Paris

Well so far we are slowly getting settled into life here in Paris.  It’s now been about two weeks since we moved here.  We’re currently in temporary housing near the Saint Lazare train station.  It’s not the most exciting neighborhood but it is relatively close to our offices so that part is nice.  About a week ago, Nate and I spent the day with our home search consultant looking at apartments.  And when I say the day, I mean the full day.  We started at 10am and after looking at 8 different places, finished at about 6pm.  It was one exhausting day.  But the good news is that we found a place we liked, in an area that we think we’ll enjoy and that many people recommended.  We’re hoping all continues to go well and that we will sign the contract next week and get everything squared away for a move-in date of August 1.  Yay!!  We could not be more thrilled or excited to get settled into a permanent place and finally get comfortable here.  Our temporary accommodations are overall fine however there are a few things that just make it frustrating.  It’s small, for one, with no storage space.  So we’re pretty much living out of a suitcase with just one closet.  The bathroom is literally a part of the bedroom which is not ideal when one wants to sleep and the other is taking a shower right there in the room with you.  It’s a bit bizarre I must say.  And it makes this temporary place just not conducive for guests.  Oh and then the Parisians must love space saving appliances as we have a stove/oven/dishwasher all in one (see picture).  This also is a bit bizarre.  So in any case, while this place is most definitely sufficient, we cannot wait to get settled into our permanent place.

Is it a stove? Is it an oven? Is it a dishwasher?

Waiting for fireworks

I’ve also started settling in at the office.  The great news is that nothing about my actual job and the role itself changed.  So with all of the other change happening in our lives, it’s nice to have one thing that stays the same.  Everyone in my office has been extremely nice and welcoming.  It’s funny how they ask if I speak French and when I tell them no, I get this very concerned and confused look.  As if how could I survive here in France without speaking French.  I usually quickly follow it up with the fact that I’m currently trying to learn and that I really do want to speak French and that seems to make it all better.  

Speaking of the language, it is much different than being in Zurich from an English perspective.  In Zurich, English was no problem at all.  95% of the people you encountered all spoke English, and quite decent English at that.  Here in Paris it’s much different.  In just two weeks, I have had multiple occurrences where the person on the other side of the counter didn’t speak any English at all.  We managed to get by, of course, but it’s definitely a bit more challenging.  But that’s totally fine with me....I don’t expect by any means that they should be able to speak English for me.  I actually look at this as a great opportunity to learn French more quickly....hopefully!  Like I said, Nate and I both are really eager to learn the language here and are practicing as much as we can.  

Overall Nate and I are truly loving being in Paris.  We are definitely grateful that things worked out the way they did allowing us to move to this amazing city.  I think we’re going to be very very happy here!  I do love me a big city and although it took a few days to get back into “city” mode, I’m loving every second of it.  And what a great city it is!!  Yesterday was Bastille Day and one of the things they do to celebrate here in Paris is a fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower.  Nate and I spent the afternoon exploring a new neighborhood, Le Marais, and then at about 9:30 headed towards Place de la Concorde to get a spot to watch the show.  We waited for probably an hour but we couldn’t be happier.  I sat there just staring at the Eiffel Tower, all lit up, and kept telling myself that this is my new city.  Pretty amazing!!  Like I said, I think we’re going to be pretty darn happy here.

Happy Bastille Day!

Une pierre qui roule n'amasse pas mousse

They say, well somebody did anyway, that a rolling stone gathers no moss. I can safely say that in my life I have now lived in two places where I don't care how much you move around, your gonna grow some moss. Having lived in Eugene, Oregon and now finishing my time Zurich, Switzerland, these two place have one (and only one) single thing in common - Rain. And lots of it. I guess this expression also has something to do with metaphors about not doing one thing for too long or not allowing yourself to get into a rut. Clearly the past year for us has been a mostly "moss free" zone.

So as we close the 1st chapter on this European adventure and head on to l'herbe plus verte, we can safely say that our time in Zurich has never been dull and nothing short of special.

Here we are on July 4, 2012 of all dates packing up the last of our stuff, had our last days in our respective Zurich offices, turning in the keys to the apartment, and finalizing affairs in Zurich. We now turn the page to chapter 2 in Paris.

