Country roads

I've been in Basel for six weeks, which is entirely difficult to digest! Last night I had dinner with a friend at my favorite Italian restaurant on the Rhine (which is about five minutes from my house - 10 if I walk). It was a bit warm during the day and then dropped into the upper 60s and sitting there watching the sunset was spectacular (ok so the guys walking by weren't bad either).

And it's May 27 and it was only in the low 60s today. Of course I didn't go out all day and barely made it of my PJs, but it was entirely necessary. We have a long weekend (Monday) off and then I will be in for one day preparing for being out for almost two weeks. Off to Chicago on Wednesday for a major world-wide medical meeting and then home to NYC.

I absolutely can't wait to come home. I'm not exactly homesick, but I miss the conveniences. It's not like Switzerland is a third-world country, but just simple things like online banking, getting mail (because it's all in German), or going to the grocery store can be, simply put, mentally draining. Also, they have a lot of graffiti here and I can't figure out why they don't do anything to get rid of it since they're SO particular about appearances, garbage, recycling, etc. Even in the upscale areas of the city, which I apparently live in, there is a lot of graffiti. It looks awful and REALLY bugs me!

I can't wait for

*ice
* seeing my family (I still think the ice comes first)
*movies (most of the movies are in English, but the German / French subtitles get annoying)
* surfing channels on TV (understanding the language)
* Raisin Bran
* Scott toilet paper
* 60s exhibit at the Whitney
* marathon of the final season of Sopranos on HBO on demand
* air conditioning (not that I've really needed it here, but even though we have it at work it's
not nearly like the U.S. and it gets REALLy stuff)
* noise and grime!

Other than that I really like it here. I still get caught with moments that give me pause that I live in Europe now. Plus, I still wonder where my mail is in the scheme of the universe. Every few days I receive something forwarded, but I know that I'm still missing a ton of stuff and can't quite figure it out.

At work it's pretty funny. Everyone walks around on a daily basis saying, "yea I'm planning to do that after ASCO" (our big upcoming meeting). After ASCO I am planning to join a gym, sign up for German tutoring, find a guitar teacher, and plan some personal trips. Everyone says it will take at least six months to feel settled and I guess since I won't move into a permanent place for at least another two months, that sounds about right. I got an e-mail this past Wednesday that my sea shipment arrived. It only took about 32 days for it to arrive which was shocking! I really want to bank my three months salary, but just the very thought of my "stuff" (including the bed that I'm absolutely mad about) being here in Basel somewhere, makes me want to sign a lease tomorrow! But I want to take my time and feel right about where I'm going to live because leases are pretty much at least for a year or more.

Plus I've internally committed to at least that to really feel like I've had the European experience. Considering a year or even three flies by in a blink of an eye.

So my motto is as long as it remains an adventure, I guess I will stay! I would really love to have visitors!

Tired

Tired


Tired


Tired

Excited to be in NYC from June 5 to 9! Can't wait to lay on couch and watch Sopranos on Demand!

8.00 p.m. and I'm ready for bed

Thursday, May 17
4.30 a.m. up for 6.45 a.m. flight to London to meet with PR agency (working on a national holiday; spent all day with agency having them present to me

4.00 p.m. check into Sofitel on St. James; the only way the room could be further from the elevator is if I'd been at the hotel across the street; but the room was nice and the bathroom posh (huge sucken tub); took lovely shower and even lovelier bath (being 5'6" it's very difficult to stretch out in the bath without a knee popping up and getting cold - wasn't an issue with this bath); watched TV in English!

