Moving Day, Job, and other observations

    So we finally moved into our new apartment. I thought I was going to hate it. After the brief look at it we got when we saw it in June, filled with the old tenant's stuff, made me have a bad feeling about it. But once we got our own stuff in and unpacked, I actually love it. Its a 320 sq ft studio with a little balcony. Its the perfect size. We try to live modestly and minimally, its harder for me than for Adam. We've got extra stuff in the storage locker in the basement or else I don't know what we would have done. We made 3 trips to IKEA, each time carrying a big box back on the train with shelving units and dressers to build, among other things. Before this, the only furniture we owned was a bed, a kitchen table, and a small twin sized futon. Our French apt was furnished.

     The move-in process was a slight disaster though. We met at the apartment on a Thursday, the 15th, to get the keys and do an "etat de lieu" (walkthrough) with the previous tenant and the apartment building agency. Upon entering the room I immediately sensed tension in the air and could tell the previous tenant and the apt agency guy were having some sort of disagreement. Apparently she paid the whole month of September on accident and wants half the month back, since shes moving out the 15th. Understandable. Well the apartment guy says something about not being notified, they cant get her money back for some reason, she didn't notify them, she says she called for the past 3 weeks, its all in rapid french spoken by people with accents and i'm having a hard time understanding. This lady starts getting really angry and raising her voice. She's yelling that she won't give up the keys, because she hasn't gotten her money back, so shes not going anywhere until the end of September and we might as well leave because we're not moving in because shes not giving up the keys. He says that they will just change the locks if she wont give up the keys. They're going back and forth and I tell Adam we should go downstairs because I dont want to be a part of this. A few minutes later the agency guy comes down to review the walkthrough papers to sign, noting the crack in the tile and the holes in the wall, none of which I have seen to be able to verify because I was caught up in this arguement. Then the lady comes downstairs with a bloody hand, apparently she has hit the door trying to slam it or something. They have called the cops on her now. She starts yelling at us "Don't sign anything! this is a dishonest company! they were nice to me too at the beginning and now look, they will do the same to you! You'll see! Don't sign anything! you will benefit and I will lose!" 

     So we decided not to sign. One, because we didn't get to really walk through the apt ourselves. Two, I wasn't about to sign anything in front of her. We didn't know who to believe at that point. We were told a locksmith was on his way to change the locks right then. Luckily we had a few nights booked at a hotel and stayed there until the locks were changed, and the bathtub re-enamled, which they did 2 days late, so we had to wait to move in. So the process started on a Thursday, I spent my first night in the apt on Sunday. 
     Oh and she ended up giving the keys up and getting her money back that same night of the fiasco. But we still had the locks changed. Just in case

They have a very strict recycling system here. EVERYTHING must be sorted. paper, aluminum, plastic, and then the rest. You have to pay a special extra tax on the trash bags for everything else. Which makes you want to recycle because that's not an extra cost. I like it. I've always been big on recycling. Ask my parents how many times I yell at them for throwing away milk gallons and boxes, even wrapping paper at xmas.

They also have laundry schedules, we learned this when we looked at the other 17 apartments. Luckily, our building doesn't have one. I'm so relieved. In most buildings you get a specific time for laundry, for example, only on tuesdays. Or, even worse, every other tuesday, or only on tuesdays between 7am and 3pm. It would be annoying but I guess its nice to know there's a time where the washing machine is 100% yours, and you don't have to wait for other people.

Another interesting nurse fact I learned from my friend: They don't have to be CPR certified! WTF?! everyone gets it when they get a drivers licence, but you never have to re-do it, its optional. that doesn't make me feel very safe. Especially since every time I've taken it in the past 10 years, they change something. I can't keep it straight.

Oh my new job. My waitress job. I really like it. Its a small restaurant right on the lake at a marina. People pull up in their sailboat on the weekend, get lunch and head back out on the lake. The food is really good and I get free lunch every day. Its a small town and there's lots of regulars. Lots of nice people. The owner is the nicest guy ever. He's obsessed with classic American cars and shows me pictures of the 15 mustangs and Shelbys he's owned. I'm helping him plan his trip to California this winter. 

     Its good for my french practice. I speak it all day. Except when the occasional American or British customer comes. Which is more often than not in this region. Every Swiss person always asks me what my accent is. Where am I from? Sometimes I make them guess. Usually they guess right. Sometimes they think its British English (the american and british accents in french are pretty different) A few people have said German, one said Czech. Then the next question is almost always about the election. And I roll my eyes.  

     I've made a few language mistakes, ordered the wrong thing. Even though I repeat every single thing they order, some words are so similar and my accent makes them think I've said the right thing. Like once someone asked me for an ashtray, in french its cendrier (pronounced sahn-dree-ay). Well I thought she wanted a sangria, I repeated sahn-gree-ah? Oui, she said. I put down the sangria and she says "I didn't order this" and then picks up the ashtray and says "cendrier" and we all laughed and I probably turned a little red. 