We have now said about a million times that we would have been more than happy to stay in Zurich because if you have read this blog at all over the past year you would know just how nice, clean, efficient, and amazing we think Switzerland is. It really is amazing. But that said, the opportunity to move to Paris presented itself and through choice, chance, or otherwise, we are very excited to make the change and discover what France's version of P-town is all about.

The village of Rapperswil from the ferry

Before moving on, we would be remiss not to recap the final few cheese fueled adventures in Switzerland. Let us start with a few weeks back on one of the first truly "summer" weather weekends of the year. And by summer, I mean hot and muggy, shorts 24 hours a day type weather. Having a lazy weekend with time to kill we decided to take the ferry ride down the lake from Zurich at the north end of "Zurich See" to the south part of the lake where you will find a little village called Rapperswil. For some reason we thought this boat ride would take about an hour and be the perfect little jaunt to the town where we could walk around a bit, find a drink and take in the scenery. However this zig-zag across and down the lake took more like 2 and a half hours. We figured we must have been on the wrong boat. Our bad, but at least it was warm and pleasant out on the water. Once we finally got to Rapperswil we did check out the little town, walk up to some pretty lookout point, and did find that drink outside on a plaza. Next to a McDonald's. Though a very charming one nonetheless. We took the train back to Zurich, like Domino's pizza - 30 minutes or less to get there.

That's the cheese advertising car,
three huge chunks of cheese on the top

Sunday was a nice day and we decided to take the short train ride to the town of Zug where the Tour de Suisse would be coming through around lunch time. This is a bicycle race that is a warm up to the Tour de France and I thought would be cool to see. We were waiting on the side of the road for a bit, it's almost like a parade with cars going by that are part of the race but actually just advertising. Then the actual racers come by in about 20 seconds followed by 37 cars with bikes attached to the top. It was fun but they do go by quickly. After that, we found a place for lunch before heading home.

Riders coming through!

The next weekend being our final weekend in Zurich was a nice relaxing Friday having dinner at home on our balcony before our friend Louis arrived on Saturday evening. Louis was coming in from Paris where he had been for work, en route to Germany for more work the following week and found a Saturday night in his schedule to stop by Zurich. He arrived a bit late in the evening on Saturday but that didn't stop us from having a late dinner out and hitting a few of our favorite spots one last time. INTERPOL laws prohibit us from disclosing what time we made it home that night. If I recall, it did rain at one point.

A short one night stay and Louis was off on Sunday to Berlin and we had to begin sorting and packing our stuff up anyway. It rained on Sunday which made for good packing weather. Oh by the way at this point I still had not received my French visa, so unclear how much longer I would need to stay in Zurich. But we knew that Cleaver would be leaving the following weekend regardless and the movers would be shipping our stuff that coming Friday. Time once again to be transitory for a bit which is not fun but what can you do. Price you pay for for being an international couple of mystery.

With the shippers coming on Friday morning, the Thursday before what do you know but I get the call that my Visa is ready to go! Sounds good right? One anticipated problem however, this required a trip to Geneva where the French consulate is located to actually pick up my Visa. One unanticipated problem, I got this call at 2:30 on Thursday afternoon that my appointment in Geneva would be Friday morning at 8:30 am. So - shut down at work, head home, scramble to complete the packing and hop the next train to Geneva. Only about 2 and half hours on the train so not too bad, but between the timing, train, staying in a hotel, and the train ride back on Friday, that's a lot for 30 minutes actually spent at the consulate. At least in Geneva it wasn't raining.

So fast forward a few days and here we are. Cleaver has been in Paris for a few nights already, I'm on the train (première classe est bonne!) to Paris with Zurich now in the rear view mirror. Sorry to leave but excited for what's ahead!

Has it been a year already?

Hard to believe that almost one year ago to the day, we moved to Zurich.  The assignment was for one year and man has this year flown by.  We tried to see and do as much as we could exploring Zurich, Switzerland and the rest of Europe.  And I’d have to say that we’ve done a pretty good job.  But Europe is a big place and there is just so much more to see.  I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg.  So what I’m basically saying is that one year was not long enough to live in Europe and that’s why we’ve decided to stay at least one more year.  The only catch is that we weren’t able to stay in Zurich (there were some office space issues for me at Google) so we’re off to Paris!  I have basically localized here and will become a French employee at Google.  Eventhough I’m heading to the Google Paris office I will still be doing the same exact job as I have been doing all year.  I’ll just come off of assignment and become a local employee.  

