About a month ago I was having dinner with some girl friends when my friend Haley gave me the most amazing thing. A magnet for my oven with all of the conversions of temps.

This may seem like an ordinary gift but for me it was very timely. Nearly every day I use our oven. And every day I checked my little dripped on print out that was crumpled in the kitchen drawer by the oven. You would think after living in Bogota and converting for those 2 yrs that I would have all of the important temps memorized but I don’t. It appears that I have a mental block . Something is engrained in me to rely on what I know. What I am comfortable with. And that, my friends, is Fahrenheit.

I find culture shock rears it’s head at times and in circumstances I wouldn’t expect. I think I thought in clean, fancy shmancy Switzerland that there wouldn’t be culture shock and if there was I should just buck up and accept it because who can complain living here. I agree, there are much worse places we could be. Thank you to those of you serving in places that are even farther away feeling! At the end of the day when we are away from home, we are away from home. You know that feeling you have after being on a long trip…all great places and fun people…you just want to be home. I have days like that here. We are soaking in experiences and enjoying all of the wonderful things Switzerland has to offer. But the truth is it isn’t home.

How could something so simple as converting temps for the oven be annoying?  How could I be so thrown when cilantro is not available on the one day I want to make guacamole because I am homesick for Tex Mex?  How could I feel like shrieking at the lady at the store who glares at Jackson for just being in the store with me? How could I be grumpy about cooking dinner because there isn’t any easy pick up dinner that we can afford? How could I be so anxious about driving…isn’t a car a car anywhere? Aren’t roads all the same? Those things that we know and are comfortable with just aren’t the same every where we go. It doesn’t make them wrong it just makes them different from what we know.  It brews the perfect concoction for culture shock. It comes in many different forms. Sometimes it boils over (God forbid when I am driving or in the grocery check out line with 2 toddlers), sometimes it calmly simmers, but it’s there. And unfortunately it doesn’t discriminate. It occurs anywhere that isn’t home.

So thanks, Haley, for giving me a gift that reminds me of home. And that provides a crutch for my brain that is locked into Fahrenheit and can’t seem to embrace Celsius! I am so glad that you are a friend that reminds me that is okay!!

Some of you may or may not know that every few months we take a trek to Heidelburg, Germany to buy groceries at the commissary there. The reasoning isn’t that we miss Ranch dressing or salsa but that we can’t afford to buy groceries  solely on the Swiss market. And the Embassy knows that and provides us with a base pass in Germany. I about died when we arrived and I did our first grocery shopping trip. Our social sponsor took me to the big grocery store to stock up. I got a cart full of basics and it cost over $400. No joke.  This lasted us about a week and I was almost in tears to return to the store the following week! If I hadn’t been in so much shock I would have taken a picture of the receipt.  In the future maybe I will do a blog on how much basics cost here like bread, milk, etc. Just for fun! I remember telling my friend Katie when we arrived that we would have to drive to Germany or France in order to buy full out groceries. She gave me such a hard time and teased how “bad” she felt that I would have to pop over to France for groceries. In all honesty, it isn’t a luxury to drive to another country for groceries. France being closeby is so nice, having to go there for food, not so nice.  It isn’t a given that post will have a commissary. We had a small one in Bogota with “necessities” so it is really nice to have a full store in our part of Europe.  We know our access is a luxury. Can we live without American products? Absolutely. Can we afford to buy only locally? Ummm, not so much.

Okay, back to Heidelburg. So basically in  addition to a few treats we buy nearly all of the meat, paper goods,  canned goods and bread we will need for 3-4 months. If we are having guests during those times we buy extra to make sure we can have plenty of meals to offer. It is a bigger job than I ever imagined to attempt to anticipate our grocery needs that far in advance. And an even bigger job to get there, buy that much food, pack it into coolers of ice in the trunk and make the trek back. My friend Leigh has been a trooper on 2 occasions and has made part of the trip with me. She has the benefit of getting a few American goodies but I score the bigger reward of getting a day with her, kid-free!!

