Midget Xmas and other stories

Lausanne Xmas decoration featuring the traditional Xmas walking sausage

Yes, we are still living in the tiny apartment, but not for long.  We spent Xmas here and even though it got claustrophobic and boring at a time, I must say that trying to cook something special in this tiny kitchen was a great challenge for the party planner in me.  

We were playing with different factors:

1.      I was suffering from some sort of gastroenteritis. My original wish for raw oysters as a starter didn’t seem like a good idea after all.

2.      We have a tiny fridge to store food and only two electric cooking plates that go from cold to bbq-in-hell mode in 0.2 seconds (no nuances or fine cuisine allowed).

3.      We own 2 forks, 2 knives, 2 plates and 1 wine glass (one broke already).

4.      We are lucky enough to have two cutting boards; unfortunately they forgot to plan for the counter space to use them.  

Rata the cat doing the dishes

Luckily my loyal sous-chef managed to put something together with the ingredients we had bought (I said I am a party planner, not a party executer) and the result was great.

As a starter we had some oysters cooked in champagne. I was expecting to be able to eat these raw and avoid the additional pan usage, but I did not want to blame the oysters for my stomach ache.

Then we ate bisque – from a can. Advantage: you only need one pan to warm it up. Disadvantage: the realization that we did not have a serving spoon.

By that time I was already full. Luckily, since we were only able to cook one thing at a time, we could keep the main dish and the dessert very simple: shrimps and lemon sorbet.



Oysters!!!!

The views

I am thrilled to announce that since recently I am the proud owner of a Swiss bank account, which brings me up to the same level as most of my home country politicians.  Back in Spain it does sound like a bit of a joke saying that you have a Swiss bank account. But I need one! For two main purposes:

-        Allowing my company to deposit my salary in it.

-        Allowing myself to spend all of it in no time.

And when I say “in no time”, I mean: “shit, where did it go?” Swiss salaries might seem obscene to the rest of Europe, but the sad truth is that everything is proportionally expensive.  Any kind of entertainment, therefore, requires a bit of smart budgeting:

-        Starter at a medium range restaurant: 12-20 euros

-        Main dish at a medium range restaurant: 30- 40 euros

-        Cinema (two people, no popcorn): 30.5 euros

-        Four glasses of wine and appetizer: 35-60 euros

-        Taking the metro /bus  (1 way) within the city: 2.8 euros

For 2.80 you can take a bus to the desert

However, there is one thing that is and (hopefully) will remain free: the views!!



Montreaux



Misty Leman lake

One thing to point out is that petrol is quite cheap compared to The Netherlands. So Ivo and I have been playing the role of proper tourists with our yellow number plates, or hiking map and with the wrong shoes to walk on the snow.  While driving and walking around we discovered some cool places.

Ivo looking for an inexistent cave that was marked in the map

Definitively the wrong shoes

Gruyeres, the shepherd cat



Typical Swiss souvenirs

Finding accomodation in Lausanne

We have been here for more than a month and I have to admit: I have been lazy. My job involves many daily hours of screen and I have not been feeling like a dose of extra screen at “home”.

Apart from having a busy work life, feeling insecure about a new job, and keeping myself busy with Swiss bureaucracy (I heard it will last for at least 6 months), we have been quite entertained trying to find a flat.

I say “trying to find a flat”, but what I mean is hoping to get one. Because in Switzerland people don’t find flats: FLATS FIND YOU.

Well, it is more like this: you find a flat, you like it, you tell the agency that you like it, they check your records, and then, if you are lucky, you get picked.

We visited several flats. Some better, some worse, but all more or less adequate and more or less within budget. 

But apparently our budget is one of the most common in Switzerland. And while in any other country you could rent a palace for the same amount, here you should feel lucky if you find something with windows.

If you are looking for a flat anywhere in Switzerland (in or around a major city) you must be either flexible or ready to be homeless. You will visit very beautiful, central places that seem affordable. But be realistic: if it is the perfect place for you, it is probably the perfect place for another 50 people.

At one point during our search we even got some sort of “real estate” social life. We visited many apartments and we met the same people again and again. And it is weird, because you talk to them, they are nice, they are more or less in the same situation. But still, they are enemies to you. They came there to take that nice lake-view flat from you… and you hate them for that.

Once you see a flat that you like, you put an application for it. What comes next is still a mystery to me, because the forms are quite simple: they ask you your name, nationality, salary, and then random things like if you committed any crime or if you have any pets. And then they pick, they do not need to meet you in person to know that you are the right person.

And once that happens, once the magical moment of being picked comes, then the question is: do I say yes? Do I wait a bit longer to see if they also pick me in that other nicer apartment? You might choose to wait. But that means, in most cases, that you will lose your right to the one you already have. Normally they request you to let them know when they call you.

Anyway, we survived the process and got “approved” to live in a nice flat as of 1^st of January. Now we can fully concentrate in arranging all the other paperwork that is needed to live in this country.

In the meantime, we have to cope with the temporary mini-studio. It does have its advantages though: I do not need an excuse to eat cheese and drink wine in bed.

Moving to Lausanne, Switzerland

It’s been 10 days since we crossed the border with our cat, our suitcases and, for some reason, an excessive amount of chargers and adapters.

It took us around 8 hours to get from Nijmegen (The Netherlands) to Lausanne in Switzerland. After only 20 minutes our cat demonstrated two things:

-          Cat carriers  are not cat-proof

-          Trying to keep a cat from running around in a moving car will leave you some scars.

After 6 hours he proved something else:

-          Cats can meow for 6 hours in a row.

The rest went quite smooth. Our car made it; we made it; the cat made it…

 

 

Saying goodbye

Saying goodbye is never easy. Specially saying goodbye to our couch, our coffee machine, our stand mixer … All these things are now stored in a container far far away, praying for us to find an apartment soon, so we can be reunited.

The weeks prior to packing and furniture move (we left this up to professionals) I spent a great deal of time worrying and wondering if all my stuff would fit in one truck. I fantasized about what I would have to leave behind, which precious piece of my collection of inexpensive furniture would have to be donated to a friend, which small kitchen appliance would not make it to Switzerland? Having to choose between the vacuum sealer and the mixer is like having to choose between amputating your left or right leg.

After the movers were done, I had mixed feelings about the whole process: not only I could take both the mixer and the vacuum sealer; I could have fitted my neighbors’ complete furnishings and my whole car in there. This was good in a way, but there was also the realization that my life fits in less than half a truck.

 

Lausanne

We are just starting to get used to the new city, the new country, the new language and the new cultural peculiarities.  So plenty of writing material for next time.