Renee and Stefan

Christmas & New Year wishes

2007-12-23T23:27:00.000+01:00

Dear family & friends,

Hello everyone! We hope this blog finds you happy, healthy and enjoying this wonderful time of year. Here is a recap of our 2007. We appreciate the cards and letters that you have been sending and hope to get more updates soon.

2007 was full of (surprise, surprise) lots of work, but was punctuated by some exciting trips, a few visits from friends/family, and a couple home and personal improvements! Notable trips include Prague for a weekend, Morocco at Easter, a float down the Rhine & visit to Heidelberg, Germany for a trip down memory lane (where Stefan spent 2 years growing up), the French Alps for a rock climbing outdoor adventure, Seattle to see Renee's family & for Juan & Krystal's wedding (where Stefan was a handsome groomsman), Barcelona to see Stefan's friends Juan, Dan & Prashant, an overdue visit to see Stefan's family in Florida, a quick weekend in Brighton to see Stefan's cousin Rebecca & her husband Phil, and finally a day-trip to the Freiburg Germany Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)!

Our visitors this year were few but very much enjoyed and appreciated: Marie Walter in March, Stefan's dad David in June and Renee's longtime friend Bridgette also in June - which was a great excuse for Renee & Bridgette to head off to Paris for a few days. When not having visitors, we have managed to fill our other free time with brunches, bike rides, a Patio Party and lots of trips to the movies (where luckily they play them in English!).

At work, Stefan started the year with less than 10 engineers on his team, but has finished the year with 18! He went to Brussels in March for a leadership class and has lead an eng.edu (education for engineers) workshop 2 times this year. He continues to love his job and has many exciting projects to keep him busy. Renee has been busy growing her team from 0 to 2 events specialists, and moved into the new Z�rich building which is almost finally ready for the official launch next year.

Other remarkable achievements include:
- we both turned 31 years old
- we won the Google Halloween party couples costume contest for the 2nd time in a row (GO Austin Powers & Ms. Kensington!!)
- we made Thanksgiving dinner with our Zurich friends and roasted our first turkey :)
- Stefan published his first book (Stefan's favorite photos), and then our second (our wedding album)
- we took a Bachata dance class together

Now that our apartment lease has expired and our rent will be increasing starting April (due to the financial market downturn and increasing interest rates) we are starting to think more seriously about finding a new place to live. We'd really like to get a dog or cat and our current landlord officially gave us the answer, "We like you...but not that much." So we're even more motivated. Our standards are pretty high, however, since we love our current neighborhood so the search isn't easy (Z�rich has an 0.5% housing vacancy rate and was voted again the #1 most livable city this year). But, in spite of not feeling committed to our apartment, Stefan got a new PowerMac and we did finally purchase a bookshelf and a filing cabinet so at least we're not living out of boxes anymore. (Pretty good for 2 years, hunh?!)

Yes, indeed, we celebrated our 2-years of living in Z�rich Anniversary in October this year! Where has the time gone? Well, it's pretty obvious, but still it's hard to believe it's been that long already. Of course, all of you are probably wondering how much longer we'll be here and since we are enjoying ourselves so much here and have a lot of exciting things to come in 2008 we can't answer that question just yet. But now would be a great time to visit us! Here's a few things that are coming up for us:
- Stefan will be taking a Swiss German class
- Scott & Diane will visit us in the spring
- Renee will continue her salsa dance classes
- We will do our taxes again!

We hope to hear from you soon. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone!

Holiday wishes, hugs & kisses,
Renee & Stefan

All I want for Christmas is to be carbon neutral

2007-11-18T18:26:00.000+01:00

What I want for Christmas this year is to be carbon neutral. I've cut down on many carbon creating behaviors in my life over the past 2 years. Living in Switzerland makes it easy. But seriously, we have a problem on our hands and we are all responsible for dealing with it. On 17 November 2007 the U.N. reported that Urgent action is needed on 'severe' climate change. We need to curb emissions now by up to 90% in order to stop from sending the climate into a state of unknown imbalance. That means we are ALL responsible for making changes in our lives to change the fate of our climate. Remember the ozone hole? It too was slowed with human actions - but we must start now and take impactful steps.

STEP 1:
Think a little more carefully about your daily actions and you'll be amazed how much carbon output you can cut. Some ideas you can adopt today:

Driving:
- Consolidate your driving - stop driving for unnecessary reasons. Do you really need to drive all that way to meet your needs? Think it through before you get behind the wheel. Some perspective as to why curbing driving is # 1 on my list.
- Hybrids are hoaxes - they are only about as efficient as a diesel engine. Instead buy/drive a diesel car and then use biodiesel to lower the emissions even more.
- Biodiesel is made of plants that, while growing, absorb carbon. So not only does Biodiesel actually release less carbon than gasoline when burned but it also absorbed carbon when it was growing/created. That's why it makes sense.

Energy Consumption:
- Switch to clean energy for your home - choose water, wind and solar power instead. Yes, it does cost much more, but all that energy you use will NOT be pouring more climate-harming carbon into the world.
- Replace at least all your frequently used incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones. You'll save considerable energy costs, too.
- Put all your standby electronics on a power strip & then turn off the power strip when you don't need those things to be on. We do this with our media center: TV, DVD player, battery rechargers & laptop.

Shopping:
- Reuse things: plastic & paper bags...why get 4 new ones the next time you go to the grocery store? Reuse containers, ziplock bags, plastic bottles - whatever is sturdy enough to have a second life - give it one!
- Refill things: Why must we buy a whole new bottle of soap, toothpaste, any other regularly consumed item? Are there any products that you can refill instead of buying more packaging? Check your local co-op if there's nothing mainstream that suits you.
- Watch what you buy - all packaging took energy to create it and it will take even more energy to destroy it or even recycle it. Cut down on packaging! Refuse to buy products that are over packaged.
- Think hard about if you really need disposable products.
- Next time you need batteries:
1) DO NOT THROW THEM IN THE GARBAGE. Batteries are extremely toxic to the environment and can leech into water systems - 1 battery can contaminate the amount of water you drink in your entire lifetime. Recycling them is best, bringing them to the hazardous waste center is next best.
2) Invest in rechargeable batteries - AVOID Nickel-Cadmium and OPT FOR Nickel Metal-Hydride - they are much more eco-friendly, and also more robust (less memory effect).

