Paying Tax in Switzerland

Day 2

Well as of this morning, I'm now officially allowed (using the term loosely) to pay Swiss taxes and basically do almost everything but breathe with my permit number. In order to do ANYTHING here from getting a mobile phone to purchasing a monthly tram pass (which requires cash, no credit cards accepted AND each month they send it to you and THEN you pay for it???!)...one needs a resident permit number.

As well, GARBAGE and recycling are a HUGE topic of conversation here in Switzerland. It's a very clean country for this reason, but my goodness there are SO many rules. There are garbage bags called "Bebbi sacks" that you are required to use (three different sizes) and the cost of these garbage bags directly collates with what your contribution is to trash removal, so essentially a family of five pays a lot more for garbage removal than I would. This seems fair, until you try to get these garbage bags and they sell them in a different place at every grocery store. Apparently they don't stock them on the shelves because they are often stolen??! And they are tre expensive! And bottles and cans are returned to any grocery store or deli, but you get nothing back like in NY, plastic bottles and glasses go in huge blue bins strategically placed around the City, and paper you keep for a month or six weeks and then have to tie it up and put it at the curb (I think my parents deal with much the same stuff in the Hamptons!). But here if you live in a particularly snooty canton, your neighbors will scold you for doing it wrong!

Last night I came across Ugly Betty on TV and got VERY excited until I noticed it was dubbed in German! I was desperate for anything recognizable! ARGH. But apparently there are TVs I can buy when I move into my permanent place that allow you to turn the dubbing off! Very, very exciting. I also learned that ABC.com blocks you from being able to watch full episodes of certain shows outside of the U.S. for some reason, although NBC and CBS do not (but as luck would have it the shows I watch on NBC aren't available on line anyway!). Can you say toast falling butter side down??? So alas my friend Joe (thanks Joe) kept me company just about all day yesterday chatting online. But I did end up getting CSI and a few other things in English which kept my sanity intact. As well, some shows are available on iTunes so that's a relief as well. This is the type of stuff we take for granted (for sure) but it goes a long way in providing a safe haven when you don't know the language!

Since several people have asked, when you set something to 200 Celcius it's around 400F so I worked backwards from there to bake the chicken breasts. I was able to make a simple dinner of baked chicken breast with pasta and sauce. As previously described the trip to the grocery store was interesting! And I still haven't tried that milk. A friend is coming over tonite and I'm going to get her buy-in before I do it! Something as simple as knowing how to open the container (it's in a box, rather than container) can be humbling. But the Swiss chocolate can make you feel better in a jiffy! :)

This morning the welcome company took me around to the local government agency to finalize my work permit, pick up a pre-paid mobile phone (please e-mail me for the number), open a bank account, and finally find those coveted "Bebbi sacks" for the garbage, as well as laundry detergent. Have to figure out the word in German for "unscented"!

The mobile phone is a great saga unfolding. I bought the cheapest (French phone - should have known!) thing in the store ($19.95 Sfr with a 5 Sfr pre-paid card included for that amount) which comes to about a grand total of $16.50 - I will get a Blackberry phone at work that I can use for personal as well). But as they say, you get what you pay for! The small manual has English as does the home page. But once you try to get beyond that for real instructions on menu options, etc. the instructions are only in German, Italian, or French! But ironically the little card they provide to set up your voicemail box is in English, but when you dial the number the instructions are only available in German (as far as I can tell). I think I was able to make out "change your pin after the tone" so I entered four numbers, but who knows what actually happened! A true comedy of errors and for those that know me well, stop laughing! I'm pretty good with this type of stuff. Whenever I get a new piece of technology I typically have it up and running within 20 minutes to half an hour! In retrospect I probably could have been taking a German immersion class the last few weeks prior to leaving home, but I'm not sure I thought this was all really happening. I kept expecting to wake up from the dream! But I guess it will be good to get a private tutor that can walk me around the City and help with conversational activities. I'm also going to try post-it notes on stuff around the apartment.

Found out that my air shipment will arrive in Basel at the airport on Wednesday and will be delivered to me (likely) on Thursday. I am SO excited to have my own sheets, Duvet, pillows, the works! The "normal" queen-sized bed here in Switzerland leaves something to be desired and feels like a version of hard foam. And any of you that have slept in my bed (you know who you are) know that's it's second to none!

The weather was absolutely breathtaking today. Around 70 with ZERO humidity and blue skies (and I heard people complaining that it's never THIS hot in April!)! Stepping out of my apartment this morning the air smelled amazing with lilac wafting as the gentle breeze was blowing. A few apartments down there is a gorgeous purple flower growing up and around the front of the building and it smells absolutely amazing. I actually stopped on my walk home this evening to breathe it in. My kind of day and this evening having dinner along the Rhine it dipped into the upper 50s.

Sitting with the windows open getting ready for sleep. Thanks to those of you that have been in touch and even called! Given all of the travel I've done and living in DC for almost eight years, I've been completely caught off guard by the level of homesickness I'm experiencing. I just found out that my phone service is only about .10 cents per minute to the U.S.!

Please feel free to post comments or e-mail me directly! There is a prize for the first person that comes over to visit!