I was snapped by a google car!

I've been meaning to tell you about this, but never got around to it. Just after we moved into our apartment I was walking down our street, just going for a stroll to explore our new town when a little blue car slowly drove past me... It had a funny looking thing on the roof and while I was still trying to figure this out it went SNAP! in my face! It was a Google car, busy capturing all of Switzerland for Google street view.

Here's a picture of a Google street view car with the camera on the roof. (It says Google on the car, that's how I knew...)

And here's a trike which they use in areas where the cars can't go, like narrow roads. Yeah you thought you could hide? Oh no, they will come and snap you too!

So that must have been in May after we moved in here. I just forgot about it because we thought it would take ages before they actually have Switzerland up on street view. But now it's here and you can see me walking down our street eating (South African) grapes! I'm wearing my hat as usual so you can't see my face really. But it's me!

Here's the link, I hope it takes you to the right spot. It's a bit difficult to navigate and to move around (click and drag) and see what you want to see. Takes some time getting used to. I'm walking past a light yellow house, there's a big grey bin in front of me and on the other side of the road there are lots of cars parked at a car selling place. I'm wearing what Andre calls my mushroom hat, a cream colored floppy hat and a long sleeve navy top. You can turn all around and see me from all angles! haha this is fun!

So now you can see the street where we live :-)

PS If you're family or a friend and want to see which one is our apartment you'll have to skype us. Coming from SA I still don't feel safe telling the world exactly which door is ours..

Bern

Finally! Here are the pictures from our day in Bern last Saturday. There were too many to choose from so I chose the best ones and put them in a slideshow/ video.

Some info on Bern from our Lonely Planet book: Switzerland, and things you'll see in the pictures:

The medieval town centre is u-shaped along a river bend (Aare river) and has been declared a World Heritage site.

The cobbled streets are lined with covered arcades and cellar shops. Pity we didn't get a picture of these shop doors leading you underground. You can see the covered arcades in the pictures.

There are 11 decorative fountains built around 1545 which depict characters from history and/ or folklore. The most famous is the Kindlifressenbrunnen (Ogre Fountain) of a giant snacking on children!

The Zytglogge (Zeitglockenturm in High German), clock tower, has revolving figures that begin twirling at four minutes before every hour. We didn't wait to see this, but I did get a picture of a bunch of people staring up at the clock (also pictured) waiting for this.

There was a huge market when we were there, I'm not sure if this happens every Saturday? One section was selling all kinds of stuff like clothes, baskets, jewelry, DVD's, anything. And then there was the fruit and veg market which sold all these delicious fresh foods including breads, meats, cheeses, flowers, honey and lots more.

Did you know that Einstein lived in Bern? He actually developed his theory of relativity in 1905 here. You can visit the apartment where he lived with his family which is now a museum. We didn't but André took a picture of the outside of it. You can see it in the video.

Also in the pictures you'll see the 15th century Gothic Münster (cathedral). Everywhere you go in Switzerland there will be something that is the highest or the steepest or the fastest or the best in something. Bern apparently has the tallest cathedral at 100m. You can climb the hundreds of steps up the tower but of course not something I would do!

Behind the cathedral is a lovely park. There were some people playing games and there's a café under the trees. (This is the picture where André is sticking his tongue out at me.)

You can see the 1902 Houses of Parliament. A beautiful building, Saturday pictured with the market in front of it. It has a stained glass dome and apparently a huge, 214-bulb chandelier. We didn't notice this when we were there but I actually see we did get it in the picture!! If you look carefully you might see it too with the lights on shining through the window right in the centre.

In 1191 some powerful duke (I'm not going to bore you with names) had his first hunting success here, shooting a bear, or Bärn in the local dialect, and that's where this city got it's name.

Hope you learnt something today? I did! Now here are the pictures, enjoy :-) If for some reason you can't see the video here, you can go to my vimeo page by clicking here.

Bern, Switzerland from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

I survived my first haircut!

I finally did it! Went for my first visit to the hairdresser here in Switzerland. I decided to go to the one André went to a while back. There are many hairdressers working there and the girl who did my hair was really nice. Nice is important to me. You have to be nice to me if you're going to do my hair. My hairdresser in cape Town was very very nice to me. So this girl is from Kosovo, click the link to see a map if you don't know where it is. I didn't.

