Apartment

This weekend marks the beginning of our Swiss Living Experience (tm). On Friday evening I received the keys to the apartment. It was an interesting experience but it was kind of a non-event because I couldn't actually STAY in it until later. You see, no furniture. We have nothing. Enter, IKEA.

Waking up early Saturday morning Asish and I took the number 10 bus to work much as we do 5 days of the week. But this time, we didn't actually go IN to work, we just went NEAR work. Where there is a car rental company. And by car I actually mean huge ass diesel moving van. Yes, my first Swiss driving experience was renting a van for our trip to IKEA. Armed with two iPhones (aka GPS + Google Maps) we headed off to IKEA.

I had made a list of everything I was going to get, and once we found a lady to help us out she just went to the computer, entered everything in and handed us the list with aisle and bin numbers of all the things we needed. Armed with the list all we had to do really was load it onto carts. Yes, carts. Four carts of IKEA beds and bedding. We loaded it all into the van, drove back and brought it all up into the apartment. Two days of assembly later we now have 2 beds and a futon-like couch sofa thinger. Below are 2 shots of things in various states of assembly.

Living room

Our room

And the view from the balcony. Nice, eh? I shall post
more pictures tomorrow.

Tacos in Bern

Every Saturday on the Bärenplatz there is an open air market with kitschy stuff as well as good food. Asish and I found a mexican food stand and were a tad suspicious at first until we found out that the owners were all from Mexico. We both ordered tacos, and they cooked the beef right on the spot. Oh, my, goodness. Delicious. Green chille salsa, green peppers, onions. Wow. We're definitely going back.



"Next door" to the taco stand was the cheese booth. Didn't get anything. I'm going to go back there as well.

Office Coffee Maker

This is the coffee maker for our office. It's not actually the coffee maker for MY office though. It belongs to a project. Usually they charge you CHF 1.50 per cup, but this one on the project ... is free. So I get to partake in its delicious yummy goodness. Set cup, push button, wait for delicious espresso or coffee awesomeness. Enjoy. Repeat.

Being 'Swissed'

My new term is called "Being Swissed." It can be used any time you think something is not worth anything and the Swiss want to charge you an arm and a leg for it. Here's how I was "Swissed" for the first time:

In Switzerland, apartments are turned over in near perfect condition. People pay companies to come in an clean every square inch of the place and make it spotless. All light fixtures need to be removed, and NOTHING may be left behind without strict permission - no curtain rods, no curtains, no colored paint, no nail holes, no nothing. Sterile, white, clean. It's the Swiss way.

So knowing that I was new to the country and really have absolutely nothing except clothing and suitcases, the current tenants offered to show me the apartment and some items they didn't need or thought they might leave behind. The list included 3 curtain rods, a little storage thingie for under the sink in the bathroom, an orange stripe around the children's room and two privacy things for the balcony. One was wood to separate our balcony from the neighbor's, and the other was cheap plastic tied to the metal railing to allow for a tad more privacy from other people looking in. I'm thinking it's all cheap stuff and I'm actually doing them a favor because they don't have to pay someone to remove them and patch the walls or paint etc etc.

As we are going through the apartment I soon learn that they intend to itemize everything and make me an offer and then I can pay them for it. And I'm thinking, hey wait, with me accepting this stuff, their lives are easier! They don't have to pay the apartment cleaner's as much. Less painting and no patching the walls where they remove the curtain rods.

Well, I guess this has nothing to do with it. What matters is that they paid A FREAKING LOT for this stuff and it is still worth A FREAKING LOT. So they can keep it all I said. I'd pay them a little, but no way I'd pay them what they thought it was worth. I can buy a couch or two with what they were asking.

And that, is being Swissed.

Everyone I've told this story to thinks they stole the curtain rods from the Louvre or something. Them must be some wicked nice curtain rods.

Swiss Banking Rules: Reason #2

So today, I went to the bank to withdraw the first month's rent for our apartment. Seems the owner always wants the first month in cash, and all subsequent months can be a direct transfer. I gathered up all my identification before I left for work for the day so I could run out during lunch and get the cash. It's a large sum, as far as a wad of cash goes. I felt weird just asking for it at the bank. The process is this: tell teller you would like to withdraw a large sum of cash. Teller says to enter your card into little card reader and enter PIN. After doing so, teller gives you the cash. No identification is required.

