3 weeks in Switzerland

Today is the first day that I'm actually a little bored at home and don't know what to do with myself. Maybe it's because there's no more flat hunting or furniture shopping and we're half way moved in.

Next on my list was to find health insurance for us here. That I did last night and we're now waiting for two quotes. The price is actually not that bad, similar to what we paid in South Africa if not less. The only difference is that we will have to pay up to a certain amount which we decide on. For the one quote we chose CHF 1500 and for the other CHF 2000. That means that we have to pay all medical bills up to that amount and only then when we go over that amount per year will the insurance start paying. (Make sense? Took me a while to understand.) In that way our insurance in SA was better because for the same monthly price they also payed for just about any little bits of meds or dr's appointments. Dentists are not paid for by the basic insurance here apparently, which is a pity because André's got toothache again. Which reminds me I must get him something for the pain. It's still where his wisdom tooth got extracted that's giving him problems...

Anyway, what I actually wanted to tell you about was our move into our flat this weekend. On Friday we went to IKEA and made final decisions about what we're going to buy on Saturday. They give you little shopping list cards and a pencil and measuring tape if you need one. Then you go around writing down what you want with it's price and some things also tell you on a card on the piece of furniture on display in which row and on which shelf you'll find it in the self service area downstairs. You write that down too. Here's a picture of my shopping lists or Einkaufsliste - everything German of course.

Then the we went to someone at one of the many information desks who was wearing a badge with a UK flag on it (meaning they can speak English). They printed a list of everything we want with the rows and shelf numbers all in order which really helped otherwise we would have been running around from one end to the other. André and I each took a trolley. We loaded as much as we could. It felt like a treasure hunt, following my list and looking for the correct row, shelf and then product number to make sure we got all the things we need. 

When our trolleys were full we went to get the keys to the van we hired. Luckily someone came to help André load the boxes which were quite heavy. Then back in again to get the rest. Five trolleys later we had everything in the van.

I was very proud of André's driving skills. First time driving on the other side (I won't say wrong side!) of the road and with a big van full of furniture. He did so well, while I was just about a nervous wreck!! Luckily we didn't have far to drive. It was just in the next town, about 5 minutes drive.

When we arrived at the flat, Jürgen was there waiting for us. I don't know what we would have done without his help this weekend. Actually, I know there would have been lots of tears (from me) and arguments (also from me) and André would be patiently putting up with it all while at the same time trying to build our furniture. 

So instead, while I kept myself busy in my new kitchen, the guys worked extremely hard. They were building on Saturday from about 4 - 9pm. They did the sleeper couch, desks and chairs, and our bed and two sets of drawers for our room. Then on Sunday morning they worked from about 9am-2pm building our cupboard, headboard and the kitchen table.

And I prepared them their well deserved meals!

Unfortunately my camera's battery died halfway through the weekend so I will post some more pics of the rest of our apartment later. I'm back at the B&B today since we don't yet have internet at the flat. This is something that's making me very nervous. We applied online last week Wednesday and it said that it could take up to 4 weeks... We've already got cable there (we're getting internet through cable) so I don't know what they have to do... Press the start button for us or something? Maybe they have many people wanting them to press the start button for them? But this is sounding like the waiting period in South Africa. Hopefully we will get it soon. Let's stay positive and not panic.

Oh I almost forgot! I also got some presents!

An ironing board and iron to keep me busy!

And here's two pictures Jürgen took of what our room looked like at the end of Sunday. I like it! :-)

I love the headboard part. It has a cupboard/ drawer/ shelf that pulls out on both sides with shelves. Smart!

I'm going to edit the video I took this weekend and will post that later too.