several updates!

at a Mexican Independence party.

Sorry I haven’t blogged in so long, I have been busy… making a baby!
So here’s a list of random stuff that have been happening on our side of the world:

Baby:
I just had another appointment with my doctor and everything looks good. The baby is kicking now with full force and you can see my belly jumping, moving and contorting, kinda like in the movie “Alien”. The belly is oh so huge, and still growing. It started a perpetual growth spur between week 24 and 25 and there’s no end in sight… well, there is: December 24th, remember? Anyways, we now the sex of the baby. Actually, we’ve known the sex since week 13 (I am now week 27… almost 7 months to those of you doing the math). Do you want to know? Leave a comment and I will make sure I send you a personalized email (what a clever way to get people commenting, no?).

We’ve also decided on a hospital to have the baby, and my dr. is sending all my files there so they have my records. For next time, I’ll give you a quick rundown of how things work when having a baby in Switzerland. There’s some interesting stuff to share.



2-year anniversary
I probably wont have time to post this on the actual anniversary, because I will be busy with my dad, who will be visiting for a couple of weeks (more on that below) so here it is now: On October 5th is the second year anniversary of my arrival in Switzerland (I say “my” because gera arrived a month before me). So much has happened since then… The plan was to stay here for a couple of years and then move on to somewhere else… now with the baby on the way we’ll just have to adjust our timeline a bit and stay a bit longer. But be certain that we will be moving next year. Where? Well, I’ll just say the planets are aligning and plans are being made. More on that when we know more.

As for the progress/changes during the last year… there hasn’t been many milestones. Since we stopped going to german classes last year the language hasn’t improved a great deal, BUT I do feel I understand a lot more, and I have been known to order and ask questions at the store in german, so it really cant be all that bad, can it? We’re thinking we should start lessons again somewhere, maybe even just with a CD course.

I have made many more Spanish-speaking friends too! (at this rate, I will forget even my English). There’s now a group of seven of us that get together regularly for lunch or dinner. I love having people that understand where you come from and that are going to the same expat experience as you. I also made friends with a girl from Venezuela, who is also pregnant (1 week behind me). We have so much in common it is scary. She is also a graphic designer, and she used to live in the US (St. Louis), we’re the same age, and got married the same year (among other things). It is also super great to have a pregnant friend, I am so lucky! ( I am sure you will read more about her).


gera and shopping:
Gera is on his way to the US as I type this… (right now!). He’s going to a conference in Nevada, then to Dallas to visit family, and finally to Indiana for other work-related visit. He will be gone for a bit more than a couple of weeks, and I was pretty sad to see him go this morning. BUT I keep trying to look at the bright side and think that my dad arrives tomorrow (see below, again). Anyways, we have been online shopping like crazy and while in Dallas, Gera is going to pick up a few* things we ordered. (*few meaning a stroller, stroller bag, video camera, some books, some clothes, and some other stuff). We also ordered a bunch of other stuff to be delivered to El Paso and my dad will be bringing that. He even had to pack a extra suitcase and get some “space saver” bags just to get stuff to fit (thank you dad!). Getting all this stuff will make it feel like christmas in October!

Dad’s visit:
Perfectly timed for gera’s absence, my dad will be coming to visit for a few weeks. I am soo very happy yo see him, and very excited for him, since this is his first time coming to Europe! He’ll be here for about a week straight, and I have some plans to propose for his stay during that time, which include day trips to Laussane, Bern, Basel, Luzern, Milan; and just walking around Zurich. I hope I am not a big party pooper and can make it through the sightseeing without getting too tired. He’s also got plans for some short visits to London, Paris and Bayeux. Gera took our camera with him, so I will have to make sure I get lots of photos with my dad’s camera (and don’t forget to download them to my computer before he leaves…)

Celphones:
We have finally gotten ourselves cel phones! We’d never had one, and had survived without a mobile phone pretty well for all these years. Now with the preggo belly it was super important to be able to reach each other in case of emergencies, so we just got a pre-paid basic plan, and actually don’t plan to use them much at all: only for emergencies. Yeah, right! I can see myself calling him from the store to ask “what kind of bread do you want?” … not really an emergency. But we’ll try to be good and keep the calls to a minimum.

I will probably be MIA for a few weeks, but be patient because I am sure I will have a ton to share when I get blogging again.

freiburg

find more photos here: Flickr Album

We just got back from a quick trip to Freiburg, Germany. My (Mexican) friend Rocio used to live there, and her husband’s family still has an apartment there. She invited us to go with her and stay at her place for the weekend (gracias Rocio).

