Boricua en la Lima

Yesterday we ventured out to the "beach".  It opens at 10 am and in true Jose fashion we were there at 9:30 am.  To my surprise by the time the gates opened there was a pretty long line and people were rushing in when the gates opened to find a good spot.  We ended up situating ourselves around the kiddie pool of course.  The kids had a blast going between this one and the adult pool where there was one of those big winding slides that Gabi actually went down in after getting up enough courage to do it.  We were only there until ~12:30 pm cause we started getting tired and hungry but it was pretty crowded by then.  Sebas loved the sprinklers although fell right smack into the pool at one time from running out of the sprinklers a little too excitedly.  The funniest thing about the whole day was that we didn't actually found a beach.  It's more like a big water park with different pools and stuff.  And I guess people do jump in the lake....

Things I wish (and thought) should've been on the air shipment but weren't: - Cat stuff: when the cat arrived I had to run out and get food, plates, cat litter, a cat litter box, and a scooper which was the HARDEST thing to find on Earth. - My SCALE (which was a wedding gift from Mauricio): I want to know what I weigh in POUNDS not Kilos thank you. - CAR SEATS:  We have to return the rental car today and come to realize we don't have car seats for the kids.  And I refuse to buy a new car seat because there are TWO FREAKING CAR SEATS for Sebas in the move when now we only need one because we only have one car. - Contact lenses:   Before we left Cincinnati I bought a 6 months contact lens supply not knowing when I would find an optometrist and also being pretty sure whatever I got at Sam's club would be waaaay cheaper than what I found here.  I only packed one month's supply though (maybe 6 weeks) and I am dangerously low on that supply.  If I have to...

We'd been going past this place a few times.  It's literally two doors down from our house.  We went in last night on a "special date" with Gabi.  It was a lot fancier than we expected given the facade that we always walk by, but it was a great little place to go back to (especially when Dads visit and they can afford to pay for all of us).   The best part is that it's literally next door.  http://www.hostariadevillette.ch/main.php I loved seeing the pictures on the wall of how our street looked like 100 years ago...which is SURPRISINGLY the SAME as it looks like right now. Also, I had a flourless chocolate torte with apples in it and ice cream on the side so I gotta go on the treadmill for an hour today...

It was bitterly cold this weekend.  As if summer had decided to stay in Cincinnati and not come with us.  Plus it's been raining and overall super dreary. But we decided to do a bit more exploring this weekend nonetheless.  When we came back from Yvoire last Sunday our next door neighbor (who also owns the house we are living in) recommended that we go to Annecy, he said it was even more beautiful than Yvoire which was a little hard to believe.  But I guess he was right.  This place reminded me so much of Venice, but it might be even prettier than Venice because it's not so crowded. Although who knows had the weather been a little better.  We walked around, had wonderful food, then did the pedal boats around the lake, followed by a little train ride which let us discover everything they had there.  We discovered they have a little beach so we'll definitely be bringing our friend Mara when she comes to visit.  Hopefully the weather is ...

The food here is awesome.  I joke about having a glass of wine and brie every night and it's actually not far from the truth.  I remember during our house hunting visit going to some "fast food" sandwich place in the middle of the city and having the most amazing sandwich - it was the simplest recipe: baguette bread, brie, and lettuce. I loved it.  Not to mention the belgian waffle covered in chocolate that followed it.  But then somethig happened and I started to get that "American food" craving.  Right before we left we went to one of those fancy chain food seafood restaurants and I remember ordering apple pie.  And don't get me wrong, I have ALWAYS liked apple pie, but never to the point where I would pass something made of CHOCOLATE in favor of apple pie.  But I wanted to eat anything that was remotely American. Now I crave all things American: hot dogs, apple pie, hamburgers.  And I've never been one to eat those things, well maybe except f...

Thank goodness it's Friday cause this morning I've had enough aggravation for the whole weekend.  Jose got home last night from London thank goodness not too late.  But this morning he had to wake up super early to purchase the used car from his boss.  So I'm stuck again having to do the "goodbyes" at home with the kids which are getting worse and worse because they cry every time I leave.  It's heart breaking.  But then I got the bus which was even faster than before so that was good.  However, as soon as I get to work and start cranking away on the to do list the nanny calls that we have to move the car because of the construction. At first I thought she was calling to say Sebas had thrown up again cause last night he threw up all over his bed and I had to wash clothes in the middle of the night without Jose being there in that crappy washer/dryer that doesn't dry anything.  Worse yet I had to take Sebas' blankie away from him which is a huge ordeal....

