We moved in to our permanent place this past weekend. When Chizzy and I were looking for rentals in Seattle we'd drive down the street and almost invariably be able to tell which house was for rent before seeing the actual address. It was usually the worst looking one on the block. So we thought it was funny when our new building stood out too. It isn’t rundown (I haven’t seen anything rundown in this city); it’s just a completely different style than everything surrounding it. Guess which one it is
Yep, there she is. Ole Baby Blue right in the middle of all the nice brick and earth-tone apartments. The bit of graffiti is nothing unusual. This city is very nice, but there is graffiti on almost every building. It's pretty odd.
It’s very nice inside; hardwood, fully furnished (with TV and multi-region DVD player), great location and a good amount of space. Just need the high speed internet access and we’ll really be cooking. We’ll post some pictures after we get it set up proper.
So, yeah… four months away from home now. Time is really flying, but it does seem like quite a while ago that we were living in Monteson. We haven’t been doing much traveling lately, but hopefully that will change now that we feel settled in here. I think the Lugano region of Switzerland (Italian speaking), Vienna, or somewhere in Ireland is next on the list. Chiz had a great time in Ireland on her business trip and wants to get back there to prove to me they really do say “me darlin’” when addressing her.
Our German isn’t progressing at all (because we haven’t been trying). A while back Chiz told me one ex-pat from her company spent 5 years in France and never did learn to speak it. At first I thought that was pretty hard to believe, but now I see how it’s possible. You really need to make an effort. Especially in a place like Zurich where there is very little pressure to speak the local language. I can honestly say that about 30% of the conversations I overhear in the streets are in English. About 90% of people I come in contact with switch easily to English when I start speaking it. Still, it would be very lame to not learn it while we are here so I enrolled in an intensive course that starts next Monday that runs for 12 weeks. Three hours a day of class should finally get me on the ball. Chizzy is being exposed to German at work more and more since the office is growing and filling with German speakers. So between her exposure there and my help, she’ll be right in no time too.
Intense German? what in the world....
Bryan, April 27, 2005 07:24 PM:Yeah, you just learn to yell and act angry in a German sort of way. Very intense.
burke, April 28, 2005 08:17 PM:can you imagine - you just come back fluent in german and just demanding schnitzel at all times..."acchhh, I'll have a heineken..." So are you learning straigh german or swiss german - its a little different, right? its a good call to learn a language - but an intense german class seems like HARD work...speaking of, did you hear about J and Steve getting caught at barnes and noble? just third knee in the megabyte section...
Meester Bungle, April 28, 2005 10:47 PM:Intense German means that you start with German then aggressively switch to Polish, then Czech, then French.
Bryan, April 28, 2005 10:54 PM:It's high German (as they call it). It's tough to find a Swiss-German course. They are pretty guarded about their local dialects. They don't really want foreigners speaking it if they can help it. The native Germans that Chiz works with have difficulty understanding Swiss-German and many of the Swiss will not switch to high German when talking to them. So, even though they might finally be able to understand me I still won't be able to understand them. Not sure if that will get me anywhere.
No, I didn't hear the story about J and Steve in Barnes and Noble. That sounds like a whopper of a tale.