Fun Weekend with Friends

It has been another exciting week here in Switzerland. Last weekend we got our Christmas tree. I wouldn't say it is the biggest or best tree either of us has ever had but it was such a fun adventure.  The lot is right down the street from our house. While we were there, they gave us glasses of hot wine (vin chaud) and homemade soup.  With all of the snow, we were really in the season.

We are also happy to announce that we are the proud new owners of our first station wagon.  After 2 months of driving a front wheel drive rental car (and getting stuck in the snow on our way home the other night on a narrow road as the bus was coming down the hill towards us), we finally purchased a car. Negotiating and purchasing a car in a language you don't speak is a little challenging but Corinne, the lady we worked with, was very patient with us. She was amazing to work with and put a big bouquet of flowers in the car when we picked it up. We are very happy to have this chore of car shopping finished.



 We had our company Christmas party on Wednesday night.  It was a lot of fun and I danced my legs off while Scott mingled. Somehow we didn't get a picture together so this is all I have for you.

This weekend, we are very lucky to have 3 of our friends in town. Brian Applegate flew in from Texas for about a 36 hour trip.  Nick and Jessica (whose wedding we attended in November) were also here from Luxembourg. We had a fantastic time. We started with a short boat trip to Evian.  The weather was beautiful and we had a great lunch. We ended the short trip with me winning 120 Euros at the casino playing the 5 cent slot!

That night, we went to the Christmas market in Montreux and enjoyed some good food and drinks and ended up at "the restaurant/bar" in Mollie-Margot. On Saturday, we took a driving tour of the mountains, stopping is a couple small towns to check out their views and another Christmas market. We ended up in Les Diablerets.  It is a well known ski town and was amazing! The views were something just out of a story book. We took a ton of pictures but here are a couple to give you an idea.

Although it was a short weekend, it was so great to see friends and be able to explore with them. We are looking forward to planning a trip to Luxembourg to repay Nick and Jessica.  We do not have any other visitors scheduled so who wants to be next?

Team Building. . .in a Castle

Many people who work in the corporate world have been on some type of team building event in the past. They typically  involve a strategy meeting, ropes course and bonding. These are all great activities but how often do you do one in a castle?  A couple weeks ago, we took the day to get to know each other in a near by castle. 

The company was broken into team and of course there were competitions and many other exercises.  I was crushed that our team did not win but at least we had fun.

Throughout the day, each team participated in creating the, "Stryker, There for You" picture out of nature items. Just remember, wherever you are, Stryker is There for You.

Thanksgiving and More

What a fun and unique Thanksgiving we had.  Scott and I hosted 10 people from very diverse backgrounds (Australia, Switzerland, India, England and the US (TX, CA and MI)) at our home for the big night.  Despite the small turkey breasts, the meal was a hit! I found a recipe for pecan tarts that required only ingredients I had and they were a huge success. Scott cooked everything else (of course) and got rave reviews.  Although the food was good, the company was even better.

We are also lucky that we were able to get our shipment from the states the week before. It was a hustle to the end but we pulled the house together pretty darn well in those 5 days.  Izzie and Deacon tried to help us unpack but they were worn out. Once we get the rest of the pictures hung and such, we'll post pictures of the house.

In addition to a great Thanksgiving dinner with lots of new friends, Katy made it in safely to spend the weekend with us and we had a fabulous time. We went to the Christmas Market in Montreux, Evian, Lausanne, Geneve, the local (only) restaurant in Mollie-Margot and had lots of laughs. We also took tours of the cheese and chocolate factories. Nothing like some great samples :)

None of us were ready for the huge amount of snow we have been receiving!  The dogs are loving it and it's hard for us to get them to come inside. Deacon thinks the shovel is a game but Izzie thinks it's trying to attack me.  I was forced to drive in the snow for my first real time while Katy was here. Although it was scary, we did survive.  It is definitely making us anxious to get out of our front wheel drive rental car. We're hoping to pick up our new (used but new to us) 4 wheel drive on Tuesday.

In the mean time, here's a nice picture of the recent snow for you to look at while you drink some hot tea.  We hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving too and are enjoying the holiday season as we are heading into December.

Scott and Ashleigh

When in Switzerland...

This post is an attempt to track some of the differences we have noticed between the comforts of living in the US and the alternatives in Switzerland. One thing I am sure most can agree on is that Starbucks is great around the holidays and we just happened to find one close to work in Vevey.

CH 18.40 (approx $20 USD) later and we had our large holiday coffees and Ashleigh is happy! Which, everyone knows if Ashleigh isn't happy then nobody is going to be happy :)

See everyone is happy! Deacon is even thinking about smoking to fit in!

