Apartment Tour

My life here is still crazy. Between moving into my new apartment, buying and building stuff from Ikea, and going through the busiest time of the year for my job, leaves me just enough time to sleep. But I have found time to do a quick tour of my new apartment.

It’s 4 rooms with a bathroom and kitchen. 90 sq. meters in total. There is a community washer/dryer that you have to sign up and can only use from the hours of 7am to 10pm if you are caught using it outside this time you will get a fine.

The nice thing about Zurich is that the public transportation is the best I have ever seen. So I can pretty much get anywhere in the city in 15 minutes or less. The bars that are popular are a 5 minute bus ride away, but I’m far enough away that I don’t get any of the riff raff. So I’m happy overall with my location.

I have registered with skype so that I can call international at a reasonable rate, so if anyone else has skype let me know, my name there is paulypopol. I don’t have alot of interesting things to add at this point. I will add more updates later when my personal life picks up again, right now its work 6 days a week.

Ciao

I have Returned

I’m back in full swing in Zurich now. I had a blast being back home. Saw just about everyone I wanted to see although I wanted more time.

Just wanted to thank everyone that took time out of their schedule or stayed up way past their bed time on a school night to hang out, I really appreciate it. I have some pics to upload which I’ll do when I get home tonight. And maybe I’ll do a little story telling in my next post. We’ll see if I decide to get off my lazy ass.

 

Ciao

Long Overdue Update

Well… let’s see here, where did I leave off. I’ve been in Zurich for almost 3months now which is crazy because it doesn’t feel like that long, but so far my life has been nothing but crazy. Between my long work hours, filling out government papers, arguing with the banks, and finding time to have an occasional drink or 9, I just haven’t made time to update this blog or reply to the numerous facebook messages. I’ve pretty much stopped using myspace, everyone I meet seems to use facebook only, so I’m unoffically making the switch.

I’ve got too many stories and experiences to write up at the moment but for anyone who still takes the time to read this blog I’ve made a promise to myself to update this on a regular basis again. There will be more content coming soon! Life will hopefully be inching closer to a more “normal” status over the next month or so.

I am still living in a temporary apartment but I have also started to rent an apartment of my own but can’t move in yet. I’m having the few items that I own shipped from Chicago to Zurich, so when that all arrives and clears customs I’ll be able to move in. 

For anyone that still does read this blog first of all thanks for checking in, and also I’ll be coming back home for a visit from July 18th to July 26th, so if you’ve got time I’d let me know.

Je Vie!!!

Let me quickly dust off this blog and give an update. I am now officially moved over to Zurich. I have a temporary apartment that is a tad too small for me. I have some pictures of it that I will upload later this week. My job is moving right along, I’m putting in a bunch of hours right now trying to get up to speed asap. I am searching for an apartment somewhere closer to the main train station. Currently it takes me about 50 mins to get to work, Tram -> Train -> Bus is the normal routine. I put my name in the hat for a great place last week, I’m waiting to hear back this week. Unfortunatly, the demand for apartments is really high, I think I am competiting against 100 other people or so.

I don’t have a car even though my work rented a Smart car for me, I have no where to park it at my apartment so I had to decline this marvelous piece of machinary. As of this morning I opened an account at a bank so that I can finally get paid, I’ve missed 2 pay periods thus far, and with prices here in Zurich I need that money soon. To give you an idea of “normal prices” here I went to McDonalds and ordered a Big Mac menu meal, it cost me 11 Swiss Francs, which is roughly $10.5. I think the same meal in Chicago is roughly $5 or maybe $6.

That’s all I have for now since I’m at work. Oh, I almost forgot, I now have a facebook profile so if you have one also try and find me!

LOL WTF

I stumbled into this a few days ago, and I can’t stop watching it……

 

Initial Plans in Zurich

I officially start my job in Zurich on the 21st in less than a week. Looks like for at least 1 week I’ll be living out of a hotel and my company has rented me a car for the week.  But just because things are never boring with me….. the car they rented is this….

 

I don’t have my official work permit yet so according to Swiss law I am not allowed to do any type of work until I get the permit. So….. we’ll see what I end up doing during the week.

My ride

I’ve been meaning to post these pics for a few weeks now. Here is what I’ve been driving for about 6 weeks now. Prior to this was a Mercedes E-Class 220. This is doesn’t have the Turbo engine, but so far I’ve been managing.

New Design

I got tired of the layout I had and decided to use this one. I’m not sure if it’s easy to read or not. Let me know  your thoughts.

I’ve been spending some time with the French girl I met recently. We’re starting to break the language barrier a bit more now. It’s too bad I’m leaving for Zurich in a few weeks. She’s turning out to be alot of fun.

Not much else going on, although I think thats going to change when I get closer to moving.

Pretty much official now

I’ve started telling people my news about my job situation as of yesterday. I haven’t signed the actual agreement/contract yet (should happen this week), its pretty much a 95% lock.

I accepted a job offer in Zurich Switzerland. I’m pretty excited and nervous about this job. I don’t have any solid details as to where exactly I’ll be living or when I officially start. All that is going to be worked out this week hopefully. I do know that the team out there wants me to start in a few weeks, which means I won’t have time to fly home before I start the job.

I am definitely going to be looking to take a week in June or July to fly home and visit everyone. In all honesty I’m a little homesick, but I think a week’s visit should really help. Even though I gave my verbal acceptance it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that I’ll be moving to another country in a few weeks. Like usual with me, this sort of stuff doesn’t make me super nervous until like a day before.

Oh la la

Better late than never I guess….. Last week I asked this girl for her phone number. Well, I more or less demanded it looking back now, but whatever. After a few phone calls and text messages we decided to meet up for some drinks on Thursday.