And we're off!

As I sit in our empty apartment, on our last day "living" in Europe, I can't help but think of all the great times we've had in the last 18 months. Wow what a whirlwind.  It feels like only yesterday Nathan called me and said "Want to move to Europe?  We have to be gone in 30 days..." 

How do you turn down an opportunity like that?  You don't. 

From the initial shock (30 days is a really short time to get your mind wrapped around moving to another country) to landing in Switzerland (I didn't know the language or simple things like where to find the grocery store or how the damn dishwasher worked) to our first outing (I wasn't about to spend all week in a 600 sq foot apartment and not get out on the weekends) to making my first friend (Thank God for you Miriam) to feeling comfortable as a Zuricher (sure I can give you directions!) - life as an Ex-pat has been pretty fabulous. 

We've learned a lot about ourselves during the last year - like the fact that we won't actually kill each other if we live in a space as small as 400 sq feet - who knew?!  Or the fact that we love being outdoors doing stuff like hiking or biking.  Hopefully we won't go back to our "old ways" of working all the time once we get back to Raleigh - it really would be a shame.  

The best times here have been spent with our family and friends (both old and new) traveling and see the world - so thank you for all the memories!  Since I was reminiscing and looking at all the pictures from the last year and a half, I thought I would put together a picture collage of some of my favorite times.

Finally, a special thank you to Nathan's co-workers (and their significant others!) in both Switzerland and Finland, you all have been so welcoming and helpful.  It wouldn't have been the same without all of your kind gestures and hospitality!  So THANK YOU  from the bottom of my heart to everyone at ABB - you made our time abroad so much more enjoyable.

Now off to Greece for our final hoorah and then back to Raleigh.  Although we have had so much fun, it is time to come back, because as Dorthy said "There's no place like HOME!" 

We can't leave the country - Sorry Mom!

So we are stuck in Switzerland - isn't that terrible?:) The whole thing has been kind of a mess. HR at ABB told Nathan that we needed to take 90 Fr. down to the Migration Office and get a "3 month return visa". SO - we stood in line for 1 1/2 hours and when we got up to the desk this is how the conversation went:
SIDE NOTE: Our VISAs only allowed us to enter and exit Switzerland one time. If we leave we can't get back in. Of course if we never got a VISA we could freely travel whereever we wanted to go on our U.S. Passports - crossing the Swiss border indefinitely if we wanted to- but details - right? (Oh yeah and if we didn't get the VISAs Nathan couldn't work - that's why we got them:)). Anyway...
Agent: (after she types our names into her system) "Sorry we don't have your permanent registration card information so we can't give you the return visa until we get that."
Nathan: "Here are our registration cards."
Agent: "Those are temporary registration cards. We need the permanent ones to get the information."
Nathan: "But the information is right here."
Agent: "No. I need the information from the governement. However, once you get the permanent one you don't have to come down here b/c that proves you live in Switzerland."
Nathan (mad voice): "What does THIS card do for us then (pointing to our temporary cards). We just stood in this line for almost 2 hours and we can't get our return...."
Mandy: "Honey, I don't think it is her fault. We must have gotten bad information. Can you please explain this to us one more time."
Agent: "Yes. We can't issue you a return VISA until we get the Permanent Registration Card information from the government. But in the meanwhile if you get the actual card you don't need a return VISA anyway so no need to come back down here. That cards proves you are supposed to be in Switzerland."
Mandy: "Okay, so how long does the Permanent Registration Card take to get?"
Agent: "About 2 - 3 months"
Nathan (mad voice again): "But I have to go to Finland in like 2 weeks."
Agent: "Come back when you have concrete plans and we will issue you a temporary return VISA for those plans."
Nathan: "Well, then I have concrete plans to go to Finland in 2 weeks."
Agent: (Laugh) "What exact days are you leaving and returning."
Mandy: (mean eye to Nathan then very sweetly to agent) "Okay, let me just get this straight b/c I am REALLY starting to get confused. If we get our permanent registration card we are free to travel. If we don't then every time we want to travel in Europe or US then we have to come back here?"
Agent: "You are free to travel around Europe as much as you would like."
Mandy: "Oh great!"
Agent: "You just won't be able to return to Switzerland."
Mandy (to myself) "*&$#*%! RIGHT - now I get it. Once we get the registration card we can travel but until then we are waiting on her to get the registration card info and if we want to travel before then we will have to stand in a 2 hour line to go anywhere outstide Switzerland. Yep. Got it. I think...."

