A Very Successful Week (so far)

Here are some excellent updates from this week:

• We started German lessons!
• I found an aerial studio and they said I don’t have to speak German to come!
• I found the right stuff for my curtains!
• I used my Spanish in Switzerland!
• Coach hung out with a toddler and behaved herself really well!
• I bought more plants!
• I successfully navigated customs at the Austrian border!
• I picked up my bike!
• I hung out with some cows at the top of a mountain!

On Tuesday, a friend came by with her sewing machine to help me get started making curtains. She also brought her toddler and we held our breath while waiting to see how Coach would handle it.

Luckily for all involved, Coach’s love of treats surpasses her distrust of miniature humans, so they were quickly sitting on the couch together and following each other around.

On Wednesday I made my second attempt to hike up to the one cool spot I know of (but have never reached).

We didn’t make it, but this time it was because there was a bovine border patrol near the top of the hill.

I had Coach with me and I wasn’t sure if the cows were curious or territorial (because I don’t know anything about cows) so we just turned around and hung out on the other side of the gate.

The moment we turned our backs, the cows picked up the pace and followed us SUUUUPER closely. Like, I could’ve reached out to pet them.

For a brief moment I thought: this is it. This is how I die. Trampled by bell-wearing Swiss cows. Newspapers will run articles about how stupid this choice was.

But then I didn’t die and I made it to the other side of the fence and the cows just tried to lick me.

Coach was completely uninterested in the cows. Once she learned she wasn’t allowed to eat their poop, she was like “what are we even doing here?”

Then I went to Switzerland to get hooks for my curtains. But I couldn’t find the window/curtain section of the hardware store so I asked if anyone spoke English and nobody did.

After a ten minute struggle I said something like, “well I also speak Spanish but nobody here speaks Spanish” and the lady helping me was like “YO HABLO ESPAÑOL!” And I had my first functional conversation with a non-English speaker since we’ve been here. They didn’t have the curtain hooks I needed, but, we made a little small talk and it was just such a wonderful feeling to communicate with another human.

That exchange filled me with enough confidence to try going to Austria to get the curtain hooks.

And they also had window screens!!!!

I was feeling so good about it that I stopped at customs on my way home. They stamp your receipt so you can go back to the store and get your Austrian taxes back since we’re not Austrian.

The customs agent didn’t speak English. He asked me why I live in Liechtenstein if I don’t speak German (I imagine his question would’ve been a lot more intimidating if I fully understood it, and if I wasn’t feeling so good from all the things that had gone right today). So I told him where my husband works (one of the biggest companies here) and he was just … so visibly annoyed … but he let me back in the country.

And then I had to hit a button to exit and I didn’t understand that I had to hit the button so I was momentarily trapped at the border.

Then I got home and installed window screens, and sewed/ironed/hung curtains until 2am. This was maybe not ideal, but I’m very pleased with how it turned out.

And now I can open the windows without flies coming in, or spiders (I hope).

I have done my nightly spider check (shine phone flashlight all around the room, under the bed, shake out sheets, check under pillow) and it seems safe to sleep.