Update Part Deux

Well, there's no real news yet, but there are prospects. We think we have found a place to live that we can actually afford. It's on the other side of the border, but we're trying to focus on the positives. The positives are X will start school this fall, meaning he will probably be speaking French or at least understanding by Christmas. Since we think we can actually afford it, we might be able to see some of Europe while we're over here. The biggest negative is the space. Everything is smaller here, so we really aren't too surprised, but it's sad after looking at some bigger (but much more expensive) places. We will have two bedrooms, plus a living room so we'll be all set up for visitors! The kitchen leaves much to be desired, but we do have a washing machine hook-up. I will post pictures as soon as we sign the lease and know it's a done deal.

Meanwhile, we've still be having fun with our friends. :-) We went to play in the fountains at the United Nations. The kids were a little timid at first, but eventually had "so much fun!" We also went to a Natural History Museum where the boys were really excited to see some animals. I'm not 100% sure that they knew the animals were not alive, but it was still a fun afternoon. I hope you are all doing well. We miss you! I hope we'll be able to connect with more of you once we get our own place and our own internet!

The best part was hitting the water with their hats


They asked about the dinosaurs the whole time we were there. They were on the last floor that we saw. The elephants were E's favorite though. We saw them no less than 4 times.

Pictures

U is home, so here are the promised pics. I've been pretty tired to take much, but here's what we've got. By the way, for those of you who are still guessing, we're 7 hours ahead of most you. So, we've about finished our workday as you're just getting starting.

Before we took off - happy to have made our flight and before all the drama began.

At the park by our friends' house

One of their favorite activities has become "making" dinner while they are waiting for dinner

Progress

Hello Everyone!
We are getting adjusted. It's been slow, but steady. Our friends over here have been absolutely invaluable. I cannot imagine feeling this good only a week after getting here without them. We are in the slow process of finding a place of our own to live. We have leave our friends house by the end of the month, so time feels like it's starting to tick.

The process here seems weird to us, but we have to play by the rules. When an apartment opens up, it gets listed with a regie. They then take applications from everyone that would like to live in that apartment. After a while (I'm not sure how long) the regie chooses who she is going to offer the apartment to. I'm not sure how she makes her decision, but we're praying for a regie to choose our application. We saw and applied for an apartment last night that seems perfect to us. We are going to look at two more tonight. Again, our friends' French has helped us more than I can thank them for.

Other than this process, U is slowly getting everything he needs to get set up at the lab and D and the boys are enjoying the company of friends and falling into a routine. We went to the pool today and in an absolute switch from "normal", the boys did not want to play. I don't think anyone is sleeping really well and everytime someone speaks in french towards the boys, E thinks they are teasing him and X just comes running to hide by me. I'm not sure where U uploaded all of the pictures to, but I will try to upload to this soon.

On a different note, when we switched from my desktop to my laptop, all of my email addresses did not get transferred over. So, please contact me! I hope to hear from you all soon!

Jet Lag is no fun....

Well, we are safely in Geneva! We arrived Wednesday morning with all of our luggage and even some of our boxes had made it! We're pretty excited that nothing has been lost in the process so far. Of course, I think we brought way too much stuff. I tried, but I still haven't completely gotten over my stuff addiction. We haven't taken any pictures yet. But mostly we've been sleeping, or trying not to sleep. Jet lag seems to be hitting all of us pretty hard. Of course, we started out pretty tired and E screaming for most of the flight limited our airplane sleep. We saw two apartments last night and will see one more tomorrow. Housing is extremely limited, so prayers for something to open up that we can afford would be appreciated. That's all for now. We're going to head to CERN tomorrow start that process and we might go to playgroup. The boys are starting to warm up to our new life and getting antsy. I hope to hear from you all soon!