One Year Swissish

More than a month ago, Brian and I hit our one-year-anniversary of living in Zurich, Switzerland. They gave us new ID cards and everything! I can't remember what we did to celebrate - I suspect we may have eaten some Mexican food, rather than Swiss food, though. Some thoughts after living in Switzerland for a year...

Switzerland is expensive. In particular, Zurich is expensive. There's no way around it - Switzerland is a little painful. The smallest coin is a 5 rappen piece and the smallest bill is a 10 franc note. I have seen people pay for small purchases with a 1000 franc note, with nary a bat of an eyelash. Our apartment is lovely, but the rent is much (much) higher than what we paid in Seattle for a similar apartment. Eating out and doing any sort of entertainment is also very expensive, but I think we're adjusting. 25 CHF for a Thai curry? Sure! However, this means we don't go out to eat or drink in Zurich very much... and when we go out anywhere else, it is VERY EXCITING. I will note that, excepting meat, groceries are not all that ridiculous in price compared to the US.

The language is weird. I have taken about six months of intensive German class and a few months of less-intensive German, and, for the most part, I cannot understand what people say around me. Swiss-German is a strange language, more closely related to Dutch than to 'real' German. My favorite YouTube video demonstrating the difference between Swiss-German and 'high' German is here (the fourth person starts speaking in Swiss-German). Fortunately, our mail and other documents are in 'high' German, so my classes are not for naught - and some people will tolerate my 'high' German questions.

It's beautiful here. We have been all around Switzerland, though still a lot to hit: Geneva, Lausanne, the Jura, the Matterhorn-when-not-hiding, and much of Ticino. The Alps are amazing and less than 2 hours away. Zurich has a breathtaking view of the Alps... though, like Seattle, a bit dependent on the weather. Otherwise, Zurich is very nice - a small, green city, that likes its pedestrians and public transport riders more than its car commuters. Having not driven a car in more than a year, I'm fine with that :)

   

It's very efficient. Mail within the country is delivered within a day. We went to get Swiss driver's licenses and had them in the mail within two days after visiting the Swiss equivalent of the DMV. The federal train company apologizes over the loudspeaker if trains are more than 2 minutes late, and there are articles in the newspaper if trains are more than 15 minutes late. Doctor's waiting rooms have no more than three seats - because why would there need to be more? Getting from our apartment to the top of a mountain is clearly described in the public transit software, and connections are all timed.

It's very safe. While bike theft is somewhat common, most people generally don't seem concerned about the well-being of their things. I have gone often to the Zurich-run beach on Lake Zurich, and have seen people leave their belongings without any watch while they go swimming. People ride the train and go to the bathroom and don't worry to much about their things. People never worry about muggings or any such thing while walking through a particular neighborhood.

We are so close! To everything. To France, Spain, Italy, Germany... anywhere! It's pretty amazing to travel two hours and be in a new country, with a new language, new food, and a new culture.

We're having fun. Come visit :)

Summer Beginnings

Brian and i are fast approaching our one-year anniversary of being Swiss residents. To start the summer, we have, of course, taken lots of trips!

In June, we took the train down to Florence, Italy, about a six hour ride that connects in Milan. After an epic meal that night, we picked up a rental car the next day and drove to Chiusi, where we had rented a house and met up with Brian's parents, sisters, sister's husband and sister's husband's parents. Whew. We stayed for about a week and had a great time exploring the nearby Tuscan hill towns, relaxing at the house, and eating delicious food (of course). My few pictures are here, but Brian took lots more on his Google+ page, if you are connected with him there.


We left Brian's parents, Harvey and Kelli, to enjoy the house by themselves for a few days and made our way back up to Zurich. Unfortunately, in our absence, a landslide had cut off the northern entrance to the Gotthard rail tunnel for approximately one month. Instead of taking just one connection to get from Florence to Zurich, it instead took five, though we only got in about a half-hour late to Zurich. Harvey and Kelli were less lucky a few days later, getting into Zurich a full two ours late (Swiss train efficiency, where are you?!).

For their visit to Switzerland, we finally had the time and the right weather to go up to Jungfraujoch, the "Top of Europe." The Jungfrau ("Young Lady") is one of the main summits of the Bernese Alps, together with the Eiger ("Ogre") and Monch ("Monk"). Jungfraujoch is a point reachable by train on the saddle of Jungfrau and Monch, at 11,716 feet (3,571 meters). After about an hour on a cogwheel train through the Eiger, you reach Jungfraujoch. We enjoyed the amazing views of the Alps and Aletsch Glacier, the expensive Swiss food in the cafeteria, and the lightheadedness from altitude. Harvey could only spend a few days in Switzerland, but Kelli stayed on to see more of Zurich, as well as take a day trip to Gruyeres, in French-speaking Switzerland.


