Our first few weeks
We started our journey by traveling in our rented Mazda MPV across the states. Spent several lovely days with Scott's family in Ohio and had a great time. Then we moved on to the Washington DC area, where we descended upon my brother Dave & his wife Shannon's kinda-new townhouse. While we were there, we (meaning Scott) tried to pay for our keep by tiling their guest bathroom, which turned out pretty nicely. The last leg of our American journey was a trip up I-95 and the NJ Turnpike to the Newark Airport...
Let's talk about traveling with pets, shall we? After 7+ calls to Swiss Airlines to ensure they had our pets' reservations, we finally were assured that our two dogs and one cat would be welcomed aboard. Heartwrenchingly, we were forced to put one of our dogs and the cat into kennels down in some unknown area in the belly of the plane. Woe was us. We brought our smaller dog in a little doggie carry-on bag with us into the staid regions of Business Class. Woe was us even more. Little doggie didn't like her little carrier and spent hours of free time over the Atlantic attempting to chew her way out, and did a really good job of destroying the inside of her carrier. Wee bitch.
After 8 hours of fly time, we arrived at the airport in Zurich, with a veritable mountain of items. Were most pleased to finally find a porter with a very large wagon for our many bags, kennels, etc. Paid him CHF 60 to lug our goods through customs (and what a brief and pleasant experience that was - in and out of there in minutes, despite having animals to bring in and the afforementioned mountain of other bags and items), and then to the van that my company had sent to pick us up. Imagine my surprise when I see a whole mini-bus (with rows of seats) and a small trailer at the back sent just to pick us up. I guess I had scared the relocation people really well with my tales of carrying our entire household with us. We had the bus to ourselves, and our worldly goods rattling around in the trailer behind us. It's only an hour from Zurich to Basel, but I still managed to fall asleep for half of it. Woke in time to see IKEA as we drove past.
But no sooner do our tired butts arrive in Basel (at our new apartment - more later on this), than our relocation agent showed up all bright and energetic to take us on important errands. Because I had planned to start work on the 16th of August, we had arrived in Basel on the 11th, with the idea that I'd have a few days to acclimate and get things done before work started. However, a few days before we left the US, I found out I had to attend offsite meetings in Basel on the 12th and 13th...so I did have to to my important errands the very day we arrived en Suisse. Alas. We went to the police station to register our entry visas and obtain our residence permits. Then we went to some kiosk and bought Diana a monthly tram pass in order that she should be able to move about the city. (Switzerland is interesting about pro-rating things...in that, generally, they don't. I bought a monthly pass on the 11th of August, but I paid for the entire month of August. Similarly, if I had purchased an annual pass, I would have paid for all of 2004, even though I would only use it for the last quarter of 2004. Hmm.)
Then we went to some electronics store to get Scott a mobile phone for quick access to the world outside - and especially to our real estate agent in the states. Following this, we went to SwissCom and bought a phone and had a phone number immediately. So before the first night fell, we were hooked up - especially since TV and cable were already in our apartment. Swiss efficiency is not a myth; but then there's also Swiss bureaucracy and rules...more on this to come.
Early observations on Switzerland: Things run on time - you can practically set your watch by the tram schedule. They really do overinsure - Scott had to buy insurance tags for his bike (CHF 5 per year) in case he injures someone with his bike. We also carry CHF 5 million in 'third party liability' insurance - which is the average amount people carry. (Just for reference, one Swiss Franc [CHF] equals about USD 0.78 and about EUR 0.65) We also had to buy private health insurance, mandatory, but got free 'accident' insurance through my work - meaning any kind of accident, anywhere, anytime - not just work-related accidents. I'm still trying to figure it all out. Expenses and bills are another interesting thing here - when you go to order a service, or sometimes even when you're buying something, they give you the item/service, and then send you a bill for it. These bills may be paid at Die Poste (post office) or via e-banking, but there is no such thing as a check here - they just don't do checks, period. SwissCom made us pay a CHF 500 deposit b/c apparently sometimes these damn auslanders skip out on their bill - but they sent a bill for the deposit, which we paid long after we had already gotten phone service and incurred expenses with them. If you go to buy a car, it's the same deal - you get the car, they mail you a bill that must be paid within 30 days.