A week or so ago Seth and I decided we needed to do a trip but I didn’t want to do the trip alone, and I really didn’t want him to do it alone. SO, in a moment of insanity we decided to make the trip again with both boys! In all reality the day went much better than I would have expected. We had moments of laughter and lots of moments when the boys were reaching to peel off the seal around the windows to make an escape from the car!

We left home at 8 AM and arrived home after 9 PM. Because it was a Friday and lots of people are Spring-breaking we ran into lots of traffic and slowdowns. We made the most of it and enjoyed some family time. We took a few videos and pictures throughout the day to document a typical Heidelburg grocery journey for you!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/SreddNWmBNg]

about 10 mins into the drive. We stopped for gas, trunk full of igloo coolers, and the boys already a bit edgy!

using his sleep sack to attempt a nap…trying to block us out

Blues skies and lots of fields of yellow goldenrod- looking flowers

miles and miles of cars…or kilometers and kilometers of cars, whichever you feel more comfortable with! For us it was miles and miles! We sang lots and lots of silly songs and attempted to lighten the mood. Sometimes our listeners welcomed our singing at other times it caused eruptions of whining and other potentially obnoxious behaviors. The good news is that our kids tend to take turns “having a moment”…well, it could be good news but really what it means it that when they each take a turn you potentially have many minutes occupied by someone’s turn.

3 1/2+ hours and we were finally getting close!! Hang in there boys!

As we approached the gate and sat in a line waiting for our passports to be checked Jackson made up a rap song…Seth did backup

[youtube=http://youtu.be/m0nG3y-6ivo]

After a quick lunch at the base food court the boys and Seth went to the park on base while I did the shopping.

Jackson immediately recognized the park as being just like the ones in the US that he went to with his cousins. It was padded ground, child-size climbing gear and there was even a safe section for Owen!

after the boys got refreshed and I had the majority of the shopping done they came to offer moral support on the final lap around the store. By the second cart, I was getting weary and wishing that Leigh was there to help me hunt for the final items on the list!  Checkout took a good while. But can I just tell you how amazing it was that cheerful employees bagged my groceries for me. You bag your own groceries in Switzerland which is fine but with 2 carts full I may have melted on the floor in tears. It was so nice to have their help!

We loaded the car, buckled the boys in, refreshed their drinks and snacks and headed on our way.

(oh wait, don’t forget the potty. We strategically held Jackson’s potty out so that it wouldn’t get buried in the massive load of stuff….you are probably thinking for sanitary reasons, however it was for very practical potty emergency on roadtrip reasons. always thinking.)

[youtube=http://youtu.be/uwkYQ9oQJZE]

by 4 pm when we pulled out of the parking lot Jackson crashed! And we jumped right into a huge traffic jam!

We pulled over when we saw a family-friendly place called Schnitzel Huber. Turns out it really was family friendly and the boys were even able to play in a play corner. The food wasn’t as delicious as these boys in the sign make it looks but it was a perfect stop for weary travelers.

We got the boys in their pj’s after dinner, Jackson tried out the new hoola-hoop from the commissary to get the final energy out and we hopped back in the car for the final leg of the trip.

When we arrived home we got the boys in their beds and began to unload the groceries. I meant to count the bags and show you all of the organization of the giant freezer but by then I was a tad bit worn out and had to focus on unloading the slightly defrosted items.

above is one of the loads…this doesn’t include the freezer or fridge stuff. And I meant to take a picture of the receipt. It was as tall as me! After previously budgeting more on a weekly basis it can be frightening to buy for a few months!

In the end we forgot Dr. Pepper for Seth. So sad. That is one of the treats I always bring back for him. Poor guy!  If that is the only thing we forgot though in our 14 hour journey I would say we did pretty well!

It has been a while since we have done a Foreign Service update. So here’s our status currently. We will be here in Bern until July of next year. This August we will be given another bid list. At that point we will narrow it down and make lots of big decisions. Seth and I are able to see a tentative list now and have already begun the process of talking through it. Nothing is jumping out at us at this point. Some are definitely NOT going to make the short list.

