100 Jahre Zollvertrag

On March 29th 1923 Switzerland and Liechtenstein signed a customs treaty that would allow Liechtenstein to be integrated into the Swiss economy which effectively freed it from economic isolation. This meant that any treaty Switzerland agreed to with a separate country would automatically apply to Liechtenstein. Which was a tremendous boom to the Liechtenstein economy which had previously been tied to the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg empire leading up to and during WWI.

In addition to support with foreign relations, this treaty also helped move Liechtenstein on to the Swiss Franc, allow for tariff free border crossing with Switzerland and paved the way for further cooperation in a multitude of domestic areas; such as Switzerland's commitment to protect the borders of Liechtenstein allowing for the tiny country to exist without having to field its own military.

So on April 1st, 2023 in honor of the treaty the two governments decided to throw a party directly on the border between them. And since the border happens to be the Rhine river the celebration spanned multiple bridges which um, span the border. And with free Brats, Pretzels and Beer on offer we decided to join in on the fun!

We then found out that the wine was free too!

We partied till we dropped!

Not sure we'll be here for 200 years. But if we are, I'm there!

Sprichst du Duetsch?

After a year of being utterly confused at restaurants, grocery stores, governmental offices and doctors appointments, we have finally buckled down and started official German lessons.

Once a week for an hour & half our teacher Frank attempts to teach us German A1 (these levels for languages are a big deal over here - I often see on resumes “German, mother tongue; English, C1; French, B2” etc - all of which just shows how fluent (or in the case of A1 NOT FLUENT) you are based on the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. It consists of 6 levels of reference: three blocks (A or basic user, B or independent user and C or proficient user), which are in turn divided into two sublevels, 1 and 2. You have to achieve C2 in either French or German to pass the Swiss citizenship exam. Our A1 level is described as: basic users of the language, i.e. those able to communicate in everyday situations with commonly-used expressions and elementary vocabulary.

Things I’ve learned in class so far.

German has four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative), three genders (masculine, feminine, neutral), and strong and weak verbs. The word ‘the’ alone has about six options that I’ve come across so far - and no real rules as to when to use which one - you just have to memorize it.

As a written language, German is quite uniform (written the same in Germany, Austria and Switzerland). As a spoken language, however, German exists in many dialects; the main difference being in the sound of the consonants. Swiss German is the primary spoken language in our area which sounds very different to High German and has no written form. If you’re really curious about this one, I found this article really interesting.

Compounding words & making things into one word is a big thing in German.

Water = wasser (pronounced: Vas.er), Bottle = flasche (Flash.a); Water Bottle = Wasserflasche.

That’s rather helpful. Not helpful when I wanted to order a bottle of wine.

Wine = Wein (Vine); Wine Bottle ≠ Weinflasche.

This will result in the waiter bringing you an empty bottle. (I have learned: Ich möchte bitte eine Flasche Wein bestellen; I’d like to order a bottle of wine, please)

A few of my other favorite compound words:

• die Nacktschnecke (literally: naked snail), meaning: slug
• der Kühlschrank (literally: the cool cupboard), meaning: refrigerator
• die Handschuhe (literally: the hand shoes), meaning: gloves
• der Regenschirm (literally: the rain shield), meaning: umbrella
• das Stachelschwein (literally: the spike pig), meaning: porcupine
• die Wunderkerze (literally: the wonder candle), meaning: sparkler
• das Zahnfleisch (literally: tooth meat), meaning: the gums (in your mouth)

Numbers and time are wild. Like truly wild. Numbers take the compounding situation to the extreme.

14,673 = Vierzehntausendsechshundertdreiundsiebzig (ALL. ONE. WORD)

Literal translation: Fourteen thousand six hundred three and seventy

2:25pm = vierzehn Uhr fünfundzwanzig

Literal translation: Fourteen hour twenty-five

Or you could say fünf vor halb drei; literal translation: five before half three.

It’s alot of thought to get the words in the right order and do all the math needed to say a number.

Like alot.

In addition to our weekly classes, I’ve started DuoLingo for daily practice. I’ll leave you with a few screenshots of my favorite phrases.

Genau is used as the term of agreement. Anytime I hear it when attempting to speak
German, I get excited because someone has understood what I said and agreed to it.

And when would a fish need a chair?

Someday ... hopefully

Home Visit

Our contract allows us one trip home every year we’re over here. And for someone who is not generally very homesick, I was ready for a trip back to Texas so it came at the perfect time.

Charlotte’s school has two weeks off at Easter (the same amount of time they have off at Christmas) so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to eat BBQ see family.

We started our trip the night before by spending the night at the airport hotel - after our last experience with trying to catch a flight out of Zurich Airport, we weren't taking any chances!

It was a bit snug with our resident bed hogs,
but it was only one night so we managed

The next morning we loaded up (again tried to convince the Swiss TSA agent that the car seat does not fit through the x-ray machine; they still tried, it still doesn’t), found our gate and plane without too much incident and settled in for our flights.

Olivia elected not to nap at all in the combined 10 hours of flights, so we were all a bit tired & cranky by the time we arrived, but thankfully Grandmama & Papa met us at the airport so everything was immediately better.

The next day we had to make our annual trip to see the Easter Bunny at Neiman’s downtown

On Easter Sunday we got to go to church then to see some of the extended family for an Easter Egg Hunt and lunch.

The rest of the time we spent hopping back & forth between grandparents, baking all the treats, eating all the ice cream, climbing on all the things that we’re not allowed to at home, and loving every minute of being spoiled rotten.

Specifically requested by the 5 year old was a camping night with
Granddaddy, so they did...in the backyard

Adam & I even managed to sneak in a date afternoon to Target and a luxury restaurant

After two weeks, we headed back to Liechtenstein with full hearts (and a full pantry!)

A month of ships passing in the night

March was an interesting month in the Powell family. When Amanda took her current role within Hilti internal audit group we knew that it meant there would be some travel associated with it. And it's not like I this time of year isn't historically short on direct communication between Amanda and I due to her time at PwC. However this March I got to join on in the traveling fun, which made for an especially hectic month.

March 5th -10th

It started off with Amanda spending a week in the UK

Someone apparently found a hamburger and didn't share with her husband!

In the middle of the week Charlotte's school had a Founder's Day celebration to commemorate the founding of the school 20 years earlier.

Photo to prove to Mom we combed
our hair for Founder's Day

All lined up & ready for our show

Olivia didn't have Founders day but brought home some new dance moves anyway!

March 13th & 14th

Then it was my turn to be gone for a workshop ... if you're stuck in a conference room all day for a workshop, at least it has good views...

March 15th-18th

Amanda departed for a few nights in France

Olivia's hair on Thursday morning

Olivia's hair after daycare Thursday night.
Apparently the teachers noticed Mom isn't around.

Charlotte on the way to school ready to see mom tonight!
(Me ready to not have to make decisions on the appropriateness of shoes, hats, scarfs, etc!)

Amanda was technically supposed to be back on the 17th but this was right in the midst of the Paris/French riots so her return train on the 17th was cancelled due to labor action and she received a hand written note for the next day.

So the girls got a treat to sooth the sorrow.

And thankfully for all of us, the trains were running again on Saturday.

March 19th-22nd

I departed for our German headquarters for another workshop where the most interesting thing in the village was my dresser doors

By the 23rd of March Amanda and I had spent a grand total of 5 full days together! And while our travels for the month were over the last week of March for me was filled with dawn to dusk work activities tied to our internal Global Logistics Conference.

Finally the month of March has come to an end and while we still have more travel coming at least it will be together as we all head home to Texas for a few weeks to see family and friends. Can't wait!