The grass is actually greener...

I had an epiphany this week about another of the many ways I had gotten spoiled in Switzerland and had adapted to living there. There have been many things that have taken quite some re-adjustment, such as forgetting how floors are counted in the US and always ending a floor above where I want to be because I think that the ground floor is not the same thing as the first floor, having trouble with understanding dates because I can't remember if it's day-month-year or month-day-year here, getting confused when calendars start on Sunday instead of Monday, etc.

The most recent example is grass. I have been looking forward to the snow melting and the start of spring here in Ann Arbor. But, for the past two weeks, I've been wondering why on earth it's just so ugly here. The snow melting didn't provide the relief that I was subconsciously expecting, which I was puzzled by.

Then I realized: when it's actually cold, like it is here in Ann Arbor, the grass DIES. So, when the snow melts, it's not automatically green again. The snow melting is not the same thing as spring.

In Switzerland, the grass is never not green. The cold and snow in Zurich just don't last long enough, so the snow melting actually improves things in a way it doesn't here. 

I feel like an idiot for forgetting that grass dies (I am from Minnesota after all!), but it just means that I'm looking even more forward to the start of spring!

Zurich around this time last year.

Accordions are serious business.

I've stared at this ad on the tram almost every morning for the past month and have been trying to wrap my head around an accordion concert that would be so intense that it would merit this sort of ad and would attract enough people to fill a stadium.

I still don't get it. But apparently accordions are serious business over here!

Just another day in the city of Zurich.

Spotted outside my lab, while waiting at my tram stop:

Heat, sleep and junk mail.

It is currently freakishly hot here in Zürich. Well, I guess it isn't so hot, but the utter lack of air conditioning means that there is almost zero chance to cool down. When I got in to Zürich yesterday evening, my flat was quite toasty.

Eventually, it became cooler outside, so I opened my (screenless) door and windows as wide as possible, and actually slept with everything just open to the outside. Since I'm on the first floor and have had a cat stalker, this made me a little nervous, but it was too hot for any other option. And, luckily, there just aren't that many bugs in Zürich (and, compared to Alaska, the bugs anywhere else are really nothing anyways), so it works to have everything open even without screens.

Thanks to my jet lag and lack of sleep for the previous 30 hours, I actually slept rather well until about 6 am, when the planes started roaring over my building. My neighborhood, Schwamendingen, seems to get the prime plane-landing time slots of 6 am (for an hour or so) and 11 pm (again, for an hour or so). Actually, one of the selling points of my current flat was that the plane traffic is much quieter here than it was at my old flat. It's amazing what moving 1.2 km can do for you! Although it is definitely quieter, with all of my windows and a door wide open, the plane traffic was enough to wake me up.

Which brings me to the most fantastic piece of junk mail I have ever received, which was waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home.

Ever since I move to Zürich almost 3 years ago, there has been a tussle between Germany and Switzerland as to when and where flights can approach the Zürich airport over German airspace. Recently this dispute ended with Switzerland making quite a few concessions, which means more air traffic over Zürich city. Given how much Swiss people like their quiet, this caused an uproar and is definitely a sensitive topic in my neighborhood, which was one of those that was affected by this change. They must be getting ready to have a vote about something related, because I had this fantastic postcard in the mail:

If you take a closer look, you can see that the directions state that if you see a plane crashing into your house, you should grab your child and your hard hats and hide under a table. Because that would definitely help if a plane crashed into your house? And everyone has hard hats lying around?

Also, apparently plane noise can cause heart attacks (third line down)? And when the airplane noise woke me up and disturbed me this morning, I should've put on some noise-canceling headphones that would be hanging from my ceiling. Guess I'll know for next time!

I don't know exactly what this postcard is for (although I think I'm supposed to vote no for sonething...), but it is totally amazing. I think I'm going to keep it and frame it as a shining example of the random things I have gotten in the mail here.

Blue is my favorite color.

My dear friend Jessi sent me an email with this story last week:

...I went to the gym today and wore a sky blue tank top. After, I put it in the laundry hamper, and it was on top of everything. Jessi, Jr. came into the room and peered into the hamper (she often drops toys in there just for fun) and saw the blue shirt. "SARAH?" she shrieked questioningly. I told her what I always do when she says your name, "No, Sarah isn't here, she's in Zurich." This time babycakes dove head-first into the hamper to pull out the blue shirt. Holding it up to me she said again, "Sarah?" I started to laugh - apparently you wear a LOT of blue and she must associate that color with you which I thought was really funny. I had to break it to her that sadly that was Momma's shirt and not Sarah's, and that, alas, Sarah was still in Zurich...

Other than having the cockles of my heart warmed by the fact that babycakes remembers me and connects me with the color blue, it just about made me die laughing, because I truly have a blue problem (which others have remarked on as well). I am inescapably drawn to things that are blue; if there is something blue in the store, I automatically gravitate towards it, without even thinking. Which is probably how I have more than five blue jackets...