STEP 2:
- Internalize the concept that anything that uses energy = carbon created.
- Consider this: anything that is refined (not in it's raw state) took energy to make it that way (unless it was handmade of course). Your daily purchases, burning fuel, leaving things plugged in on standby = more, continuous carbon output. Once you internalize this, you can see quite easily that there are alternatives and savings that can be made with every daily action we take.

STEP 2.5:
- Get over yourself and your lifestyle. You don't need to drive the latest, hottest SUV and use that beauty product that costs 85 USD per 8oz plastic container. Think about how your ego is getting in the way of the future of our earth. Being humble and slowing climate change will both be better for your children anyway ;-)

STEP 3:
- Become carbon neutral. Of course we will always need energy, packaging, waste. But after you take the time to reduce it, you can offset the carbon you create. My two favorite organizations right now are:
TerraPass.com
TreeFlights.com (ordering isn't so obvious, you have to click on "plant my tree in ... ")
- Add your ideas to this blog! We all can benefit from practical suggestions - please share anything else with me that you've found to work.

We shouldn't have to go backwards to make these concepts work. Though we do need to get smart quickly about how we use and abuse our resources. All I want for Christmas this year is to be carbon neutral. And it will start all over again next year. But according to the experts we don't have a lot of time to try and get this right. So we must get started now.

Oh, and keep sending me those email updates on you & electronic pics of all your cute children! They've been part of my inspiration for this blog if you couldn't tell.
Hugs from Switzerland,
Renee

Jan-April wha' happened??

2007-04-29T13:15:00.000+02:00

So, I've been emailing a lot of you lately for your life updates. How unfair of me to not have one about us to share with you! Well, here's my attempt to make up for our lack of blogging over the past months.

Maybe this will explain a little about why we never seem to blog anymore...

January 2007:

Renee switches to using Gmail to manage her work email, chaos ensues
We get the idea to go to Morocco...trip planning starts
Renee takes weekend trip to visit brother Chris' ex-girlfriend, Nicole, who's been living in a Swiss mountain village and working for the UN / World Health Organization for several years - lots of catching up was had (and many doggie kisses from Bu!)
Work, work, work!
All expense paid Google ski trip in Courmayeur made the past month of hard work all worth it (yes we actually had snow!)

February 2007

Work is intense, Renee is working on Saturdays & is so stressed out she insists on spending weekend nights watching Lord of the Rings
Stefan spends long hours composing his first self-published Photo Book
Renee takes short 2-day work trip to Dublin - weather is worse than Seattle in the dead of winter
Stefan & Renee start looking for new apartments and visit the neighborhood of Hoengg...and then we decide moving is too much trouble right now
Marie Walter comes to spend 5 days with us - she's voted #1 most resourceful visitor ever
We get a housecleaner - Hooray!!!

March 2007

Morocco trip plans nearly finalized
Renee is working weekends now, demanding schedule persists...another 2-day work trip to Dublin
Renee & Stefan get active in the Google Zurich Environmental group
We visit Prague for a weekend and stay with colleague Marcin & his wonderful girlfriend Lucie
Renee learns that a lot of girlfriends back home and one in CH are pregnant :-)
Our work travel schedule gets intense: Davos for 2 days, Switzerland for 2 days, Seattle for 1 day, Mountain View CA for 5 days, back to Switzerland...(continued)

April 2007

...then Renee to Rome for a 3-day biz trip and finally we head to Morocco for 7 days (holiday at last - completely amazing! check out the photos )
Renee moves to the new Google office, Stefan stays at the old building
Work is tolerable (especially right after vacation ;-), Renee finds a great person to join her events team but has to wait until June
Weather is like Summer already - amazing warm days, no rain, where did Spring go?
BBQ season takes off with a bang (literally) when the B��gg's head explodes in 12 minutes (see our photos)
We start riding our bikes to work - Google gives us helmets and free bicycles!!
We spend hours and hours and hours doing our taxes on the weekend

So...there you have it. We haven't been sitting around doing nothing after all!

Future plans include:
May 2007

Stefan goes to Brussels for a week-long leadership training course
Renee heads to London for 4-days of biz
We have a couple 1-day holidays (thanks Switzerland!)
Stefan's dad will visit us again and we'll all go to Heidelberg to see where Stefan spent 2 years growing up
Renee will manage a 3-day event in Zurich called the Anita Borg Scholars retreat to honor women in Computer Science
We will finally finish sending our thank you notes from the wedding (OUCH!)

June 2007

Bridgette Kingsbury will visit us - yay!!!!
Cyndy will have a wedding celebration in Seattle!!
Renee & Stefan will head to Mountain View mid-June and then vacation in Seattle for the 1st week of July

And much much more!

We love and miss you!! Call and email us with your news!

(No mail please...save the trees!! Watch this and you'll understand why)

Hugs,
Renee

Where's the cold?

2007-02-01T22:15:00.000+01:00

We know it's not in Switzerland. This year Switzerland had the warmest January ever recorded - since measurements began in 1864. The average daily temperature was 5�C warmer than the average for Januaries in 1961-1990 - and this in spite of a cold snap a week ago that finally delivered snow to the city (for the first time this winter).

Global warming, you think. Or at least I did. That's almost certainly at the root of it, but global warming is, globally, a slower process than this. The graph here (from ncdc.noaaa.gov) shows that temperatures have gone up about 0.5� since 1980. So it's unlikely that this year, the global average went up 5�. So if Switzerland was 5� warmer, somewhere else in the globe had to be proportionally cooler, right? Where was it?

A search through Google News for "record weather January" reveals that Switzerland is not the only place with unusual weather in 2007. The record-breaking warmth in Switzerland was found all across Europe, including Scotland, Germany, and even all the way to Moscow and Turkmenistan. (In Moscow, January was also wetter than usual.) The same search reveals that California had a very dry January, while the Northeast USA was warm like Europe. Pakistan was drier than usual (no rain at all). Washington and British Columbia had colder and snowier winters than usual.

Of course, this news search reveals only records. Maybe vast swaths of air above oceans, where no one lives, were just a little cooler than usual, balancing out the warmth in Europe and the NE USA.

