One Year Later....

And, like a thief in the night, we have returned to Claremont.

We are usually on vacation at the beginning of August, and apparently many of our friends are, too. We have been home for a little over a week and have seen some friends here and there, one or two a day. It's a stealth reentry.

As a note to self for our next sabbatical return: it takes about a week to get the house in order and to get back into the right time zone. Even if the house is perfectly clean (and it was pretty clean this time), we still have to find all our boxes and unpack and then realize that we still should have thrown away many things before we left. The march to Goodwill continues.

For the second year in a row we celebrated our anniversary in Claremont with dinner and a movie. This year we saw Shaun the Sheep and then had dinner at the new Sanamluang Cafe on Indian Hill. While the food was delicious and plentiful, the decor very nice, the experience left much to be desired. The bill came while we were still eating, and when I was still putting food into the takeout box, they tried to remove my plate. The acoustics are bad, so it was very loud inside, even though it was not full. I will try it again for the food, but perhaps I will try to slow down the service.

Glamping in Switzerland

Yes, I have started a blog for our sabbatical year. I can't call it Life in Claremont if I am not living in Claremont, so I thought about it for awhile, and decided to call it Glamping in Switzerland. The first post (there are now five) explains the title.

You can read the blog here.

As I have been cleaning our house this past weekend, month, summer, I keep wondering why I don't do this more often. As L said to me today, "You can pay people to do that, you know." Yeah, I know, but I don't generally think about what lurks behind the couch until I have to.

Last time we came home from sabbatical I thought I would have a plan to thoroughly clean one room each month, and though the house would not be clean all at the same time, at least each room would have some attention paid to it.  Sounds like a good plan....

Life will be simpler in a one-bedroom flat with fewer things around.

The To-Do List

Today was a day for checking off some items from our "to do before sabbatical" list. Change addresses with credit cards. Talk with the insurance agent about changing homeowners to rental insurance as well as removing the car insurance when we sell our car. Cancel the newspaper. Change of address with the post office.

Tomorrow I should probably go back to cleaning and storing.....

Benefit Music

I often play recorders with the Village Pipers in the summer, but with all the packing and getting ready for sabbatical, as well as focusing on fiddle music, I have not had the time this summer. I was happy to hear that they would be performing in Larkin Park last evening, so I hopped on my bike to go hear them.

What I did not fully realize is that they were playing at a benefit for Real Connections, "a member-driven resource network offering trusted information, valued services and enriching relationships that enable individuals to live and age well in their homes and communities. I felt a little like an interloper, but I did not help myself to dinner, and I clapped for all the people who were recognized for their contributions to this endeavor, and no one asked me to leave. So it was all good.

The Pipers played a few of my favorite pieces and made me wonder if I should sneak in my soprano recorder into my luggage next month....

Further Adventures in Swiss Housing

The day after we received the two choices for housing, we got three more choices. Two of those choices are next to the other branch of the campus and far away from where we want to be, so we did not even look at them. This one, though, seemed just fine for us. It is a 2-room flat (top floor, so look at those ceilings!) which means a 1-bedroom apartment. It reminds us very much of the place we lived on our first sabbatical in Brookline, Massachusetts - the top floor, small space, in a very nice residential neighborhood. This one, however, comes with a dishwasher, unlike our Brookline apt. 

We told the housing office that we would take this choice.

Housing in Zurich

The morning's email brought us these two photos, complete with descriptions and floor plans as the choices for housing for our upcoming Zurich sabbatical. Many things excited me about this information. First, both of these apartments are easy walking distance to the ETH (the Swiss Federal Technical Institute) and the Hauptbahnhof (main train station). This is very important as we will be car-free for the year and plan to make good use of public transportation. Also, we have learned that most grocery stores and other stores are closed on Sundays, except for the stores in the train station. If you want an idea of the mall at the train station, check out the website here.

Also, this makes sabbatical so much more real to us. I'm getting even more excited!

Training People, Part 2

In getting ready for sabbatical, we have now posted information about our house rental with the colleges. In two days I've already gotten responses, but none are making me excited about renting to them. (I had other problems when we last rented out our cottage….)

1. "I'm calling about your house you have listed for rent. Is it available?" "It will be available in mid-August." "Oh, not now?" 

Tip #1 - When calling about an advertisement, make sure you read it through before bothering someone.

2. This email ended with a very strong religious message. 

Tip #2 - Don't advertise your religion. Do I really have to say this?

3. This email told me why our house is perfect for them. 

Tip #3 - I'm glad we might be able to help you, but the real question is, why should we rent out our home to you? I need a compelling reason to know you will take excellent care of our home.

4. This email used no signature. Just thank you (no punctuation). The follow-up email asked how much "would the rent come out to be". (This is an email from a college student.) Again, no signature. 

Tip #4 - Please use common courtesy in your emails. Then refer to Tip #1.

I will be very happy when we find the right people to live in and love our home while we are gone.

Swiss Watching

Although I did not actually read this book, H read aloud the most interesting parts of it to me. In preparation for our sabbatical next year, we think it would be wise, not only to brush up our German, but to also have a heads-up on fitting into and trying to understand the culture of Switzerland.

This book was written for Brits who are moving to Switzerland, but the advice would seem to work well for Americans, too. The one chapter that has stuck in our minds is the way in which one attends a social function. First of all, according to this book, Swiss do not go in for small talk, so please refrain from mentioning the weather.

"The moment you walk into the room is moment of truth. It's not about dress codes, because the Swiss rarely have those, or about being late, where a simple apology is enough. It's all about saying hello. At any gathering in Switzerland, every guest's first duty is to go round and greet everyone. Faced with a crowd of people, most of them strangers, you might be temped to lurk in a corner until you spot someone you know, or wait for your host to make the introductions. Bad idea. What you should do before anything else, and that includes getting a drink, is introduce yourself to everyone, regardless of how long it takes. ... This custom is possibly the real reason most Swiss people are punctual. It's much easier to stand around chatting or drinking and make all the newcomers come to you for the introductions."

Of course, leaving the party also has its formalities. Think of the above in reverse, and try to remember everyone's name....

Looking Forward

It's a new year, a time when we like to look ahead to think about what the future may bring. Our future is starting to look quite exciting as we think about our next sabbatical year. Not next fall, but starting in the fall of 2014 we are planning to spend a year in Zurich, Switzerland.

About a month ago we heard back from a friend of ours at the ETH (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology/Zurich) who answered H's request to be invited to do research for the year.

We have many questions about living in a foreign country, and we have been asking all of our friends who have done such what advice and knowledge they can impart for us. Most importantly, this far in advance, what we need to do is to revive the German that is hidden deep within our memories. Both of us took German in college, and I spent a term (3 months) in Graz, Austria during college studying the language over xxx years ago.

We have a copy of Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger, a short children's book, in German, and we are slowly working our way through it with the English translation at our side, trying to remember the sentence structures, the verb conjugations, some basic vocabulary and noun genders. I am surprised by how much and how little I remember. I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but this might be a good one: practice German!