However, the B&B at which we are staying (which, by the way, the relocation consultant had booked for us), while located within the CANTON of Neuchâtel, is not located within the COMMUNE of Neuchâtel. The B&B is in the commune of Les Hauts Geneveys, about 10 minutes up the road. Which meant that we couldn’t register at the Neuchâtel office; we needed to register at the administration office in Les Hauts Geneveys.
Our relocation consultant had scheduled sufficient time to help us register in Neuchâtel, but had a subsequent appointment, so didn’t have time to drive with us to Les Hauts Geneveys to register. With the Les Hauts Geneveys address in hand (to load into our trusty GPS), and Margaret’s French skills, we ventured off to register without our consultant.
We found the tiny administration building in Les Hauts Geneveys. The gentleman behind the counter was very pleasant. M rocked the dialogue in French; everything went very smoothly; and we were applied for registration. We can now officially work in Switzerland! However, we don't get to leave the country until our registration is complete (in about 4 weeks) because our visas were only single entry.
The rest of the work week was mostly getting acclimated: getting our work computers set up (but no phones yet); meeting coworkers and reports; getting trained on some of the systems; starting to read documents; figuring out how to work the copiers and vending machines; etc.
Most nights found us back at the B&B at a relatively reasonable hour to make dinner and entertain ourselves (although K is trying to return to his regular schedule of long hours). Unfortunately, to K’s utter horror, we discovered that Hulu (the wonderful website of free online television) does not work in Switzerland. The website gave some bogus message about not having distribution rights outside the US. Hulu withdrawal was NEVER one of the anticipated changes. Somehow, we managed, helped by the fact that we did find MacGyver in French on the television (of course, K knew the episode plot almost immediately).
We did go out to dinner with coworkers one night for cheese fondue. We made sure to drink white wine to prevent the dreaded cheese plug, which K still refuses to believe in. It was a very nice meal with plenty of good conversation. We also tried to keep our voices down, as we’ve heard that the stereotypical American uses their outside voice even when in a small restaurant. Despite the effort, we think we still came across as loud.
On Friday night, as we were leaving work, we decided to drive up to La Chaux de Fonds to check a restaurant which had been recommended by a coworker; note that reservations are strongly recommended for weekend dining, and we did not have a reservation. When we arrived, the restaurateur was nice enough to offer us a table, if we wanted to be seated at 8pm (it was roughly 6:15 then). K was hungry and unwilling to wait that long to eat, so we drove back to the B&B for dinner.
On the drive back, we stopped for our first gasoline fill-up. Nothing surprising, except there doesn’t seem to be pay at the pump. As credit cards are less-used than in the US, I guess this isn’t very surprising. As gasoline runs about $6USD/gallon, the fuel bill was a bit of a shock. It's like we were driving an SUV. After the somewhat long week of settling in at work, we also tried to stop at a local grocery store to pick-up some weekend/unwinding beer, but the stores close on Friday at 6:30, and it was now 6:37.
On Saturday, we woke up to some serious snow showers, but as stores are closed on Sunday, Saturday is a prime shopping day, so we were not to be deterred. K found a snow shovel outside the B&B, so after 15 minutes of shoveling the snow off of the dirt (which had been mud earlier in the week, but was now frozen pretty firm) drive, we were on our way. Note: it was a light and fluffy snow, else this would have taken much longer, or would have been skipped all together.
On the motorway, the roads were snowy/slushy, so we drove slower than normal. On clear roads, the Swiss are happy to tailgate at high speeds, and this practice was not noticeably diminished by the inclement weather. However, we safely navigated the roads to a local shopping plaza. Items on our list:
1. An enclosed litter box, as the enclosed litter boxes we had in CA are on the boat right now and the litter box we brought with us is open, is a must-have item as our cats enjoy tossing litter (as much and as far as they can). When we had the mess contained in our home’s mudroom in CA, this was not a big deal. Sharing a studio apartment with the cats, where there are no doors to close to separate ourselves, this is a much bigger deal.
2. More cat food and cat litter.
3. Groceries for the humans, including beer.
Success on all three!
The return trip to the B&B from the shopping plaza was marked with more snow/slush and aggressive drivers. We even witnessed one driver slide somewhat gently into another driver that had stopped at an intersection. (Fortunately, it didn't look like there was much damage to either vehicle, and presumably both individuals are covered by at least one of the multitude of insurance policies for which the Swiss have an affinity.) Back at the B&B, we could just barely tell that Ken had shoveled as the snow had fallen enough to recover everything to near the pre-shoveled depth. The rest of Saturday was pretty lazy, as we hunkered down to avoid the snow.
Sunday was still cloudy, but the snow had mostly stopped. In the afternoon, after another round of shoveling (which likely violated the Swiss rule of no work on Sunday), we walked down to the next village, La Jonchére. No particular reason, except it was fairly close. At least getting there seemed fairly close. La Jonchére is downhill from Les Hauts Geneveys.
The walk back was much more strenuous. And we were getting cold. Our Central Valley, Northern CA blood hasn’t had time to thicken up to withstand the rigors of Swiss winter. All in all, it was a pretty day and a nice walk (M thinks K's "nice walk" was a snowy, Swiss death march); good to get out and breathe some fresh, bracing air.
At the end of each week, we'd like to share some lessons that we learned during the week.
This week's lessons:
1) It snows a lot in Switzerland. There is a reason for all the tunnels and covered trenches in Switzerland; they provide driving refuge from the crazy snow.
2) When a Swiss person says they only a speak a little English, they are being modest. When an American person says they only a speak a little French, they are being realistic.
3) First perceptions are that most of the available literature on Swiss culture applies primarily to the Swiss Germans and not the Swiss French, which makes sense since about 60 to 70 percent of Swiss residents speak German and about 20 percent speak French. Considering that most of our interactions at work are not with Swiss but with other European nationals, this perception may change.
4) The Swiss French words for the numbers 70, 80, and 90 are septante, huitante, and nonante, respectively .
5) Cat food is really expensive in Switzerland. The 10 kg bag of Iams cat food is 90 CHF, which would cost us about $32 at Petco in the US.