     The best part is not having to worry about tips. I've read things before that are anti-tipping culture, and that the US needs to change and I never understood why it was bad. But now I do! It is soooo nice to be paid a real salary and not have to worry at every single table what my tip will be, aka my only income. Tipping isn't common in Europe, but this is a small town with generous customers and I get a tip about 70% of the time. but its minimal. its usually between 5-10% but I don't care. I appreciate the tip more now because I know they didn't have to do it and it means that they truly appreciated my service. And when I don't get a tip I don't care, because I'm making $21/hr. (keep in mind the cost of living here is outrageous so $21/hr is not the same as it is in the US)

     Food culture is different here, obviously, but i'm learning the differences more now. nobody likes ice cubes here, and when they do want some they just want 2 or 3. The owner had to tell me to stop filling the whole glass with ice.

      When you reserve a table it is yours all night. France too. and when all the tables are reserved we turn people away, because most people will sit at their reserved table all night. because a meal in Europe is never quick. A meal is a time to spend with friends and family and relax. People even come at 3pm, alone or with friends, order just a drink, as simple as a bottle of water, and just sit, for 1 or 2 hours, reading the paper or talking with friends. Its nice, slow, laid back. Not so hurried and rushed like in the US. 

     Speaking of water they usually only drink carbonated water here. You have to specifiy if you want still water. 

     They loooove their espresso. Everyone gets an espresso or coffee after a meal. Its just what you do. And usually dessert too. I had a table of 3 Americans and they didn't order any dessert or coffee and when the owner saw me give them the check he was like "what? they dont want coffee? no dessert?" I said "no they're american we don't really do that very often" People must think Adam and I are crazy when we go out to eat, we don't drink wine (another big thing here), we don't get coffee, we don't get dessert. Such weirdos. 

     Also, to them, normal apple juice is carbonated. I had no idea our apple juice at the restaurant was carbonated so when a mom asked if we had non-carbonated apple juice I said yes, because why would you have carbonated apple juice? I gave it to her kids and they drank it and made a funny face. She said "I thought it wasn't carbonated" I said I had no idea that it was. The next day someone asked the same thing, when I said it was carbonated she said "so its just normal apple juice." Apparently that's their normal. Strange to me.

Anyways. While I'm off facebook, just a break, just a couple months, I might still post in here so if you're interested check back every few weeks to see if I've found any more random observations or crazy stories to write about. That's what traveling is though, random cultural observations (my favorite) and the occasional minor crisis and annoyance. But I love it.

Cross Cultural Training

Yesterday Adam and I went had a meeting, organized by his company, with a lady from a company that does what is called Cross Cultural Training. It lasted 8 hours and it was just the 2 of us. Its designed to educate employees who have moved from abroad about their new culture, common dos and don'ts, guidelines for interaction with various people, etc. The lady giving the course has lived in the US and France and is very culturally conscious. I didn't know what to expect but ended up really enjoying it and learning a lot of useful tips. Some of it I like, some of it will take some getting used to. I think you will find all this pretty interesting too, and this is only a little bit of what we learned:

First she asked us what we wanted to learn about Swiss culture. We said one thing we wanted to know basic rules on how to interact with our future neighbors, is there a specific do and don't in these and other interactions? Because in the US, neighbors commonly greet the newbees with cookies or invite them over for coffee to introduce themselves, things like that. I said I wanted to know about relationships between doctors and nurses, and nurses and patients. Because what I'm used to, at least at Stanford, is while nurses, doctors, techs, and secretaries all have different roles, we all work together as a team on the same level, we all get along great and are even great friends outside of work too. 

The first response I got was, in a serious tone, "The Swiss are never friends with their co-workers. We do not understand this about Americans." She said the basic philosophy and cultural value behind this is a motto that says "If its not business, its my business" The Swiss are very private people and the line between business and personal life is very defined, whats considered "intimate" is anything that is not work related.  She said, in a business setting, you could work in the cubicle next to someone for years and not know if they have children, because that's personal life and not to be discussed at work. I smiled at this point, thinking to myself about all the extremely personal and inappropriate conversations that happen between 4 and 5 am at the nurses desk. I said that, in my years as a travel nurse and moving to cities where I knew no one, I relied on my job to provide me with friends and that it is very important to me to really get along with my co-workers since we spend so much time together. As a result, some of my very best friends today were my coworkers from travel nursing assignments. She said that, of course, in Switzerland you can like your coworkers and get along great, but you would not have any contact with them outside of work. This happens, from time to time, that a coworker develops into a great friend, on occasion she's been to a birthday/christmas party of a co-worker, but its not very common. She said I will have to find other means of making friends. 

