It’s so hot….and other random references to Europe

It’s not you it’s me. I’m the one who has been latent to the blog but I’m back tickling the keyboard and ready for an update. And a busy few weeks it has been.

Last we spoke I was heading back to SF. Went there. Had a great time. Had a moustache. Happy anniversary Cleaver, Kliewer’s, and Horzen’s, great party! Came back….Home? Yeah, home to Zurich. Kind of weird to say but definitely starting to feel settled here especially upon our return which was finally in our permanent apartment with all of the stuff we shipped from San Francisco and after what felt like months, we’re no longer living in transient mode which is nice.

Now that we’re here full time what have we been up to? Well simmer and let me tell you.

The first week, well almost two, the weather here was exact opposite as before. We went from mild and rainy to oh, I don’t know, Florida. Which was especially awesome since there is no A/C anywhere, especially in our home at night? So needless to say when it’s 35 Celsius and quite humid (that’s 95 to you back home) it’s a tad uncomfortable but did feel a whole lot like summer should which we never get in SF, so shouldn’t complain. In this humidity as soon as we got home one of my closest friends Chad had a work trip that brought him here and he spent a few nights with us which was great. Our second guest and first in our new place!

After two nights with Chad, travel, work, and jet lag, we slept. Then came the weekend which we spent in town and did all the normal things people do when moving in. Went to “Coop City” – think Target but without the million crazies on a Saturday and bought a fan. It was hot, best 20 CHF spent thus far. And bought one of those night stand alarm clocks that in this case – would also be sufficient as a car headlight ‘cause the thing is so bright it lights up the room in the dark. On Sunday we then went to the lake and spent a few hours swimming and sitting in the sun. Did I mention it was hot? Was fun with lots of people out doing the same thing. It’s really pretty here when sunny. But in case I didn’t mention earlier, it was hot. And humid. And no A/C.

Back to work that Monday, boring. Tuesday, boring. Wednesday – Off to London! One of the great things in corporate America (or corporate Europe I guess) is what we call “working the system”. Cleaver had a work trip, I kicked down for my flight, work from the London office on Thursday & Friday and voila – trip to London. Where it was much cooler. And had A/C. Awesome.

London for those who don’t know is in England…or the U.K….or some conglomerate of independent countries ruled by a Queen who doesn’t do much far as I can tell….Or. Or. - Something that William Wallace didn’t want to be a part of. (Google that kids…great movie) We both worked from our respective offices in London on Thursday and Friday and on both days I woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Found my way downstairs and drank a cup, and looking up I noticed I was late. (Not really….again, Google it. Great album by England’s finest.) We went out both nights to different neighborhoods for dinner and of course stayed through the weekend for some sightseeing. London is a great, huge city with endless places to see, “pints” to drink, and places to go. Saw most of the sights – like Big Ben. Parliament. I can’t get over! London tower, London Bridge, and generally just went around the city all day on Saturday. We did find out that there are four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. And though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all. Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert hall. (www.google.com)

Back home to Zurich Sunday night, still weird to say, and ready for Monday morning. Home for a few weekends then the travel for work and fun get started again in mid September. So I’ll leave you with this final thought. This coming Saturday is a special day. Well, here it will technically be Sunday morning. 1:00 am to be exact and I’ll be in front of my computer instead of the normal TV.

But come 1:00 am Sunday morning – GO DUCKS!

Home Sweet Home

Well we are now finally settled into our home here. It’s been a busy couple of weeks to say the least. I moved us in to our permanent place 2 weeks ago, worked out a few kinks (some spoiled food from a non-working refrigerator, a couple of cold showers) and now things seem to all be in working order. Our stuff was shipped successfully with everything accounted for and while I had my doubts about fitting everything in here (Nate assured me that if it fit in a one bedroom in SF that it would surely fit in a two bedroom here) we now have everything in its place. It’s nice to finally have a home!

I met Nate in California last weekend for my parents’ and Aunt and Uncle’s 40th anniversary party. It was a super quick trip but definitely worth it. We landed back in Zurich on Monday and of all places for our friend Chad’s work to take him, he ended up here. So we’ve enjoyed spending the last few nights with him….our second visitor!

Now it's been another week of work and I feel like I'm actually starting to know what's going on. It's nice to be busier and feel like I am contributing. The weather has been amazing and will continue through the weekend so I look forward to being outside and enjoying the sun. Then it's off to London later next week!