Finally, after a few relaxing weekends, Brian and I hauled ourselves out of the apartment last weekend to go searching for the Matterhorn. Despite our review of the webcam prior to getting on the train, the Matterhorn decided to hide behind a cloud once we got there, but we had a nice day trip around Zermatt and up the Gornergrat summit for a small hike and lovely mountain views.

Paris!

Ah, Paris. For our big trip in May, Brian and I headed off for a few days in Paris, and met up with our friends from Seattle, Darcy and Ian. We took the TGV, which takes approximately 4 hours to zip you from Zurich HB to Paris Gare de Lyon at speeds reaching up to 200 mph! While in Paris, we saw most of the sights, thanks to Darcy's Paris enthusiasm, and ate most of the food, of course. We stayed in the cute Rue Cler area, where we had ample supplies of croissants at our ready, as well as the Eiffel Tower peeking above the buildings.


In addition, we ended up being in Paris during the final French presidential elections. As we visited the Arc de Triomphe, we saw all the police and riot barriers and decided we should get dinner in another area. As it turned out, we ate dinner right next to the Bastille, where the real party was going down when Hollande was announced as the winner. We got caught up in the crowds, got kissed by a random French guy, and heard the singing of the Marseille. Exciting!


My favorite parts of Paris were the Musee d'Orsay, all the city gardens, eating on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower, and the small amount of shopping I squeezed in before we left - as well as seeing our friends :) Brian and I will definitely be back to Paris in the future, but maybe we say that about every place we go? More pictures here!

Barcelona

We had a beautiful March here in Zurich - nice spring weather, blooming cherry trees, longer afternoons... and then April came, and now we're back to clouds, rain, and cool temperatures. April showers bring May flowers?

Fortunately, Brian and I had planned an Easter trip to Barcelona. We had gone to Madrid in October and were excited to check out the Catalonian city on the sea. Mostly for the (slightly) warmer weather than Zurich and the food (seafood! ham! sangria!), but also the sights.

While in town, we visited Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's unfinished-but-still-under-construction masterpiece cathedral. Pro-tip: buy online tickets beforehand, instead of waiting in a massively long line like us! Though the outside facades are interesting, the inside is amazing and worth the wait.



We also saw some of Gaudi's other works, including apartment building facades and Park Guell, a park on a hill overlooking the city. Completely filled with tourists on a sunny Saturday, but very interesting architectural features and views of Barcelona.



Of course, we visited museums, other churches, and walked the streets and waterfront of Barcelona. But we also ate lots of great food! I didn't plan ahead too far, so some of the restaurants we wanted to check out were either full or closed for the Easter holidays, but we did have some great Catalan seafood dishes and Spanish tapas. For those planning a trip, our two favorite places we tried this time were Tapas 24 and Suquet de l'Almirall. More pictures here!

Trash Matters

The Swiss, for better or for worse, have a reputation for being strict with their rules and unaccommodating to deviation. This stereotype has been most visible to me with regards to the subject of waste management (echo, echo...). In the US, for as long as I can remember, recycling at home has meant throwing whatever you want recycled into a bin and every week or two, someone comes and takes it away. Sure, there were a few years in Seattle where there was a separate container for glass, but that went away soon enough. Where it all went, who knows.

In Zurich (and most everywhere else in Switzerland), things are of course a bit different and require more thought:

• Metal and glass are dropped of in neighborhood collection areas. We have one about one block away and another about three blocks away. Because this is Switzerland, you can only deposit at them from 7am to 7pm, Monday through Saturday. No Sunday recycling, y'all. If you recycle outside of these hours, people will give you dirty looks. That is your punishment for most things in Switzerland.


• Plastic drink bottles are generally taken back to the grocery store and dropped into big baskets. These grocery stores also sometimes have drops for batteries and light bulbs.


• Plastic non-drink bottles are generally not recyclable. Same for plastic bags. Baffling!


• Paper and cardboard are collected from homes, but only periodically. Paper is every two weeks or so, cardboard is four to five weeks, and it will only be collected if it is neatly bound (like a present!) or otherwise self-contained.


• About once a quarter, a bag is dropped in mailboxes for clothing and shoe donations.


• Electronics that are kaput or otherwise useless can be taken to stores that sell similar items for recycling. OR, in Zurich, you can go to my favorite recycling-related-thing: the cargo/e-tram. This is basically a big dump truck that shows up at different tram stops in the city and accepts either electronics for recycling or big bulky things that would otherwise not fit into your trash bag. I don't know why I think it's so great, but it is.


• As for trash bags, or the Zuri-Sack in Zurich, they are purchased from grocery stores or the post office for about 2 CHF ($2.50ish) a piece: rather than pay a trash bill, you pay at source, so the incentive is to fill up that bag as much as you can and use it as little as possible.

For compost, I don't have a clue what to do - I wonder how our neighbors would react to a worm bin on the front deck?

