The Swiss aren't exactly known for their cuisine: their cheeses and chocolate, yes, but otherwise all their cooking appears to be variations of cheese and pork (read; fondue and wurst, with a side of wurst and fondu), and then the omnipresent spatzel. But there is one other dish they love here that I'd never heard of: rosti, which is, essentially, a large hash brown, pressed into the bottom of a frying pan and flipped like an omelette. It's particularly associated with the holidays, so they had rosti kits at the grocery store. I'd picked up one and made it for lunch. Dennis's opinion: "hmm...tastes like a McDonald’s hash brown."
But that's fine: we won't be going to McDonald's to get the real deal, I think, while we're here. We got a set of coupons in the mail for McD's today, and one of their special coupons was two Big Macs, fries, and cokes for the low, low price of $20. Rosti it is!
Dennis went in to work in the afternoon, and the kids dragged me out of doors for another walk up to the playground. Joey proved to be just as tired as I: he reclaimed his spot in the shopping cart, curled up in a ball, and fell asleep before we were 10 yards from the house. Poor little guy missed all the fun. The kids have already figured out the way to community center, although they were a little uncomfortable when they realized today's fair weather had brought out other children. (Yesterday they had the park to themselves.) They eyed the other kids but decided to play with each other, resuming their princess-and-dragon game
I couldn't manage to stay there more than an hour, but I did let the kids walk up to Ella's school before we headed home. It looks promising--the windows are covered with playful art, and the gymnasium is enormous and well-equipped. The relocation agent told me today that the kids have physical education every day. I'll have to get Ella new sneakers before next week, though: no black-soled shoes allowed on their gym floor.
Some other good news: Dennis was told at work yesterday that because the children all speak Swiss German at home, in they early grades they focus on teaching high German in the schools...so, essentially, Ella and Alex won't be the only ones getting language lessons. Granted, the other kids will have a bit of an advantage, for Swiss and High German are about as close as middle and modern English.
Back at home, Joey woke up to help me put together a couple more bookcases--the children's rooms are finally complete, at least. I though once we put down some rugs and assembled some furniture, the house would be less echoy, but really, not so much.
I have a theory about this. The Swiss are fanatical about noise reduction, and that some apartment complexes have rules about not running the laundry, or even flushing a toilet, after a certain hour. Now, I haven't heard about any such rules in this complex, but I've also not heard a single sound out of any of the other units (nor scarcely have I seen any of our neighbors...odd), and even with my noisy kids, if I go into the hallway and close the door, the sound is completely blocked. When Dennis drilled into the walls to hang our lights, he found some sort of plastic substance right beneath the drywall: I think it might be some sort of soundproofing that is making the house echo. It has the strange effect of making the apartment seem larger than it is.
But we're not cramped by any means. And while there's only one closet in the apartment, we have a large walk-in storage unit in the basement. We have one room that we're not even using yet--it's filled with boxes and packing material that can only be recycled on a particular day each month--and still we don't feel cramped. Bodes well for having visitors. Come on over!
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