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25 December 2005
Frohe Weihnachten from Renée & Stefan!
We are so excited to share the first 1.5 months of our life in Switzerland with you! Thanks for your patience while we put this blog together. Here's what we've been up to...
As most of you know, we arrived on October 28 extremely jet-lagged but up to the challenge of finding meals and necessities for spending the first night at our new apartment. After 2 days of sitting on the floor and using cardboard boxes for tables, we bought two uncomfortable folding chairs. Then, after one week of sleeping on our air mattress and waiting patiently for our sea shipment to arrive, we finally got confirmation that it was delayed, so we broke down and rented some furniture. So by mid-November, we managed to make the apartment somewhat comfortable and received our first guests! Dan, Jennie & Willow came to see us whilst on a business trip to Paris! We spent the weekend with them in Luzern, enjoyed Fondue (of course), saw the romantic moonlight on Lake Lucerne and even attempted to summit Mount Pilatus with 2000 other Swiss people to see the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market). Needless to say, due to the crowds, we gave up and found a little chalet where we could eat lunch and warm up instead!
Before our guests left, we celebrated Renée's 29th birthday together. Stefan cooked and we had a lovely evening. Jennie contributed champagne truffles. Sadly the next day our guests left, but to make up for it, our belongings arrived (the best birthday present ever!!) and we could finally unpack (which we still have not finished!). The day after that was Thanksgiving...an interesting challenge to cook for two people and with foreign ingredients. Though, it was indeed a success: Renée made all the staples - mashed potatoes, green beans, warm rolls, gravy and improvised with turkey breasts. Other than dropping the turkey on the floor (really, I don't know how it happened!!) it was delicious! Renée is well on her way to becoming a real "Hausfrau" as they say here.
We should go back a bit, and explain what our daily life is like here in Zurich. Every morning we are awoken by the church bells of the St. Anton Catholic Church, which is next door. After hurriedly getting ready for the day (which currently entails wearing long johns and incorporating big sweaters into our apparel) Stefan heads out into the cold to our local bakery and gets us fresh croissants! Now, we're not trying to make you jealous, but it's worth noting that the croissants at our bakery are some of the best in the city. Yes, we've been taste-testing around town and believe that we've struck gold. If that's not enough to convince you to visit we don't know what is. Anyway, after eating fresh croissants, we head out together to catch the #11 tram so Stefan can get to work and Renée can get to German class. Her German class lasts until noon, at which point she is free to gallivant around town like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's...although since it's so cold, she more often runs home to eat lunch, write email and do homework :)! Stefan is served hot lunch at his work, so he never has to leave (lucky him) and he works until about 6 or 8pm depending on whether he has a videoconference meeting with folks on the US West Coast that day and then comes home so we can share the exciting details of our Swiss existence with each other.
Other occurrences we've been involved in include furniture shopping (an unending task), winter coat shopping (it's darn cold here!), an overnight excursion to Munich to pick up Renée's visa, and even some social events! Stefan has made friends with several of his colleagues and we have already been to a concert by a real Swiss rock band in a real Swiss bar! Renée has made some charming girlfriends at school - all of whom speak English. It's been nice to meet people and start building a local community. There are a lot of English speakers here, and although we're not seeking them out we are finding them.
As awesome as the public transportation is here in Switzerland - and you really can get anywhere by train or bus - it has still managed to present us with a few challenges. With all the furniture shopping we've been doing, we've had numerous opportunities to really nail the train trip to the IKEA district. But we still haven't gotten it perfect yet. One time we accidentally got on an express train and went all the way out to Winterthur; one time we rode the bus in a circle; several times we just missed the best connection and had to wait in the freezing cold holding a 30-pound microwave!
What more can we say!? Things are great here! We miss you though, especially this time of year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We wish you all the best.
Much love,
Renée & Stefan
posted by Renee at 15:05
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