1 Bed Down, Apartment Full of Furniture to Go

We went to IKEA today with our housing agent. She was nice enough to take us in her car so we could pick up the essentials. We got a bed! Along with linens (they don't understand the word sheets here), towels, plates and cups. The rest, I don't want to rush into. For those of you who know me, I'm going to have to diagram the living room a couple of times before I can narrow down the furniture options.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to stay there until this time next week (the bed takes a while to deliver). However, we'll have a phone on Friday (I have to meet the electrician by myself - let's hope he speaks English!) and internet a week from Friday.

You guys have already seen the living room... the kitchen is ridiculous. I wish we took pictures at the other places we saw. You'd have a good laugh. This one's nice by US standards, so it's really nice here. And that cabinet open on the end? A dishwasher!

Next is the bathroom... it's dated, but again, part of what makes this apartment possible. You miss the weird lighting and the all black floor, but it's going to look great once IKEA gets a hold of it.

More great news - I have a friend! At least, she might be a friend. She reached out from some expat organization, and she's already offered to meet me for lunch. Even more great news, she told us about a garage sale going on this Sunday (put on by an American Women's club). Yes and yes.

We should have some fun pictures after this weekend... Lugano is having its annual fall festival. It includes a part where people dress in "traditional costumes" and hand out grapes to the public. This should be interesting.

Casa Castagnola is Ours!

We got the apartment! We didn't exactly walk away at $2,050 but we didn't pay full price either. We met in the middle at $2,130. I know we seemed like real tough guys on that Saturday blog post... this is how it went down. That very next day the apartment was taken off the website (I was watching it like a hawk). We assumed that meant it was rented, and I had a little breakdown (okay, maybe a big one). I wasn't ready to start over! The only reason this apartment was inexpensive (relatively speaking) in the first place was because it was ground level, on the edge of Castagnola, and its view was obscured... would we really happen upon that set of circumstances twice? I wasn't ready to test it, especially not for $150. So, we agreed that IF it was still available, we'd ask about the online $2,050 price, but really we'd take it at $2,200 and count our lucky stars. I was so afraid we'd missed our chance at this place, and thought we were complete idiots for even putting it at risk. And for what? The price of a pair of socks in this town? It turns out it was still available, our housing agent worked her magic on the price, and we could not be happier.

Now here's where it gets crazy... once we agreed on the apartment, the lady who owned it offered to take us back to her house to sign the contract. She lives in an Italian style villa (I think I'm using that term correctly - it was an expansive property, with lots of outdoor space, had actual vineyards by the entrance, all nestled on the side of the most famous mountain in Lugano). She walks us out to her terrace (you can see ALL of Lugano, along with its lakes and mountains), where she has multiple tables set up with china, crystal, fruit, candles... I have no way of describing this. I kept whispering for Ryan to take a picture, but he was afraid it was rude. I was afraid that if we didn't get a picture, no one would believe us. She calls to someone in Italian... that someone is a maid, who is dressed like a maid (like from a movie), and she brings us champagne and crackers with pesto. Then her husband comes out with his trainer (this woman mentioned he was at the gym, I just assumed it wasn't in their house). The husband is wearing a polo shirt tucked into plaid shorts (with a belt) and he is in fact sweaty. His trainer is wearing scrub type booties over his shoes (like you'd see in an operating room), we assume so he doesn't get the floors dirty. I promise - I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. We pop the champagne, eat crackers, and chat on the veranda, like we know what we're doing. This place is like a different planet (for rich people).

We get the keys on Wednesday, and it's officially ours on the first. For those of you I thought I'd talk to tonight, Ryan is sleeping in the room as I type this. We didn't exactly plan for our little soiree, and after we got dropped off we still had to eat, so it's pretty late here.

I'm not sure how to end this one. My mind's a little jumpy with excitement (either that or champagne). So I will bid you a buona notte and say grazie for all the apartment prayers.

Food

We don't ignore requests, so tonight we are not discussing apartments, but want to tell you about food! It is really good here, except for McDonald's and Burger King. They aren't any better than McDonald's and Burger King in the US of A.

First a story... the scene is a busy street in the town of Lugano. It's a crowded Saturday afternoon and an American couple approaches an ice cream stand and gets in line. There is a sign that shows 3 sizes and the price for each. It is also clear that the choice is cup or cone. Small is 3 francs, medium is 5, and large is 7. The American wife thinks she is awesome at Italian, because she has studied it for 2 days on the computer in her hotel room...