This week

This week I ordered a Festnetz land line (fixed net) and DSL for our new apartment. I also purchased Alison an iPhone. So when she lands, she'll be all set up. She now has a better phone than I do. Sigh. One of the cool things about having an iPhone over here in Euro-Disney is immediate access to SBB train timetables. There is even a feature called "take me home" which uses Google maps to figure out where you are and then mashes it with the public transportation system to get you home. For the internet kids, it's called a "mash up." You can do them in like 5 minutes or something.


Also, having Google Maps and a GPS at your fingertips while in a foreign country doesn't hurt at all either.

Bern Young Boys vs. Wallis FC Sion

Last night was the Swiss National Soccer (aka Fussball) championship between the Bern Young Boys and Wallis FC Sion. The evening started when I was simply trying to go home from work on the bus. They announced that my bus would not be heading to the Zytglogge as usual. So we all had to get off the bus at Viktoriaplatz and take the 9 tram down the hill into town. Just as the tram hit the bottom of the hill, we stopped while 1000's of YB fans marched through town hooting and hollering and blowing off HUGE firecrackers and smoke bombs. Trams are completely stopped in both directions. We sat there for a full 10 minutes before the tram driver "allowed" us off the tram. At some point, he must have thought, huh, all the other trams have stopped, and there are drunk people as far as the eye can see. Ok, I'll open the doors now I suppose.

This was the tail end of it. I obviously missed most of it because the tram driver wouldn't let us off. Perhaps, for our safety. Maybe I should look at it that way. Huh. Very helpful the Swiss. Safety safety!





After dinner, Asish says we should head down the the Bundesplatz to check out all the football hooligans. I'm thinking, whatever they're all still at the game so what could be so interesting about the Bundesplatz. Well, as you can see, HUGE TV with the game on, people trying to sneak in and out, police beating down on people (politely of course, it's the Swiss way). And there is a layer of glass covering the ground every which way we went.

By morning, there was no sign anything had happened at all. The Bern Young boys lost.

I like cows. When they go 'moo' - Hey, move over!

A Swiss cow. As seen while coming down Pilatus just outside Lucern.

Food Post #2

The Wall o' Chocolate at Migros. This is only half of it. The place was too busy to get a shot of the entire row.








This was the chocolate I chose. Chocolate ... and chillis. Damn hot it was.












And our favorite sock monkey enjoys some Bier and Kaffee at a park in the center of Bern. We hung out at Park Cafe Kleine Schanze and enjoyed the warm weather. Can't wait until wife avec son arrive. Nothing against Asish. Just not as cute as little N.

Food Post #1

I keep forgetting to take any pictures of any food related things. So here are at least SOME. Emmi yogurt. It's delicious. There is an outlet store near the office. In the back of a gas station. Weird location. Fabulous prices. Way cheaper. 8 for the price of 1. Usually they are CHF 1.80 or 2 each. On the other hand they actually don't sell the same style of Emmi yogurt as they do in the US. But they do have these caffe latte drinks that are delicious.


This is a picture of a sock monkey and a liter of beer. Obviously. We found a place in the olde part of town that was quite enjoyable. Sat there until it was too cold then went out in search of food. We ate Thai. Not very Swiss. But good none-the-less.

Drinkies

I met up with a bunch of English speakers this evening at the Rosengarten restaurant. From the restaurant you can see the entire city. Awesome view. It was raining the entire time so no good pictures. Nice folks. Some have lived here for 15 years, some just got here last month. I was the most recent addition to the town. Lots of Australians for some reason. One Scottish dude, a woman from Prague and an Italian guy.






Ain't this place beautiful?

Picture Series #1: Contrasts

So. Where to start. This is a shot coming down the hill from our new apartment (signed contract this evening, moving in 1. June). It rained all day today. Right as I was walking down the Kornhausbrücke the sun came out and hit the mountains off to the south east of Bern. It's usually too hazy to actually see them. But today they lit up during a break in the rain. Can't really tell too much due to the crappy cell phone camera though. One of these days I'll have the good camera with me and I will get a good shot.