Swiss National Day

August 1 is Swiss National Day which means no work for us today! According to Wikipedia, it has been an official national holiday since 1994, although the day had been suggested for the celebration of the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy as early as 1889….just in case you wanted some more background on that.

We moved into our hotel yesterday and have just one more night here. Nate actually left early this morning to go back to the States so it’s been just me all day. I had a lovely lunch down by the lake and then continued walking further down the lake stopping to read my book and get some delicious ice cream (it's so hard for me to resist the Swiss Movenpick ice cream). The day has been beautiful here too with mostly sunny skies and temperatures around 75 degrees (sorry, haven’t made the switch to Celsius yet). The most important thing is that it wasn’t raining!!! I’m off to dinner soon and I hear there will be fireworks as well so hopefully I’ll catch some of those.  Then tomorrow is moving day!!

My Lunch

And My View During Lunch

Nobody puts Natey in the corner

Ok - now my turn to be a part of the information superhighway and share my part of the Ross European adventure on this here free blog that will no doubt make me an Internet sensation landing me an appearance on Ellen someday. After a week+ of being here, a couple of impressions thus far. It's a different place than SF for sure (which i guess could be said for pretty much anywhere compared to SF!) when it comes to language, size, weather, cost, transportation and uh, lots of other stuff I don't know about yet.

Allow me to expand starting with public transportation. After being abused like an unwanted dog by our good friends at SF Muni for the past 8 years, including the 37 destroying the side of my parked car and forcing me to somehow justify how it's OK for a bus system to have no bus arrive for 15 minutes at 7:00 in the morning only to then see 3 bus' arrive literally bumper to bumper as if they are hitched together like a train. (What - gets lonely out there bus? Seriously) So here, they post actual time tables at every stop. It tells you that at 6:38 a bus will arrive. And when my watch says 6:38, a bus shows up. Amazing.

• Language - actually quite a few people speak English, still a little tough at times but really not a big deal.
• Weather - I'm told it isn't normal, but the rain here makes Portland seem like the desert.
• Size - still a big city, but easy and quick to get around
• Cost - $6.15 for a cup of Starbucks coffee, and I mean just regular black coffee.

Beyond that done some pretty cool things so far, went to London for a few days of work, no time for sightseeing but will go back at some point for sure. We went to Luzern this past Saturday which was a 45 minute train ride away for a music festival called the Blue Balls festival (just a clever name people, relax) and saw some bands play and ate some good fair food. Didn't start serving beer though until 5:00 pm which I thought was weird. We also as a bonus on Saturday night found a place here in Zurich that had Baseball on! Very good find.

This coming weekend, we move out of this temporary apartment, hit the hotel for two nights, I head back to San Francisco for two weeks while Cleaver moves into our permanent place, all before joining me in the US for a few days of fun in San Miguel. Once we return in mid August we'll be much more settled and looking forward to more exploring!

 Bridge at Lake Lucerne

              

Getting Settled...Well Closer

Tuesday we headed to the immigration office to finish the process for getting our resident card. It was actually not too painful of a process as we got there early and no one was in line. Now we just need to get our cards in the mail and we’ll be good to go as far as traveling in and out of Switzerland.

We also got to do a walk-through of our new apartment. Nate hadn’t seen it yet and I had only seen it my very first morning in Switzerland and couldn’t remember a lot of the details of it. I actually think after viewing it this second time around that it’s going to suit us really well. The kitchen is bigger then what I remembered and the bonus is that it has a washer and dryer in the unit. Now why both the home search consultant and the agency person did not tell me about this key benefit the first time I looked at the place is beyond me. Don’t think that they didn’t make sure to show me the washer and dryer in the basement though (which feels like a dungeon). Perhaps having your own washer and dryer is not a big selling point here? In any case though, we both really like the place and are excited to move in. Moving date, August 2!

After seeing our new place we were off to the bank to open up a Swiss bank account. Apparently we have to close it as soon as we move out of Switzerland though. We also learned that there is an active politician in the US with the same name as Nate which almost prevented us from being able to open an account with the bank. After 30 minutes of waiting while the girl made multiple phone calls to find someone to approve, they thankfully allowed us to open an account. So yeah, we are now one of those people that have a Swiss bank account.

Nate Arrives

Nate arrived on Friday and we had our first weekend together in Zurich. Saturday we strolled down Bahnhofstrasse, which is almost like 5th Avenue. It’s a street filled with lots of stores, both high end and discount type stores. One in particular is Coop City which is basically like a Target with 7 levels. It’s perfect because it’s on the cheaper end and is ideal for getting any of those incidental type items you may need. Zurich is definitely an expensive city so I can’t see myself doing much actual shopping here. I will need to plan accordingly during my trips outside of Switzerland.

