Seen Around Town

Like a lightning bolt, a fantastic idea struck Hobbes and I during our morning walk yesterday. Rather than attempt to describe daily conditions in Switzerland, we've instead constructed an interactive virtual immersion experience (a $500 value if you'd been considering Rosetta Stone-German software instead).

Ours is a "Virtual Swiss Dog Walk" in which you encounter German signage around town and must thereby make important lifestyle decisions. As with any standardized test, the questions start easy but the difficulty increases rapidly. You can click on a picture to enlarge it. Ready? Here we go...

Question 1. When homesickness kicks in, where can you find the Stars & Stripes American Bar & Restaurant?

A. in New York City
B. at Mt. Rushmore
C. in the space shuttle
D. in Brütten

Question 2. When every square centimeter of your kitchen space is covered in recyclable goods, which can be deposited here?

A. coffee grounds, orange peels and chicken carcasses
B. any object clearly labeled Grün or Weiss
C. green and white glass AND plastic bottles
D. green and white glass ONLY, but not on weekdays after 8pm or anytime Sundays or holidays


Question 3. Who is Ueli Maurer and what does he want with you?

A. an insurance agent, wanting to sell you a policy
B. a dentist, demonstrating how white he can make your teeth
C. an alderman, with progressive ideas about new garbage bags for your recycling
D. the leader of Zürich's SVP political party, who wants your vote after recently making international headlines with an ambiguously racist ad of white sheep kicking a black sheep out of Switzerland


Question 4. It's 3pm on Monday afternoon and you're ravenous (also you're not working). You see this sign around the corner from your new apartment. It contains several exciting German/English cognates, such as pizza, hier and Montag, and lots of numbers. Do you:

A. immediately follow the arrow around the block, looking for your local pizza restaurant
B. call 079 466 61 49 to reserve a table later Monday evening
C. bide your time until Tuesday, because the restaurant obviously isn't open on Mondays
D. return exactly here from 5-8pm on Mondays only, where a pizza van screeches to a halt and sells fresh, made-to-order, take-away, thin-crust, wood-fired pizzas that taste like you're in Napoli


Question 5. You're dying to try some authentic Swiss-German food. Every Swiss restaurant is required by law to post its menu and prices outside. Here's the menu from your local restaurant. Do you:

A. avoid the restaurant completely, always eat at home
B. wait until Fri, 30 Nov and order the only words you can pronounce, Spaghetti Pesto
C. point to the pig in the bottom right corner when ordering because it seems like the house specialty
D. memorize the words Zürcher geschnetzeltes, meaning anything sliced in a mushroom cream sauce, and order it everywhere you go (for example, here on Wed, 28 Nov)


Question 6. You're looking for some Swiss cultural events to attend and see this poster. Excited, you rush home to tell your spouse to:

A. reserve your spots at the authentic Swiss wine & cheese tasting
B. prepare for the upcoming exhibition of yodeling and Alp horn playing
C. start assembling a gift list for the town's annual Christmas Market
D. lock it down, fo shizzle...boogie up, chief rocker!




Answer Key: If you answered 'A' to all of the above, your Swiss immersion experience mirrors mine exactly. If you answered 'D,' you're already psychically German or Swiss and would encounter no problems here.

Pseudo- and Real Thanksgiving

Happy kickoff to the holiday season (a little late)!

Last Thursday was business as usual here in Switzerland (not to mention the rest of Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, South America, etc.). But back home it was, of course...Thanksgiving! The holiday coincided almost exactly with our three-week Swiss anniversary date which provided some difficulty. We had read that after approximately three weeks the "ex-pat vacation effect" expires, that is, the "extended vacation" feels over and it's time to head home. Now after experiencing it, we'd say it's fairly accurate.

Things were particularly tough on Steph who of course worked both Thursday and Friday and also received lots of happy Thanksgiving emails from old coworkers, family and friends--that plus the three-week timing pulled the heartstrings a bit. On the other hand, I was NOT working Thursday and Friday, had been cut off from email since Monday, and spent virtually all my time apartment hunting anyway, making my heartstrings slightly less accessible. Nonetheless, we each called our parents Thursday evening for a brief conversation and felt pangs from not spending Thanksgiving with our wonderful Chicago and Indiana friends as usual.

To assuage the raw emotion, I had decided earlier that afternoon at the grocery store to improvise a Thanksgiving feast. My best attempt was a rotisserie chicken, thyme-roasted carrots and some celebratory man-shaped bread, named Mr. Grittibänz (Swiss-German, therefore no translation available). Combined with a green salad and white wine, I found it quite difficult to discern a difference from a regular Thanksgiving; Stephanie as usual was slightly more perceptive.

Thankfully friends Dave and Heather had devised bigger plans. On Saturday evening they hosted five couples (!) at their newly fully furnished and finished apartment in Zürich's Oerlikon neighborhood. Heather spared no expense (literally, the thing cost a fortune) with a 15-lb. turkey imported from France from a Swiss butcher; they apparently grow turkeys to just baaarely fit a Swiss oven. All the usuals were present, such as stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, white rolls, and cranberry sauce. Stephanie made the mashed potatoes--fortified with Swiss cream and butter--and I constructed an apple galette for dessert (with the help my assistant pastry chef, pictured here). Working together in our tiny apartment kitchen provided an elbow-bumping challenge but regardless we always enjoy cooking for a crowd.

Unbelievably, four of the five couples (including Dave & Heather and us) came from Chicago within the last six months to three weeks, now living in the Zürich area; the other extremely nice couple had moved from Amsterdam to Zürich in July. Other than Stephanie and Dave who work together, Heather had met the wives of the couples through the American Women's Club of Zürich. Women's Clubs are common social clubs and support groups for ex-pat wives whose husbands have been transferred to a foreign city. Before you ask, I'm not certain of the women's rules regarding membership for "trailing males," but rest assured it's not my cup of tea (pun intended) as I'm too busy immersing myself in Swiss culture to stop and talk about it routinely with other ex-pats' spouses. However, I admit that the Women's Club has assembled a very useful Living Guide to Zürich, of which Heather was kind enough to give us a copy, with a particular standout being the extremely thorough section translating the names of various hams, sausages and offal meats.

To cap the evening, we learned a valuable transportation lesson by staying overly long after the party chatting with Dave and Heather (how do you dispose of a 15-lb. turkey carcass in Zürich?). Our exit time of ~12:30am matched exactly when 95% of the city's bus and train service stops running. Who knew? A special Night Schedule exists but we're not overly familiar with it and, after our 15 minute walk to the Oerlikon train station, reluctantly settled for a cab instead. Simply hailing a cabs costs 8 CHF and the fare increases rapidly from there. Luckily Oerlikon and Kloten both lie on the city's north side and while the total cab expense was somewhat appalling, we're certain it was just a small fraction of the cost of that turkey.

