Sad day

Well, Josh left this morning. Right now, he is on a plane somewhere between London Heathrow [unless of course he was delayed, which is highly likely at Heathrow] and Chicago O’Hare. I already miss him like crazy. We had such a blast while he was here. A lot of the other students I have met here came a bit before our German class started, but I chose to come the day before. So much of the exploring and getting settled the other students did before our class started, I had to rely on Josh to do. And he did an PHENOMENAL job. He absolutely fell in love with the city and by the time he left today he know the history of the city and how to navigate its most important parts. I really can not imagine what I would have done if he was not here. The last thing he did before hopping on his train to Zurich was get me my Swiss phone. Yeah...its weird. I have had the same phone number since I got my first cell phone in 1997. And now I have to learn a new number, that is way too long, and a new phone [I got a new iPhone just before I left and the technology needed to jailbreak it was not yet available, so I had to get a cheap-o old phone with a pay-as-you-go plan...its weird!!].

So yeah. This was a super random, rambling post. I have a few other things I hope to write tonight, internet and energy-level willing. But, I will end this post on a happy note. Since Josh is headed home to our puppies, I give you, pictures of the pwetty pwetty pwincesses!!

A Most Important Day

So today, September 11, means a lot of things to a lot of people; but first and foremost to my family, it will always be my mom’s birthday. And without her, there would be no me . . . so before I write anything else today . . . Here’s to my mother. I thought about you all day, even though you were half a world away. I love you finity, to the moon and back.

PS: Isn't she super pretty and fabulous!!

Things I Have Learned About Switzerland [So Far]

They like their salt. A lot. A lot a lot. I don’t know why, but they put salt on everything. Caprese Salad- salted. Pizza- salted. Maybe they just use the salt leftover from winter and put it on anything that will stand still, specifically food.

Ice doesn’t exist, at least not until winter time outside. You cannot get iced drinks. At all. Can’t even find an ice tray to make my own ice at my flat. When I went to Russia someone in my group asked for ice in their drink and the waiter replied: “Ice in the streets, not in the drinks.” This seems to apply equally in Switzerland.

So I love milk. A lot. I drink milk at home throughout the day. It’s my favorite. So I was super excited to come to a country known for its dairy. Until I went to the grocery store. There I discovered that the lowest fat milk available is 2.5%!! WTF!! And it went up to 3.7%!! I don’t know what chewing one’s milk would be like, but I imagine I could find out. So I am now drinking milk that is more fatty than the milk I have been drinking for the last 15 or so years. It’s not easy to get used. But man oh man it does taste as good as you would imagine!!

The eggs here cost about a franc per eggs [sold in 6 and 10 packs]. And they are not sold from the refrigerated section. Nope on the shelf like the standard groceries. Yep. Not at all weirded me out…oh no, wait, it did!

On prices at the grocery store, everything, EVERYTHING is BEYOND expensive. Like ouch. Big ole ouch. An 8 pack of razor blades that sells for about $30 at Target was SF50!!! [Oh yeah, and that’s just the price on the shelf, with the currency conversion that is about $60 (luckily this is going down because the Swiss government was concerned that the exchange rate was getting prohibitively high and are now actively working to lower it, THANK GOD!!)]

In general, my diet just won’t be anything like it is at home (and this isn’t just because of my limited [read singular] method of cooking):

 

The "Mexican food" section of one of my grocery stores. Dad: no jalapenos. It also features products I have NEVER seen: 1) by Old El Paso, 2) on American grocery shelves. Desperation is the only reason I will ever shop on these shelves.

 

Did you know Old El Paso made chips? Let alone "Nachips?" Me either!!

 

The single shelf of "Mexican food" at the other grocery store.

 

Now this I am familiar with!! But it was like 12 francs [like $15ish]. Again...how bad will the desperation get for something familiar

 

Look Daddy!! Dibs!!! But here they are Maxibon Pops! And cost 5F!! But we got a kick out of it. They also sell Ben and Jerrys [but none of the same flavors].

 

Josh's lunch yesterday [Thursday]. He thought he was ordering a bratwurst. What he got was a garden salad with "cold hot dogs" [un-grilled/fried bratwurst]. We laughed. A lot.

