed a quiet afternoon (and I wasn't feeling well, so a nap was definitely in order for me!).  So it was a rainy Saturday afternoon of movie watching, with a quick trip down the hill by Dave to grab some groceries before the stores closed at 4 and wouldn't open again until Monday!

We finished off the day with a walk (in the rain) down to the local “Pizza & Kebap” restaurant for dinner.  We were very proud of the boys, everyone just put on their jackets and boots and off we went, with no complaints about the walk or the rain.  We think we've found our new favorite local restaurant – the boys loved the pizza and the kebaps were fantastic!!!    

Morning coffee with the moms

After dropoff this morning, the Kindergarten moms got together for coffee at Pilatus Markt.  It was great to have some time chatting with other moms who have recently made this same change.  It’s a lot to go through, and it helps to have resources who have done it too.  After coffee I met with Nicola and she helped me with some questions we've had, gave me information on some childcare options for Matthew, and went through the Coop with me to show me what some of the different things are (which cleaners are for stainless steel, how to get the shoppers card, etc.).  My French has been helping me a lot with reading labels, but not enough for some of those details.

We heard this afternoon that our cable box was returned to the cable company as undeliverable.  We’re guessing they tried to deliver on Monday, before there was a name plate on our mailbox.  They've told us they’re putting it in the Express Mail to be delivered tomorrow.  

Paying it forward

The view from our bedroom window - first snow of the year in the Alps!

After dropping off the boys this morning, we met with another Merck West Point family moving here to Luzern.  It was funny to be on the other end of a “what you should know about moving to Luzern” coffee chat – we just did the same thing with another family a month ago when we were here house hunting.  After only 5 days, it was pretty amazing how many questions we were able to answer, especially about the moving process…but we’ll be a much better resource to them on Luzern itself by the time they move in December.

We took our first walk down to the local Coop after school today.  The boys loved the walk (although, yet again, I was reminded why I do NOT want to be in a grocery store with all three boys!), and I love that it’s so close!

Still no cable box…

Alex's First Day of School

We took Alex for his first day of school, and he jumped right in.  He's going 3 mornings per week for now.  We may increase it later, but for now he's having some separation anxiety, so we're keeping it to a minimum. He LOVES that there is a play-doh table, a sand table on their balcony, a "construction room" full of blocks and trucks, and a "drama room" with a kitchen, dress up costumes, etc.  There are six children in his class, 4 boys and 2 girls.

Nathan headed off for Day 2 (and his first day of “real” school) with a smile, and was greeted by lots of new friends.  He knows his routine already and I think we've almost ironed out all of the different things we need to bring on each day for school and activities!

After dropping the boys off, Dave and I headed to Pilatus Markt in search of coffee, a coffee maker, and groceries.  Pilatus Markt is a mall, but instead of being anchored by a large department store, the main store is a huge Coop - one floor is Coop Bau & Hobby (it's like Home Depot and Michael's rolled into one), 2nd floor is the biggest grocery store I've seen here, and the 3rd floor is a Coop City, which is like a department store.  There are also a number of other small shops in the Markt - H&M, shoe stores, electronics, optician, bakery, etc.  And finally, success!  We got a N'espresso machine, so tomorrow, we will have coffee - and not just coffee, espresso, cappucino, and lattes too!

Our cable box was supposed to have arrived yesterday, hopefully it will come today.  Until then, we have no internet, phone, TV, etc., and I can’t use my iPhone over here without it being ridiculously expensive.  So for the time being, when Dave is at work, I’m completely incommunicado; once he’s home, I can use his iPhone to check my email, etc.  

Nathan’s first day of Kindergarten!!!

We all took Nathan to school, and he was greeted by lots of new friends and two wonderful teachers.  His class is approx 15 kids from all over the world.  What an experience this will be for him!

And he had the coolest first day of Kindergarten EVER!  Last week we got an email from the school telling us that on Tuesday, the Kindergarten, 1^st and 2^nd grades would be going on a field trip to hike up to the first gondola stop on Mt. Pilatus (the closest of the Alps, just on the other side of the lake), have a picnic lunch, and then take the gondola back down…and would Nathan like to start school a day earlier than planned so he could join the field trip!  So his first day of Kindergarten was hiking in the Alps – WOW!!!  He had a great time and all the parents who were chaperoning commented on how well he did on the hike and how quickly he integrated into the group.

