Once Bitten Twice Shy

Today we decided to go to the Hunenberg Badi, our second home these days. The weather said sun/showers, but we opted that the sunny part would be earlier than later. Every day when my son Geno wakes up, the first and last words out of his mouth are "Beach tomorrow?" He loves being able to swim, play with toys in the sand pit, and of course eat chicken nuggets and fries. Coretta, too, loves it as well and has recently been able to jump off the diving board tower at the first level.

Once there, the kids did there thing, while I sat in the sun reading my book. At lunch time we ordered our food, and found a picnic table. While we were sitting there, Geno all of a sudden let out a high pitched full blown scream followed by an even louder cry. The Swiss being more reserved in demeanor looked at me as if to say, "What is the matter?" wherein I realize that my son was being bitten by a wasp. As is the case with many older children, when something such as a horse fly, wasp, or bee sting you, your reaction is to swat it away. Geno hasn't developed that instinct yet, so when the wasp landed and put his stinger into his side, he just stood there. Stood there until I quickly swatted the bugger away. Not soon enough, however. His hole side began to turn red, and began to swell instantly. The damn wasp even broke the skin. Poor Geno. I said to him, "Should we go home and put some medicine on it?" and his response is "No, I want chicken and fries." Typical Geno. We did just that. We ate our chicken nuggets in pain and then decided to go home.

I posted some pictures of the diving board that Coretta can swim to and jump off as well.

Geno's Reward

Today while we were clothes shopping for Coretta, Geno was a good sport. He was patient enough, allowing Coretta time to try things on, and didn't pull too many clothes off the racks in the process. Geno's reward: a chocolate ice cream cone or Ahh-Bee Cone as he calls it. What eating an ice cream cone looks like when you are lucky enough to be Geno. Priceless.

New School Clothes for 4th Grade!!

August seems to always be that time of year where parents are busily trying to get their children outfitted for the new school year, throwing out clothes they have outgrown, and accessing the monetary damage that they will be forced to pay. This time of year is when I really start to miss Saint Thomas More Catholic School as well. This is the school that Coretta was attending in the States. My reason being that they had school uniforms. School uniforms takes the added time and stress out of the equation and makes it easy. What to wear each day is always the same. Although most kids I know that have to wear uniforms hate it and feel that it squashes their creativity and individuality, as a parent I found it wonderful.

I had already bought a few things in the States when I was back this summer, but she still needed some shirts. Today since I was in Zug, I decided that Coretta, Geno, and I might as well look at some stores and see what the new fall line would bring us. Sure enough Coretta found a lot of shirts that she liked at H and M, so I paid for them and crossed this off my list. Luckily she had been given several designer label jeans from the neighborhood girl that have recently outgrown her, so she had enough pants and sweaters.

All that is left are some leggings, dress shoes, and pair of stylish boots. Here are some pictures of her new clothes.

Immigration Office

Today we all got ready and headed to the Immigration office to sign a couple of documents and hope that our re-take pictures were of satisfactory quality per Swiss standards. We arrived shortly after they opened and I noticed that hanging on the right side of the wall, was a diagram of pictures done correctly and incorrectly. Sure enough, smiling with your teeth was one of those criteria for unacceptable photo. What I didn't know, however, is that you need so many centimeters of white space above your head as well. I also learned that hats, burkas covering the face, and headbands are unacceptable as well.

Looking at our pictures while we waited in line, I noticed that both Coretta and my photos appeared to have no white space at all. I told this to Nick, who by the looks of him was one on edge and nervous to begin with, told me to be quiet. Once it was our turn, Coretta and I were both asked to sign our signature in a specific box with a specific type of pen and then were told that Coretta's photo did not fit the requirements.

Instead of mailing this photo in, I opted to go to the train station at the photo booth, and pour more Swiss francs into it in hopes for the photo that will pass. It was hard enough getting Geno's correct, and I am still paying for it since my leg still has a pulled muscle that keeps me up at night. Coretta took a set of pictures that we believed had enough white space, until they were printed. Now we needed to get change (because the machine only takes exact change) so that we could try this again. It finally did work, and I presented this again to the Immigration office, who finally accepted it. In all, I think we spent about 64 Swiss Francs. Each photo set costing 8 Swiss francs when done correctly.

Here are a couple photos of Coretta's new immigration photo. The one on the left was unacceptable and the one on the right was finally given the Swiss stamp of approval. At least I do not need to renew my B permit for another year.

