Elisa and I had been having hard times before, but we feel like this week was the start of a much better Switzerland.  Elisa has started German lessons now.  She goes for four hours a day every weekday.  She is already conversing with Swiss friends.  (Really!)  At a very elementary level.  I like sitting with her at night when it’s time to study.

I got to go on a ski outing to Laax with my coworkers on Friday.  They are really nice and I wouldn’t have known so much about them without doing something outside.  Google has been a good place to work in spite of all the trouble we had at first.

We are almost entirely out of boxes.  We spent the majority of Saturday assembling a wardrobe to replace our closet back home.  It is so nice to have a place to put things.

Mom was with us until Wednesday morning. We played some games together this week but that’s about it. Renee and I grabbed some lunch after grocery shopping. We decided to try a little pasta buffet where they throw a bunch of different things in a skillet and cook it all up. As I was choosing what to put in my concoction I saw something that looked like shredded cheese. I tried to ask about what it was but I didn’t understand the cook’s answer. She finally grabbed a heaping spoonful and motioned for me to do something with it. Again I didn’t know whether she wanted me to smell it or taste it. I eventually took a bunch in my fingers and put it in my mouth. The cook started to laugh so hard at me as I realized I had just put a ton of shredded garlic on my tongue. My tongue burned for the rest of the afternoon. I love garlic but that was too much. Needless to say I’ll be excited to start my German lessons this week. Mom said that on the way to the airport her train was running a little behind. She ended up missing the train connection that was going to take her to the airport. She wasn’t sure what to do so her reaction was to jump on a train at the nearest platform! She didn’t know which way it was going or when it would get there. 😕 [Correction: Mom clarified that she had gotten to the right platform.  The mistake was that she accidentally got on the train that happened to be on the platform at the time, even though her correct train was going to arrive afterwards.] Fortunately it was a train headed downtown, and from there it’s easier to find trains bound for the airport. I’m so glad she didn’t miss her flight.