Moving in the Rain!

So as some of you might know we have been acquiring furniture from our favorite website englishforum. It's a website for expats living in switzerland. Most people on there are in our shoes. Here on rotation for a couple years and then moving on. So they typically have purchased their stuff at IKEA, only to be used for 2 years and needing to get rid of it. It's so expensive to ship that it's really worth it to just unload your furniture before you leave. So we are helping out the community by buying it as they are leaving hahaha. Generally when we get bigger items such as last night we must rent this big red mobility van to transport it. Let me just say that it is awesome running around europe in an oversized red van. Last night the task on hand was to drive over to pick up 2 night stands and 2 bookcases. Then load up some of that guys stuff and take it 5 blocks to his place and there we would pick up a sofa bed for our guests...hint hint we have a bed for you guests!! Did I mention that since Adam is working so late we picked up the van at 10pm and were supposed to have it back by midnight...didn't happen but that was what was supposed to happen.

So we found the van and then right off the bat missed our 1st turn on the directions to the guys apartment. It's misting rain at this point, but it's not a bad rain just annoying. We kinda start guessing on how to get to the bridge to cross the river and eventually by some miracle we get there. We finally arrive at his apartment and start to load up the furniture...it's raining just a little bit harder now. They get the book case out and then the night stands. Now it's a down pour. They since we had to go to his new place to pick up the sofa bed we loaded a bunch of his stuff to take over as well. Adam shuts the back of the van to take off and the lake of accumulated water dumps all over him...HILARIOUS!!! He's soaked! The three of us pile in and head over. We start unloading all their stuff and then get the sofa bed inside the van. Then out of the kindness of this italian man's heart for helping him move he gets his GPS and leads us back to our place in his car and helps unload. Of course before we leave he says that in italy they don't have as many rules for driving. And we noticed that as we were following by all the illegal turns and red light running we ended up doing to be able to keep up with him. He helps us unload it all to our apartment and then said to e-mail him our italy information and he will help us find a good place to stay and good restaurants...he is just so nice. Now to our next task!

One of Adam's colleges at KPMG is in our boat about 2 weeks ago. They are moving from their temporary housing to their new place. It's far by public transit, but not driving. So since we had the van anyways we went to their temporary place and loaded up their bags. They brought everything over like we did so there were a lot. I won't say but we had 11 bags it was close but more. Still raining but finally starting to lighten up a tad. We drive them and their stuff to their new apartment and start to take it up. They apparently had requested to have a butt load of stairs when searching for an apartment. There were 2 flights of stairs going to the front door, then a long sidewalk around. Then 4 flights of stairs up to the apartment. Luckily the boys were so good and after we got it all into the building from the van they carried it up to the apt and we moved it all inside. It went super quick. Then we all head back to drop off the van. Oh it's a 3 seater van so one person had to ride in the back. Not sure if that's illegal here but it happened. The rain is subsiding at this point. We get the van back and wait for a tram to take us all home. By the time we are off the tram and walking to our homes at, 1:30 in the morning, the rain is pretty much done. Thank you rain for such a fun evening! It was late getting back but we had a blast. We just kept laughing all night because the torrential downpour, the stairs, getting lost, and all the illegal turns. You couldn't as for a better story between friends than last night. Oh and for future reference to anyone wanting us to help them move. It notoriously rains every time we move. FYI!

Hiking Utliberg

Well Adam and I finally made it over to Utliberg for a hike yesterday. I think it is considered a hill to the swiss people, but to us...it was a mountain. I consider myself to be in reasonable shape for the most part. Until I met the trail going up to Utliberg. I now feel that I have never worked out in my entire life and am ill prepared for what the swiss people call a mountain. The trail leading up was inclined for most of our hike. There were a few area's that were flat with benches where we could rest...then hit the next incline up. The trail we took is 3.9km or 2.4mi. On flat land, that doesn't take too long, on an incline that takes over an hour. We were tired, but not defeated until an older couple, probably in their 60's, passed us like it was a light, leisurly stroll. They were relaxed, talking, and not sweating their butt's off. We're walking incredibly slow, beat red, panting like dogs and they just glance over and keep going...Rediculous!  It was worth it to see the view of the city...and find out a train goes up there :) just incase anyone wants to take it up instead hahahaha. They also have mountain biking paths for you adventurous ones.
Below is a picture of Lake Zurich and part of the city

This is of Lake Zurich and the Alps down in Southern Switzerland. I'm afraid to see what they look like up close on ski's.

This is the rest of the city of Zurich

One of the hiking trails heading up. It doesn't look like much but I would say it's at least at a 45-50 degree angle the whole way up. Sometimes a lot more!