We used to think that Texas was so far away from everyone and we were thankful for cell phones and cheap nationwide long distance. That is no longer the case here! We have invested in Magic Jacks and Skype to keep in touch with those that we care about! Case-in-point Ashleigh on a Skype call with Karen, Micki, and Kerri. My computer has the camera so it has come to the point now where I need to schedule out time 2 weeks ahead of time with my own computer in order to avoid conflicts with Ashleigh's busy Skype schedule! She is very popular!

The one thing that I have missed almost as much as our furniture and household goods are hotdogs! But we found a solution to that; pretzel buns, swiss mustard, and swiss hotdogs yummie!

Dog raincoats & boots???

Well we are in Switzerland and its winter!!! Thanks to Ashleigh's mom and dad we do not have to worry about the dogs being cold during the short walks and potty breaks. Deacon is thrilled!

No this was not taken at glamour shots and Izzie does not have pom-poms she does not have opposable thumbs to hold them so Ashleigh's mom built them in to her dog boots instead!

As you can see we are adjusting to the climate and preparing for the cool winter days ahead. 

Now that we have received all of our household goods we hope to settle in and relax a little like our furry friends.

So remember when in Switzerland... do as an ex-pat trying to figure out Swiss/Euro culture and find plenty of substitutes for the things depend on and miss! Cheers!

Help! Looking for Quick Thanksgiving Advice

As we all know, it is the day before Thanksgiving (one of my favorite days of the year). Scott and I are hosting 9 people at our house tomorrow for the big day. There are only a few issues:

1. All of our belongings from the states just arrived on Friday so our house is a MESS.  We've needed to work this week so we've been attempting to combine what was formally 2 Texas size homes into 1 Switzerland size home each night after 12 hours in the office. Yuck! We still have so much to do even to be able to fine the table. I am proud to say we have successfully built 5 Ikea wardrobes.
2. Thanksgiving is not exactly a Switzerland holiday so we had to take a vacation day. Boo!
3. The really exciting part is that my great friend, Katy will be joining from CA for the weekend. Below is a picture so you all know who she is:

 

 

4. Here's the tricky part that I'm hoping to get all of your help with.  They do not sell cranberries in Switzerland so no cranberry sauce. Any quick alternatives?  Also, they do not sell any type of cherry or pumpkin for pies. I am going to make an apple pie but come on, we have 9 people. I need at least 1 more, probably 2. I tried for pecan but I cannot find corn syrup. If anyone has a pecan pie recipe that does not require corn syrup, I would pay top dollar for it.  Any other dessert recipes with simple ingredients would be greatly appreciated.  On the bright side, we did get our "turkey". We were too late in the game to order a full turkey instead so we wiped out 2 stores of their turkey breasts.  $50 later, we have  a full 7 lbs of turkey breast.

 

I'll leave you today with a quick picture of our first snow. Not much and yes, it's in the dark before work but at least it may inspire you to help me with some recipes.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Scott and Ashleigh

Dubai,Crepes, Tulips and Passports for Dogs: These are a few of my favorite things

The past couple of weeks have continued to be an adventure for us. Scott has been traveling between Poland, the Netherlands and Germany quite a bit. He has a couple of big projects he is in the middle of and then we're hoping the weekly travel will slow down so that we can get back to our French lessons :) I also took a trip to Dubai for work. What an amazing city. Amazing in that I am very glad I went to visit and would happily visit again but am not sure that I would want to move there. We went inside the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. Our hosts were incredibly hospitable and it was nice to meet some of my colleagues that I had been working with over the phone.

Looking out at the mall from the Burj Khalifa

Looking out at the city from the Burj Khalifa

Looking up at  the Burj Khalifa

The view of the city from our dinner cruise

When I returned from Dubai, Scott and I had dinner with our friends, John and Catherine. Catherine is French and treated us to a crepe buffet that she put together. The unfortunate part is that I learned that they are just about as easy to make as pouring a bowl of cereal. That prompted me to make crepes for dinner the next three nights while Scott was out of town. After all, I'm already used to him doing the cooking. What am I supposed to do if he isn't here?  I was also thrilled because I planted 40 tulip bulbs to line our walkway. Don't you all worry, you'll get pictures this spring when they pop up.

Lastly, with Scott and I going to Nick and Jessica's wedding in Virginia, we had a find a place to leave the dogs. It was finally time to do what we had been putting off. We got the passports for them that are needed any time you take them somewhere public like a kennel or across any borders. I never thought about a passport for a dog but voila, now they have them. Now we just have to train the dogs to come back when Jean-Phillipe calls them. As he told us when we picked them up today, "the little one is stubborn. We went for a walk in the forest and when I called her to come back, she just looked at me then kept walking".  Izzie, stubborn, come on. Oops, guess we need to work on the off leash walks.