6.00 p.m. wandered around Trafalgar Square area enjoying the children chasing pigeons (aka flying rats); amazed that people actually let them land on their body to feed them bread crumbs

7.30 p.m. dinner out with PR agency (really enjoy their company); check out restaurant, would definitely go back again, fantastic seafood which is tough to get in Switzerland (they called me three times to see what I'd like to have for dinner!)
http://www.j-sheekey.co.uk/

10.30 p.m. three hours, three courses, one Bombay Sapphire and tonic, one bottle of very good Champagne, and two bottles of wine later...very tired and a little drunk thanks to the agency

Friday, May 18
6.15 a.m. on the Eurostar off to Paris for a physician media brush-up (docs hate the term "media training" even though that's typically what it is)

12.15 p.m. arrive in Paris main train station, hit Metro and head to hospital

1.00 p.m. arrive at top European cancer hospital just on the outskirts of Paris, note to self, do NOT get sick in Europe; there is nothing like a freezing cold American hospital

4.15 p.m. on the way into Paris to meet friend from work for weekend in town

5.30 p.m. exhausted but exhilarated to be in Paris; I was provided with a list of sights to see in Paris, but friend and I could not read the map to save our lives, you'd think two highly educated, sophisticated, well-traveled women could find one small street in a metropolitan city; we had fun trying to find it, got stuck in the rain, ate runny eggs with French fries and in the end were on a mission to find the street; had coffee on said street (yes coffee); EVERYONE does "coffee" in Europe and at 38 I would really hate to take up drinking it; but people look at you as though you have a third eye when you turn down coffee or tea several times a day and NO ONE can believe that I don't drink either (to wake up) in the morning

11.00 p.m. time for sleep; twin bed (haven't done this since Cleveland before old boyfriend got large bed during residency!); poor friend couldn't sleep

Saturday, May 19
8.30 a.m. up with the roosters as usual! I could not sleep anymore and decided to shower and go in search of breakfast and a proper pedicure (can't find a shop in Basel that will do a proper foot fixing); success proper pedicure = happy feet

11.30 a.m. so in search of shopping off of the Champs; friend buys most expensive loaf of bread shaped like Eiffel Tower for boyfriend

2.30 p.m. eat lunch at popular Gallerie de Lafeyette (YUMMERS); bathroom pit stop and gawking at clothes and gourmet food (damn EURO exchange rate)

3.00 p.m. hit stores, friend does some good shopping; I opt to get my hair washed and blown as the hotel made me feel as though said hair had not been washed in weeks; came out a little flat because she didn't use product, BUT was soft and styled very nicely; will try to do it on my own

4.30 p.m. walk to Tuileries from mall; sit and have crazy coffee with huge whipped cream although neither of thought it was what I ordered; watched kids run around, enjoyed the fountain for a little while

5.30 p.m. WH White bookstore means English! surprisingly several posters and exhibitions on the street were in both French and English (maybe the tides are finally changing; and oddly enough they were more English friendly than Basel); spent close to $40USD on basic magazines that I miss (again love that exchange rate!)

7.00 p.m. back to hotel for a little rest; look through loot; change clothes

8.15 p.m. dinner in a bistro near the hotel; didn't have high expectations but since concierge was shamelessly flirting with me couldn't let him down; the price was absolutely right (3 courses including bottle of wine and pre-dinner Kir royale for 34 Euro (pp) and mind you tip optional); again waiter spent most of meal flirting shamelessly, maybe blondes do have more fun?

11.00 p.m. exhausted from days on end of work and walking around city; back to room watching some TV and video iPod (love it) until about 12.15 a.m. and then off to sleep; tossed and turned most of night

Sunday, May 20
6.30 a.m. up for early morning flight home; friend makes packing clothes for two-day trip into art form and then unbelievably got everything she'd bought stuffed into suitcase as well; that is true talent! :)

7.45 a.m. on bus to airport; decide to get out video iPod to finish watching movie; remember left iPod safely on desk in hotel room to remember to put it in my purse; lose shit all over friend sitting next me "what a loser I am" etc.; call hotel and housekeeping actually found it; felt bad for freaking on friend, but I guess being a pessimistic city dweller and never having anything found upon leaving it at a hotel, I was a naysayer...but she must have been good luck; iPod gift from parents for birthday before I left for Switzerland (almost in tears when realized that I didn't have it); have to e-mail hotel to request shipping and provide credit card information; phew!