We had fun on our first real hike in Zurich. We are of course now a little nervous at the idea that this might be the baby hike. 

By the time we got back home it was almost 5 and we were exhausted. We just sat down drank a ton of water and a couple apples and just rested. Finally when we had the energy to move again I cooked dinner and we listened to pastor paul's sermon on podcast. We broke into ice cream again during the sermon. We totally earned it after that hike. We skyped with Adam's parents before we went to bed and were more staring at the computer than able to form words. We couldn't even function by the time we got off the computer and went to bed. Poor Adam was already sore this morning. I have a feeling it's really going to set in for both of us tomorrow. Well worth it though...you'll see.

My obsession with Blueberry's continues...

It is still berry season here and there is an abundance of blueberries and raspberries. They are so delicious and fresh here. We are lucky enough to also get lots of fruit from Italy which is also amazing. We were told by a local that the best fruit is always from italy, but I digress. One of my goals with all this free time I have is to become a better cook. The staples I can do, pan sear chicken breasts, boil potatoes, steam some veggies. I want to go further in to cooking though. Unfortunately practicing dinner recipes isn't that easy when your preparing for one. So I am working on breakfast recipes for Adam every morning. Since we've been here there have been a lot of eggs for breakfast. Then I tried something sweet, pancakes and french toast. Also hits with Adam. So I got a little braver yesterday. Before I tell you with what you need to know that Adam and I's favorite saturday morning activity (except during busy season) was to go to Artisan Bakery in Edwardsville, get some coffee and some kind of pastry. If blueberry scones were available then we would generally get that. Then we would walk through the farmers market for fresh produce. So I decided to bring a little of home to us. I found a great recipe for scones and took my best shot at them.

They were easier than I thought they would be.

2 c flour

1/3 c sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

8 Tbsp butter

1/2 c sour cream

1 large egg

1/2 c blueberries ( or  which every berry you would like)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Using fork mix butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal

In another bowl whisk together sour cream and egg until blended

Then using the same fork mix in the sour cream mixture to the flour mixture until it becomes dough like.

Then add the blueberries and mix them in. At this point you could pick up the dough ball to mix in the blueberries. It helped a little

Then pat out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/2 -3/4 in thick. Cut into triangles, sprinkle sugar on top of the dough, and bake at 400 degrees F for around 15 min.

They were yummy and really brightened up breakfast this morning from the drab usual eggs and toast. The dough recipe is a really great basic recipe for scones and then just get creative with what you want to put in it. Enjoy!

Day trip to Luzern!

Well as you all know Adam has been working A LOT lately and on his 1 day off a week he deserves to relax and rest. By this I mean after dinner on saturday night around oh maybe 9pm he's like...maybe we should go somewhere tomorrow. And that's how it all started! Well first, our train was supposed to leave at 8:35am...we however didn't leave our house until 8:15am...Yeah we missed it, but the day perked up from there. We got out on the next train and landed in Luzern at 9:45am and started on our way. We found our way to the ticket counter and to our good luck she also spoke english. We got our tickets for the train, cable car, gondola, and bus ride that would take us there and back. When you get off the train you land right below in front of the cable car that takes you to the top of Mt. Pilatus.

It takes 40 min to get all the way up the mountain. Now below, where you are in this picture above it was around 55-60F. Very comfortable, especially for walking around and climbing on things. I am in calf length yoga pants with a tank top and a jacket. Adam is in a T-shirt and cargo pants. We then arrive to the top of the mountain and they open the door. It was SOOOO COLD! Yeah there is a little bit of snow on the ground, it's slushy everywhere and when the wind picks up ice starts flying around. We really should have thought this through. It was lunch time when we arrived so we were hoping if we grabbed a bite to eat in the hotel that maybe when we were done it would have cleared up and warmed up?? We split this really awesome Macaroni and Cheese. It was made  with all sorts of good swiss cheese not stinky at all :) We also both sucked down some hot coffee hoping that a warm dish and warm beverage would keep our bodies warm outside. So we headed out knowing we couldn't go back down the mountain without going to a lookout peak. As soon as we went outside we got a few cloud openings, enough for us to take some amazing pictures of Lake Luzern and of us of course!

Adam and I From look out point Esel 6953ft

Lake Luzern

After hitting two look out points and freezing our bums off we headed back down the mountain and headed back to Luzern City to walk around. Below is the Jesuit Church along the Luzern Lake.

This is the view of Luzern from the top of a the old wall Musagg. You can walk up in it and go into a few of the towers. If you like climbing stairs of course. If you don't...then Europe really isn't your thing..there are stairs everywhere!!