Freiburg is a small city, very lively and friendly and eco and multicultural (all of it due mostly to the university). We left on Friday night (aug 8) and although we could have saved a bit of money and gone with a “carpool-carsharing” system that is very popular around here, we opted to travel by train. It just made me feel safer than going on a car with a driver i don’t know, and who drives god know how fast, and… what if I get nauseus? Or I have to go the toilette?… so we ended up getting direct train tickets from Zurich to Freiburg, which in the end were not direct, as there was some problem with the train and we still had to change trains in Basel. But we made it in under 2 hours still.

We arrived Friday night and walked around a bit. Rocio showed us around the neighborhood and told is stories about her life as a student there). The next day we woke up early and headed for the Cathedral. There’s a market on the cathedral square every day, except Sundays, so this was our only chance to go. The market was lively, and with lots of local produce and flowers! Not to mention food… mmm. We had some wurst (susages) and spätzle (some traditional german pasta). Then, after going in the cathedral, we headed for a walk of the old town. There are little channels filled with water from the river that run on the streets of the old town called bächle They have been there since medieval times, supposedly to keep the city cool, as a water source for the animals and as a way to put out fires. Now they are mostly to keep the city cool, for kids to play in, for tourists to soak their feet in, and for the occasional foot-in-the-water accident (it is said that if you accidentally fall into a Bächle you will marry a local).

As usual, we walked a lot. This is what you do when you travel: you get on the train, sit for an hour or two, get to your destination and walk for hours! Walk around town, around a lake, around a forest, around a garden… Then you get back on the train and go home. We took it slow this time, since the pace was dictated by my belly and my aching feet. We visited a couple of museums, and a couple of churches (also typical day-trip itinerary). Then we met with Rocio for dinner at a beer garden/brewery. Afterwards we walked some more! (to see the spots we missed and that only a local could show us). Then we spent a bit of time at the Winekost, the wine tasting mini-fest on the cathedral square. After that, we were ready to go to bed, around midnight.

On Sunday we walked to the Schlossberg, a little mountain on the edge of town, where you can get an awesome view of the city and actually experience the back forest beauty. It was a long walk, with lots of stairs and hills. We had to stop several times for me to rest and catch my breath, but we eventually made it (45 minutes, some hills and almost 300 steps to get to the tower PLUS a more steps to get to the top of the 30 m high platform).

The view was amazing an the walk was quite an appetite building workout, so from there we headed to a kebab place, highly recommended by Rocio. Turns out the kebabs were closed, and although we waited for 30 minutes for them to open, we were just too hungry and ended up having lunch down the street. Gera and I were glad we did, because we got to try “Flammkuchen”, a pizza-like dish traditional in the area. It is like a very thin-crust pizza, with a cream sause (instead of tomato) and varied toppings, the classic being bacon and onions. Very tasty!

From there we headed to Titisee, a very picturesque (and touristy) lake, with lots of cuckoo clocks chops, lost of people and a nice place to swim (but we didn’t). After laying down for about 30 mins and walking a bit around the lake for a while, it was time to go back to freiburg, where we would meet with Rocio again for dinner and then head back to Zurich. This time we did experience the famous kebabs, which were good, but I guess our expectations were high after so much build up.

Later we said goodbye to Rocio and Freiburg, and after patching up some postcards with stamps trying to make sure they made it to their destination, we boarded our train back to Zurich. (we initially placed a .45 euro stamp on the postcards, and they needed 1 euro, so we bought several other smaller stamps to cover the missing postage, and ended up covering parts of the text in the postcard and some having about 40 cents too much postage).

I know I promised baby and belly pics, but since my next appointment is next week, I’ll just wait ‘til after it so I can have one more sonogram to add to the post. Unitl next time, don’t forget to comment!

I am going to Minneapolis!!

(Holding a package abril sent me for my birthday. Thanks sis!)

