A case of the Mondays?

Yesterday was moving day, which is a lot easier when all of your belongings fit into 4 large pieces of luggage and a couple of small backpacks. It is, however, harder when you are moving to a place that is a mile hike up a mountain from the bus stop. We decided to take a taxi so we could get all of our things in one trip and just arrive. We got in at about 3:30, got the keys, spoke to our landlord on the phone to get instructions for everything and we were in. Dinner last night was some bread and cheese and wine and we did a bit of unpacking and getting settled, but mainly just watched French TV, marveling at the commercials (a man sees a group of drag queens waiting to get into a club and recognizes his Papa, an advertisement for an ear spray to replace Q-Tips (pour l'hygiene des orioles), and ads for cheese with health warnings. We went to bed early in order to get up early for the bus.

Today started as a bit of a wreck. We got to the bus on time, but realized to our chagrin that though it is the same bus line and buses that operate in Geneva, here they only take Euros. The bus driver made us promise to buy tickets in Geneva at the end of the ride and we went. We got to my work and I went inside to use the bank to get cash. I got paid today so I used my shiny new swiss bank account ATM card, withdrew francs, got the receipt, and was informed that I withdrew my account by that amount. Chastised, I withdrew money from my U.S. account, gave it to Matt for grocery shopping and 30 minutes later when the bank opened, I went to return the money to them. They thought this was a little bit funny, especially since by that time my paycheck came through. I thus learned two lessons today: first, unlike the U.S. (or maybe what I am used to dealing with), direct deposits come in not at midnight, but sometime later in the morning. Second, UBS ATMs will let you withdraw more cash then you have in your account.

Anyway the problem is all remedied, and I have Euros for the bus tomorrow and what seems like a zillion different wallets in my purse and change purses (There are 2 and 5 franc coins). The rest of the day went fairly smoothly and I consoled myself with a chocolate tart at lunch while I sat outside and read Green Mars on my phone. Work was productive, and I headed up.

Day 1 climbing the mountain was an excursion. I know you all think I am exaggerating, but it is a mile walk all at around a 10% grade. I arrived home to find that Matt had purchased pasta, fantastic olive oil and parmesan cheese from Italy, and chocolate topped biscuits. I cooked dinner and we are now watching more French tav awaiting talking to Matt's parents over video chat and seeing Dexter and Haakon. Matt is super tired: he walked and bused in with me, did the grocery shopping, bused back, and got to carry groceries up the hill. Pouvre Matt.

Exhausting Saturday

We got up a bit late this morning, rushed to have breakfast (there were croissants!) and decided we would head into town. We went back to the room, Matt took a short nap, we both read a bit, and then we got ready and headed out. We walked around and made our way down to Geneva and went to the train station to look inside H&M (they have so many man-scarves, it is unreal) and then decided we were hungry and took a very roundabout way to Rue de Lausanne. We found a little restaurant, Ze do Pipo, which specializes in Portugese food. We sat down, ordered 3 dl of wine to split (seriously, it is cheaper than water. Also, I love this picking the size of the carafe of wine. 3dl = 2 small glasses). Matt had the poisson du jour which was a butter poached perch and I had the piri piri chicken. We had our salads, ate our entrees, then split a chocolate mousse and had coffee and tea. It was delightful to get out of the midday son and to lounge about a bit more.

Then we made our way on further, ostensibly to find the Apple store so I could get Snow Leopard. We eventually found our way there but also went by the jet to set on a bench for a bit and use the free wireless. We also wandered up and down the Rue du Rhone, which is the street with all the designer stores and jewelers. We saw the store that was robbed last week by the Pink Panthers (article here and gazed at all the lovely watches and jackets and such. Then we walked by the Lake again and went on the walkway out into the lake and sat around for a bit. Finally we walked home, stopping at the Coop on the way back for some provisions for tomorrow.

By the time we arrived, my legs were aching and I was ready for a nap. Matt entered all the places we walked into Google Maps and it made sense that I was a bit tired, since we walked almost 10 miles. I took a brief nap, we had dinner, and here we are.

We took a few photos today and I created one of those Flickr accounts that I hear are popular. I will try to add some labels at some point. Here is the link: Our Flickr.

Hope everyone has a great rest of their Saturday!

