Our Apartment and Fantastic Weekend

We moved into our permanent apartment this week, so things have been pretty busy and tiring here.  We are happy to have our apartment and still think it's nice, but the relocation agent failed to mention that the underground trains travel right underneath us.  There is a rumble every now and then, which we didn't expect, but that we are getting used to.  The apartment has other great things though like location, a big kitchen, and closets.  Yes, we have a coat closet and three hallway closets.  This is very unusual in Switzerland.  Closets are never part of the apartment, even in the bedrooms.  People typically buy a wardrobe to hang up their clothes, so we are lucky to have these storage spaces especially since we don't have our furniture.  Also, we live on the first floor!  This is fantastic.  I had to haul all the suitcases down five flights of stairs on Tuesday and so I am very thankful for a first-floor apartment right now.

It's been difficult getting the apartment set up without a car, but fortunately we have had a lot of help from our new friends at church.  One lady picked me and all of our things up Tuesday morning and drove me over to our new apartment so I didn't have to haul everything over there myself.  Then another lady met us at Ikea yesterday morning with her mini-van so that we could get a futon and some other things to hold us over until our stuff arrives.  Everyone is so nice!  Part of the reason this past weekend was so fantastic was because of another nice couple, but I'll start with Friday first.

Friday night we made another trip to Ikea.  We have now been there three times and we will probably go again tonight.  It really is fantastic that Ikea is here because their prices are about half of what they are at other places.  Even though they are a great deal, they still aren't as cheap as they are in the US.  The same exact futon that we bought is available in the US, but it's $100 less.  Even so, we would be broke if we had to buy everything at other furniture stores here.  Also, getting to Ikea is pretty simple without a car, which we are grateful for.  We take a 20-minute train and a short 5-minute bus ride and we are there.

I really am in love with public transportation here.  But one thing I did forget about not having a car is that your errands won't be accomplished unless you get up off your butt and walk to wherever you need to go.  Even if you are tired from hauling five overweight suitcases down five flights of stairs, the keys from your temporary apartment will not be turned in unless you go walk over there yourself.  This can take a lot of mental willpower, but the reward is that I can pretty much can eat Nutella every day with all this exercise. :)

The fantastic weekend continued with a fun outing Saturday night!  We went to a performance of Handel's Messiah at Grossmünster.  That's the 800-year-old church I keep mentioning.  It is the most famous church in Zürich.  The performance was by a local semi-professional group, like the kind of choirs Darren used to sing with.  It was a small group, probably about 20 to 30 people in the choir and a small orchestra.  The group was decent and the soloists were good, so it was an enjoyable performance.  It was also funny to hear how the Swiss sing English.  But really, it was just amazing that we were at a performance at such an unforgettable venue!

Darren snapped a quick picture from his cell phone during the performance

The church was freezing though, so everyone kept their coats on

When the performance ended, we walked along the Münsterbrücke (Cathedral bridge) to our tram stop near Sprüngli and it was snowing big fluffy flakes so the scenery was just gorgeous!  Life is fantastic!

Darren tried to take a picture of the snow from his cell phone

Finally, on Sunday night, we were invited over to have Thanksgiving dinner with a couple from church and their three little children.  They had had a busy Thursday, so they had decided to have Thanksgiving on Sunday and invite some people over to join them and we were the lucky ones.  I have never appreciated a home-cooked meal and good company more.  We also had some of those Luxemburgerli from Sprüngli and I thought they were good so everyone should try them when they are here.  We were told they are very different from macaroons, so those people who do not like macaroons (Luke) should try these.

That was our fantastic weekend!  Life is pretty much a fairy tale.

Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving for everyone in the U.S., but sadly it was just a normal day here.  We had leftover mushroom lasagna.  The one exciting thing was the opening of the Weihnachtsmärkte (Weihnacht(en) = Christmas, märkte = markets, Germans just throw nouns together to make a new noun) around Zürich.  Christmas markets are a tradition of the Christmas season in Europe.  They are equivalent to typical arts and crafts fairs in the U.S., but with a Christmas theme.  In addition to selling handicrafts, vendors also traditionally sell raclette (melted cheese served over boiled potatoes) and glühwein (warm, spiced wine).  I think fondue is superior to raclette, so we didn't have any while we were there.  The opening of the markets begins with the Bahnhofstrasse lighting.  The lights were pretty, but not as awesome as I had hoped.  Below are some pictures and a video of the lights on Bahnhofstrasse.