Another thing it reveals is that global warming is indeed better called "climate change." It was warmer here, but in California, Pakistan, and the PNW it was different in other ways.

Presumably, cold air was supposed to flow to Europe this January from somewhere else (like the North), but it didn't. What about the global weather patterns changed to cause this, and where did the cold air go (or stay)? I don't understand global weather patterns well enough to answer this. This video of global cloud movement helps, and so does this image, found within an informative but long article at gsfc.nasa.gov. But neither one really shows the diagrams I'd like to see: "here's what usually happens in January," and "here's what happened this year." Please let me know if you have found those diagrams. =)

One thing that's certain is that ocean surface temperatures (which are also related to ocean non-surface temperatures and ocean currents) are playing an important role - and I don't understand those very well at all. Are there people who do understand this stuff? Is there an awesome global weather console somewhere, showing actual and expected real-time weather? I doubt it. This article on the IHT says that Greenland's ice is melting faster than anyone expected - and that there are currently no computer models that can explain it.

Do you have thoughts on climate change? More information about what's actually happening? Leave a comment.

Happy New Year

2007-01-07T10:37:00.000+01:00

Happy 2007 to all!

We hope you had en guete Rutsch into the New Year!

Stefan and I celebrated NYE in Zuerich this year...and what a spectacular sight it was. First, we enjoyed a 4-star dinner at Lina's house, then headed to the Rathausbruecke over the Limmat to view the fireworks at Midnight. Check out our photos and video with all the church bells in the city ringing simultaneously: www.stefanpharies.net/newyears2006.

Even more wonderful was our time spent in Florida at Stefan's sister Alice's house for Christmas: www.stefanpharies.net/christmas2006. We enjoyed every minute of family time and managed to pass the whole week without changing any diapers! How'd that happen??
The Pharies-Carter-Buskirk Christmas celebration was a lovely shower of presents, complimented by over-excited sugar-high children and relaxed adults playing a lot of charades.

Also while in the states, I splurged on a Fengshui book which led to an immediate re-organization of the apartment, the appearance of plants and almost clutter free corners. It's a new hobby for me - hopefully one that will bring many more visitors and enjoyable moments to our home in 2007.

But, we're back to work already...busy creating exciting goals for 2007 and onboarding new colleagues. Lots to do this year, for me this includes travel (surprise), a little management and hopefully fewer 15-hour days than last year!

Oh, yes, and thank you to everyone who included us on your Christmas card list this year! We loved hearing from you and seeing your healthy & happy faces. The photos of the new babies and growing kids have been added to our card tree for a constant reminder of how many of you are enjoying parenthood these days!

Much love and well wishes to all of you for a fabulous 2007!
Renee & Stefan

OOoooh we're finally married!!!

2006-10-14T03:49:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone! Yes, it's long overdue...and yes, it has already been an eternity since our summer wedding...but you must forgive us. Stefan and I are back in Zurich and working hard and long hours every day. We're so sorry it's taken us this long to blog!!

We enjoyed the time in Seattle this summer for our 3rd and final wedding more than words can say. I personally came back to Europe thinking that we're a little stupid for living so far away...we have dozens upon dozens of wonderful people in the US and yet we choose to live abroad. In any case, we really do miss you and think about you all the time.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to blog more. 2006 was a very action packed year...and it went by SO fast. Because I'd hate for another year to just zip away, I personally plan to be better in 2007 about keeping you updated on us, sharing photos and adventures, and overall making sure you know how much I'm thinking of you.

So, stay tuned.
Big hugs from Switzerland!!

Love,
Renee

Long overdue...Renee's local girlfriends!

2006-03-20T20:13:00.000+01:00

Through my German class at Bellingua I met some of the most lovely gals who have become my local support system and advisors to the workings of things here like dishwashers and laundry machines. Hardly trivial, the little things I learned from them helped me off to a solid start in Zurich! The best part is they're all smart, beautiful and fun and are from all over the world: China, Poland, Latvia, Bulgaria, Australia, England, France, and even that foreign place known as the East Coast!

Class was hard work - 3 hours per day, 5 days a week. We were only allowed to speak German during class and at the end we had to give verbal presentations! The blond guy is Gerry our teacher :)

Left to right: Gerry, Ying, Karen.

Elle - the Aussie - showing off Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Can you see Washington State on my hand drawn map in the background?

We created the tradition of having lunch together on Friday's after class, i.e. after our weekly tests. Here we are letting off steam in Manora after a tough one. Left to right: Olga, Albena, Karen, Reanna, Me, Ying, Aleksandra.

These ladies and I enjoyed an amazing Christmas meal at Cathy's home in the afternoon of December 16th. Cathy (in blue) is a fantastic hostess and chef! Can you spot her pretty Christmas dishes?

Fondue night - practicing our German with the teachers!
Right side: me, Karen & Olga.

In honor of keeping Friday lunch alive in my memory before going back to work, I hosted one last Friday lunch get-together with the gals. Here are the lovely ladies left to right / back to front: Marie, Ying, Albena, Reanna, me & Karen.

Now that I am not taking German class anymore I miss them all dearly. Was ist los? But we still get together occasionally checking out new restaurants or revisiting old ones we really liked the first time - and luckily we've moved these get togethers to the evening hours. They're fantastic!
Cheers girls!
~Renee

To be fashionable, or not to be fashionable...

2006-02-06T17:17:00.000+01:00

This is my latest question. Should I spend 3000 CHF on a designer bag just to "fit in" or not? In Zurich there is no small price for fashion, in fact, there is no small price. But I'm pretty sure I'd need a 2000 CHF per month budget just to stay in the game!

In my quest to understand the Swiss fashion scene, I have discovered several intriguing clothing combinations:
1) My favorite (NEVER seen in Seattle in my life) is tight jeans tucked into tall boots. Only in Europe can a girl pull this off and not have the jeans bunch up when she sits down. I still have yet to figure out this trick. I'm close to resorting to asking the local seamstress how they pull it off. Stirrups? Really tight boots? I know there is something someone is not telling me. I just haven't been able to make it happen. A close second is rolling up the bottom of my jeans into a large cuff so you can at least SEE the boots. Cute but not exactly "in."