Midweek Ambassadors

Here's some German for beginners like me: six of the seven days of the week end in -tag in German, equivalent to "-day" in English, e.g., Monntag = Monday, Dienstag = Tuesday, etc. The exception is Wednesday which is Mittwoch, literally "Midweek," which provides my segue into a story about Steph's and my "typical" yet fairly entertaining Midweek last week.

It begins with Hobbes and me waking totally alone and mystified Wednesday morning--Stephanie was nowhere to be found. After a cup of black coffee, we remembered that she had embarked Tuesday on her first European work trip, an overnighter to Milan, five hours by train. She had taken the one and only phone, our temporary cell phone, making any communication impossible until her return Wednesday evening. Luckily my schedule for the day was occupied with two apartment viewings with relocation agent Mr. Mssrli.

To avoid both traffic delays and him spending too much time in the office, Mr. Mssrli always picks me up early in Kloten and we spend 20 minutes driving into Zürich and another 30 minutes finding parking. We enjoy an approximate 50% success rate of procuring parking sufficiently early to stroll through the neighborhood and test the coffee at a local cafe-- such details are vitally important when evaluating potential housing (I'm serious!). This particularly successful morning we found enough time for a guided tour of the new UBS bank neighborhood branch (high tech!) AND for an espresso before our second viewing of the Römerhof apartment (per prior blog entry).

Unimpressed, we determined to discuss the prospects of the afternoon's apartment over a Thai lunch--Mssrli and I talk a lot about food. He's half English and half Swiss, young but well-traveled and an interesting guy. Settling on a nearby Vietnamese (close enough to Thai) restaurant, we started with a traditional Vietnamese appetizer of various greens and herbs rolled together by hand and then dipped into a spicy peanut sauce. He ordered the yellow curry and I tried the duck. After 2+ hours, finishing our second espresso of the day we suddenly realized the time and sped to our next apartment showing at Burgwies, almost mortifyingly late (Swiss promptness to appointments is NOT regarded lightly!). We departed similarly unimpressed.

Nearing home that afternoon, we stopped for about an hour at a local Kloten restaurant/pub to discuss Thursday's possibilities (Mssrli drank tea, I drank Swiss white wine). Before departing--because we're both infatuated by Swiss baked goods--Mssrli graciously gifted me with a jar of quince jelly freshly made from the September harvest of the quince tree in his backyard (quince is a fruit more common in Europe than the U.S., kind of a cross between an apple, peach and pear). Not surprisingly, it's phenomenal.

I was excited entering the apartment because of the activity there in my absence--after three weeks of intermittent and unsuccessful effort to obtain an operational home phone line I had eventually asked our landlady next door to call her electrician to physically evaluate the phone line; she had arranged his visit earlier that afternoon. Immediately after feeding the ravenous and hairy beast inside the front door, I spied the note from the landlady--the phone works!

Momentarily leaving Hobbes amidst celebrating his dinner, I rang her doorbell to thank her and verify that Hobbes had not licked the electrician to death. She's been extraordinarily kind since our arrival, a native of Zürich and Kloten who worked her career at Swiss Air before taking early retirement during their restructuring; she speaks English very well from school and living in London for a year. Answering the door, before I could even thank her, she invited me in and before I knew it, we were drinking gin & tonics (hers without tonic and sipped between cigarettes) and discussing every topic under the sun: from dogs (she owned three) to Swisscom, electricians, recycling, Swiss politics, George Bush, Michael Moore, 9/11, economic theory, hiking & skiing, Swiss-German language, racism, croissants, U.S. movies, on and on. Interestingly, Mr. Mssrli and I have also touched on all these and more during our various excursions. Next thing you know the doorbell rings again--it's 7:45pm, three hours later, and Stephanie (?!?) is miraculously standing there, returned from Milan to find a full but confused dog in our kitchen.

We reluctantly turned down our landlady's offer of additional drinks (but accepted an invitation to a future dinner) because Steph had already made other plans--you guessed it, to go drinking. Several usual Hyatt suspects--English, Scottish, Swiss-French, Australian--were already gathering at a local Kloten sports pub called The Nelson for the critical England v. Croatia soccer matchup; England was dangerously close to not qualifying for Euro 2008 (a huge tournament, like the World Cup but with only European teams, to be co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland (!) next summer); gladly Steph and I are longtime international soccer fans. Regrettably we all departed after only 45 minutes and one drink, due partially to England's dismal first half performance and partially to an entire Swiss army battalion apparently deployed to the bar that evening for chain smoking drills.

As the day's final cultural note, we learned that every Swiss male spends one year in the army upon turning 18. After serving, they take home their gun so that every male citizen is trained and armed in the (unlikely) event of Switzerland being invaded. In Kloten, they take leave in uniform on Wednesday nights to drink and perfect the universally-Swiss habit of smoking like fiends. Although it baffles us, Switzerland ranks something like the third-highest smoking country in the world. I'm certain that Swiss dogs and cats would smoke too, if only they had opposable thumbs.

Overall, a wonderfully diverse day of events to which Steph--who upon returning from Italy briefly embarrassingly started mixing the Italian Grazie! (thank you!) with the Swiss Grüezi! (hello!)--and I thankfully appear to be adapting. By the way, if you don't already know how the England game ended, you probably don't care anyway (they lost).

Haystack In Depth

At the center of the web of one of the densest public transportation networks in the world lies Zürich's Hauptbahnhof (main train station), an enormous turn-of-the-century structure housing 52 train tracks (we verified this one night by running from Track 2 where we had just missed our train home to Track 52 for the next train leaving in 6 minutes). The main station deposits most of its arrivés south onto the Bahnhofstrasse (train station street), one of the world's most glamorous and expensive shopping avenues--mostly fancy watches, diamonds, and fancy watches inlaid with lots of diamonds.

Bahnhofstrasse burns a bright but brief 3/4 mile south to dead end at the lovely Zürichsee (Lake Zürich). The city center, i.e., the area in which we're struggling mightily to find housing, fans out around the Hauptbahnhof (HB) a radius of ~1.5 miles with the Zürichsee situated at the 6 o'clock position (we initially considered but were dissuaded by our relocation company the idea of living on the lake bottom).

Our apartment search started with Steph's first day at work, Monday, November 5, three weeks ago; the time passed could be three days or three months in our minds. That week I visited 3 potential apartments; the second week provided an encouraging 0 new listings (but plenty of time to blog!); last week the floodgates broke with 5 new candidates! We haven't closed any deals yet, but if the apartment search process here is akin to eating an elephant, last week I ate up to at least the first foreleg knee.