For the sake of my audience, I will translate how this went down. What you see in English was actually spoken in Italian.

American woman: "Two, Five, [English jibberish], chocolate chip"

Italian ice cream chick: "uh, you want two scoops of chocolate chip ice cream?"

American woman: "Two, Two!"

American husband: hides face and laughs.

Italian ice cream chick: "So you want two cones, I guess, but only chocolate chip?"

American woman: "Chocolate Chip!" and smiles because she is very proud of how great her Italian is.

Chocolate chip ice cream is given to the Americans and the curtain closes....

We have really enjoyed the Italian food. We took some pictures of our Sunday to give you a feel for what it's like. There are many restaurants around us, but they are all very similar. Most people eat outside under a tent. The food is all Italian and is very, very good and not cheap. Today we had lunch at this place on the right. I had some sort of ravioli (but that's not what it was called on the menu) and Malinda had this noodle concoction. Like I said, it's better than anything you'll find in Memphis and probably New Orleans when it comes to pasta. There is little or no meat in any dish. The meat seems to be mostly pork (think Italian prosciutto, salami, etc.) My lunch was either in butter or olive oil but it was soooo good! We asked for a beer at lunch and weren't given any choices, they just brought that out. It's some kind of German beer and it is also very good.

Tonight we went to a restaurant very close to our hotel (like 30 ft from the front door) and sat in great seats where we could see the lake. For a salad we had this tomato and mozzarella dish. It was like tomato's from your backyard and cheese that you just got out of the cheese maker (do cheese makers exist?). It has a little olive oil and some other herbs on top. It was disgusting. Just kidding. Malinda loved it.

PS - while eating this salad, we saw a Bentley and an Aston Martin drive by. Yesterday, on the way to Ikea, we saw a Ferrari dealership beside a Maserati dealership. On to the main course!


Okay, I had no idea what I ordered. My dinner is the one right in front here. It was like giant penne noodles with a tomato cream sauce, eggplant, and maybe some other vegetables. I'm tired already of saying how good everything is. So, just know that unless we say otherwise, it was like the best Italian food you've ever had. Malinda had spaghetti. It was the "store special" and we think it had churizzo ham in it. It tasted a little spicy and also had some other mystery vegetables in the mix. We had the house red wine, which is always Ticino Merlot. It's good and not as expensive as everything else. We tried to end the day with gelato (ice cream) at a place that has had our favorite chocolate so far, but they were closing when we walked up. So that's a day of food for you!

The Swiss take resting on Sunday's very seriously. No stores are open (other than some restaurants) and the buses have many fewer routes. We went to the park where we found out the public wi-fi works really well and caught up on e-mails and other necessary internet type stuff. There are lots of people at the lake taking it easy. There seem to be a lot of older people here, people with dogs, and people with young children. There is also a park right beside the lake that has tons of cool art in the grass off the paths. There are a lot of sculptures that were obviously by the same artist. There is also a huge wood carving made out of a big tree in the park. It's carved to look like two men standing back to back. See Malinda mimicking here. At the end of the park is a sitting area with a pirate scope thing that you can put 1 franc in and see across the lake. There are lots of sail boats docked nearby and you can take tours of the lake on bigger boats or paddle boats. It's all like a fantasy place.

Today was a good day and we appreciate all your thoughts and well wishes.

The BEST Night So Far

As I type, we are sitting at an outdoor Burger King, with a view of the lake, watching football and blogging (computer split screen)! Because our hotel internet leaves much to be desired, our housing agent told us we could use the BK wireless internet as long as we bought a meal. Guess what - no problem! This is our second visit to Burger King and we've already hit the McDonald's once (Cissy - I was thinking of you in Paris the entire time). We're scared off by the prices here, and because we have to eat EVERY meal out until we get an apartment, sometimes we choose the "chipper chicken" (anyone a Father of the Bride fan???). Back to my point... we're the happiest we've been since our arrival. I just asked Ryan what he thought the temperature was, thinking I'd explain part of what makes this so pleasant, and he said "perfect." That about sums it up. Besides, the only English channel we've watched since last Friday is CNN, and it's not the American CNN, it's the version that comes on when America sleeps. I know about the French tennis star that's coming out of retirement, the African runner whose gender is being questioned, etc. If I watch it really late, I might catch Larry King. The result? I've never been so happy to watch football in my life! Google "slingbox" to understand how we're watching American TV. Leave it to Ryan to figure this out before we left. Best $200 we ever spent (especially considering we would have spent that much on dinner tonight, if not for "il Whopper").

