WANTED: our BED and our STUFF

For a few weeks I thought it was actually nice to be clutter free and only be living out of a few suitcases. There was less to worry about and think about and pack and organize. But now after 4ish weeks of not having our stuff, we want it BACK! Especially our big, comfy, pillow top mattress.  Ahhh... I've been dreaming about comfortable mattresses at night! Our European mattress in the temporary accommodation is stiff as a board. Relief is on its way though - our shipment is currently en route to Switzerland and should be arriving within the next 2 weeks, hooray! I can't wait to have everything here so that we can start making our new apartment feel like home :)

Our new apartment is in the Plainpalais area, which is known for being one of the more lively areas of the city because it is close to the universities.  The actual street that we are on has lots of restaurants and bars (hopefully its not too loud!).  It is also steps away from the Plaine de Plainpalais, which is a big open square that is used as a Sunday market and also for various exhibitions, circuses, and shows. One local told us tonight that it is considered one of the "hearts" of the city. The apartment is currently being renovated while keeping some of the old European architecture which is EXACTLY what we wanted, yay :) We get the keys next Thursday so I will post some pictures when we get in!

The to-do list of a recently arrived expat couple

Ryan and I are lucky that we have been able to alternate in taking time off both before and after moving in 2 week intervals so that we could both help manage the extensive to-do lists pre-departure and upon arrival. I have the next two weeks off before starting work so I'm in charge of tackling the arrival to-do list. So far its all progressing really well -- which ironically now that I look at this list, the lack of things crossed off makes it look like I've been slacking! But I promise almost all of these items have at least been partially moving :) Thought you all might get a kick out of taking a gander at the things on the list to give you an idea of what we will be doing to settle in over the next few weeks. I'm sure many of my future posts will cover how we navigated some of these items (getting the famed 'Swiss bank account', buying a car, renting an apartment, etc.)

Very delayed arrival post!

Hello from Geneva! Unfortunately the internet at our temporary accommodation has been absolutely horrendous, so every time I go to write a blog post, of course the internet isn't working, but for the moment it looks like it is going to let me sneak one in! I promise whenever we get our permanent accommodation, we will have super reliable and fast internet so that we can keep in touch with everyone via the blog and Facetime :) For the next few weeks, we apologize in advance if it appears as if we have disappeared into a black hole because of this problem though....

We arrived on Wednesday and have been enveloped in a flurry of activity!  We have been to the grocery store many times (this sounds a lot simpler in writing than it actually is!), registered at the migration office (essentially Geneva's form of a town hall that registers all expats), gone apartment shopping with our relocation agent and put an application in on two apartments (our application was just accepted for our favorite apartment!), gone to a happy hour with other expats, had some traditional Swiss cheese fondue, explored the city a TON, cooked some meals at home, gone out for Korean BBQ with new friends, hiked in the Portes du Soleil area (essentially the French alps) and had lunch on top of a mountain, and watched some good ol' American football with some more new friends.

Everything is running really smoothly for us so far, we haven't run into any major issues, in particular a lot of the big problem areas for expats entering Switzerland so far haven't created any big issues (our permits were approved really quickly, we found an amazing apartment and the first application we put in for it was accepted, we have had lots of time off to explore and settle in, etc.).  We are really thankful because so far this has been making our transition quite simple to be honest! I also have the next 2 weeks off before starting work to help us deal with any pesky issues/errands that come up.

Here are some pictures from our first few days of initial exploring around the city and region, as you can see the city itself is really pretty - we're liking it more and more each day. It may not be a huge city, but its pretty and situated at the gateway to the most amazing locations within Switzerland and Europe. We can't wait to start exploring!



Scenery from our hike in Portes du Soleil - we hiked up to the top of a mountain and had the most amazing meal and this was the scenery on the way back down



Just one of the many cute streets in the Vieille Ville ('Old Town') in Geneva

The windows in our temporary accommodation don't have screens so we have to keep a close eye on our curious cat to make sure he doesn't fall out of the windows!

This is a view from the city overlooking Lac Leman ('Lake Geneva') - it is one of the largest bodies of water in Europe, stretching over 60 miles long 

Love the European architecture and balconies of the buildings in town

In front of the Swiss flags and the flags that symbolize the Canton of Geneva - Switzerland operates via separate "cantons", which are essentially equivalent to states in the US; however, the cantons operate almost autonomously

There are so many beautiful doors throughout the city - I'm tempted to start a photo album full of photos of doors :)

Another photo from our hike with friends and their dogs in the Alps

In one of the many parks in Geneva - the city is known as the city of parks because parks cover over one quarter of the city's area

Enjoying some traditional Swiss fondue! Tip for future visitors - make sure to accept the digestive alcohol that is offered after eating fondue otherwise you will have a killer stomach ache the next day due to the block of cheese stuck in your stomach -- I learnt this lesson firsthand!

Lovely, inspiring words of wisdom

Various friends, family, and coworkers have given us poems and sayings with such beautiful inspirations for our upcoming journey. Whenever I think about how challenging this process has been, I just go back and read sayings like this and it quickly makes me feel better :) I'm going to take my favorite and paint it onto a canvas for our apartment in Geneva... which one is your favorite?

Temporary housing!

We received an e-mail from our relocation consultant with pictures of our temporary housing today.  It looks like its a decent size and in a nice location!

We also brought the Punk to the vet today and he did SO well. He didn't meow very much on the ride there and back. When we moved out of the apartment a few weeks ago, we tried giving him a tranquilizer for the car ride up to NH and he howled and panted the entire time, so it was really nice to see him fairly calm today - I was afraid the trip to Switzerland was going to be a disaster with him meowing all the time...

Busy busy bees!

Over the past few weeks we have been busy bees getting ready for the move by seeing all of our family and friends and visting all of our favorite spots. Rather than describe it all to you in words, I figured I would show you in pictures :)

I went up to our camp with my family in WAY northern NH. I hadn't been here for years and it was nice to spend time with my brother who had just gotten back from a summer in Nepal.

Then my little sis got married! It was a great weekend for all and we had so much fun. It was also really nice to see a lot of our extended family. Didn't she look gorgeous??

We enjoyed our last few days of being Bostonians before moving out on August 31st (more to come on the moving process in a later post)

We enjoyed a relaxing labor day weekend with friends and family (and lots of lobster!)

And of course in between all of this we spent a lot of time snuggling with the "Chunk", aka Pumpkin. For those of you that don't know Pumpkin, he is our 12 year old cat that is soon to become a Swiss kitty :)

My thoughts EXACTLY!

A big thanks to my brother Andrew for sharing this article with me, although this couple had a different situation, the frustrations that they experienced trying to live together in a foreign country (and the stories in the comments below) exactly hit upon our frustration during the visa/work permit process. Its interesting how marriage ends up being the solution for a lot of couples -- in our situation it wasn't AS big of a deal because were already engaged, but I can't imagine how many couples out there have married for visa reasons just given all of the struggles that governments put them through...

When a visa stands in between you