December Redux - Mürren

Right before Brian and I headed off to NC, we spent the weekend in Mürren, a small town above the Lauterbrunnen Valley in the Bernese Oberland. The Bernese Oberland is, by some accounts, the most beautiful part of Switzerland and where the most famous peaks of the Alps are: the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau.

To get to Mürren, a car-free town on the edge of a mountain, we took a train from Zurich to Bern, from Bern to Interlaken, and then from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen. From Lauterbrunnen, we hopped on a gondola up the side of a mountain and then took a cogwheel train to Mürren. We arrived in the middle of what some might call a blizzard, and walked through that mess for about 1/2 mile to find our hotel. Half the fun is the journey, right?

Mürren is known for its views of the three famous peaks and as the launching point to the Schilthorn, another peak in the Alps, famous for the revolving restaurant on top that was featured in the James Bond movie, Her Majesty's Secret Service. Due to the blizzard-y weather, we spent most of Saturday on a snowy walk down the mountain (pro-tip: you can take cable cars back up the mountain), reading books, and eating tasty food at our hotel's restaurant.



On Sunday, the weather cleared a little bit for us to get some nice views before we headed back down the mountain to Zurich. I loved our hotel, the Hotel Bellevue, and we definitely want to go back on a clear day to see all the mountains!

December Redux - Cheese and Castles

In December, we had our first visitors - Kari, Brian's research partner from UW, and Eric and Morgan from California.

Kari, along with her friends Rike and Heinz, shared lots of meals with us while she was here, including fondue and raclette, the two cheesy traditional dishes of Switzerland. I'm sure that most people here are familiar with fondue- in Switzerland, it is pretty much only served with cubed bread and it's traditional to have shots of kirsch (brandy made with cherries), supposedly to make sure the cheese doesn't clump together in your stomach.

Raclette is both the dish and a type of cheese. In the traditional method, a big block of raclette cheese is heated under a special grill under the top layer of the cheese gets all melty. The top melty layer is then scraped onto boiled potatoes (usually) and served with cornichons and pickled onions and perhaps pickled mushrooms and baby corn. Raclette is sometimes also prepared in a mini grill pan for those who don't want to buy the giant block of cheese. Warning: raclette cheese is moderately stinky so your kitchen will smell like it for a few days.

In addition to eating cheesy dishes, Kari got a tour of Google and some shopping and tourist days as well as a talk at ETH, the technical university in Zurich.

Only a day later, Eric and Morgan strolled into town on their European tour. For the day, we went down to Bellinzona, a small city in the southern Italian part of Switzerland. Bellinzona is known for the three castles that dominate the town and is a UNESCO heritage site. (That night, we made them eat raclette, to continue the cheese theme).


The following week, Brian and I had booked a table on the Fonduetram. As it sounds, it's a tram that serves you fondue while driving you around the city. It's a little kitschy, but the fondue was tasty and included a nice appetizer and light dessert. The best part is probably seeing people and views out the window - however, with the fondue, the windows steam up a bit. To help out with this, they provide each table with a squeegee to clean the windows.

December Redux - Christmas Markets

I am taking an intensive German class, but it was canceled for December, so I had some extra time on my hands. When Brian headed to the US for work, I went up to Frankfurt and Dresden in Germany with my friend Dana. Germany is famous for their Christmas markets, which fill town squares for a few days or weeks. At the markets, vendors sell Christmas gifts and ornaments, often homemade, as well as steaming mugs of gluhwein and traditional foods. Switzerland and Austria also have Christmas markets, but even they will tell you that Germany's are best.

On Wednesday night, we grabbed the train from Zurich to Frankfurt, about a four hour ride. Frankfurt and its market was fine - not too exciting, but it got our palates ready for the Dresden market. Frankfurt does have the European Central Bank and the giant Euro statue, where the Occupy Frankfurt movement had set up camp.

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After Frankfurt, we jumped on a train to Dresden, about a five hour ride away in East Germany. Dresden was destroyed during World War II as a result of Allied fire bombing and it has rebuilt significantly in the last decade. I thought it was an amazing city and look forward to going back with Brian soon! The Dresden Christmas market was actually a series of markets that stretched through the city, and had tons of delicious food and interesting ornaments.





After a day exploring Dresden, Dana and I jumped on a night train back to Zurich. If we had ridden during the day, we could have gotten back to Zurich in 8-9 hours, but the CityNightLine takes about 12 hours as there are more extended stops along the way. Dana and I got a sleeper car - of which I have no pictures. When you walk into the compartment, there are three beds on either side. The middle bed on either side can be lowered to turn the bottom bunk into a seating area, and there is extended storage next to the top bunk. We had signed up for a four person car, meaning that two other women could have been assigned to our compartment, but we ended up with the coach to ourselves, all the better to eat our snacks, watch bad movies, and claim the bottom bunks. We rolled back into Zurich Hauptbahnhof (main station) at 8:30am on Saturday - lots of fun!