This is another view of the city, lake, and mountains through one of the towers in Musagg. Adam had to climb in all the towers and go to the very very top everytime. He was completely bummed when he figured out that we missed a tower and wants to do it again when we go back :) Me on the other hand well my quads were shot from all the climbing at that mountain and around the city so I wasn't sad to miss out on one of the three towers. I know i'll get to do it next time thought!

After the excitement of running around Luzern we hopped on the train and made the trek back home.  I cooked what was supposed to be Bauernfruhstuck (Farmers' breakfast), it didn't look pretty by the end but tasted good regardless. We got to bed way too late because we were looking at pictures from the trip and were exhausted this morning.  It was a great trip though, with the best scenery. We will be taking our fellow visitors here. It's a must see once in a life time kind of thing.

Cooking in Switzerland!

Since I have the time now I really wanted to increase my cooking skills. Adam was and is a far better cook than I am. I have some mad baking skills to put up against him, but it doesn't compare to what he can create for dinner in the kitchen. Especially when that boy grills, everything is so tasty! Right now our main meal together is breakfast so I was trying to come up with some creative recipes to impress him with. However, the german words for certain ingredients have been causing me some complications. The first time I was very naive and just looked up the words on translator.google.com and went to the store. By the time I looked through everything I couldn't remember what I had looked up. So, I came home to get more prepared. I looked up everything I needed in german and wrote it down on my piece of paper in German. Went to the store again and no luck, couldn't find the correct flour, baking soda, baking powder, or vanilla anywhere. Finally, I got smart and googled the question to see if anyone else had this problem. We go to a website called englishforum.ch where a ton of expats post questions and answers. Lo and behold someone else had these problems and there were tons of solutions. Apparently Baking Soda is Natron and baking powder is Backpulver. I wasn't completely convinced that I would find these items so I tried something new.

Here, the labels are first in german, then french , and then italian underneath that. So in order to figure it out I wrote out my entire list in italian in hopes of finding my ingredients. AND what do you know I found everything I needed by writing it all in italian. I'm convinced that really I just need to learn italian now, not swiss german!So from now on I know that italian has little variation in what they call food items so I will now always write my grocery list in italian...Now on to the breakfast for this morning!!

This morning was my first attempt at from scratch pancakes (no bisquick here) and a blueberry compote. It's berry season here so blueberries and raspberry's are everywhere and reasonably priced. I made the batter  with:
1-1/4C flour
2tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2tsp salt
1-1/2C milk (adam likes his pancakes thinner so I used more milk, I'd start with 1C and add more)
1tsp honey
and a secret ingredient...lemon zest.

Then for the blueberry compote:
3/4C blueberries
2 Tbsp sugar
1Tbsp water
1Tbsp flour
1/2 lemon - squeeze over  mixture in sauce pot

Put all ingredients for compote in small sauce pot and put over med/low heat. Let boil for 4-5min stirring occasionally and then let sit so it can thicken. After the pancakes are done just pour the sauce over it. I also dusted it all with a little powdered sugar but it blended right into the blueberry sauce so didn't really stay white and pretty.

These were probably the best pancakes I've ever made. Adam loved them and if he didn't he totally lied and ate them all :)
It's super easy to make it all. I've never made a compote sauce before and it was so easy. I did accidentally boil it over so it got on the stove, so make sure you watch it hahahaha. It cleaned up easily.

Well that was my first attempt at new exciting dishes....more to come with more recipes!

Getting out and Making Friends!

Well on Tuesday I had a very out of the ordinary day here. One of Adam's co-workers's wife has a gym membership and e-mailed me to see if I would like to join her for yoga and try out the gym. Well I would never say no to a gym so we made plans to meet at a tram stop and walk to the gym together.

The things you see at a tram stop...are unbelievable! I was early to the tram stop so I was just waiting there for my friend. Looking around for her and people watching of course. Then all of a sudden off the tram walks what I can only describe as a plastic barbie doll. Some lady has too much time and money. Her face looked like plastic and her lips were twice the size of Angelina Jolie's!! I was so taken aback from her face that I just stared at her in horror...I know, wish you had those people skills. I wasn't the only one. There was a line of people she walked passed that all gawked at her uncontrollably. For a reference google plastic surgery - cat woman. It's a very scary sight.