She understood what I wanted. I had to speak German as none of them speak any English but we understood each other. She kept asking me "Ist es gut?" (Is it good/ Are you ok?) which they actually pronounce here more something like "Ish gut?" So she scored points for checking on me. She scored bonus points when she told me my German is very good, after I told her it's not just so she understand she shouldn't even try speaking Swiss German to me. She reckons in half a year my German will be perfect! That's good news, but I'm not so sure. Maybe if I visit her once a week for a chat in German.

Now to get to the actually cutting and coloring. I've been used to spending 3-4 hours at the hairdresser for my highlights. This morning I was there for just over an hour only. Not complaining about that because I don't like sitting there for long. It took her only 10 minutes to put the highlight stuff with the foils on my hair! TEN minutes! That's a record. I explained that I only wanted half a head highlights, so that's only the top which shows when my hair is down and the sides which shows when my hair is tied up. And that she did. In about 50 min less time than it took my hairdresser back home. But then she did not do it nearly as carefully. It looks fine actually, but Delene back home made it look perfectly natural and blended in, strand by tiny strand. And I have a lot of hair. I always felt bad asking Delene to do a full head of highlights for me.

The colour is not exactly what I was hoping for but it could have been worse. And I think this might actually blend in even more with my natural color. I'm not going to post a picture. I'm sure Andre will capture me with the new lens he's getting this weekend soon enough to show you what it looks like.

My hair is now also a whole lot shorter which feels better. Strange but better. It was very long and now it's just on my shoulders. So a big difference. I do like some change.

I wont have my hair blow-dried at the hairdresser again. They don't get it as straight as I like it. I came home and immediately got the straightener out. If I don't it's all fuzzy and all over the place.

It cost me Sfr. 90 for highlights, cut and blow-dry which I feel is not that bad. That's R673, double what Delene charged me but she did not ever charge me very much. At any other salon in SA I expect I would have paid around the same as I did here today.

So after being so nervous and scared and sitting there all tensed up, it was actually not that bad.

I got another teaching job!

But first I have to say, what's with this HEAT? It is extremely hot here in der Scheiwz. I wish I had a thermometer at home so I could tell you how hot it really is now. I'm sitting out on the balcony, I dragged my desk chair outside because we don't have outside furniture yet so I'm actually very comfy (it's a good chair :-), and if I use my imagination I can feel a tiny little bit of cooler air. But I think it's just my imagination, that's all. André always says women don't sweat, we just glow. Well I don't think there was any glowing going on today, it was definitely sweating! So Switzerland is not only all about snow. Oh no.

Last week I went for another interview. This one to work only mornings as my afternoons are now all filled with English lessons and the classes are filling up nicely. The owner of this English play school is actually moving to South Africa. Not only South Africa, but to Atlantic Beach Golf Estate in Melkbos! Small world! Her husband is South African and so they are moving back there with their son. She has sold the school to someone else. I got the job to take over the curriculum planning from her and to teach. I spent the morning there today and really enjoyed it. I start next month and I'm looking forward to it. Now I can really settle into a routine and know where I'm going and where the money is coming from! Andre has been such a good husband and taking very good care of his new wife, but it would be good to earn some of my own money again too.

I've had almost a year off now. And I haven't been bored for a bit. I love being at home. But it will be good to work again too. (I just keep telling myself that!)

So have I told you how hot it is? Shame I hear you Cape Tonians are being washed away there by the rain. I've put the cookies I baked into the freezer to have something cool to nibble on. It makes them nice and crunchy.

Ok, let me stop talking nonsense now and sort out Saturday's photos of Bern so I can show you.

This and that

On Saturday we drove to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. It's a beautiful city and we had a great day walking around there. More about Bern and pictures later.

I did some baking again over the weekend. I baked a Hungarian tart. It was delicious and didn't last very long!

I finally bought what I thought would be a non-stick spray as I know it from South Africa (Spray & Cook), but it's not the same. It's just some kind of an oil that is spritzed out, not an even spray. It's not the same stuff inside. Here's a picture of the one I bought.