Bern

In the past two weeks, I've been to Bern twice. Bern is the de facto capital of Switzerland and about an hour by train from Zurich. It is known for its bears... and I think that's maybe all. But it was a nice and cute little city!

Two weeks ago, Brian and I had a little Sunday trip to the west. We did a whole walking tour of the city... which was pretty empty since it was (a) Sunday and (b) November.



Our main intention of heading to Bern was to see the Rendez Vous Bundesplatz light show. In October and November, it was a twice nightly light show projected on the Swiss Parliament building. It was really cool! Here's a video of some of the best parts. Funnily, though it was completely empty in Bern that day, at 7pm, EVERYONE in Bern was apparently in the square.

About a week later, I headed back to Bern with my friend Linda for the Zibile-Märit, or Onion Market. The Zibile-Märit is an annual festival in Bern celebrating the noble onion. Farmers and other vendors set up stalls throughout the old town, and starting at 4am sell onions, wreaths and ribbons made of onions, and little figurines made of... yes, onions. You can buy onion pies and onion soup all over town... as well as big bags of confetti. When walking around, little kids throw confetti at you and at each other, as well as bop people on the head with plastic squeaky hammers. Because why not?

Pilatus

The first out-of-Zurich trip that Brian and I took when we moved here in July was to Luzern and Mt. Pilatus. Luzern, about 45 minutes south of Zurich, is a tourist mecca, with a beautiful lake and boat trips, access to three major mountains, and lots of pretty and historic buildings and bridges. A popular activity in the summer is to do the "Golden Roundtrip", which takes you from Luzern by boat to Alpnachstad, up to Pilatus on the Pilatus Bahn (the steepest cogwheel train in the world), down Pilatus on the other side by cable car and gondola to Kriens, and then back to Luzern by bus. While we enjoyed our multi-modal trip, the view from Pilatus that day was clouded in, so we couldn't see much of the view from the top.



This past weekend, we took a trip back, after first checking the webcam on the top of Pilatus to make sure we'd get a good view. The Pilatus Bahn closes at the end of October, so we could only make our way up from Kriens. At the top, it was much less crowded than in July, much windier, and much clearer. We had a great view of Central Switzerland, including all the surrounding peaks and of Luzernsee (Lake Luzern).



With the addition of a sausage and roesti for lunch and some raclette and glühwein that we picked up at the Luzern HB Christmas market, we successfully negated any hiking we might have accidentally done on the mountain. A lovely Sunday!

Zurich Apartment

We've been in our new apartment for more than two months now, but didn't finish decorating until we finally had some people over for dinner. Sometimes it just takes a little pressure! Here are pictures of our place.


We had heard a number of horror stories of new residents to Zurich viewing hundreds of apartments, applying to dozens, and coming up empty. While we did go to a few very busy apartment viewings, in the end, we got the first apartment we applied for, so it was a lot less trouble than we were expecting (your mileage may vary). We have a great 3 room apartment (more on how the Swiss count rooms later) in Zurich - it's close to a grocery store, restaurants, and trams/buses. In addition, it's about a 15 minute walk to work for Brian and a 5 minute tram ride to the Zurich main train station.

As you would expect, apartments in Zurich generally differ from those in the US:

• Light fixtures and window treatments are generally not included. When Brian moved in to the apartment (I was in the US), the only lights in the apartment were in the bathroom and over the oven - he went around with one desk lamp and his head lamp until I could help make those important design decisions. For the windows, all the windows have outdoor shutters, so we've only put curtains up in the bedroom for now.



• Built-in closets are not the norm. We did see a few apartments with built-in closets, but for the most part, your wardrobe (likely from IKEA) comes with you. This makes it harder to hide messes!
• Apartments and houses are counted by the number of rooms they have. In the US, we would call our apartment a 1 bedroom apartment. Here, we have a 3 room apartment - not counting the bathroom or the kitchen, there is a dining area/entry way, a den, and a bedroom. However, if we arranged it a bit differently, there could be two bedrooms and a small living area. The math on counting rooms is a bit fuzzy to me, though- when is an area 1.5 rooms versus 1?
• Payments are different. Checks are not done at all in Switzerland - instead, the preferred way is to do direct payments from one bank account to another. In addition, apartment deposits are secured in a bank account that is both in our name and our landlord's name - and deposits range from 1 to 3 months rent (3 months in our case).
• Kitchens are smaller and rather sleek. In most newer places we saw, the kitchens were very IKEA-fied. The fridges and dishwashers are hiding behind the cabinetry and the stove/oven is well-integrated. In our case, we have a "large" oven for Switzerland, but it is small by American standards. It also has strange racks that are the bane of Brian's existence.