After that traumatic experience I met my friend and we walked and talked to yoga class. First time I had met her...ever. We get to yoga class, and I warn you that I have taken 1 other yoga class in my life and we mostly practiced breathing exercises. The teacher is practicing moves at the front of the class, holding his body in the air just by his arms!! I asked Mercy if that's how real yoga went and she assured me that this class is basic yoga and he is just doing a higher level. Well an hour later my arms and legs were shaking but it was a lot of fun.  I only had 1 minor incident in class. I had walked far for class and it was warm so I was already sweating. Well when we were doing this rolling on the mat exercise by kicking our legs above our head, the back of my shirt came up. So when I came down my bare back was on the mat and you guessed it...made a farting noise on the mat. Luckily I think the music blocked it out for most people. But yeah I was that person in class...AWESOME!

After class we got a tour of the gym...you know they were trying to sell it to me as well. Then she and I took off and took the tram to this great book store that is a second hand shop. They have paperback books for $1.50 and hardback books for $3.50. How awesome is that. I can now finally read again! We are now going to pass books back and forth.

After books was COFFEE! She knew of a great coffee and muffin place in Old Town Zurich that boys never want to go to, it's girly! We hung out and got to know one another. Both of us were very happy to have someone who spoke english to talk to.

I got home and realized that the grocery store had closed already so I had to hope I had enough food to make Adam breakfast wednesday morning. You will all be happy to know we have started a new system. We get up early, I cook him breakfast and we spend time together in the morning. Of course that is our only time together during the week so we cherish it and make it work. I also don't have to cook dinner at this point so i'm only up to 1 meal per day for him. I've got to start coming up with better recipes. Right now he gets variations of eggs, toast, and occasionally bacon. I have to get more recipes and more creative when it comes to cooking!!

Date night in Cheese City!

Well this week we got all moved in. I washed everything from IKEA and started organizing the kitchen and other rooms. Anyone who knows me knows my love of cleaning...that was a joke...I dislike it, strongly! Adam comes home Wednesday night and says " Wow baby, the house looks great. The kitchen is clean the bed is made, the floors and bathroom are clean, laundry is done." My response " I know, I was that bored!" And that's my life in a nutshell hahaha.

Friday night was our date night in...and our meat of the week! I cooked inside out burgers ( take 2 patties put cheese in the middle, and press the edges together) with bacon and a fried egg on top. No buns! One I can't find them here and 2 why ruin a good burger with too much bread around it. I also cut up some potatoes and made some homestyle fries and of course steamed some broccoli. Gotta be healthy :) After our enormous dinner we decided we wanted our favorite Ice cream place, Movenpick. We unfortunately let our monthly tram passes lapse so we hiked it down there. It's only like 2 miles to get there and it is totally worth the 4 mile hike there and back for that swiss ice cream. I thought Gelato was good but swiss ice cream is amazing!

Saturday, Adam worked till late afternoon and then came home so we could go get our annual tram passes. No more 4 mile hikes for ice cream now! After getting those we took it up to IKEA yet again for another trip. We forgot a couple things like cheese graters and hangers, you know the important stuff that you forgot the first 2 trips even though it was on the list. We also had to get lights. We have a couple lamps and that's it so we have to install them in all rooms of the house, it's a swiss thing. No lights come with the apartment, so weird. After getting back from IKEA we headed out in search of some swiss fondue. We hadn't tried the real deal here yet so we were on a mission. As we crossed into old town zurich we found a restaurant that just so happened to have set up an outdoor restaurant along the river and the special for the evening was fondue. So we tried our luck and ordered the stinky cheese fondue. It came with bread, potatoes, gherkins, and small pickled onions. Very interesting combination of stuff but good. We walked it off a little through the rest of old town. Everyone was out partying last night, including a few bachelor/bachelorette parties.

This morning, sunday, I fixed french toast for breakfast.  I got some great challah bread at the store, and powdered sugar to top it off. I finally figured out what powdered sugar was in german ( puder zucker). Then sent Adam back to work. Darn crazy projects. It should be over in a couple weeks hopefully!

The Big Move and the New Apartment!!

Well Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. We moved to our permanent apartment on Sunday and today we finally got internet hooked up!! Adam and I were very lucky that our new apartment was only 6 blocks from our old one. It was a huge help when we schlepped our 11 bags down the street. Thank goodness for great public transportation. 

Ok so the great tour begins Room one on our list is the amazing kitchen. Everything is new and unused since the building was just renovated. I believe the building was built in the 1800's so it has some great charm...and some unleveled floors but only my problem for 2 years. I'm also happy to say that all the appliances came with instructions that had an english section Wahoo!! I cooked in the oven last night for the first time with the convection function. I am going to be really depressed when I return home to my non-awesome stove in IL 

Picture 2 is also one of my favorites in the house. A washer and dryer IN the apartment. That is extremely uncommon over here. Generally they are in the basement and you have your cleaning day and that's the only day you can do laundry!!

