We are allowed to drive with our Virginia tags for a year, but we're going to have to get Basel plates sooner. When we drive around, people look at us like we have leprosy or a third eyeball in the middle of our foreheads or something. (The Swiss propensity for staring doesn't help matters.) Last night after dinner a family walked past and the mother started pointing at our license plates and everyone in the family started laughing. We pull up to border crossings and you can see the border guards start to salivate and we're inevitably asked to pull over and produce documents of various sorts. Today Gretchen was given a hard time when she drove into France because she didn't have a certain customs form that we didn't know we were supposed to have, plus she heard people in the parking lot of the store making comments in none-too-friendly terms about Virginia. It's like we have a big sign that says "AUSLÄNDER!" (the German word for foreigner), or worse (at least here in Europe), "AMERIKANER!". Granted, we are Ausländers and Amerikaners, but that doesn't make it any less unnerving...