Writing a Blog is, I think, a little like writing a book. It's hard to get started. One naturally wants his or her first posting to be inspired and elegant, an incisive, fluid, and entertaining accounting and analysis of whatever is being written about. I now realize this won't be the case. However, I'm going to start anyway. If I continue to wait for inspiration, I will be waiting a long time indeed. So, here goes.
I made it! Finally! This has been what seems like a long time coming, but it has arrived. I have now been in Lucerne, Switzerland for about five days now, and time is flying. Timi(my wife) and I got just about everything done organizational-wise in the first couple of days, and the last few have been pretty relaxed and lazy. I have already checked in with immigration, filed my info, put my names on the bank accounts and ordered debit and credit cards, checked in with work and got the ball rolling there, decided on and signed up for health insurance, unpacked, joined the library, etc, etc. Yesterday we went to visit our friend Csaba in St. Gallen, in the northeast part of Switzerland, picked up some boxes of household stuff he had been storing for us, and had lunch at Ikea. Ikea is one of the more affordable places in Switzerland to eat out, it only cost about $30 for the two of us. More on that later.
Other than that, we have just been exploring our new home by doing a lot of walking, and Timi has been showing me the ropes with regards to day-to-day living here. Things like where the grocery stores are, how and where to check the mail advertisers for sale specials, how and where to do the laundry, where everything is located in our apartment and building, and where everything is located in relation to our apartment!
It's hard to get used to the idea that I am now living in Switzerland!--in one of the oldest towns in Switzerland, and we live in the oldest part of this town, a mere block from a church with parts that are around 1300 years old! There is a section of the old town defensive wall just a block in another direction, with guard towers still intact. I am living inside of a massive, living museum. This place is soaked in history and culture dating back thousands of years. More recently Mark Twain spent time in Lucerne, and William Tell reputedly shot an apple off of his son's head just a few miles from here. I'm not able yet to fully absorb that I really live here now, I still feel like a tourist, and probably will for quite a while.
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