Nate’s company continues to be extremely flexible with him and his job so he had no problem transferring to the Thomson Reuters Paris office as well.  In fact, they probably welcomed it since it’s most likely more expensive for them to employ him here in Switzerland.  In any case, they are flexible which really works out well for us.  

Here’s the situation, I now have my French visa and am moving to Paris on Saturday, June 30.  Just a week away!  Nate’s company is processing his French visa for him and was a little bit slower in the process.  Therefore Nate is just waiting on one more approval before he can go pick up his visa at the French Consulate in Geneva.  It’s possible that this could all happen next week, which would be great as Nate could then come out there with me.  But if not, I’m thinking he should only be a week behind me.  

And then once we get to Paris, the fun part of moving to a new country begins.  We will be in temporary housing for up to 60 days so will start looking for an apartment (luckily we have the help of a home search consultant), we need to get our residence visas, open a bank account, apply for a social security number, etc.  The fun doesn’t end.  We look forward to being settled so that we can start to fully enjoy Paris!

We are both extremely excited for this opportunity to live in and explore Paris and get to know it as a local.  We are sad to leave Zurich and would have been just as happy to stay here.  But I suppose things happen for a reason and now our European adventure continues in Paris.  

We have loved Zurich though and Switzerland in general.  As we may have mentioned in previous posts, you can’t beat the quality of life here.  Nate calls it the country club.  It’s clean, the air is fresh, everything is so organized and on time, the mountains are super close (Nate will definitely miss being just an hour away from skiing).....overall it’s an absolutely wonderful place to live.  Paris should be an interesting change.  For one thing, I keep hearing how the French hate the Americans and refuse to speak English.  The Google Paris office is definitely less International than Zurich so there will probably be less English and more French spoken among the cubes.  That’s ok though.  We are in it for the experience and are ready to immerse ourselves in everything French.  In fact, we have both already started Rosetta Stone.  Nate at least took some French in college where I’ve never had any classes in it.  We are hoping to get to a conversational level at the minimum and not embarrass ourselves.  We shall see.

In any case, Paris here we come!!!  Let the adventure continue!  

Auf Wiedersehen Zurich and Bonjour Paris!

Bachelorette Party in Milan

A friend of mine on my team at work is getting married at the end of August and us girls on the team thought it would be fun to do a bachelorette party for her.  So we headed to Milan for the night last weekend.  There were five of us girls in total traveling together (meeting up with one other girl in Milan) and our plan was to head out on the train early Saturday morning, shop during the day, have a nice dinner and go out that night.  Then we would relax a bit on Sunday and head home in the afternoon.  However, a landslide that happened about a week before we left, which damaged the train track between Zurich and Milan, altered our journey just a bit.  What was supposed to be a 3 hour and 45 minute train ride turned into a 5 hour train ride.  The real kicker in that whole thing wasn’t really the added time but the fact that we had to take 2 trains, a bus and then 3 trains to get to Milan on what was supposed to be a direct train to Milan (why they couldn’t make it just one train, a bus and then one more train was beyond us).  In any case, we arrived a little later than expected, checked in to the hotel, grabbed some lunch and before we knew it, it was 3:00.  So we were off to do some shopping for just a couple of hours (I wasn’t quite as successful as I was in Florence).  We got all dolled up and had a great dinner that night, went out for drinks after and made it to bed around 4am.  Needless to say, we were not up early the next day.  When we finally did get up, we had another great Italian meal and were off to the train station. I feel like I blinked and the weekend was already over. But eventhough it was overall a whirlwind trip to Milan, it was well worth it as it was lots of fun just hanging out with the girls.
 
I could definitely go back to Milan just to have a chance to explore a few of the neighborhoods a bit more as well as the Duomo (it was so massive and impressive from the outside).  Eventhough I only got a small glimpse of the shopping, I think it was better in Florence.  If nothing else Florence seemed to be a bit more charming.  In any case though, perhaps I can make it back there someday with Nate and together we can see more of Milan with a bit more time.