Anyways, I thought I'd go back and assess the evidence from our trip to see if I do really wear so much blue.

Day 1: (Navy) blue shirt. That almost doesn't count!

Day 2: Blue rain jacket.

Day 3: Blue rain jacket.

Day 4: Blue rain jacket.

Day 5: Blue rain jacket.

Day 6: Blue rain jacket. Again.

Day 7: Blue rain jacket.

Day 8: No picture, but it was pouring cats and dogs, so I definitely was wearing my trusty blue raincoat.

Day 9: Blue rain jacket.

Day 10: I may not have worn blue, but I have no picture to prove it.


Conclusion: I wear a lot of blue? Although, in my defense, it was cold and/or windy for much of the trip, which is why I basically lived in my blue raincoat. On the other hand, these pictures don't even show the blue shirts that I may or may not have been wearing under my blue rain jacket...

On the way home!

I'm at the Zürich airport and almost ready to board my flight! So excited to see my family on the other side!

On the road again.

This week I'm heading off for another summertime adventure in the US! I'll be making a brief stop in Minnesota before heading up for some more field work in Alaska, at the Toolik Field Station (which, you can see from the webcam, is still covered in snow!). I really enjoyed my work up there last year, and am looking forward to what we might learn from this season. Here's hoping the weather cooperates!

Above Toolik Lake.

After my field work, I'll get some more time in Minnesota, which will include a family wedding. I'm looking forward to having some time with family and friends and puppy!

Walking on the Züriberg.

Since I'm leaving for the US next week, I stayed in town this weekend to pack and clean and organize and freak out. But the weather was amazing, so I did take a break to take a walk on the Züriberg, which is my favorite place to walk nearby. It was so calming to walk through the lush forest and to be surrounded by the quiet of nature, with the birds singing, the wind moving through the tree tops, the sound of guns firing at the target range, the bubbling creek next to the path. I love that there is such a nice place to walk right next to my house!

This may sound ridiculous, but...

...the most amazing thing happened to me today! I got to do laundry!

While that may not seem to be a super exciting thing, it is positively thrilling if you haven't been able to do laundry for 5 weeks and your next official laundry slot (that you will be in the country for) is in late July.

I have mentioned before how complicated laundry can be here, but my current laundry situation is quite unusual, even for Switzerland. In my building, we are given a washing slot once every 3 weeks. Because we don't have a tumbler (dryer), we are given two days together (so that we can wash on the first day and let our stuff dry on the second day, I guess?).

My days are Friday and Saturday, which means I have to do my laundry on Friday if I a) wish for it to dry within my time-slot and b) want to do anything on Saturday. Because I'm doing 3 weeks worth of laundry and towels and bed linens, this ends up to be quite a few load of laundry, with each wash cycle being over an hour. Thankfully, I have a flexible job so that I can work from home for a morning if I need to, but it is definitely challenging to arrange my schedule so that I can get all of my laundry done and dried in the time allotted.

And, I was on vacation over my last time slot, which is how I went 5 weeks without doing laundry. Also, I am leaving for the US 2 days before my next laundry slot, so, in theory, my next official laundry slot when I will be in the country is in late July. Yikes!

Of course, it actually isn't totally as bad as it sounds, because the Pattons and I stayed in holiday cottages while in France, and Jessi was nice enough to make sure that the first and last places we stayed had washing machines. So I packed only dirty clothes to France, washed them the day we arrived, and then did some wash a few days before the end of our trip. So I haven't gone totally without washing anything these 5 weeks (I'm pretty sure I don't have enough socks or underwear!), but it was definitely getting to the point that I am quite happy to be able to do laundry, especially before my trip to the US.

I have been stalking the washing room for the past week and tonight discovered that it was open, because the people whose washing day it is are retired and did their laundry during the day. I had a rather confusing and entertaining conversation with the husband (the same man who before told me that he has lived in the building for 40 years!!!) to get permission to do wash on their day. In the end, he told me that his wife was out swimming and that he was the husband, so he had no idea about the laundry, but that I should just go ahead and do it, and that it was okay for me to hang it to dry in the drying room.

It was an amazing moment for me. I am so excited for clean clothes and towels!

Have I ever mentioned that Switzerland is fantastic?

In case you've missed all of the other times that I've mentioned it, I think Switzerland is fantastic! Of course, it has its own issues, but it is a pretty fabulous place to live, and here is yet another study confirming my opinion, ranking Switzerland as the happiest country in the world.

It's sort of nice here.

Zürich HB on a rainy Saturday night.

There is nothing quite like the Zürich HB on a rainy Saturday night. (It hasn't stopped raining for 36 hours, I think...) 

