So because we are receiving these things tomorrow, now is a good time to describe the things I already miss... in my 5 days of being here.
I miss:
- Cool TV shows in English - I used to watch a lot of mind-numbing shows that left me feeling fulfilled and happy. Now I fall asleep by 4pm Kansas time, and have not yet figured out how to record at a later time through Slingbox, like DVR / Tivo. 4pm Slingbox in Kansas means I watch Oprah or Spongebob. I also haven't tried hulu or youtube yet since only last night I was able to setup my wireless router. I'm determined and motivated enough to figure this out.
- Driving a car - I used to spend 2 hours a day driving a mind-numbing freeway back and forth to work, a drone. I would listen to CNBC and catch valuable info I could use in stock trades. Now I walk at least 10 mins to a bus stop, ride a bus for 12 mins, walk another 10 mins to the office. An ex-pat colleague walked the first day with me as we ended up on the same bus by coincidence. It was very refreshing to hear her describe her joy with picking flowers on a weekend, hiking the paths in the hills, modifying her values of life quality. This morning I noticed for the first time in decades the dew on the unmowed grass while walking a paved path from the bus to the office. I pictured my colleague describing again these values, and thought "my feet hurt."
- My down mattress - omg that thing was comfortable. I'm swallowing Advils every day to unlock my spine.
- My friends - I texted my buddy this morning and told him I need a lid reduction, and that he needs to fly over immediately. I have trouble talking to my barber in NY who speaks broken English filtered through NY neighborhood Italian (not authentic). Imagine trying to carry a small talk conversation if I can't even speak the language here. "No, I part it on the right side... No, MY right side!"
- Cheap food - Uh, yeah, CHF 9 for a bratwurst wrapped in paper. This is a staple here. It is also quite delicious. All the outdoor events have these things. How does the US do it? There's more people there, and soooo much food. Yummy huge plates full. I'm not going to make it a year. I have a mushy body shape to manage. I can't afford the food, but I can't afford to be wasting away either. CHF 7 for McD Filet-o-Fish! Yes, they have McD here, and you won't catch a Swiss local inside one of those disgusting holes. Only we outsiders are trying to catch our fix, guilty and ashamed to be slinking away from the McMethadone clinic.
- Being loud - "Shh" is every other sound out of my mouth when I'm at home. We are the Louds. We like being loud. My laugh is loud and obnoxious. The TV is on loud. Sounds echo in our apartment because we have no rugs or carpeting. Our loudness reverberates throughout the apartment complex, bouncing back at us from beautiful 18th century chalets. Our relocation agent told us "You'll love this apartment complex. It's very International." That's a polite Swiss way of saying "You won't get a lot of complaints from the loud people in this complex." After about 9:30pm, even the other Louds in the complex are very very very quiet. Given our jetlag, and staying up until strange hours, and because we are the original Louds, I have a sense we will hear some polite complaints.
- 120 Volts - All of our stuff that plugs into anything is rendered useless. They have 240 Volt sockets here with the wrong plug shapes. We did buy adapters which convert the plug shape into a Swiss plug shape, but everything pops and smokes. I tried it on everything, and it's true, it doesn't work on anything. I thought I'd keep trying to see if I could prove myself wrong, and that I was just a moron. But nope, I was right. It doesn't work at all. When I described this frustration to one of my ex-pat colleagues, he laughed. He said "Yeah, I did the same thing. Nothing worked. These people don't know what they're doing here."
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