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! :)