Yes, most of this learning is focused on the grocery store and the like. But other than German class, setting up my new life, and exploring with Josh. As time goes on, this list will expand, and is sure to include more positive aspects of Swiss life [and even some things that are better than back home (blasphemy, I know!)].

Melting Pots Are Not Just For Fondue

Okay come on now! That was just too easy. But I wanted to give you just an idea about what an incredible mix of people I have met here. A good example of this is the conversation I was having today with a girl from Singapore, a girl from Russia, and a guy from Peru. Its incredible. In addition to the three countries already mentioned, I have met people from: Brazil, Poland, Norway, Indonesia, Sweden, Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia, and also a guy who went to Texas A&M, and the winner: a dude from Kazakhstan!! And this doesn’t even really do justice to the number of countries represented here. We have an international dinner later in the semester, and I really can’t wait!! I just love it. 

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

So Thursday morning at 830am, I started an intensive German course at the university. There are two different classifications of students that are taking part: the exchange students [like me] and those students who are coming to St. Gallen from another country to get their masters here. And we are all in this intensive German program together. We are divided into 3 beginner groups, a pre-intermediate, intermediate, and then advanced group [so 6 groups total]. Each beginner group had about 40 people in it. We meet from 830am-12pm and then 130pm-3pm for 7 days [Thursday, Friday this week; Monday-Friday next week]. So…here we go [Dad, this is for you!!!]:

Grüezi! Mein Name ist Amelia. Ich bin sechsundzwanzig Jahre alt. Ich bin verheiratet. Ich komme aus Austin, Texas. Zur Zeit wohne ich in St. Gallen. Meine Hobbies sind reisen, lesen, und kochen. Ich studiere das international recht aber ich interessiere mich auch für Politik. Ich spreche Englisch und ein bisschen Franzosisch, Russisch, und Deutsch. Tschüs.

[so the Germans capitalize a lot of random words, its not just me being crazy]

Oh, and I’m not going to translate that. You have to do that part. But know, its nothing ground-breaking and almost an insult to the sheer amount of information our teacher has given us over the last two days. But at this point it’s a lot of grammar rules and vocabulary, as opposed to true sentences, but that will come more and more. For now, I have been trying to use what I do know when we go out, and it is really gratifying to be able to do so! 

The hills may be alive, but they are going to kill me...

We got to St. Gallen on Tuesday about 345pm. After checking into our hotel, then going up to the school to get my key and going back down into the city and checking out my apt, all we wanted to do the rest of they day is sleep. Eat, sleep, watch the news, thats it.

On Wednesday morning we moved our stuff from the hotel to my room where Josh will be staying with me in my studio [and twin bed (ugh)] until Monday morning. After unloading a bit, it was time to go up to the university for orientation.


So this being Switzerland, its mountainous. The train station, downtown, and old city of St. Gallen are down in a little valley [about 2300 ft above sea level]. Up into the mountain is the University. Up. Very up.

These are the pictures of our journey that day. And although we have now found a few other paths up to the school from my place, this pretty wells sums up what its like:

Set off up the street. Then turn and walk up these stairs...

 

Which lead to these stairs...

 

Turn the corner to these stairs...

 

Turn another corner to these stairs

 

Turn around. Look at the view. Catch your breath. And remember that while I curse the stairs, I should still be thankful for my blessings [and remember to eat less cheese and drink less beer].

 

Can't hate life with this to look at.

 

Then you turn back around to continue on the journey, and must walk up this hill

 

And then this hill.

 

And then these stairs

 

And then these stairs.

 

And at this point this lady is no longer smiling and wondering what the hell I got myself into.

 

And then this hill 

 

And then some more stairs...And then the SCHOOL! Yay!!

 

Yeah thats the view from my classroom....almost worth the hills and stairs and all that.

 

My new school. The reason for all this madness.

I will either be dead from this walk in a few weeks. Or have a rockin' bod. This is also true because while the food here is all delicious, it is very expensive. So I don't know what I will be eating or how much until I get the whole finances thing worked out. Could be interesting...

Home Sweet Studio

So...one of the first things we did when we got here was get checked into my new flat.

I was not so much excited about my new place. Its a studio and the only pictures I got were these: 

The outside. Not that bad. 

 Bathroom. Tile. Ouch. Big ouch.

Small. But not bad. But small.

