Honey, I'm home!

WooHoo! We have internet... well nearly. Walter's trying to get my computer to work with the router and I'm on his. No photies till it works (there are a tonne to post). So here we are, 3 weeks in our new digs. The boxes are nearly all emptied. We have to buy a few armoires, since apparently the Swiss 'don't do closets'. We also discovered the Swiss don't do used furniture either, so there are very few second hand stores here. We went to the one in Neuchatel today along with all the other foreigners and didn't find much at all. We've heard the decheterie (dump) has good pickin's since all used furniture gets tossed. This is a country that has one of the best recycling records too....
We're living in a really nice apartment in the center of Saint-Blaise (4 km de Neuchatel) right next to the 'bongiest' church in the world. It bing-bongs once on the quater hour, twice on the half, thrice on the three quaters and fours on the hour. Then it bongs the number of the hour. At 12pm it bongs for 5 mins (telling everyone it's lunchtime?) and at 10pm it bongs for 5 mins (I was told this goes back a long time and has something to do with curfew). On Saturday at 6 pm it bingbongs for 15 mins and Sunday at 10 am it bingbongs for 15 mins (calling the faithful). It bothered the boys a bit at first, but we're all pretty immune now. It's actually quite handy. I find myself in bed at 10 exactly a lot, and Walter (mr-California-no-watch) knows what time it is :) Allie has also become very interested in telling the time too. Speaking of him, he learned to 'read' the word 'go' today! He was looking at Walter's computer and and asked him 'What's that go button, Daddy?'. It was a window with a wee red button with GO written on it. Walter typed GO later and Allie said what it was. He also knows it in lower case...
Anyhoo, He's also staying in bed longer in the morning because he's in a separate room to Tobe and he has a digital clock. We told him he couldn't come down till it said '6' something. He comes down at 6:01!
Our house is on the side of the building, so it's thin and tall. We don't have anyone above or below and the 300 year old walls keep out the noises beside us. There's a young couple one one floor next to us (we don't see much of them) and a French/Irish family on the other 2 floors. We've gotten quite friendly with the family- they're really really nice and have been showing us around. Tomorow we're going to the Gorge de L'Aruse with them :) The kids (8,10 and 12) are very patient with the boys and their parents are very patient with our French.
There's a 'Coop' store 3 mins walk away (Coop and Migros are the 2 competing grocery chains) and the big shopping center in Marin is 5 mins on the bus (the stop is 2 mins from us). We can walk to the 'lake park' which is in a lovely beachy area next to the harbour, or the 'train park' which is up a very steep hill, next to the stream... and the train track. That brings me to the park equipment. Those of you with young children (in the US at least) will know what kind of stuff you can and can't get. Old fashioned seesaws, roundabouts etc aren't around any more due to their 'dangerous' nature. Weeell, when I saw my first park here, my jaw dropped ;) I've seen seesaws and roundabouts, and at the parks in Saint-Blaise there are 'commando cable slides' for kids! Allie's slowly getting up the gumption to go whole hog on one. I'll post a pic when I can. The climbing frames are also huge and complicated beasts. I spend a lot of time trying to get Toby not to launch himself off them.
So are we assimilating? Well, we just consumed a tasty bar of chocolate tonight (orange/noir), and I have eaten chocolate EVERY night since we moved. I also know some of the vendors at the farmer's market now- it gets me free parsley :)