The wedding in Virginia was fantastic, though. Great music, beautiful setting, many of my favorite people and Nick and Jessica looked amazing. Congratulations to them and here are a couple of pictures from the trip.

Switzerland, Hong Kong, France and the Netherlands in 5 Days. . .Oh My!!

What does your dinner look like when you're on your 4th country in 5 days? Well, a bag of apples and a stick of Gouda in the airport.

It has been an exciting couple of weeks for the Rickaby/Bechtel household.  I was in Hong Kong last week for an HR Leaders Meeting and then a Recruiters Forum. It was great to get to meet some of the folks I have been working with in person. Below is a group shot.

We had some fun in the lady's market and Rebecca was our best negotiator. I even bought a painting (I'm not sure Scott loves all of the gold in it).

Rachel and I  "enjoyed" some Peking Duck.

After a brief security breach on my way home, I missed my connection but finally arrived back in Geneve Saturday morning just in time for French lessons with Olivier. The weather in Switzerland is starting to get very cold but it is beautiful as the leaves are changing color and starting to fall.

The next day, we drove to Annecy, France which is just about 90 minutes away and is known as the, "Venice of France".  It was absolutely gorgeous. It has a wonderful lake surrounded by mountains and a few canals which are lined with restaurants and shops. It was a wonderful and pleasant day besides Deacon jumping into the lake which was practically freezing. We finished our trip with crapes by the canal before we went to look for cars.

This Tuesday, I flew to Amsterdam for the day to conduct a strengths finder coaching session with our compliance team. It was a good training and a long day. Scott also drove 6 hours to our office in Balerna and back to fix a network issue. Needless to say, we were happy to be home that night.

In other news, Izzie turned 4 last week!

I will be in Dubai all next week and Scott will be traveling as well but he isn't sure where quite yet. My only big plan for the weekend is to get my tulips planted before it really starts to freeze.

We hope you all have a great weekend. We're counting down the days to Nick and Jessica's wedding and also Katy's visit over Thanksgiving.

Ashleigh

Exploring Mollie-Margot

What an amazing first weekend in Switzerland we had. We began the fun with an exciting night at IKEA on Friday. Ok, maybe that wasn’t the highlight but we are in desperate need of some curtains so that I am not flashing our 13 year old twin neighbor boys. We ran some errands on Saturday and then Tim, the neighbor boy, took us on a little adventure. We walked down to the farm at the bottom of the hill to get some fresh milk. You have to bring your own canister and once you are there, you walk on into the barn. There is a large round metal machine that holds the fresh warm milk (yes, yuck to warm milk but we refrigerated it once we were home and skimmed off as much cream as possible). All you do is open the nozzle and fill your canister with as much milk as you like. The whole process is on the honor system and you just leave 1 CHF/litre on the sink when you leave. It was pretty darn cool. Saturday night we went to dinner with a guy from work, John, and his wife. We ate at a great restaurant right on the lake. Scott was mostly excited because John is American and had college football set up at his house for us to watch before dinner. 

Sundays are a day of rest in Switzerland and everything is closed. . .literally everything. You are not even allowed to make any noise. No mowing the lawn, no vacuuming, no work at all. You are just supposed to spend time relaxing and with your families. This is of course a crazy concept to me but I decided to give it a try. We spent some good time at home and then went for a long walk to explore our new town. The town itself is comprised of 1 restaurant and a recycling center so our tour of the town was pretty darn fast. We decided to keep on walking though to see what else we could find. Here are some highlights:

There are several “honor” posts with all kinds of different goods to sell. This one was a flower garden which you were supposed to cut the flowers you wanted and your money in the small blue money box.

They also had this little cabin that had jelly, fresh cheese and potatoes inside with the same concept.

As we kept walking, we ran into the local Christmas tree lot. Apparently you get a free bottle of the local liquor when you buy a tree which I think is a great idea.

Deacon was pretty excited to make friends with the sheep but that was before he hit his nose on the electric fence. I have never heard the poor boy give out a yelp like that.

We eventually came to a wooded area that had a great walking path through it. It was nice and cool and the dogs loved smelling everything. There was even a nice bench to take a little rest.

A few minutes into our walk, we saw angry looking tree. After a second glance, though, I did notice he was smiling so I think we were welcome in his forest.

After a nice relaxing weekend and also catching up on the phone, we are ready for our first full week in the office. Let’s just hope that our air shipment comes this week. I am really sick of wearing my Crocs.