Last working day in Switzerland

Yesterday I had my last day at the playschool where I've been working. I will miss the cute little kiddies and also my colleagues. I really enjoyed working there. How many people can say they can go to work in jeans and pink fluffy slippers every day?

For now I am enjoying a little bit of holiday. We're spending a long weekend in Germany. For the first time we managed to leave early and I was excited to arrive in Germany in day light. But that did not happen... Just over an hour into our journey, right by the Austrian border, I suddenly realised with a shock that I left my passport and Euros at home!! Stupid stupid stupid. We turned around. Drove all the way back home. Got my passport and then tried again. It made our trip an extra 2 1/2 hours longer. Ergh. But we're here now and enjoying it :-) They now probably won't ask to see our passports, but had we not gone back to fetch it they probably would have!

EEA family permit application

So yesterday we went to hand in Andre's application for an EEA family permit. I can't remember if I wrote about this right when I started this blog. No I actually think we already knew we were coming to Switzerland when I started this. Literally a few hours before we paid an agency a year ago to handle our UK application, we got the news that Andre's Switzerland permit was approved. So we cancelled the UK arrangements and came here instead. 

But as you know, we're now leaving and finally will be going to the UK. Hopefully. 

Because I have an EU passport Andre can apply for an EEA (European Economic Area) family permit and can then stay there as long as I'm there. (Who's the trailing spouse now! haha!) 

An EEA family permit is free and it can't really be refused. Unless of course you're a terrorist or have a criminal record or something, none of which Andre has of course. But to be safe we had a lawyer help us with the paper work and make sure we have everything we need for our application. We didn't want to get something wrong or miss anything and then not get it.

But if you ever need to apply for this particular permit, you really don't need to pay anyone to help you. You can ask me what you need to do, I won't charge you! We had this huge folder with so much stuff that the lawyer said we needed. The lady at the visa application centre wasn't interested in half of it. The lawyer told us to have photos of us to prove that we've known each other for long, that we live together, letters from friends and family saying we are a happily married couple etc etc. I guess it's better to rather have more than less in this case. And we'll keep it all together in the folder. Andre is only getting entry clearance now. He will have to apply for a residence permit or something like that within 6 months when we get there.

So we're tracking the process online. Our application has ben sent to Geneva and has arrived there. It will take minimum 5 working days, but could of course take a bit longer. We're hoping for the minimum!

Hold thumbs!



-An update since I've had so many questions about applying for an EEA Family Permit. It was very easy and straight forward, here's the link with all the info you need plus how to apply: EEA Family Permit

Sushi

A while ago André had a work function and they got to go on a sushi course at this restaurant, Ishi, in Zürich. Even though we've made sushi many times at home, he came back with lots of interesting facts about sushi and tips on making different kinds. Click here to see us making sushi for new years eve in Germany.

Here the guys are on the course at Ishi.

And Andre even thought of his wife at home and brought me left over sushi which he made himself!

Andre's favourite is salmon roses, but we haven't seen it on any sushi menus here. It's a bit of rice, wrapped in salmon with mayo and caviar on top. So the sushi chef at Ishi said he would make Andre salmon roses. This is the chef:

A few weekends ago Andre took me to this restaurant. We started with... guess... cocktails! And of course I had a pina colada! What else!

Ok after that we went on to the sushi. We started with a surprise platter, which consisted of a mix of about four different kinds of sushi. Then Andre went and asked the chef if he could make those salmon roses he promised. He asked if we would like small or large salmon roses. And of course Andre said LARGE! Maybe if I were with him when he spoke to the chef I could have said small, but I didn't know there was this choice...

Well. They were huge. Eight of them. There was no way you could get the whole piece in your mouth in one go. It was more like a three bite piece of sushi! But is was good, just very rich. I can recommend the sushi at Ishi. Just ask for small salmon roses!

Valentine's dinner

Last weekend we went for a Valentine's dinner with friends. Andre and I spend all our time together so we didn't feel the need to have a romantic dinner, just the two of us. We do that every night at home. (He even lights candles! Lucky me :-)

A friend recommended the White Elephant to us. A Thai restaurant in the Marriott Hotel in Zürich. Before dinner we had cocktails at the hotel bar. A good bar with good cocktails. I liked the decor - leather couches etc. We could start rating cocktails with the amount we've been drinking since coming to Switzerland. Now I don't mean we've been drinking a lot. Actually we're not used to having much alcohol anymore since we don't have many friends to party with here! But when the guys drink beer, it's either wine for me or something nice like a cocktail. Pina Colada is my favourite by far so I've been comparing pina coladas all over Zurich!