Back to Swiss valuing their privacy and things they would consider "intimate." The Swiss home is considered intimate. Much different than American culture and might be hard for us to understand. You would never be invited into a Swiss person's home unless you are a very dear friend. And even if you were, the living room and dining room are the only areas of the house that are open to you. The kitchens in Swiss homes are separate, not open to the living room like many American homes, and it is considered an intimate area, not to be entered unless you are family. When living in the US, she was shocked and thought it absurd that when going to someones home for the first time, they would immediately take her for a tour of the whole house, even showing her the bedroom and bathroom, which in her mind should be very private.
The refrigerator is extremely personal. Opening the refrigerator of a Swiss is one of the rudest things you can do. She would only do this at her parents or siblings house. 
When invited to a Swiss home for a meal, it is more polite to NOT help the host clean the dishes, because doing so would require you going into their kitchen. It is more polite to sit and let to host clean themselves. 
When saying hello to a neighbor, wait until they have closed the door to their apartment. It is rude to say hello while their door is still open, because by saying hello with their open door, you are looking into their apartment and looking into their private life. 
She said if we ever invited a Swiss person into our home they would come out of politeness but would feel quite uncomfortable while there. They would be very touched at this gesture and would want to reciprocate but would never feel comfortable letting you into their home, so since they know of no way to equally reciprocate such a kind gesture, they will most likely just never talk to you again and avoid you.

She compared Swiss people to coconuts. Hard and not so pretty on the outside. really difficult to penetrate. But once you have it gets softer, and once you are all the way in its completely open. And you have complete trust and permission into the Swiss's personal life.

They are extremely punctual and schedule/time oriented. If a business meeting is to start at 9 am, it will start at 9 am, sharp. If you want to have the usual chitchat about the weather and your weekend beforehand, you must come 5-10 minutes early to do this. If it is supposed to end at 10 am it will end at 10 am. If it threatens to go past the scheduled end time, it must be mutually agreed on by everyone that its okay if the meeting will last 30 extra minutes, if not, they will schedule a time when it is convenient for everyone to finish the meeting. Being schedule oriented, they know that when a meeting goes over by 30 minutes, people might be inconvenienced because they will have other things on their schedule to do. Also, getting to a meeting or interview too early is also bad form. 5-10 minutes is okay, but any more and you will be seen as not knowing how to manage your time correctly, and if you can't manage your time correctly than how can you manage anything else? It could have huge implications on whether you get the job or not, even if the interview goes well otherwise. (I got to my interview 15 minutes early a few weeks ago... oops)

the Swiss also consider slowness as a virtue. Politics are slow, administration is slow, they believe if something is done slowly then it is sure to be done correctly. Quick means hasty and a possibility of mistakes. This comes into play with friendships, which is why, when meeting a new neighbor for instance, start with Bonjour and no more. they don't know you so will be very slow to want to get to know you.

After this information I now understand what was meant by the various French people who, after learning I was moving to Switzerland, would say "hmmm, the Swiss, well, they're not the French" 
In France it is very different. When it comes to friendships and privacy, it is much more like American culture. One of Adam's best friends is his French co-worker, who has invited us into his home many times, lets us cook in his kitchen, I've slept in his son's bed. The french are very warm and welcoming and we felt comfortable with all of them.

The other thing she discussed with us was the roller coaster of emotional stages related to moving to a different country. Adam has been through them all before, having already spent 3 years in France, and I felt them too in France, maybe more mildly though. She said at some point you will reach a stage of culture shock that can be very bad for some people, in a few cases it can lead to depression. This usually hits around the 3-6 month point. A realization that some of your very important cultural values do not align with the values of your new country and you must figure out how to cope with that. That we may wonder what we're doing here, what's the point, we just want to go home. She also said that throughout this entire roller coaster of emotions we will have little support from those at home, because nobody will get it. And we will really need each other. This is true, there have been a few times I've complained about things to someone and the response I get is "how can you complain, your living in France/Switzerland!" 

She mentioned that psychologists have identified the top 3 most stressful things a person can go through, and I remember this from nursing school too: 1. death of a loved one. 2. Separation/divorce. 3. moving. but they only studied people moving from one city to another within the same country. So moving from one country to another has got to come before 3!

People think living abroad is all sunshine and rainbows, and while there are a lot of cool things about it, (and the opportunity is such a cool and rare one that we are voluntarily going through the rough stuff) it is very, very difficult. When you have few or no friends, when the language is different, when the culture is not what you're used to, when the process of finding a job and just getting settled with anything is 10x harder because you're foreign and more documentation is required for everything, documentation that's not always easy to obtain, it wears you down. Its hard to stay motivated and positive. Forget the view of Lake Geneva and the Alps down the street, you want some normalcy every so often, normalcy that's not easy to find. My normalcy is with Adam (and an occasional trip to Starbucks). You want to see your friends and family but nobody can afford to fly to Europe or take time off work and you can't afford to keep going back to the US. People say they will visit you and you start looking forward to it, get really excited about it, and then life gets in the way and they can't come anymore. Scheduling phone dates with friends every few weeks instead of calling them whenever you feel like it. 

