Nothing Goes to Waste

So, let's talk trash.

The villa of Gland is very concerned with recycling and being environmentally friendly. They have recently passed a tax of 75 francs per person per year, as a trash tax. (This might be a canton-wide initiative, but lets face it, I have no idea.) On top of this, you must purchase the approved trash bags- which are tiny and very expensive.

The end result is that we as a family recycle all types of things. Gone are the days where we throw everything into the huge trash can by the garage. If we have some leftover stuff, we weed out the cardboard boxes and the random wine bottles. But now we have four different trash containers, and a trash bag. We have the largest container for our common trash- keep in mind that this is far smaller than any American trash can. We put all our paper and cardboard things into another container. Another smaller one holds our organic trash or food leftovers, etc. Another one holds our plastic lids from milk or drink containers. Then, the bag has our plastic bottles, which tend to be bulkier than the rest.

This has been a big change for us, but definitely a change for the better. It's crazy to think that thinking in such an ecologically minded way is almost impossible in the States, whereas it is basically a requirement here.

This will be one of the things I add to my list of improvements for when/if I move back to Texas. Of course, it will require a lot of creativity to figure out how to do some of the more obscure recycling, but it seems very worth it in the long run.

Long Absence

Sorry for the long absence of information. To be honest, life has been very overwhelming. The first three weeks in Switzerland, we slept on blow up air mattresses and crowded on the floor around a 16 in t.v. watching the same 5 movies I had brought in our luggage. It was rainy and scary, but at the end of the day, we were all together. Things got dramatically better very quickly. Our belongings made their way to the apt, we found new friends, and we began to settle into our lives. I realize that I am being extremely vague about the details, but I promise I will get more into the details at some point. Don't want to overwhelm everybody!

We live in the beautiful town of Gland, Switzerland. We live on the hillside with the Jura Mountains behind us and the Alps in front of us. Our apartment is very cozy and has a large balcony where the kids love to go out and play. Leia also enjoys her freedom to come in and out of the apartment. Every afternoon, we go down to the train station to pick John up around 6:10. Other than these things, we have no clue what we are doing, other than we know there are great things to explore and try!

So, I promise I will post more. My Swiss friends will laugh at my total lack of a clue, and my American friends... yeah, they will probably laugh at us, as well!

Us on the flight heading to Switzerland

The kids enjoying the balcony and the blue skies

The family in Geneva

Sera being Swiss and using the water fountains

We have stuff!!! (I swear it doesn't still look like this)

Ta-da! Yes, we are alive and having a fabulous time!!

 That's it for now, mon chèries!