Whirlwind

It is amazing what you can do in four days. Here are my somewhat random, and possibly too extensive, thoughts on what the last few days have been like. Forgive my wordiness but if nothing else I want to remember what the first few days were like.

Taxi Driver

On Friday afternoon, as I threw the last of my belongings in my bags and headed out the door I was feeling somewhat worried that I had made a miscalculation of how long it would take to get to the airport at rush hour and when I had arranged for the taxi to arrive. I went downstairs with my 5 bags to return the keys to my corporate apartment and wait for the driver so I could hop in and be ready as soon as he arrived. As it turns out he was already there.

On the way to the airport, the sun was sinking low and the overcast skies were finally clearing up. The remaining clouds were lit up smoky gray and violet and plum and I was looking at all the people riding home from work. It was just a normal Friday for them. The work week was over and they could all look forward to their weekend in their same house and same car with their same friends and family. For me it was a different story and I kind of liked just soaking up that last trek out to the airport and capturing some mental snapshots of the American highway and landscape.

The driver asked me if I was heading for home and I told him that I was on my way to Switzerland. He asked for how long and I told him I wasn't sure but for at least the next six months. We continued talking and hearing the accent in his voice I asked him where he was from. He told me Ghana and so I asked him when he moved to the US. 1975, he answered.

He shared his experience of landing in the winter and seeing snow for the first time in his life. And how ugly he thought America and Americans were. He said if he had had a round trip ticket he would have gone back in the first week. But it wasn't possible and he stayed for four years, graduating from college at the end. And right after he returned to Ghana.

When he got there he thought it was ugly. And hot. And he couldn't believe the mosquito attacks. And so he got on a plane and returned to the States where he has lived ever since. He said he always wonders what would have happened if he had been able to run back home as soon as he arrived but he's glad he didn't.

Horrific Jet Lag

Saturday in Munich was a restful day. Too restful, actually. When I arrived I took a nap after sleeping all night on the plane. After dinner we watched a movie. Well, M. watched a movie and I slept. So when midnight came and I was ready to go to bed I couldn't sleep anymore. I had already spent most of the last 24 hours sleeping! So after an hour of tossing and turning, I got up, and read for a few hours and finally around 4 in the morning I fell into a broken sleep.

On Sunday, I had to unpack all my stuff in Munich and repack some of it to go to Basel. When I got up around 9:30, I just knew if I went to look in the mirror I would have big black X's where my eyes should be. They felt so puffy I couldn't even open them.

X X

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Suddenly I felt so irritated and exhausted and incapable of anything. It was Sunday, I had to pack, hit the road go to Basel, meet M.'s parents and start work on Monday morning on a completely new project where I new one person. What in the world was I thinking when I made this plan? And why was I having the worst jet lag I'd ever experienced? GRRR!!

We managed to get ourselves squared away and I packed (although it is now clear what the state of my mind was once I unpacked in Basel and forgot some of the most basic things). We drove four hours through Austria and Switzerland and then back into the Southwest corner of Germany to M.'s parents who live right outside of Basel. I think I flat out passed out about four times during the ride despite my struggle to stay awake so I wouldn't be up all night again.

Meet the Parents

By the time we arrived at M.'s parents I was nervous about meeting them, worried about my state of exhaustion and what kind of impression I would make as a result and stressed about getting to work the next day. I was also a little worried about being able to communicate because my German is a work in progress and still more on the out-of-order side and I didn't know how much M.'s parents could speak English.

My nerves were quickly put to rest. M.'s parents and sister welcomed me and indulged me with their very good English and we were able to have a nice conversation and some good laughs. His parents even pulled out some of the old family pictures , which I loved to see. That seems to be a universal tradition.

M.'s mother prepared a fantastic dinner of raclette, which I had never had. For those who don't know what it is, raclette involves sitting around the table and preparing broiled cheese on a specially made burner. Little pans that are filled with cheese and any variety of seasonings, vegetables and meat are slid underneath the top rack and over a heating element, which holds potatoes. After the cheese and other toppings get all melted and browned it is poured onto the potatoes. It is a perfect winter meal! I also got to meet M.'s little niece who is absolutely adorable and won my heart right away.