Apart from that, I actually love living in Europe, for the most part, I actually prefer the culture and lifestyle here much more than US culture and lifestyle. And, honestly, we're glad to be away from the US these days. According to the "cultural profile" I filled out yesterday the lady told me I am not American at all, I align much more with an Italian's profile actually, and that I might have a very difficult time re-assimilating back into American culture. I'm not sure if I believe this, but we'll see, I could see it being true to a degree, though. But we will come back some day, sooner than later. I don't want to be so far from my family, especially when little half-asian babies come along. I would feel guilty if I never came back. Plus, if I can't have the same job role and work life that I'm used to in the US, then I don't want to stay, because I LOVE my job. But the plan is to give it 2 years, for better or for worse, no matter what happens, to get the full experience and see how everything pans out. It may be difficult and there are days when I want to pull my hair out and scream when I find out about another obscure document I have to track down, but I can't give up just yet, I've barely started.

I'll end this with one thing this cultural training lady said to us, who has been doing this training for 15 years. She said that when the international move happens to a couple, all the stressful things that happen to the people individually and to them as a couple will really test their relationship, and if that couple comes out of it still strong, well that couple is meant to be for life. And I have no doubt that Adam and I will crush this Swiss experience together because there's nobody more meant for each other than we are.

1 month in Switzerland

today marks 1 month in Switerland. and I spent almost half of it not in Switzerland. We started out with bad luck on the apartment search and my job search but some good progress has (finally) been made. 

Apartments:

     We were avidly searching for apartments the first 2 weeks we arrived. We expected to be in this temporary housing 2-4 weeks, maybe 6 but we thought that was in an extreme case. Well we are the extreme case. We saw a grand total of 18 apartments and submitted our application for 10 of them and we were rejected for all of them. 

2 places rejected us because they thought the apartment was too small for 2 people. What's it their business how we want to live? That made us mad. Another rejected us because they wanted only Swiss tenants. Another rejected us because we didn't have our Swiss residence cards yet, and we're assuming this is why the rest of them rejected us too. 

     Now these residence cards can only be applied for the day you move into the country (which is what we did) and they take up to a month to be processed and sent in the mail. In that mean time, you get a paper that is supposedly just as good as the card, stamped and signed, to use until the card comes in the mail. Apparently this paper was not enough but we were told it was the same thing. Which made us even more mad because how is any expat supposed to find a place to live for that 1st month? We started losing hope. 

     Last week, when we were nearing on our 1 month mark, Adam contacted his company to ask for an extension to the 1 month they allotted us for this apart-hotel. At first they said no. Adam explained our situation, we've been actively searching, we're not taking advantage of the free housing, they said they'd figure something out. They came back and said we get 1 more month but we have to pay a percentage now.

      At the same time, while I was in the US, Adam got his residence card in the mail (they wouldn't give him mine because I had to personally sign for it) and asked the housing agency to re-apply to all of the apartments we'd been rejected from. They were all gone except for one. We didn't love this one but it was reapplied for and we didn't hear anything. For all of the apartments, we were told if we didn't hear back in 2-3 days, it means we were rejected. This is how most of them went before.

     So last wednesday we were looking at our 18th apartment when Adam got a call telling us we'd finally be selected for an apartment! One day after I got my residence card and we had a "complete" file. I got really excited and then not so excited as I listened to Adam's end of the call and realized it was that one that was leftover that wasn't our favorite. We had only applied for it because its next door to the train station (Adam's top priority). We decided to wait 24 hours to accept and see if the 2 other apartments we'd recently seen (and liked better) would come through. They didn't, so we accepted our seemingly only option. 

     So here is what we have: a 320 sq ft studio on the 6th floor of an old building that has a grocery store on the ground floor. It has a balcony that faces the back of the property which has a view just of other buildings and a small open lot. If you crane your neck to the left you can see a little bit of Lake Geneva. The apartment hasn't been redone is a good 30-40 years. The kitchen is very small and old but it does have an oven with 4 burners! (in France we had no oven and only 2 burners, which is the same thing we're working with at this temporary place). The bathroom is very old and the bathtub is horribly stained so we are requesting it be re-enameled. There is 1 small closet and designated storage space in the basement. There is also a washing machine in the building but Swiss buildings have laundry schedules for tenants so we'll have to find out what that is. There is also one of Lausanne's few homeless people, the same lady, who sits in front of that grocery store every day.

    I'm very glad it faces away from the street and is so high up. Less chance of cigarette smoke entering through the windows. Which was a big problem in France on the ground floor facing the street, and now in our 2nd floor temporary apartment facing the street and a cafe. The French and Swiss smoke like nothing I've seen before, its everywhere, and I HATE cigarette smoke more than anything. (My college friends know this is not an exaggeration). It sucks because there is no A/C so you need to keep the windows open but I can't because there is an almost constant flow of smoke into the windows. I have to be realistic that at least 1 of our new neighbors will smoke. And I will probably get occasional wafts of smoke in my apartment. There's just nothing you can do about it here. 