Santa Margherita Ligure

It was about a month or so ago that Nate and I started talking about where we should go for this past weekend.  It was a three day weekend for us here in Zurich (Whit Monday) and probably one of the last ones for a while since it seems the public holidays here are mostly front loaded to the first half of the year.  Therefore we definitely had to take advantage.  
We ended up choosing this small Italian town called Santa Margherita Ligure located in the Italian Riviera and it turns out we were thoroughly pleased with our choice.  It is a cute little town located on the water with enough going on where it’s not boring (definitely has restaurants and shops to choose from) but yet not a big city.  We stayed at the Hotel Villa Anita which no doubt added to our love of this small town.  It’s a small hotel run by a mother and her son and they are just the nicest people ever.  You feel like you are staying at a family member’s house.  Our room also had a lovely terrace with a view of the Italian hills and a small glimpse of the water.  Absolutely serene!

This is what greeted us when we arrived to our room

After a flight to Genoa followed by a short 30 minute train ride to Santa Margherita Ligure, we arrived at our hotel. I had pre-ordered a ham plate, cheese plate, mixed salad and bottle of wine and they had the table on our terrace all set up for us.  It felt like heaven!  We fell in love instantly with this town, the hotel and everything around us.  We enjoyed a lovely evening sitting on our terrace enjoying some good food and wine.

The next day we didn’t have any set plans so decided to just casually explore the town.  We strolled along the waterfront and took in the Italian beauty all around us.  We stopped for a coffee and hot chocolate, strolled some more looking at the shops, a church, piazzas and then stopped again for a delicious pizza for lunch.  The day was perfect!  The weather was warm (although not quite hot yet) and we were on no particular timeline.  That evening we enjoyed happy hour on our terrace with a bottle of wine that Nate procured from a little wine shop down from our hotel, dinner at a restaurant not far from that wine shop followed by a nightcap of limoncello on our terrace.  Again, just absolutely amazing and so peaceful!

Santa Margherita Ligure is actually located quite close to Portofino and I had read ahead of time that you can take a hike from one to the other.  So this is what we decided to do on Sunday.  Afterall, you hear so much about Portofino that we had to go check it out.  Not to mention, a little exercise is always good too.  So we headed out and actually took a walk along the water all the way to Portofino.  It’s 5km total and was such a pretty walk.

Portofino

We ended up in Portofino just in time for a lovely lunch looking out at the harbor.  I must say though, I wasn’t all that impressed with Portofino overall.  It was extremely small and felt kind of touristy (with those touristy prices too).  There just didn’t feel like there was much to do around there.  We had lunch, walked around for a short bit and then hopped on a ferry for a 15 minute ride back to Santa Margherita.  

For our last night there we enjoyed happy hour on our terrace (of course) and then headed into town to a restaurant recommended by Daniela at the hotel that had a lovely view of the water.  We enjoyed one more Italian meal (pasta and fresh fish) and discussed how we must come back.  We made all sorts of promises to ourselves to come back in the next few months sometime and stay for more than 3 days.  I hope we can do it!!!  People sometimes ask us what our favorite place has been that we’ve visited and I know Santa Margherita Ligure will certainly rate high on that list for me.

Culinary delights of home and other west coast events

9 months is a long time, though can go by very quickly.  9 months is equivalent to the length of time it takes to complete a cricket match, watch a soccer game, gestate, and also the length of time it had been since I had been in the US.  Needless to say after 9 months (and let's call it 6 months for Cleaver) we were very excited to go "almost" home to LA and Arizona for a 5 day visit to the US.

Both a wedding and a 90th birthday party were reason enough to make the 12 hour flight from Zurich to LAX and enjoy a few days on terra ferma familiar.  Arriving in LA on Thursday afternoon, picked up by Cleaver's sister Julie and our two little nieces we were very quickly reminded why LA is maybe not our favorite place.  It's the traffic.  Lots of traffic. As we slowly made our way toward Thousand Oaks, on the way we did manage to hit the first of several required food stops over the course of our week - Chipotle.  Burritos have not exactly made their way to Zurich, save for this futile effort at a chicken burrito I tried one time.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good.  And it was a flat square.

A Zurich Burrito, with Bread for some reason?

Anyway, finally made it to the house and before too long we called it a night.