Brian - to answer your question about tipping... waiters don't live off tips here and so it's not expected. If you left 10%, they'll love you. If you're like us, and on Sunday gave the taxi driver $10 on a $20 cab ride, you'll get looked at like you're crazy. Usually (we're told) people just round up and leave the change. Even if your tab is large.

Be thinking of us on Monday... at about 11:00 am your time we'll be visiting an apartment we REALLY want. It's not the picture we posted (with the great view) but it's in that same building. Because it's on the ground level, and the view of the lake is obscured by a very large tree, it's in our budget! The kitchen is new (and big by Lugano's standards), the bathroom is old but very livable, and there are lots of windows. It's in the neighborhood we want and we're afraid we're not going to find anything like it. Problem - it's the same land lady who posted the apartment we wanted for $1,950, and today, told our agent that those are just the pictures from the apartment we want. That apartment is still $2,500. A classic bait and switch. The new place we want is posted for $2,050, but the price she told us was $2,200. So, the fear is that she holds to the $2,200, in which case we'll walk away. It's just $150, but a) that's over our budget, and b) it's the principle of the whole thing. We've decided that if she disputes the online price (which is clearly an attempt to gouge us), we're walking away, especially considering we'd have to trust her enough to rent from her for the next two years. But we REALLY like it, so just send you're positive house vibes our way. Either that or $150 monthly until September 2011.

PS - Just kidding mom - don't send money.

PPS - go LSU!


This isn't the best picture, but it gives you an idea... it's one big living room with a long terrace. See those big branches? They belong to the tree which makes this apartment possible. Long live the tree!

Apartment Search Pt 2 and Ryan's Work

We looked at 4 other apartments this afternoon. We just gave up on uploading the video of the frontrunner of the day. The bathroom net is not so quick... We don't like it as much as the one we posted pictures of from Monday. This one is closer to the town, but it is also over a busy intersection. And, it's just not as cool as the other one. But, what is cool is that it is about $1,000 cheaper per month. So, we are not giving up on it yet. After looking at apartments today we walked around and found a new random place for dinner. We decided that we weren't going to be comfortable paying $2,500 for the apartment we really like, and at the same time, we don't want to pay $1,500 for something that doesn't do it for us. So, we plan to tell our agent that we would like something in between that range to look at.

THEN... we got to the hotel and came to the bathroom/computer room to check some websites that I got from co-workers at KPMG. WE FOUND THE APARTMENT WE LIKE LISTED ON A WEBSITE FOR $1,950. WTF? Sorry, grandma. We are meeting with the agent tomorrow, and maybe there is some explanation, but we don't get it. So, the search may go on.

I feel like I'm going to catch up quickly with KPMG in Lugano. It's smaller than I expected as far as number of employees go. There are probably only 15 audit professionals and 35 total people in the office (vs. 70 or so in Memphis). The offices themselves are very nice. Newly renovated I'm told... The people are also great and speak very good English for the most part! Even if they don't speak great English, they at least try and I can understand them. They ask me to have cafe (coffee) with them everyday and I have gotten Swiss chocolate 3 out of 4 days last week! AWESOME.

On my second day, the audit partner asked if he could introduce me to this guy named Brian who was in the office. He is an American and I found out he was from New Orleans. It was very nice to talk to him, and he was very encouraging about me being successful in Lugano. I talked to Malinda later about it. She told me to see if maybe the guy knew her mom, because she worked for KPMG for a while in NOLA. It turns out that she knew him! What a small world, huh? This guy works in the Zurich office and has been here since 1984. He's married to a "Swiss/Dutch girl" and I don't think he is going back to the US.

Since my last post about sleeping, I have been sleeping very well. Last night I went to sleep at about 8:30 and didn't wake up until 7:00. I'm already feeling much, much better about this whole situation. I have learned enough to not feel anxious about every task I have to do throughout the day. I feel comfortable walking to work, ordering food, not tipping too much (which is the correct thing to not do), buying things in stores, etc.... We have even gotten used to our hotel room enough that it doesn't make us want to cry when we go in the door. We are also supposed to be getting an internet card to get wireless access with our laptop from our apartment agent tomorrow so we can use our computer in our room! But, we are eager to get out. Double but, the people are still really nice.

