Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

• After almost a year and a half living here, we finally have plans to teach some friend Tichu.
• You know that spring is (almost) here… you can smell the cows.
• For family pizza night, Alex made one with Cheerios on the crust.
• Good news: There’s now a smoking ban in public places. Bad news: It doesn’t seem to be enforced.
• When Alex is in the mood to watch Christmas movies or shows, he asks for “The Grinch That Swiped Christmas” or Ghostbusters.

Drove to iPAC in Barmstedt. 800km each way. With 2 kids, that means almost 2 full days of travel… which is *really* long when you go to the wrong Münden. Along the way, we saw Heidelberg, Würzberg, Hamburg, and the area that provided inspiration for the brothers Grimm, known as the fairy tale road. With kids and sightseeing, we average under 50km/h. This despite the fact that we were normally driving around 160km/h on the autobahn.

Saw lots of good friends. Probably served as birth control for Sola (drove with us there) and V (drove with us back).

You know you’re in Switzerland when…

• You smell a wood fire on the way home from work in the evening. Mmm…
• You have too much cheese and chocolate in the house. Yes… it is possible… but only in Switzerland.

You know you’re a parent when…

• You’re happy your kid pooped in the potty.
• You’re even happier because it means that he’s done pooping in the shower.

As I was cooking lunch, I figured it out… babies cry because they can’t eat bacon for the first few months of their lives.

1. Thanks to the nice weather, our balcony, and the fact that I don’t really eat breakfast or lunch (I graze), I’ve eaten the majority of my meals outside the last few days. Very nice.
2. A few days ago, we (me, Alex, Ari, Dina, and her parents) went shopping. Alex put away his little cart, returned the 2 CHF deposit to Dina, and, somehow, while Dina was putting the coin in her pocket and I was returning the cart, disappeared. Somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes later (time flies when you’re panicked) we found him. He was tired of waiting for us and wanted to go home. He went down the escalator, through the mall, and was outside, waiting on the stairs for us. “I had to wait for you because I can’t cross the street by myself. Hurry! Let’s go home.” At least he listens to us… right?

It was more along the lines of 4 countries in less than a week. Welcome to living in Europe. Let’s start at the very beginning… it’s a very good place to start.

London

Went to London to meet up with Lily & Omer (yes, yes, they live in Boston… they were coming in for a wedding), Hannah & David, and Rose-Louise & Dan (sadly, Alma was in Egypt). Friends we’ve known for 2, 11, and 14 years, in some order. Good company, good beer (went to Founders Arms… one of my favourite places in the world… it’s now better… they have blankets for snuggling outside), good food (Indian, Middle-Eastern on V-Day, sans toddler, complete with (non-L) belly dance, and lots of crispy duck in Chinatown). Sadly, no books, as Murder One was in the process of moving (and they’d already moved across the street from the last time I saw them). Also managed to get some shopping done… you know the country you live in is expensive when shopping on Oxford street feels inexpensive.

Alex loved his trip on the Eye. We were a bit worried that being cooped up with a toddler in a glass bubble for 40 minutes might be a stupid thing to do. No problem. He spent most of his time looking down at the “ducks”.

We did a lot of walking… saw the eye again at night, lit up in red for Valentines day.

Overall, I loved London, and still do. London with a toddler and a huge-ass stroller… less fun. It was nice to be somewhere I could read the signs, inexpensive, and, most importantly, it was nice to be among great friends. It was interesting for me to see different sides of all of our friends than I normally see… with different reasons for the different sides for each couple.

Düsseldorf, DE and Venlo, NL for Carnival

I had to go to Venlo for work, so… why not get there early, and visit both Venlo and Düsseldorf for carnival? Well… carnival was an experience. Good food, good beer, lots of fun people and costumes. The bad news? Too much broken glass everywhere… not what you want when you have an antsy toddler who you worry will trip on cobblestones.

Venlo carnival on Saturday was a mad-house. Almost everyone downtown was in costume. It was much more of a party for adults than kids. We bough Alex maracas (and didn’t buy G or G a pair). Odd thing… when you’re in a foreign country touristing, you learn to ignore your own name. The chances that someone’s actually talking to you are minuscule. I heard (and ignored) “Nick. Nick! NICK!” until I felt a tap on my shoulder… it was one of my coworkers, Robin. The conversation that ensued with his friends afterwards was even odder (“Yes, we’re here for carnival… well… work too… well… we’re American… but we’re originally Canadian… and we’re living in Switzerland now…”)

Düsseldorf carnival was an utter madhouse. Awesome altbier. I think I’m giving up on kreuterlikor (kreuter = herbs). Sausage as you’ve come to expect from the Germans. The city was beautiful, despite the rain. I should probably visit some time when it’s calmer. On a side note, I paid € 0.50 to use urinals on 2 separate occasions… one was at a gas station… the other was at the carnival. I’ve never peed closer to another human being before (squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder).

People were pulling all sorts of contraptions to hold their party supplies (mostly beer, but occasionally music or food). The best was a trailer decorated to look like a long boat with 12 vikings dancing around it. A lot of people, both in Germany and in the Netherlands would get together with their friends or family and dress up the same (vikings) or thematically (there was one group of friends dressed up as superheroes… pretty cool looking).

Needless to say… between the beer and the food, I think I gained 2kg on the weekend.

The rest of the week was a lot of work, evenings eating out, and managing a toddler in a hotel room. Overall… a lot of fun. Dina seemed to enjoy actually getting a tour of our production facilities while Alex was napping.

Winterthur

Winterthur apparently celebrates carnival later than everyone else. It’s also a much more kid-friendly event. Today we saw a parade… lots of floats, lots of bands, lots of costumes… and most importantly for Alex, lots of confetti (we’ve had to teach him that silly-string and now confetti are outdoor only toys).

Though geared toward kids, there were still some head-scratchers…

Misc

• 2009-02-28: My first no-pants-day in ages.
• Alex is starting to sound like Butters from South Park from time to time… especially when he says <dejected>ohhhh</dejected>.
• With child #2 in June, we’ll have 2 males and 2 females in the household. Dina and I have been joking that we should have a 3rd and name it, no matter the gender, either “Balance of Power” Varacalli or “Double or Nothing” Varacalli.