The restaurant was lovely. We ordered a mixture of starters to share which was just amazing. Spicy papaya salad, spicy beef salad, spring rolls, fish cakes and prawns wrapped and fried with potato noodles. Absolutely divine. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures at the table. I really wanted to. It was hard not to. But I thought I should control myself for a change and not take so many pictures of everything. Just enjoy it. And we had friends. They might think I'm weird. I don't want that!

After that great starter we expected more of the same kind of food. The curries were good, because we like any curry, but it was not spectacular like the starter. And I was particularly sad when I ordered duck and got chicken... You know how I am. When I see duck on a menu I don't have to read any further. I didn't want to send it back and have to wait so I ate the chicken.

I decided to have dessert to make up for missing out on the duck. I had a scoop of green tea ice cream and a scoop vanilla. And it came with some traditional Thai ice cream toppings in separate bowls: sticky rice and two sweet fruity things. I think one was orange pieces in a syrup.

Next time I will order the starter for two as my main course!

Flammeküche

I've heard about Flammeküche and thought I can't leave Switzerland without trying this. So on Wednesday Andre met me for lunch in Zürich and we went to Café Balthazar where we've seen this on the menu before.

Translated it literally means "flaming kitchen". It's a specialty of the Alsace region in France. I have also heard it being called Flammkuchen.

It's like a pizza, but with a very thin base, crispy around the edges. Then instead of a tomato base it has crème fraiche. I had the classic one with onions and bacon bits. It was perfect. André had his with chorizo and olives.

Maybe some day I will try to make it myself. I've already found a recipe here.

On a couple of previous visits to Café Balthazar, this is what we had:

Apfelstrudel with Vanillasoße (thin custard) and hot chocolate!

What I've been doing with my mornings

I've been teaching at a playschool most mornings, working with children 18 months - 4 years old. Quite different from what I was used to- teaching grade one (age 6-7 year old children), but I've really enjoyed it. Above is the older group during circle time practicing numbers. You're wondering where the circle is? We're working on that too!

We do crafts every day and celebrate all the English and American holidays. These turkeys were for Thanksgiving. (It is an English playschool.) 

The entrance hall with a picture of each child on the wall. 

Toy room. 

Soft play room. (The kids' favourite!!)

Library

And the outside play area, mostly for summer time. As you can see it is now covered with snow...

Lost seagulls?

Andre and I both grew up by the beach. We were used to seeing seagulls all around us back in Melkbosstrand. Seagulls live by the sea. That's why they're called seagulls. Right?

We have seagulls here in Switzerland too though. 

It's bit confusing since we're not close to the sea anymore. Are these birds confused too? What do they think they're doing here? Especially now that's it's winter they look really out of place here. More like snowgulls than seagulls I think.

Mouse Trap

Sad at first I know, but watch to the end, it's funny :-)

How to meet people in Switzerland: Advertise your apartment!

Let me start by explaining something about rental contracts here in Switzerland. It's not that easy to get out of. You get two chances per year to get out. That's it. That's the general contract. It varies, sometimes you might have three dates a year when you may give up your apartment and some contracts will only allow it once a year. Some are so lucky that they may give three months notice any time of the year.

We had the "twice a year" contract. That means we can either give 3 months notice end of December to move out end of March or end of June to move out end of September. We've heard about this. We read our contract as best we could (it's in German obviously). But did miss this point.

So when we decided towards the end of January that we want to leave our apartment we thought we could just give three months notice and that would be it. No. We had just missed the official date to give notice so we had to find someone to take over the apartment from us if we wanted to move out. Now as I've mentioned in a previous post, the owners of our apartment are really nice people. And they said that we need to just do our best to find someone but if we don't then we'll make a plan together. Luckily the plan wasn't necessary.

I put an ad on homegate.ch on Monday as well as ads on any other expat sites I could think of. About six others. Monday night we received the first call for a viewing. And we had people all week coming to see the flat and all of them interested and handing in their application forms to the owners. On Thursday the owners said that's enough now! It sounds like tonight they're seeing the final couple and then will make their decision. That only took a week! What a relief.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about meeting people in Switzerland. We've had so many nice people coming to view the flat. Many expats from all over. If we were only moving to the next town instead of leaving the country we could have started some good friendships this way!

