Sebastopol, CA - Happy turkey day! H and I are in Sebastopol, getting in a final hurrah with our families. We are t minus seven days to departure. Chaos and confusion reign as we prepare to embark on our one-year European adventure. In one of our finer moments, Hannah - overwhelmed both by the enormity of the impending change to our lives and the amount of work still ahead of us - sat crying next to an open suitcase while Mike fumed over the inefficiency created by this moment of reflection and introspection. The complications of moving to a idiosyncratic European country, protective of its culture and economy are numerous, but here are a few highlights: There is no common language. Most Swiss speak German (~60%), but large numbers speak French, and Italian. Romansch is an official language spoken by <1%. Hannah and I are attempting to learn some standard German via duoLingo. This is slow going for three reasons: (1) we are busy/lazy, (2) the Germans appreciate linguistic co...
Adventures living abroad in Switzerland.