Off to Madrid

Tomorrow we are traveling to Madrid, Spain for the weekend. I'm very excited and looking forward to it. Rest assured we'll take lots of photos. We are going to visit the Prado museum and try to take in some local sights and flavors with some friends who live there. Hopefully I won't run into any Real Madrid fans or it will be clobbering time!

Be Champions! Ciao

Carnivale in Venice

We went to Venice on Feb 20 for the Carnivale. The Carnivale is a fantastic celebration before the Lentin Season. People dress up in old costumes and wonderful Venitian masks attending balls, listening to music, and having fun. On Friday we took the morning train from Geneva to Venice. The trip there was spectactular. The train made its way through towns and valleys surrounded by the Alps. Snow was everywhere in Switzerland, but as we got closer to Italy the snow had disappeared. We arrived in Venice around 3pm.

Instead of going to the hotel straight away, we ventured out into Venice. If you haven't been to Venice before let me paint a picture for you. It is is a small city with 3 to 4 story buildings sandwiched together with small sidewalk sized pathways. (no cars) It is a labyrinth. It is quite easy to get lost, but that is part of the fun. We headed to the Plaza of St. Mark where much of the activities were happening. It took us about 40 minutes to get there. Once at the square we started to see a lot of fantastic and creative costumes. There were a lot of activites there. One lady was doing acrobatics mid-air while teathered to a large baloon. On another section of the plaza were actors singing and performing. We stayed in the plaza until about 10PM and returned to our hotel via water taxi.

We stayed until Sunday when we returned back to Geneva. Rather than bore you with some long narrative, you should check out the photos in the album.

Be fantastic. Ciao.

Trip to Zurich

Last weekend, we went to Zurich to visit our friends Mark and Dana. We had a great time. On Friday we met Dana at the Zurich station. Then we met up with Mark and his co-workers from Google at Desperado's, a Mexican restaurant, for dinner. There were twelve of us eating in the very back of the cozy restaurant. Ann and I talked with this guy from Spain, and several other of Mark's co-workers. It was great fun.

I was suspicious about Swiss Mexican food, and rightly so. I ordered beef tacos, and what I got was similar to tacos but not quite. My plate arrived and on it were two tacos on a bed of rice. It looked OK... but what is this? They put the beef on the outside of the taco. Lumped right on the side of the shell. So instead of putting the meat in the taco, they put bean salad in the shell. My guess is that they got some discounted cookbook with a bad translation on what a taco is. Regardless of its appearance I ate it. It was alright. Not the best, but not the worst I've had. The beer helped, too. And to add to the strangeness, in the middle of our meal, the lights in the restaurant were shut off. Then some hideous birthday music blasted ... "Happy Happy Birthday ...Happy Happy Birthday ...Happy Happy Birthday ..." then out came some of the staff with a cupcake that had a sparkler planted in the middle of it. It was brought to the next table to some guy with his family who was really digging the whole experience. When the birthday guy received his cupcake, the waiter lit a firecracker. Then the lights went turned on and it was back to business as usual. It was an interesting meal to say the least. After dinner, we went to a nearby bar and had beer before taking the train back to Mark and Dana's place.

The next day, we mainly stayed indoors at the shopping mall. We had fun being mall rats and hanging out. We didn't do much of the touristy things since it was freezing outside.

Before going to dinner, we visited Mark's office at Google. He gave us the grand tour that included their various break rooms, video game rooms, library, chill out room, massage room, and many fireman's poles scattered throughout the building for quick travel between floors. The place is totally pimped out!!! Google went to great effort to make it a very very comfortable work environment. It sort of reminded me of a college atmosphere - very light hearted and fun. If I were a programmer, I would seriously consider working there. It was a really neat experience. Next time I'll take some photos.

After visiting Google, we had a fantastic dinner of fondue and wine at a small restaurant in the Hotel Villette. The owner of the restaurant, Carlos, was very entertaining. He made all sorts of jokes and was very amusing. I did most of the communicating since Carlos loved to speak Spanish. I enjoyed his jokes especially about why it was important to drink beer to promote healthy bladder function.