By the time each of you are ready to visit, we will be speaking Italiano and using bidets.

The Lady Who Lunches

I just got back from lunch with Ryan and his new coworkers. It's funny to see him around them. He talks a lot slower and enunciates. They were all very nice... interested in answering our questions and helping us in any way possible. They told me about a tour we could take on Saturday, explained the menu choices, showed me the nearest English bookstore, etc. I'm always careful around Swiss people, though. Not just because of the language barrier, but because we've been told they're very (personally) conservative, and my goal (especially in front of people from his office) is to not come across looking inappropriate. I asked if they lived nearby, inquired about schools in the area, and talked about hobbies. What I really wanted to know is if any of them wanted a new friend, or if they cried when they first moved here too. I wanted to know if they actually paid these prices for clothes or was there a TJ Maxx around here I didn't know about. I wanted to take a poll and see if anyone actually uses bidets, but I had a feeling poop and pee should not be part of our conversation.

On my walk back, I had my first connection with people on the street. There were four older women eating ice cream on a bench who were unsuccsessfully trying to take their own picture. One of them sort of nodded at me, probably suggesting they should ask for my help. I offered it, and took their picture. I'll tell you why this is amazing - with all the time I spend walking around, no one so much as looks at me. I'm not kidding, and I'm not sure why this is. I try to make eye contact and smile, but they just stare back at me. Not these women. They thanked me profusely (in English - I think they could tell I was American even though I answered their Thank You's with Prego), and it sort of brought tears to my eyes.

I'm sure it's just the end of a long week, one that I'm ready to be over so I can have some company during the day. It might have something to do with the fact that I've started reading 1 Dead in the Attic again, because it reminds me of home. You have to be in a strange mental state for that book to give you a warm and fuzzy feeling. But it does. I wish people here would call me baby, or rock a funky butt to the music on the street. Not in Switzerland. That would REALLY be inappropriate.

A Day in the (new) life of Malinda

I thought I'd post some pictures of what it looks like when I walk around all day.

I start at the lake and make my way down to a public garden. There are TONS of people (and they really are all eating ice cream). It reminds me of what 1953 might look like... women are dressed up, all the men are in suits, lots of babies, I saw a little girl with a hula hoop, you get the idea.

These are my views of the lake:
















And here's the garden:
After the garden, I head back. Here are some photos of the city, and what it looks like on my walk to the hotel.

All the streets are old, skinny, and curved (for the most part). See the green umbrella? That's where I bought THE sandwich. And the picture below it... I just wanted you to see how seriously they take their sweets. It's like an art form.

Our Hotel

Okay. That's it. If you look really closely there is a guy on TV smiling, but he is the only one in the room that's happy. Also, this is day 1. Now there is more of our stuff strewn out on every available inch of table space and on the floor. See the window on the left? That is our AC. It works awesome at night, but not so much during the day, so Malinda says.

It's fun to make fun of our room, and the only thing that keeps me from ripping into it more is that the people that work here are SUPER nice. They wished me luck when I left in a suit this morning to start work. When I called to talk to Malinda and they answer the phone with their Italian jibberish, and I'm just like "hey, this is Ryan from room 41" they say "ok, I think your wife is in the room I will connect you!" So we have to give them props.


Check out the headboard. Yes those are windows. Into what you ask???












OUR CLOSET! Maybe you can tell from this shot, that the closet is about two pillows wide. Again, this was day one. Right now this is full of suitcases, hanging clothes, and dirty laundry. By the way, we have no way to do our laundry. Apparently, the Swiss "don't wash their dirty linens in public" so there are no laundromats. At least we have seen none, and when we asked our guide, she suggested dry cleaning. But, remember the rule of 3? Dry cleaning is 10x. Not kidding.









This is the computer room at the hotel, I swear to God, we are not making this stuff up! This is me 5 minutes ago! There is no toilet in here, but I wouldn't be surprised if there used to be one right under the computer. It's the perfect spot. The floor is carpeted now, but this was a bathroom.