He's in the middle with the blue backpack, moving right along with the group to get on the bus for the field trip (and those are the cool little school buses!)

Dropping Nathan off was a little rough, I can’t believe my big boy is in Kindergarten!  I didn’t actually cry, but I was awfully close J

Taking Nathan to school was my first time driving in Switzerland, and it went well, but I definitely have some adjusting to do!  The lights are different, but easy to get used to, but there are yellow cross walks at other points in the road, and pedestrians just go, regardless of any cars coming, because they have the right of way.  Must look out for those crosswalks and not hit any walkers or bikers!!!  The speed limits are also very strict (they give you a 5km/hr grace, but no more), but are only posted if they are an exception to the “Generale” limits – 50 in towns, 100 in country, etc.  So you have to know…and keep an eye out for signs indicating an exception, and then for the end of the exception.  It reminds me of a game of Milles Bournes – Limit…End of Limit!

After dropping Nathan off, we took Dave and dropped him off at his office, went to the hotel to turn in the keys and officially check out, and then went to the Löwencentre to have some lunch and do a bigger grocery shopping.  Alex wasn't so excited about the lunch options and ended up having a fruit cup and a donut.  Oh well, he’ll adjust to not being able to get chicken nuggets everywhere we go!

We picked Nathan up from school, and he was very tired but full of stories from his hike – he loved it!  I ended up being a little late to pick him up, the traffic through Luzern was worse at 3:00 than it had been at 8:15am, and then the parking at school was terrible.  And I had to wait for a spot in the school lot (rather than parking on the street) because Matthew was asleep in the car and I wanted to be able to leave him there sleeping.  But all was well, and Nathan was fine, but glad to see us.

After school we had a VERY important errand to run – the N’espresso store – we NEEDED a coffee maker!!!  It had a been a VERY rough morning with no coffee after a few long days!  We headed into town on our way back from school, and went through a bakery to get each of the boys a snack before going to N’espresso.  After getting what they wanted, I asked the woman what would be a good loaf of bread to have with spaghetti – there were SO many choices – and was told “we don’t eat bread with pasta”.  Um…ok…but I’d like to have some bread with my spaghetti.  I was definitely getting to the end of my rope not being able to communicate well…and having cultural differences on top of it.  So I picked out a loaf and we left.  Across the street, at the N’espresso store, I took one look at the dozens of different machines and knew I was going to have to wait another day to get a coffee maker.  The choices were WAY too overwhelming for how tired I was!  So I got some information and we headed home.  I was toast.

We enjoyed a first home-cooked meal in our new place, spaghetti WITH garlic bread J and got everyone to bed as early as we could.

Whew!

Needless to say, it was a rough morning after a night of not much sleep.  Thank goodness for the N’espresso machine in our hotel  room!  We took the boys down to a café for some breakfast and got ready for a crazy day…

10am – Dave and Nathan went to pick up our rental car.  We got a VW Sharan which is perfect since it’s the car we’re thinking we’ll get to have here (Euro minivan)

10:45 – Meeting at the apartment for a walk through and to get the keys.  We were late since we hadn't figured on Dave needing to stay downstairs with the car and me needing to get down to him with two car seats, a busy 3 year old, and a baby in a stroller.  We made it, but it wasn't pretty!  The walk through went well and the boys were very excited about the new apartment!  After the way the previous night went, we decided we would absolutely go ahead and get moved in so we could all sleep in our own rooms tonight.

Here's our new house - we are renting the first and second floors, which have a yard off to the side.  The basement has a studio apartment, and the third floor is another apartment.  We're thrilled to have such a great place and are excited to get settled.

12pm – Registration appointment.  We all had to go with our Realtor/Relo specialist Nicola to get registered.  This involved some paperwork, showing our birth certificates, marriage certificate, passports, visas, lease, etc.  Nicola took care of it all, we just had to be there, thank goodness!  But, of course, this isn't the end of the registration process…next we are given an appointment time where they will take bio-metrics of all of us, and then they’ll send us our registration cards.  This wouldn't be a big deal except that there are a number of things you cannot do here until you have your registration card – you can’t open a bank account (although Merck has a work around for this), get a cell phone plan, etc.

1:30 – Furniture delivery.  We grabbed quick sandwiches to eat on the floor of our empty apartment, and the rental furniture that Merck provides (until our shipment arrives) was loaded in.  It’s great, basic furniture that will get us through for the 6-8 weeks – kitchen dishes, pans, utensils, etc; dining room table & chairs; sofa, coffee table, TV & DVD player; beds, dressers, hanging rods for bedrooms; and a crib, changing table, and high chair for the baby. 