2) Fur fur fur! This definitely wouldn't happen in Seattle. But I admit that being away for even 3 months has softened me to the idea of wearing fur. Fav fur outfit so far? A gal walking down Bahnhofstrasse was wearing tight jeans tucked into her tall boots (a given), with a just-above-the-knee length long sleeved black dress over it. This dress had an embroidered design along the edge of the skirt and the cuffs of the sleeves. Over the dress she wore a brown & black multi-colored fur vest and a bulky scarf on top of that. Fab!
Second fav fur outfit? A woman in Zara walked by me wearing riding pants tucked into her boots (what can I say??) and a bum-length leather jacket that matched the leather of her boots. Over the leather jacket was a fur "shawl" / "poncho" draped across her shoulders, hanging off one side. So chic and non-chalant. Fabu!

3) Arm warmers. Ok, so I haven't exactly run out to purchase myself a set of these, but they're unique and fashion forward when you're trying to dress for really cold weather. It's the equivalent of legwarmers for your arms/wrists. They have a little thumb hole and run the length of the arm up to about your elbow. I've seen them in all different colors and they look cute with a 3/4 length shirt and some casual/baggy pants (not tucked in, gasp!) & boots to balance them out.

4) The young gal look. I might try this one day when I'm feeling really skinny but mainly the younger gals sport this one. It's the tight jeans tucked into your boots (hereforward referred to as "the boot tuck") with a longer tight & bunched sweater that comes down to just about bum-level. Mind you they then wear a cropped bomber style jacket over this sweater and it makes a fun layering effect. Add a ton of perfume and you're living the 18-24 year old look!

5) Do-able fashion. These are things I've managed to pull off without re-stocking my entire wardrobe. 3/4 length or cap sleeved sweater over a collared dress shirt. High wasted, just-below-knee length tweed jacket and big bunchy scarf tied in a knot.

Alas, I have much to learn about the Swiss style, and even more money to spend in order to sport it, but it's been fun so far. Stay tuned for more SwissChic reports!
~Renee

New Year's in Rome

2006-01-04T21:48:00.000+01:00

(Here's a link to the pictures.)

Renee and I had the excellent fortune to be able to meet her dad and step mom in Rome for New Years. After having a great Christmas with my family here in Zurich (blog entry to come), it was nice to be able to at least partially complete the family connection. (We didn't get to see her brother's family, or the families of my dad and my sister Alice.) Renee's parents actually had plans to go to Rome for New Years before we even moved to Zurich, so it was really a great coincidence. Without knowing that you might think that we're a pretty worldly family, just meeting in Rome for New Years. (Well, actually we are. =))

The flight to Rome from Zurich is only about an hour and a half. The connection from the Rome airport to our hotel actually took longer than the flight! But it was really fabulous to be able to swing down there so easily. Unfortunately it wasn't super cheap, but I guess that's what you get living in Switzerland.

We had a really great time in Rome...but it wasn't the warm, sunny holiday we might have expected. It rained the entire time. Hard. New Years Eve we went out to the Piazza del Popolo to watch fireworks, and it was POURING. But everyone was out there with their umbrellas - including us - and celebrating! We didn't really know exactly where to go to see the fireworks, and it turned out that Piazza del Popolo only had a partial view of the bigger fireworks. But of course random people were setting off firecrackers and other stuff all the time. Everyone was in the street saying "Auguri" (which means "Best Wishes"). Past New Years celebrations for me have been mainly a visual experience, but this was something for all of the senses: smelly firework smoke, wet rain and clothes and shoes, loud firecrackers, and a really packed subway.

But despite the rain we had a great time. We met two friends of Renee's parents there (the original reason they went to Rome). One of them, Rob, is currently living for a year in Rome and showed us all around. He really knows his stuff, being an architectural historian, so we had an awesome tour guide.

We had tons of Italian food, of course. I think every single meal involved some kind of drama - they didn't have our reservation, or they messed up our order, or they misunderstood our order so many times that they had to go get a different piece of paper to start over with. But it all worked out great.

I got a ton of pictures too, even though I only took my small point-and-shoot camera instead of my big camera. I've already posted them on the web here. The experience of using only that camera prompted me to reflect a little on cameras - expect a blog entry on that in the near future.

All in all it was a great trip. Thanks to Scott and Diane for inviting us...and for hauling 6 cans of Rosarita refried beans all the way across the Atlantic! =)

Frohe Weihnachten from Ren�e & Stefan!

2005-12-25T15:05:00.000+01:00

We are so excited to share the first 1.5 months of our life in Switzerland with you! Thanks for your patience while we put this blog together. Here's what we've been up to...

As most of you know, we arrived on October 28 extremely jet-lagged but up to the challenge of finding meals and necessities for spending the first night at our new apartment. After 2 days of sitting on the floor and using cardboard boxes for tables, we bought two uncomfortable folding chairs. Then, after one week of sleeping on our air mattress and waiting patiently for our sea shipment to arrive, we finally got confirmation that it was delayed, so we broke down and rented some furniture. So by mid-November, we managed to make the apartment somewhat comfortable and received our first guests! Dan, Jennie & Willow came to see us whilst on a business trip to Paris! We spent the weekend with them in Luzern, enjoyed Fondue (of course), saw the romantic moonlight on Lake Lucerne and even attempted to summit Mount Pilatus with 2000 other Swiss people to see the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market). Needless to say, due to the crowds, we gave up and found a little chalet where we could eat lunch and warm up instead!

Before our guests left, we celebrated Ren�e's 29th birthday together. Stefan cooked and we had a lovely evening. Jennie contributed champagne truffles. Sadly the next day our guests left, but to make up for it, our belongings arrived (the best birthday present ever!!) and we could finally unpack (which we still have not finished!). The day after that was Thanksgiving...an interesting challenge to cook for two people and with foreign ingredients. Though, it was indeed a success: Ren�e made all the staples - mashed potatoes, green beans, warm rolls, gravy and improvised with turkey breasts. Other than dropping the turkey on the floor (really, I don't know how it happened!!) it was delicious! Ren�e is well on her way to becoming a real "Hausfrau" as they say here.

