A new set of wheels

Well, we took the plunge here in Switzerland and bought a car. It was no easy feat, with about a three month processing time after we ordered the car and all kinds of financial what-not involved, but we are now the proud owners of a new Volvo.

Now, if you know BK well, you may be thinking that never in a million years would you see him own a Volvo; it's just so sensible. I never thought I would see the day either. And plenty of the guys at work have given him such a hard time about this purchase.

But in the end, practicality outweighed everything else. Volvo has a special deal for expats, making purchasing a Volvo more attractive than other cars in Switzerland. Cars are very expensive here in general, so any break you can get is beneficial. The primary thing it's being used for is for BK to commute to work, so it needed to get good gas mileage and to be safe. Don't worry though, I think he added every possible feature available. He hasn't completely lost touch with his old self.

I kept the car last Friday so I could do some running around, including getting some bigger items that are not so easily handled with Baby K in tow, either in the stroller or being carried on me. BK was eager to hear what I thought about it and how it went. I really like the car, and it has all kinds of great features, but the best one for me is probably the parking sensors.

I say the parking sensors because parking is not my best skill in life. In my past two cars I never had a fender bender, but I did have some unfortunate run-ins with our garage. The bumpers nearly always had a black scrape on them from me coming and going out of the garage. In my defense, we did have a garage that had two separate doors, and since I had the smaller car I had to use the one that required a bit of a turn to get in.

Here's how our new car fits in the garage.

Okay, so it doesn't look like such a tight fit here, but I swear I feel like I have to hold my breath while I'm pulling in. I also told BK that the parking sensors don't really help in this situation because it's just one constant beep at me when I'm parking. He laughed at this and let me know that they did not do that when he was parking. Let's just say we apparently have different methods. I try my hardest to let BK drive as much as possible, and you better believe I won't be parking with him in the car. No one wins in that situation, trust me.

So we're off and running! It has been kind of fun to have a car on the weekends so that we can explore around the area and up and down the mountain. If you come visit us we might even come pick you up from the airport too.