The park and the mall

A quick update on the past couple days:

Friday:  So does watching TV in a foreign language automatically make it educational?  I hope so.  There was a lot of TV today. I was just wiped out and couldn't muster the energy to do much.  We did make it to the park for an hour and played soccer. 

  And I had a real treat! A baby-sitter :)  Not something I was expecting over here. The downstairs neighbors include a 13 year old girl and she took the kids out to the park for a couple hours while called in for a meeting with Siemer Milling.

Here are some other pics of our park. the first one is a game called Spielweisse. I have yet to see it played, but I think it would be interesting.

The Swiss take advantage of the hills for their slides. I have yet to see a slide on flat ground.

The black rectangle is the sandbox, they keep them covered because there are a lot of feral cats around. I don't think the fort would make it in a public park in the U.S. The Swiss do not seem to be as litigious.

Saturday:
   We found the mall. Pretty easy bus trip down to the train station and another bus to the Arena. The mall is underneath the Football (Soccer) Stadium. Clever use of space.  We had to make it a quick trip so we could get back in time to skype with my parents but I look forward to going back- there is really big grocery store, an IKEA, a kids play place, and an Aldi's (so I could maybe not pay an arm and a leg for groceries, although I've heard to do that I need to go to Germany). I have to be careful- I have to get it all back on the bus.
  Good thing we bought bus passes!  We got "carded" today.  I stressed out because Jo likes to find my pass in the diaper bag and pull it out and it wasn't where I normally keep it, but we had it. Yay!
  We accomplished our first skype!  Jo repeatedly said HI!, which makes it difficult to have a conversation, but I think the grandparents and aunt appreciated her enthusiasm.
  Kenny had soccer practice with some of his classmates.  He really enjoyed the diversion. He came back soaked since it started to rain half way through. Another joy of being restricted to public transportation.