8.30 a.m. De Gaulle airport (as in it's a galle that this airport evening exists!); couldn't print my bording pass on check-in kiosk; couldn't find said check-in kiosk worker; went to Air France counter (they only do information merci!); have to schlep to end of terminal for person to print out ticket; go through layer one of checking ticket / passport; layer two is actually checking luggage; layer 3 security; layer 1 is clearly waste of time and layers 2 and 3 can TOTALLY be combined!; find small breakfast bar and order; friend orders tea and you'd think she'd asked for something they'd never heard of before; then asked for milk and basically ended up with milk and a little tea in it

9.15 a.m. neither of us recall hearing the boarding announcement, although it was probably only in French (and they wonder why the rest of the world can't stand them, probably more than Americans, although the world has less expectations of them) ; ) Raining Again is our theme song; board bus to head to plane; run across tarmac in rain; get settled; plane takes off a little late

10.30 a.m. arrive back in Basel on the French side; friend and I can't figure out how it's possible there is no passport control, which is loose at best on the Basel side of Mulhouse Airport; come out on French side as if we flew from NY to Boston; realize "ooooops" fence in between, need to back in; passport control doesn't even turn around as we walk through, we laugh and can't believe it; finally find where we need to get transport back to City and here "welcome home ladies"; it turns out friend's cracker jack boyfriend surprises her at the airport! Mind you it's not just a matter of jumping in the car since none of us really has one here, but rather tram to the train station and bus to the airport; he's a keeper!

11.15 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. mundane life tasks; bills; try (x3) to figure e-banking for UBS (not sure if I'm successful); catch up with e-mails, friend home from Majorca Spain today; lunch

4.00 p.m. to 6 p.m. read NY Times online; trying HARD not to fall asleep as will be up all night thinking about incredibly busy week ahead; get bizarre e-mail from guy I barely know that just moved to Basel (narrow-minded jerks all over the world!); dinner; movie; some TV; prepare for crazy week ahead; expenses from trip

8.30 p.m. falling asleep typing; getting into bed shortly to start the week fresh and early; lots of meetings as usual

Overall, fun four days even though I had to work over two holiday days; leave for Chicago next Wednesday (Mittwoch in German) and then home to NYC which I can't wait for! I've already started to make lists of stuff I need to bring back (bringing a large empty suitcase with me!)

Losing days

Well maybe my dad was right (that I would slow keeping my blog once I started work). But now I'm back and have a lot to tell. The days really blur together. Working on the agency side we used to wonder if we were running around 20 hours a day and couldn't finish everything, what kind of work could our client ACTUALLY be doing. Ok so now I know! While I don't think EVERY client I've ever had has worked this hard (and I don't think it has to do with being new), BUT my colleagues (and me) definitely do! This past week was literally a full on blur.

I joined a Yahoo! user group called BaselExpats about a month prior to coming here, which is largely British expats but with a smattering of Americans thrown in for good measure. I've asked questions about technology etc and ended up e-mailing with this guy and finally early last week I get an e-mail from him saying, "all things being equal on the Internet, I Googled you and saw that you worked for XYZ company, well my wife is Mrs. Jones who ran the Belgium office in Brussels. Now they don't have the same last name and even if they did it wouldn't have rung the bell! But holy cow, she's now in Basel working at that "other" pharmaceutical company on the other side of the Rhine from Roche. No matter how big the world might seem, the Internet constantly still surprises me in that way. So we went out for dinner on Wednesday night and they were so kind and picked up the check, not even knowing it was my birthday.

It's very social here. When you go to lunch in the company cafeteria, most people say hello and good-bye when you sit at the same table even if you don't know them. Plus, since I really only know how to say hello, good-bye, water, and thank you in German...I might not be able to speak the language, but I'm pretty cordial. :)

And alas, Thursday was my birthday. Dad called me at 11.45 p.m. on Wednesday evening to sing. He started to give me crap about getting older and I gave it right back to him citing that he's old enough to have a daughter that is 38. He was none too happy about being reminded of that! :) He said he even "missed me a little". When you start a new job a week prior, having a birthday is a weird thing. You want to walk around telling EVERYONE that it is your birthday, but it's pretty much grossly inappropriate to plug it that way...ok I did to a couple of people. But a friend from another department brought me a card and my boss was standing there. In her cute French accent she said, "omigosh I did not know it was your birthday." I trotted off to a two hour meeting (ergh) and upon returning there was a GORGEOUS bouquet of flowers on my desk. A HUGE, absolutely gorgeous bouquet. I told her thank you, although not necessary. She said they were from our marketing team.

