Let the Adventure Begin!

Emalei's new school on Lake Lucerne

Fabio's new office in Zug (pronounced: tzuk)

Our very first post will be less exciting than the ones to follow...we can only hope. This past week has been a whirlwind. Needless to say there are about a million (and that's no exaggeration) things to do before packing up and moving to the other side of the world. Here is a sampling of what we've been up to:

• Quit my job, return all supplies/resources to Seattle Hebrew Academy and update the new teacher replacing me about everything I know.
• Pack and move out of my apartment
• Find the closest, cheapest storage space
• Find a moving truck (Fabio spent hours on this last night...shocking)
• Find an apartment via internet in Switzerland. This is NOT easy for a few reasons: 1. All the websites are in German so Fabio had to do the leg work. 2. There is a 9 hour time difference. 3. In Switzerland, you must give a 3 month notice to your landlord, so most postings were for October or November. 4. We need a furnished place at first and they are impossible to find.
• Cancel everything from cell phone to cable to credit cards (we consolidated)
• Sell cars (I'm holding back tears)
• Rent a car for the next few weeks
• Buy plane tickets
• Make visa and work permit arrangements (still working on that and I'm very nervous)
• Take finals (yes, Fabio and I are both taking classes still)
• Runs to Goodwill

I won't bore you with the rest of the details, however, I must share one funny story. We were sitting in the Kia dealership yesterday waiting to sell Fabio's car back. He pulls out his car manual, opens it, and says, "Look honey, I studied and took notes in the car manual." He proceeds to flip through the manual and show me parts he highlighted, sticky notes and notes in the margin. I was floored! Who spends time actually reading the car manual? BORING! I laughed and laughed about it. He laughed a little too at how silly it now seems. He’s a unique one, Fabio is, but he’s cute and I love him.

This week, Fabio takes 3 finals. I take 1 final and read 5 articles and write response papers. I also have 3 days left of class. We will look for more apartments and make appointments for Fabio to see them when he is there next week. Fabio leaves for Switzerland on Thursday morning. He will hopefully find us an apartment, buy train passes, get us health insurance, open a Swiss bank account, visit his new office and meet his future co-workers, get us cell phones, visit the ward (he served his mission in this ward 6 years ago!!!), get his residency permit and more. I leave Friday for my grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary. I get back Sunday, Fabio gets back Thursday. We both leave Friday for LA to meet his parents who have been planning a visit for about 6 months. (The plans for this have been made and paid for for months!) Then we will drive to Las Vegas and spend a few days there. I will leave for Switzerland on August 12th and will start work as soon as I get there. Fabio and his parents will fly back to Washington, finish out their trip and Fabio will join me on the 28th.

Whew! You confused or exhausted yet? We sure are, but we are very excited! We keep talking about all the places we want to visit on the weekends, all the yummy food we will eat, and we are excited to spend a Christmas in Switzerland! Can we say, beautiful!? We’ve talked about doing that for a while, and now it’s going to be easier than we thought!

This post was totally long and probably very confusing, but welcome to our life! We can’t wait to share all the exciting things to come!

PS: Here are the links to the company Fabio will be working for and my new school:

Partner's Group Investments: http://www.partnersgroup.net/

International School of Lucerne: http://www.isol.ch/