Category: Updates

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Rain, rain go away

Well, I was supposed to be writing a post about our wonderful weekend in the mountains. We had it all planned out, reservations made, suitcases (almost) packed.  But, the weather forecast got worse and worse.  It said rain all weekend and no visibility, so we canceled our plans at the last minute and stayed home.  Now the most exciting things I can report from the weekend are a trip to a mall (and let me tell you that malls are not a cultural experience.  A mall is a mall is a mall.)  We also watched the Packers game live on Sunday night, which was noon in the US. Woo hoo!

Monday morning it was still raining.  Henry and I went to our music class, and I arrived from our bike ride cold and pretty wet.  Music class is all in Swiss German.  I’ve learned most of the melodies and some of the sounds/words.  But mostly I am singing gibberish and following whatever the other parents do.  Fortunately, in a toddler music class, this is not too difficult.

By noon, we had stopped at the grocery store and come home soggy just in time for Emily and James to walk in from school also soaked. I understand that this kind of weather is commonplace in Swtizerland, so we have to get better at this!  On the bright side, the forecast is much better starting tomorrow — both for the weather and for our plans.

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What a weekend

We didn’t leave the country (like two weeks ago) or go up to the mountains (that’s next weekend), but we squeezed a lot into the last couple of days. James and a dinoIt started on Friday afternoon when I took the kids to Europe’s “World of Dinosaurs.”  It’s a collection of life-sized dinosaurs in an outdoor setting that happens to be one town over from us right now.  We biked there and enjoyed getting up close and personal with dinosaurs, and even being paleontologists for a while.

With Grandpa in BernOn Saturday we spent the day in Bern.  Grandma and Grandpa Brezinski are on a 15-day tour of Switzerland.  Saturday was their day in Bern, so we met up with them and their group for a tour of the city and a nice lunch outside the Bundeshaus (the Swiss capitol building).  Unbeknownst to me, there are several outdoor markets in Bern on Saturdays, and there was also a large political rally going on right on the Bundesplatz.  So, the visit was a bit chaotic and too short, but it was wonderful to see my parents here in Bern.  (We will welcome them to our home in 9 days after their tour.)

It was a hot day, so after lunch we parted ways and I took Emily and James to the Marzilibad, the outdoor public pool complex in Bern.  It is a beautiful setting, and we had a great time splashing in the pools to cool down.  I’m not sure why, but it seems like none of the pools in Switzerland are heated. Emily at MarzilibadThe weather here isn’t exactly tropical, so the water is FREEZING!  I can understand the Aare river being cold since it flows from a glacier, but the kiddie pool should be warmer than 70 degrees!  But we had fun alternately chattering in the pool and laying in the sun.

Sunday, we stayed in Münsingen for a family day.  It was a clear morning, so we hopped on our bikes and went on another family bike ride.  We rode on the bike path between Münsingen and Thun with a gorgeous view of the mountains ahead of us.  All together we rode about 5 miles and got passed by many more serious bikers than ourselves.  But it was beautiful and, for us, quite an accomplishment.

DampfbahnIn the afternoon, we went to see the Dampfbahn Aaretal, the local mini train run by a club of train enthusiasts.  There are a couple of small-scale authentic steam engines, and the kids got to ride the trains around the fairly extensive track.  Henry, our biggest train fan, loved it!  The rest of us thought it was pretty cool too.

I’m a little sore, pretty tan, and very tired!  Also grateful to have new and exciting things to experience with our family.  Check out more pictures from the weekend in our gallery.

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Life without a car

I haven’t owned a bike for 12 years.  I had one in college, but I rode it so infrequently that it rusted to the bike rack, had the wheel stolen, and was eventually cut off and hauled away, presumably by the Evanston police authority.  Much to my father’s dismay, biking was just never really my thing.  Even when I didn’t have a car, I preferred to walk and/or take public transportation.

Now, I find myself again in a town with excellent public transportation and no car.  But this time, I have a 2-year-old with me all the time, and I have to do grocery shopping for a family of 5.  On top of that, Swiss people are big bike-riders.  There are literally hundreds of bikes parked near the Münsingen train station, and many hundreds more in the city of Bern.  Needless to say, after our first week here, I got a bike and shortly after that a trailer for Henry to ride in.

