We're here!

We arrived in Zurich yesterday morning and checked into our temporary housing at the EMA house for 2 nights. It is a very clean, nice place with a view of the river. Phil's favorite thing about it and many of the buildings here is the external sun shades on all the windows which block all the light and warmth during the heat of the day. They can be lowered electronically and are perfect for Phil since he likes pitch darkness for sleeping. It has been pretty warm here both days, around 75 - 80 and slightly humid.

Yesterday we took a little nap when we arrived and then walked down to the lake and explored our new home city. It doesn't quite feel like we will be living here yet but I am sure that will change once we find a permanent apartment. I tried out some of my limited German when ordering food and it worked until they started asking questions... I need to learn much more! We are very eager to get started settling in and feeling more comfortable here.

Today we spent much of the day sleeping and trying to adjust to the time difference. We also went to the shops under the train station to find umbrellas and look around. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and we wanted to be prepared.

Phil starts work tomorrow morning at 9:00 local time. He is looking forward to meeting his coworkers and learn more about his job. Tomorrow around noon I will be moving our things to the service apartment near the lake while Phil is at work. We will be residing there until we find a permanent apartment of our own. We will have a fully equiped kitchen to use so I will need to go to the market to get food to cook as well. They seem to carry many similar items to the U.S. although certain things are much more expensive. As for eating out, we saw a Burger King in the train station today that had a Whopper meal for 12.80 francs, which would be about $12 U.S! We will be cooking at home a lot I think, using as many local products as possible.

Meanwhile we have been watching Aljazzera, CNN, and BBC coverage of world news and especially hurricane Gustav. It is huge news in the U.S. and also here.

We have only taken a few pictures so far so we will wait until we are settled in our next temporary residence to upload them. More news to come soon!