4:00 – Appointment at the bank to open our account.  Merck has a relationship with UBS that allowed us to bring a piece of paper from the morning’s registration (letting them know we've registered but haven’t received our cards yet) and open up bank accounts.  We were running late (again, NOT good here in Switzerland where everything runs ON TIME), but aside from antsy kids who were done sitting through appointments (can you blame them?), everything went smoothly.  We had told the furniture people that we’d be back in about an hour, but by the time the appointment was done and we got back it was 6:30.  Thankfully they had finished up and left rather than sitting waiting for us.

And then we had our first “DOH” moment.  We had NOTHING at the apartment – no food, no toilet paper, nothing – and now it was past 6:30 so all of the grocery stores except for the one at the train station had closed.  Here in Luzern, everything closes at 6:30 during the week and 4:00 on Saturdays, except for on Thursdays, which are “late shopping nights” when stores stay open until 8:00.  There is almost nothing open on Sundays.

So exhausted and hungry, we made our way back to the train station, and gave into Burger King for dinner (ack!).  Then a quick trip through the Coop (grocery store) for some basics and we were headed home. 

We got back, got all the beds made, and finally were ready to get the kids to bed.  It was almost 10:00 and was a school night for Nathan – the night before his first day of Kindergarten!!!

Whew!  Glad that day is done!

We made it!

What a site we were at the airport – 12 checked bags plus the 2 car seat bags.  Thank goodness for curbside check-in!  

We made it through security without any incidents, got some waters and snacks for the plane ride, and then waited to board the plane.  Nathan and Alex were so excited that we had to corral them to keep them from pushing other people out of the way at the gate – they wanted to be the FIRST ones on the plane!  We weren’t the very first ones on the plane, but we were among the first, and the the boys were great getting settled in business class.  They were SO cute in the big seats!!! 

(We are all definitely spoiled for the overseas flights now – for this move flight, Merck flew us all business class, but as we keep trying to explain to the boys, for the rest of our flights we’ll have to fly coach!)

When the flight attendants came around to take orders for dinner, we were shocked to hear Nathan order the fish – Mahi Mahi with lemon butter sauce!  (I ordered the chicken just in case we needed to switch).  But he ate it all, and loved it!!!  And it was so cute, when the first course arrived (some grilled chicken), he proudly announced, “this is my appetizer”. 

Matthew slept like a champ on the plane, with Alex close behind.  Nathan had a harder time getting to sleep because he was so excited about the little TV, all the buttons on the seat, etc.  But once he fell asleep, everyone slept well for a few hours.  Alex was adorable in the big seat flattened out into a bed, he got all snuggled up with his pillow pet and the blanket!

Once we got to Zurich, we had a quite a challenge getting three overfilled carts full of luggage plus the stroller and three kids from the luggage carousel out through customs.  No porters to be found…note for anyone else traveling with this much luggage (ha!), call ahead to see if you can arrange a porter!  But we slogged through, each of us pushing 2 things, going a few feet with one of them, then coming back for the other.  We looked ridiculous to say the least!!!

One of our biggest concerns was the van that would be picking us up, the Swiss’ idea of a large vehicle is not quite the same as the American’s J  To get to the airport, we had a 20 person van pick us up, and we were sure that on the Zurich end we’d have a van, which would barely fit all five of us with a few bags, never mind everything we had.  So we were thrilled and relieved to find that our messages about needing a BIG vehicle had been heard, and they came to pick us up in a minibus which had plenty of room for all of us and our stuff.

The bus took us to our hotel in Luzern (with a quick potty stop about half way, can’t go anywhere with small children without having to stop!) where Merck has a residence apartment that we were able to use for a couple of days.  Luckily everyone crashed for a few hours, then we headed out to show the boys Luzern for the first time.  It was a beautiful day and we took a nice walk and then took the boys to an English Pub for dinner where we knew we could get chicken nuggets for the kids and some beer for us J  After a long day, convincing the kids to eat anything else was definitely not worth the effort.  We finished off the evening with the kids’ first taste of gelato, then headed back for everyone to crash…with Matthew in a Pack & Play in our room and the two boys in the living room (and everyone jet lagged!), we just hoped we’d get a little sleep…but no.  Matthew and Laura fell asleep quickly and early, but Nathan & Alex had a hard time settling down (it was 6 hours earlier back in Philadelphia).  Dave finally got them to sleep and then Matthew was up…and then Alex…and then Matthew…and it just continued like that…ahhh!  Finally Dave took Matthew for a midnight stroll along the lake and I got Alex back to sleep.  Nathan slept through it all.