The bike is a cheap (by Swiss standards), used bike that Joe calls the “Peewee Herman bike.”  It squeaks when I pedal, the front brake shrieks like a banshee so I try to only use the back brake, and it has only two gears (down from at least three that it used to have).Sarah's Bike It also has a front headlight that is powered by the wheels, so when it is engaged, it makes a whirring sound like a quiet electric sander.  Lets just say, you can hear me coming!

After the first trip I made to the grocery store, I was actually sore.  It was a literal “pain in the butt.”  The next day I got back on the bike and I thought, “You have got to be kidding me!”  Ouch!  But, Joe assured me that the pain would eventually go away.  Henry also took some time adjusting to his new mode of transportation.  He would struggle getting in and out, and whine and cry during the rides, especially the first couple of times I put groceries next to him in the trailer.  But, I pressed on.

I have to admit, that it is good exercise.  We happen to live at the lowest point in town, near the river.  So, going anywhere is slightly up hill.  But, coming back home is a breeze.  This is great when I’ve got a trailer with a 40-pound child and another 50 pounds of groceries, and I barely have to pedal to get them home.  However, it’s not so great when I show up for music class or church sweaty and out of breath like I just came from the gym.

As we mentioned before, the kids got bikes and learned to ride them without training wheels in just a couple of days.  Now they are experts, just like the other Swiss kids.  I have ridden all around town with Henry in tow and Emily and James following behind.  This includes riding on roads with cars and crossing bridges to get to the grocery store, train station, swimming pool, dentist, playground, etc.  Not, that we haven’t had our share of mishaps (The scrapes and bruises on James’s legs were proof of that for a couple of weeks), but all in all we get around really well.  Fortunately, bikers (and pedestrians) in Switzerland have the right-of-way most of the time.  Because there are so many bikes, it is a high priority, so cars have to wait for bikes at intersections, even wait to pass a bike on a narrow road.

Joe finally got his bike this week.  His is another cheap, used bike that didn’t even work when we got it.  Fortunately, Joe has become quite the bike Joe's Bikemechanic.  After replacing the chain and the tires and tuning it up a bit, he rode it to the train station this morning with all the other business commuters riding bikes in suits with their briefcases strapped to the back.  And, last night we went on our first official family bike ride.  Even though I didn’t have a bike in Milwaukee, and Emily and James could never really get very far, this is something I’ve always wanted to do.  And last night, we finally did it!  We took the whole family to the edge of town, past many swiss style homes, and by an open field with a beautiful view of the mountains, trains rushing by and even a few cows and sheep.

I have to admit, I actually enjoy getting on my bike now.  I won’t be doing long distances any time soon (sorry dad!), but it is no longer a pain in the butt, literally or figuratively.  Even Henry has learned to enjoy his new ride.  Most of the time, when we pull into our driveway and I get off the bike he says, “That was a great ride, mom!”

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Making Friends

Party GirlEmily went to her first birthday party this week.  Emily and James have had friends here in Switzerland since the day we arrived.  There were kids playing outside on our street, and instantly they became friends.  They speak German to the other kids, though not at a very high level. But it doesn’t really matter… they’re kids.  They just ride bikes together, or play with toys, and *bang* they’ve made a friend.

And now they both go to school where there are plenty of other kids to play with and befriend, so that after only two weeks, Emily was invited to a party.

With adults, it’s completely different.  Once you are out of college, making friends, even in my home country, isn’t easy.  And Swiss people are notorious for sticking with their childhood friends. Introducing any new friends to their social group takes an extremely long time (i.e. longer than the year we are here).  On top of that, the language barrier is a much bigger deal for adults.  I can get along in a conversation okay, but I get lost fairly quickly once we are past the basic introductions.  And, with adults, talking is extremely important if you want to get to know someone.  There is no playing or school-like environment that brings people together.  Adults don’t really *do* much, except sit around and talk.  So, if you can’t talk very well, it’s kind of a problem.

The other night, Joe and I were watching Seinfeld and there was a bit about this very topic.  It was good to laugh about it.  But seriously, I’m not sure we’ll get invited to anything the entire year – at least not by anyone who doesn’t speak English.

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It’s the little things

Looking back on the past couple of weeks of school, work, and life, it’s hard to come up with any big things to write about. But, a few of the little updates are…

Emily lost a toothEmily lost two (yes two!) more teeth in the past couple weeks. It turns out the tooth fairy also comes to Switzerland. Emily’s smile looks like a checkerboard. James, who is 6 years old and hasn’t lost any teeth yet, is quite jealous. We tried to explain to him that Emily doesn’t have many more teeth to lose, whereas he has a goldmine in his mouth that is sure to start paying off at some point.