We should go back a bit, and explain what our daily life is like here in Zurich. Every morning we are awoken by the church bells of the St. Anton Catholic Church, which is next door. After hurriedly getting ready for the day (which currently entails wearing long johns and incorporating big sweaters into our apparel) Stefan heads out into the cold to our local bakery and gets us fresh croissants! Now, we're not trying to make you jealous, but it's worth noting that the croissants at our bakery are some of the best in the city. Yes, we've been taste-testing around town and believe that we've struck gold. If that's not enough to convince you to visit we don't know what is. Anyway, after eating fresh croissants, we head out together to catch the #11 tram so Stefan can get to work and Ren�e can get to German class. Her German class lasts until noon, at which point she is free to gallivant around town like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's...although since it's so cold, she more often runs home to eat lunch, write email and do homework :)! Stefan is served hot lunch at his work, so he never has to leave (lucky him) and he works until about 6 or 8pm depending on whether he has a videoconference meeting with folks on the US West Coast that day and then comes home so we can share the exciting details of our Swiss existence with each other.

Other occurrences we've been involved in include furniture shopping (an unending task), winter coat shopping (it's darn cold here!), an overnight excursion to Munich to pick up Ren�e's visa, and even some social events! Stefan has made friends with several of his colleagues and we have already been to a concert by a real Swiss rock band in a real Swiss bar! Ren�e has made some charming girlfriends at school - all of whom speak English. It's been nice to meet people and start building a local community. There are a lot of English speakers here, and although we're not seeking them out we are finding them.

As awesome as the public transportation is here in Switzerland - and you really can get anywhere by train or bus - it has still managed to present us with a few challenges. With all the furniture shopping we've been doing, we've had numerous opportunities to really nail the train trip to the IKEA district. But we still haven't gotten it perfect yet. One time we accidentally got on an express train and went all the way out to Winterthur; one time we rode the bus in a circle; several times we just missed the best connection and had to wait in the freezing cold holding a 30-pound microwave!

What more can we say!? Things are great here! We miss you though, especially this time of year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We wish you all the best.

Much love,

Ren�e & Stefan

Time zones

2005-12-07T12:05:00.000+01:00

The last time I lived in Europe, a lot of things were different:
* I was 11 or 16 years old
* There was no internet, or at least I had no access to it
* I wasn't working for an American company headquartered in California
* All my family was with me

The result was that I lived in a world consisting only of local features. It never occurred to me to think about what time it was somewhere else.

This time, time zones play a huge role in my life. I hold videoconference meetings with other Googlers in the evening - and they are only just getting to work. I listen to a Seattle radio station over the Internet, and it's the middle of the night - no commercials, no talking, a mostly automated mix; towards the end of the day, I hear the wake-up shows and remember my mornings in Seattle. Whenever I want to call my family, I do it late in the evening on a weekend - when they're reachable during the middle of the day. And every day at work I get a very manageable amount of email...only to come to work the next day having received hundreds of emails overnight while the folks in California were working.

Common name

2005-12-07T12:04:00.000+01:00

In the USA, I was accustomed to having a name that no one else had. No one in high school or college shared my name; at Microsoft I was the only Stefan I knew for the first 6 years I worked there. When another Stefan came along in Indigo, I always felt funny saying 'Stefan' to him or about him.

Now that I work at Google in Zurich though, the situation is completely different. Stefan, or a variation of it, is probably the most common name in the office. We have me, another Stefan, a Steffen, a Steven, a Stephany, and a St�phane.

It's going to take some getting used to. I don't feel funny using the name to refer to other people any more, but I'm still looking for a good way to differentiate myself.

Uetliberg

2005-11-17T19:53:00.000+01:00

This past Sunday, Renee and I took a pleasant, 1-hour hike to the top of a hill near Zurich called Uetliberg. I've posted some pictures at www.stefanpharies.net/uetliberg. As you can see from the photos, the hike started out in the fog, but at the top of the observation tower at the summit, we were just barely able to peek out through the top of the fog and see the Alps! Renee and I had actually been up there in July when we came for my interview, so it was fun to see the same place in a different season.

The hike started at an area called Albisg�tli, which is at the end of the number 13 tram line. After a nice hour of climbing up some relatively steep but very well maintained trails, we got to the top. At the top of the hill there are two or three restaurants, a hotel, a lookout tower, and a network of hiking and biking trails leading to other areas. (Oh, and a really cool solar system exhibit, where sizes and distances are all to scale.) Renee made an astute comment that the Swiss really enjoy being in high places - and it's clear that they enjoy hiking and being outside too. After checking out the view from the tower and enjoying some Bratw�rste, we took the S10 train back down from the top straight to the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.

Uetliberg is a very popular hike, and we were not alone. In Switzerland, shops are closed (by law) on Sundays, so you are "forced" to do something other than materialistic consumption. This would normally be just fine with me, since I hate shopping anyway, but I have to admit it's been a little inconvenient these last couple weeks because there are so many move-in things we need to buy. The good news is that we've had very pleasant and relaxing Sundays in spite of needing a bedroom closet so badly. =)

The easy accessibility of Uetliberg (or anything else in Switzerland) by train is very interesting, but maybe I'll write a separate blog entry on that.

Oh, and one other relevant comment: Uetliberg is spelled that way rather than �tliberg because the Swiss have a rule that you don't write capitals with umlauts. I am not certain, but I think this rule arose in order to accommodate typewriter keyboards on which they need to fit German as well as French and Italian diacriticals. They had room for �, �, and �, but they needed to put things like � and � and � on the shift positions of those keys. (I believe on French Swiss keyboards, the characters are in the same places, but shift/unshift is reversed, so the French Swiss have to type shift to get German characters.)

My new favorite thing - Lush!

2005-11-10T01:30:00.000+01:00

Many of you have probably heard about Lush, but do you really know about it? They are a UK company that makes body, hair and bath products. I just discovered that we have one here in Zurich. I recommend you check them out online at www.lush.com and try something. Not only do they have good products but they:

*make their products out of organic fruits and vegetables and with the finest essential oils and safe synthetics
*do not use animal ingredients OR test on animals
*buy only from companies that test for safety without involvement of animals
*make their own products by hand, print their own labels and make their own fragrances
*don't use packaging unless absolutely necessary to preserve the product
*believe that glitter can be an accessory
*use recipes from ancient times to inspire them
*believe that bathing should be fun!

