Starting to settle in!

Second Day 11/02/09

Second day was somewhat different. After writing about the first day and eating my not so delicious cereal, I left the apartment and went to the commune police to register and get my residence permit. I unfortunately got there a bit too late (they closed for lunch break) so I ended up coming home and headed into uni to give Olivier my bank details. Outside Olivier’s office, I met a girl named Alison from America and her parrain Alan. It seems Olivier’s office is the place to meet other exchange students. We talked for awhile and Alan told me about an exchange pub where all the foreign students went on Wednesday nights to meet people. We all agreed we might make an appearance that night. After I got home, decided to pop into Kelly’s and see if she wanted to go out for lunch, being way too lazy to actually cook for myself... that and I had no food to cook. Kelly wasn’t home but I met her roommate Becky who happens to be from China and a Singaporean girl from next door; Jessica. It was an Asian congregation. Took the two of them over to mine and they met Jonas. Becky left after a bit but Jessica stayed around and we ended up chatting the arvo away and I forgot to go back and get my Residence’s Permit.
Me and Jessica ended up braving the unknown and went grocery shopping in the afternoon at Coop (Swiss equivalent of Coles, we’ve been told we should shop at Migros instead – Woolworths...It’s cheaper –figures). Neither of us knew how to cook very well so we really had no idea what we were doing and with everything being so expensive; we were trying to budget hardcore. We also had to consider getting the food home by train so the dilemma that faced us... intense! It also turns out the Swiss don’t give you bags with your grocery; either you bring your own or you buy green bags (well these weren’t green, they were red with strawberries). We both ended up buying the strawberry bags but didn’t actually buy that much food, however I am now stocked up on pasta and bread. I went a bit overspending and brought some ham and salami just because I miss meat!! Steak was obviously out of the question, 30 bucks a kilo my ass! Hate this country.

When we got back, her friends (who were also Singaporean) decided to go out for dinner so I went out with them (we were specifically warned against eating out if we wanted to have any money left). I felt like a real meal was in order; having only eaten 2 piece of toast with peanut butter and 2 bowls of cereal since I got off the plane. So 4 Asians went into town and got some Chinese food. Typical. So much for trying to avoid the Asian race in a new country; it does seem like we’re drawn to each other. And the food was so good!! Inferior compared to Sunnybank by far but when you’re that hungry, meat is just good!!! We ended up spending $15 each which isn’t too bad but obviously can’t keep that up. After dinner we decided to go to this foreign student pub by the name of Buzz. Wondered around for a good hour but never found it. And i think Jet lag hit because I just wanted to sleep so around 11 so we headed home and I got into my warm bed. Sleep was uneasy all night, kept on waking up. I don’t know why, hopefully it’ll get better soon! Woke up to a world that was snowing.