Another Day Down

As we tic off our days here (only 29 more!) we've been doing a lot of lasts: our last trip to the castle, or to the pool, and so forth. But today we had a last that made me smile. This is the last time I'll have to slice and tie up my cardboard recycling.  Last night I closed myself in our storage room and disassembled a dozen stray boxes, bundling them up for the curb.  And this morning–and this is more sad–I tied up Joey's enormous Candy Land game and took a box cutter to Schloss Geels, the cardboard castle that has been the centerpiece of Ella's room for several months.  As I emptied it of her treasures, I discovered that she's been using it as her secret agent lair: I found her cardboard wings, and a face paint disguise kit, and a notebook of suspicious maps, among other things.

I was responsible for quite a lot of this.  But not those carelessly tossed whole boxes. My recycling is up to
Swiss standards, thank you very much.

I would have much rather taken Joey to play group this morning than deal with recycling, but it wasn't in the stars. My little guy is sick again, with a chesty cough and gooey projectile sneezes. He spent a lot of time on the couch with Cinderella and Winnie the Pooh.

Ella made herself scarce today, too.  At lunch, when she came home, she asked me if it would be okay if she stayed late at school, to go to the little after-school study hall that her teacher hosts.  It was interesting to me that Ella wanted to stay even longer in class on the last day of the week, but lately she's really, really enjoyed her school.

She told Dennis that Monday is her favorite day because it's a full day of school in which they do a lot of her favorite things.  It might be that she's nervous about starting back at her old school, but she's already waxing nostalgic about her class here. All the kids have finally warmed up to her, now that she can speak to them, and she's really starting to have fun. It's a shame.  But I suppose it's good to leave on a high note.

But Ella's staying late at school was neatly convenient for me. Alex was invited to play at his friend Bleart's house this afternoon, and not needing to collect Ella allowed Alex to stay a little longer.

As it turned out, I ended up staying too.  I protested that I shouldn't, with Joey's cold, but Bleart's mom Bedvije waved my concerns away and proceeded to set out two kinds of cake and some very sweet tea made, I believe she said, from pumpkin seeds.

But I could easily be wrong about that.  I can't tell you how very frustrating it is to try to talk with the mothers here: I can only express about a tenth of what I'd like to say, and I'm lucky if I understand half of what they tell me.  To make matters even more complicated, Bleart's grandmother was there, too, from Kosovo, and so Bedvije was translating her Albanian into German for me. Ah, I wish, I wish I were better at German, so that I could actually enjoy my conversations with all these nice people.

But Alex and Bleart got on famously, playing with cars and trains until it was time to go.  Alex was really sad and really quiet then: he loves his little friend.  Bedvije wants to have the boys video chat when I move home, which would be really neat for Alex. For one thing, it would give him a fighting chance of remembering the German he's managed to learn.

Tired from all the excitement, Alex spent the rest of the afternoon quietly making window decorations, something he's done a lot lately.  He's got quite a funny little collection in his bedroom.

Ella's made me a few Christmas things for our windows, too, but my favorite are the glow-in-the-dark evil eyes that she put on our bathroom mirror, a practical joke to startle us.  Funny girl.

In the evening I had a night out with Susannah, walking around to look at the Christmas market stalls and the decorations in the Altstadt before having what I suppose will be my last Flammenküche.

The lights of Zürich Altstadt

Especially for my mom, who wanted a closer look at the Swarovski Christmas tree in our Hauptbahnhof.  I was
wrong: each ornament costs exactly 95 CHF. But...stunning.

Meanwhile, Dennis set the kids up for their movie night. They watched Up, a beautiful movie, but a tear-jerker, and during the sad part, Dennis says, Ella casually asked the boys if she could share their couch, and plopped down between them, wrapping one arm around each for a little brotherly comfort.

That sweet girl, by the way, today promised me two bathrooms cleaned in my Advent calendar. Score!