• Cleaning seems to take a lot longer. Dishwasher and washing machine cycles are a lot longer than I'm used to. The oven doesn't have a self-clean mode (and oh, we make it quite messy). Zurich has rather hard water, so fixtures have to be decalcified regularly. Recycling is a whole other story. And no closets to hide messes in! Good thing I'm such a good hausfrau.
  

All in all, we like our little apartment a lot! Nice kitchen, high ceilings, well-insulated (well... I hope. winter comes!), and two porches. Can't wait until spring so I can make our decks nice and green!

US Travels

Now that it's almost two months past, perhaps it's time to post about my trip to the US? After only a month in Switzerland, I took off back for the US for about three weeks - to Seattle, the Bay Area, Raleigh, and Orlando. On this trip, I got to see lots of friends, my family, attend three fan-tas-tic weddings, and stock up on all the America-things that I learned I couldn't find easily in Schweiz. Brian joined me for the last wedding in Orlando, since he was a kickin' groomsmen.

In Seattle, I attended both Athena's & Brent's wedding and Sarah's and Jesse's wedding, both of which were in Woodinville, north of Seattle. Despite my jetlag, I had a great time dancing at Athena and Brent's wedding...



...and then next week at Sarah and Jesse's!



In addition, I got to hang out with lots of my Seattle friends and did such exciting things as a taco truck crawl through South Seattle with Ethan, Micah, and Leslie (and others) and attending the bachelorette party of the lovely Sarah. Thanks to Kristen and CC for letting me crash at their places while I was in Seattle! I enjoyed eating the jam that I had left in your apartments when we moved in July.

After Seattle, I headed down to the Bay Area to hang out with my California-formerly-North-Carolina-friends. Melanie was a lovely hostess and took me around to fun things! On Thursday, I got a tour of Meebo from Mark, followed by a delicious dinner with the South Bay people. Friday, Melanie and I drove up to Hog Island Oyster Farm near Reyes Point and ate tons of oysters by the sea. Next time, we will bring a lovely picnic and just buy oysters there, but they had great food, too! Saturday, after a trip to the Farmer's Market, Melanie and Emily and I drove to Harley Goat Farm and took a little tour, petted some goats and llamas, wore some hot hair nets, and then ate a ton of goat cheese. After frolicking on the beach with Toro, we headed back to the Bay Area for dinner with Tara and Arun! On Sunday, Melanie and I drove to Oakland and hung out with Ben, Rebecca, Wendy, and John... and ate lots of things. Eating, by the way, was the theme of my American tour.



This all before I took a lovely September-11-red-eye-in-first-class-flight to... Raleigh! This (USAir) first class flight was my first and seemed worth the Star Alliance airline miles I used on it, if only for the blanket (that I stole). While in Raleigh, I did mostly nothing, but did have a lovely meal with Rachel, Mike, Lora, and Marc, and hung out with my parents and the various pets. From there to...

Orlando! Chethan and Tara got married in mid-September at the Orlando Science Museum by the water. After three long weeks, I finally saw Brian, who came to Orlando as a groomsman. The whole weekend was great - saw lots of people, enjoyed the humidity (that was maybe just me), swam in the hotel pool, ate great food (including: Bojangles), and got down on the dance floor.



From there, Brian and I headed back to Zurich, where fall had arrived while I was away.

Third Anniversary!

We have hit a little blogging lull - I am on a three week tour of the US (Seattle, Bay Area, Raleigh, Orlando) and Brian is in Zurich, working hard. We'll be meeting up on Thursday in Orlando for a wedding, but today is our third anniversary! Last year, we were apart as well - Brian was in Vienna for a conference and then for some vacation with his parents, and I was working hard. This was also about the time that Brian mentioned the slim possibility of working in Zurich and about the time that I dug up my first "how to move to Switzerland" document. And now look at us, all Swiss-like... except for the American shirts.

Andermatt / Gemsstock

Another weekend, another Swiss adventure for team Ferris-Wheeless. I'm sure you are getting sick of our jet-setting ways, but remember: no jets yet, just lots and lots of trains. In fact, we rode four different trains on our way to today's destination: Andermatt and Gemsstock.

Andermatt is a small town in southern Switzerland right in the heart of the Alps. It doesn't get as much traffic these days after the Gotthard rail and car tunnels (some of the longest in the world) bypassed it under the Alps. However, it's a good jumping off point to Gemsstock, a 2961m peak that has a handy gondola ride straight to the top. That's a good thing, since hiking to the top would probably kill us. Just walking around at the summit was enough to give me a headache. And this isn't even one of the tallest peaks in the Swiss Alps (that'd be Monte Rosa at 4634m!).

After taking some great photos at the summit, we retreated back down the mountain to the mid-way gondola stop to grab a snack and fool around on the slack line (mostly falling off the slack line, that is). From there, we hiked back down the mountain (way easier than hiking up) and caught our trains back to Zürich. Another successful weekend! Click below to see all our photos from the trip.