We didn't see much of Zurich since it was so cold out, and we didn't want to brave the weather. What we did see of Zurich was really nice. It is a much larger city than Geneva, and has a nicer atmosphere. I think this is probably because more people live AND work in Zurich as opposed to Geneva where most people are either merely visiting, on temporary assignment, or live in France and commute to work. I really enjoyed Zurich and would love to check it out more. By the way, while the majority of people speak French in Geneva, the folks in Zurich speak Swiss German and High German.

medieval times

This weekend we had great fun with some of our friends from the USA. They have been living in Zurich, Switzerland for almost a year. So when I got this post here in Geneva, we were excited because we had friends near by. Today we ventured out of town and saw the Chillon Castle with them. (We already have posted the photos so you should check them out. ) It was a very unusually bright and sunny day - normally you can't find the sun. On the train while watching the countryside, the sun's rays blinded us at times. But it didn't distract us too much from taking it all in. The views of Lake Geneva with the snow capped Alps in the background were fantastic. On the way there we joked around over a few beers. We picked up a couple of cans of Budweiser at the Geneva train station. Oh, and this isn't the same Bud beer as the USA, this is the original Budweiser from the Czech Republic. It's so nice to be able to enjoy a beer on the train, or while walking around in public. The country side was full of dormant vineyards next to beautiful chalets. The terrain gradually slopes down (like stadium seating) towards the lake so that most of the buildings built there have a nice view. After a half hour, we switched trains in Lausanne, home of the International Olympic Committee, and UEFA. From there, we took another thirty minute train which dropped us off next to the castle. We were quite anxious to make it to the castle as we needed to get rid of that beer we drank. Once we had our biobreak, we started our tour of the castle.

The castle had been built over a period of hundreds of years with various improvements and additions. We started out by visiting the underbelly where the cellars once were. While there, we found out that the castle has its own label of locally produced wine. We weren't interested in the wine as we've already tasted Swiss wine and weren't too impressed by it. Continuing on through the cellar, we toured the dungeon where prisoners were kept. I kept on trying to imagine how it was hundreds of years ago - some poor souls kept there in the dark cold stone cage, cut off from the world, slowly going mad listening to the waves from the lake. The castle is mainly famous due to the poem "The Prisoner of Chillon" written by Lord Byron in 1816. We even saw on one of the pillars his name carved into the stone. After the dungeon we toured the rest of the castle. It really was a miniature town. I was impressed with the quantity of rooms, and number of different passages everywhere. My favorite part was visiting the main hall. One of the exhibits described a feast of 6000 eggs, 200 pigs, 400 calves, 200 piglets, and a bunch of other meats. I was impressed with this amount of food. But it left me to wonder how many people did they have at these banquets? The tour of the place was fantastic and very interesting. Once we were finished, we headed back to Geneva.

Back in Geneva, we had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. Personally. I had always wanted to eat Ethiopian food. It was a great experience. The food came out on a large plate two feet in diameter. There was an assortment of lamb, beef, chicken, lentils, cabbage, potatoes, and salad all on top of a spongy bread. One of the best things about the meal was that you used your hands. Basically what you did was take some bread, scoop up some food and eat it. It was fantastic! We really liked the whole communal aspect of eating from the same plate and sharing a new experience. The dinner was a great ending to a truly wonderful day.

Photos ... coming to the blog soon...

In case you haven't seen our photos yet, we have them up here.

I'm planning on using Picasa to incorporate photos here.. stay tuned...

Internet at last

I guess I forgot how life was fifteen years ago when having a connection to the Internet wasn't the norm. Let's face it now a days most people rely on the Internet for regular communications. For us it is even more so as we are so far from home. Now we'll be able to communicate via email, Skype, and instant messages whenever we want. The Internet really does make the world a much smaller place. Quite amazing.