Basel

After dinner we headed back to Basel and had some time to do a quick tour on foot of the city. M. showed me how to get around town, what trams to take, where to go for groceries, the drugstore, clothes shopping, American cinema and some restaurants. He also found out where my office would be so I didn't have to struggle to find it in the morning by myself. We stopped by the theater and got a program of upcoming shows and ballets so I can check out some of the Basel arts scene. I thought Basel is very cute and quite small and manageable. I felt very comfortable right away and it's also reassuring to know that M.'s parents are 10 minutes up the road and have opened their door to me at any point. We capped off the night and an all too brief weekend with a nice glass of red wine from Tuscany at a very cute bar a few blocks from my hotel. M. was fantastic through my crankiness yesterday and never got outwardly frustrated with me. He was the source of energy for both of us, doing all the driving, showing me around and all this after two trips in two weeks to the States, getting the apartment ready for me in Munich and knowing he had to get up at 5 AM to catch a flight in Zuerich today for his first day back at work after the holidays.

Thank you, M.

First Day on the New Project

I found my way to work just fine in the morning. It is too early to say how work will go but at least it made a good first impression. We are getting back into the swing of things after the holiday and I get the impression that we will be extremely busy the next two months. Most of the people seemed very nice and were helpful getting me set up.

I got my project computer and it has the dreaded German keyboard. I was starting to get the hang of the 'z' and 'y' being switched by the end of the day but wasn't catching on to all the other changes very well. This might take some time, especially because I'll be switching back and forth between the two keyboards constantly.

Lunch in the cafeteria was a bit overwhelming. The place is huge and I felt kind of lost in it. Everyone was running around. Directions were all in German. Prices in Swiss Francs. I noticed today that every decision that I make here seems to take 4 times as long as normal. There is just nothing really familiar about it and nothing is automatic anymore. I have Euros and Swiss Francs in my wallet and 3 different exchange rates scrambled in my brain. I can't get used to coins being worth anything so I forget to use them. When people are speaking in German, I know enough to be able to pay or understand very basic questions or instructions but it still takes me by surprise and I'm sure I look like a deer in headlights most of the time. In a nutshell, when your basic assumptions about how your environment and the people in it operate are no longer valid it seems to become more cumbersome to do even the most basic things.

One other thing that is so different from my last project, which was for the US federal government and restricted to US citizens, is how international this project is. Today alone I heard people speaking English, Portuguese, Mandarin, German and French. That is just within my team too. It will be interesting to see if we really mesh together through our shared effort and what challenges we are going to face.

Food

I have a long list of some of the striking differences I've already noticed between America and Europe. But since this posting is already fairly bloated (ok, extremely bloated), I am just going to comment on food a bit.

As I already mentioned, I got to try raclette last night, which I loved. I mean really, how can you not love potatoes and cheese? This is something I am sure almost any American would love though so may be somewhat atypical.

Many times I hear Americans complain about the food in Europe but I love it! This morning I went down to the hotel breakfast. I had muesli (granola with yogurt and fresh fruit) and some bread. The bread here is to die for. There must be hundreds of kinds of bread and I haven't had one here yet that I haven't loved. The coffee was perfect and they had three kinds of fresh juice. I felt so good after breakfast.

For lunch I had the salad bar at the cafeteria. No wilted iceberg and green leaf lettuce and anemic vegetables here! There was my absolute favorite- feldsalat- and chicory and several other kinds that I didn't recognize but were great too. I had yogurt too and it doesn't taste like that sugary sweetness that masks any trace of what is underneath it.

After lunch we went down to the dessert cafeteria. Oh yes, I kid you not! There is a separate floor dedicated to dessert. Baskets full of Swiss chocolates, trays of cakes, torts, and pies, self-service espresso machines that made any coffee combination you could want - espresso, cappucino, latte machiatto, etc. I almost thought I died and went to heaven. Since I'm trying to recover from holiday overindulging I limited myself to a small piece of heavenly Swiss chocolate and a coffee, but both were sensational. Everyone is already building my expectations for tiramisu Thursday, which is reported to be the absolute best dessert that they make and I think I will have to cave for that.

So, all in all, I can't believe how much I have done and experienced in these last few days. There have certainly been ups and downs but I'm feeling much more confident now that some of the unknowns have been revealed. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Posted from Basel