Prices are pretty steep here - for example, food is quite expensive. A cake mix type thing that Scott bought was like CHF 11.50 (not imported, a european product), and a small box of ziploc bags was 2.90. The ham that Scott buys to make his sandwiches is approximately CHF 8.00, and it's enough to make two sandiwches. But some things are surprisingly cheap - like tomatoes, and fresh mozarella (only about CHF 1.50 for 180 grams of it - enough for two servings). It's hard to get used to because I think we still kind of think of the pretty colored francs as some kind of play money - it will sink in soon enough when our Swiss bank account starts to look like our US one. By the way, it costs us about CHF 450 a year to pay tax on our 'haushunds' - our dogs (apparently cats are free). Our tax francs at work: there are dispensers of doggie-poo bags all over the city.
Swiss rules are interesting - they have a lot of them, and they believe in them and follow them religiously. There is very little crime here - in the whole of 1993, not a single car was stolen in all of der Schweiz. We know there are several transgressions Scott and/or I have made that I don't know the nature of - but getting scolded in Basel-Deutsch by somebody lets you know you've crossed some unknown line. You can't flush your toilet after 10.00 pm because it makes too much noise (this actually doesn't apply in our only partially residential building, but is apparently a common house rule). We get one day a week to do our laundry (Tuesday) and we can only do it on that day. You can't work in your garden or wash your car or anything like that on Sundays, when they have no-work laws (shops are closed too, but restaurants are often open). I got menaced in the elevator at work the other day by some very tall facilities guy b/c apparently I was using the 'wrong' elevator (no sign anywhere indicating this) - he even brandished his key and told me he could lock me out of it. Sheesh. I responded with a sweet smile and a reminder that I saw facilities people in the other elevators all the time, so I thought we could all just share nicely.
Our apartment is nice as well - it's built in about the 1960s I would say. It's three bedrooms, a nice living room and either an eat-in kitchen, or a very small kitchen with an adjacent dining area, however you want to look at it. There's also a full bathroom, and a half bath - they are located directly next to each other, so that's a little weird. All the doors in the apartment lock with skeleton keys - our old medicine cabinet even had a lock - alot of locks for such a safe country. There's no closet or storage space at all, and we schlepped out to IKEA (at the end of one of the tram lines, then a good long hike to the store) to buy a very large wardrobe. Our apartment is on the third floor (which would be the fourth floor in the US) and has a wee little elevator that you can squeeze two people in to. DeeDee is scared of it (of course) so we have to pick her up to get her to take the elevator; Gibby, as always, is game for anything. We have a nice little terrace overlooking the street. It's a quiet street, relatively speaking. It's a block and a half away from the street where the trams run, and it's a business area, meaning that at night, a lot of people go home and the area is quiet. Our building has both offices and flats. We also have a pool and a sauna in the basement of the building, which are nice, and even, amusingly, a coin-operated tanning bed.
My office is about eight tram stops from the apartment (which is across town, essentially). We live right in the city center, and my work is on the edge of town, right by the French border - the parking lot is in France. I can see the Black Forest from here as well. So we're definitely in the tri-country area. I have a nice office at work - I haven't had an office with an actual door since the early '90s, so it's very good. However, they have this huge 'campus project' in the works, wherein they are constructing an entirely new campus - over the next 30 years. The first building will be done mid-next year, and I've heard that we'll be moving into it. It's all open plan there - no more offices. Alas, I will enjoy it while I can.
Scott is enjoying life and is very busy getting lots of things done. He's working on putting together a massive wardrobe IKEA delivered yesterday (CHF 200 for delivery, thank you very much). Curse the ever-loving flat-pack furniture, it's very hard to work with. Scott also got the DSL hooked up (we FINALLY got it this week) and mostly running. It's very interesting trying to get things to work when the instructions are in German. Scott also got our dishwasher to work. The dogs really love having him around all the time - he's always been their favorite. They get to go on 'walkies' all the time, since they don't use a litter box anymore, so they love that. He is also hooked up with a group called the Housemen - they are men whose wives work in CH, but they don't (usually b/c they're taking care of kids or can't get work permits, or both) and they all speak English - from UK, US, Australia, South Africa, etc. They meet at a pub in town every Wednesday for lunch (and beers, of course) as well as having some other activities as well. (For those who don't already know, the reason that CH is the abbreviation for Switzerland is because it stands for 'Confederatio Helvetica,' some old latin name for this place I believe. The VIP "Hostesses" at work [they look like flight attendants of yesteryear, and literally wear matching powder blue suits with attractive pastel scarves and they 'hostess' the visitors who warrant such treatment] were explaining the CH thing, but I was in the back of the bus and couldn't hear too well.)
And this just in: We sold our house! For a nice price with very little fuss - closing within three weeks. Of course we had to schlep all over Basel to get some house papers notarized (notary fee was CHF 86.10!), but it'll all be worth it when we get that equity payout.
