Livin and learnin

Hey all!  So things have been going pretty great so far.  Thursday I met Paul at school at we went off to validate our new Swiss debit cards!  We feel pretty official now even though for the most part we use cash just because it is so much easier around here.  But "cash" is a relative term because the lowest bill is 10 Swiss Franks.  Everything lower is coins and the coins only go as low as 5 rappen.  No 1 cent'ers here!  But even though the lowest is 5 rappen, you can still be charged something that is not a multiple of 5... we havent quiet figured out how they round it yet.  :)  So after the cards, we went to look at an apartment.  A PhD student from ETH heard there were new people and came in to Paul's office asking if anyone needed an apartment.  Hello! YES!  Usually you compete with soooo many other people for 1 apartment since there are very few unless you get lucky like this.  :)  So Paul got his information and we went to look at it.  Beautiful apartment!  It has a huge kitchen for European standards WITH a dishwasher that has been newly remodeled, a large living room, bedroom and bathroom.  The shower is the only not amazing part of the deal which is DEFINITELY something I can deal with!  There is one washing machine and one dryer in the basement for about 12 apartments and it is free and can be used whenever it is open.  This is an amazing find because normally you have a schedule of 1 or 2 days a month when you can use it and it usually is coin operated.  This place also has 2 balconies!  It is 1330/month- a little high in our price range but we can do it.  So if everything goes as planned we will move in in a month- fingers crossed. :)  The guy and his wife and 10-month old are moving across the hall so we'll be neighbors and they are super nice!  Paul can practice German with them too since they're from Germany.  So that was a prayer answered!

Yesterday I mastered the laundry!  All the instructions are in German so it was definitely a challenge. 

A weeks worth of clothes filled up 2 washers.  3 Franks and over 1 hour later they were done and it was off to the 'drying' room. 

Pretty ridiculous if you ask me because it is basically cold air blowing on line drying clothes... 2 hours later they were still wet so for the past day they have been drying up in our room.  Im not sure I will spend money to do that again.  That evening I also got my half fare card.  Paul gets a 2 year one for free so I got a year long one.  This will allow us to travel outside our zone in Zurich for half price anytime.  We have a monthly pass for our zone which is amazingly worth every rappen and we'll switch to get a yearly one when we move.  That evening I got to talk to Rachel on the Magicjack... awesome!  I love that thing.  I really enjoyed just chatting with a friend who really knows me.  Im already feeling the 'no friends' thing here.  Then I went to meet Paul's group for drinks at a bar on campus.  We had a good time and it was nice to get out like that.  :)

Today we walked around the city since it was blue skies! 

We went to the main train station and window shopped until it started snowing again.  Once it starts snowing and the wind is blowing, it is just not fun to walk around.  So we came back and went grocery shopping since everything will be closed tomorrow.  But this is long enough so there are more pictures on the website that we hope you enjoy and we miss you all A LOT!  :)  Feel free to comment whenever you feel like sending us a hello! :)

Job Searching Mode

So, Im taking a break from working on my resume even though I shouldn't be.  I can't seem to get in the job searching groove.  My normal approach to job searching (per what happened a year and a half ago when I was looking for a job in Minneapolis) is to have the tv on in the background with all the girly morning shows, soaps, talk shows, and news while I look at job sites galore sending my resume to anything I can find.  Sometimes taking a break to take a walk or cuddle with my baby (who I miss SO much!):

So far, the only tv show I can have going on that I understand is CNN Live which is good but it starts repeating itself after a few hours and while the Haiti situation is terrible and my heart goes out to them, I can only hear about it for so long.  And watching tv shows online doesn't work overseas.  So, I pull up my iTunes and play something.  However, this does not distract me from facebook... and since we are 6 hours ahead from most everyone we know, it is stupid for me to be sucked in to something that isn't even being updated!  So I should take a walk... it's just so cold and I have no idea where to go!  I could ride the tram around for awhile but that seems pointless and if I get lost, forget calling someone or even asking for directions since I dont know anything about this place.  And I can't go somewhere else with my computer because my internet is strictly given by a short cable at the end of our bed... Maybe I'll go read on the balcony with some blankets for a try.

The point: I need to get into job searching mode but Im having trouble finding my groove here.  I need a job, obviously.  So ideas are greatly appeciated.  :)

Other than that, life is pretty good and smooth.  Everything we needed to get done within the first week or 2 is done and we can now move our focus.  Grocery shopping is becoming a little more routine trying to decipher everything we pick up and I will try laundry Friday.  Maybe I'll take some pictures of the experience!  Oh, and we are going to look at an apartment tomorrow evening for a permanent place to live.  Pray that it works out and we get it because that would be a HUGE stress reliever!  :)

Pictures!

So, I've uploaded a lot more pictures at this website in the Switzerland folder: http://picasaweb.google.com/erickson.jes

It will have the pictures I've already posted and more like this:

I will probably let you know when I've added more new ones but usually if I post pictures here there will be more at the website.  We toured around the city and lake yesterday and today climbed up Uetliburg for this awesome view!  You can see the Alps back in the distance.  This officially started the pictures.  Enjoy! :)

We made it!

