Things Are Looking Up

Now that I got the fire story over with yesterday, I wanted to share with you (dear reader) the great news of the week. And there is a lot.

First, let me begin with last weekend. As you will see from the post before last, I took a little trip with some friends to Basel to see the Swiss national team play Greece in a World Cup qualifier. The Saturday started with me taking a short train ride to Morges, sort of a suburb of Lausanne, where Rashmi and Cyril live right on the main town square. We had omlettes and took a stroll around the bustling market before hopping the train to Basel. Couple hours later, we arrived. It was a great, sunny day, so we decided to make it a walking day...no buses. We grabbed a sandwich at the grocery store and headed for the zoo. Not crowded at all, and the only animals we didn't get to see were the monkeys (just barely missed their building's closing time). Cyril was disappointed that we missed the seal show too.

So after the zoo, we headed back into town where the futball fans were out in force in their red jerseys. In need of a little luck (Switzerland was ranked a couple spots lower than Greece) before the game, we headed to a great Irish pub. They were showing the US Open and soccer on the flat screens, so we order some beers, some chips (fries), and took a load off. The game itself was entertaining, even if I'm not the biggest sportsfan who ever walked the planet. The stadium (largest in Switzerland I think, although small by US standards) was full of red, and each seat had a Swiss flag to be waved in support of the team. They were big fans of their fight songs, and of course they sang the Swiss national anthem at the beginning (they don't know if too well though). The Swiss kept the ball on the Greek's side of the field most of the game, but there were no real highlights until the last 10-15 minutes. You could tell the Greeks were getting tired despite having a near miss on the Swiss goal, and it wasn't long before the Swiss made it 1-0. After a couple other solid shots over the next minutes, the Swiss notched another and wrapped up the game at 2-0. Hop Swiss! (something like Go Swiss!) It was a late night getting home, but I think we made it back before 2am. Worth it though. Thanks to Rashmi and Cyril for the ticket!

Great news #2: On Thursday, my relocation agent called to inform me that my application at one of my favorite appartments from my search since the fire had been accepted! So by at least October 1, I will have a new place to call home. Finally! The location is great (old city) and right next to the metro and all kinds of shops and restaurants, the place itself is updated and large, but I might go broke trying to pay for it. If you visit over a weekend, you might find it a little loud, because the cathedral is just outside the windows, and they tell me Sunday mornings are full of bells clanging. But I will miss my old, burned up terrace. No lake view this time. Perhaps that will make me more appreciative every time I see it, instead of having the great view every morning. Anyway, I'm just glad to have a nice, new place of my own again. The process of settling in will start all over, but hopefully it'll be quicker this time.

Finale: This Thursday, my parents arrive! They will be my first visitors, which is most fitting. The Thompsons will be in town for around a week, and we have no major plans other than to just catch up and enjoy the city. Unfortunately I have no apartment to offer them board this trip, but I was able to find a recommeded hotel with a full kitchen included that is very close to where I'm staying now. My dad sent me this picture a month or two ago from the day he and his scout troop left for Bisset, Manitoba. I liked it quite a bit, but didn't really have anything to do with it...until now!

One last note: as we were sitting in the audit room this week having a team meeting, someone cracked on North Wilkesboro (clearly they didn't know I am not from there but from Wilkesboro). But as it turned out, of the 8 people in the meeting, fully 50% had been to the Wilkesboros! Four random people, of three different nationalities, in a single room, in Switzerland, at the same time...had been to my little hometown, population less than 10,000! What a world!

Catching Up

Quite a while since I've given much of an update, so here goes. You may want to grab a cup of coffee (tasse du cafè)...noir...because this post could run long.

Four weeks ago this Monday, I was returning home from work early to begin a virtual training about income taxes at 4:30pm. It was being held in the US, so the timing was a little weird and I had planned to use the faster and more reliable Internet connection from the new apartment instead of sticking around at Philip Morris. To my complete shock, the entire block was roped off, and the fire department and police were covering the area. I looked up to see dense gray smoke billowing from the roof of my apartment building (see previous post newspaper article).

After stumbling through a couple conversations with police and random on-lookers (most of whom spoke little if any English), I found out that the fire was in the attic (fifth floor) just above my fourth floor apartment. And it was not pretty. Fire hoses were snaked into the building and up the many flights of stairs, and it seemed as if the water they carried was flowing out of the windows and doors from the top. At some point, the red clay tiles began flying off the building and cracking apart on the street below as the firemen rushed to get to the source of the fire. It was hot and humid that afternoon, and I was in my suit and carrying around me work bag. As we waited for more information and the hope of getting into the building at some point, there was nothing to do but stand in shock. I didn't really want to take that tax training anyway.

After a couple calls, I got in touch with my co-worker Valentin, who left work to come help me in case I needed some French skills at my side. A couple hours later, we finally understood that they thought the fire was out. I was allowed to go check out the apartment for damage and to take out anything that I needed. We stepped through water a couple inches deep on the first floor to get to the stairs which were wet and slippery with foamy ashwater. It was a mess. The door of my apartment was kicked in when the firemen were trying to get to the attic along with several neighbor's doors, so a locksmith was scurrying around trying to replace everyone's locks before the night. Inside, the ceilings dripped all over with more of the ashwater, and you could see little rivers flowing behind the plaster on the walls (which later dried, cracked, and opened up like sores). Plaster was hanging down, and much of my furniture was pushed to the middle of the rooms and partially covered with clear plastic. Someone else's chair was on my terrace. Firemen and inspectors came and went freely. My glassware lied randomly around the apartment and stairway after use by the fire-fighters.

Some of my clothes were wet or damp (I just use IKEA racks for hang up clothes because the Europeans don't have the concept of closets for some reason...maybe the same reason they don't slice pizza?), but we grabbed up as many as possible and carried them out to Valentin's VW Golf. Most everything else would have to stay for a while, but I did take some other things like pictures that I just didn't feel right leaving behind in such a miserable-looking place. Thanks to the clear plastic, all my electronics survived (I think...I haven't tried anything since then), and the damage to my bed and couch (two most expensive purchases since my arrival) was mitigated. Like most everything in the apartment, they will just require some deep cleaning. The water-logged matress is a different story though. I used the trusty iPhone to take the shot below of the roof after the smoke had cleared. My apartment is the one on the fourth floor (fifth floor to you anglos) to the right of the half moon-shaped stairway window. And the picture following is from later in the week after they had covered the gigantic hole in the roof with a green tarp and I got a peak inside the attic. Not a pretty sight. My neighbor's collection of 250 comics did not survive.

Thanks to the generosity of some other recently-arrived Americans, I had a couch to crash on the first night after the fire. Jon and Ashley Tirey had not even settled into their own apartment yet, but yet they still were nice enough to help out Mr. No Luck. After that, I was in the Hotel Bellerive for the rest of the week. Nice, and close to work, but it was getting more and more expensive (especially without the ability to cook any meals) by the day. So over the weekend, I moved into a co-worker's guest bedroom, and I've been there ever since. The arrangement and living out of a suitcase has worked out ok so far, but I am ready to have my own place again. And I'm sure that Matt is ready to have his place back to himself. The next couple weeks were spent in great confusion about insurance and what to do with my furniture and where to live next and who would pay for different things. Not to mention I still had work to do. And of course I could do very little myself without any French skills, so I had to constantly ask my co-workers to help me call someone or go with me to ask questions, etc. Valentin and Karyn have been terrific. I have no idea how I will ever pay back everyone who's helped me out these past few weeks.

I tried to close with a video of the apartment from the day after the fire. But after about an hour of trying to upload, I have given up!

Basel Zoo & Futball