I ran from meeting to meeting and it really didn't feel like my birthday...or maybe when you get older by the time in the day it feels like your birthday, the day is already over. :( I went out with my friend Nadia for sushi. Her company was lovely as always, but even the best sushi in Basel isn't as good as what you would get at the corner bodega at home. But alas, I'm quickly learning that you need to stop comparing "home" to here, since there is no way those two trains will cross. But the middle eastern food rocks! Nadia did an incredible thing. She has these two rings from Swarovski that I've coveted for almost two years now. I've tried to find them online, in their warehouse, etc. but to no avail. Nadia showed with a bag from Swarovski (I bought her something from there a few weeks ago for her 40th) and I "thought" it might be there. She bought me a murano glass wine stopper shaped like a heart AND she gave me one of the crystal rings (the red one)! The last time someone did something that nice for me was when Joanne gave me her favorite ring for good luck, and I guess it worked! We sat outside having drinks at a fun place in the center of town. I got home around 11.30 p.m. and well that's all they wrote. Now I'm 38, just when I was getting used to being 37.

Last night I went out for dinner and to see a movie with another friend and with much protest from me she treated me to another birthday meal. We saw "Wild Hogs" with John Travolta and it was HILARIOUS...pee in your pants HILARIOUS. I've seen some of the out takes and they were as well. It was nice not be at a bar. Drinking wine is considered a very regular part of the social environs here in Europe, but I did a lot of birthday celebrating over the past few days!

Today I met a friend for lunch and we sat in the sun on Rhine...yep you guessed it a three course meal for lunch, wine, and another birthday treat from this friend. And then I just opted for a quiet evening at home, because my next four weeks looks something like this:

May 17 London for business (the 17th and 18th are actually bank holidays, but yes I have to work and my European colleagues are appalled that I need to do it)

May 18 Paris for business (then spending the weekend with a friend)

May 24 Mannheim, Germany business (2 hours from Basel)

May 30 to June 5 Chicago for business

June 5 to June 9 NYC for some kindness to myself and to see family / friends

Have I ever mentioned the purple building in my neighborhood??? I fear the photo won't do it justice but it IS purple!

Even though e-mail helps to keep in touch, would still love to hear voices. Yahoo! phone or calling cards make it next to nothing (Yahoo! is nothing if you have the messenger).

Two weeks

Two weeks down...

This weekend I was in Berlin on business "observing" a pharmaceutical drug launch meeting for when I do my own in September. I've done three, but not of this magnitude. I think I made fast friends with several people and I have to tell you I was EXTREMELY giddy when I arrived at the airport in Berlin and everything was done! I'm so used to being the one / team running around like a chicken with my head cut off. And I was quite excited to have my own agency dealing with the press, etc. Although they are a really great team and know their stuff. I'm impressed and looking forward to working with them (London-based). I'll be going there to walk through all of the plans and meet the rest of the team and prepare for the HUGE oncology meeting in Chicago end of this month / beginning of June.

It's becoming more and more evident to me that the earth is a lot less random that maybe a lot of us think. I've connected with old friends / colleagues online very randomly! And I'm learning that eventually most people that touch the pharmaceutical industry end up coming to Basel!

I got home from my trip tonite and just wanted something simple for dinner so I walked to the local Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood and it was 50 Sfr!!! Just for soup, an egg roll, and chicken with cashews! Ok so they throw in a Chinese beer, but still! The restaurants are SO expensive here and it's not just the top end, really good restaurants, but basic mediocre ones! My new favorite place is actually just your run of the mill kabob / fallafal (really cheap and good) in the center of town.

