Homesick in Switzerland

I got the phone call I’ve been waiting for all week. OK not entirely true. I have been waiting for a call about the results of my interview last week, cos I was told it would happen on Monday or Tuesday. It didn’t happen. They called today (Wednesday) and asked if I could go in for a trial day tomorrow. Woo Hoo! I was thrilled! Almost speechless… I thanked him for the opportunity (at least I think I did) and I asked what I should wear. What kind of question is that?!?! Haha! I would hope he thought it was a sensible one.

Problem is I’ll be on practically the first train headed out that direction… *ugh* Too early! Out the door at 6am and at what MAY or MAY NOT be my new work by 7am. Arriving only 5 minutes early, so by the time I get to the front door I may be just on time. Can’t be helped though I can’t plan for stuff likethis with fixed schedules on public transport. And I can’t plan for delays either… like what if I miss my bus?! I can catch an earlier train but it arrives half an hour early and nothing is open. I’ll take my chances cutting it close with only 5 minutes to spare… and also the very narrow changeover time between train and bus (3 mins).

I get to be tested… I’ll watch and learn… I’ll try out stuff… and I hope I do things right and that they’ll like me. And most importantly I hope I like them too… if all goes well I might get hired. And that’s a great thing! Now the problem is I’ll be working in the IKEA restaurant kitchen. The influx of customers for the X-mas rush probably isn’t the best time to be learning the ropes. It’s a lot of pressure. I also already know someone who works there, Armand is Singaporean, and how I perform tomorrow and possibly in the future (If I get hired) will reflect on him by association. It may be because of him that I’m even being considered for the job, seeing as how I happened to believe that the interview went absolutely horridly! Who knows?

Wish me luck! I’m just a bundle of nerves!

It is now December. How the time flies! only 3 weeks til X-mas… Kwang’s friends are coming down from London to visit. I’m still trying hard to find a job. It’s not been great but not been all bad. I’ve had a few phone calls and one proper interview. Not too bad for a month’s efforts. I’ve struck a nice friendly relationship with my RAV (unemployment agency) advisor and assuming I don’t find work by January, I’ll be sent off to a repeat German course. It’s for free of course… paid for by the govt to up my chances of getting a job. Transport will also be paid for, which is excellent!

However, if I’m REALLY lucky I won’t be doing this language course cos I’ll have a job. OK, so I haven’t heard any good news, plenty of rejection letters arriving in the mail every few days… but good things take time right? I’m waiting on a couple of phone calls from employers who promise to call back regardless the result. I’ve had the not-too-good interview. But my friend Armand who works at that same place had said some nice things about me, and according to him there’s a few people who didn’t even show up for their interviews and so I’m still in the running (1 of 3 candidates) for the job no matter how horrid I believe the interview went. Hope to hear the decision real soon. (like YESTERDAY)

Of course I’m not gonna bank all my hopes on one job. Still looking and still gonna keep trying. And in the mean time I gotta keep up with all the housewifey tasks at home. Cooking is a given. Cleaning has fallen a little behind. And of course revising my German CDs and what not, re-learning from scratch.. especially conversational German. Can’t work if I can’t talk can I?

In any case, I gotta pick myself right back up… even though I feel a little crappy today… *ugh* I’d better not be getting sick! Right! Time to get on with it!

Enjoy!

With the first snow fall of the year last night, Autumn (for me) is officially over. Pretty much my favourite season of the  year. And with finality, I’ve packed away my summer clothing and swapped them out for warm clothes for this upcoming winter. The box had been sitting in an inconvenient corner of the bedroom for the past 3 weeks awaiting this moment… I was hesitant to pack them away hoping for one last burst of warmth before the winter cold sets in. And although it’s not “officially” winter yet, it’s close enough. Temperatures rarely rise to double digits anymore and I’m feeling lethargic, like a bear awaiting hibernation. Hmm… wish I could hibernate… would be so convenient!