True story... I have only had about 8 hours of sleep since I left Memphis on Saturday. It has to be some kind of world record (can someone check that out?). We were up about 24 hours just getting here and forcing ourselves to stay awake until a normal bedtime, so we could hopefully get past jet lag easily. That worked like a charm for Malinda. She sleeps like a rock, like a big long rock that sleeps diagonally on a small bed. I went to sleep at about 10:30pm on the first night but woke up around 3:00am. I could not go back to sleep. Last night we jogged/walked around the lake and around the apartments that we saw, we tried to go past my office but overshot it by a couple of blocks, all with the side goal of working out our nerves and making ourselves tired. I again went to bed around 10pm, but this time woke up at 12:30, AND COULD NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP. I had my first day of work on that today. But, the coffee here is like crack, so I was good to go. Right now, I'm losing the ability to think clearly, so I have to sleep tonight. Cross your fingers...

Again, we love the comments. I love to hear you are laughing. Having a sense of humor is the only way we can make it through this. The posts are funny, because we have hours and hours of time to just think to ourselves, because we can't understand what anybody else is saying to us.

-Ryan

Pictures of the First Apartments We Saw

This is the view from the street. The apartments are below the street level, because there is a pretty steep cliff by the road, so what you see is the top of the building, but I was on the street (not the roof). Obviously, the place demands a premium for the view. However, we are not sure if we can afford it. We really have no idea what we can afford, because I have not received my first paycheck and we have to always eat out. I have found that if you just take whatever you would pay for something in the US and multiply it 3x, you get the Swiss price. Burger King Whopper Combo 12.50 Francs (not kidding).

This is a picture of the apartment we like best, but it is (surprise) the most expensive at 2500 francs! The view is great. The big windows are nice. It has a separate small kitchen and a new bathroom. Similar to the comment above. Take a decent apartment in downtown Memphis, multiply the rent by 3x and you get your Lugano price.

PS the guy that owns the "villa" below these apartments was Baron von Thyssen. The next time you get in an elevator, look for the brand. It may be manufactured by "Thyssen Krupp Elevator" which is a small subsidiary of his enormous German company. I know this because we use to audit a plant in Memphis. Anyway, after the big B died, his wife decided to sell his place. She is only asking 30 million francs for the place (again, not kidding). If you would like me to hold it for you, please send over a jet made out of gold filled with diamonds and I will put that down as a deposit.

Sorry I forgot to copy the pics of the hotel to the thumb drive to bring to the office where I actually have a connection that would allow us to post them. I will try to remember to do that tonight... If you want to imagine it, just get in your closet at home and try to sleep on the floor. Oh yeah and turn off your computer and cell phone.

It is great to read your comments. I miss people without accents.

Success!

I am brimming with pride as I write this - I bought lunch! I got directions to an exchange building (not a bank, because they apparently charge too much). It took about three tries before I found it, but once I did I was happy to see people in line in front of me. This meant I could watch what they do and mimic! The man did not speak English, but luckily all I needed was to give him money, say Swiss francs, and he got the idea. Walking out, money in hand, I was feeling pretty confident. There are plenty of people selling food on the street, and I decided this would be my best option. How hard could it be? Point to what you want and hand over the money. I was wrong. Apparently the man working the counter had a question I couldn't answer and when I shrugged my shoulders in a pathetic attempt to say - I have no idea what you're talking about - he looked at me and did the same. Panic set in. Was he making fun? Could I not have the sandwich? Would I really walk away with no lunch, the people behind me in line witnesses to my failure? Then he says (and forgive me for the punctuation - I cannot find the quote key) - if I ask questions in English, you'll have to answer in Italian, deal? SWEET RELIEF!

I took my sandwich and my water (with gas), and swaggered all the way to the lake. I took a bench like I owned the place. The world is my oyster!

PS - Thanks for the comments! I just realized there were some posted. It's great to hear your thoughts.

Getting Better

I have not cried today, and while it's only 1:00, I'm considering this a success! It's getting better, and I tend to do really well after I run/walk by the lake. It's unbelievably beautiful, and has an amazing effect. Because it tends to derail my dive into sadness (usually brought on by the return to our hotel room), I will be doing it often. So bonus - I'll look fabulous at Christmas.

I wish we could share pictures of the apartment we saw yesterday. It's seriously something out of a magazine. The views of the lake make it feel like you'd actually be living in paradise. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we can afford it, so thanks housing agents for showing us that great property! Back to square one, where our real options will pale in comparison. So there's that.

