Time to start getting settled

Wow! I can't believe how quickly time is passing. Since the last post we've been turning Saturdays into shopping for furniture days, had a work trip to London, joined the gym, opened a bank account, got a cell phone number, oh and got an APARTMENT!!

So big news first, we've found a place to live!  The 'potential view and neighborhood' pictures in my last post is in fact our new neighborhood. Thank goodness as it's getting more and more difficult to keep my stuff tidy living out of a suitcase. (Mariano is much tidier than me so I feel a bit guilty...hehe not that guilty). We never took pics of the inside but we get the keys on Thursday so stay tuned! We will have much more space. It has 3 bedrooms. Enough to have a guest room, so start booking your visits! The third room will be an office but we'll put his futon/couch in there now if we have extra guest space if needed. It has two balconies, one small off the kitchen and one large overlooking the river and castle walls. I hope to try my hand at gardening on the small one off the kitchen....so domesticated of me. I'm not so confident in my green thumb but it could lead to some entertaining post later on. We placed our main furniture orders this weekend so hopefully the place won't be empty for long.

Work has been going crazy but well. The woman I was replacing left last Thursday so I'm really learning by doing now. When it's a tough day, I just look outside and the view is calming. Plus the other day legit Swiss horns were playing some where off in the distance. Is this real life? Riiiiiiccccccoooooolaaaaa. I really like my team. Mark, a Northern Irelander and Luca an Italian are my full time peeps and then we have two trainees in the office as well. We get along well although, the boys exchange looks when I answer the phone too loud or too cheery. I am loud on the phones I told them, even other Americans thought so! Ha! I'm coming from a sales floor that's loud and you have to compete. That's not really it. I blame my teachers from grade school who threw me in speech class because I didn't speak up loud enough. I was just a shy kid and now I overemphasize my volume to compensate. I am trying to keep an eye on the level though, but I think the boys will have to deal with me being pleasant on the phone :).

I had my first work trip up to London two weeks ago. I spent a Monday/Tuesday there and met my colleagues in the London office, checked out a couple of hotels and did a guided sightseeing to get a feel for how they operate as it's one of the components that fall under my responsibilities. It's crazy that I had only been in a non English speaking country for one week at the time and it was so relieving to be surrounded by English again. It's not that you can't get by with English in Lucerne, I just do so with a hinge of guilt for not understanding any German. Also, it was so nice to be in a CITY...things opened around the clock and just the general amazing vibe I get in a big city. I was able to meet up with my Aussie friend Rachel for dinner while I was there too. I hope to be seeing more of her and the City.

I will send out my contact details shortly. For now, it's time for bed. Buonanotte!

I will leave you with this...a picture of the 3 remaining flowers that Mariano gave me when I arrived in Lucerne, 3 weeks ago. I seriously have never had fresh flowers last so long!

Arrival to Lucerne. My first week.

What seemed like endless waiting for my visa documents to arrive quickly turned to warp speed when my passport arrived unexpectedly holding my visa.

You see, I had mistakenly sent the wrong documentation to the Swiss embassy in L.A. but they agreed to hang on to it until the correct paperwork arrived. However, I never received that documentation, instead the efficient Swiss took care of it on their own. I received my passport on Thursday and then was off on a plane last Saturday evening. Of course everything was left to the last minute, 6 suitcases and no time to officially clean my apartment, I made it to the airport with minutes to spare until they cut off accepting bags.

As my plane descended into the Zurich airport, the Swiss weather welcomed my arrival with sunny skies highlighting the beautiful rolling green hills and snow capped Alps. Customs was a breeze, gathering my 6 bags...not so much. I had to use two carts that I ended up linking together. It was a pretty sight of me leaning over, pushing one lever with my hips and the others with my hands. This was working quite well until I had to make the turn to exit the baggage area. Thankfully, an Angel fell upon me in the form of a fellow traveler who helped me push one of my carts out of the final door. There, Mariano was anxiously awaiting my arrival with a bunch of pink roses :). Very strategically he fit all my bags in his small Euro car and we set off for home.

The pretty flowers and our cool makeshift vase, plus the bags that overtook Mariano's apartment!

No time was wasted. I began work the following day. A weird, surreal feeling is all I can say. Familiar faces fill the hall but there are just as many that I do not know. My new UK team welcomed me with a British flag draped over my computer. I quickly feel as though it's my first day at EF, 6 years ago. There's a new system to learn and suppliers to get to know. I feel as though I know nothing. I know (at least I hope!) this will quickly subside with practice and getting my hands dirty in the role. The rest of the week was filled with trainings but I still have so much to learn!

We are apartment hunting at the moment. It's a very aggressive process. It doesn't seem to be a first come, first serve basis. If you are Swiss you immediately have the upper hand. We've looked at 3 places since I've been here. Mariano was hoping I'd love the first. It was a brand new development but I wasn't much impressed. I think he was ready for the search to be over as he has been looking forever. The 2nd one had a gorgeous wrap around balcony. We were there at sunset and the views were breathtaking. Unfortunately, we were the 5th people to see it and after follow up, we believe they have 15 applications. We don't feel our chances are very good here. On Friday though, we saw another place that is almost perfect, a reasonable price, decent sized rooms and two balconies. We have a good feeling about this one! We hope we can work this one out, if not our search will continue while we remain cozy in his current apartment.

 On Tuesday, I applied for my residency. This was an interesting experience. I feel guilty for not speaking German. I hope to find a class that works within my schedule to at minimum get some basics down. I had to give an address so I gave Mariano's and as she looked it up his name was attached to the address and the conversation goes like this, her-"Vitiello, you live with this man? (in a thick German accent), me "Yes." her- "You live with this man? (again as though I didn't answer the first time). me-"Yes. I just arrived Sunday, we are looking for a place to live." I wonder if this was an honest misunderstanding or if she was judging me for living in sin (Lucerne is very Catholic).

There was a music festival in town on Friday night. I was tired and not feeling well but I pushed through it to go out and enjoy some of the night. Many hotel and bars around town were hosting local musicians. First stop, was the hotel where the EF office is located for a funky pop jazz band. We moved on to some Funk at a hotel nearby but the body heat was a bit much being so sober! The music was great but we decided to move on. Mistakenly, we thought there was a band playing at Bar 59, instead it was just a DJ playing oldies rock music. I shouldn't underplay this place so much. It was an AMAZING dive bar. And that DJ was playing actual records. Visitors, I have a feeling we will be having a stop here. I sadly didn't take pictures, but here is their website: http://www.bar59.ch/

My first work trip to London is Monday/Tuesday. I should be seeing a lot of that city in my new role. I also look forward to trips to northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

A few random thoughts...
-Cougars exist even in Lucerne. One 40 or 50 something woman spotted rocking out to the Funk band Friday night in a black mini skirt barely covering her ass and a red laced see-through shirt. A bit much lady! Legs or Chest...pick one! And at your age, even though you had nice legs, the skirt should be slightly longer, period.

-I love Ikea and spending 3 hours there and didn't buy a thing.

-Church bells are loud, very loud. Love the 5 minute walk to work but will not complain too much to exchange a longer commute for a more peaceful Sunday morning.

-McDonald's Ketchup sold at the grocery store??

No phone yet. Will let you know when I get around to this. Most likely when I return from London. It's been nice to be phone free after having the BB attached to my hip for so long. If you have a SKYPE account, let me know your name. You can find me on there with my work email address.

Ciao for now,

Laura

Oh, and this is the view from my office!