So then I get here. With only those pictures in mind...and this is my studio:

 

Kitchen is in a separate room. Lots of storage. The front door is just to the right of this photo. So the full cabinet on the far right has the cleaning supplies. The second full cabinet in I am using as a coat closet. Then the fun part. In the three cabinet stack, that middle cabinet [the only one without the round knob], yeah that one...its my refrigerator. Woo.   

 More kitchen. And as you can see, I have a lot of cabinets, but, no dish washer [doable], no microwave [don't have one in the states so not too big a deal], but no oven. That means ALL of my cooking has to happen on two burners. That's it. Ouch...

Bathroom

 

Shower tiles are better than the ones I was expecting based on the earlier pictures, but SUPER dark. And there is only one small light in the bathroom.

 

Leading from the kitchen/entry room into my bedroom.

 

One random storage area thing that is between my bed and the window.

 

My bed and its storage area.

 

Closet. And two desks. Because everyone needs two desks but no oven.

 

My cute little modern desk.

 

Josh looking out the window bed and random storage to the left; deskS and closet cabinet to the right.

 

Big, big window. Also my only access to circulating air. Yes, my only moving air is outside. Where it is usually cold. October-December shall be interesting. And my radiator under the window. I have never had a radiator [hello obvious statement of the year]. I don't know what to do with this. But I will learn!

 

Look down out my window and there is a construction site and the train station. In the States this would mean unbearable noise. But this is Switzerland. And so the trains are not only efficient, but also nearly silent. The construction site makes some noise, but only between 10am and 4pm. And its still not much noise.

 

Looking up from the train station. Mountain. Swiss-ness. Perfection.

 

The view from my bed. Yeah...not bad.

So this is where I will come home each night and wake each morning. For now it works. Once I am all unpacked and settled in, I will repost some pictures of what it looks like once its been Amelia-fied.

So I'm here...

 So....we made it to Switzerland...and this is how:

After flying from Austin to Dallas, we were stuck with a 3+ hour layover. Blargh. Or so we thought. We got off the plane and right in front of us was a DELICIOUS looking Mexican place. How could we not!! Dear god it was good.

So after eating WAY too much Mexican food and two very yummy margaritas, we walked down to our gate. When we got there, Josh went ask the gate agent about a possible upgrade from economy to economy plus. Well, when she looked up our information, we both had enough FF miles to get an upgrade to business class for not very much $$! WIN. Done and done. To celebrate we went to the wine bar right across the hall from our gate [seriously best layover ever].

So then we flew across the Atlantic to the hell that is London Heathrow: 

 

Champagne when we boarded.

 

We were in this little cubicle space, just the two of us with walls between us and the people on the aisle. We each had our on tvs. So Josh is watching his favorite show, White Collar.

 

Speej & Heather, this picture is to show the free juice consumption. They had a malbec, and we killed it! 

Even with the lay-flat seats, we still only got about four hours of sleep each. And were awoken by some terrible turbulence.  Said turbulence would also delay our flight from Heathrow hell by an hour and a half.

While at Heathrow, Josh decided he was hungry. My stomach thought it was 230 in the morning and wanted nothing to do with food, but off we went. And even though I reminded Josh of his experience in St. Lucia, he still ordered the traditional English breakfast. And he still didn’t like it. The baked beans aren’t made with pork fat, molassas or brown sugar. The sausage is DENSE and like the bacon, baked not fried. And none of the pork products are salted. So we paid $40 for his breakfast he hated, my small smoothie, a latte, and two glasses of water. Ouch.

So once we got to Zurich, on our delayed and quite bumpy flight, we got off the plane and walked into the mostly fabulously Swiss experience. The airport was quiet, clean, and not at all busy. No hustle and bustle, just peace. We got on the train and they were playing Swiss mountain music that was punctuated by a bit of yodeling and bells—probably from the collars of the goats walking through the mountain pastures.

We walked into immigration, and this being Switzerland, it was fabulous. There were no forms, none, not one. And no line. At all. Just walked right up. The asked where I was going, for how long, looked at my extended stay visa and then stamped the passport.

After we got our bags we went to customs and actually did not see anyone associated with the Swiss government. No one asked me if I needed to declare anything, nothing. Just walked through a hallway and out to the train. Which just happened to pull up in the station 3 minutes after we bought our tickets. Perfection in every way. We got on the train and rode one hour to my new home.