Birthdays and movin!! :)

Just got back from the neighbors' place and taking another break from unpacking/organizing.  So we're moved in!!  I love being able to say that.  The next milestone will be when we give back the keys to our subletted apartment- we have to clean it first.  :(  But I'll go through and try to give the short version of our looooong weekend.

We'd been trying to get this Mobility subscription (to rent cheap vans/cars) but paperwork after paperwork was taking too long- almost 2 weeks.  So Wed we decided to just secure an IKEA van and get it done on Paul's bday, Fri.  We arranged appointments to pick up our other stuff from people and on Fri morning took off to IKEA!  Even with my pre-made list, it still took us an hour and a half to get through and check out.  Finally got the van and drove over to the warehouse to pick up our bed, table, and mattress and then set off to pick up our chairs from a girl named Gabby.  This was our very first time driving in Zurich and it was nothing less of an amazing experience.  A 10 min drive turned into one hour until we gave up and called Gabby.  She directed us all the way to her place- fabulous.  Just thankful to have made it.  But because of our escapade we were not able to make it in time to pick up the couch from Gunar.  We arrived back home to bring everything up 4 flights of stairs.  Sweat, sweat, and more sweat.  Driving back to IKEA was WAY less stressful most likely because Paul is amazingly awesome with orienting and familiarizing himself with everything while driving.  We picked up some sandwiches and took the train to our old place to gather more things so we could stay the night at our new place and low and behold our Mobility subscription went through and we had everything we needed- FINALLY.  We cleaned ourselves for a housewarming party for one of the girls in Paul's group.  It was a nice restful evening with great company and great food.  Im definitely going to try to make Spätzle soon.  We met a Mechanical Engineer PhD student there and he gave me a few tips and found information for me to attend a job fair at ETH in April.  So there is hope.  :)  But Paul and I went home and enjoyed some of his birthday 'cake' I made.  It is more like a torte cake on the bottom with thick pudding on top.  We're enjoying it!

Sat we slept in- with our VERY sore bodies- and immediately put together our bed.  This would normally be a quick, somewhat painless task but Swiss IKEA doesnt make it easy.  The frame itself was not hard but instead of a boxspring you buy lattenrosts which are a bunch of curved wooden slats that sit within a frame.  Ours can actually tilt up at the head and feet for elevation although Im not sure we'll ever do that.  But for the size of our bed, we had to get 2 smaller ones instead of 1 big one.  Soooo much fun to put together... not.  Half the day spent on that and then we went back to our old place to pack up everything and get ready for another moving day.  We reserved another van to get our couch and boxes on Sun.  On our way to the old place we stopped at a Thai restaurant called Take Easy where they spoke German with a Thai accent- very interesting.  This was Paul's choice for his birthday dinner from his parents.  After almost 20 min of trying to figure out the menu and what we wanted, we got home with our food and it was DELICIOUS!  I loved what I got- Pad Thai.  Paul got some rice with curry chicken.

We skyped with our family and went HOME (new place).  It was sooooo refreshing to sleep in a real bed off of the floor with more space.  I can not even begin to explain how good it felt.  Sun we got up early and made our way to pick up the van.  No one was there.  Paul just scanned his ETH card and the van unlocked and we were off.  Crazy.  We went straight to pick up the couch and the drive was so peaceful!  We made it there early- yes, EARLY- and loaded it up.  Soren, a post doc in Paul's group, helped us unload it up the stairs and then we were off to pick up our boxes.  Everything was done within 3 hours with hardly any stress.  I was so happy we were able to have an enjoyable driving experience after Friday.  We came back and went 5 steps across the hall to our neighbors'.  They gave us their old place and moved next door for more space.  We had coffee and cake and chatted.  Lizzie, their 1 year old, had a thing for Paul and kept wanting him to hold her.  So cute.  But here's our van:

We took the van back and picked up a few things at the main train station since those are the only stores open on Sun.  Now we'll just wait and see how many tickets we got.  Since the van was a manual on Friday and we were so lost, we were driving pretty crazily and Paul even saw a camera flash.  So we'll be checking the mail.  Basically they take your picture and send you a ticket for whatever small thing you did.  Yay.  They have no problem figuring out where you live either.  We went to register in our new Kreis and THEY told US what our new address was.  I can't think about it too much or it kinda freaks me out.  But we've finally put together everything and are finishing emptying the boxes.  Once all the cardboard is gone, I'll take pictures of our new place!  :)  Yesterday and today I went next door for a coffee/cake break with Robert and Lizzie.  Lizzie has been sick so Robert has been staying home and invites me over to hang out for a little bit.  I love our neighbors already.  :)  They speak German to her but if we keep hanging out all the time, she'll be speaking English too!  That is so cool.  But I'll leave you with a pic of the cereal Paul tried this time around.  It's special!

Oh, and Paul is a student now!!  FSU is ridiculous and after 2 times of them not being able to write the address or do the postage correctly we finally just had his transcript sent to his parents and they were able to send it to us.  Sometimes I seriously wonder how FSU survives.  But now I can work out!  Just gotta pay 150 for the year and Im in!  Very excited for that!  AND I've done all our laundry in the DRYER and our dishes in the DISHWASHER and defrosted in the MICROWAVE!  Heck yes.  Things are pretty great.  We havent had a dryer or microwave in 2 months and a dishwasher EVER.  So while we dont have TV or a radio we do have some things that I love.  There is a piano player downstairs and it really makes me want to get a keyboard.  I think I'd play alot more without TV around.