Huge Twilight Zone moment going on right now: I just realized that this Friday will mark the two-year anniversary of my arrival in Zurich. Whoa. Has it really been two years? Wait, that's too imprecise a time measurement for Switzerland. OK, Friday morning at approximately 7:05 a.m., it will have been 1,051,200 minutes since I landed at the Zurich airport two years ago.
It's been a good two years. I had forgotten until now that the big day would be this Friday, and realized that I'll be celebrating the occasion in a rather appropriate way: going to the airport after work and taking a weekend trip to Istanbul. It seems that my life here is defined by the places I go, the things I do, and the people I see in between getting my work done. So far, I've taken 22 international trips, spent time in 18 different countries, gone diving in six countries, and I already have another four trips lined up for Istanbul, San Francisco/New York, Berlin, and Dublin. I've even managed to check out 15 or so towns here in Switzerland. I've had 15 friends come through Switzerland, and I've met up with several other friends around Europe. Not bad.
Anyways. My two friends who were visiting overlapped for a few days, and we took a quick trip down to Zermatt, did the requisite ooh-ing and ahh-ing on the train ride down, checked out the Matterhorn, and got some sun. The weather in Zurich was less than cooperative, and it rained almost out of spite, so that everything I had to say went something like, "When it's sunny, this [bar, restaurant, terrace, street, neighborhood] is really nice." So my visitors perhaps got less out of their trips than they would have liked, but I got everything I had hoped for: Cheetos, red Twizzlers, tropical Starburst, Skittles, Lactaid pills, Advil, and Reese's miniature peanut butter cups. Oh, and quality time with my friends, of course.
Speaking of food, you would think that after two years, I would no longer consider any of the eating habits here to be strange, especially considering the somewhat suspect things that I eat for "dinner." (Gummy candy counts as fruit, right?) But there are still surprises, even after two years. My friend and I went to get a late dinner on Friday night (that was our first mistake, failing to take into account the fact that the Swiss like to eat early, and restaurants often stop seating people after 10 p.m.), and we were informed that the restaurant we chose was no longer serving its full menu, but that they had a late menu. Sure, sounds good. You would think that a shortened, late-night menu would have mostly standards and popular classics. So why, then, did the menu have pickled beef muzzle? Is this what the Swiss crave late at night? Is it a popular item that sells well at any time of day? Are they trying to offload it on desperate late-night diners? I have no idea.
You can buy fish paste in a tube at the grocery store (don't ask me what for), but there's no grape jelly. You can get every kind of jelly but grape: strawberry-rhubarb, green tea-peach, mango-orange, fig, whatever you want, as long as it doesn't involve grapes. Some typical American foods have made their way into Switzerland. If you go to the "Mexican" section of the online grocery store, you can get Doritos, or even Cool American Doritos (rather than Cool Ranch). "Nick's Easy Rider Pancake Mix" is also available for purchase in boxes that contain enough mix to make breakfast for a family of four.
In any case, it's been two years, and the Swiss still manage to catch me off guard with their pickled beef muzzles. Who knows what surprises the next year will bring? I'm off to Turkey this weekend, so next update will be on Wednesday.
It's been a good two years. I had forgotten until now that the big day would be this Friday, and realized that I'll be celebrating the occasion in a rather appropriate way: going to the airport after work and taking a weekend trip to Istanbul. It seems that my life here is defined by the places I go, the things I do, and the people I see in between getting my work done. So far, I've taken 22 international trips, spent time in 18 different countries, gone diving in six countries, and I already have another four trips lined up for Istanbul, San Francisco/New York, Berlin, and Dublin. I've even managed to check out 15 or so towns here in Switzerland. I've had 15 friends come through Switzerland, and I've met up with several other friends around Europe. Not bad.
Anyways. My two friends who were visiting overlapped for a few days, and we took a quick trip down to Zermatt, did the requisite ooh-ing and ahh-ing on the train ride down, checked out the Matterhorn, and got some sun. The weather in Zurich was less than cooperative, and it rained almost out of spite, so that everything I had to say went something like, "When it's sunny, this [bar, restaurant, terrace, street, neighborhood] is really nice." So my visitors perhaps got less out of their trips than they would have liked, but I got everything I had hoped for: Cheetos, red Twizzlers, tropical Starburst, Skittles, Lactaid pills, Advil, and Reese's miniature peanut butter cups. Oh, and quality time with my friends, of course.
Speaking of food, you would think that after two years, I would no longer consider any of the eating habits here to be strange, especially considering the somewhat suspect things that I eat for "dinner." (Gummy candy counts as fruit, right?) But there are still surprises, even after two years. My friend and I went to get a late dinner on Friday night (that was our first mistake, failing to take into account the fact that the Swiss like to eat early, and restaurants often stop seating people after 10 p.m.), and we were informed that the restaurant we chose was no longer serving its full menu, but that they had a late menu. Sure, sounds good. You would think that a shortened, late-night menu would have mostly standards and popular classics. So why, then, did the menu have pickled beef muzzle? Is this what the Swiss crave late at night? Is it a popular item that sells well at any time of day? Are they trying to offload it on desperate late-night diners? I have no idea.
You can buy fish paste in a tube at the grocery store (don't ask me what for), but there's no grape jelly. You can get every kind of jelly but grape: strawberry-rhubarb, green tea-peach, mango-orange, fig, whatever you want, as long as it doesn't involve grapes. Some typical American foods have made their way into Switzerland. If you go to the "Mexican" section of the online grocery store, you can get Doritos, or even Cool American Doritos (rather than Cool Ranch). "Nick's Easy Rider Pancake Mix" is also available for purchase in boxes that contain enough mix to make breakfast for a family of four.
In any case, it's been two years, and the Swiss still manage to catch me off guard with their pickled beef muzzles. Who knows what surprises the next year will bring? I'm off to Turkey this weekend, so next update will be on Wednesday.
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