Grüezi!
Welcome to Wander We Go. I’m Alex.
I write about life in Zürich, travels throughout Europe, and musings on both.
Welcome to Wander We Go. I’m Alex.
I write about life in Zürich, travels throughout Europe, and musings on both.
All in Life in Zurich
Putting together this list, I realized that this crop of eleven books could be grouped around a few different, but complementary, themes. Each, in a way, reflected the times we are all going through. It’s interesting what I gravitated toward, but each book really helped me in a particular way. Maybe one will help you, too.
Running, at its essence, is simply the physical motion of putting one foot in front of the other. That’s all it is. Nothing more, nothing less. No matter your reason, find something that resonates with you, and let it carry you forward, one step at a time.
It was a huge year of growth and learning, with a whole lot of fun and adventure along the way. Some of these experiences involve discovering beautiful places Switzerland has to offer, but most, in fact, are about the different ways we began to really find our own place here.
A grab-bag of things I’ve have noticed about Swiss Life lately - from the way that the Swiss form lines (or lack thereof), to the gorgeous autumn colors, to an interesting observation between integration and assimilation.
Moving to a new country is equally thrilling and terrifying. It’s an opportunity to call another country home, learn a new language, and foster your own independence. It also means you’ll be far away from friends and family, will be surrounded by a completely unfamiliar culture, and will need to build a whole new community from scratch. It’s exhilarating and exhausting and frustrating and adventurous and lonely and heart-burstingly full all at the same time.
And with this summer transformation comes Zurich’s bathing culture: the multiple badis that line the lake and river. Badis are essentially public “baths” or swimming areas, where you can come swim, cool off on grass beaches or wooden decks over the water, sunbathe, socialize, eat, drink, and simply enjoy being outside in the warm weather.
As we are approaching our one-year anniversary in July (“expatversary,” if you will), I started thinking about all of the things that really surprised me when we first moved to Switzerland. It’s actually a bit funny writing these out now, because as we have adapted to the Swiss lifestyle, we’ve simply gotten used to most of these things as a way of life. I’ve written about my unexpected favorites, things Switzerland does well, and things they could work on, so this list is a new mix of all three. Some affect my daily life, some don’t, some things I love and some still leave me a bit bewildered, but they all contradicted a previously held notion in some way.