     Oh and we can't move in until September 15th. So we're stuck in this temporary place 1 more month. Adam's clothes had accidentally been packed and he'd been living off the same 4 shirts and 2 pants for a month so we had them delivered and they arrived today, for $250. Otherwise we have no access to our belongings in storage.

Jobs:

     Adam's company is giving me job support so I met with an agency that is supposed to help me look. I'm not putting much faith in it because its usually for business jobs and the nursing world is just so different. After our first meeting she put an estimate of 6-12 months on the job hunt. Saying that because I'm American, employers have to fill out extra paperwork and put in extra effort to hire me so I'd really have to network and sell myself. Even for a little cafe or grocery store job that I was hoping to get until I found a nursing job. That didn't make me feel very good.

     Don't know if I mentioned in the last post that Adam happened to meet a wonderful nurse, Valerie, on the train. She's actually French but has worked here for 25 years. We met up and she's been networking for me and calling HR departments and telling important hospital people about me and giving me tons of information on nursing and living in Switzerland in general. She's been a life saver! And way more help than this corporate job assistance person. She advised me to try working in the clinics. Here the concept of a clinic is the opposite of a clinic in the US. A clinic in Europe, where they have socialized healthcare, is where the people go who pay the big bucks for private insurance (the highest and most expensive tier). Its very fancy and very hoity-toity. Its better for me to work here because a lot of expats will come here because they work for big, rich companies like Philip Morris and Nestle so my English speaking will be really useful. Also because I can work as a Labor and Delivery nurse. In the public hospitals, midwives and only midwives take care of women in labor, and they deliver the baby too. Doctors are rarely used, only for c-sections and high risk deliveries. Nurses can only do ante-partum and post-partum care. I thought I'd have to get stuck with that for the next 2 years, or worse, med/surg. But at the clinics, the midwives act only as a Labor and Delivery nurse, and like in the US, the private doctor comes around occasionally and is called for orders, for problems, and for the delivery.

    Valerie helped me translate my resume into french and let me use her as a reference to vouch for my french speaking abilities, and I sent it off for a Midwife position at one of Lausanne's fancy private cliniques. She told me it usually takes 2+ weeks for them to respond. I got a response in just a few days, rejecting my application (probably they saw the word American and that was it). We thought this was strange because Valerie had talked with someone in HR there. Just a few days later I received another email telling me to call them back because actually, now they wanted to interview me.

     I had an interview, 100% in french, with HR and then with the midwife in charge. I explained very clearly to them that my job role is exactly the same as theirs even though I'm not trained as a midwife. She took me on a tour of the unit and explained some things to me. There is no straight nights or day shift. You have to rotate, and there is no pattern to it. Just a mix of nights and days. Terrible. Its not hourly its salaried. So extra hours are not paid. It seems like an LDRP. I'd also have to take care of GYN surgeries They only do 600 deliveries a year. I should have told her I was used to working at hospitals that did 4,000- 7,000. I had lots of questions on the differences between here and the US. 

      To my fellow L&D nurses you won't believe this! She gave me a recently delivered patient's chart to look through. First of all, its all paper charting. No computers. and whats worse, no central monitoring! For such a beautiful facility I feel like that's archaic. You can only see the tracing on paper and in the room only! And OMG get this: I asked how often we have to chart on the strip and she looked at me like I was an alien and said "why would you do that? you have the tracing right here in the chart you can look at it and see for yourself" That floored me! There's a lot of writing directly onto the strip, which older nurses have told me is the way it used to be. But the amount of free time US nurses would have if we weren't charting on that darn strip every 15 minutes, can you imagine? Its a very American thing, Americans love documentation because they love to sue people.

     Anyways the interview was Friday, Valerie seems the be very optimistic about it, is sure I will get the job. This morning I got the same exact automatic stock email that I got last week telling me my application was rejected. I wasn't sure whether to take it seriously,  Valerie says not to because its just an automatic reply type of email. So I'll keep waiting. She said it can be very slow. And then all the sudden they'll call me and want me to start the very next day (they did this to her). So we'll see. 

     I also met an American nurse who works med/surg at this clinic. I talked with her and she calmed my fears a bit. She got a job in 2 weeks when she moved here. She said to forget the official nursing license recognition, private clinics don't care, they're private and they can do what they want. Just to take my time in getting it and not to stress like I was. She also said, of course, the language barrier is tough at first, new vocabulary, medications all have different names (generic and brand names), and sometimes doctors might get mad when you keep asking them to repeat themselves, but that when they learn you're American they will instantly respect you. She said doctors have a great appreciation for American work ethic and know that orders will get done when they tell her. Now knowing 2 nurses, I'm feeling much better about everything.

That's all for the updates now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this job!

