All good things...

I'm with you, Joey. It's hard to say goodbye.

Kevin and Karen had to leave us this morning.  They woke up early enough to see the kids off to school; about an hour later, it was Joey's and my turn to say goodbye.

We only took them as far as our local train station.  The two of them had some last-minute chocolate purchasing to do, and Joey was looking kind of droopy and fragile.  I just didn't trust him not to collapse and slow them down. As it was, Joey was really sad to watch his friends leave. He didn't want to say anything as they left, and after they boarded the train, his lip went out and his head dropped to his chin.

I think my dejected child would have happily returned home for a nap, but I had some chores planned for the two of us this morning.  For one thing, Dennis and I are hosting some friends for Thanksgiving this year, and from what I understand, the only way to acquire a turkey in Switzerland is to order it, at least a week ahead of time, from a butcher's counter or a local farm.  And time's a-ticking!

So the two of us walked to Migros, where I realized that I don't actually know the German word for "turkey."  I called Dennis in a plea for help, and he looked up a translation for me, and then confirmed with his German-speaking office mates.  But things were loud, both in the store and in his office, and I was having a horrible time understanding what he was saying.  It turns out, he was trying to say "Truthan" or "Pute," but I couldn't quite make it out...and what I thought I'd heard didn't seem probable.

After confusedly asking him to repeat himself a couple of times, I finally gave up and walked over to the butcher, determined to at least try.  "Ich möchte eine Puta für die nächste Woche." I would like a whore for next week.

I flapped my arms like wings, smiling hopefully.  "Es ist Puta, ja? Oder...Poutine?"  Because nothing really says Thanksgiving like Canadian fries topped with gravy.  But I swear that's what I thought Dennis said.

The man grinned at me.  "Für Thanksgiving, eh. Pute. Wie gross?"  And so we were on our way.  With any luck, next Wednesday I'll be able to pick up a 5- or 6-kilogram fresh turkey. Or perhaps I'll be getting a very small prostitute. Or a large order of french fries.  We'll see how it goes.

Swiftly approaching holidays also mean a swiftly approaching departure date. In terms of returning home, we suffered a bit of a disappointment today.  When we moved her, we were given the impression that, upon returning home, Google would give us a larger allowance for shipping things home because we'll have fewer additional expenses for our relocation home.  But today we found out that, no, we get no additional space, unless we're willing to pay for it ourselves. If we were willing to ship by sea freight (and wait three months for delivery), we could stretch our cargo by an extra 30 cubic feet, but otherwise we're limited to 96 cubic feet of stuff to take home. That's about as much as you can fit in a small closet.

Fortunately, we weren't really hoping to bring much back with us.  We would have liked to bring the little desks we bought for the kids, since they're so cute, but I suppose that won't happen. I'm still hoping I'll be able to squeeze in the kids' sledge and ice skates and all the fun board games we've acquired. It's possible it will all fit, since there are a lot of things that we brought here, like art supplies and medicines and toiletries and massive amounts of peanut butter, that won't be returning home.

Google is, however, paying for us to stay in a hotel for our last three days here, once we've vacated for movers and apartment cleaners.  Unfortunately, the kids will still be in school for those last few days, so we'll have to find some place close to home that can accommodate our large family.

But that's a problem for another night, because this evening we had the pleasure of seeing some familiar faces.  Some of Dennis's coworkers are visiting the Zurich office this week, and they joined us for a fondue dinner.  They also, sweetly, humored Ella with a game of cards. And then, at bedtime, when Ella whispered to me that she really wished she knew how to make an origami fortune teller, which are all the rage in her school, we postponed lights-out for a few minutes while Amanda patiently taught her the process.

But, even after we postponed bedtime for origami lesson, sleep was still a long time coming for Ella.  Dennis had baked fresh cookies this evening, and Ella asked so sweetly for a few. And then she was being such cute company, so Dennis and I each slid her more.  Consequently, tonight we were reminded why sugar at bedtime is a very bad idea.  Ella's been impressively even-tempered for months now, but tonight, at 10:30, she regressed to the mercurial Ella of yesteryear and was audibly, uncontrollably weeping at the memory of a necklace charm that she'd lost a year and a half ago.  I'm afraid I didn't get as much time with our friends as I would have liked. Lesson learned.

And, happily, we'll see them all again in less than two months.