MORAL OF THE STORY: We are stuck in Switzerland b/c we have to have our concrete plans at least two weeks in advance - which is kind of a bummer b/c it is either snowing or raining all over Switzerland this weekend and I want to go to the Italian Riviera!

Doesn't our life sound complicated?:)

We are going to try again for the Return Visa at the beginning of next week, because when I spoke to ABB's HR yesterday they told me that what the Agent said was incorrect. Who knows?!
I'll let you guys know when we aren't hostages anymore!
Mandy

p.s. - I forgot one important thing! While we were waiting in line I learned how to count to 10 in German! Isn't that great? It only took 1 1/2 hours!:) (I did also learn 11 and 12)

I'm taking a poll

Who thinks these boxes full of clothes:

Are going to fit in this wardrobe (which already has the stuff from my suitcase in it)?

I guess we will find out soon enough. Time to unpack the rest of this crap!

I survived the first week

Even better for Nathan - he survived the first week without me killing him:). It was a close call at a couple of points but we are better now. I don't recommend moving to a new country when you have PMS:)

Let's start at the beginning. ABB has no relocation support for the relocating spouse - why is that? Nathan had his orientation on Monday and he has been coming here for over 5 years. Honestly this has been very frustrating. I guess no one in HR has ever had to relocate to another country or I'm hoping they would be a little more sympathetic. I would have appreciated even just a 1 hour meeting. Thank God for the internet - how did people do this in the 80's? I guess the HR budgets hadn't been cut back then and they ACTUALLY got an orientation. I will move on from this topic or you will be reading this for the next 2 hours....

Since we only had about a month and a half warning that would be moving it was a little crazy before we moved. I tell you this b/c I feel like I need to defend myself for not being more prepared. I had to focus on my business (hiring new employees, training the store manager, etc) instead of reading up on Switzerland. I didn't have time to do any research. I can't think of one night Nathan and I sat on our butts - b/c we also had to sell a lot of our belongings, rent our townhome, go visit family, etc. So with that being said....... Why the hell didn't I read up more on Switzerland? Why did I trust Nathan when he said everyone spoke english? Why didn't I ask any of my expat friends what they wish they would have known when they moved? The "Why's" could keep coming - believe me! I don't tell you this so you can feel sorry for me - I am telling you this so if you ever know anyone else who is moving our seas - give them my number or have them read this blog! If I can help just one person have a smoother transition it will make this week worth while.:)

A couple things we did this week in order to officially live in Switzerland:

1. Registered with our Kries (so the goverment knows where you are and where to find you). This was pretty painless except that we had to take "passport" type pictures without smiling. Are you kidding me? You know how big of a picture nazi I am! If I don't like a picture on YOUR camera I will delete it:) So NO - none of you are going to get to see this photo. I look like an ad campaign for botox (the before photo). Nathan looks like a terrorist though so I don't feel as bad:)

2. Opened a Swiss Bank Account. We couldn't go to just any branch. We walked into a UBS in Oerlikon and they informed us that only the Airport branch would take "us Americans". The process took about an hour and apparently if we move we have to close it - unless we want to give them about $25K - then we can keep it.

3 Bought our "half pass" for the train (that I'm still not 100% sure how to use yet). This allows us to travel within Switzerland at "half" the cost. Which is still expensive mind you. Our 30 minute train ride to Zug was $15 each! That is some expensive gas!

4. I have perfected the word "Gruetzi" - basically SwissGerman for Hello. That is what everyone says here when you see them. I must have done a good job b/c someone came up and asked me for directions - at least that is what I thought he was asking me. To which I said "No sprechen zie Deutsch".:) But it maid me feel good that he thought I could:)

Stuff I wish I would have thought of/done before I left the US:

1. Bought Rosetta Stone or some other type of German Language crash course. Thank you Carla for shipping me one ASAP!

2. Shipped over books to read. I guess it never dawned on me that all the books over here would be in German - duh!

3. Known about the fact that Hulu.com and all the american TV stations block downloads of their TV shows to overseas IP addresses. I would have also loved to have known about Slingbox - the device that lets someone in one country DVR TV shows and you can watch those TV shows on your computer any where in the world. But LATE is better than NEVER! Thanks Sara!

4. Thought to join a Zurich Expat yahoo group. The woman I sat next to on the airplane told me that that was one of the most beneficial/helpful things for her. I joined yesterday and have already found out a bunch of info!