As an exorcism of pent-up frustration and/or celebration of patience, I've compiled a summary of each property thus far, starting roughly from the city's 7 o'clock position and proceeding clockwise. As a frame of reference, all relative property sizes (large, medium, small) are about a 25% decrease in square footage from Chicago large, medium and small apartments. The location names are cryptic code, either neighborhoods or streets or landmarks:

Bahnhof Enge 1 - Steps to both Lake Zürich and a major train station, an excellent modern large apartment. Ours was one of 70 (!) inquiries; we attended an evening open house that felt more like a mosh pit. We were one of ~30 applications submitted. Status: rejected!

Bahnhof Enge 2 - Another awesome large, open apartment in the same vicinity with an incredible rooftop deck featuring 360-degree city views. Listed for less than a day with over 15 applicants. Status: rejected!

Wiedikon - Large new apartment in a residential neighborhood, looks nice enough. Status: appointment on Tuesday

Zürich West - A large inexpensive unit in one of the few old residential buildings in the otherwise ultra-modern, post-industrial Zürich West neighborhood renowned for nightlife--a sprawl of cosmopolitan restaurants, pubs and clubs among steel-and-glass living complexes. Status: application submitted, we're probably not cool enough.

Wipkingen - Saw it Friday. A medium-sized, medium-priced new unit in a quaint old building; a residential neighborhood nearby a train station, the river and urban access. Refuse further comment to avoid jinxing it. Status: prayers appreciated.

Bahnhofstrasse - Jaw-dropping location, amazingly affordable small apartment on the famous street boasting astronomical property values; they could easily charge triple. Window displays of diamonds flanked the apartment front door (definite con: dangerous daily temptation for Steph). Ours was one of surely countless submissions. Status: as yet unconfirmed rejection!

Altstadt - Another dream location in the fantastic Old Town in a 700-year-old building (luckily since renovated). Our plans to attend the open house evaporated after confirming no pets. Status: we didn't want it anyway.

Seefeld - Arguably the most sought-after locale for (relatively) young professionals, a neighborhood feel yet with its own nightlife vibe akin to Chicago's Lincoln Park. The open house for the small apartment lasted exactly one hour one weeknight and received 15 applications including ours. Status: as yet unconfirmed rejection!

Römerhof - We probably could have landed this one. Good location just "up the hill" from Seefeld. Excellent patio and skylight city views. As the top floor unit, virtually every room had maddening sharp ceiling angles limiting its utility; even marginally-tall visitors would suffer frequent cranial contusions. I actually visited twice (unheard of!) over the three-week period as the ongoing gut-rehab made visualizing its finished state nearly impossible. Despite the flaws, we probably would have pulled the trigger but...overpriced. Status: no application submitted.

Burgwies - Small older apartment way up the hill from Seefeld and Römerhof in the quite residential but purportedly desirable "Gold Coast" area. Genial landlord. Phenomenal lake views (you could actually see water) added at least 500 CHF to the monthly rent. Simply too remote with no car and only single tram-line access, and my daily bicycle ride home from the grocery store
would conjure images of Lance Armstrong conquering France's torturous La Mongie mountain (difference being he reached the top). Status: no application submitted.

Whew! Well, I feel better. It's obviously a numbers game and at least we churned some last week. The good news is that due to our current mega-flexible living arrangement, our fortunes can and will literally change in a day--the inevitable day soon that some benevolent and perhaps desperate landlord finds the one "Accepted!" stamp in his/her drawer of fifteen "Rejected!" stamps.

Weekend at Bernese

Sunday rolls around and we're due for our customary Swiss road trip (OK, train trip)! Yesterday feeling cocky and ignorant (a common combination, interestingly), the family assailed the Swiss capital of Bern.

Per our voluminous Swiss train schedules, last weekend's journey to Schaffhausen and this Sunday's trip to Bern appeared roughly similar timewise at just over an hour--never mind that the Schaffhausen excursion was via a commuter train to just outside our canton (like a county) of Zürich whereas Bern lies a full 80 miles west across central Switzerland via a nonstop InterCity train. Hey, we're experienced, right? Piece of cake.

Late morning we caught the local Kloten bus (a large friendly dog on a public bus always provides entertainment) to the nearby airport/train hub. The two humans about swallowed their tongues (the dog's always just wags) when the automated ticket register declared a per passenger cost TRIPLE that of Schaffhausen (including Hobbes's ticket, of course)! A bit expensive for a daytrip! But then we recalled that for November, we owe only a half mortgage payment, no rent payment, no car payment, no insurance, no gas, electricity, phone, cell phones, cable, Internet, gasoline, nothing. And we're already standing in the Zürich International Airport with a dog and a train leaving in 10 minutes and no other ideas, so we pulled the trigger...and are glad we did!

Bern is Switzerland's capital and definitely possesses a more staid, almost scholarly atmosphere typical of many capitals (exept Madison, WI) vs. its economic capital counterpart Zürich. The city is small but beautifully laid out, with the city center situated atop a tall hill wrapped around three sides by the Aar river; Bern feels considerably more Old World and purposeful than bustling Zürich. The defining architectural feature is arched, enclosed outdoor arcades on virtually every street featuring a huge assortment of shops (both modern and artisan), cafes and restaurants. On a rainy day you could probably traverse a few miles of unique shop fronts without getting wet.

Here's my unavoidable "tour guide" tip--Bern's name is shortened from the German Bären, which means bears; the city's founder killed one near the site. So Bern's mascot is the bear and they're all over the city on cantonal flags and everyplace else. For over 150 years Bern has kept live mascot guests in an outdoor "Bear Pit" near the city's entrance. Pictures:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2hd8fyj.1ub70k4f&x=0&y=-4qgqtu

At only hour away, Bern is a quick trip from Zürich and Steph and I plan to return to explore in depth, maybe for a long weekend. Although he's of course a lovely and enthusiastic travel companion, Hobbes does cramp our style a bit as we don't dare enter any restaurants or cafes during our jaunts due to the potential double danger of his powerful tail-wag and his obsession with OPF (Other People's Food). So we remain outside for several hours at a time--the cafes are always quite happy (although confused) to serve us outside--which only causes problems due to unseasonably FRIGID weather lately; the HIGH in Bern on Sunday was 1C or 34F.

South of Whose Border?

When originally debating the move to Switzerland, two main concerns gave us significant pause: 1) how would Hobbes respond? (via pictorial evidence, he's responding with gigantic grins) and 2) could we live without good Mexican food?