PS If you need to advertise your apartment here in Switzerland I would recommend homegate.ch instead of immoscout24.ch. On homegate you pay a basic fee plus CHF2.50 per day. When your apartment is taken then you remove your add and you won't pay any more. On immoscout you choose one, two or three months to post your ad for. I was going to choose two months because it works out cheaper than having to do it for one month and then another month. Luckily I then first checked out homegate. They worked out cheaper for a whole month than immoscout and now it will cost us even less because we only needed the ad for a week.

Cute video

I don't have my own (yet), but I enjoy kids and every now and then I check to see if this person has posted any new videos on vimeo. She posts the most adorable videos of her little daughter. Have a look at this one. Too cute! Also have a look at some of her other videos like "Fooling the tooth fairy" and "Too much sugar". Make sure you've got the sound on!


Disco Fever from Capucha on Vimeo.

My Tuesday and Wednesday classes

Yesterday I told you about my Thursday class. Today I'll tell you about my other two afternoon classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I'm looking for someone to take over these two classes from me, so if you're interested please let me know. It would of course help if you're a primary school teacher, but if not and you think you'd like to do this and like working with kids, let me know asap. I'll send you more details.

So on these two days I teach at Kidee, a learning centre for children. They offer all kinds of classes here and this is also where I did the Jungle book and Water theme summer camps. I teach English first language kids. So they speak mostly English at home, but attend a local school where they learn/ speak German. Their parents want them to still be able to read and write in their home language and so I teach them that.

I have two hours on a Tuesday, but at the moment I have only filled one hour. In this hour I have two 8 year old children. They are fairly fluent readers and able to write and spell quite well already. I give them reading exercises on topics they have chosen, comprehension tests, creative writing, spelling tests and we play word games. Lovely kids, hard working and eager to learn.

On a Wednesday I have a group of six children age 5-7. So they're between first year kindergarten and first year at school. We have now just finished learning all the sounds of the alphabet and next they'll start on double sounds like wh-, sh- etc. They have a book in which at first I gave them printed sentences with high frequency words to which they then drew pictures. Now they are able to write their own sentences and draw a picture with each sentence to remind them what it says. From not being able to read and spell 6 months ago they are now able to read and spell short words like cat, bed, and even longer ones like cave and love. These they know because we learnt that v cannot stand on it's own at the end of words. You see the letter v is Vicky Violet's vase and if it doesn't have an e after it at the end of words it will fall over and spill all the water and flowers. So always remember to put an e to make sure your vase won't fall over at the end of a word!

I love these kiddies, they are all really great children, well behaved, polite and so eager and excited to learn more. I will miss them when we have to leave.

My Thursday Class

I just got home from my "Thursday Class". And before I tell you about that I must just say that I noticed it was not completely dark yet when I left at 6pm. It did help that there weren't any clouds. It was a beautifully sunny day today. But I'm sure winter is slowly moving along south. Yippee! I can't wait for the longer days!

So I've been meaning for a long time to tell you what I do when I'm not at home writing blogs. And today I'll tell you about my Thursdays since thats what it is today. On Thursday afternoons I teach English to a small group of Swiss children. They're learning English as a second language and they've been in this class for two or three years now. They're six years old. And although most of them can't yet really have a conversation with me in English, they're doing really well and learning a lot of vocabulary. 

The picture above was taken in June. We did a lesson on kitchen vocab- table, knife, fork, etc so I brought sweets and we had a little picnic. A few of the kids have moved away after the summer when they started their first year in school. I now only have four kids in the class but tonight two was absent. It was so much calmer! They are real little busy bodies. And chatterboxes. My most difficult customer in the group was such an angel tonight and I guess that is why I now felt like writing about this class. It feels so good when a really difficult child is being so good for a change and participating. Hopefully it will be like that next week too when I have my last lesson with them.

Now another story about teaching here: We rent a classroom at an old age home. They like seeing the kiddies around. Tonight when I walked in, the door to the classroom was closed and a "Besetz" (occupied) sign was on the door. I knew what this meant. I've seen that sign a couple of weeks before. So I open the door, knock, say hello, say hello again, and again as I'm walking closer and right up to the old lady sitting at a table. She sees me, gets up, shakes my hand, asks me how I am etc all in Swiss German so I can't tell you exactly what she said. I ask her if she has a course on here tonight? There are two mattresses rolled out on the ground and some towels on the table. She says, what? I can't hear you. I repeat myself and she still can't hear me. I see her hearing aid lying on the table and it takes her another moment to realise that too. Because, I continue then, I have kids for an English lesson here from 5-6. No no she says, impossible, she has been here for years at this time for her class. Right, I think, you weren't here last week. And I know from a previous experience that you have got the days muddled up. (I don't say this to her.) I say instead: On a Thursday?  Yes, yes, for years, she says. On a Thursday from 5-6? Every Thursday, I ask. Hang on, she says and checks her diary lying open on the table. I look over her shoulder and see stuff written in at Fridays date. Nothing for Thursday. Oh dear, she says, it's Thursday today? I had the days mixed up. And she packs her things and leaves.