     

We made it to Switzerland

I realize I should probably change the name of this blog. But I think I'll leave it for now because my dream was always to move to France, and I did, and this is what came out of it.

This whole process started back in October and we're finally here. It always felt like it was so far away but now we're here and I have to be an adult now. I have to find a job. I need to start saving money instead of completely draining my bank account every few months. This will be good, I'll experience real life as a normal expat and not just some fantasy life. Who knows how long we'll stay here but its time to have a normal life. I actually don't want to go on anymore big trips for a while. Its exhausting. Not to mention the world is getting scarier every day. I just want to explore the region around us and relax. We're buying this pass that gives you unlimited access to all forms of transportation everywhere in Switzerland. We can take it to the borders and then explore Germany, Austria and Italy too. 

We went looking for apartments in June, we have an agency helping us, the system here is different than in the US. Its also very difficult to find something, it seems there are more people looking than there are available apartments. When you like an apartment you submit your application/file for it. The owner gets several applications for each apt so you just have to wait and see if they will choose you or not. So far we haven't been chosen for any of the apts we've applied for. So we are in an apart-hotel for anywhere between 1 and 6 weeks until we find something. Its a studio with the basic necessities. Our belongings are packed away in storage somewhere. Since this is a corporate move, a moving company came and packed everything away for us. But its hard to get into the groove of living here if we're still living out of suitcases.

Switzerland, as you may know, is extremely expensive. We will be paying close to triple for an apartment that will be smaller than what we had in France. Groceries are close to double the price. So Adam went to the big grocery store before we left and bought mass quantities of any non-perishable item he could think of. I don't think we'll need cleaning products, toothpaste, pasta or mustard for 2 years.

We won't be eating out much in Switzerland, we did once last month when we were apartment hunting. We went to a mid-priced restaurant and ordered middle-priced items on the menu, and got dessert, and it was $108. You have to pay for water, and the 750ml bottle we got cost $8. We also plan to become semi-vegetarians because the cost of meat here is ridiculous. Chicken is like $35/lb ($17/kilo) even at Aldi.

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The Euro Football tournament was in France for all of June and July so every time France played people would riot. Cars honked their horns incessantly for a good 2 hours. It was obnoxious. Our friend lives at the main rioting intersection and he said it would get violent, they even attacked the cops. For the last few playoff games this happened. Then the final, France vs Portugal, Portugal won, we expected craziness, but it surprisingly didn't happen, the police patrolled well enough to prevent it that night. 

I don't know what it is about rioting and protesting but given any opportunity, I've noticed, the French will do it, and it usually turns violent. You should have seen them in May and June protesting this new labor law. I disagree with it too, but this is France so they marched the streets regularly, always new graffiti in their wake, the tram lines would shut down, they'd gather at the parks. French people I know always told me to stay away if I ever saw them gathered to protest because by the end, when the civilized people have gone home, there are usually people who get crazy, break windows, stuff like that. It got so bad that truck drivers blocked entrances to gas stations and oil refineries across France and eventually a good part of France didn't have gas. Some guys near Paris set a police car on fire with cops still in it. The trains striked, so did the the Air France pilots and the air traffic controllers. It was crazy. 

Our last week in France was busy. I had some sort of virus and one of those days I could barely get off the couch with a fever and body aches. I packed our clothes and organized what we would need for the temporary housing. I tried to get a reservation at our favorite restaurants, one of them I called and they guy said he had closed the restaurant down for a few weeks because it didn't have air conditioning and it was too hot inside. So we went to our other favorite, where we order an iron spiked stick, with chunks of duck meat on the spikes, that is set on fire, and hangs over a pot of fries and the juices just drip into the fries. Its amazing. We said goodbyes to all our friends, who we will really miss. 

So far Lausanne is very nice. We've just been walking around and learning the streets. Its on Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) and its extremely hilly. Navigating is difficult because you look on the map and you need to turn right but the street you need is 200 feet below you and you have to figure out how to get down there, its a good workout.

Its much prettier than Grenoble. Grenoble is surrounded by mountains which is beautiful and great for outdoor people like us, and honestly we will miss the close proximity to them, I'm not sure there's anywhere else where you can literally live right in the mountains while still living at sea level and having normal weather. But as a city Grenoble was not the nicest. The buildings were pretty dirty and ugly and not usually the classic french style. And nobody picked up their dog poop. Which is just gross. Here in Lausanne the buildings are classic small town french/swiss architecture and its very clean and even ritzy in spots. And it feels like more of a major city, even though its just as small as Grenoble. Its the smallest city in the world to have a Metro. They get tourists. And there's even a few Starbucks.

About 30-40% of the people living in Lausanne are expats. I think that goes for most of Switzerland. Just walking through the park or the store you hear a variety of languages. This is a huge plus because we've heard the Swiss are hard to make friends with. 99% of our friends in France were not French so hopefully we'll find other expat friends here easily too.

I think we're going to like it here. 

