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...