Up early the next day and hit up the next food requirement - Peet's coffee.  You can get Starbucks in Zurich, starting at about $6, and plenty of tiny espresso cups of coffee, but nothing quite like a medium drip from Peet's.  Thoroughly enjoyed that.  Killed the rest of the morning by playing some Barbies, yup I did, and packed up the car to hit some more traffic on our way to the Inland Empire for Friday night's festivities and the wedding on Saturday.  Before hitting said traffic was of course lunch at Togo's.  The good deli sandwich is dearly missed in Zurich and nothing sounded better for lunch than Togo's.  Delicious.  http://www.togos.com/

100 miles and a sweet 3+ hours later 'cause of traffic, we arrive in Beaumont, CA where the usual Horzen fueled accordion playing, beer drinking, singing, laughing, and more kids than can be counted were all in full force.  Always a good time.  Getting married on Saturday would be Cleaver's cousin Joe and his bride to be Janelle, both of course in attendance Friday night.  This raucous atmosphere went on into the night and ended across the street at a local watering hole called the Sand Trap.  The Sand Trap would also play host for the nightcap after the wedding on Saturday and was actually a pretty decent place.

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Horzen

Saturday was lazy, sitting by the hotel pool, lunch, and my first date shake.  While nothing like a Shake Weight which is hilarious, (check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHUdvvHTkw ) the date shake is a milk shake flavored with dates served by one of those places that has been off the freeway for about a 100 years and this is what they are known for.  A little random, but pretty good though not sure I'm making the stop next time through Beaumont.  Saturday afternoon, 4:00 the wedding begins with a  lovely outdoor ceremony followed by a reception on the same grounds.  A very nice wedding in a very nice setting and congratulations again to Joe and Janelle!

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!

Up Sunday morning and off to Arizona to spend two nights with my Grandma for her 90th birthday.  Along the way of course we had to hit the next food stop which was In-n-Out burger, don't really need to say much more than that.  Delicious.  Got to Arizona for a nice evening chatting and some real Mexican food.  Can't get that in Zurich, we've tried.  Bummed around a bit the next day before celebrating the birthday with a nice steak dinner, dessert and good company.

Before we know it, back to the airport and off we go home to Zurich.  Temperature when we left Phoenix = 103.  Temperature when we arrived in Zurich = 43.  It's a long trip I guess.  Good to be home, got some rest and back to work.  Busy week ahead for us both but do have a little getaway weekend coming up to the Italian Rivera!

Shopping in Florence

It was probably two months ago when I was at brunch with a few girls from work when one of them started talking about a recent trip she made to Florence and the Prada outlet located just outside of Florence.  It was then and there that us girls decided we also needed to do a shopping weekend in Florence, and that weekend turned out to be this last one.  There were five of us girls and we had only one goal for the weekend....shopping!  While of course also enjoying some yummy Italian food and wine.  We arrived Friday evening and stayed in a cute little apartment in the middle of the city.  Saturday morning we were up bright and early to make sure we got to the Prada outlet right when it opened at 9:30.  The Prada outlet is about an hour by train from Florence and then just a short cab ride from the train station.  

There are no signs for Prada along the way....it is merely called Space and is basically a giant warehouse.  But when you step inside, it's not like a warehouse at all. It’s like stepping into a regular Prada store, just larger.  There’s a men’s section, and then sections for handbags, sunglasses, women’s shoes and of course women’s clothes.  We beelined it for the handbag section and then slowly covered everything else.  Everyone was quite successful, perhaps too successful.  I treated myself to a pair of shoes and sunglasses while the other girls were much more successful with the handbags.  All in all, a good start to the day and it was only 11:30.

We headed back to Florence, had a lovely lunch and then shopped the rest of the day in Florence.  There are tons of shops all around town so there is plenty to choose from.  We tried to hit up as much as we could with the different stores and then headed to a local outdoor market to check out some of the leather goods.  Again, we managed to all be quite successful during the afternoon as well.  Oh and to top it all off, the weather was absolutely amazing.  It was in the mid-80’s and sunny.....it felt like a summer day.  

By 6pm we were all pooped and headed back to the apartment to rest for a bit before dinner.  We had another delicious Italian meal before calling it a night.  The next day our flight wasn’t until 7:20pm so we had more time to, you guessed it, shop!  We weren’t quite as aggressive as the previous day but still managed to walk around and shop for a few hours while also enjoying one last dish of pasta.  

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.  You never know what to expect when you travel with girls you’ve never traveled with before and who all want to shop.  But we all got along fabulously and ended up being great shopping partners for each other.  I got home, showed Nate my purchases and told him about our weekend and he was all too happy to have been at home watching the Giants and enjoying the beautiful weather sitting by the lake.  I guess it was a win-win for both of us.