Chicago possesses a substantial and (from our vantage point) welcome Mexican influence with ubiquitous burrito houses and taquerías and well-stocked authentic Mexican food aisles in every supermarket; quality Mexican cuisine indeed ranks highly on our preferred food list. And although excited about the diverse Swiss offerings of traditional French, German and Italian cuisines mixed with a healthy dose of fondue, we ultimately plunged into central Europe with eyes wide open regarding "the Mexican risk."

So we're testing the waters both ways. We've dined twice now at "downtown" Kloten mainstay Restaurant Löwen (meaning "lion"--so your favorite beer Löwenbrau means "Lion's Brew") featuring real Swiss-German food. And last Thursday evening we enjoyed "big city date night" with a French dinner in Zürich's wonderful Old Town at an establishment called Zum Grüner Glas ("At the Green Glass," although it might have been Zum Nordpol, "At the North Pole" for the temperatures the past week). The verdict? Restaurant dining is expensive and generally good but not great yet. Of course we were spoiled living in Chicago, one of the world's truly great restaurant cities (I'll argue anyone on that point).

Both at The Lion and The Glass, I tried Zürich's professed signature dish of kalbsgeschnetzeltes (say that five times fast), thin veal slices in mushroom-cream sauce. Both times the veal was slightly overdone and the sauce needed salt (I've decided to attempt it at home sometime soon instead). The restaurant wines are always fantastic, though. And the espressos. By far the best food bargain to date remains our "discovery" of an open-air downtown Zürich grill serving phenomenal bratwurst and cervelat (the bratwurst's worthy cousin) with hot mustard, crusty rolls and draft beer.

Somehow cognizant of the American (or at least Chicagoan) love of Mexican food, our Swiss associates here immediately apprised of two or three Mexican restaurants in the city. Our trailblazing new Hyatt/Chicago/Zürich friends Dave and Heather, who arrived a month prior to Steph and me, share the addiction and have already tried several. Two Fridays ago we ate dinner together at a "Mexican" restaurant called Cheyenne, reportedly representative of the class--not bad, but really a Swiss interpretation of Tex-Mex with added flair such as zucchini and carrots in the steak burritos. Enough said. The wine was fantastic, though.

So matters must be taken into one's own hands. Armed with a list of three Mexican-type ingredient shops in Zürich (never mind how we obtain these things, and it's not via the Internet unless you can Google in German), do-it-yourselfers Steph, Heather and I descended into the city on Saturday for a daring reconnaissance mission. After fueling up at the previously mentioned sausage and beer outpost, we found a few tram rides later that Shop #1 was actually an "exotic global cuisine" restaurant, i.e., an unfocused fusion place with appetizers including pot stickers AND tandoori chicken skewers AND empanadas. Strike one. Nostalgic for not only Chicago's Mexican food but also its simple street grid pattern, we took eight wrong, cold, windy turns before finding Shop #2, actually a wine boutique growing a variety of its own hot pepper plants (?) and sporting a large shelf stocked with gourmet spice-oriented items including a range of hot pepper-infused chocolates (this is Switzerland after all). OK, somewhat better but mostly strike two.

We trained back up to the Zürich main station with final Shop #3 lying only two blocks away. Immediately on entering the tiny store called El Maíz--pay dirt! An awesome assortment of all things authentically Mexican! Tortillas, fresh tomatillos, moles (that's MO-lays, not "moles"), gallon canisters of pickled jalapeños, high-end tequilas, Negra Modelo beer, etc. We grabbed a basket full of items and later prepared a fairly excellent fresh Mexican tostada-with-refried-black-bean-and-roasted-tomatillo-garlic-salsa thing for dinner Saturday night. As an unexpected bonus, before returning to the station we stumbled into an authentic Thai ingredient shop and take-out restaurant, definitely also worth another visit. Now feeling secure foodwise, we have two easily-accessible aces up the sleeve for the infrequent times we crave something other than zürcherkalbsgeschnetzeltes.

Schnee Storms!

Today's title sounds like something from a Dr. Seuss book, doesn't it? Star-Bellied Sneetches in Schnee storms! Der Schnee is German for "the snow" and already in mid-November Zürich has recieved its share. We're told it's not uncommon to enjoy a several-centimeter "dusting" this time of year, but that snow rarely really sticks until late December or early January. Although Zürich's average seasonal temperatures supposedly match Chicago's fairly closely, we're already recognizing quite different daily patterns--must be those crazy mountains nearby.

For those wanting pictures of a grinning Shweizerschneehund, here are a few (sorry for the photo monotony, he's my only available subject!)...

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2hd8fyj.asbheydb&x=0&y=-d52e4

A Gipfel a Day

While the enormous range of cheeses available in Switzerland was not too unexpected, the equal abundance of bread and pastries is pleasantly surprising. Todd's Internet-enabled office, i.e., the airport (pictured here), features no less than three fresh bread and pastry sources, the most prominent being a bakery called Steiner that could double as a Paris corner boulangerie. So to complement our other new Swiss lifestyle systems, I've created my own devilishly effective new System: days when I exercise, I get a pastry.

Of course with any new system, some initial bugs must be worked out such as, what constitutes exercise? Certainly running a few miles does. But what about the hills? Since I haven't run uphill even once in over 14 years in Chicago, does a hilly run count as TWO exercise sessions? What about 2+ hours of cumulative dog-walking in a day? Or what about vacuuming the apartment with a vacuum that has no upright rigid handle, instead requiring crawling all over the Pergo floor? Sure it builds a sweat, but is it exercise? Or biking 10 minutes round-trip to the grocery store? Anyway I'm still working on those details.

More critical is the list of pastries already sampled. Needless to say the list will continue growing and diversifying as our comfort level increases with ingredient translations and pronunciation (and/or we improve our pointing precision into glass cases). Yet we're off to a good start:

Pain au chocolat - classic French, a thin chocolate bar rolled in a croissant cylinder. Grade: A+

Kirschestange - a long thin mini-Danish with cherry preserves filling (pictured above). Grade: A+

Nussstange (no typo) - literally "nut bar" with a sweet nut paste filling in a pastry tube. Grade: A+

Rustic croissant - a fantastic wheaty version sprinkled with some minced nuts and seeds. Grade: A+

Schoggigipfel - Gipfel means "pinnacle," in this case a perfect croissant filled with dark chocolate frosting and topped with powdered sugar; this creation as purchased from the CO-OP gas station actually cured Stephanie's recent flu. Grade: A+++

Concerning Swiss pastries, you may note I've begun employing the discriminating "Golden Retriever rating scale" in which all food receives an identical high score (everything except plain Romaine lettuce which receives an 'F'). Another point of interest (at least it interests me) regarding the Schoggigipfel name is the prefix: exhaustive research uncovered that "Schoggi-Land" is a particular chocolate factory about 50 miles east of Zürich, bold enough to claim itself "Switzerland's most state-of-the-art" chocolate factory. To date, I'm inclined to agree that the Schoggigipfel is the most state-of-the-art pastry I've inhaled. Schoggi-Land lies near a Swiss town called St.Gallen which may earn its own blog entry some day, because anything fantastically delicious made from a pig also appears to come from St.Gallen.