5. Thought to ask everyone on FB if they had ever lived in Switzerland and to give me some tips!

Stuff that I am so glad we knew about/did before we moved:

1.Magicjack. Magicjack is a thing you plug into your computer and then into your phone so you can make calls for free to your home country. It does run through the internet so you need a connection, but our Magicjack phone number is a 919 area code so all our friends and family can call us without extra fees! Love it!

2. Of course I already knew about Facebook - but I LOVE IT even more now that I live in Zurich. It makes me feel like I am still so close to everyone. It would have been so much harder to do this before the internet or my phone bills would have just been CRAZY! Also, I was introduced to someone over here after I posted that I was moving - thanks Lisa!

Hindsight/Perspective/Stuff I wish I knew then that I know now:

1. I would tell anyone to not bother shipping over any electronics. My hair dryer was supposed to convert from 110V/240V with the push of a button, but it didnt't - and it blew our $40 adapter! Just buy the stuff where you live -that way you can actually plug the item into the wall! As far as I can tell the electronics really aren't that much more expensive over here - and you will have to buy an adapter anyway - which at $40 a pop (in 2009) ain't cheap!

2. They don't have closets in most of Europe - they have wardrobes - which are quite small. That would have been a nice bit of info to have. I probably wouldn't have shipped over 200lbs of clothes..... And as my sister asked - if you don't have drawers - where do you put your underwear? Good question Marla - I'll get back to you on that - right now they are in the cardboard shipping boxes:)

3. When they tell you to they are going to let you ship 500 lbs of stuff - it is b/c you don't have enough room for anything else:) Get rid of half your stuff then get rid of half the stuff you have remaining - at that point you will still have more than you need but it will be manageable!

4. Buying my one Europe travel book was a good idea! Again - the ones here aren't in english:)

5. Have a good sense of humor - you are going to need it! Not being able to buy groceries efficiently was an eye opener.

6. I brought a cook book, but I realized that I will have to do all the converting to metric b/c that is what all my cooking supplies are in, so I think I will just use the internet so they can convert for me!

My Favorite Thing I Learned This Week:

So yesterday I wanted to go to Old Town in Zurich and was trying to find directions. I wasn't sure how I was going to use them though b/c we don't have a car. WELL the cool thing over here (that maybe some of you already knew but I didn't) is that you can choose how you want your directions: By Car, By Public Transportation, or By Walking. Cool, huh?! I hit the public transportation button and it gave me a couple choices - by Train or by Tram. The train seemed more direct so I chose that one then it gave me the next available time and then directions on where to walk once I arrived at the right train station! Thank you GOOGLE - you rock!

Here is a picture from my outing. If you can see - the guy in the left hand bottom corner really loves his city - he tattooed it across his back - nice!:) Sorry Mary Helen - I didn't hear the 3 clocks b/c I was listening to my ipod! I will go back and try again:)

Deep Thoughts

These are the things on my mind today:
1. How am I going to watch Gossip Girl? Apparently all the US Television stations block all non US IP addresses from downloading any TV programs - not cool- not cool AT ALL.
2. Thank God all the meat has pictures of animals on the label or I wouldn't be able to cook anything. I don't like non distinguishable meat and it seems like most of it in the grocery store is already marinated so I can't tell what the meat "below" all that coating is.
3. I'm not sure how Nathan and I are going to survive living in 650 sq. feet together. I wonder which one of us will make it out alive?:)
4. I think it's funny that no one on my day to day journeys (trying to buy groceries, etc) speaks English but all they play is American music. I must have heard Beyonce 5 times yesterday.
5. Speaking of music - I am going to be really hip with my knowledge of music and music videos when I get back. The only channel that has English is MTV - and that is only during the music videos:) Even the "Wonder Pets" are in German:) Of course, I would read books but also none of them are in English. I guess I should have thought about that before I came and stocked up on them.:) My preparation for this "trip" was poor at best!

