We have moved to a town in Switzerland. Not to a giant leafy herb plant that makes pesto and caprese salad so delicious. We gave this decision a lot of thought and did some meticulous planning, only to arrive and realize that we had absolutely NO IDEA what we were getting into. As it turns out...WE HAVE MOVED TO A TOWN IN SWITZERLAND NOT TO A GIANT LEAFY HERB PLANT THAT MAKES PESTO AND CAPRESE SALAD SO DELICIOUS.
This is rather a shock. This and everything else.
Not everybody does speak English. And when they do, I feel apologetic, even though I had absolutely zero reason to speak German in my previous life. Actually, I take that back. It would have helped me sing along to half of the tracks on Nena's "99 Luftballoons" album in 1986.
There are trains and buses that can take us everywhere and they run precisely on time. However, this is not as exciting as we might have anticipated when the only place all of us want to go at the moment is...home. And right now "home" is a place so utterly uncertain, so utterly gone, that getting there is a journey that not only seems impossible, the very idea of such a place even existing anymore just doesn't make sense.
Preparing to leave a life in a place we loved was grueling. Packing was awful. Throwing things away, giving them away, and putting them in storage was overwhelming. Who knew that the 24 hours of traveling (an airport, a plane, another airport, another plane) would be the easy part - in fact the last easy part. In many ways, the only easy part.
And now we are here and we arrived in the middle of a heat wave and there is no A/C. We can't do laundry on Sunday or holidays (more on that in a future post), everybody smokes everywhere, a package of tortillas costs $6, and my daughter's preschool is located above a sex shop and theater. But the plastic cling wrap actually clings. And I accidentally discovered a greek yoghurt that is even better than sour cream in the tacos we made with those tortillas. And it turns out caprese salad still tastes delicious in Basel. Not Basil.
Next week, maybe we'll try the pesto.