It is set, I have plans, I have tickets! I am going to Minneapolis in May!
Abril lives there, so I will be spending lots of time with her, when she’s not at school, cooking away… but we’re starting to make plans of all the things we’ll do together, like the good ol’ Bloomington times! Gera has a conference in Denver, but after that, he’ll also fly to Minneapolis and we’ll all be there together. I cant wait. Even though my trip is only 6 weeks away I have not taken out the suitcase (like last time). I am waiting for the weather in Zurich to get better, so I can take all my summer clothes out too (right now its rainy and cold).
Gera’s birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I have been experimenting with a recipe for his birthday cake, he wants “tres leches”. This 3-milk cake is a regular white cake cooked with extra eggs to make it harder, and then soaked in a mixture of 3 milks: sweetened condensed, evaporated, and whipping cream, all topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries (or shredded chocolate). It is YUMMY!. The first try was quite good, but the cake part was a bit too hard, but I think the secret is on the milk mixture and as long as that is good it all tastes great!

What I am taking? What am I bringing?

(photo: typical swiss/zurich dish in a convenient packet, just add mushrooms, cream and veil... I think i am taking some of those with me...)

I am making a list, I am checking it twice!
I’ve got 1 month and 1 day before my trip to Dallas, then Ruston, then Juarez. So in my weird little ways, it is time to start packing!!! Well, at least start thinking harder about what I need to pack (the actual suitcases will make an appearance in 1 or 2 weeks).

But before anything else, first, I make a list of the things I want to EAT! Yes, EAT! I don’t want to come back and think “oh! I should have eaten---while I was there”. So in my list of things to eat I write thinks like:
-horchata (rice water with cinnamon
-hotdogs (from a special place in Juarez: parque borunda)
-Ham and cheese torta with a ton of avocado (from Victortas in Juarez)
-Sushi (from the Monday/Sunday sushi buffet: all you can eat for 120 pesos=$11US=12.50CHF… and the sushi buffet here costs at least 45 CHF! You can bet I’ll be eating there every Sunday!)
-corn tamales (maybe my mom will make them for Christmas)
-Fast food! (taco bell, arbys, burguer king, oh my!)
-Barbacoa (mmmmm, that is all I have to say)

I’ve already started a box with things I will take with me, but when the suitcase comes out of the cellar, this is what is going in there:
-the ton of chocolate bars I’ve been collecting for family and friends (will probably go in the carry-on)
-gera’s old xbox (abril and robe brought it with them as a surprise last may, but forgot the cables… and the adaptor for the plug was going to be almost as expensive as buying an xbox here, so I am taking it back to sell it on ebay)

I haven’t thought much about what I am bringing because anything I bring will somehow have to make it back sometime… but for now, this is what I am thinking:
-candy (for gera’s labmates, who always bring candy back from their home countries)
-a popup tent for baby (my friend asked me to buy her this, she cant find it here)

So let me know if you want stuff from here,,. you’ve got time to do a little research and find that special, non-fda-approved product you’ve always wanted and could not get. (I take paypal and credit cards, hehe)

Zurich, Rome (part II)

----you've seen the photos and know where they are----

May 22: we stay home most of the day but we do go out for a walk behind my house because Roberto is starting to suffer from cabin fever, or what I’d like to call “homer-missing-the-cookout” syndrome (do any of you recall this? … characterized by a everything-is-is-happening-around-me-and-I-am-missing-it feeling.

May 24: we go to the Zurich Botanical gardens and to the Museum of medicine (hosted by the University of Zurich). It takes us a while (and a decent amount of walking) to find the museum, and once we’re there, we find it is empty and they actually have to turn on the lights for us (not very popular??). I just take a few minutes to stroll through a series of “instruments of torture” from the middle ages to present time. They have little engravings that show “how-to’s” from anything like pulling out a tooth, to pulling out a baby (not a nice picture). According to the old drawings, a cure for a lot of diseases was thought to be found by poking you in "unthinkable" places.. (not a nice picture either) I don’t like it all that much so I wait for the doctors outside (and I wondered why it was empty…)
We board the night train to Rome, where we play canasta and go to sleep.

May 25: We wake up in Rome, the Eternal City (I now think that by eternal, they mean “old”)
Our first stop (after dropping off our bags at the hotel) is the Colosseum. Its is spectacular and colossal, but I think it looks much bigger in pictures (maybe the camera adds 10 punds?). The sun is hard on our faces, and we are very thankful for all the little water fountains throughout the city. We cross the street from the Colosseum and enter the Forum. We take every chance we get to sit, rest and drink water. Man, it is hot! Walking through the forum feels stepping back in time… almost.
We keep walking until we reach the other end and into Capitoline Hill and the Capitoline Museum. After eating lunch somewhere nearby we are ready to tackle the Museum. We keep comparing the statues to characters from the Gladiator movie and wondering which one is Russel Crowe.
After that, we walk to the Trevi Fountain, where I toss 2 coins (tossing a coin is supposed to guarantee a return to the city; I tossed 2, just in case). Then we walk to the Spanish steps and we all remember this episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond” where they go to Italy and he says something like “why do they call it ‘Spanish” steps if they’re in Italy?”. I know, do you? (skip this if you don’t care: the steps are actually French, but the are called “Spanish” because of the Piazza de Spagna at the foot of the steps, which is called that because the Spanish embassy is there somewhere to the right of the steps, although it is the Spanish embassy to the Vatican, not to Italy)