Spring

I've been back in France now almost 2 months and it has been a very busy 2 months. This week is my first break. 

School: I enrolled in intensive french courses for the month of May. I also enrolled in prep classes for the DELF, which is the fluency test that I was scheduled to take at the end of May. My first month back I had up to 6 hours of classes a day and studying in my spare time. I took the test 3 1/2 weeks ago and I still don't know my results. They will me mailed to me within 4-6 weeks, typical french.

Traveling: Since the test we've been traveling non-stop and its still not over. 2 hours after I finished I headed out to Milan to join Adam who was there on business. 3 days after getting back I flew to Russia for 10 days. From Russia we went straight to London and then to Paris. This week we go to Switzerland to look for apartments. Next week we go to India! My rain curse has proven to be more real than ever before. Each time I arrived in a new city the weather was fine but rains moved in that same day and didn't leave until literally the day I left. Every. single. time.  

Russia: 

The more I travel and learn about each city I'm in, the more I love history and want to learn about different cultures. Russia is so huge with such a vast history and culture so its been high on my list for a while. So when Adam said he had a meeting in Moscow I was very excited. Getting a Russian visa was a pain in the butt and very expensive. 2 days before our trip Adam found out his visa was being held for extra controls and wouldn't be ready for another week. So I went without him.

I signed up for a bunch of tours and stayed in hostels to try to meet people so I wouldn't be alone too much. Moscow was great, very pretty, very clean, very safe, all around nice city. But not really made for foreign tourists. There were very few foreign tourists at all, only Russians. Nobody speaks English. Every meal was an adventure because I just pointed at things not always knowing what I was getting or how much it would cost. Even the museum exhibits were written only in Russian. The subway (which I used often and is absolutely beautiful) was only in Russian. But I navigated it very well. I learned the alphabet so that helped. 

St. Petersburg was very different than Moscow, just as pretty but in a different way, and much more touristy. Finally, English options for everything. Adam met me there after 8 days of traveling solo. The architecture in both cities is very pretty and very European looking. The orthodox churches were a nice change from the standard European gothic cathedral. In Moscow I learned a lot of Soviet history. One of these days I'll upload my pictures.

The weather in both cities was terrible, many days it was only 46 degrees, luckily I packed warm but that was way colder than I expected. 

I gotta say, when it comes to certain countries, like Russia, don't always pay attention to the American media. They paint Russia in a very bad light, on purpose, and the Russians know this. Adam met a Russian girl who said Americans who come visit Russia are heroes because they want to see Russia for themselves instead of always believing what the media says. I almost got scared into not going because of this and I'm very glad I went. I saw 2 beautiful cities, no different than any other major city, with great people and had a great time. I hope to go back someday and take the trans-siberian railroad all the way across the country.

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Wedding planning is going smoothly. All the major stuff is booked. The wedding is so far off I don't need to pick the planning back up until the fall. Which is when we wanted to have the wedding in the first place. Then Switzerland happened so we figured early spring would be better, then because spring = spring break in Florida we had to push it back more. Oy, the year will fly by I'm sure. 

We are counting down our last weeks in France. Our move to Switzerland is scheduled for July 15th. Its crazy expensive there so I'll need to find a job asap. I'll be sad to leave France but Switzerland should be a fun adventure.

Changes in Plans: Part 2

So my last post was about 4 months ago and it ended hinting at some changes to our future. At that time we had only just found out about this opportunity and had to wait months to get more details and make a decision. Well as of today the decision is final, and 5 months of stressing about it is finally over. I'll try to make this very long story short: 

First of all, the tentative plan was to come back to the US to settle down in Summer 2016, mainly because I can't work as a nurse in France and my fantasy lifestyle of traveling Europe and not working was really hurting my bank account.
Then one day while we were on a road trip in October Adam got a very unexpected call from his manager saying that the company is essentially moving the French office to Switzerland and he is going to be part of that move. But that no other details would be known until February. And at that time he would get details of the transfer package
The reason this flipped everything upside down is because Switzerland accepts American nursing licenses. The other reason is because Adam was only given 2 options: take the transfer package to Switzerland or take a severance package and leave the company.
Living and working in Switzerland sounds amazing to most people but for us, having already lived in Europe, the shinyness of it had worn off and we were starting to be ready to have our American lifestyles back. Living in another country has its pros and cons.

Here were our 2 options:

1) move to Switzerland, Adam would stay in his same job, same role, just different location, and be given all the necessary paperwork and bonuses for the move. I would have to submit piles of paperwork to get my nursing license recognized, do an internship, look for a job, perfect my french, and work in a foreign hospital in a foreign language with different practices and it terrifies me. But we'd get lots of vacation days and be able to keep our traveling lifestyle, but also see our families very rarely.

