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What the heck is going on here?

This is Mike and Hannah's travel blog. Here, we recount our adventures as Americans living abroad in Switzerland. Updates to this blog will occur as noteworthy (for us, anyway) things happen and as time allows.

Who are you, again?

Mike and Hannah are married yuppies from Albany, California. Mike works as a strategy consultant to companies making healthcare products and Hannah is a food and beverage publicist. We are affable folk who make great cocktail party guests.

When did all this happen?

In December 2019, Mike and Hannah left their home in Albany, California to live abroad in Zurich, Switzerland. We are scheduled to stay here for about a year.

What exactly makes you a good fit for Switzerland?

We're rather neat for Americans, but probably insufficiently so for the Swiss. We know a handful of German phrases; we're particularly good at, "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" We like chocolate, especially Mike.

My God. Who in the world thought this was a good idea?

Mike's employer asked if he would be willing to take a position working in their Zug, Switzerland (outside of Zurich) office. We jumped at the opportunity.

The dishwasher has a fondue setting

Zug, Switzerland - I visited the office today to pack up my things in preparation for our impending departure from Switzerland. While I was there, I noticed a curious icon on the office's dishwasher. Further investigation revealed that the icon was for a fondue/raclette wash function. The icon is pictured below. The manufacturer, V-Zug Ltd. (subsidiary of Metall Zug Group, a Swiss industrial holding company), describes the fondue/raclette function this way: "The typical Swiss programme for the Swiss market from the Swiss manufacturer! Caquelons and raclette pans are cleaned to perfection without having to soak first. The programme can also be used as a 'super-intensive' run thanks to its active soaking phase. Pre-rinsing of burned-on soufflé or gratin dishes is a thing of the past." V-Zug apparently makes this feature available on several of its Adora models of dishwasher. Upon discovering this, I of course rushed home to investigate my own apartment'...

Fording the Fjords

We stayed one night in Ålesund and for a few days in Øye. These cities are fun for me at least partly because they use letters unique to the Danish-Norwegian alphabet, the 'a' with the circle on top and 'o' with the line through it (official letter names pending further review). Ålesund is a port town of about 70,000 on the western side of Norway on the Atlantic coast. We landed there around 1100PM, but it looked more like 700 or 800pm, owing to the latitude (about 62 degrees north). Throughout our stay here, I've been very excited about the (nearly) never-ending daylight. The sun sets at about 1130PM rises about four hours later, but the hours between are marked more by a duskiness rather than a true darkness. We only stayed in Ålesund overnight (if you want to call it "night") before departing the next morning for Øye, which lies at the tip of a remote Fjord, the Norangsfjorden. Some locals told us that another nearby town, Urke, had less than...

Edinburgh

We stayed in Edinburgh for two days to conclude our Scotland adventure. Hannah spent a semester in Edinburgh in her spritely college days and she remembers it fondly. As we wandered through the city, Hannah would point out various places and reminisce. Here was the restaurant where she would gather with friends to celebrate special occasions (The Outsider), here was the local café they frequented between classes (Peter's Yard), this was the park she walked through to get home (The Meadows), and there is the shitty hostel she stayed in when she arrived (less interesting!). Edinburgh was fun. We liked it more than Glasgow. Edinburgh had more to see (more ancient castles, museums and monuments) and the city was denser and more lively. Glasgow just felt more utilitarian. Hannah - of course - led me to the far-flung corners of the city in an effort to find the newest and best food, including marching me straight out of Edinburgh and into the neighboring city of Leith. We ate well...

The Neutral Zone

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