Funny Translation of the Day

Yesterday while Brady and I were strolling around our neighborhood running some errands, I saw a billboard for toothpaste. The gist of the sign was that it was advertising toothpaste for irritated gums. However, there was a word I was unfamiliar with: "Zahnfleish". This literally translates to "Tooth meat". I took it to mean "gums". The literal translation left a "bad taste in my mouth"! :)

A Work in Progress

The rest of our Ikea furniture arrived Tuesday and after marvelling once again at the "wonderful" directions that Ikea provides for putting this stuff together, we are now starting to look like we live in a real house. I've posted a picture of our living room...still a work in progress. However, it's the most put together room so far.

(And yes, that's only one part of the curtain hanging up there in one window...long story short, I haven't finished them yet. You have to hem Ikea curtains by ironing this plastic strip onto the bottom to create a hem.)

We also now have cable, so we get about 10 English channels - most of which are BBC and news channels. It's nice to finally be able to catch a few shows that you don't have to translate. Note to all of you who like to view your favorite shows on the web. The networks won't let you watch their shows online when you are overseas. We were banking on internet viewing for watching The Office and 30 Rock. And of course this year, NBC decided not to post their shows on ITunes. So, we are out of luck, but I digress...

For a laugh, I've posted a video of Brady trying to eat banana pieces. He picked a few up and then the pieces started mushing up and sliding around his tray. He then started making this funny noise which I can only imagine means, "This is so frustrating, Mom...just feed the bits to me!".

Did Somebody Say "Cheese"?

The Neighborhood Has a Welcome Party for the Coyles - aka 4 Linden Festival am Hottinger Platz

Bill and Brady at the Vier Linden Fest am Hottinger Platz





Rebecca and Brady on the Carousel Ride

It turns out there was a little festival in our neighborhood this past Saturday. We saw a sign for it as we were walking to the grocery store on Friday - Vier Linden Fest. It basically was a block away from our apartment and ran from 10-7 Saturday. The local vendors had their foods out, there was a cute carousel, a petting zoo, puppet theater and a tight rope walk. There were tons of little kids out and the weather was beautiful. Bill and I enjoyed a bratwurst and Brady seemed to have fun watching the other kids. We also took him on a carousel ride - which he seemed to enjoy. It was a nice lunch break from the assembling of our apartment. Bill played the part of electrician on Saturday afternoon and installed the light fixtures we bought at our 4 hour marathon trip to Ikea on Friday. I spent the weekend unpacking boxes and figuring out where to put stuff. Brady pretty much supervised the entire going-ons. We will add pictures of the finished move in once we are done.

Home is Where you Hang Your Ikea Light Fixtures

A view of the neighborhood - Hofstrasse
Our apartment building - our apartment is on the first floor.

We received our air shipment today and took inventory of the many items we'll need to buy at Ikea. I love how the light fixtures are taken by each tenant when they move out - each new tenant is responsible for providing these. Thus, we will need to buy a number of lights (kitchen, hallway, etc.) Notice that we don't have any closets either. We bought a Schrank (like an armoir) that will arrive next Tuesday from Ikea. Our neighborhood is beautiful, and we feel like we definitely made the right decision on going for this place. Check out more apartment photos with the "Good Links" over to the right side of the blog. Now the unpacking begins...

Wilkommen in Zurich

Brady and Bill on the "People Mover" at Dulles Airport

Brady and Rebecca get cozy on the plane.

Brady takes the Safety Briefing seriously.

The Coyles have arrived in Zurich!!! Our flight was relatively uneventful, and we arrived with the three of us, 4 carry-on bags, and 8 checked bags relatively unscathed. We were blissfully able to check in early to our hotel in Zurich, and the jet lag begins. We got the keys to our apartment and we will spend the rest of the week taking delivery of our air shipment (tomorrow) our ocean shipment (Friday) and getting bank accounts, utilities, etc. set up. Tomorrow I'll post some photos of our apartment. Bis Spaeter! (Until later for those who don't speak German.)