Hopefully I'll update the pastry list soon. And the really fantastic news is that baked pretzels here are pretty darn good too, and they don't even require any exercise :)

Hausherr House Hunt

Contrary to the news reports, life as ein Hausherr is not all fun and games. For example, without my advanced education and hardcore wilderness training, we could encounter real trouble here. From Psychology 101 and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I'm acutely aware that Stephanie and Hobbes will never achieve the pinnacle of Self-Actualization unless the basics of shelter, water and food are consistently met (clean dishes and straightening the bed are somewhere in the middle of the Hierarchy, if memory serves me). And backcountry survival teaches that humans will live without shelter for only 3 hours, water for 3 days and food for 30 days. With those responsibilities burning like a brand in my mind as soon as I'm capable of rolling out of bed each morning--and often self-sacrificing dire personal needs like shaving and showering--I battle daily with whatever the city with one of the highest global standards of lifestyle comfort can throw my way.

Per my training, I focus first on supplies of mineral water (with gas) and other necessary liquids--wine (preferably one bottle each of white and red), beer and coffee. Then I attack the puzzle of an optimum daily macronutrient profile to supply enough carbs, protein, vegetable fat and animal fat, usually consisting of fresh bread, cheese, occasionally olives, ham and lately, ice cream. Of course, the most critical need is also the hardest to obtain, that is, procuring long-term shelter for the rapidly approaching winter, otherwise known as the Great Zürich Apartment Search.

The city of Zürich apartment market is exceedingly tight. Unfortunately, since everyone here is rich, throwing money at the problem doesn't help but we're doing it anyway. Think New York housing prices. Swiss mortgage lenders require a minimum 20% down payment to purchase a house, with both the properties and the cost of living being quite expensive, resulting in 80% of the Swiss population renting housing instead of owning. So the good places don't flip often and when they do, people descend like a pack of Golden Retrievers on an open bag of Eukanuba.

My real daily job is maintaining vigilant "on-call" status so that when Mr. Mssrli from the relocation company rings me on the temporary cell phone, I'm ready in my nice pants and sport coat (I'm not always a slob) to visit an apartment downtown with two hours' notice; the trip to city center Zürich takes maybe 45 minutes door-to-door via bus and train (very much like O'Hare). Apartment openings in the neighborhoods where we're looking (the nice areas!) are usually posted on real estate web sites in the morning and removed by mid-afternoon because 10-15 showings have already been arranged. One very nice apartment a mere two blocks from Lake Zürich had 70 inquiries (!) and an estimated 30 showings at the open house (including us). Landlords post properties only three weeks (or less) in advance and don't provide the "winner" with notice until a week before the move-in date. In real estate terms, I think that's called a sellers' market. And recall our acceptable range of monthly rent runs from--on the low end--our mortgage payment in Chicago (and we weren't living in a dump) up to a 30% increase.

Today is Tuesday, so in our seven workdays here I've seen three apartments that meet our requirements. Not exactly a blistering pace. The good news is that within our price range, places are either brand new or immaculately maintained and surprisingly sizable (around 140 m2 or 1,500 ft2; our temporary pad in Kloten is a microscopic 450 ft2), including in-unit laundry. Our relocation company has been extremely helpful at pulling all possible strings--we wouldn't have a prayer without them. The System is that once an open apartment has its pool of suitors, applicants submit their information and the landlord picks one. We have two disadvantages, one being our enormous hairy child and the other our residence visa status (we're viewed as potential "short-timers," a mere one- or two-year rental). Sterile pet-hating Swiss-national applicants have a massive upper hand.

Nonetheless, the game just started and we're not punching the panic button yet. Hyatt so far appears sympathetic and isn't pushing. So stay tuned for the inevitable joyful blog post that we've nailed down our new Swiss home!

Schaffhausen And Not Swimming In The Rhine

Maintaining our tradition of Sunday family excursions (last Sunday we visited downtown Zürich), we stretched farther our second Sunday by visiting the medieval city of Schaffhausen, 30 miles northeast of Zürich and perched near Switzerland's northern border, an hour-long train ride. If Hobbes had chased a rabbit the wrong direction we would have ended up in Germany. The weather was lousy--overcast, windy, chilly and damp--but the sights were fairly excellent! Pictures here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2hd8fyj.5yhe1773&x=0&y=-4zxrci

Allow me to enter tour guide mode: greater Schaffhausen is decent-sized city but all the sightseeing action happens in the charming Old Town. The buildings, plazas and architecture are preserved from the Middle Ages but with modern and active storefronts of shops, restaurants and cafes. How often do you see a Bang & Olufson shop (super high-end stereo components) situated beneath an overhang featuring a gilded carved ox from the 1600's? The Old Town streets provided pleasant strolling despite the weather; the highlight was doubtless the town fortress called the Munot, a 450 year-old circular "castle" that allowed defense of the city from all sides.

Schaffhausen and neighboring small town Neuhausen am Rhein are situated on the Rhine river which enters from Germany to the north. Neuhausen contains the Rheinfall, Europe's largest waterfall (although not exactly a monster by today's global standards), which tumbles down with plenty of white water and mist through an oddly cleft rock formation adorned with the Swiss flag. A 12th century castle overlooks the falls for good measure.

Hobbes acts like he's on speed during the initial train ride--way over-stimulated. Then he dragged us all over the Old Town and up into the fortress. We later stopped for a coffee and he promptly passed out for a power nap outdoors on the patio. Then it was craziness again pulling to the falls, constantly eyeing the river (we're certain that pen-pal Charlie would NOT be impressed to hear that Hobbes visited the Rhine if he didn't SWIM in the Rhine). Finally he imitates an 85-lb sandbag on the train ride home; we use the special train cars with extra space intended for bikes and people just step around him. Thank goodness the Swiss are quite dog friendly, generally speaking.

Not a bad six hour excursion for a random Sunday and yes, we are reminding ourselves every day (multiple times) how lucky we are to be here...

Gas Station Deluxe

Time to address the topic most dear to our hearts and stomachs... food! For Steph and me, visiting anywhere--and particularly Europe--is largely about local food and booze. Some people really enjoy the museums or art or theater or architecture or shopping or history or local customs--I'm sure those are all great--but for us it's always about food first.

