Bärli

We are now in Bern, the city where we are planning to live, although we are not yet in our apartment, but in Andri’s friend, Simone’s, place. It is adorable and I hope that our place looks this cute. Clarence loves it here and seems to be doing well in the midst of all her moving. She even slept in bed with us the first night, which is rare since she has been here. She seems like nothing has changed and she sleeps on my chest like always and that makes me happy. It feels nice to have her around again because she was always at home waiting for me and then that stopped one day and the apartment was just…empty.

On Monday I went to get my permanent residency and it was super easy. It took maybe 15 minutes and they even gave me a coupon for ten bucks to spend in the town. Hah! The only thing we had to pay was the fee for the card, which anyone would have to pay to get a new one, and their processing fees. All of this amounted to a little under two hundred bucks, which I think is great. I can’t open a bank account here until I get that card, not sure why, but Andri said it might have something to do with me being American. In all honesty, I have no clue, but I have to wait for that card to get that going here.

After these errands, we drove to Bern and it was snowing like crazy. We were lucky because about 15 minutes behind us there was a huge pile up. My fear of being in the car is going to be better without actually having a car, I think. I have been using the train and the buses since I got here and although it’s cold out and waiting in the cold sucks; I am okay with that because I feel safer. And the train schedules and bus schedules aren’t too hard to figure out although the routes can be. I downloaded the SBB (Swiss trains) application to my iPhone, so now I can look it up and it tells me the track number and everything. This has already come in very handy while travelling across Switzerland. And I can sleep on the trains and not have to worry about not being in control and how the person driving the car is doing a horrible job. Hah.

We have been unpacking, but we can’t do too much because this isn’t our place. We have, however, picked out bedding for our apartment and other little things, like espresso cups. It’s a start. I was supposed to go to the apartment last night to look around, but I can’t seem to stay up past 5 or 6pm. My body shuts down and I tell myself it’s just for a little while, but I always end up sleeping through the whole night, which sucks. Last night I didn’t go to the apartment or a snow bar party at a friend’s house. Not sure about standing around in the cold drinking, hah, but it would have been nice to go see people and hang out.

On a side note, the prices here are very weird. Some things, like food, are about the same price as at home, maybe a tad more. But THINGS seem to cost a lot more, such as household items and name brand items. A pair of Converse Ones that I bought at Target for 25 USD cost around 80 CHF. I can buy clothes at H&M for pretty close to prices at home, but some of it just looks really cheap, since it is very cheap here. I am adjusting to things but at the same time can’t understand how a cappuccino can cost 4 CHF and mascara costs 16-18 CHF. There is such a variation between things and the line between cheap and expensive is very thin on most things, and I have yet to figure that out. But all in all, it is not as expensive as I thought it would be, as long as I don’t go shopping! Hah.

On Wednesday I made my first trek into the city on my own. I took the bus, then the tram and it was very easy. I went to have lunch with Andri near the BKW (Berner Kraftwerk, Bernese power plant) which is a nice tram ride away. It crosses the Aare and the Clock tower. It was beautiful and I am looking forward to going most days of the week until my German courses start, on Feb. 15^th. After lunch, I ventured into the Altstadt (old city) to look at house things and get used to the city. I ended up staying around there for about 4 hours, but it was nice because it gave my boring day some life. It was a whopping 46°F also, so the weather merited a good walk on cobbled roads.

I am starting to feel better. When I had first arrived things felt very sad and I didn’t know if I had made the right choice to come here. But now that I am getting used to things and have plans things seem to be getting brighter. I have a gym pass and plan to go every day, just to keep my energy level up. Andri’s friend is visiting Friday, so we will go out with him. We will go for beers tonight with another friend, Alex, who is an incredibly nice person and I can’t wait to see him again. And Saturday we will go to Zurich for Titsch’s birthday party. I’ve been told that he throws a great party, so I am excited. Now that things are happening (and I’m involved) my mind is letting me feel hopeful rather than depressed. Don’t get me wrong; it is hard to be alone here, without my friends or my family, but I talk to them every day.

When the weather is warmer I will go take pictures of the city to post here.