Diary: 10/28/2001

Dear friends and family:

It was a relatively quiet week, compared to tromping around Disney, but we still had plenty of little things going on that are worth mentioning.

Just as a reminder, Leon's car is bright (banana) yellow. It should also be pointed out that official post-office vehicles are yellow as well, but (usually) sport a red plus and the word "post" on the side, font, back, etc. However, the absence of the red markings didn't stop someone this week from flagging Leon to the side of the road and trying to hand him his mail. "Vous etez la post?" (You are the postman) he asked. It took a great deal of strength for Leon to contain the laughter until he had driven a little further down the road. Of course, Debbie is keeping the joke going. Every time we turn the corner to our apartment, she comments "Oh look, the mail is here!".

While it may sound trivial, another exciting event this week was the opening of the largest shopping mart in Switzerland. This has been a much-anticipated event for some time. In fact, the traffic was so bad, that they closed a major road and used it for parking. Debbie was there early in the day and made some amazing finds, like a box of baking powder. OK, so perhaps our perspective on life has become a little twisted, that a box of baking powder would cause euphoria.

On Wednesday we picked up some furniture for the new house. Not without risk and danger was this endeavor, however. First of all, there is no "U-Haul" around here. We ended up renting a moving truck from "Joes truck on the street" company. We are not making this up. There's this guy (OK, his name is Boudin, not Joe) and he has a truck. You call him on his cell phone, reserve a time, and meet him on this street. You give him cash, he gives you keys, and you drive away with a truck. He trusts you to bring back the truck and you trust him not to ambush you with 3 of his friends.

Did we mention that this is a stick-shift truck? Neither did he. He also forgot the part about "no power steering". So through the (narrow) streets of Swiss villages, up and down hills Leon went.

A couple of friends had graciously offered to help out, so the actual move only took 3 hours. Then Debbie fed everyone a great meal, and we called it a night around midnight.

Also on Wednesday, Heather and Isabelle had their "Vesting" ceremony. This was very nice, and the girls seem very exciting to be part of a troup again.

On Friday, Heather took a field trip to Bern (about an hour away). This is the capital of Switzerland (nope, it's not Geneva *or* Zurich) and has some wonderful buildings, museums, and markets. There are also , according to Heather, bears. Real live living-in-a-bear-pit bears that are fed solely by school field trips, who are told to bring carrots and apples by the bushel. If you ask Heather about the field trip, you will most likely hear a chew-by-chew description of what the bears ate. Oh, and you'll also hear about the taxi-dermist, and all the "real-life dead stuffed animails" you can find in the museum.

Aside from those items, we are getting ready for Halloween. Today we had a carnival at school, and this week there are various events hosted by women's clubs and private groups.

Today we also discovered that Joram is cutting a couple of molars, which means that his (and our) days are filled with joy and happiness. As long as we keep him medicated.

Next week we are just trying to get ready for this next move. Thursday and Friday are small holidays, and Leon is off from work, so we plan to take advantage of the time and pick up those items we still need for the house (TV, wardrobes, microwave, vacuum, etc).

Please keep the email coming. It is great to stay up with everyone's doings. We are also waiting for people to start making reservations at Chez Adato. If you have plans to come out here, let us know so we can start getting excited.