There's plenty of good news and only a little potentially bad news in the sustenance department. The fantastically good news is that daily provisions are expensive and amazingly excellent! The potential bad news is that many restaurants, at least in Zürich, are amazingly expensive and perhaps not always as excellent (by the way, would now be a good time to ban "expensive" from the vocabulary?). I'll focus on the good news first. So far, I would rank the Swiss Food Importance Hierarchy (SFIH) as:

Tied for #1 - Bread and Cheese
#3 - Coffee
#4 - Mineral Water
#5 - Fresh Produce

(Notice that wine and beer don't make the list; the Swiss aren't teetotalers but also not huge drinkers--in fact the largest grocery chain in Switzerland, called Migros, slightly frustratingly doesn't carry any alcohol. Luckily there are plenty of other good sources.)

Rather than attempt to describe items #1-5 to you (flowery writing about every nuance of exquisite flavor nauseates even me), I'll provide an example. It starts quite unfortunately with Stephanie contracting severe flu symptoms after dinner on Friday night continuing through Saturday morning (almost certainly a long-delayed response from the cumulative stresses of the Chicago marathon, preparing to move halfway around the world, actually moving and then starting a new job in less than one month). At 6:30am Saturday, after a markedly unpleasant night, she asked me to shuffle over to the nearby gas station for a 7-Up or Sprite to rehydrate and settle the ol' stomach. Normally comatose at 6:30am, I obliged in this case.

The gas station--a one-minute walk and typical size for a small U.S. gas station--is a CO-OP, the second-largest grocery chain in Switzerland; here both Migros and CO-OP infiltrate every aspect of life, from ubiquitous grocery stores to full department stores to gas stations to language classes. Gas stations provide important staples in "emergency" situations since all other stores close early, usually by 6:30pm Mon-Sat, and close completely on Sunday. Steph had visited the CO-OP station once before, I had not. It's always quite bustling and now I know why.

At 6:30am, the gas station smelled overwhelmingly like a bakery. Bread and pastries in the substantial corner section were being warmed on the premises in a closet-sized oven. There were loaves and rustic loaves and crusty rolls and exotic rolls and pretzels and danishes and croissants and blah, blah, blah. Although it wasn't on my list, I couldn't help grabbing a wheat croissant which Steph, Hobbes and I later agreed rivaled my other greatest croissant experience at the Four Seasons in Chiang Mai, Thailand (both unlikely locations, no doubt). I also found the drink section quite ample, though without 7-Up or Sprite, procuring a GatorAde and some manner of lightly-sweetened lemon-flavored mineral water called Rhäzünser Plus that I supposed might taste like 7-Up (and I was right!).

Of course I should have been mentally prepared, since Steph's prior CO-OP gas station visit had produced a fantastic soft Brie-like Swiss cheese (called Tomme, maybe look for it at Whole Foods) and a quite good French Chardonnay table wine for a mere 7 CHF, truly our best (first??) bargain yet. Also the gas station has something strange called Tomaten, which look and feel exactly like a Chicago tomato except very deep red in color and perfectly fresh with a really great fresh tomato flavor; I've started using them where I used to use Chicago tomatoes with delicious results.

Needless to say, actual grocery store food provides comparable quality to the gas station items. Food shopping is an every day routine--kitchen refrigerators are small (known to U.S. ex-pats as "Barbie Refrigerators") and freezers are TINY and nothing is preserved. Unless it's pasta or cereal, you mostly buy and eat it the same or next day. For long-term visitors to Europe, my guess is that the constant activity required to purchase and prepare (and dispose of) food either inspires hair-pulling fits or introduces a different but welcome appreciation for the three meal routine.

Finally, regarding the potential bad news, I'll lay off the restaurants for now because we need more experience there (but maybe Todd needs some income first).

Der Schweizerhund

Don't be alarmed by the apparently intimidating title of this post--it's only Hobbes's German name, "The Swiss Dog." We're also learning to say, "Er ist sehr freundlich!" which means, "He's very friendly!" because he presents quite a spectacle--larger and hairier than most dogs here. Also useful is the phrase, "Er spinnt!" meaning "He's nuts!"

Never fear, I won't blog on on the minutiae of dogdom (although now that we're spending more time together, Hobbes and I partake in a daily contest to see if I adopt more dog traits then he adopts human traits), but it does provide a nice segue from the previous post on recycling to another Swiss trash system, disposal of dog waste.

You may recall we paid 75 CHF (abbrev. for Swiss Francs) to register our son at the Kloten Gemeinde; that's actually the prorated fee for 1/2 year (unfortunately they don't prorate more, so we paid for six months of 2007 but will live here only two). For 2008 we'll pay another 150 CHF (or whatever Zürich charges). Ouch, eh? Don't worry, We're used to it already as EVERYTHING is expensive here. So what does that earn us? The Robidog System, of course!

All over Zürich and Kloten, especially near parks and trails, are so-called "Robidog" stations which provide free (or shall we say pre-paid?) biodegradable opaque plastic bags for picking up dog waste and a nicely covered trash bin for instant disposal of said waste. There are two such stations available on the two-block walk to our nearby hiking trail and a third before you reach Steph's bus stop. And so far the bags are never missing and the small bins are never overflowing. Also the Gemeinde gifted us with 50 extra bags to keep at home.

So as we're learning with so many other Swissisms, the rule of thumb here is--like it or not--you pay more to get more. In this case, for non-dog owners, no dog poop anywhere in the city OR countryside and not even any nasty used bags visible in open-air public trash containers. And for dog owners, an apparently well-maintained and convenient system for obtaining the prior. I'm certain the Swiss would tell you that the quality of everyone's life has been improved--for a fee, of course.

[By the way, for those who enjoy the minutiae of dogdom and/or additional pictures, check out our first snowy Saturday at the link below. A human even appears once or twice...]

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2hd8fyj.2sh9z5pr&x=0&y=eezepg

Complete Trash

I can't not talk about the Swiss garbage system any longer. It's too nuts. We currently have segregated piles of various trash all over the tiny kitchen counter.

The System is quite organized and initially difficult to understand, but thanks to poking around and some direct questioning of our relocation agent, we're now masters. It didn't come without damage to my Swiss reputation, however, as Hobbes and I have already been busted "garbage snooping" on two occasions--one morning appearing to stalk an elderly lady near the municipal recycling bin (innocently trying to determine which items she deposited in which slots--was that a plastic bottle or glass?) and another morning earning a quizzical look from a passing neighbor while lifting the lid of the apartment compost bin and staring overly long at the dead leaves and rotten banana peels (trying to discern exactly what goes in there; the compost bin always smells delicious--once like coffee and once like roasted red peppers).