This Saturday night it is a bizarre mixture of business professionals in suits attending a young innovators competition, enthusiastic football (soccer) fans wearing their team scarves and waving flags, Turkish people protesting something (maybe the shooting that happened earlier this week?) and waving flags, multiple hen party groups dressed wildly (some with flaming pink hats, others in bright striped outfits) and taking shots exuberantly, the usual harried travelers just arriving in Zürich, some motorcycle fans who are waving flags and rallying about something, hikers returning from a day out, a man in a full-length rain slicker with a pointy hat that makes him look like a wizard, and a nun or two. 

Seriously, this place is fantastic for people-watching. 

No people in this photo- I missed them all! Bummer...

After vacation, back at it.

After a really nice holiday, I'm back at work and had to jump right back in to about a million things at the same time. But it's not so bad, especially when this is the view from your meeting room...

Although, I'm not going to lie, this weather is just downright depressing. 

I can only hope for summer, someday...

SOLA 2013.

Every spring the university's athletic association here in Zürich organizes the SOLA relay race. It's a huge race: over 900 teams, with 14 legs of the race that goes 116 km through the city of Zürich. I like running in this race- it is super well organized and it seems like most of the city is either running or watching. My leg this year was mostly through the forest, which was full of vibrant shades of spring green. It was fun (for running), and now it's time to get ready for a BBQ with my team tonight!

Spring is still alive!

Even after the snow last weekend, there are still signs of spring everywhere. I love this time of year!

Living abroad and creative replacements.

I feel like living abroad has taught me a lot about creative replacements and making due with what you have. When you move somewhere with only two suitcases and are on a tight budget, you just don't have everything that you might normally have. For my first year here, I hiked in tennis shoes and jeans. While I am very happy to have gotten some hiking gear, as it makes the whole experience much more comfortable, I had some really amazing hikes while wearing tennis shoes.

When cooking, I have also run in to the need to make replacements. For example, brown sugar isn't sold here, so I had to track down a sort-of molasses replacement to mix with white sugar to make a quasi-brown sugar. If cornmeal isn't available, polenta can be a satisfactory replacement. Chocolate chips can be replaced with chopped chocolate bars. I just add extra jalapeno peppers when a recipe calls for Rotel. I have no replacement for corn syrup, so I just don't make anything that requires it. And the list could go on and on...

Moving in and furnishing my own flat has also meant that I have tried to make due with as little as possible, especially since I know that I'll be moving in less than a year. This means that I have few pots and pans, and that I often use every pan I own when I cook and/or bake and have to creatively clean things mid-cooking to pull everything together.

I've also given up on attending fitness classes at ETH, because it was just too difficult to keep up with the German while also being coordinated. In general, my strategy of just trying to do what other people were doing worked, except when I watched the wrong person. There was one too many times in which I was called out in front of the whole class in German, didn't understand what was going on, and then was called out for not understanding and for speaking English, and finally I had enough. So, now I do exercise videos (in English) in my living room.

This past week, I added a new video to my routine to change things up a little and was surprised in the middle when the instructor told us to grab our free weights. I have no weights, so I ran into my kitchen and grabbed the first heavy things I could find, which ended up being a bag of oatmeal and a bag of lentils. I felt so ridiculous following along to this video and flailing around my bags of lentils and oatmeal, but I guess it worked! And I'm really happy that the bags didn't explode on me...

I'm so glad to be learning all of these new life skills!

Spring in Zurich...

...is a tease! This is the view from my balcony today.

Spring is here!

Spring has finally arrived here (knock on wood). And just in time for Sächsilüüte, the bizarre Zürich holiday during which they blow up a snowman to predict how nice this summer will be...

My second Easter.

Last weekend, I had the chance to celebrate Easter with some friends from work: Melissa and Jonathan and their 3-year-old daughter Ellen, who are recently-arrived transplants from Minnesota (Melissa and I started grad school together), and Paul and Jessica and their two-year-old Jakob, who I've mentioned before. All of us went south to Ticino or Italy for Easter weekend, and Melissa had the good idea to celebrate Easter in a more traditional fashion, just a weekend late. We dyed Easter eggs and also did some crafts that my dear friend Jessi had sent me from London. We had lots of fun doing crafts together!

While we were doing crafts, the Easter bunny was hard at work outside, hiding eggs in the yard, so it was time for an Easter egg hunt afterwards. The kids were so cute and did a good job of finding eggs, although Jakob was just as happy throwing them out of his basket as putting them in.

After the egg hunt, it was time for Easter brunch, complete with cinnamon twists, eggs, sausage, a fruit salad, and mimosas. Yum!

While I totally had a lovely Easter hanging out with Stefanie and her family, it was also really nice to get to dye some eggs and participate in some other Easter traditions with other friends. I rather like this rhythm of celebrating holidays twice: I've had two Thanksgivings, and now two Easters! Not too shabby...