We walked to the end of Bahnhofstrasse where it runs into the northern tip of Lake Zurich. It was such a warm, sunny day and the lake was just beautiful. We spent some time just sitting by it taking in the view and soaking in the sun. Lots of boats out on the lake!!! We continued our walking and exploration through the Seefeld neighborhood and then back up towards Old Town. We found a German style restaurant where we enjoyed our first real German meal here. We enjoyed some sausage, pork shank and rosti! Rosti is basically like a potato pancake and a typical Swiss food. Delicious!

Sunday was quite the opposite as we woke up to steady rain and clouds, which lasted all day. We took the morning to get our place in order and get more settled. Then it was off to a bar to watch the British Open and enjoy a few beers (Nate’s idea). Sundays I’m learning are quiet around here as stores are closed all day. In addition to no stores being open, there are also restrictions within the apartment building regarding when you’re able to use the washing machine. So Sundays are not allowed for laundry either. It gives you the perfect excuse to be lazy on a Sunday, that’s for sure. But I must say, it’s quite strange walking around the city as it’s so quiet and empty. You can find a few bars and restaurants that are open though so I think it’s all about knowing where to go.

Then Monday it was back to that thing called work….you know, the reason why we’re here. Nate’s starting to get more settled and will be traveling to London this week for a few days to meet his new boss. It looks like his new territory will be the German part of Switzerland as well as the Nordics. I definitely see some weekends in our future where I meet him in Oslo, Stockholm or Copenhagen.

Tonight we explored a bit more starting in the Enge neighborhood which isn’t too far from my office and going further south until we found a German restaurant. We’re noticing that while there are definitely German restaurants around there are actually a ton of Italian restaurants as well. This is a very good thing because I can only eat so much German food and can eat way more Italian food! In any case though, we found a cute little neighborhood German restaurant tonight and had a cordon bleu version of schnitzel and pomme frites. It was quite tasty! However for our two meals and a couple of beers it came to about 80 USD. As I mentioned, Zurich is an expensive city! This will take some getting used to….

Our home for the month of July

Bahnhofstrasse

Lake Zurich

Lake Zurich

Let the Adventure Begin

After much anticipation and preparation, I have finally made it to Zurich.  In some ways it’s hard to believe that we get to live here for an entire year.  I arrived Wednesday evening (7.6.11) and it’s been a whirlwind ever since.  But all in a good way!  I really think I’m going to like it here.  Zurich is just so beautiful!  And what a clean city too.  I can’t wait to go explore the lake area further.  I hear that it’s even warm enough to swim in which is a popular activity during the summer. 

So what have I been doing so far.  Well, starting on Thursday I went with our home search consultant to first get registered at the kreisburo (this is something everyone needs to do when moving to a new kreisburo, or district).  Then she showed me an apartment which I think may end up being the one we choose to live in for the rest of the year.  It seemed nice enough….it has two bedrooms (have to have room for all those visitors!!!) and is near the central part of the city and only a 10 minute walk to work for me.  Housing is very difficult to find here and apparently that’s the only furnished place on the market as of right now, so I don’t think we’ll be able to be too picky.

Thursday afternoon was my first day in the office.  After being at Google for 8 years and fairly comfortable, it was a bit overwhelming.  I truly am starting a brand new job and everything was all new.  But I’m getting more familiar as each day goes by.  The team has been extremely nice and welcoming too, which always helps.  I’ve spent these last days just meeting people and reading a ton on my new role and everything I need to know.  I’m actually really excited for this change and new challenge. 

Then over the weekend, my friend Louis came to visit (he was in Paris already for work and was able to swing by Zurich on his way home).  Our first visitor!  We spent Saturday having brunch with some of his family friends and then touring Zurich.  It’s funny because I definitely felt more like I was on vacation then actually living here.  I think it will take some time to get used to that. 

It’s been now almost a week since I arrived and I think I’m going to like it here.  Zurich is a small city and so easy to get around.  I already have my monthly bus/tram pass and am comfortable riding public transportation anywhere I need to go.  I’m also slowly settling in and have even done my first official grocery shopping trip to get food for the apartment. 

Nate arrives on Friday and I can’t wait for him to get here!!  I feel like then our adventure can truly begin.