Here we go!

The air shipment and shipping containers have left, the house is completely empty, we're wrapping up our goodbyes...and in 1.5 hours, a car comes to get us to take us to the airport.  There are lots of mixed emotions...sad, anxious, and most of all, excited!!!

Saying goodbye

Some final playtime with good friends.  We're going to miss you guys!!!

Baptized

Another thing on the to-do list before moving to Europe was to get all of the boys baptized. This was done in a beautiful service at Wayne Presbyterian church on Sunday, September 16. And we love some of the great family pictures we got that day!

Move Day 1 - Packing & Air Shipment

The movers arrived this morning! What a whirlwind, trying to make sure we have everything we need to take on the plane...and then what we want to have on the air shipment...because everything else will be 6+ weeks getting to us. As anyone who has had professional movers knows, when they arrive and get started, there is no time to rethink things, change your mind, etc. It all happens SO fast! I feel like the day was a total blur.

So now almost everything going with us is at my sister's house (where we're staying now that our beds are packed up) and the air shipment stuff is gone. And I've only had one major screw up - Nathan's stuffed puppy and pillow pets went in the air shipment boxes instead of being kept out for us to take on the plane. (There goes my Mother of the Year Award!) Tonight he was ok...when I told him that puppy and his pillow pets had been so excited that they jumped ion the air shipment, he looked at me and said "no, they got packed up in the boxes". My little guy is growing up WAY to fast! Hopefully he'll be so excited about all the new stuff in Switzerland that the 10 days will fly, but I feel SO badly!

Tomorrow they'll finish packing up the house and a 40' shipping container will be dropped off in our driveway for them to start loading. Way more fun than a big old truck ;-)

Auf Wiedersehen Party

What a night we had saying good-bye to all of our friends!  Definitely a party worthy of our younger years (much to the dismay of many of our bodies the next day).  Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us, and to those who couldn't make it, we missed you!

The goal of the evening was to deplete our alcohol supply as much as possible, and we did a great job!

BEFORE:

And AFTER (the empties earned their place on the mantle as the night wore on):

As always, the Kappas showed up en masse, ready to help celebrate!

And a few more pictures from the evening...

Including a guest appearance by our littlest friend :-)

Let the Adventure Begin!

A busy family with three boys 5 and under, we’re about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime – moving to Lucerne, Switzerland for 2-3 years!What a whirlwind the last two months (not even!) have been!  Here is the quick version…
Week of July 9 – Dave finds out he needs to leave on a last minute, week long trip to Lucerne
Week of July 16 – Dave is in Lucerne, and it becomes clear that if everything goes the way his bosses hope it will, he’ll be the one to be taking on the project there.  We immediately know that if the opportunity is presented to us, we’ll take it!  Two to three years in Switzerland – wow!
Tuesday, July 24 – Dave meets with the Senior Management from Europe, and it’s official!  
Yes, this was all about 8 weeks ago.  The weeks since then have been crazy.  Dave has been in Lucerne every other week and we…

• Have figured out a school for the boys – the International School of Zug and Lucerne

• Took a house hunting trip (just Dave, Laura & Matthew) and found a wonderful apartment (more on that later!)

• Did a massive purging of our belongings

• Got the boys passports

• Taken the whole family to NYC to visit the Swiss consulate to apply for our visas

• Spent countless hours researching, filling out forms, checking expat forums, etc. trying to wrap our minds around living internationally

• Had movers come in and pack up all of the stuff we’re NOT taking and put it in storage

So here we are…8 days until we leave!  Dave returns from Lucerne again tonight, we’re having a going away party tomorrow night, getting all three kids baptized on Sunday, and then the movers show up Wednesday to pack and load us out!  In the mean time, we have another big project ahead of us figuring out what we’ll take on the plane (we get extra baggage, so can take a lot), and what will go in our 1500lbs of air shipment (arriving in about 2 weeks).  Then everything else will be loaded into a sea container and will arrive in about 6 weeks.I’ll continue to fill in details as we go along…but for now, it’s time to get back to work!