School started yesterday and so did my English classes. Yesterday afternoon I was back at the little 4 year old girl for her private lesson at her house. I've now also got her younger almost 3 year old sister joining us too. Her attention span is of course not that long so she's just around joining in when she feels like it and at least hearing English while I work with the older sister. She was so excited when she saw me and this got the little one excited too which was a good thing. I was worried how she would react being with me, because her mom said she takes a long time to get used to someone. But it went well.

Today I'm free all day! So good! The two boys I'm supposed to have on a Tuesday after school can't make it this week. And tomorrow I've got my group of six 4-6 yr olds for beginner reading and writing. I've got lots of great stuff prepared for them, but still have some things to do, so that's what I'm going to do now.

Oh oh I forgot to tell you! I finally made a hair appointment! I'm going on Thursday morning. So I'll let you know how it went then. Please hold thumbs that it will turn out well.

It's been soooo hot for days now. It's lovely but it can get a bit much. I'm sure next summer we will appreciate the warm weather more after a proper cold winter. I love these summer evenings though, when it starts to cool down...

Ok, let me go finish my school work so I can get some relaxing time in too later.

Luzern in the rain

My mom and Jürgen (my step-dad) came to visit us last weekend. I am truly blessed to be so close to them again. It's not good being far away from your family. It can't always be helped but after more than 6 years away from my mom (when I was still in South Africa and she living in Germany) I appreciate it so much now being only 4 hours drive away from each other. Just wish my sister could be a little closer too... she lives in California. But she might be a little bored living here after almost 9 years of exciting Hollywood life I think.

Friday evening I made home made pizza. Oh so delicious as always! Mmm... now this gives me an idea for dinner...

Saturday we drove to Luzern. I really wanted to walk around Zurich, but they had a huge parade there this weekend and we didn't feel like being squished between hundreds of people. So we went to Luzern. I really like Luzern. We're going there again this Saturday. But that's because André needs to stop by the archery shop.

It's a beautiful town. I love the bridges with the flowers all along it.

Unfortunately last Saturday was very rainy. It rained the whole time we were there. Us South Africans aren't used to walking around in the rain for fun. When it rains, you stay indoors. I didn't even own an umbrella in SA. When you have to go out in the rain, you run from your car into the building you need to be or park undercover. But here people go on with their business outside as normal.

Once we got over getting a little wet it was actually quite nice to see Luzern in the rain, with a grey sky and dark water in the river. I like how the rain here falls straight down. Quiet and peaceful. No howling wind like in Cape Town, forcing the rain into every little crack in your house until it comes streaming down the walls inside your lounge. (This really happened to me a few times.)

So here are some pictures of our day in Luzern, some taken by Jürgen and some by my mom. I was just holding my umbrella to stay dry and didn't even take out my camera this time.

Another Summer camp

This time the theme was pirates and water. I don't know much about pirates and they've never interested me. They are bad and violent people and I wouldn't choose to teach kids about this, but if you leave the violent part out, kids do like to play pirates, especially the boys. (The girls enjoyed trying on the jewelry in the treasure chest.)

We had a pirate ship in the one classroom in which the kids could play with a treasure chest with some 'treasures' in, which they could fight over. Each time I would take it away and hide it in a drawer. By the 3rd day they would bring me the treasure chest themselves to hide when a fight breaks out! Proper pirates!!

We made all the accessories pirates need- hats, telescopes, treasure maps and so on with a treasure hunt on the last day. We also learnt a bit about water- the water cycle and fish. Here's the scene from the story "Drippy the raindrop" about the water cycle.

There were 22 3-5 year olds from 8:30 - 16:30 with 2 teachers and an assistant. Again it was a bilingual course and I of course did the English part. The assistant was a great help and could speak perfect English too.

I did enjoy it but am glad it was only three days. On Tuesday evening I was totally exhausted. André laughed at me because all I could do was sit and stare. Went to bed early and just lay there! I couldn't even hold up a book to read!

When I woke up on Wednesday morning I was wondering why my legs felt as though I've done a really tough gym class, sore muscles like when you've had a proper workout. Then I realized it's from bending down all day long to these little kids and squatting on the floor beside them!

I am really appreciating the day off today! I had a lazy morning, didn't even walk with André to the station this morning. André cleaned the whole house on Tuesday when he was home (and he does a better job than I do actually) so I don't even have house work to do. Such a good husband I have :-)