I’ve had a pretty mixed weekend. Was somewhat excited Saturday morning about an upcoming Autumn market happening in town. I was so looking forward to going to this market that I actually postponed our out of town excursion that was tentatively planned for this weekend too. But arriving at this market that promised among other things, a live band, fondue, raclette, soup, farm animals, market stalls selling autumn harvest vegetables, arts and crafts, and more pumpkins than you can wrap your mind around… The only thing that met my expectations were the pumpkins. There were loads and loads of pumpkins! And for cheap too! But what am I supposed to do with a whole pumpkin? Can’t possibly cook it all! I can roast… make soup… cook curry… stir fry… but eventually I’d get really sick of pumpkin and the uneaten portions would be left to rot to the delight of the few fruit flies that are still hanging about my kitchen among bananas, onions and the garbage bag. Sad but true. So I didn’t buy any of the very tempting selection of pumpkins and squashes that were dirt cheap… I can’t buy a whole pumpkin weighing over 5kg for CHF4.00 in any supermarket here… I normally buy them in pie-cut slices weighing about 500g for approximately CHF3.00-CHF4.00. Too bad. A bit of a waste but I’m not totally gutted about it. I was disappiinted by everything else there though.

Kwang and I ended up in a clothing store and he bought a nice CHF20 pair of jeans (real good buy here), and I got myself a nice red knitted sweater… very happy with that! Bought some other stuff in town from a suermarket (ugh!) and went home to be bored and more disappointed.

But at home I was preasantly surprised to find some baby photos posted online by my good friend Jing Yi Last year (was it last year?) several of my friends got married. And it will come as no surprise that they’ve now also got babies! It’s a real baby year!  Jing Yi gave birth to her son Jay Xuan Oct 14th. My sister in law gave birth only last night to a lovely daughter Jencie (?). Kwan’gs good friend Chia-An gave birth September 28th(?) to a daughter also. Josephine is expecting the arrival of her little bun in December. Yuko is expecting in January. WOW! What’s with this Second-Coming Baby-Boom?!! Suddenly everyone’s making babies!

Before anyone asks.. I’m NOT getting cluckly…I don’t feel it’s “my turn” at all.  I’m really a little… intimidated actually. All these babies all in one go… a little much to handle. BUT having said that, I’m very very happy for all the new parents, new grand parents and also the soon-to-be parents. Wish I was there to congratulate them all in person! But they’ll just have to make do with faraway well wishes from Switzerland.

I really SHOULD write here more often. And since this new friendster blogs style came along I honestly thought that I would write here more often… but it’s unfortunate isn’t it? I haven’t been writing here in over a month. I did update my other blog though… all the holiday posts and my most recent holiday in Spain are all documented there. I’m not really being very fair to this old blog of mine. I’ve tried so hard to remain faithful… it’s not easy to write on both sides when this friendster blog has such a small readership. It’s a little sad I suppose. Just a little. I’m not entirely sure if you still need to be a logged in friendster member to be able to leave a comment here. Becuase, of course that was the biggest reason for taking up my new blog in the first place. Now that this one is more user friendly… is it reader friendly too? I’ll just need to find out later then won’t I? In the mean time I’m writing useless, aimless and pointless rants here just because I can, because probably no one will read it and mainly because I should. Not as if I have a whole lot to say.

Life’s been alright. Not good not bad. Jobless, fat, disenchanted… nothing new. Only now I’ve got a headache that’s killing me so I suppose I should get an early night now that I’ve gone on long enough about absolutely nothing.

My apologies for anyone who reads this… Sorry for wasting your time.

Friendster is trying out their new version of their Friendster Blogs. Making it better or easier to use and stuff. I’ve noticed it’s a lot like (read as : Identical to) the wordpress dashboard… which doesnt bother me in the least, because I quite like my other wordpress blog too! But I might come back to write here more often. I’ll have to to a little more tweaking with the colours at the moment… the current blog is quite minimalist as you can see, nothing wrong with that though

It’s been a while since I last wrote in here… a monthor 2 now if I’m not wrong. I was gettign all emo before the mothers came for holiday. It’s over now and as you can tell, I’ve survived relatively unharmed. I’m absolutely certain now though that those 2 women must NEVER AGAIN travel together. They’re just too different, wanting different things and I reckon both would be much much much happier on a cruise or a bus tour rather than winging it on their own the way we did in Italy. They were fussy about the food, tired from walking, grumpy from heat, and while MIL wanted to sightsee, all my mum wanted to do was shop for souvenirs. The difference in priorities were different. ANd as for Kwang and I, we wanted to get as much done as possibe, to see lots and do lots and there were so many places, galleries and museums we wanted to visit but couldn’t make it there because the mothers were too slow and some place that SHOULD have taken a nice brisk 30 minute walk to get to (by Kwang and my standards), actually ended up taking all morning… that’s about 3 hours!!!