So we have officially started our adventure! Yesterday we arrived in Zurich at 7:45 am (1:45 am FL time) and started the day in Zurich. The flight was uneventful and empty and the airport was not busy at all making customs and baggage easy. Ursula (Paul's advisor's secretary) met us at the airport and recognized him immediately since we had sent passport pictures and such. While we waited for his advisor to arrive, Ursula immediately starting giving us information on our apartment and life. That was the beginning of our overwhelming feeling. A taxi (which could barely hold all our luggage) took us from the airport to the apartment. The lady we are subleting from emptied out her apartment so much that Ursula bought us toliet paper, drying rags for dishes, and brought her own guest comforter for us to use. Luckily we brought sheets and towels but we had to make up things for pillows... those along with our comforter will be coming in our boxes hopefully in 2 weeks.  Here are some pictures of our really nice temporary apartment:

Room 1: Seating area with front door on the right

Room 1: Kitchen

Room 2: Little area to the right, bed in the back corner with a small tv facing it

Night view of Zurich and the mountains from our balcony

Night view of the huge soccer arena from our balcony

After the apartment we took a tram to get our monthly tram pass and then to ETH where Paul will be working. On our trip Ursula showed us the store Sprungli which has beautiful, expensive chocolates and she bought us a new truffle to try and it was delicious! I better not go back! We toured the lab, went to get a cup of coffee (which is more like a tiny cup with expresso and a little of water), and waited for the last girl in his group to arrive before we went to lunch in the cafeteria. Because Paul didnt have his ETH card yet we both had to pay full price and it ended up being 25 CHF (almost $25) for both of us but the meals were basically like a meal you'd eat for dinner... balanced and large portions. Most people just grab a glass and there is free tap water. You put your glass in front of it and it pours clear, cold water that is really good. Then we took a walk downtown and even though I have no idea where we were it was beautiful and I want to go back because I didn't take any pictures- lots of shops and a pretty river with mountains in the background.

We went back to ETH where Ursula gave Paul a lot of papers to fill out and papers that we need to get accounts and such here. A lot of this information we have forgotten since we were so sleepy but we're doing fine. Paul finished up a few more things and I accidentally fell asleep and then we left to grocery shop. We went to a tiny market close to the tram and our place and after about 30 minutes found chicken nuggets, broccoli, salt, potatoes, and ketchup for dinner. Pretty tasty. We tried to stay awake but fell asleep around 7:30 and could not force ourselves awake until 12:30. That will definitely hurt us when we try to fall asleep tonight.

So we got up late and got ready and went to ETH to pick up the papers we needed to register at our Kreisburo. Paul asked in German if she spoke English and she did. So from then on it was a very easy conversation. They require you to register within 8 days so they know where you live and they give you a permit that you need to open a bank account. But since we got up so late we didn't get to the bank before it closed at 4:30. So that will be a task for Mon. We went to the Coop (a big grocery) and got a lot of food for a few days. Most things we were guessing/hoping they were what we wanted. The funniest thing was the "mustard" (we think) in a tube and we got a couple "meat cheese" things for lunch meat which we think is like bologna... we'll see. This was tonight's dinner, tortellinis, chicken, and salad:

Now we're relaxing and watching German TV. Nothing but American music is in English. Even American cartoons and American sitcoms are turned to german... maybe this will be my motivation to learn... maybe. I'll post more when I take pictures this weekend. On Sundays, everything is closed so we will probably do a lot of exploring!  Ciao!  :)

1 week mark

We just got back from our road trip around Florida and can't believe that it is already over.  We had such a great time and will miss everyone so much.  Our first stop was Gainesville where we met Bill and Billy for lunch.  They mean so much to Paul and have such a great time together hiking, camping, backpacking, etc.  That evening we arrived in Tampa to visit my great friend from college, Jayce.  We have been friends for about 4 years and fit each other so well.  She took us to see manatees, sharks, and sting rays at the power plant's warm waters and got strawberry shortcake at a awesome market. 

Me and Jayce at the market as strawberry shortcake queens :)

Next we visited our friends from high school, Jenny and Blake, in Orlando.  We have known them for about 10 years and it always feels like family when we are together.  We have seen each other through many hurdles and many changes which has only made our friendship deeper.  We just hung out and went to Mall at Millenia one last time for me.  :(

Me and Jenny :)

After that we were on our way to West Palm Beach to visit Rachel, Chris, and Carli.  I have known them for about 3 or 4 years and we are always crazy together.  I love friendships that just seem to click and these are definitely that type.  We went out to a really fun bar, the beach, an awesome Mexican place, and other random stuff... just my style! :)

I got to ride Chris's new motorcycle... I need some practice.  :)

Rachel, Me, and Carli  :)

Chris and Paul  :)

Our last stop was in Jacksonville to see our friend Kenny and his wife, Kristin.  Paul has known Kenny for almost 20 years (really makes us feel old to say that!) and I have known him for over 10.  So it was good to be able to catch up like old times.

We left Thursday and were back by Tuesday and drove over 1,000 miles.  All the goodbyes were sad and everyone will be greatly missed.  Technology these days will definitely make everything easier but it is still sad to know there will be a big disconnect by not living in the same country.  We have exactly 1 week until our plane leaves Tallahassee with only a few things left on our to-do list.  My youngest brother, Conrad, has a swim meet in Savannah, GA that we will be driving him to this weekend and our nights are pretty much booked until we leave.  It is definitely hitting us that our time left in the states is short and we are getting nervous but still very excited!  We're ready as we ever will be to try a new style of life!