I'm enjoying a colleague that started the same day as I did, also from NYC. When my boss took me out to dinner before I started she said, "yes the new guy is from NYC as well and he's black and gay which will be very interesting for the brand team since they're not used to either." Poor guy (not because of the former, but because people in Europe really weigh those things heavily when hiring someone - they asked me my age and if I had a family!)...good thing he's got a great sense of humor and is pretty awesome. Here in Basel, you become very insulated creating friends / family via co-workers. It's very easy not to integrate yourself into the local community, but I'm going to attempt German via private lessons at work, but given my schedule and the degree of difficulty, not sure what will happen, but I would like to at least try (at the very least I'm a very polite person since I know "thanks" and "good-bye"). I'd like to be able to speak it for shopping, restaurants, etc., just your basic conversational. Although Swiss German is spoken more than high German, it's not a written language so therefore impossible to learn, plus the natives wouldn't really even let me speak it.

I'm also quickly learning that the Swiss are VERY rigid, hence Swiss time. But they also make up rules / regulations (ad-hoc) and although not confrontational, they will point out if you're doing something wrong (like garbage or recycling). And to anyone that thought we have fees / taxes in the U.S., you haven't seen anything like Switzerland. For the most part it's just out and out exhortion here, but they don't even really try to hide it. And since all of the bills / notices come in German, if you don't stay on top of friends / co-workers helping you translate, you can really end up being screwed. And forget getting apartment deposits back when you're done. Basically this is just one giant adventure and when it stops being so, that's when most people move on or go back to work in their respective countries (for the company or another pharma company).

Four days 'til my birthday. Who is the first to visit??? Tick tock, tick tock.

Keep on keepin' on...

Ground Control to Major Tom

Day 11

Beam me up Scotty. Today was the first day of my new job. Most of you have received an e-mail with my contact information, although I prefer to continue using my Gmail account (separation of synagogue and state if you will). I spent the morning with the department assistant. She's the type woman who if keep her happy, your whole life will be a.ok. If you don't, might as well kiss your ass good-bye. The head of our department took me and another (new colleague) for a two hour lunch in the manager's restaurant on campus (not somewhere that I will be dining on a regular basis). We actually had a three course meal including wine! She laughed when we were offered wine because she can't understand why Americans hesitate to drink wine with lunch. Well you don't have to ask me twice, and she applauded the fact that I caved in much quicker than my colleague.

The late afternoon was spent logging on to my laptop. I had 94 e-mails to start and most of them did not revolve around "what's for lunch at the cantina today". They were actually bonified e-mails with a lot to read. And tomorrow most of my team is headed out to Berlin early to rehearse for the launch meeting over the weekend. And I have a meeting to defend our PR budget to the marketing team already! Oy! I've not even had the plan presented by the PR company yet! C'est la vie or sink or swim. Luckily I'm still fairly buoyant after all these years. But I love, love, love the fact that I have my very own PR agency! I worked hard for it.

Although we're in Dilbert City, it's not that bad. The cubes are HUGE and we have all the necessary equipment we need, although no one seems to know when my Blackberry might arrive. But they will reimburse my pay-as-you go mobile phone until it does. The team bought me a beautiful basket of flowers and I have this huge gorgeous tree-like plant towards the front of my desk. Actually it needs to be pushed out of the way, but it's so heavy it ain't happening anytime soon.

Well tomorrow is another day and I leave for Berlin early on Friday morning. Day one of 10 straight days!

A School Night

Day 10

Well my last day of total freedom and as history repeats itself, when I start my new job tomorrow I will be working 10 straight days (in Berlin this weekend for business). It seems that I always enter a new company / position at the busiest time of the year!

I'm REALLY nervous and looking forward to getting through tomorrow to see what it's like. I'm really glad that I came a week and a half early to get settled and figure things out. For example, the garbage and recycling is so bizarre here. And if you don't do it correctly they will rifle through your garbage to get your name and send you a fine, but of course you can't read the letter you get because it's in German, so alas, I either show everyone my mail or I use translation Web sites. And the German to English translation doesn't always make sense either!

But otherwise I'm getting along fine. Thanks so much to the friends that have called me. Considering my family has not! Grrrrr.