Monday, April 30, 2007

A Weekend with Kashif


It is rare that friends from home come to visit, so we were honored to have Kashif Khan spend the weekend of April 21st with us. Kashif is a friend of Jared's from KPMG Atlanta and he stopped through Zurich to see us as he was on his way back to Atlanta from Pakistan.

We had a wonderful weekend just taking in the sites around Horgen and the Zurich area. The girls were especially happy with our trip to the Knie Kinderzoo in Rapperswil and our Sunday afternoon hike in Au.


Thank you, Kashif, for taking the time to visit us!




Quick trip to Paris













After recovering from our trip to Greece, we decided to make a quick weekend trip to Paris to see my cousin, Donna, and her family while they were visiting France. We took the train over on Friday afternoon and came back Sunday which only left a little bit of time to visit, but seeing Donna, Joel, Monica and Logan was well worth the trip.



We spent the morning walking and talking, mostly catching up on all the activities and happenings in the Bernstein family and letting them get to know our girls a little bit. It had been over 3 years since we had seen Donna and Joel, so it was nice for me to be able to introduce Mea and Lily to them. It was a wonderful treat to spend time with family and Paris couldn't have been more beautiful.




Friday, April 27, 2007

Greece: March 29-April 9









Since I have always wanted to go to Greece, Jared was so kind as to make that wish come true by taking us to Greece for a spring getaway. We had wonderful time visiting Athens and spending a week on the island of Santorini. I have to admit that as big and dirty as Athens was, it was still a great place to visit----an unexpected highpoint of our trip. While the scenery was beautiful and the people extremely nice, we were surprised to have very chilly weather during our time in Santorini. Another downer was that both girls got sick while we were there which resulted in a trip to the village clinic and a lack of sleep for us all.

We had a great time being together playing on the beaches, visiting markets, exploring the island and eating a lot of wonderful food. (I personally came to love mousaka and I think I ate tzatziki and cucumbers everyday.) Mea seemed to enjoy playing on the beach but at first she wasn't quite sure what to do with rocks instead of sand....we ended up building rock towers instead of sand castles.

Greece was quite a lovely place and I hope to visit there again.......maybe without the children!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Saying Good-byes


Here is a picture of Kacey, me and Amanda at a going away apero for Amanda and her husband, Aaron. Seeing this picture made me reflect on what it is to live in a different country and to appreciate the friendships I have made................

One of the hardest parts of living an expat lifestyle is having to say "Good-bye" to friends who have played such a crucial role in my Swiss experience. However, a huge part of living so far away from family and all the friends back home means that your new friends become your 'family'. You jump right into these new relationships because your time is limited and there's no point wasting what little time you have on small talk and mindless chatter. They are the ones who throw surprise baby showers for you, who come and cook supper and take care of your kids when you are sick, who help you look at apartments--- with two children in tow while your husband is out of the country--- in the thick summer heat AND while using public transportation. These friends become your lunch buddies, movie buddies, recipe advisers, therapists, free referral services and so much more. Sometimes they even brave the unknown and spend their Christmas holidays with you (and your children) in another country............pretty amazing!!

Our family has been in Zurich for almost 2 years now, and the 3 ladies that befriended me my first week in town have now all moved on to new places: Susan, my very first friend, is back in the NYC area; Shannon is now in Hong Kong; and now Amanda has moved to Munich. Thanks ladies for the friendships and love.

Arosa





Here are some pictures from our KPMG TS weekend in Arosa in early March. We had a great time getting to know many of the other families in Jared's group. Mea and Jared were able to get out on the slopes on Saturday for Mea's first ski lesson. (Mandy hung out at the hotel and read books and napped while Lily caught up on her sleep.)