Otherwise, it's ok. People really don't speak English, which is why I'm stalling to go eat lunch because that means I'll have to find a bank where they understand my need for an ATM, get Swiss francs, then find a place where I won't feel like a stupid American holding everyone up at the check out counter, all while not bursting into tears. I may chicken out, skip lunch, and wait for Ryan to come home at dinner. So again, I'll really look fabulous at Christmas. Always a silver lining.

More later!

Travel and First Impressions

Well, we made it! I'm having trouble writing this message, because it's on an Italian keyboard I guess. The z and y are switched. When I hit the left shift key, I get a < and the apostrophe key is a à.

The trip was long and hard. It started off great on the British Airways flight. We saw a couple of movies, had some food, and sat in the row right behind first class! But it started going downhill in Zurich. I think we both underestimated how wierd it feels to not be able to read or hear any instructions. The train was a challenge. The lady at the ticket booth gave us tickets for the train to Lugano that was leaving about 5 minutes after we bought it. So we rushed down to the tracks and then started freaking out because we had 3 tons of luggage and it did not look like anyone was checking bags for people. So we went back up to ask if it was okay to drag our luggage on with us. The lady was a little rude to Malinda this time and said that we had about 2 minutes to check our luggage for $20, but we would not be able to get it until tomorrow. That was not going to work. So we missed our train, plus we had to lug our 3 tons of luggage and bump into and hold up a bunch of people we could not even apologize to because they all speak German and Italian.... So we have to spend the rest of the train ride feeling like "that guy" to everyone around us.

But... we made it. The ride over was really beautiful. We did not take any pictures because we have been up for about 24 hours straight now and we were falling asleep every 5 minutes. I think they mow any grass visible here, even on mountains. Everything is very well kept, green, and clean. The area reminded us both of what it's like when you are driving to the ski resorts in Colorado, only it's like the part before you go through that tunnel where everything on the other side is covered in snow. So lots of cool mountains, not too tall, covered with trees, and very steep.

Getting off the train in Lugano was nice. Its like 73 degrees and sunny. It looks like a really nice place. The taxi ride over was cool. The streets are awesome and we already saw some stores that we recognized for future shopping excursions. Then we arrived at our hotel... You're going to need pictures to get 50% of the feel of the depression inspired by our hotel. Our room is very small, much too small to live in for one month with all the clothes you own. It consists of a bathroom and a room with a bed that takes up 90% of all the floor space. It has a 10" TV that was made probably in 1983, and is all Italian or German. Oh yeah, and it has a chair that I feel gross looking at, much less sitting on. While I'm working during the day Malinda can... ... ... do nothing here. This brought forth a few tears, and they were well deserved on a rough, long day.

I forgot to mention above that there is no internet in our room. The only internet is in this room on the fifth floor where you have to buy a card for minutes and get a key from the guy at the front desk to open this... bathroom, I guess, that has a desk and computer in it (with a keyboard that is really hard to type on).

I predict that Malinda will be finding a nice coffee shop near the lake with wireless access where she can spend some time during the day with a book and our computer, so she can keep everyone updated and not go stir crazy in our "temporary accomodations"

It's about 7:30pm here and that makes it 12:30pm for all you guys and girls. We are going to grab something to eat and probably come back to our room and be not totally happy. This is tougher than expected, but we know it will get better once we've had some rest and time to adjust. We are looking forward to tomorrow, to 1) have a guide to show us around, 2) get out of our hotel, and 3) see what apartments are available.

We already miss everyone, but we're not going to harp on that too much...

Love you,
Ryan and Malinda

Leave Update Update

Our tickets have been purchased! It's official - we're leaving tomorrow (Saturday), arriving Sunday, and apartment shopping on Monday. It will literally be planes, trains and automobiles. We fly from Memphis to Zurich, take a train from Zurich to Lugano, then taxi on to our mystery hotel destination.

The blog will become much more exciting from this point forward... I promise to post pictures of our hotel, apartment options, and sights. We've been told there's one in particular we might like - 2.5 rooms (not sure what the .5 is about), terrace, lake views, and only $2200 monthly - a steal! We'll keep you posted.

Leave Update

Still waiting on visas! Our start date has officially been pushed back to September 21st (this is our third and hopefully last proposed start date). If they arrive sooner, we'll leave sooner, so keep fingers crossed. In the meantime, we're staying with Ryan's parents, sorting through boxes, and surprisingly keeping busy.

Thank you to all of our friends and family who have said their final goodbyes... we might be hitting you up over the next few days for an encore!