My newly acquired products are: Butterball bath bomb & Ruby Slippers bath bomb.
Future products I plan to try: Sea Vegetable soap, Ultimate Shine shampoo bar, Breath of Fresh Air toner, Black Toothgel and many more. Wee!

Even for those of you who are dedicated to the current products you use, remember: There is nothing better for your skin than limiting the amount of chemicals you put on it!
And nothing is better for our earth than not throwing things away & not putting chemicals down our drains.
Think of all the chemicals you apply to your body on a daily basis...Shampoo, conditioner, soap, perfume, lotion, eye creme, hair spray. Please be good to your bodies!

Yes, I'm considering trying to get a job there :-)

How cute is this??

2005-11-08T22:30:00.000+01:00

Swiss things are cute. Small, smart and cute. It makes me realize that coupling aesthetics with an intelligent use of resources isn't impossible! Of course this hasn't entered American thinking yet. I'm afraid that we have a belief that anything attractive or easy to use has to be complicated and bad for the environment. I'm pleased to be learning that this isn't necessarily true.

Here are a few examples of what I mean when I say cute...

Look at the size of this yogurt container! It's as small as garlic!

Tiny aluminum foil!

What is hard to depict in this photo is that there is no metal blade to cut the aluminum foil. It's just the edge of the cardboard which has little teeth that are "sharp" when you tear it off. SMART!!

Ok, so maybe I have a little too much time on my hands at the moment. But I had to show these things off to my fellow marketing friends :-)

Moving into our new apartment

2005-11-06T21:25:00.000+01:00

OK, it's been forever since I posted to our blog. I'm so sorry. Unfortunately, the exciting things that are worth blogging about are also the very things that keep me so busy I don't have time to blog.

I have a long list of topics, but I'll start out with our new apartment. In short, we love it! Here is a brief photo tour, starting with the living room. The best part of the living room is the round alcove creating a wonderful reading area. The living room is very bright, with windows all around. Here is a view through one of them. (This tree is in the yard of the church right next door.)

Here is the study. Along with the living room, it has the original parquet flooring from 1912. There is also a small deck off of the study that gets lots of sun in the afternoons. Here's the view out of the study onto that deck.

Here is the bathroom. Our apartment is typically Swiss in that there are two rooms serving the purpose of what Americans consider a bathroom - the actual bath room (pictured here), and a separate toilet/sink room.

The kitchen is wonderful, with new appliances, a dishwasher (!), and even a convection oven. There is not nearly enough cabinet space, so we are already working on finding more furniture to put in there.

Off the kitchen is a much larger deck, with room for a table for four. Here are two views from that deck. It also has this really cool sliding, collapsible glass wall on one side (where the weather usually comes from) to shield you from the rain and wind.

Here is Renee standing in the entryway. From here you can see all of the furniture we have in the apartment (none!).

After a day and a half of sitting on the floor, we decided we couldn't stand it any longer. We trekked all over Zurich looking for some cheap folding chairs...and we only found these ugly, uncomfortable orange ones. But together with our makeshift dining table (boxes) and table cloth (packing paper), they make a fantastic dinette set!

Oh, and since the lampshade somehow didn't make into the shipment with the lamp, we had to improvise a little. Here is a detail. Yes, that is packing paper taped to the radiator, supported by a coathanger. Good thing we brought duct tape!

Here is our dining table set up for breakfast. The furnishings may be meager, but the breakfast is fit for a king and a queen! Fresh croissants from the bakery 2 blocks away.

Uf Wiederluege Party

2005-11-02T22:45:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to chronicle our departure; here are a few photos from our "Bon Voyage" party. It was great to see all of you - thank you for the lovely gifts, flowers and good wishes.

Remember that we want to keep in touch! So, don't forget to send us photos and updates often!!

Love,
Renee & Stefan

Fall Wedding

2005-10-31T21:00:00.000+01:00

As most of you know, Stefan and I were married in a very small, short wedding ceremony on October 14th. The reason why is that we discovered in order to ensure that I could stay in the country for longer than 6 months without being deported, I was going to 1) be obligated to find a company to sponsor me for a job /Visa, or 2) we would have had to get married within 6 months of our arrival. Since arranging a wedding in Swiss German and having very few people capable of attending a Swiss wedding just didn't seem feasible, we opted for a small civil ceremony among a few family and friends in Seattle.

For the record, we didn't want to leave you out of our plans!! Unfortunately, we were more hurried than we would have liked to be. So to make up for it, we are in the process of planning an inclusive party for Summer 2006 in Seattle to exchange vows and celebrate with everyone. Stay tuned for more on that!

In the meantime, here's a photo from our October wedding (more to be posted later). We were blessed with a lovely, warm fall day and great company...and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Plan-a-wedding Survival Guide (for gals with a short timeline)

2005-10-31T20:00:00.000+01:00

I know I'm not the only girl who has had to plan a wedding from out-of-town and before moving to Europe. In fact, Stefan's cousin Rebecca did the same thing last December. (What were we thinking??)

So for those of you considering it, be warned. The wedding industry is NOT equipped to deal with speedily planned weddings. Here are a few things that tipped me off...

� There are no "pret-a-porter" wedding dresses stocked anywhere in the US, and if you buy off the rack it will require alteration and probably a good cleaning
� Despite common sense, white, antique white, ivory, diamond white, off-white, blush and champagne are all VERY different colors and require a lot of effort to match them to ANYTHING
� Wedding shoes are only available by mail order
� Even cheap-o Payless shoes need a week turnaround to be dyed!
� Finding a veil is an enshrouded task...hence the name...
� Buying wedding bands with less than 2 weeks to go makes all jewelers (except for the ones at Tiffany's) react like you are stupid young people
� There are only a few hair and makeup stylists available last minute and they jack up their prices because they think you're desperate and figure your "best friend" who was going to do your makeup just resigned her position the week before your wedding
� Cake designers are offended if you give them less than 3 months to plan your cake and they will happily not return your calls

In spite of having to learn these lessons, we still had a fabulous wedding and everything went as planned...well, except for the fact that my car died immediately upon setting out to get ready on the wedding day!! You can't win them all :-)

Special thank you to my friends and family who came to the rescue!!

