"How do you have more luggage than me?"

San Francisco International Airport - We arrived early to the airport. About two hours early. Such is the way of my in-laws. It's OK: I took a nap on the floor in the terminal. I understand that firm surfaces are good for your back.

We also came with stuff. A lot of stuff. Seven check bags and four carry-ons. H is indulging in what I consider excessive smug because I ended up taking more stuff than she did. Apparently, this little detour from heteronormative packing patterns is news that everyone needs to hear: the ticketing agent, the TSA security woman, and practically all our neighbors and friends.

The reason I have more stuff is that I am taking skis and H is not and ski gear is rather bulky. H briefly explored the idea of having me leave the ski gear behind, but this idea failed to gain traction with me. Switzerland is rather well known for its skiing and I wasn't about to pass that up.

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The dishwasher has a fondue setting

Zug, Switzerland - I visited the office today to pack up my things in preparation for our impending departure from Switzerland. While I was there, I noticed a curious icon on the office's dishwasher. Further investigation revealed that the icon was for a fondue/raclette wash function. The icon is pictured below. The manufacturer, V-Zug Ltd. (subsidiary of Metall Zug Group, a Swiss industrial holding company), describes the fondue/raclette function this way: "The typical Swiss programme for the Swiss market from the Swiss manufacturer! Caquelons and raclette pans are cleaned to perfection without having to soak first. The programme can also be used as a 'super-intensive' run thanks to its active soaking phase. Pre-rinsing of burned-on soufflé or gratin dishes is a thing of the past." V-Zug apparently makes this feature available on several of its Adora models of dishwasher. Upon discovering this, I of course rushed home to investigate my own apartment'...

Gobble, gobble.

Sebastopol, CA - Happy turkey day! H and I are in Sebastopol, getting in a final hurrah with our families. We are t minus seven days to departure. Chaos and confusion reign as we prepare to embark on our one-year European adventure. In one of our finer moments, Hannah - overwhelmed both by the enormity of the impending change to our lives and the amount of work still ahead of us - sat crying next to an open suitcase while Mike fumed over the inefficiency created by this moment of reflection and introspection. The complications of moving to a idiosyncratic European country, protective of its culture and economy are numerous, but here are a few highlights: There is no common language. Most Swiss speak German (~60%), but large numbers speak French, and Italian. Romansch is an official language spoken by <1%. Hannah and I are attempting to learn some standard German via duoLingo. This is slow going for three reasons: (1) we are busy/lazy, (2) the Germans appreciate linguistic co...

Fording the Fjords

We stayed one night in Ålesund and for a few days in Øye. These cities are fun for me at least partly because they use letters unique to the Danish-Norwegian alphabet, the 'a' with the circle on top and 'o' with the line through it (official letter names pending further review). Ålesund is a port town of about 70,000 on the western side of Norway on the Atlantic coast. We landed there around 1100PM, but it looked more like 700 or 800pm, owing to the latitude (about 62 degrees north). Throughout our stay here, I've been very excited about the (nearly) never-ending daylight. The sun sets at about 1130PM rises about four hours later, but the hours between are marked more by a duskiness rather than a true darkness. We only stayed in Ålesund overnight (if you want to call it "night") before departing the next morning for Øye, which lies at the tip of a remote Fjord, the Norangsfjorden. Some locals told us that another nearby town, Urke, had less than...

The Neutral Zone

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