"I go to seek a great perhaps"

- Francois Rabelais

So I'm here. I finally made it to the city of Zürich, canton of Zürich, country of Switzerland!

This has been one of the longest days of my life, though surprisingly I'm not feeling too heavy effects of the jetlag. I boarded my plane around 9:20pm Boston time, took a melatonin pill, and almost instantly began drifting off until I arrived at 10:20am Zürich time. It's almost too bad though - the plane was gorgeous. (Mental note - never fly with anyone but Swiss Air ever again) And by that, I mean that I had plenty of leg room, a USB charger attached to the seat in front of me, and my own personal tv screen. It made me feel almost nostalgic for the flights we used to take frequently back and forth to Germany when I was really little. Err, almost.

I took a cab to my dorm, which was really nice because I could ask the cab driver about all the different things we passed, etc. I also asked him about the money (which is so pretty btw! I'll make sure to get a picture the next time I get cash!) but he had "keine Ahnung" (no idea) who the person on the front of the money was.

I arrived a few minutes early, so I had to wait for awhile until I could go up to my room. I stayed in the lounge watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with some girls from Spain and France, and two guys from the USA. The main language here (in the dorms) seems to be English, but I hear quite a few other languages being spoken around. Of the people who already live here, there seem to be groups based on where people are from. Which isn't surprising, of course, but rather adds to the cacophony of languages that fill the halls.

I took a quick nap and Facetime-d my parents, and then I went for a walk to find a grocery store before they closed for the weekend. Again, I'll add pictures when I get the chance to take some - the lighting wasn't great when I went out this evening. It was a nice temperature, though - hovering between 4 and 7 C (40-45 F), which was a welcome change from the warm, somewhat stuffy indoors.

My dorm room looks out onto the courtyard and the other rooms' outdoor windows, so there wasn't much to see from my window. But when I got outside, there was tons more to see. I think I'm in a somewhat industrial area, because most of the buildings surrounding the dorm are either offices or apartments. On one side is a busy highway, which I thought might pose a problem to cross, but of course the Swiss have it all figured out... there are tunnels and overpasses that allow pedestrians to cross the highway without so much as looking left and right for a car. It's a really nice innovation, because it keeps traffic flowing down below, and also lets those of us on foot keep walking without having to wait for the green light.

Finding nothing in that direction, I turned around and walked by the other side of the building. That side is a bit more residential, and the S-bahn (tram) runs right through it. (Another perk of my dorm's location - we're right next to the S-bahn stop!) I walked about five minutes until I came to a grocery store; thank goodness, because another fifteen minutes and all the stores would have been closed until Monday!

I was very pleased with myself for picking out a few interesting things to eat - I'll go shopping properly later - and buying everything in German. I half expected the cashier to switch to English, like they do in Montreal, but thankfully he didn't.

Next time I go out, I'll be sure to get a picture of the lights at the crosswalk - they're different from any I've seen before! I think you can really tell a lot about a city from its crossing lights, but that could just be my fascination with shiny objects talking ^^

It's getting sort of late, and it turns out the jetlag is starting to catch up to me, so I'll write again tomorrow with more interesting observations and hopefully more pictures!

All in all, though, I'm pleased with the way this adventure has been going so far. I still can't even imagine what lies in store, but for now I'll be content to sip my tea and plan one day at a time. I'm so blessed to be able to come all the way here, and also to have so many friends and family members wishing me well and sending their love already. I'm going to try to write one postcard a week, and that should almost cover all the people who have been asking for them!

Anyways, I think that's enough blogging for the night. Good night, world!