New Year's Eve

Well here are the last pics of the year. We had an exciting and eventful year and are glad to say that we are all in Switzerland and settling in. Just about to sit down to a marvelous dinner of Raclette. Samuel and Marlene are ready to go and are excited about what 2009 will bring us. We wish everyone God's Blessing and many successes in the new year.

The Christmas tree

Here is our wonderful tree. We bought at a lot just across the street from where we live. Marlene decided she wanted another tree and let the entire neighborhood know of our disagreement. Ah yes the joys of parenthood. But Beate and I opted for this one. Samuel liked it very much and Marlene has warmed up to it.

No electric lights for us just the scent of pine and fresh wax in the house!

Christmas Dinner

Well the 800 grams of veal turned out great. We enjoyed it thoroughly. Here is a picture of it being served up. The Swiss don't do Turkey for Christmas they do the Fleisch Chinnoise (Meat Fondue). This was fresh from the butcher a nice selection of veal, beef, chicken, and pork. It was great with all the different sauces!

Merry Christmas

Christmas service at the reformed evangelical church in Huenenberg

Our Christmas walk before dinner.

Christmas Carols before the presents.

A new story book for Marlene

Samuel gets to unpacking

Christmas Dinner Shock

We are now ready for Christmas dinner. Beate went to pick up our order and did we get a shock.

The lovely veal cut of 800 grams = 1.7 Lbs cost us almost $72! Here are some pictures to prove it.

We are about to sit down and enjoy it so we will let you know how it was.

Is Swiss German different from German?

It has been a while since my last posting. I hope to get back
to doing this thing daily this week. Some have asked me this
question about living in German speaking Switzerland. Well you might
ask, is the language really any different from Germany?

Here is a nice example I drew from an I received today. It is
inviting everyone to enjoy some food.

Translation:
There are pastries (gipfeli) in the Kitchen for the taking.

(Swiss-German)
es hät gipfeli i de chuchi
(German)
es hat gipfeli in die Küche

You can see the how different it really can be. I had to look at it a while before I could puzzle it out. But just an example of the adventure of everyday life here.

And yes, the gipfelis were tasty!

My new visa

Well, it finally arrived and I an official resident! This is what it looks like and it allows me to stay and work legally.

This is not easy to get as so called "Dritt-länder". This literally means 3rd Worlder. I never thought of myself like that but the Swiss see themselves as level 1 and any EU citizens at level 2 and everyone else is level 3. Oh, well it means we can start our life here and we are looking forward to the day when we are all here.

Introduction to Namics

Well, I am here in the town of St. Gallen in east of Zürich. My company namics is giving us the full in brief on how the company works.

Nice town with a lot of history which is great for me since I love that subject so much. We had a personal tour of the StiftsBibliotek, church library. It is an amazing place with documents dating all the way back to the year 400 AD! It was amazing to see a piece of paper written in that year in Rome. It reminded me that I need to learn latin so many amazing things and you could not read them!!!

Last day in the house

Well, the time has come to say goodbye to Doeffingen. We are here to clean up and hand over the keys. We loved this place and hate to let it go but God has some great plans for us in Switzerland which we do not want to miss.

Beate is right here and wants to finish up the large windows on the other side of the house.

We will move out here and are looking for our next abode in Baar/Zug.

See the next pic to see the windows.

Getting your car into the German system

I mentioned sometime ago that I would explain the process. This is applicable mostly to those of you who are in the USAREUR (US Army Europe) system and want to get your cars into the German system. Why would you want to do that you might ask. Well if you want to sell your car to a German there is reason 1. If you are retiring here then that is another reason. Or like me you are moving to a third country in the EU/Europe.

Here is the short list:

1.)Get a Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung. This is given by the Zollamt (Customs Office) where the car will be registered. I live in the county of Boeblingen so I went to the office for this Kreis (County).
2.)Your car must pass the Tuev inspection. They will issue you a certificate saying you passed or failed and what you need to do to fix the car. WARNING # 1: If your car has USAREUR plates when you get the inpection they WILL fail you. However, this is not a problem as they say it will pass as soon as you have German plates. WARNING #2: You also need to get a abgassbescheinigung (Smog Test certificate). When you make the appointment for the Tuev make sure and ask for the smog test as well. I had to have the inspection done a second time because I did not have the right paperwork.
3.)Get German insurance. If you are USAA then you are already covered. If you don't then say goodbye to AIG, etc... and hello Allianz, etc...
4.) Go to your POV point in your community. In Stuttgart, it is at Panzer and the ladies there will help you out. Heidi and Gisela are both very knowledgeable and speak marvelous English. You will need to ask for a Request for POV Registration cancellation. They will take your plates at this time, so it is important to have a buddy to get you to the German auto registration to get your German plates.

There are some fine points that I will mention in my next post.

Questions??

Movers are here

Well the day has arrived and we are moving out of our house in Doeffingen. It has been a nice time but we are ready for our Swiss adventure to begin. Jeff started work last week in Baar and he is enjoying himself. Beate, Samuel and Marlene are having a small vacation at Oma and Opas until we find a place in Switzerland.

Livin' Large at the Zulassungstelle in BB

Yes, we had success today.  The first of our cars has been moved out of the USAREUR (Army) system and into the German System.  Many thanks to my good friend John Cunningham for his assistance.  I promised to describe the process in detail for those of you who would like to register your car as well.  I will do this in the next post.  I wanted to get something new onto the blog ASAP.

Helpful Links

Looking for information on apartments and rentals in Switzerland and found these links most useful

Rentals searches:

homegate.ch

Immozug 

Tax calculator

SteuerRechner

Exchange Rate

XE - Universal Currency Converter

Country Map

Schweizer Kantonen

How to import cars

Importing cars

The job offer

Well, we got our official job offer yesterday.  I have signed the contract and will be emailing this morning.  It looks like we are going to Switzerland!