Henry no longer needs his precious nookie. The plan, as recommended by our dentist, was to poke a hole in it and gradually make it bigger until its functionaly was lost and he gave it up on his own. Joe didn’t quite catch the gradual concept, and basically mutilated it right off the bat. It caused a couple of painful bedtimes, but it worked. It’s yet another thing that shows what a big boy Henry is becoming.

We got library cards at the local library. The kids were starved for new books after a month of reading the small selection we brought from home. The collection of English books is pretty sparse (even in the “big” library in Bern), but we immediately maxed out our limit of books we can check out. Emily was thrilled to find quite a few new “Rainbow Magic” fairy books, even though they are in German. I am still impressed that she can read chapter books in two different languages!

Local marching bandWe attended some community events, including a festival at the swimming complex, a 5K run (didn’t run, just watched), and a marching band parade. I also found the Catholic church, though the mass was in Swiss German, so I only understood about 50% of what was said.

So why write about the little things? You know how, when you see other people’s kids only occasionally, they seem to grow so much? Yet, when you see your own kids (and yourself) everyday, its a lot harder to perceive the growth. It’s all the little things everyday that are adding up to big changes.

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Just Keep Swimming

For those of you who don’t have young children, this title is a quote from the movie “Finding Nemo” that I thought was appropriate for this post for two reasons. First, in the movie when things get difficult, Dory (the blue fish) says, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…” I’m certainly not complaining, but lets just say that the first week of school was an adjustment for everyone.  Secondly, we have had some of the most beautiful and hot weather of the summer. During a whole week of sunny, 80-degree days, we spent a lot of time in our swimsuits.

By the creekWe went one afternoon to the local, outdoor swimming complex. We have been there twice before, but this time the kids found some friends from school to play with, which was great. We spent another afternoon at our little creek down the road. It’s small and shallow, but still cool (okay, cold), clean and refreshing. There are rocks for throwing and a rope ladder and swing.

Over the weekend we took an day trip to the town of Murten. It is a fantastic, medieval town a little west of Bern on the Murtensee (Lake Murten). We swam in the lake, Lake Murtenwhich was some of the warmest water for swimming that we’ve found in Switzerland (though that’s not saying much!). We also played at a park near the lake, watched the ducks and the fish, walked through the town, and Emily and I walked along the top of the ancient wall enclosing the old city. We forgot the camera, but I snapped a few shots with my iPhone.

On Sunday, we slapped our suits on once again, and headed to the Aare river. We biked further down the crowded trail along the river past many beautiful outcroppings until we found one that was not claimed and had some nice shallow places for the kids to swim. It’s beautiful, and fun to watch all the swimmers and rafters floating down the river. Joe jumped in again (this time without his glasses) and glided a little further down the river, enjoying the view of the blue water flowing off to the horizon with mountains in the background.

We’ve been told that this kind of weather is rare in Switzerland, so we plan to continue enjoying it as long as wek can!

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The New Job

Thursday, August 18th was my first day of fellowship. If you have read any of the information from the About section of our website (particularly this page which explains why we moved to Switzerland) you know that I will be spending the next year studying treatment of adult and (some) pediatric forms of hip disease. Switzerland, and the University of Bern in particular, is a world leader in the understanding of hip disease. I won’t bore you all with the particulars of why and how, but let’s just say it is an honor and a privilege to be here.

Bern, a city of several hundred thousand people, houses at least six hospitals and over 60 orthopaedic surgeons. The Inselspital (German for “Island Hospital” – read more about the hospital’s history here) is the main university hospital in the city. Just like in the United States, most university hospitals are tertiary referral centers. They get the most complicated cases and the sickest patients. They are also hotbeds of research, both clinical and basic science. The difference between Switzerland and the US, however, is that university hospitals leave all of the “bread and butter” cases to the surrounding institutions. If you’re healthy and need a total hip, they won’t take you at the university hospital (whereas, in the US they will gladly take you, especially if you have insurance).

