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.