Grüezi!!!

Hi all!!!

Jenica and I have been slowly adjusting to life in Switzerland (currently 5 hours ahead).  We were hoping that this blog would serve as a way for you all to keep in touch with us over the next few years as we explore Switzerland and Europe, and of course, ask questions!

We first started our Swiss Journey by leaving from Boston Logan Airport.

I took a bunch of photos of the food on our SwissAir flight to Zurich.

Dinner served at midnight!

Not too bad for airline food.

Free Swiss Wine!

And breakfast!  For a 7 hour flight, this was a lot of food.

Complementary Swiss Chocolate!

Overall, the flight was great.  Seats were a little cramped, but we tried our best to relax.

Once we arrived, the post-doc at Professor Norris' lab, Kevin McPeak, picked us up and our six bags of luggage.  We paid the an additional fee for extra bags, since it's much more expensive to send packages by mail to Zurich.  We took the train to Thalwil (a small town south of Zurich), that is about a 15 minute train ride from downtown.  Since then, we've been getting to know Thalwil, Zurich and life in Switzerland.  So far, we'd like to comment on a couple things:

Public transportation:  AMAZING.  It's spotless, efficient and always on time.  From what I hear, if the train is late by 30 seconds, the locals start to complain.  It's really remarkable how consistently reliable it is, especially after Philly, when sometimes your bus may not even show up.

Prices:  Everything here is so expensive.  You pay for that efficient public transport in the $15 dollar round-trip ticket from Thalwil to Zurich.   Or the 33 CHF fajita (~$35).  Or the 22 CHF burger.  Or even the cafeteria food here is at least 13 CHF.  There are no cheap foodtrucks around here, and there is definitely no King's Wok.  

Grocery Shopping:  We've been going to Migros and Coop, the two major grocery stores, and because we're still not used to the high prices, we've been buying the Migros "Budget" or Coop "Prix Guarantee" brand foods.  Once we have some income, maybe we'll start splurging a bit on food, but for the time being, no.  Although, you can see evidences of Swiss culture even in the food.

Look at that "Budget" spinach!  It comes in pre-portion cubes!  It's so convenient and makes sense!   So Swiss!

This was cheapest item from Coop is chocolate.  0.40 Rappen (100 Rappen = 1 CHF).  Go figure.  

We did, however, splurge.  According to Kevin and Elena (Kevin's wife), they have had the best yogurt in Switzerland.  Naturally, we had to get some ourselves.

Blood Orange Toni.  Seriously good.

Chocolate Toni.  Also, seriously good.

We both have to agree, this is the best yogurt we've both ever had.


Local Food:  Despite the high prices, it hasn't stopped us from sampling some of the local cuisine.  On our walk around Zurich, we ended up in the Bellevue area, and I insisted we get some sausages.

Cervelat Sausage with bread and mustard.

This was super good.  Too bad I had to share with Jenica.

In our tour of Zurich, we also saw a ridiculous amount of chocolate being sold.  Since Easter is a very big holiday here, it wasn't surprising to see all the Easter chocolate that came with it.

If it wasn't so expensive, I'd buy it all.

Way better than the Teusher in Philadelphia.

Chocolate Easter eggs being decorated by a  Swiss Chocolatier.  Too bad they cost over 100 CHF.

Not only was chocolate big, but so is candy in general.  We found a Barenland store that would probably cause Tyr to spend his entire month's stipend on gummy candy.

The entrance to gummy haven.

Actually, the same price as a real cheeseburger with fries.

So....much....candy.....

Gummy shakes!

The Views and Environment:  It's hard to believe that everyday we wake up and we are surrounded by the Swiss Alps.  The air is so crisp and clean, and it's an absolute joy to walk around.  In-congruently, there are just as many smokers as there were in Philly.

View from Thalwil looking across Lake Zurich.

View of the Swiss Alps from Zurich.

Thanks for reading!  More to come later!

-David