Switzerland got me today

On our way to a ski weekend

As I'm sure every expat can agree, some days you just want to say, "Okay [insert host country here] I surrender...you win today. You officially kicked my ass." Pardon the language, but that's how it feels. Friday was a day like this for me, and it kind of caught me off guard. Nearly two years have passed and most of the time I think I have this living abroad thing down. Not so fast. And as the trailing spouse always dealing with this stuff, you feel like your head might actually explode.

It started when I actually changed my mind about how I wanted the day to go. I initially thought I would let Baby K nap for about an hour in the morning, head to playgroup, then do some errands afterwards. Then I remembered that the vet closes from 12 to 2 (for lunch?) so I wouldn't get done with other stuff to get back there. My solution? Get Baby K to sleep in the car seat for her morning nap and get stuff done before playgroup.

Not so much, Switzerland decided. We hurried up, got everything together and headed out. Oh wait, thanks to the tons of construction going on on our street just up from our house, the electricity to the building our garage was turned off. I'm guessing they thought to tell the people who live in the building, and didn't remember to give us notice. At first I just thought the garage door opener wasn't working again, but nope, not the case this time.

Great, so now I can't get the car out of the garage. And not only can I not get the car out, but I can't get the stroller out either. That put a serious kink in things. In French, the workers tell me the electricity will be back on around 11, and by the way, why can't I just open the garage with my hands. I tell them that the remote is the only way it opens. Too bad for us, I guess.

So Baby K and I go back down to the house, get the umbrella stroller and head down to the train station. Only, before we can go down to the train station, I carry her back down to the house a few more times for things we forgot. I then head down the hill, only to realize that it's about 40 degrees and I have forgotten a blanket. I was so irritated at this point I decided I would just buy one when we got to the store. I was just hoping I could skip the lecture from an older Swiss lady about how Baby K was cold, and why didn't I have a blanket for her?

Ultimately Baby K did not get a morning nap. Not too much harm done- no breakdown at playgroup or anything. And I did get a couple of things done before going to playgroup.

Afterwards, we ran to catch the bus, which would get to the vet just before closing for lunch. Nope, not going to happen. The bus was late, getting us there around 12:02. Luckily I was able to get to the pharmacy before they closed for lunch at 12:15 to get some substitute dog medicine.

Back up to the house we went to get lunch and hopefully be on the road to go pick BK up by around 1. And again, even though it's been nearly a year with Baby K, I seem to always underestimate how long things will take not to mention that I was constantly chasing her around trying to pick up the millions of things she wanted to pull out. Baby K and I finally got on the road around 2, in time for her nap and in time for BK to get on a conference call in the car by 3.

As I type this, I realize it's not all that bad, but at the time, things like these sometimes leave me feeling like Switzerland is killing me in the moment. Ultimately just a small blip on the radar. From here, we had a great weekend with friends in Lauterbrunnen. I guess you could say Switzerland makes it up to me too (see pic above).