The last week has been quite harried. All three of us are in various stages of dealing with sinus infections. Martha has started her in-office French lessons. We have been wrapping our heads around the inherent problems of outfitting a family home when you’re not proficient in the local language. Again, the ubiquity of at-least minimal English among the local population has surprised us and helped us immensely.
The great task of the past few days, however, has been moving to the new hotel. Due to the Company’s logistical challenges (and some of its apparently logistically challenged staff), we had to uproot and move 2 blocks down the street to another hotel yesterday. We are now here:
http://www.beaulac.ch/en/acceuil_en.php
It’s a much swankier place than the last hotel, but that’s the only upside. On the downside, we’ve gone from a 4-room suite with a kitchen to a 2-room suite with a minibar fridge and an electric kettle. This is making life with Sammy much more challenging, but extra elbow grease and careful planning are making it work. This inconvenience is somewhat mitigated by now having a per diem, but much of that per diem is getting eaten by having to pay for what was free at the previous hotel — like breakfast, Internet, and parking. The remainder of the per diem, nicer room decor, a better view and the option of room service don’t really make up for having a kitchen in which to cook our meals and a bedroom just for Sammy. I guess my tastes are become simpler in my old age; dealing with a baby 24/7 does that, I suppose. At least we’re only here for 2 weeks, and then we move into what I hope will be our home for the next few years at least.
To end on a more happy note, today’s breakfast was momentous. This morning, Sammy ate half a piece of bread by himself! It was quite a marvel. It took him about 60-90 seconds of holding the bread before it hit him that he should try putting it in his mouth. Once he put that together, it took another couple of minutes for him to figure out how to eat it without teeth. Sammy’s solution was as follows:
- Grasp bread firmly in hand
- Shove one end of the bread into mouth
- Drool all over it until mushy
- Take little bites of the mushy end
- Repeat steps 2-4 until hand as no more bread in it
That’s my boy. Â 🙂
Finally, I smoked a wonderful Montecristo Open Master yesterday, which cost me all of Sfr. 13!