Our tentative plan since leaving Bogota has been to return to the DC area post-Bern and to settle down for a couple of tours. We have a variety of reasons for this being our plan. In reviewing the bid list we are beginning to hash out other possibilities and how they may impact our family. This round of bidding will be quite different in that Seth will be lobbying for jobs. They will no longer be directed assignments like Bogota and Bern have been. The other difference is that from here on out most of our assignments will be for 3 years. This is good because it will give us more time to settle in and make a place home but it also brings challenges if you don’t love a place.

This update is basically to say we have no idea where we are headed. We have ideas of how we would like it to play out and we are opening up more options but still don’t have much clarity yet. We are even beginning to talk about what it would look like if we stepped back from the FS all together. GASP. Seth loves his job and at this point we aren’t calling it quits but we are asking the hard questions and really thinking about what our family looks like today and where we are headed. There is a lot of pressure in this job to advance and work the right tours with the right people. We want to make wise decisions for our own family. Thus, we are praying for clarity.

What we have decided is that we will be spending Christmas in Texas with our family this year! By then we will know where we are headed!

Yesterday we went to the petting zoo across the river with some new Swiss friends. I may have mentioned them here before. They are a Swiss couple that have lived abroad…in Houston! They have 2 little ones about the age of ours and Jackson goes to an English speaking playgroup with the little girl. They are very friendly and gravitate towards us because they desperately miss the US and now that they have returned they find Switzerland’s social scene to be somewhat cold. Yes, that’s right folks. From the mouths of Swiss natives, it’s cold. Gorgeous, mountainous, beautiful, picturesque, but sometimes rather uninviting. Now we have met some lovely people but for the most part it feels very tough to crack the code and cozy up to the culture. Try as we may. (post coming soon on attempting to be myself, a chronic people-pleaser, in a place that doesn’t want my pleasing

Anyhow, as most of you know, or probably would assume, I do not speak Swiss German. So when I am out and about I do my best to follow all of the rules but often fail miserably. Miserably but not unknowingly. You see, it is not uncommon for people here to “speak into your life”, as in, offer correction and guidance. Back to the petting zoo. After a fun time of letting the kids run through and enjoying being outside we decided to go into the small cafe for a hot drink and snack for the kids. As Jackson and his friend rushed the ice cream chest, the other mom and I headed to get something hot to drink. As we headed that way an elderly woman began to rant because we had brought strollers into the cafe. My friend spoke kindly to her in Swiss German and she huffed and headed on her way. I am pretty sure we ruined her day or at least rattled her good for her whole walk home. That’s what a stroller can do. I was so thankful to have a Swiss friend to help guard me from my ignorance in the situation. It takes no genius to translate being lectured whether you speak the language or not. But it takes skill to talk graciously back in the complainers native language.

… Now back to Jackson and his friend raiding the ice cream chest. Both kids quietly and politely selected their ice cream and put it up on the counter to pay. Cafeteria-type cafe’s aren’t always Jackson’s place to shine.  But yesterday I was impressed with his success. In the midst of the social tiff though I didn’t check Jackson’s selection. An ice cream cone is an ice cream cone, right? So we made our way to a table and Jackson tore open his cone. My friend sat down and vented about how rude people can be. I looked over as Jackson finished his first few bites and noticed his ice cream was a light brown color. Not chocolate brown, more like khaki. I reached over and took a bite. Sure enough, a big heaping cone of coffee ice cream. He loved it. And it loved him. They loved each other into the afternoon with zero nap and energy plus. It occurred to me that Jackson has NEVER had caffeine. Besides the caffeine in chocolate, he has had none. For obvious reasons. He doesn’t need it.  We have never been on a deserted island with only a coke in sight. There has always been an alternative available.

So there you go, 2 rookie mistakes on a sunny Wednesday morning. A stroller run wild out of the petting zoo and into the cafe  breaking all sorts of laws and a small child experiencing his first, and likely last for a long while, COFFEE ice cream cone. Jackson enjoyed my mistake!

Ella insists upon holding Jackson’s hand. He normally bucks any system but for some reason he complies with her!