Nordic Walking

Today I went with a new friend to try a club called "Nordic Walking"  I had no idea what that meant, but I thought it might be like my Basel Walkers club, so I agreed.  It ended up not being what I thought - it is a style of walking.  And being led by the Swiss, well, that mean we had to practice and make it perfect!  We had fun, but I won't be returning for another round.  They take the same path each week (because it is just a type of exercise), but what I want is a club that is going to walk me all around Basel.

I did take a few pictures on our adventure:

High School Back to School Night

Tonight Mat and I attended the back to school night at Arlington's school.  Arlington has chosen to go to high school (college is what they call it here) at the Academia Bilingual School and is loving it.  This school mostly prepares them for the IGCSE (British) school system, which is equivalent to the US system, so it works out.  They can also prepare the kids for the Swiss Matura (there are a lot of Swiss students that attend this school so they can get the English needed for college) but it is much, much harder, and you really need to be Swiss for this to make sense.

We learned a lot about how the next 4 years will proceed and how she will be prepared to go on to college whether it is in the US or is in Europe.  She will be prepared for both.  IT was a really interesting night.  The first hour they talked about the school, activities, and clubs.  They told us about the fantastic trip they are taking the kids on in February to Yorkshire England. (Mat and I wish we could go - it sounds amazing)  They are going to get to see the REAL Harry Potter train.  Jealous!

We learned what University cost in a lot of places in Europe.  For Switzerland - it is FREE.  You read that right Americans - FREE COLLEGE.  And you don't have to be Swiss for it to be free.  But Swiss college is ridiculously hard to get into.

It was a good presentation and we learned a lot about the way the program will work for our eldest daughter over the next 4 years and how that would transfer to the American Colleges or if she decided to go to a European University.  Lots to think about for us and for her.

Basel Walkers

Today I went on my first hike with a local group called Basel Walkers.  It is an English speaking group of folks that goes on a Basel hike every Monday - always taking a new path.  A new American friend of mine has been going with them and encouraged me to try it out.

I love hiking, so this was definitely something I was interesting in trying.  It is between a 2 1/2 hour-3 hour hike through the hills of Switzlerand - sign me up.

We all met at 9:00am at the Basel SBB (this is the train station).  This was the first time I was taking a train here (not a tram - a train), so I was excited.  I know - silly.  But we are going to be taking a few train trips over the next few months, so I was glad to try it out before I did it alone.

As long as we stay within Basel's zones, we can ride the Train with our U-Abo (my annual tram pass) for free.  Another bonus.

After the train, we took a bus through some winding roads to get to the town where we were going to hike.  The name of the town was Hochwald.  It is in the Basel Land area of Basel, and a beautiful country side.  I couldn't wait to get started.

We walked a total of 10 miles on our hike.  The Basel Walkers group is a great group of folks.  We didn't hurry, we enjoyed the scenery, and the person who picked the hike for today spent time telling us about the town, the area, and what we were seeing.

I am hoping to join them on a regular basis.  They told me today that they continue to meet all winter long, so I am thinking if the weather is nice, most Mondays I will be with them

There was a model train set up in the front of a Swiss house

 Swiss Country Side

 This cross was at the corner of our path - just in the middle of no where

 Music Museum

 Giant hawk in a tree

 We commented on how much room these sheep had to roam

 Really pretty little town

 Cool Swiss house

 We were told that a Catholic couple that lives in the town built this little church so they could see it from their house.  It is open to the public on Sundays

 Fountain!  Not an exciting one, but I will take it.  Water is everywhere because right before I took this picture a dog jumped in the fountain

 Church with a beautiful steeple

When an 11 year old's social calendar is fuller than yours

This morning, Mat and I attended our third German class.  It is getting easier to understand what she is asking us to do.  (She doesn't speak English unless we ask her too).  We are enjoying the class - we are in there with a wide variety of people from all over the world, so that makes it even more interesting.

This afternoon, Finley had her first sleepover with a new friend.  She was really excited to stay at someone else's house tonight.  Next weekend she has another sleepover with another friend, and then after that she has some play dates with a few other girls.  I love that they have taken to Finley and she is making friends.  Cainan and Arlington are doing equally as well, but Finley is always my biggest worry because she has so much trouble with socializing due to her vision impairment.

