I think I've figured out why my blog production has been so dismal lately...I believe it's because I started running out of things get off my chest. Somehow Zürich started to become comfortable without us really noticing exactly how or when. And so that drive to exorcise frustration through writing dimmed. Good to know then that I've recently reloaded with fresh ammo. Starting a job will do that.
To fill in history dating back from the mid-summer and early fall, the Swiss job market for unemployed foreign chemical engineering business managers turned out not so easy to crack...big surprise, eh? For all the online job sites scoured and headhunting agencies applied to and CV's emailed, I received only one interview and it happened to be on the other side of Switzerland, not so far from Geneva. As ridiculous as it seemed, I went ahead and interviewed to dust off the ol' cerebral cobwebs. And wouldn't you know--after a ludicrous 10 week wait for a rubber stamp on my residence permit that extended my streak to ultimately 409 consecutive nonworking days--here I sit in Lausanne, a three hour train ride from Zürich, after starting work on Monday.
Talk about déjà vu (ha, ha, no pun intended)...after a year of German environs and study and (I'm finally admitting) attaining marginal proficiency, here I go starting from scratch again. This time with French, of which I know nothing. And although most everyone in the office speaks English, the preferred language appears to be French, about 30/70. In other words, if I'm not being spoken to directly, they speak French. And I've also unfortunately found the restaurant and other service-type staff speak a lot less English than in the "big city" of Zürich...as in mostly not a word. Just another fascinating cultural paradox to add to Switzerland's list. But here's something else I've learned...after your first ex-pat shake up, the second one isn't as bad. You learn to just chuckle and roll with it, I suppose. More details later, I'm exhausted and it's bed time!
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