Our stop in NC to see my brother and his adorable kids.
Family pictures with Sterling's family
And some play time
Kilwin's with my family.....mmmmm
Headed out...let the adventure begin!
Cohen was tired....and tired of walking. Unfortunately our stroller was left behind at JFK while we were in Milan. This was the next best solution. :)
Got the car loaded and we were ready to head to our Airbnb. We couldn't figure out how to get it in reverse. Sterling squeaked out of the parking spot with about a cm. of clearance while I googled how to get this car in reverse. Thank goodness for Google!
A much needed beautiful sunrise.
We lived in our airbnb for a month while we looked for an apartment and got everything worked out.
This was on our walk to our airbnb. It was one of our favorite places to walk by.
Our little kitchen
Cohen's bed. Raffie (the giraffe and integral member of our family), Bunny, Bear, and the blanket all made the long trip with us.
Getting settled was quite complex. We had to get our permits, which took all kinds of documents, etc. We needed phones in order to, well, communicate with anyone. We had to have permits in order to get phones. Also needed permits to get insurance (because, I was still rather pregnant...crazy how that works), to get an apartment, to get a bank account, etc. Also, we needed a permanent address in order to get all of those things. We weren't sure which we needed first, it seemed like everything. Being American was not helpful, especially with getting a bank account. It was quite the difficult process and it seemed like everything took 7 tries to get one thing accomplished. It was rather stressful and frustrating at times. But it has been worth it.
One Sunday we decided to get out, explore, and try to destress a bit. It was a beautiful evening and just what we needed.
Our airbnb was in Ponte Tresa right on the border (we were on the Swiss side). Sterling would be working in the city in Lugano, so we were looking for an apartment there. We took this small train into Lugano almost daily to get everything set up. This was my favorite spot on our ride. So beautiful.
This is the view of Lugano when you get off the train. Not too shabby. :)
We had a lot of long days. Cohen was quite the trooper. On this particularly long day Sterling gave him a ride on a long walk up a giant hill. I think both boys were pretty tired, but that was the best smile I could get out of Cohen.
We were cuddling to stay warm while we waited to see an apartment.
Not sure the details of this day (in fact, I just discovered this picture...I didn't know Sterling had taken it), but it was probably just one of those long, seemingly unproductive days. Maybe it was the day we ended up walking an hour and a half in the freezing cold to an insurance appointment because we went to the wrong address and he told us it was only a kilometer away. Maybe it was the millionth time we tried to get a bank account and couldn't. Maybe it was Cohen telling me he missed Boston and his friends. Who knows. Just one of those days.
Luckily we also discovered various forms of comfort in these stressful times.... like Laderach. The best. chocolate. ever. It will also break that Swiss bank account you can't get, but man is it good. :)
Nutella of course. We refer to it as "dessert". Somehow Cohen thought that's what it was called, and would (and still does) ask for some "dessert on bread". haha. That's going to stick for a while I think.
Local Ticanese soda. So good.
I'm noticing a trend in what I find comforting....good thing they have good food here! I needed a lot of comfort. :)
But, after all of that stress, we got our permits, we got our apartment, our phones, our insurance, and even a bank account.
No comments:
Post a Comment