I know they’re old and tired and not accustomed to walking. I mean… my mum actually drives to the fish n chip shop that’s 2 blocks away from our place (in NZ) to buy fish n chips! That’s only a 5 minute walk but she drives. I can’t blame them for being slow and grumpy in Italy. But I have every right to complain!

I’ve been writing… and I’m STILL writing… about our trip in Italy. Posting heaps and heaps of photos recounting our time in each city visited. I’m nearing the end of our trip in Rome and will soon  write about Milan. I know it’s been a long time coming. I’ve been getting lazy when it comes to writing the travel journal at the moment. The longer I leave it, the less likely I am to finish it. So… in any case, pop over and have a look there Here’s a preview while i test out the new photo uploader here…

Milan

ps. the photo uploader is exactly the same as wordpress

Feeling really emotional these past couple of days. I know that everyone goes through it from time to time. Especially women. I get especially emotional when it’s *ahem* that time of month. Normally though I’m able to push it away and plaster a smile on my face. I’m such a faker! Today I find myself unable to even fake a smile. There’s a lot on my plate at the moment. I’d better not break apart before the mother’s holiday is over…

Man life really sucks right now…

Goodness I haven’t even touched this blog for over 4 months! Feel kinda bad. Just that my other blog is just so convenient and more people visit and leave comments and messages for me there. The problem with this blog is that only Friendster members can comment on it. Kinda sucks that way and that was the biggest reason why I left it for a new one. I had intended to keep writing here from time to time though… and I barely kept that up for a year. Sometimes posting something different and sometimes making double/repeat posts both here and in my other blog. Honestly I’m a little ashamed… There’s a very good reason I didn’t want to get rid of this blog… many sentimental reasons… nostalgia… records of my first days away from my family for the first time… memories of how it was being a newlywed… How it was being in a new place, a new country where I didn’t speak the language, happy moments, unemployment, depression, homesickness… There were good and bad times all contained in a little over a year’s worth of posts here in my Friendster blog.

I’ve moved on to somewhat better times. A bit more settled here in Switzerland. I’ve come a long way and yet in some ways not much has changed. I’m still "technically" unemployed. I’ve got myself a small thing where I dog sit for a lady who pays me piddles a day. I can understand a fair amount and speak some of the language here. It’s been almost 3 years after all! Would be awful if I STILL didn’t know how to communicate here without saying "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" especially since we spent truckloads of money taking German language lessons every day for my first 6 months here. While I’ve more or less stopped learning German actively, Kwang continues to listen to podcasts and buy language phrasebooks etc. I wonder if he’s disappointed in me playing the good little Hausfrau?

BAH! This isn’t really the time to be feeling down and thinking of these past things… Time to move on. I’m earning some pocket money dog sitting. We’re traveling a little more. Seen more of Switzerland and a little bit of Germany. Looking forward to Italy in a little over a week’s time! YES! I’m off to Italy! I should say WE’re off to Italy! Not just Kwang and I "we".

My mum and MIL (mother in law) are visiting for 5 weeks! They arrive Tuesday next week and I hope I survive it! No doubt their presence will put a lot of pressure on us all. Small place, 1 bedroom, no privacy. Setting the mothers up in our bedroom, and we’ll take the living room with an inflatable bed. If things work out the way they’re supposed to, my cousins will be visiting too for a few days, they’re flying from Canada to visit family in Germany, and coming to Bern a few days. I’ll be a tight squeeze for sure! I’ve mixed emotions about this… tensions running pretty high already and nobody’s even here yet!! I’m alternating between excitement and dread… Pray nothing goes wrong.