Information overload

I had a dream. A dream that I would wake up at six and go running by the lake. But I had forgotten that I hadn't done a STIDT(Stupid Thing I Did Today) yet, so it was time for one. I tried setting the alarm clock, but couldn't find the "Alarm On" button. I know. I am a moron. Sue me. Anyway, as a back up, I decided to set the alarm on my cell phone. For some reason, I still thought that my cellphone was on NY time. So, instead of setting an alarm for six am, I set one for midnight (since six am here is midnight in NY). What happened? Well, the alarm went off...at midnight. Hugh Jackman was just about to ask me out and we were rudely interrupted by the incessant sound of my alarm. In my daze, instead of hitting "Off", I hit "snooze". So the alarm went off again in ten minutes. Finally, I turned it off, not realizing that nothing would wake me up at six am, especially if Hugh managed to ask me out. Luckily, my upstairs neighbor was kind enough to stomp around and make enough noise to wake up the dead, making it possible for me to get to work on time.

It was a short day at work today, as I had an appointment with my Relocation specialist (RS). We went to get me registered, and it was great that she was there, because the woman behind the counter spoke very little English. The RS was super nice. She walked with me around the neighborhood, took me to a couple of local bakeries, helped me find 2% milk at the grocery store, gave me some nice recipes for Raclette, and if that wasn't enough, had a 50 page binder on her for me! I think my questions probably made her wish that she were a monk or that she didn't speak any English. After coming back to the apartment, she sat down with me and went over everything from how to do laundry to where the nearest dance studio was. She even figured out where the "On" button was on the alarm! My brain is currently hemorrhaging information that she provided me for over two and a half hours. Here's the binder that we went through, in addition to the neighborhood walk:



The weather today was absolutely delightful, so I finally went out for that run by the lake. The run wasn't very good; I was distracted by smells of street food and by the sights of ice-cream, so toward the end, the run had transformed itself into a slow walk. It was still a lot of fun.

As a part of my two and a half hour indoctrination into the Swiss lifestyle, I discovered the following:

- There is no such thing as "Sign here" on any swiss forms. The woman drew an outline on a box and told me I could only sign inside that box, otherwise the form would be nullified.

- The Swiss have a garbage schedule. No, it's not just what days the garbage truck will come by, it's also what days can you dispose off certain kinds of garbage. There's a specific day to dispose paper, plastic, regular garbage, gardening garbage, etc. To dispose the wrong garbage on the wrong day is the biggest crime of all. If you come over and take a look at the pristine condition the city is kept in, you will understand why. Everyone in Zurich gets a timetable that looks like this:



- Everything here runs on time. Everything. The tram is never even 15 seconds late. It's spooky, but great for neurotic people like me.

That's all for today. I'm may be doing something adventurous tomorrow. We'll see how it ends and whether it's postworthy or just too shameful to even be put in writing. Ciao!