Ouch I'm bleeding money

OK I was told before I came out here that things are expensive. I took the advice with a grain of salt. I mean how bad can it be? Well they were right... Geneva is hands down the most expensive place I've ever been to in my life. The reason why Europeans are skinny? It's because food is expensive! just kidding!!! But seriously things here are very expensive ... to illustrate my point look at the following crude formulas


1 Meal at Restaurant in Geneva = 3 to 4 Meals in USA
1 12oz steak at grocery store in Geneva = 1 dry aged, prime ribeye steak cooked at Ruth Chris
1 lbs apples from grocery store in Geneva = 5 lbs of apples from USA grocery store
1 haircut in geneva = 4 haircuts in USA

I could go on and on... perhaps I'll scan some of my receipts and share them here. So you can feel the pain. I always wondered why Europeans act if they are on a lottery shopping spree when visiting the US .. now I know why. Just in these few short days I have a much greater appreciation for some of the benefits of living in the USA. I'm not saying I don't like it here... that is the furthest thing from the truth. I love it here even if it is expensive.

Stardate 16.01.09 suplemental

We have a place to live.... yay! It took a lot of jumping through hoops but we did it! There were a lot of things going on today, and to my amazement it worked out.

So here is what we had to do to get the place...

1) Visit airport rail station. Pick up wire transfer from Western Union for payment of first month's rent.
2) Open bank account to hold money in escrow for deposit on flat.
3) Send details of bank account to work to wire deposit for flat.
4) Buy mobile phone
5) Pay first month's rent, and show bank account records to get keys

Trust me it sounds more simple that it was... tomorrow we move in and I'm excited about that. Aparently everyone I talk to here are simply amazed that we found a place to live in Geneva. It is almost unheard of to find a flat. I guess things just worked out for us. We still have some things to get done. Monday the telephone company is coming out to get us setup with Internet, and of course we have to go out and buy groceries, etc..

Oh by the way .. And I appologize for not putting any photos here... I promise to add photos... :-)

Crappy Food ...

I consider myself somewhat of a foodie. I love food. I love eating, and I love cooking. So whenever I go somewhere new I try to make it a bit of an adventure when it comes to food. Being here in Switzerland has been no different. It's been 5 days since we've been here so I cannot say that we've had time to sample enough food to give a fair assessment to the state of food here. But what I can tell you is that of the food that I've eaten I haven't been impressed. Here in Geneva most food is French inspired, but I think something got lost in translation. Specifically the part about the heavy use of salt. I know that salt is the main seasoning that is used in the kitchen, but there is a fine line between too much and just right. Case in point. Today I went to Bern for work at a computer center. While there I ate lunch at the cafeteria. It was veal meat balls wrapped in pastry dough served with rice pilaf and a mushroom cream sauce. The meal looked good but the meat balls were so salty they tasted like hot dogs. I could barley eat them but I powered my way through it because I was hungry. Shortly after I got sick... when will I learn. If something doesn't taste good don't eat it. Looking back on it I would have rather been hungry than sick. Oh well hopefully I don't make that mistake again. On a plus note I have a lead on a Portuguese restaurant that sounds promising. I'll be sure to share my experience.

Cheers!

FURIOUS ANGER ....

OK I'm not angry anymore but I was quite upset earlier. After a day or so with no communication from the agency that found us the apartment, I was getting a bit worried. So I called them at 5PM on Thursday afternoon to confirm that things were OK. The events that unfolded were dramatic, and told by a real life highway patrolman. Our consultant Christine asked me if I had a Swiss bank account. Of course I don't so I responded as such. She seemed worried about this and asked if I could open up an account. I tried to understand why but she couldn't quite explain due to the language barrier. She also mentioned that I needed to visit the landlord on Friday with the first month's rent in person. At this point I had no choice but to swallow this news. I hung up in a bit of a panic, because her agency was supposed to deal directly with my company for payment. So I called up my office back in the USA to inform them of the developments. Luckily they were very calm and came up with a solution. So now I need to pick up some money tomorrow morning, open a Swiss bank account, and meet with the landlord. Needless to say tomorrow will be a busy day. So while I'm glad that it appears that things are working out.. I'm upset at the agency for not communicating with us. I can only imagine what would have happened if I didn't call them.