Temporary Home - Mountain View California

2005-10-17T19:00:00.000+02:00

I'm really behind in the blog schedule, but I couldn't forget a very important milestone in our journey to move to Switzerland...

On October 2, 2005 I finally moved down to California to be with Stefan. Packed with two suitcases that nearly exceeded the weight limit, Dad & Diane drove me to the airport and I and flew off to Oakland. Yes, accidentally, Stefan booked my ticket into Oakland instead of San Jose and so I had to fly and extra 1/2 hour, and subsequently we had a short drive together before arriving at the Residence Inn Marriott in Mountain View. Which was great, it turns out, for catching up.

Upon arriving at the airport, Stefan was standing there with these!

(HOW SWEET - and this is the man I'm going to marry!)

Then, we headed "home"

Since then, our small studio has been my home base from where I have been writing many Thank You notes, working a few hours every day for Radarworks, fixing lunch in our full size kitchen, and of course lounging by the pool in my bikini. (Actually I've only done this once!!)

Life in Cali is quite plain. But I can't say that I've been bored. Planning a wedding from another state was certainly a unique challenge! More later...

Packing & moving...

2005-10-05T19:00:00.000+02:00

Moving across the world is definitely not an easy task, so if you ever do it, here are a few words of advice:

1) Go through everything you own and decide if you think you'll use it in the new country. If not, decide whether or not it will be useful/in style in 3 to 5 years (HINT: nothing will be!). If not, give it away or sell it at the garage sale. Believe me, in 3 years you won't want that graduation gown from college or that Halloween costume that once won you a 1st place ribbon at the bowling alley contest. Honest!!

2) Make sure to change your wire hangers out for plastic ones. It may sound crazy but it will allow the movers to actually keep the clothes on the hangers instead of taking each one off individually and wrapping them in more paper, producing not only a wrinkly clothing item but a ton of extra garbage for you to throw away later according to some strict foreign recycling rules.

3) Decide BEFORE the movers get there what goes via Air and what goes via Sea. There is about a 5-week difference between the Air and Sea arrival, so if you think you're going to need boots, towels, an airbed, a cooking pot, silverware, cups, toilet paper, head lamps (you'll understand why later) upon arriving at the new apartment, just pack it for Air even though it's random and you won't be sorry. The reason why you have to decide ahead of time is because the movers "move" fast, you won't have time to think. OH and make sure to remove important things like your wedding clothes from the packing area or else they'll wind up on their way to Switzerland - it nearly happened to us!!

4) Have your friends over for dinner. I know this step sounds a little counter productive, but in fact friends are perfect for handing down plants, craft supplies, dishes and cute dresses without having to feel bad about giving it away! It's really a win-win situation. This is a good time to hand down that Halloween costume I mentioned; friends understand the award-winning value of a Bavarian Beer Wench dress when they see it!

5) Take a breather and leave when they're moving the boxes out of the house. I had to make myself scarce for this step. I was too afraid of them scraping the wood floors or running into a wall. I highly recommend doing the same. Professional movers are not meant to be supervised at this stage.

6) Vacuum. If you want to save a little face with the movers, I suggest you vacuum prior to their arrival. This is the only piece of advice that I didn't follow and did I have to apologize! Jake was hardly embarrassed even though 85% of the dust was made up of his hair!

Ok, with that short list of things to do, moving across the world doesn't seem so bad. Just keep in mind that step #1 takes about two months, so plan accordingly!

Here are a few photos to go along with our moving adventure.

Here are the labels they use to track everything...

Jake is catching on...

Boxes, boxes everywhere!

Do you think the movers will mind if I take one last thing?!

Into the truck, uh, I mean shipping container...all of it!

That's all for now. Onward to California!

Pictures of our apartment

2005-09-15T06:32:00.000+02:00

As promised, here are a few pictures. We will have much better ones once we move there, but for now this is what we have.

Our building:

Just kidding! That one is way too nice.

For real:

Ha ha! Not really. That one is way too ugly.

OK, this really is our building:

A closer view of just our apartment (2nd floor) and the front deck:

The back deck is much bigger, but we couldn't get a picture of it.

Another view of the building:

And here is our building with a view of the catholic church next door:

And, finally, a picture of Renee resting on our street:

I have to give Renee credit for the idea of the joke about the buildings. =)

Zurich dialect

2005-09-15T06:04:00.000+02:00

During the week we spent in Zurich for house-hunting, I began to learn to understand some of the Zurich dialect. I'm far from finished with that learning process, but at the end of the week I was able to understand probably a third of what people said. When I first heard people speaking Swiss German, I understood nothing but a few of the numbers. Luckily they all speak standard German too, so if you speak to them in Hochdeutsch, they will happily switch to that.

Most differences between Hochdeutsch and the Zurich dialect are recognizable as transformations of simple sounds. Of course, the common words have changed even beyond that, so they are not pronounced in the way you might imagine if you simply followed the transformation rules.

Here are some of the observations I made. I'm probably wrong about a few of them, and I'm certain it's not a complete list.

Words

The numbers one through ten: eis, zwie, drü, vier, feuf, sachs, siebe, ocht, nün, zan.
Twenty-five: feuf-e-zwanzg
'Nicht': nött
'wir': 'ma'
'Kosten' -> 'chöcshte'
'Z�rich' -> 'Züri'

Consonants

'ch' always gutteral
'ch' is always pronounced like the 'ch' in 'loch', never like the 'ch' in 'mich'.
[k] -> [x]
This applies universally. For example, our relocation consultant's last name, Kamer, was pronounced with the gutteral [x] sound, which the Swiss spell 'ch'.
'r' usually trilled
Only a few R's are pronounced as in Hochdeutsch; I haven't figured out yet which.
'l' farther back in the throat
as in Scottish English
Syllable-final 'n' -> dropped
This is true in Heidelberg dialect as well
Many consonants are emphasized
I'm not sure what the rule is yet. Maybe before a dropped 'n'? Maybe all double letters? Examples:
'gekommen' (as above) has a long 'm'
'guten' (pronounced 'guette') has a long 't'
'st' -> 'scht' or 'sch'
This is true anywhere in a word, not just at the beginning of a syllable as in Hochdeutsch. Heidelberg dialect does the same thing.
'ist' -> 'isch'
'Nebenkosten' (other costs such as utilities for an apartment) -> 'Nabechöschte'.
[z] -> [s]
'Sie', 'Salz', 'See' are all pronounced with a hard 's'. Heidelberg dialect does the same thing.