Now if I didn't have a class there on a Thursday, it would have been the second time she would have sat there waiting for her people. She teaches a breathing class she told me the previous time.

Good thing I showed up to tell her it's not quite Friday yet. But she made me speak an awful lot of poor German to make her understand that.

We're leaving Switzerland

Yes that's right, we're moving to the UK at the end of March. We'll be sad to leave some things behind in Switzerland, like new friends we've made and the snow, but we're excited to see many of our old friends who now live in the UK and to be able to speak English to everybody!! That is so exciting! I will be able to understand  people in the grocery store and the post office. Yay!

Andre will finish work next Friday. He still has some leave due which they're not paying out so he has to take the leave. I will be working until the end of March. I am still looking for someone to take over my two afternoon English lessons, so if any of the Swiss readers here know of a teacher who might be interested let me know!

It sounds as thought our apartment is also sorted out for renting. That went really well and really quickly. Much better than I thought. Apparently the couple is coming to sign the contract this evening and once it's signed we can tick that off the list. They're also interested in buying our furniture so then we might end up taking only what we came here with. Then I get to go shopping all over again :-) And Andre will get to build furniture all over again!

We'll be staying with some very kind friends when we get there, then hopefully we'll find a place of our own soon. (Thank you kind friends!) That makes it a lot easier than trying to find an apartment from way over here. I have NO idea which are nice areas over there. I'm actually looking forward to house hunting and starting all over again.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is going for interviews again... I'll miss my work here. I had some great kids in my English classes and I'll miss the little ones at the play school too.

So let me go and check my list to see what else needs to be done!

A snowy two days

This was the view from our bedroom window this morning. Everything is covered in white after all the snow we had on Sunday. After this bedroom window weather check I walked to the grocery store to go buy the groceries for the week. Andre discovered the car keys in his pocket when he got to work so I couldn't drive. It was nice to get out and get some (very) fresh air.

A few hours later it started snowing. 

It's dark now but it looks like it's still snowing.

I think this is the most snow we've had since we've been here. It looks like it might last a few days this time.

This is the view from our kitchen window. I love looking out the kitchen window. 

I walk across that little bridge every day to go to work. I saw Andre coming home across that bridge this evening. I was staring out the window again.

I have snow boots for days like these. I'll be wearing them tomorrow. That way I don't have to worry about messing up my nice boots. These ones aren't so pretty. They're not girly really. They're just waterproof and warm and don't mind the snow.

The "expensive island" we live on

I recently needed to have some documents translated from German to English and it had to be done by an official translator so I couldn't do it myself with the help of google and my little bit of German knowledge. After google didn't give me many translators to use I emailed the British embassy here in Switzerland. They were very helpful and sent me a long list of translators in the UK and here in Switzerland. I emailed about 13 of them for quotes! I didn't mean to get that many quotes but was just going down the list and sending each the same email. When I stopped to count I figured 13 quotes would be more than enough!

The Swiss translators all came back with about the same price. Then one in the UK emailed me with a quote at least half of what the Swiss wanted to charge. I mailed back to check that he is sure this is the price. Is this the total price? For all the documents? Not the price per document? You sure? Okay, then I'll definitely use your company to do my translations thank you very much!

I mailed the others again to say thank you for their quotes, but no thank you. I thought I'd just let them know why I'm not choosing them- that I found someone in the UK who can do it for so much cheaper. A couple of them replied:

"Thank you for your comment. Of course, we are a Hochpreisinsel (English: expensive -high price- island). That's why everybody loves to come here, as salaries are higher. Or do you hear anyone - inclusive political parties - to beg for lower salaries?"


"Thanks for your kind feedback! Obviously, prices are much lower in UK than
any prices for any thing in Switzerland....I do wish it was not so! So, your
decision is the right one, of course."

I thought it was quite nice of them to reply and also admit to how expensive everything here is. We have not complained about the price of anything here, because as the one person above says, the salaries are so good. We have nothing to complain about.

But then we haven't lived in any other European countries to compare. After spending a bit more time in Germany over Christmas we did notice the difference in price when eating out... And I guess once you know how much less you can pay somewhere else it does make it more difficult to have to spend so much more here.