Progress...

Today was a frustrating day, but a good day. We spent most of the day at the Swiss immigration office filing papers for our Foreigner's Booklets (work permit). Our goal was simply to submit some paperwork, pay a fee, and get out... well it didn't work out that way. We ran into a snag. Of all things, the problem was our passport photos. So we were directed to a photo booth where we could retake our photos for 8 CHF (Swiss Franks). This machine was very very user unfriendly.. first you had to adjust your seat to the correct height so that you would be lined up for the camera. Once that was done it would take your photo and analyze it. If it met the requirements then you are OK but if it didn't, you could choose to print the photos or try again. After 10+ takes or so and 30 minutes later we finally gave up and printed our photos. It wasn't just us who had problems with the booth, but everyone else who was trying to use it was getting upset too. So we took our new photos to the government official and he was OK with Ann's photos, but made me re-take mine. The problem was that my head was too close to the camera. I didn't sit any closer to the camera than anyone else. It is just that I have a fat head. So I went back and took the photo booth again. But this time I pinned my head against the back of the booth so that my head would appear a bit smaller. VOILA! It did the trick... we were able to file our papers! Now I can legally work after spending 40 CHF on photos. I did kid around with the government worker once we got sorted out. I mentioned that I should return tomorrow with a camera and start my own passport photo business. This went completely over the guy's head. He just looked at me with a blank stare. I guess he didn't get sarcasm. But seriously someone could make a mint doing that.

We also got news about our flat hunting. We got word from our relocation consultant that the first place that we saw yesterday (the one with a small kitchen and old furniture) can support DSL Internet. We jumped at the place and quickly confirmed that we wanted it. So we'll likely be moving in later this week. Now we just need to figure out how to order DSL Internet.

Tomorrow I'll be showing up to my client's office for the first time to work. I'm very excited that things are falling into place. Life here certainly takes some adjustment but so far so good!!

Jet lagged

So we made it ... we are a bit zonked but we are slowly adjusting. Personally I don't quite feel human yet... but that's how it goes when you traverse a bunch of time zones.

Today we looked at apartments in Geneva. I knew it was going to be a lot smaller than what we would normally expect back in the USA. But seeing the apartments in person was still a shock. First we saw a studio apartment near the city. Immediately it was apparent that the place was a lot smaller than I thought... They must have designed these things when people had the average height of four feet. We spoke with the person showing us the apartment, and asked to see the one bedroom instead. It was an improvement but not by much. The one bedroom was about 322 sq feet, it had a small kitchen that looked like a galley from a 20-foot sailboat, and a tiny living room. The place was furnished with some old hand me downs from the French revolutionary war, including the television. And all for CHF 3'200 or $2878 USD ... Ouch!?!? The place would have been perfect but it only had dial-up Internet .. That instantly eliminated it from our search. We have to have at a minimum high-speed Internet, a washing machine, and a separate bedroom. So we continued our search and saw several other places. We found a perfect place that was very close to work, but they would only rent it on a year lease. The other perfect place had everything we wanted, and would rent it to us on a monthly basis... but it was 1.5 hours (via public transporation) from work... So we are still looking for a place... hopefully we'll find something soon.

Well it is amost 1AM here and I should be trying to relax a bit for tomorrow as we have to register with the Swiss Canton for our visas.

Night....

The night before the big trip

It's hard to believe that just four months ago we had started this journey of going to Europe. After months of negotiation, and working with lawyers we finally got our entry visas to Switzerland in December. Now it's 8:57PM and the night before we leave to Geneva on a British Airways Boeing 777 Airplane. We've done our packing of 5 luggages, and two carry on bags. In them we are bringing an assortment of shoes, toiletries, clothing, and things to keep us entertained.

Tomorrow we'll leave Atlanta at 2PM for the airport and return back home in a few months time. The most difficult thing for us will be leaving our girls behind. How I would have loved to bring them with us. But we will likely bring them over in a few months time for a visit. I know they will be OK as we have great friends and family that are helping us out, and providing us support.

That's it for now... more to come later...

ciao