This new friend is Swiss, and they live in the Theater District area here and it was really neat.  I had not been there before, so after I dropped her off, I walked around a bit.  I saw several movie theaters among the cafes and shops.  Movies here are very expensive compared to the States.  A matinee is about 20 Francs (around $20) a person, which is about $15 more than we are used to paying.  So we won't be going often, sadly.  The plus about movies in Switzerland - if there ever is a time we attend a showing - is that the movies are shown in their original language, so our favorites would be in English.

This afternoon, Mat and I worked on some of our Christmas plans.  We have decided to stay around here for Christmas and make some day/weekend trips during the holiday.  We decided today that we are going for a weekend trip to Munich Germany to enjoy their Christmas market.  We understand the Christmas markets in the areas/countries around us are spectacular.  I am looking forward to seeing what this area is like around our first major holiday here.

This evening Mat and I took the kids on a walk and grabbed some food.  We had a good time walking through yet another new area we had no explored here in the city.  Plus I added three more fountain photos to my growing collection.

 We found this little house with a little door.  It even had a doorbell

 Beautiful building - not sure what it was

Busy Busy

My husband and father-in-law both asked me before we left the United States "what are you going to do with your days?"  I think they were both worried that I would sit in the apartment and watch the clock tick by until the kids came home from school.

Silly guys.

Today at 9am I had our second Newcomers support group meeting.  This one was to teach us more about the Swiss people and their culture.  A lot of it we already knew - they are polite, prompt, and clean.  That about sums them up.  I met someone else from Boston today - another mom.  So excited to meet another American - especially one from my neck of the woods.  We had a great time and ended the session with a scavenger hunt in Old Town.  It was a rainy and cold day, so the hunt ended early.

After the Newcomers support group, I left to go to my German class that I am taking with my American friends.  I was a little early, so one of the other ladies and I went across the street from the school to a cafe for coffee and a sandwich.  I have found a new love for prosciutto on Pretzel bread.  They butter the sandwich and it is so, so delicious.  If it wasn't $5.40 for a small sandwich, (and I mean small), I would have more.

German class was a lot of fun today.  We spend some time talking about some things we want to know about (how to say $2.50 in German for example), and then work on the specifics of learning the language.  Our teacher is GREAT.  She is young and sweet and very patient.  We are a mess of white, American women who can't pronounce German worth a lick.  But she is encouraging and sweet.

We were working on numbers today.  We have been learning the numbers 1-20, and then 30,40,50, and so on.  Not hard once you get the hand of it.  I will give you an easy one.  Ein (Eye-n)=1.  Now how about a hard one?  funfhundertsechsundsechzig (foo-nf, hoon-dirt, sex, oo-nd, sex, tsig) = 566.

New friends make new surroundings so much easier

This morning I met a new friend named Marta.  Marta and I met at the Newcomers group that Roche puts together.  She is from Milan, and a really lovely person.

I was so glad we were able to get together and chat.  She lives in a section of Basel called Riehen.  This is the same area Mat and I are moving too in a few weeks, so I told her I would love to meet her and she could show me around.

We had a lovely time walking and talking.  It reminded me why I chose Riehen in the first place - it is lovely, quiet, and reminds me a bit of home.  I am looking forward to moving and getting settled.

Pretty building in a park in Riehen

 This is where tennis play Roger Federer held his wedding receiption

She and I had a coffee and sweet before I needed to leave for my German class.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am taking a German class with three of my new American friends.  We are all really new to the country and language, so one of them suggested we make it fun and do it together.  That way, when we are together we can practice.  I agreed it would be much more fun to learn German with people you are familiar with.  The class started today and we did have a great time.  We are going to use at least part of this class to learn what I like to call "Survival German".  Meaning - I am a mom in a foreign country, and I need to know how to survive with everyday tasks.  Shopping, doctor's appointments, ordering food, using the tram, etc.  So this class will be designed to teach us the basics along with how to do certain things.  I am grateful for it, and already got a chance to try out my new skills when I had to buy garbage bags at the grocery store yesterday.  (They are kept behind the counter and you have to ask for them).

Making friends is not something I thought I would do while I was here - at least not at first.  I am good at being alone, or just being with my family.  Mat and I have moved 10 times in our marriage, and so we are used to starting over and spending quality time together.  I don't feel lonely and homesick without friendship.  But I got lucky.  I met some wonderful women right away and it does help.  We bounce ideas and hardships off each other.  We talk about our kids and the kid's schools.  We talk about our previous lives.  It makes being here just that much more fun.

Mail

Today Finley got a letter from her best friend back in Massachusetts.  She was so excited to get her first mail - she read the letter over and over.  I love that even in the digital age - kids still write letters to each other.