Real progress in understanding The System was made on Wednesday at the Gemeinde, where in our Kloten "gift bag" we found a single black trash bag printed with a mysterious symbol and the always helpful Abfallkalender 2007, literally, "Garbage Calendar".

Here's the overview: in Switzerland you can't throw away any unmarked garbage bag. Every garbage bag is taxed and the tax varies by locality, and each bag must bear an appropriate local sticker that shows you paid the tax. Bigger bags have bigger taxes (although the tax per liter of garbage is the same). The tax isn't outrageous, about 2 Francs for an average kitchen-sized bag. If a bag is unstickered, your garbage collector notes it and a garbage "detective" may hunt you down to pay a fine. Technology is on their side--I actually noticed a garbage collector yesterday with a discreet Bluetooth phone headset (it was AM, he was showered and looking quite professional and I was not).

When we moved in, our apartment contained ONE mysteriously printed (not stickered) black garbage bag. A neighborhood garbage bin survey (spearheaded by Hobbes) uncovered similar printed bags. After 10 days, our one printed bag was starting to fill up. So on a recent grocery store trip we found the garbage bag aisle and bought some--only to find later no mysterious printing! Just black! Have we put any garbage in them yet? No, we don't dare! Because they're obviously as yet untaxed.

So Wednesday after registering the family at the Gemeinde, we asked to buy our garbage stickers. Ah ha, the registration agent said! Kloten doesn't use stickers any longer. They have a better system in Kloten! Printed bags. Mystery solved. So after paying well over 150 Francs in other registration taxes, we were gifted with our second Kloten-symbol-printed bag, a 2 Franc value (luckily, Zürich still employs the sticker system so our purchased blank bags will still be useful when we move there. Whew). By the way, in Kloten the printed bags are conveniently available not at the Gemeinde, but by asking for them (if you speak German) from the checkout clerk at any grocery store and paying there.

So what's this all about? The tax is an economic disincentive to throw away vs. recycle. Recycling is FREE--yes, the garbage collection company is actually named FREI (FREE!). Throughout town there are separate recycling locations (and lots of them) for glass bottles (read wine), PET bottles, organic waste, paper, aluminum and old clothes. Our Abfallkalender 2007 also indicates dates and locations for pickup of old batteries, electronics, appliances, oil & paint and furniture, among other things.

So the trick is to recycle small quantities daily. Once you know where to look for them, recycling bins are hidden in plain sight just about everywhere, especially near traffic hubs such as bus stops, train stations, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. Organic waste (chicken bones, banana peels, peach pits, yard waste, etc.) goes in your apartment compost bin; there are no sink garbage disposals. I rarely leave the apartment now without some piece of recyclable garbage with me.

The funny part is that even if you don't care about the relatively inexpensive "disposal tax", the garbage authorities track you and tax you anyway if they consistently find recyclables in your garbage. Luxurious by comparison were our recently-provided, gigantic private blue recycle bins in Chicago's Roscoe Village that accepted all unsorted recyclables (yet most of the neighbors appeared not to use them). The outcome for the extra effort is that Switzerland protects its beautiful landscape and, if you believe the statistics, that per capita garbage volume generated is half that of the U.S. Luckily Steph and I are longtime fans of recycling and don't mind the Swiss attention to detail in this case!

Devil in the Details

On Wednesday afternoon our relocation agent, Mr. Mssrli, picked me up from home and Steph from work and escorted us to the Kloten Gemeinde building (near my favorite bus stop, Zum Wilden Mann, which to my limited knowledge translates as "To the Wild Man"). There's apparently no real English translation for die Gemeinde; every Swiss town has one and it's something like "the municipal office" where local government authorities deal with local residents on local matters. Did I mention it's local? A fascinating aspect of Switzerland (our more well-traveled acquaintances agree) is that government is bottom-up. Town and county (not country) authorities regulate all the important details of daily life (and boy, are there details!) with federal government controlling the least. Which means that the bulk of our total annual taxes, our residence and work visas, and our garbage management practices (among other things) are currently dictated by Kloten town authorities (soon to be Zürich authorities). As an aside, equally fascinating to me is the underlying reason--because Switzerland is both mountainous and heavily influenced multiculturally, neighboring counties are largely isolated with diverse issues (French vs. German vs. Italian roots), so as Swiss government evolved the local authorities needed the most autonomy to decide residential matters.

In any event, within 8 days of arriving in Switzerland with a residence visa, every new resident must register at his or her local Gemeinde. The Swiss visas issued by the consulate in Chicago expire in three months, whereas the Gemeinde issues our more "permanent" annual visas. But only after an agent verifies your Swiss place of residence, proof of employment, proof of marriage, birth certificate, passport and proof of health insurance (mandatory for every person in Switzerland). That's why it's nearly impossible to move to Switzerland first and then find a job later--you need a verifiable job BEFORE you arrive. And yes, in the event of a canine child, all the dog's papers are necessary for issuance of the all-important "doggie passport".

The registration office was small, modern and efficient, feeling more like a combined Visitors Welcome Center and Chamber of Commerce than a town hall. Our registration agent was more helpful in 15 minutes than every combined piece of guidance from every City of Chicago employee in every department in 14 years (of course, that's still not saying much). The agent spoke fairly fluent English and Mr. Mssrli assisted with some particularly tricky bits in Swiss-German. After registering and paying the associated taxes (20 Francs per person and 75 Francs! per dog), we received our temporary-permanent (?) visas until the true-permanent visas are ready in ~60 days and also a "goodie bag" with our locally-approved trash bags and doggie cleanup bags, a local recycling guide, a detailed city map and a local business guide. All of these items are important, especially the garbage bags and recycling guide, because garbage pickup is among the most regulated daily activities (topic for another day) and there's also an excellent system for disposal of dog waste (topic for another day). Also the temporary-permanent visa allows us to register for deep discounts on public transportation (topic for another day).

Of course, immediately after procuring residence in Zürich (topic for another day), we must return to de-register with Kloten and promptly re-register with the Zürich Gemeinde. Although tedious, the practical purpose served is the address change for correct delivery of our true-permanent visas; thankfully all the paperwork doesn't need repeating. So are you confused yet? The process would be an extreme challenge without help from the relocation company, God bless them. So depending on your vantage point, these uniquely Swiss details provide the substance for either making the country a prime target for international mockery OR delivering a very high quality of life (if you believe Mercer consulting reports) within not only Europe but also the world. We have high hopes for the latter.