Well, this ought to be rambling enough for anyone at this point. We'll post to this as often as we can - or as often as anything interesting happens. Stay tuned.
Let's talk about traveling with pets, shall we? After 7+ calls to Swiss Airlines to ensure they had our pets' reservations, we finally were assured that our two dogs and one cat would be welcomed aboard. Heartwrenchingly, we were forced to put one of our dogs and the cat into kennels down in some unknown area in the belly of the plane. Woe was us. We brought our smaller dog in a little doggie carry-on bag with us into the staid regions of Business Class. Woe was us even more. Little doggie didn't like her little carrier and spent hours of free time over the Atlantic attempting to chew her way out, and did a really good job of destroying the inside of her carrier. Wee bitch.
After 8 hours of fly time, we arrived at the airport in Zurich, with a veritable mountain of items. Were most pleased to finally find a porter with a very large wagon for our many bags, kennels, etc. Paid him CHF 60 to lug our goods through customs (and what a brief and pleasant experience that was - in and out of there in minutes, despite having animals to bring in and the afforementioned mountain of other bags and items), and then to the van that my company had sent to pick us up. Imagine my surprise when I see a whole mini-bus (with rows of seats) and a small trailer at the back sent just to pick us up. I guess I had scared the relocation people really well with my tales of carrying our entire household with us. We had the bus to ourselves, and our worldly goods rattling around in the trailer behind us. It's only an hour from Zurich to Basel, but I still managed to fall asleep for half of it. Woke in time to see IKEA as we drove past.
But no sooner do our tired butts arrive in Basel (at our new apartment - more later on this), than our relocation agent showed up all bright and energetic to take us on important errands. Because I had planned to start work on the 16th of August, we had arrived in Basel on the 11th, with the idea that I'd have a few days to acclimate and get things done before work started. However, a few days before we left the US, I found out I had to attend offsite meetings in Basel on the 12th and 13th...so I did have to to my important errands the very day we arrived en Suisse. Alas. We went to the police station to register our entry visas and obtain our residence permits. Then we went to some kiosk and bought Diana a monthly tram pass in order that she should be able to move about the city. (Switzerland is interesting about pro-rating things...in that, generally, they don't. I bought a monthly pass on the 11th of August, but I paid for the entire month of August. Similarly, if I had purchased an annual pass, I would have paid for all of 2004, even though I would only use it for the last quarter of 2004. Hmm.)
Then we went to some electronics store to get Scott a mobile phone for quick access to the world outside - and especially to our real estate agent in the states. Following this, we went to SwissCom and bought a phone and had a phone number immediately. So before the first night fell, we were hooked up - especially since TV and cable were already in our apartment. Swiss efficiency is not a myth; but then there's also Swiss bureaucracy and rules...more on this to come.
Early observations on Switzerland: Things run on time - you can practically set your watch by the tram schedule. They really do overinsure - Scott had to buy insurance tags for his bike (CHF 5 per year) in case he injures someone with his bike. We also carry CHF 5 million in 'third party liability' insurance - which is the average amount people carry. (Just for reference, one Swiss Franc [CHF] equals about USD 0.78 and about EUR 0.65) We also had to buy private health insurance, mandatory, but got free 'accident' insurance through my work - meaning any kind of accident, anywhere, anytime - not just work-related accidents. I'm still trying to figure it all out. Expenses and bills are another interesting thing here - when you go to order a service, or sometimes even when you're buying something, they give you the item/service, and then send you a bill for it. These bills may be paid at Die Poste (post office) or via e-banking, but there is no such thing as a check here - they just don't do checks, period. SwissCom made us pay a CHF 500 deposit b/c apparently sometimes these damn auslanders skip out on their bill - but they sent a bill for the deposit, which we paid long after we had already gotten phone service and incurred expenses with them. If you go to buy a car, it's the same deal - you get the car, they mail you a bill that must be paid within 30 days.
Prices are pretty steep here - for example, food is quite expensive. A cake mix type thing that Scott bought was like CHF 11.50 (not imported, a european product), and a small box of ziploc bags was 2.90. The ham that Scott buys to make his sandwiches is approximately CHF 8.00, and it's enough to make two sandiwches. But some things are surprisingly cheap - like tomatoes, and fresh mozarella (only about CHF 1.50 for 180 grams of it - enough for two servings). It's hard to get used to because I think we still kind of think of the pretty colored francs as some kind of play money - it will sink in soon enough when our Swiss bank account starts to look like our US one. By the way, it costs us about CHF 450 a year to pay tax on our 'haushunds' - our dogs (apparently cats are free). Our tax francs at work: there are dispensers of doggie-poo bags all over the city.
