T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
I feel like I’ve been down on Zurich for a while now. It started in the summer, with the ridiculously hot weather (and total lack of air conditioning), and just never quite recovered. I was looking forward to a cold, snowy winter to renew my love of this little country, but instead I’ve been given … Read more
2006 stands out to me for a lot of reasons: my first full year of unemployment, our first whole year living in Switzerland, my first calendar year without stepping foot inside my home country (in 7 years of expat life, I’ve almost always gone home once or twice a year before this), my first year … Read more
OK, so I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of traffic from people searching the web for how to say things such as “Merry Christmas” in Swiss German. I thought I’d help you out by posting this little nugget of information, but then I realized that I didn’t know the answer. So I had … Read more
We spent the weekend Christmas-market-hopping around our little corner of Europe. On Friday I introduced fellow blogger Ali and my mother-in-law to that most delicious of Christmas treats, Glühwein (hot spiced wine, for those who haven’t been following along). This took place in the courtyard of the Landesmuseum, a large castle right next to the … Read more
We went to a second Swiss Christmas party last week, thrown by my husband’s company. The owner of this company loves to force his employees to endure spring surprises on his employees, even though the Swiss ones (ie, everyone except my husband) seem to not be too fond of being surprised. I, on the other … Read more
The Big Finn, Sara and I have organized a blogger meet-up in Basel for January 14th. Bloggers in and around Switzerland are welcome to join us and bring spouses, family, friends, etc. More details can be found in this post on TBF’s BB. If you’re interested in coming, let us know (by, say, leaving a … Read more
As I’ve mentioned before, I am a winter person. Every year I patiently wait out summer, reminding myself that the weather isn’t going to always be so sucky and warm. My reward is especially worth it now that we live in Switzerland, where winter is so gosh darn glorious: pointy snow-capped Alps, outdoor ice skating … Read more
“Sorry dear, I didn’t get you a present this year. It’s… it’s… those damn Christmas lights on Bahnhofstrasse! How was I supposed to get in the Christmas shopping mood with those ghastly things overshadowing the whole scene? They totally ruined everything. Next year, I’ll buy you something in Chicago. Promise.” And so the Great Zurich … Read more
The other night we went to a Christmas party thrown by the language school where my husband is taking German classes. The party was held at a Mexican restaurant here in Zurich (in case you’re wondering what Mexican food in Zurich is like, click here), and was attended by around 80 adult students of this … Read more
Today fellow blogger Jill and I headed to Bern for the Bern Onion Market (or Zibelemärit in the ridiculous local language). This is a festival that happens once a year in the Swiss capital to celebrate onions and the silly things you can do with them. From what we saw, little old ladies and men … Read more