First weekend in Zurich

So its my first Sunday here, and with the cold and rainy weather outside, it is a perfect day to update this blog.

SInce my last post, I have actually garnered the courage to find some events happening around town and made it to 2 of them. Impressive, huh? Back home, I would never go out alone and meet up with people that I don't know. But here, first off, if I don't do that, I won't ever meet anyone. Secondly, the expat community here is so welcoming. At some point everyone was in the same boat.

So the first event that I found was this group that meets every Thursday. The idea of this group is pretty interesting. They meet earlier in the evening, like 7pm or so. They organize a run/walk in different parts of the city, and then meet up at a bar later on to have drinks and hang out. They pick places that are basically dance clubs. So of course, with my luck, this past week was a Bollywood party to celebrate Diwali!! Haha. OF COURSE! My first night out in Zurich is an Indian dance party. What are the chances of that happening?!? Regardless, I actually had a good time rocking out to Bollywood tunes and meeting some cool people. I met this cool girl from Lithuania; she seems to like to have a good time, so she could be someone that I hang out with again. It really is amazing how open other expats are with newbies to the city. I felt welcomed right away.

Friday night I ended up hanging out in Zug (where the office is). I basically visited the only bar in town   for some drinks after work. By 730pm the place was dead!! Good thing I decided to live in Zurich rather than Zug. I probably would have gone crazy living in Zug. Don't get me wrong. Zug is absolutely breathtaking. It sits right off the lake and on a clear day you can see the Alps in the distance. But it is a slower paced town, focused more on families. Definitely made the right choice living in Zurich!

I spent Saturday with my the only people I know right now in Switzerland, the Dentis (shoutout to Aldo, Doris, Karen, and Vanessa. Thanks for a great time on Saturday! See you guys soon!) We spent the day in Luzern. This city is absolutely breathtaking. If you have the chance to come to Switzerland, Luzern is definitely a place you will want to visit. Here are just a couple of shots of Luzern. Enjoy!

I made it back to Zurich in time to head out for my next social event. There are a group of expats that meet every Saturday at this bar called Totos. From all of the expat blogs, calendar of events, postings, this is a staple night out for Expats in Zurich. They basically meet at the same time, same place every week. It is a great place for newbies to meet other expats in the city. The host, Ian from Scotland, basically hosts this event every Saturday. He is the first one there, and the last one to leave. He makes it his personal mission to make sure that everyone that walks through the door is introduced to people. I was no different yesterday. As soon as I arrived, Ian greeted me, and immediately took me to meet different groups of people. Throughout the night, if Ian saw that you were not talking to anyone, he immediately introduced you to another group of people. It was actually pretty amazing. I actually felt like I was at welcome weekend my freshmen year of college. Girls from BU - do you remember this moment?! We definitely went through the same thing. We were all standing outside of Rich Hall, when we were all being introduced to each other. We all exchanged phone numbers with each other, and do you remember walking away thinking, "I have no idea who is who, I just know that I have all their phone numbers now...?!" Yep. Last night was exactly like that!! I thought of all you, as I felt like I was back outside Rich Hall! But I definitely met some cool people, from all over - UK, Spain, the States, Germany, Austria, Australia...and many more. And what was even more amazing, no matter how long some of these people had been here (6 weeks, 2 months, 4 years), every single person I met last night said that they absolutely loved living here. Everyone definitely talked about the transition time of settling down, but not one person had a bad thing to say about living here. Exactly the reassurance I needed....

I am so proud of myself for taking the chance to attend these couple of events my first week here. I felt like I made some good connections with some people, and it will hopefully make this transition easier. I know this was one of the things I was most afraid of, but it seems like everything will be ok.

Well my first week here has just about come to a close, and I think I am going to love it here. Now I just need to find an apartment of my own, and I will feel so much better!

Until next time!! =)