Vowels

� -> �
Printed on a restaurant sign: '�pfelchammer', a transliteration of '�pfelkammer'.
'W�schek�che' (where you do your laundry) is pronounced 'W�sch-chuchi'.
'sp�ter' (later) is pronounced 'sp�tr'
This transformation applies only to words spelled with '�', not to all words with the long 'e' sound. The Swiss make a distinction between those letters. (Germans make that distinction only sometimes.)
many unaccented vowels -> dropped
'zwanzig' -> 'zwanzg'
'gekommen' -> [kxom?]
'geschaut' -> 'kschaut'
'e' -> 'a'
'gehen' -> 'gah'
'essen' -> 'asse'
This applies to long and short e's, but not to schwas.
'a' -> a sound closest to 'o', but more open
long 'u' -> diphthong 'ue'
'guten Morgen' -> 'guette Morge'
You learn this one first because 'gut' is so common.
'i' -> always pronounced as English 'ee' in 'beet', never as 'i' in 'bit'.
'ei' -> 'ie'
'weil' -> 'wiel'
'eu' -> '�'
as in Schwizzerd�tsch
long 'i' (spelled 'ie') -> dipthong [i?]
'Dietikon' (a place name) is pronounced [di?tikon]
I observed this with a few other words, but it is not universal. 'Wie' is still pronounced as in Hochdeutsch, for example.
long '�' -> a little more relaxed
The '�' in 'Z�ri' is just slightly more open than 'Z�rich' in Hochdeutsch, closer (but not all the way) to the '�' in 'k�ssen', but still long.

Intonation
Swiss German is bouncier than Hochdeutsch, a little like Swedish but not as severe.

When it is used
Dialect is the default language spoken between strangers except in special circumstances. During our tour of apartments, our consultant spoke dialect with all of the landlords except one, who preferred Hochdeutsch - presumably as a sign of education, status, or politeness, or maybe in deference to me (he knew I spoke Hochdeutsch). On the radio, the headlines are read in dialect, but the news itself is read in Hochdeutsch. Phone interviews during the news with witnesses or experts are in dialect.

More details on our Zurich visit

2005-09-14T05:56:00.000+02:00

Here are a few more details about our week in Zurich.

After getting to spend another week in Zurich, I am even more excited about living there. It is really impressive that the city has evolved (after much effort put forth by its inhabitants) to be such a beautiful and livable city.

The relocation consultant we worked with was amazing. We spent the first day on a tour of the city, learning about the different neighborhoods, getting acquainted with the shops we'll need to know once we move there, and getting some insider tips. For example, we learned that there is a bar at the top of a tower that was once an observatory. If you come to visit us, we'll take you there (and many other places we learned about).

The Zurich tram system is great. It's surprisingly dense in the center of the city, and you often have several choices about which line or which route to take. During the day, the trams on any given line come every 6-7 minutes, so you never have to wait long.

Our new apartment is very near Kreuzplatz. There are two very nice supermarkets (one of them has a better selection of foreign foods - particularly Asian and Middle Eastern - than most places in Seattle), some good restaurants, and a huge bakery all right there. And three different tram lines stop there. It will probably take me about 15-20 minutes to get to work by tram.

Oh, and by the way, we did take a few pictures. We didn't get any of the interior of the apartment, but there are some of the outside. I'll be posting those in the near future.

We found an apartment!

2005-09-14T05:39:00.000+02:00

Renee and I spent the last week in Zurich looking for an apartment to live in when we finally move out there in October. The trip was one of the relocation benefits I got from Google: They flew us out, put us up in a hotel, and provided us with a relocation consultant to help us get acquainted with the city and find a place to live.

I'll give you the result from the week first: We found an apartment that's pretty much exactly what we wanted, and we've already signed the lease! Its location is the best thing about it - it's in a very nice, vibrant neighborhood, two blocks from excellent shopping and dining, two blocks from two different tram lines, and two blocks from a park. But it's great in other ways too: we have two bedrooms, a cute living room, a large deck, and a great kitchen, and it's in a beautiful building with real character from 1912. It's large by Swiss standards at 90 square meters (960 square feet). In other words, it's everything we had hoped for.

That's the result we had hoped for, but we had been warned that we should not expect it. And based on what we saw and learned during the week, we were very surprised and very happy when it worked out so perfectly in the end.

Zurich's housing market is very tight. Really very tight. On top of that, apartments come available only two or three times a year - by law, tenants must give notice three months before they move out, and most leases stipulate that they leave only at the end of March, June, or September. What that meant for us was that by the time we got to Zurich in September, most apartments whose tenants were moving had already been "on the market" for two months (since the end of June). Thanks to our excellent relocation consultant, this did not mean we had a smaller selection of apartments to choose from - but it did mean that those available were not all perfect.

Another effect you get from the tight housing market is that landlords can be very choosy about who they accept as tenants. Most apartments will have many applicants, so even if you find the absolute perfect apartment, you may not have impressed the landlord as well as someone else. We were at a disadvantage here, because we are not Swiss. Luckily we were looking at apartments in a budget range slightly higher than most people, so that kept the number of competing applicants at a lower level. (But we still had competition.)

We looked at a total of 11 apartments over two and a half days. Almost all of them were good enough that we could have lived there given no other choice. On the other hand, once we had seen the great characteristics of so many different apartments, we began to form an idea of the "perfect" apartment - and they all had one flaw or another that kept them from qualifying. A few of them were on busy streets or railways, a couple were too small, one was too 70s, and one was even too large (!). Some of these flaws were truly severe (especially the loud ones). So having been through the whole process, it was pretty amazing to have one place we still really liked.

Given that we had found an apartment we really liked, and that our application was accepted, it was just icing on the cake that the landlord was available to prepare and sign the lease while we were still in Zurich.