a chance to breathe and other extraneous tid-bits

I don't know if you guys have picked up on it, but school is way too much work for my liking. Whoever said that senior year was supposed to be a breeze lied (though I suppose it is a good wake up call before college...). So anyways, tomorrow is my last day of school before a beautiful, wonderful, glorious ten days of freedom. I'm so excited. I'll have ten full days to... study. And do homework. And do college applications. And study some more. And try to figure out what the heck I was supposed to know in the last two months of Calculus.
But hopefully, I'll also get a chance to go on a few adventures, watch a few good movies, read a good book or two, and catch up on this blog! (Because, honestly, I have noticed my lack in posts. I would say it's a combination of ridiculous amounts of homework everyday, and a deficit in cool adventures in the last couple weeks. For example: last weekend, my parents drove around Lake Geneva into France. I stayed at home and wrote essays and got a headache over derivatives.)

Also! There are two new pieces of good news. Number one: my mom got her B permit. This is basically a permit that allows us to live in Switzerland. We originally had D visa, which is a one time entry into the country, but since we are definitely planning on visiting other countries, we needed a B permit. My dad and I haven't gotten out permits yet, but we suspect it's because they do it alphabetically. But it hopefully means we will get our permits in the next few days!
Piece of good news number two: our container has almost arrived! As I mentioned a few posts back, we shipped a huge amount of stuff over here, and it's finally almost made it. It should be getting into Basel next Wednesday. Then all we have to do is rent a truck (or something) and drive it down here. Let me assure you, I am overjoyed at the prospect of having more than just four outfits.

Last bit of random news: it is honestly cold here. We've been having a "heat wave" and it's been about 7*C. I'm still awful at the conversions, but that's pretty much the average temperature in California in February. Also known as cold.
So, I've been discovering that what I considered to be heavy winter jackets are really only appropriate for early fall here. Next on the agenda: winter coat shopping!

One last thing... I know that there are a few of you reading this, but I'd really love to know how many and who you are! If you don't mind just leaving a comment or following this blog, I'd really appreciate it... I'm just curious!

taking photos has never been this challenging

Today was an adventure.
Not strictly an exciting, courage-inducing, risky type adventure... more of a long, walking required, hilarious and slightly embarrassing adventure.

Today, we registered for residency in the canton of Vaud. For those of you reading who are ignorant to the ways of Switzerland (only kidding... that was me a few months ago), cantons are like small states--more the size of counties--and all immigrants have to register soon after arrival. So, we traipsed up six trillion flights of stairs in the unusually hot Swiss weather. Next, we struggled to communicate with the woman behind the desk, who spoke very little English, until she summoned her colleague--who spoke slightly more English. We filled out a long and tedious form that was translated rather poorly from French, and then, after handing over passports, birth and marriage certificates, were told we needed to also provide three passport size photos.

So, we began our adventure. We wandered through tiny, darling streets until we found the supermarket, and dished over 16 CHF for six photos each at the instant photo booth. The photos came out appallingly badly, but we were in a rush to get to the bank, so we headed back towards the registry anyways.

Upon arrival, we were told that we were not allowed to show teeth in our photos. Apparently, all official photos in Switzerland must be taken with a "neutral" expression (at least that explained why the photographer barked at me in French when I smiled too widely for my school photo), so we had to go back to the photo booth, pay again, and take this time, even more hideous (and hilarious) photos.
At least this time, they were accepted.