Rhine Falls and Schaffhausen

One of the best things about living in Zurich is the easy access to other cities and natural beauty, all by public transport. So far, taking a little day trip on the weekend has required almost no advance planning.

Step 1: Get your transit pass(es). The Sunday before last, Brian and I got our half-fare cards, which give you half off of all public transportation travel within Switzerland, as well as discounts on private transport (e.g., mountain gondolas) and travel to Germany and Austria. In addition, we can get daily and monthly add-ons that provide unlimited travel throughout Switzerland. I also got a 9 o'clock pass, which gives me free rides around Zurich after 9am (Brian has been walking to and from work, so hasn't needed a pass).

Step 2: Figure out where you're going. Last Sunday, this took the form of "it's a nice day, we should go somewhere, or else we'll play on the internet all day" around 10am. So, off we went to Zurich HB, the main train station. We decided on Rhine Falls, about 50 minutes to the north of Zurich. It was just barely within the Zurich transportation network limits, so I just needed to buy an add-on to my pass, while Brian got a day ticket.

Step 3: Profit. Rhine Falls is a total tourist destination, but fun. We rode a train (S-Bahn) to Winterthur, a largish city to the north of Zurich, and then transferred to a train that passed by Rhine Falls. After getting off at the almost non-existent train station, we walked down the hill to the falls.

Rhine Falls is the largest waterfall in mainland Europe, by width. As it was a beautiful Sunday, it was chock full of tourists. There is a walkway from the train station to a platform directly on top of the falls, but we opted for the boat tour, which gets you close enough to the falls for it to splash on you. We also took the boat that lands you on the little rock that lies in the middle of the falls; from there, you can climb to the top and took over the falls.



After our boat ride, Brian and I had some ice cream and walked along the Rhine River for 45 minutes to Schaffhausen. Schaffhausen is a small town to the north of Zurich in a canton (like a state) of the same name. It is dominated by a old fortress, the Munot, which was built in the 16th century. We walked up to the fortress and then up to the top to take in the view of the town.



Step 4: Return to your home. At Schaffhausen, we went to the main train station for the town, grabbed a train back to Winterthur and then back to Zurich HB (there are direct trains to Zurich HB, but it was quicker for us to do the transfer). Once there, we ran the gauntlet of the main station grocery store for some milk (it is one of the few groceries open on Sunday) and then took the tram and bus back to our apartment, just in time to make some dinner.

We plan on using trains, buses, trams, gondolas, cable cars, funiculars, and boats lots more in our future travel around Switzerland. So far, in addition to Rhine Falls, we've been up to Uetliberg and Felsenegg, both hiking and overlook points near Zurich, as well as to Luzern and Mount Pilatus, to the south of Zurich.

Summer!

So far, we've had more thunderstorms while in Switzerland than in all of six years in Seattle. Include humidity and a fair degree of sunshine, and despite claims that this is the coldest and wettest summer in Zurich on record, I still say Zurich has Seattle beat in the Summer Department.

Zurich Summer

Grocery Store Adventures

You move to a new country. At some point, you can't avoid it: you have to go to the grocery store. You must stare at a wide variety of food products and only sort of get what you're looking at. You must interact with your fellow man at the checkout.

Zurich has two main grocery stores: Migros and Coop. They are fairly standard stores, and within themselves, have a range of sizes - from the baby Migrolino and Coop Pronto to the big MMM and Coop City. In addition, there is Denner, which strikes me as a Trader Joe's without the cool products, but with the limited selection, cheap prices, pre-packaged produce, and warm beer. There is also your variety of ethnic stores and little kiosks around town.

While in our temporary apartment, I've limited myself to the large Coop near us, as well as the smaller Migros and the nearby Denner. I've gotten my Migros and Coop store cards - they only provide limited benefit in the way of coupons or other benefits, but they prevent additional question/answer at the end of the checkout line [Them: "Haben eine Supercard?" Me: "Eh? Oh, nein, danke"]

Generally, grocery shopping has taken me about an hour per trip, mostly because I spend a lot of time wandering around lost and staring at things. As you would expect, grocery shopping is different from the US in innumerable ways, but here are the main ones I can think of:

1. Everything is not in English
This is sort of a duh. But when you're wandering around looking for the lemon juice or trying to differentiate between types of beans or rice, you remember it much more fully. In Switzerland, most things are labeled in German, French, and Italian - since I speak only bad French, this has been helpful, as then I can at least get a gist of what I'm buying.

2. You weigh the produce, not the cashier
In the US, you take your produce to the cashier and the cashier weighs it as part of the checkout process. In Switzerland, and in much of Europe, you weigh your produce at a scale, poke the number corresponding to your produce, and stick the given sticker on the bag or fruit/vegetable. We had read about this, but of course, forgot the first time we went to a grocery store for a banana. And were, of course, judged.



