Category: The grass is not greener on the other side

Protected: A drop of lemon juice on a gaping wound

26 Mar 2010 Enter your password to view comments

by Ubiquityin Pain in the asses, Reality bites, The grass is not greener on the other side Tags: woes

Shhh… Don’t tell anyone…

11 Mar 2010 2 Comments

by Ubiquityin Pain in the asses, Reality bites, The grass is not greener on the other side Tags: photos, Switzerland, updates, Zürich

I’m feeling rather depressed lately. It must’ve been the weather. It’s so cold here. In fact, it’s freezing! Last Sunday it snowed so much that it almost felt like Christmas. Just missing the Christmas jingles on the radios. I love it when it snows. It’s mesmerizing to watch the white flakes flutter to the ground leaving a white blanket everywhere it lands. But when you have to go out, it’s a huge pain in the ass. Think eskimo. What’s even worse is the wind. It gives you chills right through your bones. The grey and gloomy sky sums it all up. Et voilà, ça c’est fait ! (And that’s it!)

I traded the eternal summer, Orchard Road, hawker centres, flip-flops and my walk-in wardrobe for this hard winter that never seems to end. You know, as I’m typing this out right now, my fingers are numb from the cold and I have on my thermal socks. Can you imagine that?! A thermal socks! And guess what? It’s snowing again! Urgh!

Back to my depression now. Since we got here, I’ve done my best to adapt. It may not seem a lot in the beginning but in all honesty, it’s very different than the life that I’ve known for the past 25 years of my life. Of course there’s the weather issue. Then there’s the language barrier. I don’t speak a single word of German but everything here is in German. Sorry. I have to correct myself. It’s Swiss-German. When I meet a random person from the supermarket and they start speaking to me, all I can do is smile and ask them if they speak English. Often they don’t. Especially in the area we reside.

Language aside, I’m also trying to get used to the public transport. The Swiss transportation system is known to be one of the finest in the world. They are almost 100% precisely on schedule all the time. But! There are a dense network of buses, trams and railroads. There’s always more than 1 way for you to get from one place to another. For instance, if I wanna get to Bahnhofstrasse (the city centre) from our place, I could take bus A or bus B to interchange C and get on tram D which will get me there in 25mins. OR, I could also take bus Y to train station Z which will get me there in even lesser time. The only difference in between the two is the walking distance. Now it all sounds really convenient. It’s true! It is very convenient. All you gotta do is prepare your route in advance. Otherwise, if you miss the first connection, you’re most likely to end up being late. Or worse! Wait out in the cold for 15mins.

Another downside for me is remembering the road/bus stop/tram stop names. They are too complicated. There’s always more than 1 Bahnhof and then there’s Bahnhofstrasse and Bahnhofquai. There’s Sihlcity, Sihlquai and Sihlweidstrasse! Oh god!

But then again as negative as I may sound, I’m not regretting the choice I made. You see, I knew that this would happen. Nobody said it was easy. Everyone knew that it’s a HUGE step I took. I like to think that I am brave. Yeah, I am brave! (So gimme some support here and tell me that I’m brave, okay?) It’s a lot for a little person like me but I’ve gotten this far. It’s been more than 3 weeks already! And looking on the bright side, I got so much to look forward to. Like my wedding and my mom and my sister is coming and I’m going to Paris for our honeymoon! And so much more! And we finally got our wardrobe!

Ooops! This entry is getting too long now. It’s also getting late so I will end it and leave you with some photos that I took recently. Oh, and thank you for your time.