Schweiz

We are here in Schweiz (Switzerland).
It rained yesterday and afterwards we went to a lovely concert in the forest....young woman singing in English, very American-style. ink und Christina are being so gracious and kind and helpful! They have found us an apt. which we will see on Monday when we meet w/ the woman who will sublet to us. Hopefully it is as nice inside as out! We will move there in August.
Daniel's first treatment is next Wed. in Basel - about a 2-hour trip from here. It is great not having a car for the time being...walking a lot and bus service gets you anywhere.
got to go for now -breakfast!

To get back to the beginning:
We had a lovely going away party on June 26 - a wonderful gathering of many different friends who met and chatted and ate barbecue. It was a gorgeous day! Thanks to Irene and Dan for helping so much w/ cleanup afterwards!
On Saturday July 2nd, we flew off from SJC to LAX where our cousin and benefactor for the trip, Robert, picked us up, brought us to a hotel at the airport and then took us to lunch. It was lovely to see him, as always...such a sweet man and great dad to his 2 children. Also he is a generous person with a large, warm heart. It was sad not to spend more time with him, but he and wife Laurie had a previous engagement for that evening which they had planned long ago and couldn't cancel. Then we visited with KC, Daniel's long-time musician friend who lives in Laguna Beach - who visited, walked and had dinner with us.
Next morning we we're awakened shortly after 3 a.m. to get ready to be at the airport at 4:15 am. for the flight to Philadelphia, which then connected with our flight to Zurich - after a few hours layover in Phila. airport - fortunately Robert had gotten us first-class tix to Phila.which was helpful and allowed us to wait in the USAir lounge - then Business Class to Europe, which was a big deal, including seats that turn into beds, 5-course dinner, all you can drink, blankets, slipper sox, eye pillows, whatever needed to be as comfortable as possible. We did sleep - Daniel quite a lot, which was very important - he did so well altogether on the trip - it was amazing.
We landed Monday morning (July 3rd) in Zurich,where Nik picked us up and brought us here to Hegi,outside of Winterthur, which is 30 kilometers from Zurich. Hegi is a lovely "suburb" with green hills and forest around it, residential but also with some industrial areas....great walking! Each day we have taken walks around the area and take the bus into Winterthur where we will take an apartment for ourselves in August. This is a city of 100,000; very old with lots of modern construction as well. The apt we are looking at is in the older part of town, near the theater, museum, park, etc. and just a couple of minutes from downtown center for shopping, farmer's market, food market, train sta. etc.
The weather has been warm and mostly clear until yesterday's rain and continuing today - on and off, which makes the air clearer than before the rain, when it was humid. We went to a concert in the forest last night - lots of families, picnicking, enjoying the light of the long evening of this time of year. Today as I said, it is rainy somewhat but cool and refreshing. We go to a birthday party tonight in Zurich - which we visited several years ago
and look forward to seeing again. I hope this gives you a picture of what's happening here for us and I will try to keep you updated ;)
We think of our family & many dear friends in SC and send much love and good wishes for a great summer!!!
ciao.....Joya
Not many days later....
Clear skies after a somewhat wild day yesterday w/ intermittent thunder showers and then warm sunshine and later, cool, crisp air in the evening. Lovely summertime!
we traveled to visit Nik's parents yesterday, outside of Zurich. Transit system here is phenomenal people hardly need cars and we don't see too many on the road. Everyone rides bikes, walks and takes mass transit - all ages. It's wonderful and so healthy a lifestyle. People here look quite healthy actually. We have met some of our friends' friends and neighbors and look forward to learning more of the language, although most people speak English, at least somewhat. Daniel is hot on a BBC German language course he is taking via the Internet. I am listening,following my language guide and getting help from the boys with whom we are staying.
We took a long walk this morning, ending at a small cafe where we had tea and then walked back. Fnancesca, next-door neighbor just now showed me around her home, where I will take care of her cat while she is away next week. She is a lovely person - working as an administrator w. gender issues at a local university. The neighbors on the other side are also teachers - Melanie a middle-school teacher and Caspar a Hish School(?) gym teacher and Economics teacher as well. OK - enough trivia from Schweiz. auf viedersehen!