After we decided to move to Switzerland I knew it would be important to try and keep life as normal as possible while we were here. It's easy to not keep up with your usual traditions, likes, or interests when you are in a different place and everything that once seemed normal is so different now. I knew holidays would be a tough one to try and keep normal. Every year since we have been dating we go to the Apple Orchard in the fall. My parents used to do this with us every year when we were kids. I loved it and it is some of my fondest memories of childhood. I've been able to keep those memories with David and so far through all of our moves and various different states that we have lived in we have found some wonderful Apple Orchards. I think our favorite orchards to go to were in Minnesota. They definitely know how to make an apple orchard up there!!! Anyway, several weeks back, I started panicking that we weren't going to go to an orchard this year and I kept thinking we have been doing this as a couple for about 11 years...it's tradition, we have to do it!! I know that in the big scheme of life this really isn't important, but again, when everything else seems so different to you you just want something that feels like home. Well luckily, I found the names of two and we went the weekend before Halloween. It was definitely a different experience. It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for but let's face it, we are in a different country so we have to do things their way. Here is the first orchard we pulled up to. There wasn't much there.
A lady was selling apples, pears, and hard cider and pear juice. We did some tastings of the apples and pears. We tried the pear juice which was pretty good. We bought an enormous bag of the best pears we have ever had!!
Sadly, they didn't have any pumpkins or normal cider. Then we went to the second place on the list. This didn't turn out to be an orchard, really. It was more like a little store. It was so cute though, so i couldn't be too disappointed.
We bought some food from the store and even a tiny little pumpkin. We even found a friend while we were there!!
This is a Bernese Mountain dog. Unfortunately the pictures don't do the dog justice. He was beautiful and huge and he wouldn't leave David alone!!
I was a little sad that we didn't walk away with a big pumpkin or apple cider or apple donuts but that's just life in another country. After all we are trying to find a new normal. I was surprised that I haven't even been able to find regular apple cider in any of the grocery stores. I love apple cider...I mean L.O.V.E it!! So this was a little disappointing. On the way back to our place, I remembered seeing pumpkins sitting on the side of the road. Apparently, you just pick one out and put a donation in a box. (I hope that's how it works or I was on the verge of stealing off someone's property). I'm thinking that would never fly in the states!! When we drove by, most of the pumpkins had already started rotting and had already been picked over so we decided to stick with our too tiny to carve pumpkin!
On another note, I got bored last week and put together our world map puzzle. I was pretty proud of myself for actually finishing it. I usually get bored and frustrated and never finish them.
I really didn't know how Trick or Treating worked here, but since we live in an apartment I figured that we wouldn't have any Trick or Treaters anyway. David came down with a stomach bug and so we hung out at the apartment on Sunday night. Later that evening the doorbell rang. I went to look out the peep hole and see who it was. It was Trick or Treaters!! I couldn't believe it. I felt terrible...i had no candy, so i didn't open the door. Then we saw a bunch of children out the following night too but none came to our door. I still never figured out what the rules were. I would be surprised if they were really supposed to be Trick or Treating on a Sunday. They have very strict laws on Sundays. For example, you aren't allowed to wash your car. I've also heard that in some places you aren't supposed to do laundry. Now i don't know about the rest of you ladies but i do like that last one!
David was still feeling pretty bad on Halloween so we didn't even watch the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown until the next night. This is also tradition. I'm not sure David really loves this one but he humors me anyway. At least we tried to keep things normal...it just didn't work out in our favor. I still felt blessed we were able to have some sort of adventure.
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