This is how much the Swiss like their buttery bread. You see, the bread ... it eats the butter. It EATS the butter. That's how much butter is in this little Brötchen. Like, a lot.







This is my desk. See?!? It's not all that. Yep, I'm drinking a little bottle of bubbly water. And yes, that's a tin of Lindt chocolate on my desk. I swear ... we eat chocolate all day long. Seriously. It's weird.

Breitenrain

If everything works out as it should, we should be getting this nice little apartment in the Breitenrain neighborhood. One of the first emails we ever got was from a woman who had just left Bern, suggesting that we look for an apartment in this area. Luckily, we found one. It's about 5 minutes from the center of town, and 5 minutes from work. Ok, I lied - it's 7 minutes. But seriously. Downside? As you can see, there's a tram right in front of the place. But if you close the windows you can't hear a thing. The rear opens to a balcony in the shared courtyard.

It had to happen

I had to move to Switzerland in order to see G's to Gents for the first time. Stooopid.

Swiss Banking Rules: Reason #1

Welcome to your new fancy-pants "Swiss Bank Account." Please find enclosed an RSA SecureID thingie to use when accessing your account online ... Can you imagine Wells Fargo rolling this out to all their banking customers?

first day at work

So I had my first day at work. got the laptop, company phone, lots of paperwork, project overview etc etc. so my original understanding of this position was that it was all or mostly in English. turns out, since the full-timers now know I speak German, well, it's all in German. My life definitely just got harder. having learned German before say, the cell phone existed, my ability to express things such as "I followed the instructions but the darn'd thing still tells me the SIM card is invalid. yes, I tried it twice" are lacking. hopefully I'll figure it out. oh, you say I should have received an email with instructions on how to activate the SIM card? Well I need the phone to call the help desk in order to reset my password first. Yes, I must have missed the "IT Support" chapter in Unsere Freunde (a little insider joke for those who learned German in the early 80's). Oh, and the Y and Z are switched on a German keyboard. Just for fun.

And this is the view from the front door to the office building. step outside, cows. Ok, they're horses and you can barely see them. either way, it smells like the country if you know what I mean.


On another note, went out for drinks to wish one of the consultants a fond farewell. Soneone decides to start a debate about "what country gets what." Sort of a party chat game. the goal is to debate which country is known for which edible/drinkable item. Example: what do you think of when you think of wine. Italy? France? Discuss. Don't stop until wine is awarded to either France or Italy. Continue with bread. A French baguette? Dunno, the Germans have bread too. Good bread. And really, India has awesome nahn, which is a bread. But are they known for it? Who gets rice - India or China. Bring in cheese and folks start going ballistic. Add in the fact that you have French, Italians, Germans, Swiss, Egyptians, English, Americans, Indians and Dutch all participating. A rousing good time.


Gratuitous view of Bern from an apartment I looked at today.

A few pictures from walking around Berne yesterday

A view from the Kirchenfeldbrücke

Looking across the Kirchenfeldbrücke

Berne pedestrian zone

Swiss graffiti

Welcome to Berne

Welcome to Berne. Please find enclosed your supply of Potassium iodide which is to be used only in case of nuclear attack.

I think this must happen a lot over here. Being neutral doesn't mean of course that they don't participate in a good deal of nuclear weapons exchange just for fun you know.

First setting foot in Bern ...

The flight from München to Bern was on a twin engine puddle jumper plane. In München you wait at the concourse until they announce the boarding, walk down a few fights of stairs to find out you are NOT getting onto a plane. You are getting on a bus. Then they drive you around for a bit and drop you off at a really small plane. You fly for under an hour atop Bavarian and Swiss rooftops, you see some cows, then you land on a short runway. Get off the plane and see this.

One Husband Shipped

Colin left yesterday to begin the journey. We were both very sad. Noah's been sick, so he's more focused on coughing and sleeping. Of course, on the way to the airport we were thinking we've planned this part all wrong. A month between his departure and ours seems too long now. We shall see what happens. All part of the learning process and our future best-seller helping new expats follow our path. There seems to be a lot of disparate information about moving abroad, but nothing consistent, helpful, or reliable.