Matt and Natalie and Figuring out how to get places

From a conversation today:

me: I want to get a notebook for working on french stuff
Matt: ok. hop down to coop after work.
it's super easy to find.
me: How do I get there?
Matt: simple.
go out the upper door at the ILO
me: like where we were on my first day?
Matt: Yes.
walk all the way in front of the building, and then follow the path on your left.
me: define the front of the building
Matt: all the way across the front of the building, yes.
the side that faces the fenced off reflection pond
that's the front
me: like go out the door and turn left
Matt: yes.
me: and then on the other side of the building there is a staircase
ok
Matt: yes, when you get to the bottom, take a right.
that's Allee David Morse.
you'll go past the Hong Kong mission
and come to Route de Ferney
take a left on to Route de Ferney, and cross the route at the very first zebra crossing.
and go up the staircase.
me: are their signs?
Matt: you'll be in a parking lot and the building front of you is a small indoor mall.
yes, for the allee.
and there are signs to get back to the ILO too
marked...
ILO
me: the staircase is in the mall or the parking lot?
me: I am confused
Matt: lol.
go out ILO
walk across the front of the building, past the other exit.
walk away from the other exit, take a left at the statue, this path takes you to Allee David Morse.
take a right on Allee David Morse.
walk to Route de Ferney
take a left, cross at the first Zebra Crossing.
go up the small staircase and you'll be in the parking lot across the road from a small indoor mall with a Coop and pharmicie
me: what statue?
Matt: lol
you know the upper level exit where you went in the first day?
me: yes
Matt: go across the front of the building to the other exit.
got that?
me: yes
Matt: ok, at the other exit, walk directly away from the building.
go straigh until their a path on your LEFT
me: which direction away??
Matt: DIRECTLY AWAY
me: every direction at the edge of a building is directly away
Matt: lol
me: unless you walk into the building, you are walking away from it
Matt: sigh

Progress Report on Dae

If you would like to see how difficult of an adjustment Dae has had to being without us, read NGS' blog post on the subject here.

Haakon!

At the age of three and after previously running from them, I would like to congratulate Haakon on catching his first mouse. He is not incompetant, just (as the French would say) en retard. Indeed Haakon est en retard.

NEZ

So I have started having some allergy problems that has led to my eyes looking like red saucers and is requiring me to carry around tissues with me wherever I go. This morning, Matt went to the Pharmacie to try to get me some antihistimines and apparently had one of those "joy of communicating in a foreign language" moments. I am sure he started with something like : Ma femme a les allegies et je voudrais le medicine." Apparently, she then tried to determine which brand of allergy medicine he would prefer and there was a great deal of gesturing and pointing. I keep imagining her asking about symptoms and Matt just pointing to his face and yelling "NEZ" over and over.

Continuing on the "Geneva is so expensive" theme, a box of Kleenex at the Tabac is 5 franc. I justified my recent itunes purchase by explaining it was cheaper than a coke. Not even a bottle of coke, but a can of coke. Besides, its the new Top Chef and thus irresistible.

Other than that the last two days have just been get up, eat breakfast at the center (a SMALL bowl of cereal, orange juice, hot tea, and 2 slices of bread with butter and jam) before heading to work, then working all day and then coming back and sneezing. So I will leave you with this picture of a field that we take almost nightly walks by. Again, life in Switzerland is hard.

Sunday in Geneva

Having found an apartment, we rejoiced and have spent a fairly lazy Sunday. We hung out downstairs on the fast internets so that our room could be cleaned since we were out of washcloths. We ate a brief lunch here of some very very stinky raw milk cheese that neither of us could stomach, some greek yogurt with honey, and some zwieback. For dessert we each had a couple of biscuits.

For a brief digression on food. First, biscuits (or a slightly sweet cracker/cookie with a slab of dark chocolate on top) are amazing. I want to eat them all day with breaks for the second item. Second, Lindt Fleur de Sel chocolate. I believe this may be sold in the U.S. as Sea Salt chocolate. It reminds me of the Trader Joe's sea salt and turbinado almonds that Kelly and Pat introduced us to, but (sorry TJs), much better.