There are five different Christmas markets throughout Zürich, but the largest one is inside Hauptbahnhof (central train station).  Sorry, travel guides are in the air shipment, so I don't have any background info on Hauptbahnhof.  I'll write about it some other time.

Sorry, this is blurry

The picture below shows the inside of the main terminal in Hauptbahnhof, where the Christmas market was.  There were several rows of little house-shaped stands for each vendor to sell his or her goods.  You can see way at the end there is a very sparkly Christmas tree.

That is the Swarovski Christmas tree covered with their dazzling Christmas ornaments.  I don't think there were actual lights on the tree, but it just looked bright because of the light reflecting off of the crystals from spotlights above.  It was pretty awesome and probably my favorite part of the Christmas market.

Wish I could have these on my tree!

In terms of the vendor stalls, some were interesting and cute like this one below where they were selling apple products.  But most were not selling "cute" Swiss handicrafts, which were the kinds of goods I was looking for.  It was mostly things like Pashmina scarves, beaded jewelry, etc.  So I didn't find anything that was worth buying and sending home.  But I won't give up and intend to go back and try again.

Outside of the Hauptbahnhof, on one of the little streets off of the Bahnhofstrasse, was a singing Christmas tree!  Each night until Christmas, different choirs will perform in the tree-shaped stage.  I don't remember the name of this group, but they were cool.  You can watch a clip of their performance below.   Yes, they are attempting to sing in English.

We had a good time, but it was definitely chilly.  It snows about every day now so the temperatures are hovering around freezing.  I still love snow!  The weather is perfect here where it is cold enough to snow, but it warms up a bit (36 or 38 degrees) every few days such that most of it melts away.  This means that big ugly piles of dirty snow don't accumulate for several months and it all gets plowed onto the sidewalk where I'm supposed to be walking (I'm talking to you, Boston).  It may get this way later, we'll just have to see.  Until then, I will jump for joy every time it snows!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Where do we live again?

According to our visas, our bank statements, and our Facebook pages we currently live in Zürich, Switzerland.  I thought when we moved here, that I would feel different somehow now that we live in Europe, but really, life is pretty normal.  It's kind of like when you turn a certain age, like 16, 18, or 21 and you think you are going to feel different because you reached some milestone, but you feel pretty much the same, unfortunately.  Now, there are things that are very different and breathtaking, like when I was walking around downtown last Friday and tucked in with all the other buildings is a 12th-century church.

Grossmünster

You know, no big deal, it's just a church that's been around for 800 years (!) that you pass by on your way to the grocery store or to work, etc.  Or you know, as you are on your way to meet someone for lunch you might pass by this amazing view.

Not the view of the crane, I'm talking about those Swiss Alps

So yes, there are things that are very different.  The Swiss do like to think of themselves as rule followers and they do have strict rules when it comes to some things.  But people still cross the street wherever and whenever they feel like.  They still push people out of the way to try and get free chocolate.  And even though there was a four-page document about all the rules when you live in an apartment (don't take a bath between 10 pm and 6 am?  The noise might wake people up?), our relocation agent specifically said to ignore them.

But most other things are pretty close to what we are used to in the US. Darren goes to work and speaks English all day and gets free food, which I then covet.  I go to the grocery store, stalk people on Facebook, talk to my mother mostly every day, and learn German.  Everyone around us is speaking a different language, but well, in California our apartment complex was 70% Indian, so we never heard people speak English there anyways.  We go to Asian grocery stores, buy ramen, I attempt to remember any of the Chinese I supposedly learned in college, and Darren tries to get me to buy kimchi.

We go to Ikea where everything is in Swedish and wander around and about halfway through we are so tired, we just want to get out of there, but have to just walk through the whole thing because there is no escaping.

Good old Poång

All of this is to say that with today's global economy, we still buy our clothes and our furniture from Swedish companies, we still drool over German cars, we watch American movies with all British actors, we want the latest Taiwanese cell phones, and I still need soap from a Swiss company that my dermatologist recommended, but now we just do it from Switzerland. :)

At a much higher price. :(