B Permit Renewal

Before Nick and I left for the States, we made sure to get all of our paperwork ready and photographs taken so we wouldn't have to worry about it when we got back. It turns out, that our B permits were rejected because Coretta and I smiled and showed our teeth, and my hand was in the picture with Geno.

When Nick was told that we needed to take our photographs over again, he stated to the Human Resources personnel that he may not be able to get his two and a half year old to sit by himself for the picture or furthermore be tall enough to see the screen, he was told that he could go to the Photo Grau and have a professional picture taken for 30 francs.

Nick, not wanting to ruin my good mood this weekend, tells me this wonderful information on Monday morning. I then on Tuesday went with the kids to the photo booth by the train station, and attempted to re-take our pictures with specific instructions: "No smiling, make sure your head is in the red oval, and that your eyes match the eye diagram on the screen." Coretta went in and did so flawlessly. Next, it was Geno turn. I sat down in the chair, put Geno on my lap, scrunched down as far as I could while lifting him up and trying to tell him to look at the screen. The first attempt was accidentally taken, and I realized it would not work. Knowing that I only had two more attempts to get it right, I scrunched my legs and butt down so far they were hitting the machine in front of me, and hoisted Geno up for another time in hopes that I may just get that stroke of luck I so desperately needed. I felt like Harry Potter, in the new movie out, wishing that I just had a drop of that lucky potion. The next thing I hear, is the photo clicking a picture, and at this point I have used all three. I look at my options and was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the photos, the last one, was perfect. He had enough space at the top of the picture, he wasn't smiling or showing teeth, and he was looking at the camera. Marvelous! All in a days work. Now I just wonder when my right leg will quit hurting and return to normal. It is painful to walk and clear that I pulled something, but hey, I got the right photo for the Swiss personnel in charge of B permits and can now be rest assured I can stay another year in this beautiful country, I hope.

Swiss National Day 2009

Swiss National Day Celebration

August 1st was Swiss National Day which is just like our 4th of July, Independence Day, back in America. We decided that we would walk into Cham to take in the festivities, so at 7 pm we walked down by Lake Zug and saw several picnic tables set up, bands playing, and vendors selling brats, fries, beer, and drinks. Coretta and Geno decided that they would go up and dance on the stage with the other children, and Nick and I watched. Afterwards, we decided to get a spot on the lawn to watch the fireworks as well as the lighting of the huge bonfire.

Meanwhile, there were all types of fireworks being lit off in every direction by Swiss kids and adults. Here many of the fireworks we label as "illegal" in the States are legal here. At times, I felt as if I was on the battlefield wondering if and when I would be hit by one. This being Geno's first fireworks display, he said "I'm scared" at first, but then was saying "Wow" once he realized he was indeed safe. Safe being a relative term which we found out later.

As the night progressed, and the day turned into dusk, they began to light the bonfire. Bonfires are very symbolic to the Swiss because this was the way villages were able to communicate that they needed help to neighboring villages, and has since become a symbol for their National Day. As we sat waiting for the "real" fireworks display, we realized that by ten o'clock that this was really it. We decided that we would start to walk home, when we ran into our neighbors the Burkert's, and socialized with them a while. While we were talking, my daughter came running over to me yelling "Something hit my head and it hurts really bad." Upon first inspection, it appeared to be nothing, until Coretta touched her head and then saw blood. I took her to the nearest bathroom to inspect her head further, and at this point she had blood pouring from her head running down her face. It appeared that she had been hit by a firework. I cleaned her up the best I could and worked on trying to get the blood to clot. In the meantime, I went back out to Nick and Geno and explained the situation, not knowing how serious or unserious it was at this point.

Walking back to the train station, we saw a mobile paramedic station set up called Samaritans, so we stopped. I asked them in my best German/English if they could look at my daughter's head because I believe she was hit by a firework. They inspected the wound, put some kind of ointment on it, and gave her an ice pack. They proceeded to tell me that she would be fine, and that she had indeed been hit by a firework. They told me that this is sadly quite common place during Swiss National Day because there doesn't seem to be any laws against where people shoot their fireworks etc. In fact, earlier in the night, Coretta witnessed another girl being hit as well.

Once home, and safely in bed, Coretta said she wasn't sure if she wanted to go to National Swiss Day again, and I said me either. Below you will find some videos from the day.