That's it for now - I guess I'm not very deep today:)
love ya, Mandy

Apparently the dishwasher needs SALT and other details

Hey Everybody! We are here! I was online for a very short bit yesterday but our power died quickly! The long and short of it is - Nathan bought an adapter in the Atlanta airport and then somehow managed to lose it on the plane so when we got here we had no way to power our American electronics - I really don't know how he survives without me:)! Anyway, I went to the store today and got the adapters and power cord so we are BACK IN BUSINESS! It's a good thing too b/c I was getting very lonely without my computer since the TV only speaks to me in German:)! I have a lot to tell you guys from the last two days, but I am going to try to make my posts short from now on- but as you all know I'm long winded so we shall see)

I'll start at our arrival! We got in around 7:30 am and Nathan went to work after we dropped all 200 lbs of our luggage (yes that's on top of our 700 lbs we shipped over) at the apartment. I got online to say I arrived and almost 30 minutes later I lost all power and ways to connect to the world so I decided to venture out! We are living in Oerlikon which is in Zone 10 in Zurich (I'm still not quite sure what that means) but it is a pretty industrial part of Zurich (meaning not a lot of green - more NYC then NC) but that is okay b/c I always wanted to live in the city! I turned right out of the apartment and ended up at the scariest looking "grocery store" I have ever seen. I almost started crying but I held it together enough to ask the clerk if there was anywhere else to buy groceries. I'm pretty sure I offended him b/c he said "This is a grocery store" but I think he saw the tears welling up and decided to tell me about the "Migros" about 1/4 mile down the street. This was more like it! It was a "real" grocery store. The only weird things were:
1. The eggs are kept in the middle of the floor - not in the refridgerated area. However, I decided to buy some since every else seemed to be doing it. (Which reminded me of the "if your friends jumped off a bridge" thing but whatever)
2. The meat was a little suspect. I get freaked out about not buying Boar's Head so you know this was an issue. I had no idea what the "good" kind was so I stayed clear for the time being - and besides I don't like all the proscuitto and other hams - yuck. Hopefully I will start to enjoy them as I become Switzerlandized - hopefully...
3. This isn't weird but I didn't think about it. It was hard to buy anything in a box that needed to be made up b/c the directions were all in German. Of course most of the boxes were translated into 5 different languages but none of them were English - WTF to that I say! I guess I will be sticking to fresh veggies - I guess that will be good for my figure:). The only words/labels that I recognized were - Uncle Ben's, Old Elpaso, and Weight Watchers - ha!

I walked for miles and explored a lot of Oerlikon - I found several nice parks, more grocery stores, a gym, and the train station. Nathan got home around 6 pm and we walked to the ABB headquarters. All in all - nice first day in Zurich!

DAY TWO
The dishwasher doesn't work and it smells REALLY bad so we emailed the apartment company and they sent someone over. The two women assessed the situation and "fixed" it within minutes - then they tried to speak to me in German (which I can't understand of course) so they had to call someone else in to speak with me. Apparently the dishwasher needs SALT - who knew? Also, she told me the standing water was due to us opening the door too soon and we had to wait an entire hour after we heard it stop. Okay. Either way - no bad smell anymore - but I have been to two grocery stores and haven't found the dishwasher salt yet so I am hand washing everything till further notice - good times! Which for those of you who know me might think isn't that big a deal, but I cooked dinner for the second night in a row which is more than the last 6 months in Raleigh! Nathan is super excited about his "new" wife! Both dinners were even edible - if it weren't for all the smoke coming out of the oven both nights I would say I was a natural!

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS TODAY:
1. We went to the Registrars office today to register that we are now living in Oerlikon. You have to register in your Kries (kind of like a zipcode).
2. I took a train and a bus to Volkiland:) Volkiland is a "mall" that Katrina told me about (Katrina lived in Zurich for 8 years with her husband who also works for ABB). I used the train schedule, paid for my tickets, and got on the right bus all by myself! I was hoping to find power converters and other electronic stuff there. I did - at a place called Intercept. It is kind of like Circuit City I guess. But MUCH MUCH MUCH smaller (more like the size of a gas station convenience store). Not a lot to choose from so decisions are made easily!
3. Nathan and I bought a "half pass" which allows us to ride on public transportation at half price. I'm still not exactly sure how the trains/trams/busses all work but that is a job for tonight. Again everything is in German and 5 other languages besides English but the person working there told me I could read about it all online in English!

Here's my question - if everyone can speak English - then why not have stuff written in English as one of the choices? I'll tell you why. Because these people DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH!:) Of course I don't speak any German, French, or Italian - but Nathan told me "everyone" speaks English. Well maybe at ABB - but certaintly not at the grocery store, shoe store, electronics store, or train station:) I'm going to have to get on the German classes sooner than later!

Well - this post is getting long so I will continue later!
TTFN,
mandy