Liestal Fasnacht- Fire Parade

Fasnacht- which is the Swiss 'Carnival' celebration (pre-Lent), has been spread to many weeks so that the various towns wouldn't overlap (sort of like the St. Patty's Day Parade in the NY metro area). This past Sunday was the Fasnacht celebration in Liestal. In this town, they are famous for doing a 'Fire Parade' where people essentially carry bonfires on their back. Remember when I said (on New Years) that the Swiss were reserved? Nope- I guess they save it for other occasions. This was a crazy event and a lot of fun!

Matt getting ready for the parade... he doesn't even know what's in store yet.

The parade started pretty normally with people in intricate costumes playing instruments

 Then came the fire... the crowd was really going crazy as we could see it in the distance.

The first rolling bonfire to come out was small

Then a group of people came along carrying giant 'torches' on their backs. They weren't wearing anything special to protect themselves from the flames... 

This was the second bonfire

The ground was littered with confetti maybe 1/2 inch deep (perhaps from an earlier parade)- sort of a fire hazard???

Each new bonfire would get a little bigger...

This guy's head was smoking!!

and a little bigger...

Firemen & women were on hand to sponge down fire carriers who started catching fire

Everyone was watching to see how big the next bonfire would be

Matt & Corey&Me baring the flames... when they stopped the larger fires right in front of us it got RIDICULOUSLY hot. We were right in the front! 

This bonfire was getting up toward the street light...

But this next one actually hit it!

Every time we thought there couldn't possibly be a bigger one, there was. 

Portugal

This past Sunday I flew to Portugal to meet up with my mom, who made her semi-annual trip to visit my Grandfather. We landed, rested up a bit, then went to check out the local parade for Carnival. This is the slightly smaller version :o). It was cute though, and the turnout was pretty amazing.

The weather there was fantastic, particularly compared to Zürich, where every day pretty much hovers around freezing. During the day the temperatures were in the low to mid 60's, and in the sun it felt so wonderful. We stayed with my mom's aunt, who had this nice little porch that got sun from morning to afternoon.

View from the porch- the fruit trees were in full bloom!

On Sunday afternoon we went to go visit my Grandpa at the nursing home. He has had Alzheimers for quite some time, so he doesn't say much except to ask for food :o(. We brought him outside and took some pictures with him, and took him for a walk around the home.

 He was notably weaker than he had been in the past, and had to take a sit-down break about 3/4 of the way around the home. He recovered quickly though, and we brought him back to his comfy chair in the TV room before we left.
Sadly, later that night, a call came that he had passed away. The next few days were a flurry of preparations, family, and errands (and some absolutely phenomenal Portuguese food- that was the upside). I pushed my flight out to stay a few more days for the Funeral and Cremation. We hope Grandpa is in a better place with Grandma and the rest of his family. I think everyone will miss the funny, jovial man he was, and I will always remember how to draw Kilroy.... thanks Vôvô.

And on a slightly ironic and funny note, this was the name of the crematorium:

Obviously 'Fun' doesn't have the same meaning in Portuguese its just an abbreviation for 'Funerária' but I still had to laugh.

Easter Eggs

As a result of Pete Lerner and Danielle Daltons' push for proper nutrition early in my pregnancy (when they so kindly let me live with them during my back and forth period), I have developed a love for hard boiled eggs, ironic since I used to despise cooked yolks. At Matt's little Birthday shindig- one of our guests, who has been in Switzerland far longer than us, informed us that the colored eggs we see in the grocery store (all year long) are actually pre-hard boiled eggs. They call them 'picnic eggs'  because apparently when people have picnics here they like to bring hard boiled eggs. Funnily enough, however, they look like Easter eggs, there is a picture of a bunny rabbit on the label, AND the label says 'Schweizer Oestereier' which means Swiss Easter Eggs (see picture 2). Matt and I had always thought these were just colored eggs, to get kids to think eating eggs were fun or something like that. Anyway, while the idea of a pre-hard boiled egg that had been sitting in the grocery store kind of grossed me out, my curiosity and love of hard boiled eggs overcame my disgust so I bought some. Unfortunately, when I cracked one open, it seemed more soft-boiled to me, which was where I drew the line.In summary: funny, interesting, will not buy again.