3. The produce, for the most part, looks great and is local
Almost all produce I have bought (except lemons and avocados) has been really good quality and from Schweiz - so from pretty close by. I feel like we've been eating a lot of fresh produce - could it be that it's so pretty? Or could it be that I have a lot of time for cooking. Who knows.

4. You're not going to find everything you want
Also maybe a "duh", but there are lots of things that you're expecting to find that are not on the shelves of common grocery stores or are hard to find. For example: skim milk is not a super common item in Switzerland (and Brian drinks a lot). Other things somewhat difficult to find that you (or I) may want: chicken stock (or any kind of stock that's not in bouillon form), peanut butter (such an American thing), American cereals (Cheerios, Crispix, etc.), cheddar cheese (what? in this land of cheese? it's true), most "ethnic" foods (Mexican/Tex-Mex, Asian), brown sugar, anything larger than a small packet of baking soda/baking powder/vanilla, and bulk food bins. On the flip side, there are tons of products I've never heard of and lots of great, cheap cheese. I love cheese!

5. Variety of brands? Not so much.
You want some chickpeas (I always want some chickpeas)? In a typical US grocery store, there are like, at least 5 varieties or brands to choose from on the shelf. In Switzerland, maybe (if you're lucky and there are some at all) two.

6. Things you think you should be refrigerated? They're not.
Milk? Eggs? Mostly on the shelf, rather than in the refrigerated section.



7. Sales are less common
Before coming, I thought sales were totally not-at-all common, but I'm glad to see that sales do happen. They're usually on the perishable items, though, like meat and dairy - you're not going to see sales on canned goods or wine. Also - usually in the US when you buy something in bulk, you get a discount. Not so much in Switzerland. This does keep me from buying anymore of something than I need right now.

8. Empty your cart/basket (it won't empty itself)
You approach the register. You should empty your basket onto the conveyor, rather than just plopping your basket on top. Since most cashier here sit while checking people out, this is more convenient for them. Also, have your cash (preferred) or card ready, as well as your Migros Cumulus or Coop Supercard ready. Checks? Not done in Switzerland. Ever.

9. You bag your groceries
There are no bag boys and I have gotten very good at bagging my own groceries. Perhaps this is why people come for their daily shopping instead of weekly or monthly trips - the chore of bagging one's groceries (and being rushed along) overtakes the chore of going to the grocery store daily.

Oh, you thought I was going to do ten things? I'm not.

So You Want to Move to Switzerland

When Brian first mentioned the slim and distant possibility of a job in Switzerland, I was all over it like cheese on grits. For those who know me, I like to know everything about everything, so I did some research on what's involved with working and living in Switzerland and, more specifically, the experience of being a foreigner living in Switzerland. Here are the various resources I have used, for anyone else considering a move to Switzerland, or just curious.

• My first resource was a PDF document put together by the Swiss government on working and living in Switzerland. My favorite sentence: "...health expenditure is highest worldwide with the exception of the United States." Touché.
• I read a number of blogs of people who moved to Switzerland from other countries (generally the US, but also the UK and Australia). It has been really useful to hear about others' experiences and try to learn from them. Some, such as Swisstory, have ended as the author has moved onto another country, but are still good resources. Others are still active and interesting, including One Big Yodel and TwoFools in Zürich [edit - no longer available, as they moved back to the US!].
• There are a variety of discussion forums and mailing lists geared toward English-speaking expats. I subscribe to the Expats-in-Zurich and Expats-in-Switzerland yahoo mailing lists and there is (very) occasionally something of interest there. I also read and reference English Forum Switzerland often. I've found that almost all of my questions have been asked and answered there at sometime, and if it hasn't been, I can ask and get responses quickly, albeit occasionally snarky (it is the Internet, after all).
• As soon as we decided for sure that we were moving, I plunked down for Living and Working in Switzerland. I read it cover to cover and it's a great reference guide. There's also a book, Zurich for Newcomers - I flipped through it in a bookstore, and it didn't seem to be worth buying. The American Women's Club of Zurich has published a book, Living in Zurich, that sounds pretty comprehensive, but I haven't checked it out yet.
• I also picked up a few guidebooks: A Rough Guide to Switzerland and Rick Steves' Switzerland. Usually, I'm a Lonely Planet fan, but their most recent Swiss guidebook is from 2009 - it'll be updated in 2012. For the other two, I think having both is useful - the Rough Guide gives a lot of context and talks about more places, while the Rick Steves book gets into the specifics of how to actually do something (like go up that there mountain!).
• Finally, we talked to people! Through friends, we met a few people who already live in Zurich. I have also met a number of spouses of Googlers, and it's been great to ask them the dumb questions that come to my head (e.g., "what is that thing sticking to the wall of that building", "how do you pronounce MIGRO and COOP [the two main grocery stores]").