This is the fridge. That upper box is the freezer. It can hold one tub of ice cream and maybe one bag of frozen vegetables. So far it's gotten more use as an ice cream holder hahahaha!

This is our 2nd bathroom...yeah that's right we got 2 bathrooms also amazing, and very uncommon here. This one has a claw tub which looks so good, but it's all fiber glass?? It has yet to be used so doesn't matter anyways. 

This is as you walk in the front door. First door on the left is the first bathroom with the shower. First door on the right is going to be the office/guest room...so guests should start looking at tickets!!! Next door on the left is the kitchen. Third door on the left is our bedroom. Door at the end of the hallway is the 2nd bathroom and the last door on the right is the living room.

Sorry, this is the first bathroom - first door on the left. I guess is got deleted from the beginning of the blog so I added it at the bottom.

The place is more spacious that we thought we were going to get. It's about the same size as our condo in Glen Carbon. 

After we got the place we were able to go to IKEA and get a lot of stuff that we needed. I've been running around every single day getting things as issues arise. We're trying to only get what we need since we eventually have to get rid of it again before we leave. Adam has put me in charge of the budget and setting up the home...mostly because I have tons of time on my hands...and hate to spend money hahaha,  AND because that boy doesn't get home from work till 10pm every night. It's an unusual client/ project that is keeping everyone busy and should be over by the end of the month. So keep his sanity in your prayers everyone :) To make him feel better I made him chocolate covered strawberries last night. I couldn't read the chocolate bar label and bought cooking chocolate instead of a chocolate bar for him. So I had to improvise. 

I hope everyone has a good week and I will put more pictures of the apt up on FB, the blog takes awhile here to upload.

Moving Day!!

Well Wednesday we got the keys to our new apartment! We have our temporary place until sunday so we are taking our time moving in. After we got the keys wednesday morning we started getting our furniture. All furniture thus far has been obtained through english forum which is basically a glorified Craigslist for expat english speaking people living in switzerland. Ok so first item on the list was a table for our office desk. We had to take a tram to this girl's apartment, which ironically was the apartment our taxi driver took us to mistakenly on our arrival. We got in there and took the table apart. Bound the 4 legs together for me to carry and adam took hold of the table top. We then proceeded to take the tram back to our new apartment and reassemble the table there. You always get interesting looks from everyone as you are standing in the handicapped section of the tram carrying a table...but we made it to the apt and set up our first piece of furniture no problem. We could only hope the day would be just as easy after that hahahaha!!

Next, we bravely rented a cargo van to drive 20 min outside the city to pick up the two couches we purchased from a very nice australian couple. First we had to get into the van :) We found the van which was parked at a trainstation 7 stops from the city center...so not completely close to town. We get there only to realize we can't get in the van, it's locked. I re-read the directions and we figure out we need an electronic key card. We have to take the tram back to the city center to the main train station. We then look all over and walk all the way around to the end of the train station to locate the shared car service, thinking that must be where the main office is. NOPE!! We finally break down and find a post office out side and ask someone there. They said to go to the main ticket area. We go and ask them...they send us to the Event ticket pick up where lo and behold it's where we need to be. So we get the key and take the tram back to the random parking lot where the van is. We are now 1hr 15 min late for picking up and only have 4hrs left.

Adam then backs out and possibly runs over a sign...no biggie, we're just hoping this isn't the high point of the day. I think both Adam and I can fully say that driving a huge van in Europe..not awesome. We get lost but eventually make it to pick up the couches. Luckily that couple has a car and is familiar with the roads there. All the roads seem to change to other ones after every intersection...word to the wise!! We get the couches back to the apartment and between adam and I we carry them up the stairs. Thank goodness IKEA couches are cheaply made with light materials :) Next, we have to drive to pick up our bed.

Adam had already been to the apartment to see the bed ahead of time so he was somewhat familiar with the area. The only weird thing is the road runs right next to the tram. So every so often a tram sneaks up on you and is about a foot away from the side of the van. That can freak you out for sure. At certain points you actually share the road with the tram. God was smiling on us at those sections because there were no trams in sight. We secured the bed, got it back to the apt and carried all those pieces up. We're only on the first floor so that was lucky. No elevators, or air conditioning for people thinking of coming in summer FYI. Then we finally drove the van back and parked it. We went and sat for the next tram and breathed a sigh of relief. We also secured a phone number of a man who will transport stuff for you for 60 bucks and hour. We now believe that is totally worth it for our sanity and fellow drivers on the road.
 At the end of the day we really only ran over one sign, only cut off 1 person, went the wrong direction on a one way street once, and made one illegal U turn. So all in all Pretty good day I'd say hahahaha!