wandering around zurich

Not to bombard you with blog posts, but I've done a lot of wandering about the past few days and wanted to share some pictures. Most of my explorations start out with some sort of destination in mind (central train station, cell phone store, etc.). Some have ended at the desired destination, perhaps with some extra miles walked, some missions had to be aborted. There are two reasons why I get lost: (1) I'm stubborn and don't want to constantly pull out the map and look like a huge tourist and (2) the streets here are crazy, not a grid system, more like you are walking down a street and before you know it the street has a different name and you have started travelling in a different direction. I am starting to find my way around though and have had lots of exercise walking in the process! Here are a few of the highlights:

Bridge over river

Cute flower shop

I can't wait to tour the factory and eat lots of delicious chocolates!

Inside of central train station

My first lunch at a cafe - quiche and beer

 My favorite - Nutella! Greg Vollner is totally missing out on this!

Clock made of flowers by Lake Zurich 

Lake Zurich with Swiss Alps in the background

Ferris wheel at the lake

Vietnamese for dinner

Deloitte office

willkommen!

Welcome to my blog! I had mixed feelings about blogging, but hopefully this will give you all a peak into my life in Zurich! If I ever get too obnoxious, just stop reading.

Well, I made it! After flight delays, waiting on a plane, waiting in lines, and reroutes, I left Cincinnati about 6 hours after my family dropped me off at the airport (see picture of me with my niece Kaylynn and nephew Eli at the airport below). I made it to Zurich only 7 hours later than planned. My luggage, however, was not so lucky. It arrived the following day and I have never been happier to see a suitcase and a backpack. I had been wearing the same clothes for more than 2 days and the shower without shampoo was pretty worthless.

Here are some pictures of my temporary apartment. It's very nice as the entire building was just renovated. All the furniture, bedding, cabinets, and kitchenware are straight from IKEA (yes Amy I have the cabinets that you can slam the door shut and they close slowly).

My window is the one at the very top (4th floor), and I always make myself take the stairs (which is actually 5 floors up since in Europe they count the ground floor as 0).

Kitchen

Bathroom with washing machine that I don't know how to use.

Bed and sitting area (it's all one open room)

TV and dining table. So far I can only get two channels in English (MTV and CNN, so there has been a lot of Jersey Shore on).