A lot has crystallized out of the past five weeks. Until a few hours before flying out of Chicago, I did not have a place to spend my first night in Zurich. After a few jet-lagged nights in a youth hostel, a second-year student offered some space to crash on his living room floor, where I've been for the entire month of September.
Until a couple weeks ago, I didn't know how long I'd be staying in this living situation. This week I move to a more permanent solution, "more" being the operative word. It will last through February - sharing a place with a few second year students I've gotten to know and enjoy.
Until one and a half weeks ago, I had no idea what my class schedule would look like. After sitting in a couple extra lectures and spending a lot of time poring over the course catalogue, I have a reasonably interesting schedule lined up with classes ranging from Neuromorphic Engineering to Robust Statistics to Basics of Instrumentation.
Until a few days ago, I didn't know German. Oh wait, that's still true. But it does feel good to have gotten past all these events that, like the distant Alps, loom as hurdles in the future as you approach them. And perhaps also like the Alps it can take some work to get over them, but it all gets much more accessible with a halbtax card in your pocket and bread and chocolate in your backpack. (A halbtax card is a travel pass you buy on an annual basis that makes almost all train travel within Switzerland half price. Pays for itself pretty quickly.)
So life is settling down to some sort of normal (yeah, Mom, I know, "what IS normal??"). I've applied for a residence permit and a bank account, am finding running routes around the city, will get a bike soon, and am slowly figuring out what my schedule and rhythm will be for the next little while.
Just in case you were curious, here are what some of the local Alps look like ("local" might mean a two hour train ride away, but hey, I have more Alps than you do so quick nitpicking).
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