More Melting than Fondue

Swiss culture is a bit odd in a good way. The country is obviously small (the size of Maryland) and landlocked between France to the west, Germany to the north, Austria to the east and Italy to the south. So the Swiss culture is heavily influenced by those others. The western 30% of the country is Swiss-French, the southeastern 10% is Swiss-Italian, and the 60% in the middle--with Zürich as the economic and cultural capital--is Swiss-German (please forgive the lecture, I didn't know any of this before we planned to move). Swiss-French and -Italian are spoken as in France and Italy but to make things difficult for visitors, Swiss-German is actually a completely separate dialect based on standard German (what they call High German) but so much more guttural that Germans can't understand it. In fact our relocation agent told us that when the Swiss speak High German (which they apparently rarely do), the accent is so thick that Germans mistake it for the Swiss dialect when it's actually only an accent. Needless to say, when Swiss actually speak Swiss-German everyone else is completely lost.

Somewhat interestingly, Swiss-German is a spoken dialect only, not written. Everything in Switzerland from the newspapers to billboards to handwritten notes are in High German. Until recently Swiss were required in school to learn two languages, so most everyone studied written High German and spoken Swiss-German and French. A few years ago the schools began requiring a third language; the Swiss-Italians are now upset because most kids elect English instead of Italian as their third language.

Since Steph and I don't speak any German (yet), how does this really affect us? Well, the fascinating part is the cultural linguistic blend. Hello is always "Grüezi" (GROOT-zee, Swiss-German) instead of "Guten Tag" (High German). Thank you is just as often "Merci" (French) as "Danke" (German). Goodbye is most often "Ciao" (Italian) and only sometimes "Auf Wiedersehen" (German). We ate dinner at a tapas restaurant earlier this week and the menu was translated from Spanish to German; we started the conversation with our server in (poor) German, she quickly switched to OK English, after which I realized that I should have simply started in Spanish, which later didn't matter because none of the tapas bar staff spoke Spanish anyway.

Stephanie's office is another kick. We ate dinner last night with three of her new work colleagues,from Britain, Portugal and Australia. Working for Hyatt International, they've lived and traveled all over the world. With Steph's and my combined knowledge of English, French, and Spanish--and international soccer--and our passable international travel experience, we're just barely able to keep up. Political correctness and decorum are out the window as most conversations are spent good-naturedly yet thoroughly ripping on other countries and cultures, peppered with a healthy dose of profanity between cigarettes (smoking here is a topic for another day). The beer is German, the fries are French, and the espresso is Italian. Fun stuff.

But language here is not really a problem. Almost everybody in Zürich (the "big city") speaks English very well; things are a bit spottier 30 minutes away in Home Sweet Kloten. But here's a classic example of international communication. I bought and boxed a new townie bike (cheapo for getting around town) in Chicago and carried it to Zürich, i.e., we didn't pack and ship it. I half re-assembled it on Monday before realizing that both my tools and mechanical know-how were lacking. I found a bike shop nearby in Kloten (don't ask how, but having lots of extra time helps tremendously) and brought the bike yesterday morning. The mechanic spoke as much English as I speak German--exactly none. But when you walk into a repair shop with a bike that has obvious parts missing, and then you open a bag and lay those parts on the table, and then you pantomime putting the parts in place and both people start laughing, getting what you want doesn't take long. And in fact yesterday it took only 20 minutes and I'm now dangerously mobile..!

One Week Anniversary

Exciting news...today marks our one week anniversary living in Switzerland! And they haven't kicked us out and we're not totally insane. A great start, yes? We've made some major livability gains in the last two days--ownership of a temporary cell phone, the ability to recharge electronics, easy internet access at the airport and (just earlier today) a reassembled bike for transportation. Since I don't know where to begin recounting everything so far, here are pictures worth several thousand words:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2hd8fyj.34cvhlzz&x=0&y=bpjso4

Of course everything here is just a little different, but no major culture shocks really. Steph and I are lucky to have visited Zurich a few times before, which really helps eliminate any "foreign" feeling. The biggest daily differences are grocery shopping, garbage disposal, transportation, and the great degree of interest that local authorities take in each and every resident. Oh yeah, and the language too. Sounds to me like German but the Swiss dialect it's so guttural that Germans can't understand it. All of those probably deserve their own blog entry.

But of course now I've run out of time again--we're going out to eat with Steph's work people and I need to catch the bus. They only run every 30 minutes and if you miss it you're out of luck. More tomorrow..!

Still Alive!

Greetings again after a long communications absence! Despite almost a week of radio silence we are alive and transitioning quite well, all things considered. Since arriving last Wednesday (with right now being Tuesday morning) we've been without a home phone, cell phone, internet access or electrical converters. However, if cheese and wine were phones and computers we'd have no problems whatsoever.

Part of the issue is that we're living in a suburb very near the airport called Kloten. Suburb here translates to farmland. And recall we have no car. So our infrastructure development is proceeding somewhat sloooowly. But Steph started work yesterday so the office is helping and we're starting to turn the corner.

Certainly we're not suffering; other than communications problems things are fairly excellent, all considered. There's already so much to recount and I'm short on time--currently at the airport (for internet access) running out of computer battery life (no electrical converters)--but the important items are that Hobbes is doing really well considering his trans-Atlantic journey. He doesn't like vehicles in general, but we actually took him on the train on Sunday for a jaunt into Zurich. We ate bratwurst and crusty rolls at an outdoor cafe and later had some roasted chestnuts from a street vendor and he was in heaven--the doggie double of simultaneously being outside and begging for lunch! Also we live very near a trail system through farmland and also a petting zoo with burros and miniature goats, so he digs all that stuff. But he definitely misses his ex-neighbor dog Charlie.

For Steph and me, our recent consumption of animal fats has spiked. The "low-fat" phenomenon doesn't appear to have hit Switzerland and probably never will. Full fat milk, full fat yogurt, lots of sausages and dried meats, etc., and of course full fat cheese. There is TONS of cheese here. And advertisements for cheese. The current war appears to be televised ads for Gorgonzola and Emmenthaler vs. enormous billboards for Gruyere. Stay tuned.

I just started to look at apartments in Zurich yesterday, we'll see how that goes. Weekday life here so far revolves around public transportation, daily grocery shopping and recycling disposal--everything is very organized of course. And luckily we're learning that if you put on a really helpless display of ordering food or wine or looking for some necessary item, about 70% of the people in the Zurich area speak English (they just don't lead with it).

OK, gotta go now but we should be back in touch much sooner. We might have a cell phone this afternoon, electrical adaptors arrived today from my parents (THANKS!) and I now know that I'm only 8 minutes and 6 Francs away from the airport internet..!