So that makes residency education different as well. In Switzerland, residency training takes 6 or 7 years on average, and is less organized than in the US. Their residents are required to do one year of training at a university hospital to sit for the boards. Most residents spend the other 5 or 6 years in the community hospitals doing general orthopaedics. A few residents, however, choose to spend the majority of their time at the university hospital. These are generally residents with a particular area of interest and, perhaps, a desire to enter academic medicine. The other major difference here is that residents are restricted to 50 hours of work per week, where we allow for 80 hours in the US (but stay tuned for changes to that rule).

So my first day at the Inselspital was most excellent. I was instructed to find my way to the Orthopaedic offices by following a red line on the floor until it took my to the #5 lift. I got there, and when the lift opened, it revealed a box that was roughly two feet by two feet. The gentleman in front of me got in, turned to face me and looked at me like, “Well? Are you getting in?” so I squeezed into the box next to him, turned around, and watched as one other person climbed in next to me. Suffice it to say, it was quite a tight fit, and I’ve never felt closer to my coworkers. Since my arms were pinned to my side I leaned over and hit the button for floor E with my nose. When the door opened at my floor I burst forth from the box like a greased Scotsman out of a ventilator duct.

After that I followed the signs to the Orthopaedic clinic. The clinic offices were very nice… small, but very functional. I found my way to the morning conference room and sat in a chair in the back. People began to file in and I smiled and greeted them if they addressed me. The first part of morning conference was a lecture on periprosthetic infections. While this topic is dry when presented in English, it is even more difficult to tolerate in German. Add to that the European’s general distaste for air conditioning and Bern’s current heat wave, and it was a struggle to stay awake.

Following the lecture there was a routine “sign out” conference. Just like every other program I’ve ever visited, a portion of the morning was devoted to reviewing yesterday’s admissions and planning treatment options on difficult patients. And to drive home the point that medicine (especially Orthopaedics) is mostly the same everywhere you go, even though sign out was conducted in German, I clearly heard one of the staff physicians describe a particularly bad elbow fracture as being “all f*****d up.” In English. Forget Esperanto, swearing is the universal language.

Following morning conference I met with my fellowship mentor, Professor Dr. Klaus Siebenrock. He is chairman of the department and leader of the Hip, Pelvis, and Tumor team. We chatted briefly about expectations for the coming year, potential research projects, and surgical opportunities. We also chatted about my name since he comes from the Black Forest region of Germany, where the name Schwab is stately, if you’ll tolerate a pun.

Then we went to the operating theatre. The Inselspital seems to be under perpetual construction and one of the newest completed portions of the hospital includes a set of operating suites for orthopaedics. We dressed for surgery, he introduced me to a number of surgical staff, and we went to work. The cases were great, the people were very friendly, and I ended the work day with a good feeling about the coming year.

To make the day even better, I had a text on my phone from Sarah saying that she and the kids were in Bern, at a local library, and that we should meet for dinner. We met in the beautiful, and bustling, Kornhausplatz, where the kids quickly spied a McDonalds. We have been eating so much European food lately that Sarah and I agreed the kids deserved a little taste of home. And McDonalds was a good reminder how bad home can taste sometimes. So three Smurfs™ Happy Meals™ later, we took the kids home on the train. It was a great end to a great first day.

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Back to School

Today was the first day of school for Emily and James. I got to accompany Emily to school for the first period of the day. The classroom had small desks with students’ names on them, hooks out in the hall for jackets, a chalkboard at the front, and generally could have been mistaken for any elementary school Emily at her deskclassroom in America, or anywhere else. However, there are a lot of differences, some small and some huge, between school here and what we are used to back home.

For starters, the calendar is very different. With a short, 6-week summer break, school starts in mid-August and goes through the first week of July. But, there are several long breaks throughout the year: fall break (3 weeks), winter break (2 weeks), sport break (1 week to go skiing), spring break (2 weeks), and Whitsun week.

The grade levels are different, too. Last year, Emily was in 1st grade and James was in Kindergarten (K5). Here kids don’t start in elementary school until they are 7, so Emily is in 1st grade again and James is in Kindergarten again at a completely different school dedicated to Kindergarten. There isn’t much academic learning in Kindergarten here, mostly just playing and working on social skills. So, the curriculum is going to be fairly easy compared to what the kids have done back home. However, since everything is in German, including talking to their friends, their brains are constantly on overdrive and they are sure to learn a ton outside of the curriculum itself.

