Gruetzi from Zurich

From my previous post you would've picked up that after many months of talk, anxiety and stress i've finally set foot on Swiss soil... and very nice soil it is! Zurich is a beauitful, efficient city, the countryside with it's green rolling hills and cows, just like a scene from Sound of Music and the people are friendly yet quiet... the language (Swiss-German) is a whole nother story.

the Letten down the road from my apartment

It's been 3 weeks now and i think i've settled nicely into the role of house-girlfriend... my days consist of cleaning, laundry, gorcery shopping, studying, exploring the city and cooking for my wonderful boyfriend, who spends his days working hard (had to add that because i know he'll read this at some point) :) the only thing i'm battling with is the language... but that'll come with time!

During my time here i've made a few observations about the city:

• For a city that is so health and environmentally concious... this is obvious from all the effort that goes into recycling and the number of "normal" sized people on the streets (after my stint living in the states, it was one of the first things i noticed... very few obese people), the Swiss are very relaxed on the smoking issue, most places still allow smoking indoors and in public places, the smoking of weed is also not frowned on and there is a wiff of weed almost everywhere you go (yes, i know what it smells like)!
  

• Sex shops and Erotica clubs can be found on almost every corner (something like McDonalds)... apparently the Swiss have a "healthy" interest in sex, this comes as a surprise considering how tame the Swiss seem to be, obviously this all changes behind closed doors!
  

• Graffiti is another surprise, the Swiss seemed to have imbraced these random, colourful scribles that find themselves on public and private walls... they have graffiti zones in Zurich where people are free to express themselves to their hearts' content, in my opinion a good move... and it actually brightens up some areas that have the potential to be pretty dreary looking.

• Swiss wine... or wii (Swiss-german)/wein (German), it's one of the best kept secrets of Switzerland but it wasn't kept from me for very long, they make some awesome wines... what a combination, Swiss chocolate, cheese and wine :) on my to-do list... exploring the wine making regions of Switzerland.
  

All in all, Switzerland so far has met up to all those expectations i've been holding onto for many years... i do need to spend some time in the countryside, get aquainted with the cows and their bells and experience the magic of the Alps... but that will all come in good time.

a storm moving in over Zurich

the See (pronounced say) with the Alps in the background

Next on the agenda... sorting out my visa issues, my life would be empty without a visa problem hanging over my head!

Just a little side note... this is my 100th blog post, yay me... keep on reading :)