Permanent Expatriate

September is a big month in Neuchâtel, and this September has been a big month for little Sammy. Here are the highlights:

• The beginning of the month featured a weeklong vocational fair called Capa’cité taking over the city centre. This would have been great, except the Green Village (featuring all kinds of outdoor work) was right in front of our building and featured guys using chainsaws all day, every day for a week.
• The following week, Martha was in Munich for a couple of days on a work trip.
• We had one quiet-ish weekend at home as a family before the city started setting up for Fête des Vendanges de Neuchâtel, a weekend-long event that turns the entire city centre into a drunken party that goes until 4am. The place at which our building is located was a main hub for Fête, with food/booze vendors and multiple sound systems blasting some of the worst music and DJing I’ve ever heard right below our window. (Calling all my DJ friends: You could be gods here, for musically speaking the Neuchâtelois obviously think that shit is gold.) While mildly nerve-racking for Martha and I, Sammy slept soundly through the night every night of Fête.
• The city was still in the process of tearing down/cleaning up from Fête as they got ready for the Swiss Cheese Awards. Much good cheese was sampled and purchased.
• Sammy continues to grow and do new things. He now has quite a few back teeth, so he’s getting more adventurous with eating but has been in more-or-less continual discomfort. He now goes for long walks out of the stroller and is exploring playground equipment. His vocabulary is limited, but he clearly is talking to us and his toys and gets irritated when he feels he’s not being heeded. (He is his parent’s son.)

Photos from the past month can be view here: http://www.permanent-expatriate.com/sept2010/. Look to Facebook for some new videos, as well.  🙂

After hosting our friends the Colesmiths for 10 days starting Friday, we will be back in Ontario for Martha’s Ph.D. defense at month’s end. Given the hectic nature of the next several weeks, another update before next month seems unlikely.