While I don't know everything about everything yet, the above have all been great resources to help get there.

Switzerland: The Prologue

So. Switzerland. Brian and I have been here for more than two weeks now. But let's back up a little. Why Switzerland? Brian got offered a job with Google and they gave him the choice of staying in Seattle or going to their office in Zurich, Switzerland. After talking to the different groups, it seemed that the Zurich office was a better fit for what Brian is interested in, and I was (more than) willing to take the steps necessary to move to Europe.

We also figured: hey, we don't own a house or a car and don't have kids or pets to worry about moving. This is not to say that moving to Switzerland was all cheese and chocolate. Luckily, Google took care of a lot of the details in terms of getting the entry visas in process. He also has a relocation package that has taken care of moving our things from Seattle to Zurich, setting us up with a temporary apartment in Zurich, and helping us find a permanent apartment in the tough Zurich rental market. However, we still had to deal with paring down our things, moving out of our old apartment, finishing up our respective job/graduate school, saying goodbye to our friends in Seattle, and leaving Seattle and specifically Ballard, our lovely neighborhood in Seattle for the last two years. In addition, moving to another country comes with its own challenges: different cultural norms and different language being foremost among them. I'm sure we will expound more on those challenges and our experiences in the future.

But let's just talk the facts for now. Switzerland. What's up with Switzerland?

• Switzerland is about the size of West Virginia, but with more than four times the population.
  
• Switzerland is officially the "Swiss Confederation" or Confoederatio Helvetica, so the country is often abbreviated to CH (and its domain extension is .ch).
• Switzerland is a federal republic made up of 26 cantons; we are in the Zurich canton. Each canton has its own constitution, government, and parliament. Sort of like a state, but smaller.
  
• Zurich is not the capital of Switzerland. To be specific, Switzerland does not have a capital - Bern is the de facto capital, as it is the federal seat of all the cantons.
• There is not an individual head of state like in other countries - instead, there is a federal council made up of seven people that are elected by the legislative body. The federal council members rotate the presidency of the council between themselves, but they, as a body, are the head of state. Confusing, huh?
• Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Romansh is a Latin-based language spoken by approximately 70,000 people in southwestern Switzerland. The NYTimes had an interesting article on the language and its speakers last year.
• German is the most common language, spoken by about 70% of the country, generally in the northern and eastern parts. However, Swiss German is what is spoken in common usage, while standard German, or high German, is what is written and what is spoken in formal settings. Swiss German is a fairly different language that is mostly not intelligible to those who just speak standard German - there are different pronunciations and different words. In addition, the Swiss German dialect varies across cantons.
• You can watch all of Rick Steves's episodes on Switzerland on hulu.com, which is pretty much all the exposure Brian and I had to Switzerland before we landed a few weeks ago. :)
  

Alright, enough knowledge for now. We'll get to the "omg, why is this like that" in future posts, I'm sure.

Hawai'i

Once Brian had worked out a date for his PhD defense, we decided it was time to plan a trip somewhere, with that somewhere being Hawai'i. In 2009, we had a great trip to the island of Kauai with Martin and Melanie, and we'd heard that we should check out the Big Island next, so we flew off to Kona at the beginning of July.

We spent our first two nights in Volcano, a town just next to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Unfortunately, while we were there, there was no lava flowing into the ocean. However, the lava lake within Halema'uma'u Crater was visible at night as a bright orange glow. During the day, it was a little steamy. Both were pretty neat. (neat!)



While at the park, we did some great (and some boring) hikes and enjoyed our hotel, which seemed to have been dropped into the jungle-y set of Jurassic Park. We also took a trip up to the Visitor's Center at Mauna Kea, high above the clouds, and took a look through their high-powered telescopes to check out the moon and Saturn.



For the other four days on the island, we spent it Kona-side. On the drive over to the west-side, we stopped at South Point, the southern-most point in the United States (clever name, right?). While there, Brian took the opportunity to climb into the ocean (quickly). Sketchy part was apparently getting out on the rusty ladder.




We stayed south of Kona, in a partly-open-air cottage on the property of a coffee farm. The owners gave us papayas, pineapple, coffee, and macadamia nuts straight from the farm, and it was a great affordable place. We would recommend it for those who don't mind some geckos and bugs in your room or macadamia nuts falling on your roof :)

While on the Kona side, we saw lots of beaches, did some hikes, kayaked and snorkeled to Captain Cook monument, watched sunsets, and ate great food. I mean, can you not have a great time in Hawai'i? I think not.




In the end, our trip took place just a few days before our stuff got hauled onto a ship to go to Switzerland, so we had to do a little bit of preparation while on vacation, but hey, it all worked out! For the rest of our pictures, see here.