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..!