It seems like I take two steps forward and then two steps back. Today I had an allergist appointment at 11 am so I decided to combine " car errands " to use the car only one day and go back to the bus tomorrow . Yes I'm that green. No I'm not really that green it's just that driving in the city is so aggravating it's so much easier to take the bus (even though last night coming home I missed my exit in the rain so I had to walk longer than I normally would in the pouring rain in flip flops ). But anyway , first I went to Gabi's future school to drop off an application for summer camp so that she'll have something special to do during at least one week this summer . Of course it takes me 20 min. longer to get there cause I'm going around in circles cause the GPS can never find the exact address . At least I heard that she's getting in so...

Today I took the bus into work for the first time. It's a relatively short walk from our house to the bus stop and then two buses to make it to work. This is definitely where the Swiss start to impress. The buses are on time, there is an iPhone app to show you the routes and times, the buses are super clean, and even though it took me slightly longer to make it to work than if I had been driving (55 minutes vs. 45) I don't have to worry about getting lost, or the damn stop and go traffic, or parking here at work (which is 12 swiss francs a day), plus I can read a book on the way to work, listen to music, read email, etc. So that's definitely something I hope to keep doing every day. Not to mention it's green too! I also started to work out again. I joined the gym here at work. About twice as expensive as the one back in Cincinnati but it's a very pretty facilities with the whole placed windowed with views to the city. I haven't tried the group classes yet but ...

This week we've made quite a bit of progress. We have internet, we have TV, we went to IKEA yesterday and spent HOURS looking at stuff, and yesterday we got our work permits. On Friday we also got the air shipment, although we didn't nearly plan that one as well as we should've because we basically only got clothes when we needed to get a lot of more "urgent" stuff like for the cat (who also arrived on Friday), tool box, etc. All these things we need to be able to use now. But oh well. At least that means that the only items left on our list are getting drivers licenses and getting the rest of the move. I stayed up until about midnight on Friday putting clothes away...so I'm not looking forward so much to the amount of work I'll have to do when the rest of the move arrives though. Given pretty much nothing is open on Sundays we decided to go exploring a little. We went to Yvoire, a cute little French town less than an hour away from here. It was so ...

We have phone today! No internet though. And no TV still either. Gabi turned out to be OK from her Friday accident. She had a pretty deep cut so I thought she might need stitches (I’ve had my share of stitches in the past). We had to go to 3 hospitals before we landed on the right one (even though a friend had already sent me the information but in the thick of it you can’t even think). When the nurse saw her she also thought she needed stitches but then eventually when the doctor saw her she said it would probably be better to let it heal on her own. At least it’s in the back of her head so not visible. She would be devastated with her princess status. :) At least now we know where the good hospital is when it’s a REAL emergency (knock on wood there never is one). Now we set up pediatrician appointments for Friday just to get to know them. They speak Spanish a little so that’s great. The nanny is the temporary one and not only she cooks and cleans but also washes and irons! ...

The move went well although the house isn’t nearly as set up as I’d like it to be – no TV, phone, internet! So the kids are at home trying to get used to a new nanny without too much entertainment. Plus none of our move has made it yet so we’re basically living off the same suitcases we’ve been living off since May 24th when we moved out of the house in Cincinnati. And our washing machine wasn’t hooked up until this morning so we’re all wearing clothes that are a little bit stinky. But that’s the European way I guess!!! At least we’re out of the hotels I was getting so tired of the hotel life especially when Gabi hit her head on a corner table last Friday and we ended up in the ER! I practiced my French a lot as a result – I’m learning FAST. But after that I was like “THAT’S IT! THIS HOTEL ROOM IS TOO SMALL WE’RE GOING TO THE HOUSE”. And we have groceries for the house so we can at least eat home cooked meals (by the nanny which are so much better than anything I could do on my own). W...