After doing A LOT on our first day, we go meet our friend Kate (from IU, now residing in Rome). She takes us across the river to Trastevere for dinner. Sadly is the only time we step foot there, because we never found the time to come back later.

May 26: The next day, we literally RUN to Galleria Borguese. After leaving our bags at our friend’s house we were running a bit late for our appointment to go in to the Gallery. You have to make an appointment ahead of time and if you don’t show up, they sell your spot. We barely made it! The Borghese is a palace full of art, sculptures mainly, but also paintings.
We followed that with a visit to dead monks. We went to the Capuccin Crypts, where they have thousands of real human bones arranged “artistically” inside a crypts under a church (this was Robe’s pick). It was interesting, but small (no photos allowed, so no photos to share). We walked (I am starting to notice a pattern here) to the Pantheon, where we waited for like an hour to get in. Not because there was a line, but because there was a mass: the place still functions as a church! We finally got in, got some nice views of the dome and visited the tomb of Queen Marguerita and thanked her for naming my favorite pizza of the entire trip: mozzarella & tomato sauce. We did some walking around the area, and ended up at Piazza Navona. Sadly, the Four Rivers Fountain was being restored, so not much else to see there. We got some pizza for dinner and headed back to rest. The pizza ended up being more like “pizza sandwiches”, but still good

May 27: Today we realized that as the days progresses, our sightseeing time got smaller (we woke up later, returned home earlier…). It also did not help that we got on the wrong bus and lost like 2 hours. Well, it was the RIGHT bus, it was just going the wrong way, and if we had stayed on it, it would have eventually taken us to where we wanted to go (or so Roberto claimed, after failing to admit fault). So eventually we got to where we wanted to go: Palatine hill. This is like a compilation of palaces and gardens (in ruins) where supposedly Rome was founded. Its got a great view to Circus Maximus, although that is not more than an oval dirt track.
We walked from Palatine Hill to Circus Maximus, and imagined Ben Hur in a chariot race.
We visited Michelangelo’s Moses with horns at the St. Peter in Chains Catherdral , and then walked to the nearby Bocca della Verita , where I wanted to take a picture, but the line was so long and I was so hungry, that I just snapped a shot through the gates instead. That night we saw fireworks sitting on the balcony, it was a great end to a long day,

May 28: Vatican: Museum, sistine chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Up the dome, St. Peter’s square. Tried to make it to Sta maria della vittoria to see Sta. Teresa in ecstasy. Almost missed the train, the boys RAN. Robe’s birthday, beers and mcDonalds

May 29: Back in zurich

May 30: Abril and Robe go back to Juarez, and we’re all alone again. Snif…

they're here!

well, almost!
Roberto, Abril, Baba and Ali arrive tomorrow! we're very excited to see them!
They've been traveling a bit before coming here (london and paris), and this coming weekend we will all be going to Venice!!
Then Baba (my sister) and Ali (a friend) will go back to Mexico, but Roberto and Abril will stay 'til the end of the month. We are hoping to be able to take another trip before they leave.
I have made friends with a couple of girls from Mexico. They're super nice and we get along great! I feel like things are going back to normal, after a few months of "settling in".
We are still going to German classes, every tuesday and wednesday from 8-10pm. I feel we've made a lot of progress, and we can manage to make sentences (even if the grammar is not quite there yet). The teacher says we are VERY very good for a beginner class (we're even better than her other beginner class!! nananana). The class ends on july 4th, and i think we'll stop taking classes after that, and maybe just continue on our own.
Its been already 8 months since I got here (9 for Gera), and 10 since we left Bloomington, but who's counting?
oh, and Happy Mother's Day (in mexico it is always on the 10th, here on the 13th)
hint hint: i have not heard from a lot of you... I hope you're all ok, enjoying spring, and having fun in the sun! dont forget to write.