There are no school buses in Switzerland. Children have to get to school on their own, and in a small town like Münsingen, that means walking. So, there are throngs of kids walking Ready to walk to schoolthe streets in the morning without supervision. In fact, James and all the kindergarteners were given reflective sashes to wear while walking to school and Emily was given a bright yellow hat that says, “Back to School! Watch Out for Kids!”

There are no school lunches in Switzerland either, so all of the kids walk back home at 11:50am for lunch. And then, depending on their age, they walk back to school again by 1:30pm for the afternoon periods. However, in Kindergarten and 1st grade, school is only mandatory from 8:20-11:50am. Emily and James both go back to school on Tuesday afternoons, and Emily goes back every other Monday. But, that means my kids are home all afternoon 3-4 days a week!

Then there are all the small, interesting differences that I started noticing when I went shopping for school supplies last week. The primary item Emily needed as far as school supplies I am used to is called an “Etui.” It is a small, highly regulated zipper container with pencils, eraser, sharpener, colored pencils, ruler, markers, ink, and a few other things. All the kids have one that they use from 1st grade through high school. Then, there were some other things on the list, including a toothbrush, water bottle, “house shoes,” black ballet-style slippers, and a gym bag with gym clothes. We bought everything not knowing exactly how it would all be used, especially the odd assortment of shoes.

On the first day of school, we learned that children do not wear “outside shoes” into the classroom. They change into their “house shoes,” which are usually slipper-like shoes with rubber soles that are kept at school. Also, they change into gym clothes (even in 1st grade!) and they don’t wear tennis shoes for gym, but rather special black slippers. And, every other week for gym, Emily gets to go swimming!

All of these differences are neither good nor bad, they are just different. My only hope is that my kids have a good year and, as I wrote on Emily’s “school spiral project” this morning, “I hope you learn a lot, make many friends, and have fun!”

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Small accomplishments, big mountains

The early part of this week was a bit slow. After waiting a week for the local bike store to open, it was closed again on Monday. So, we went there bright and early on Tuesday morning, only to find out that he didn’t have any used kids bikes. He told us those are pretty hard to come by. He did, however, have a cheap used bike for an adult, which we bought and immediately took to the grocery store to pick up several heavy items we’ve been needing to tote home.

The kids’ spirits were a little crushed. The weather wasn’t helpful either (cool, cloudy, and a little rainy again). But, on Tuesday night there was a beautiful rainbow right over our house and our luck began to change. Wednesday morning, Joe went into town with Emily to go to Bern and to find the hospital he’ll be working at. Right outside a shoe store by the train station, there were two used kids bikes! He bought them, and by that afternoon the kids were riding two wheel bikes with no training wheels. There were a few bumps and bruises along the way, but they are both doing great.

Thursday morning we woke up to a beautiful day for the first time in a while, and decided it was time to get to the mountains. We took the train to the city of Thun (only 10 minutes from Münsingen), which is a beautiful city on Lake Thun. Then we took a bus, a funicular, and a cable car to the top of the Niederhorn. The view kept getting better and better the higher we went. This really is a beautiful country!  At the top there was a restaurant and an area for the kids with a zip line, dragon slide and sandbox.  Most stunning playground location I’ve ever seen.  After making it down the mountain, spending a little more time in Thun and getting home in time to make supper, we realized how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place.

Don’t miss the photos of our first mountain adventure.

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We made it to Bern!

Our accomplishment for the weekend: taking the whole family on the train into Bern. That required several smaller accomplishments like getting my passport pictures for my train pass, buying train passes for me and the kids, and getting the whole family to the train station on foot at a reasonable time.

Once we got to the city (only 8 minutes on the express train), we walked through the old town to one of Bern’s best known tourist attractions: the bears. The city (and Canton) of Bern is named after “the Bear” and displays a bear on its red and yellow coat of arms. So, for many years there has been a bear park (“Bärengraben”) in the city that houses three bears. The best part of it is its location and beautiful view of the Aare river and the old town.

On the way there we walked quite a long way through the weekend outdoor markets, past the beautiful old church (Munster), the city’s clocktower (Zytglogge), and under the arcades past many high end shops. The kids are conditioning their Swiss walking legs, and they did great. But, after lunch by the Bärengraben and climbing up and down about a hundred steps around the bears and down to the river, we decided to take the tram back through town to the train station. We were home for nap time, and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at home. But we can officially check off one more item on our to do list: visit the city of Bern (check)!