Confusion: a delightful constant in any expat's life.

Today was a bit of a long day, but a good one.

First, we had the sonogram appointment this morning. Unfortunately I didn't take care to look up driving directions so Zach was relying on his limited familiarity of driving over to Carouge, and we kind of took the long way around... but still got there in time. The appt went great, everything looks fabulous and totally healthy for baby-- woot! He seemed to be napping, so we didn't get to see him dancing around like he usually does, but it was still pretty awesome. Just a few more months and we'll get to meet the little guy in person. =)

I then dropped Zach off at work, and headed out to the Jumbo and Chevannes shopping center that's off the highway on the way to Lausanne and Ikea. We've been meaning to get a weedwacker-type instrument to try to cut our grass with, and Zach'd heard that Jumbo was the place to go for that sort of stuff. I also wanted to check out the rest of the shopping center.

Welp, I pulled up... and all the parking lots were blocked off. The entire center appeared to be closed. And I did not seem to be the only perplexed driver having to turn around and figure out a plan b. Oh well, I thought, I'll just go to Ikea, I'd been thinking of doing that anyway and there's a Coop garden center right across from it.

Closed, too. All of them. WTF? And, again, I saw other people pulling up and then having to turn around when they saw that everything was closed, so this wasn't just me being clueless about some obvious rule. Zach and I later figured there must've been some holiday today for Vaud canton (where each of those shopping centers is located, I think). Who knows. Finally, I ended up at MParc, a massive Migros shopping mall type place that we'd just discovered and located on our earlier drives around town, and finally found what I was looking for... along with a fly swatter!!! Which I have also been searching for and haven't been able to find till today.

By the time I got home it was about 2pm and I was exhausted from all the driving and shopping. I collapsed into bed and passed out for a good 2 hours. Then I got up, had a snack, and called 2 of the hospitals near us and got numbers and names of English speaking staff to talk to to ask about taking a tour of their facilities, which I hopefully can maybe do in the next 2 days. One of them is the city public hospital, and I had a bit of a harder time finding someone there to speak English with me, but I don't know if that really translates to much at this point. I'll have to work out a good list of questions to ask before going...

I signed up for a prenatal yoga class through one of the Migros schools, and have my first class tomorrow. It's a once-a-week class that lasts till December, and they've already had 2 sessions so I'm kinda nervous about walking in late... and that the class will most likely be conducted in French. But with things like yoga I've always found there's so much jargon that I have trouble understanding (or simply hearing) the teachers sometimes anyway, and end up following what everyone around me is doing.

There's still a bit of a weight on my shoulders, but it's lifting. I'm making progress, I have plans of action, I'm feeling more confident about figuring all this stuff out. I'm also getting excited about the trip to the coast that Zach and I are taking this weekend. =) Heck, maybe I'll even spring for a prenatal massage...