Happy Birthday to Matt!

Location:Dufourstrasse,Zurich,Switzerland

16 Weeks! Tiny baby bump...

...though to most it just looks like too many desserts!

Flims/Laax

Today I went snowboarding at a mountain called Flims/Laax. The weather was fantastic and there was TONS of powder (almost too much). One of my former colleagues from New York, who happens to be Swiss, is here with his wife to visit family. They invited me to go skiing with them, which was awesome, since Matt's at work anyway. I played hooky from German lessons to meet up with them and I had a lot of fun. My colleague is a ridiculously good skier- I guess that's how they breed them around here (he grew up 10 minutes from these mountains). I may have pushed it a little too hard trying to keep up (given my condition), but I had a blast!

Amazing view from the top of the mountain!

First Swiss Doctor's Appointment

Today was my first obstetrician appointment here in Zürich. Luckily Matt's colleague, who is also pregnant, was able to recommend a great, english speaking doctor to me- and he was fantastic! Everyone at the office was SO nice, which is quite unlike my experience at my Hoboken doctor. Even though my doctor in Hoboken was super nice, things are so rushed there. At this office I felt like the doctor really had time. He did the ultrasound himself and he was much more explanatory than the tech who did my first ultrasound in Hoboken. All in all, I was very pleased with the experience. Unfortunately (because of the afore mentioned insurance rules here) he won't be able to deliver the baby (unless we pay some astronomical sum of money), but at least he will be there to guide me through the pre-natal process.
We still don't know if it's a boy or girl (I am only in my 15th week) but here are some pictures. It looks much more human than before!

Skiing at Flumserberg

Today we went skiing for the first time in Switzerland. Our guests from the home (Vlady and Derek) wanted to go- and so did we- so we decided to try one of the mountains closest to Zürich, Flumserberg. It took us a little over an hour to get to the mountain and had a great variety of trails. The Swiss consider it to be a dinky mountain, but it seemed pretty decent sized to me (certainly at least comparable to most NH/VT mountains). The weather was fantastic and the conditions were amazing (in the morning at least)... the views were almost as good as the skiing! Matt hadn't been on skis since middle school and he did a really great job.
We had a slight hitch in the afternoon when we stopped for lunch at the top of the mountain. When we left the restaurant, it was snowing HARD- like white-out hard. We ended up in a situation where 1) 3 out of 4 of us had no goggles 2) there was only one really difficult slope down 3) we couldn't see a foot in front of us and 4) Derek had only been skiing maybe 8 times in his life. As embarrassing as it is to admit it, we had to take the lift back down. The lift operators were laughing at us hysterically (I am sure saying 'Stupid Americans')- ahh well, what are you going to do? At least we all came out with no broken limbs...

New Year, New News!

It's a new year with new news. We are adding a new little Swiss Miss or Swiss Mister (as my sister likes to call it) to our family! Baby is expected +/- 10 days of July 18th! It will be an adventure giving birth in this country, I am already beginning to see the intricacies of their insurance system and their MANY rules. From what I understand, though, the quality of medical care here is quite good, so I think everything will work out fine.
We don't have a lot of info yet, but here are some initial pictures from the ultrasound at 8 weeks, 6 days:

Happy New Year!!

We had an awesome first new year in Zurich. We were lucky enough have some friends visiting from the US, so early in the day we toured around town with them.

Every year during the holidays the city decorates Bahnhofstrasse (the main street in Zürich), so we made sure to stay out past dusk

Then later on we had a little get-together with our old friends and our new friends here in Zurich. A bit before midnight we headed down to the lake (which is conveniently just a few blocks from our apartment) to see the fireworks display, which was really fantastic.
The Swiss seem to be quite reserved- we were definitely the loud Americans when the clock struck midnight.

Getting the champagne ready...

Matt & Derek toasting to midnight, college style.

Location:Feldeggstrasse,Zurich,Switzerland