Swiss rules are interesting - they have a lot of them, and they believe in them and follow them religiously. There is very little crime here - in the whole of 1993, not a single car was stolen in all of der Schweiz. We know there are several transgressions Scott and/or I have made that I don't know the nature of - but getting scolded in Basel-Deutsch by somebody lets you know you've crossed some unknown line. You can't flush your toilet after 10.00 pm because it makes too much noise (this actually doesn't apply in our only partially residential building, but is apparently a common house rule). We get one day a week to do our laundry (Tuesday) and we can only do it on that day. You can't work in your garden or wash your car or anything like that on Sundays, when they have no-work laws (shops are closed too, but restaurants are often open). I got menaced in the elevator at work the other day by some very tall facilities guy b/c apparently I was using the 'wrong' elevator (no sign anywhere indicating this) - he even brandished his key and told me he could lock me out of it. Sheesh. I responded with a sweet smile and a reminder that I saw facilities people in the other elevators all the time, so I thought we could all just share nicely.
Our apartment is nice as well - it's built in about the 1960s I would say. It's three bedrooms, a nice living room and either an eat-in kitchen, or a very small kitchen with an adjacent dining area, however you want to look at it. There's also a full bathroom, and a half bath - they are located directly next to each other, so that's a little weird. All the doors in the apartment lock with skeleton keys - our old medicine cabinet even had a lock - alot of locks for such a safe country. There's no closet or storage space at all, and we schlepped out to IKEA (at the end of one of the tram lines, then a good long hike to the store) to buy a very large wardrobe. Our apartment is on the third floor (which would be the fourth floor in the US) and has a wee little elevator that you can squeeze two people in to. DeeDee is scared of it (of course) so we have to pick her up to get her to take the elevator; Gibby, as always, is game for anything. We have a nice little terrace overlooking the street. It's a quiet street, relatively speaking. It's a block and a half away from the street where the trams run, and it's a business area, meaning that at night, a lot of people go home and the area is quiet. Our building has both offices and flats. We also have a pool and a sauna in the basement of the building, which are nice, and even, amusingly, a coin-operated tanning bed.
My office is about eight tram stops from the apartment (which is across town, essentially). We live right in the city center, and my work is on the edge of town, right by the French border - the parking lot is in France. I can see the Black Forest from here as well. So we're definitely in the tri-country area. I have a nice office at work - I haven't had an office with an actual door since the early '90s, so it's very good. However, they have this huge 'campus project' in the works, wherein they are constructing an entirely new campus - over the next 30 years. The first building will be done mid-next year, and I've heard that we'll be moving into it. It's all open plan there - no more offices. Alas, I will enjoy it while I can.
Scott is enjoying life and is very busy getting lots of things done. He's working on putting together a massive wardrobe IKEA delivered yesterday (CHF 200 for delivery, thank you very much). Curse the ever-loving flat-pack furniture, it's very hard to work with. Scott also got the DSL hooked up (we FINALLY got it this week) and mostly running. It's very interesting trying to get things to work when the instructions are in German. Scott also got our dishwasher to work. The dogs really love having him around all the time - he's always been their favorite. They get to go on 'walkies' all the time, since they don't use a litter box anymore, so they love that. He is also hooked up with a group called the Housemen - they are men whose wives work in CH, but they don't (usually b/c they're taking care of kids or can't get work permits, or both) and they all speak English - from UK, US, Australia, South Africa, etc. They meet at a pub in town every Wednesday for lunch (and beers, of course) as well as having some other activities as well. (For those who don't already know, the reason that CH is the abbreviation for Switzerland is because it stands for 'Confederatio Helvetica,' some old latin name for this place I believe. The VIP "Hostesses" at work [they look like flight attendants of yesteryear, and literally wear matching powder blue suits with attractive pastel scarves and they 'hostess' the visitors who warrant such treatment] were explaining the CH thing, but I was in the back of the bus and couldn't hear too well.)
And this just in: We sold our house! For a nice price with very little fuss - closing within three weeks. Of course we had to schlep all over Basel to get some house papers notarized (notary fee was CHF 86.10!), but it'll all be worth it when we get that equity payout.
Well, this ought to be rambling enough for anyone at this point. We'll post to this as often as we can - or as often as anything interesting happens. Stay tuned.
posted by Swizzies at 17:59
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