A place of our own

Happy Easter to all! Last weekend we began our move and while we still wait for our Ikea purchases and my stuff from the U.S. to arrive we are happy in our new home.

We hired some help last weekend to aid in the move. It was cheaper than renting a van but our help consisted of a 45-55 year old man and a 70-80 year old man. I felt as though we were going to lose one on the job! So while they and Mariano were away on the first load. I took as much as I could down stairs myself...the two dressers, the kitchen table and chairs, the coffee table, Mariano's desk, the TV table and a few side tables. When they returned Mariano thought perhaps one of his friends showed up. Nope! It was all me and I think I moved quicker than the two men combined haha! After that I began to pack up the kitchen and this is what I found in one of the kitchen drawers:

If you had any doubts I was dating an Italian I think this drawer should diminish those doubts. Count it, that is 5 full bags of Spaghetti plus a variety of others...and this is after we've empty some pasta since I've been here!

And now I have my first key! It is attached to a lovely key chain from my bestie Kate. The charms are a reminder of home and my new life. I also attached the teddy bear, a charm that came with a necklace Mariano bought me for my birthday a year and a half ago. So happy to have a happy home here in Lucerne!

Here is a brief view of our apartment. Our couch and coffee table arrived the day we moved in. We had no table until Friday (dinners were picnics on the floor or grabbing a bite to eat out). However, Mariano's family was en route for the Easter weekend and our "romantic picnics" on the floor would no longer suffice. Mariano called the store we had ordered it from and it wasn't going to be delivered in time so he canceled the shipment and assembly. Instead, he rented a van on Thursday to pick up the table and we had the joy of putting it together on Friday. There were far too many screws involved and we don't own a power drill. We were still building it as his family arrived but we can now say we have a beautiful table that maybe we will appreciate more as it required our hard labor!

I will begin the tour with something that is complete...our amazing view. This is a legit photo I took a couple of days ago although I know it looks like a painting!

And at night:

 Our entry way (with room for a bench eventually), a coat closet to the right and our broom/cleaning closet on the left.

 The Kitchen part 1

Kitchen part 2

 Small balcony off of kitchen...potential garden??

getting the other half of the balcony :)

 Our living/dining room. Those are our makeshift chairs for the weekend.

Our large balcony which will be home to many BBQs! (The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. I'm sure as soon as we get our balcony furniture and grill it will turn to crap). It has an entrance both from the living/dining room and also from our bedroom.

 The guest room. Don't worry that prison looking bed is not what you'll have to sleep on when you come! My comfy bed will be here soon!

 The office.

 Our bedroom

 The bathroom, complete with a bidet that I plan to cover with something like a little bench. For those of you that don't know what a bidet is, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet. I'm not sure I'll ever become that European.

The proper toilet. Notice the small light on the left. It turns red when the light is on. I guess if you're confused that someone is in there when the door is closed, the light aids in letting you know the facilities are occupied!

There you have it for now. I'm excited to get the rest of our furniture and send around another update. My back is ready for the furniture too! The futon/ikea couch was ok for a few nights but now I'm ready for our proper bed! I hope these pictures are starting to entice some visitors :). Stay tuned for another post about this weekend with the Italiano fam.

Much love from Lucerne!

Time to start getting settled

Wow! I can't believe how quickly time is passing. Since the last post we've been turning Saturdays into shopping for furniture days, had a work trip to London, joined the gym, opened a bank account, got a cell phone number, oh and got an APARTMENT!!

So big news first, we've found a place to live!  The 'potential view and neighborhood' pictures in my last post is in fact our new neighborhood. Thank goodness as it's getting more and more difficult to keep my stuff tidy living out of a suitcase. (Mariano is much tidier than me so I feel a bit guilty...hehe not that guilty). We never took pics of the inside but we get the keys on Thursday so stay tuned! We will have much more space. It has 3 bedrooms. Enough to have a guest room, so start booking your visits! The third room will be an office but we'll put his futon/couch in there now if we have extra guest space if needed. It has two balconies, one small off the kitchen and one large overlooking the river and castle walls. I hope to try my hand at gardening on the small one off the kitchen....so domesticated of me. I'm not so confident in my green thumb but it could lead to some entertaining post later on. We placed our main furniture orders this weekend so hopefully the place won't be empty for long.

Work has been going crazy but well. The woman I was replacing left last Thursday so I'm really learning by doing now. When it's a tough day, I just look outside and the view is calming. Plus the other day legit Swiss horns were playing some where off in the distance. Is this real life? Riiiiiiccccccoooooolaaaaa. I really like my team. Mark, a Northern Irelander and Luca an Italian are my full time peeps and then we have two trainees in the office as well. We get along well although, the boys exchange looks when I answer the phone too loud or too cheery. I am loud on the phones I told them, even other Americans thought so! Ha! I'm coming from a sales floor that's loud and you have to compete. That's not really it. I blame my teachers from grade school who threw me in speech class because I didn't speak up loud enough. I was just a shy kid and now I overemphasize my volume to compensate. I am trying to keep an eye on the level though, but I think the boys will have to deal with me being pleasant on the phone :).

I had my first work trip up to London two weeks ago. I spent a Monday/Tuesday there and met my colleagues in the London office, checked out a couple of hotels and did a guided sightseeing to get a feel for how they operate as it's one of the components that fall under my responsibilities. It's crazy that I had only been in a non English speaking country for one week at the time and it was so relieving to be surrounded by English again. It's not that you can't get by with English in Lucerne, I just do so with a hinge of guilt for not understanding any German. Also, it was so nice to be in a CITY...things opened around the clock and just the general amazing vibe I get in a big city. I was able to meet up with my Aussie friend Rachel for dinner while I was there too. I hope to be seeing more of her and the City.

I will send out my contact details shortly. For now, it's time for bed. Buonanotte!

I will leave you with this...a picture of the 3 remaining flowers that Mariano gave me when I arrived in Lucerne, 3 weeks ago. I seriously have never had fresh flowers last so long!