2) move back to the US, as a nurse I can get a job anywhere easily. And Adam would have to quit his job and go through the annoying process of finding a new job in a new city and learning a new business. And we might always wonder if we regret not staying in Europe just a couple more years. But we'd finally have stability. Which, after 4 years of travel nursing, I'm ready for.
So basically one decision would make life hard for me, one decision would make life hard for Adam. 

Sparing everyone the details of 5 months of research and paperwork and documents I've had to compile, and the many long phone conversations I had with Adam and my parents (the last of which, the mounting stress finally took its toll on me) we made a decision, just one day before the decision deadline date.

We're moving to Switzerland!

We will be living in Lausanne. Which is an hour from Geneva, on the lake. We have to be there by July 1st. His company is going to help me get a work permit and also with french lessons and job assistance. I will initially get a job in tourism or at a restaurant until the nursing paperwork goes through, which will take a few months. 

March 31st I leave California and head to Denver to visit my sister. Then I'm spending a couple days in Florida for some wedding planning. Then on April 7th I fly to Stockholm to meet up with Adam because he coincidentally has a meeting there. And on April 11th I will be back in France. 

We will have a lot of tedious things to get done for this move and I started working on them back in January. Visa, work permit, apartment search, nursing license paperwork, French fluency exams, etc. And to top it all off I have to plan a wedding in Florida while living in Switzerland. At least that part should be fun. 


I'll try to keep up with updates on the process, all I can say is I hope the Swiss are more efficient than the French

Changes in plans: part 1

     The original plan was to leave France again in January when my visa expires, work 3 months and then come back for a couple months until we figured out what to do next. Without a visa, I'm allowed to stay up to 3 months at a time but only twice a year. Or, on and off for a grand total of 180 days. Even if I extended my visa, by signing up for more classes or getting married, I still would not have the money to stay past its expiration date, so leaving for the winter was something we already knew would happen.

So I was finally finding things to do with my long boring days. 

I found 2 volunteer agencies:

     One is casual, come whenever you can, directed by an American woman, we bring lots of flowers to nursing homes and sit with all the old ladies and help them make little bouquets to have in their rooms. Sometimes these old women are funny, there's one who always wants to pose for a picture with her flowers. Sometimes its sad, some women are so old and they tell me they're too tired to hold the flowers, one lady cried, saying she can't do anything anymore, and she just feels like dying. Its heartbreaking. 

     The other is very formal, I had an hour and a half interview (in french) to see if I was qualified. Its an association that hires volunteers to give companionship to elderly sick in the hospital. I was supposed to start Oct 29th

     I even got a call back from the parent/student organization I had offered my English services to. I got an interview to be the teacher (paid) of an English conversation workshop for high schoolers every Wednesday.

     I found an English speaking expat (foreigner) group. Mostly women, most of whom are what you call trailing spouses, like I essentially am. They meet several times a week for various activities.

But then we took a look at my bank accounts one night and realized that, with the travel plans we already had, I couldn't afford to stay until January. After doing lots of math and budgeting and talking we decided it was best for me to leave before the holidays. I called up my manager at Stanford and my travel nurse recruiter and we quickly set up a contract. 

The new plan is: I'm flying back to the US November 30th, staying with my parents for a week and starting back to work in California on December 7th. The contract goes all the way until March 29th, which was part of the original plan. I'll just be gone 5 weeks earlier than I wanted but 4 months of paychecks will help us immensely in the long run. 

This had a negative effect on a few of my job/volunteer prospects. 

     The formal volunteer agency that I had to interview for was disappointed to hear they'd have much less time with me but still tried really hard to get me in on a team of volunteers because she really wanted me. But in the end she called me and said it wouldn't work, it was just not enough time to really integrate well.

     The teaching job I actually almost had. It was to start Nov 4th and they were willing to have me for just 1 month. But when she called me to offer me the job I was in England for the night and my phone didn't work. When I got back the next day and called her back she had called someone else to do it and this person would be there for the whole school year.

   One good thing, almost 2 months ago I posted in french craigslist to be an English tutor and just today someone finally responded. She's a college student and her English is actually really good so we decided to turn it into a language exchange and she'll help me with my French too. 

I will get to see Adam twice during those 4 months I'm gone. He is coming to visit me in the US in January. We'll meet in Florida and stay with my parents, his mom and stepdad are coming down to Florida too. So everyone will get to meet each other. 

Then in February Adam has a business trip to Vietnam so we're taking the last 2 weeks of Feb to go on vacation in Southeast Asia. We've had a hard time deciding what to visit, you really can't go wrong there. The tentative plan is a little island hopping in Thailand, visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and end in Southern Vietnam (the meeting is in Ho Chi Min City), where Adam's dad will meet us since he lives in China.

So I'm gonna keep you hanging like at the end of a chapter of a good book. That was just part 1 of our changes in plans. There's another change in plans but its still way too complicated to post about. So that will probably be decided and announced in late winter or early spring.

And before everyone starts making assumptions, no, I'm not pregnant! There are other exciting things in life besides that.