Yesterday, to purchase this chocolate and more biscuits and food for the rest of the weekend, we went to Coop City. Coop City is a Target, grocery store, and Macys wrapped up in one package. It is four stories high and has everything from wine to sweaters. There is also (this being Switzerland, I suppose), a separate section for chocolate and biscuits and other sweets. Matt had warned me that the junk food in Europe is bad, but he was incorrect. The salty junk food does not seem very good, but I am a-okay for sweets. After getting those items, we went down a floor to buy food and wine. Beef is very expensive here ($50 a lb), but the produce is absolutely spectacular. We have had some of the best raspberries and nectarines I have tasted: big, juicy, and incredibly flavorful. It is good that the food in the grocery store is reasonably priced, because everything else (restaurants, movies) are very very expensive. Like 9 fr for a beer in a pub and 18 fr for a matinee movie ticket expensive. Oh la la. Coming up next weekend, we pack our few suitcases and take a couple of bus rides to Gex.

The technology for talking to our families is also working pretty well. I have had a couple of Vonage conversations with my parents and we did Google video chat with Matt' mom. Sadly, part of the point of doing a video chat was to see the dog, but he did not even wake up and laid there through the entire thing sleeping so hard his eyes were rolled back into his head. At least I know he is very very happy. He may not be as happy as Dae, who I hear has fallen head over heels for Ted. Wiley, that one.

Apartment

We may have found an apartment across the border in Gex, France. This photo is (I kid you not), taken of the view of the yard. Gex is absolutely beautiful and seems to be a haven for bicyclists. We will have a basement apartment in one of these chalets with 1 bedroom and tons of windows and a double set of doors in the living room that opens onto this view. It is a bit of an uphill hike from the bus stop and and buses to Geneva run every half an hour to an hour, with less on the weekend, but we can walk into the town of Gex to go to cafes and get groceries. While Geneva is nice, the opportunity to live in a beautiful French village for a few months (at half the cost of a studio in the City) seemed too good to pass up. Matt is already looking at bikes and having the internal debate of whether he wants a mountain bike or a road bike.

Here is another photo taken in the town. We will live halfway up the mountain:



I started work this week and will not be blogging about my job, but will say that I love the subject area and everyone has been incredibly nice to me. Also, the cafeteria at my workplace makes the world's greatest salads.

We signed up for a bank account (for a variety of reasons, with UBS) and I got a long lecture about their requirements that when I move back to the U.S., I must close the account. They also take banking security very seriously here: my PIN came in a specially sealed package and to do internet banking, I have a special card, pin, and reader that I have to plug into my computer.

I think we are starting to get a bit more used to things here. In 2 weeks both of us start French classes and we went to the English language bookstore yesterday and picked up some "Learning French" CDs. There are still times when things shock me; like that at lunch wine is cheaper than mineral water or coke. My legs have been very sore: on Friday with all our activities, we walked about 8 miles and yesterday also involved a lot of walking. Perhaps that will make up some for all the fantastic desserts we have been eating.

Nous Sommes Arrivés

We arrived on Thursday after an 8 hour flight from Chicago to Zurich and then a brief, low jaunt from Zurich to Geneva. We had a variety of problems in the Minneapolis Airport but absolutely none upon leaving. The flight to Zurich did involve a great deal of turbulence, but overall I was impressed with Swiss Air. The food was certainly better than any other flight I have ever been on. We have been exploring the city which means a great deal of walking since we are staying at a place about 2 miles from the center of the city. We have learned several things including that restaurants do not start serving dinner until 7 pm, that Swiss wine is cheap and good, and that no one seems to be much in a hurry, which has been a calm change of place. It is absolutely beautiful; both the urban spaces and building and the more rural fields. There is also a plethora of pigeons and in our Invader Zim theme, I inquired as to whether Matt had the head pigeons and then every time we heard them I would say "voulez-vous la tête des pigeons."

Friday we went into town and explored both banks of Lake Geneva. Window shopping is ridiculous -- there are tons of high end boutiques mixed in with regular stores (John Paul Gaultier is fairly near a Migros, for example). We saw the ILO (here, the Bureau Internationale du Travail) and the UN (Nations Unies). We ate at a cafe and had ice cream (best chocolate ice cream ever) and went to the grocery store. Yesterday, we went to the Jardin Botanique, walked to the train station, went to a pharmacie and did some reading. It is currently evening and we did a lot of walking earlier today but picked up some bread, wine, fruit, and cheese for dinner. Then I have to iron a suit and make sure that I will wake up in time to get to work tomorrow. Bon soir.

I start work tomorrow and Matt gets to search for an apartment.