12pm local time (5am Central): I am sitting in the Amsterdam airport waiting for my transfer flight to Geneva, Switzerland. My 7:30pm flight from the U.S. was pretty uneventful. My seatmate turned out to be a Medtronic employee working for the Technical Communications group – the people who write the device manuals. We hadn’t met before, but I have worked with a number of other people in her group. What a small world!
It’s probably a good thing that I had 2 hours to transfer between flights. I think my flights were on completely opposite sides of the airport, so it took me a while to walk to the other side. I wasn’t in a hurry, so it was no problem. I looked in the some of the shops on the way - I think it’s really funny how you can buy all sorts of flower bulbs in the airport ...
9pm local time (2pm Central): I made it safe and sound to my apartment and got settled. I must have been pretty tired on the plane to Geneva since I remember the plane taking off, and the next thing I knew they were serving drinks. Someone from the apartment rental company met me at the airport, showed me the basics of the town of Morges where I’m staying, and took me to my apartment. The owner (who spoke some English) showed me around the apartment – it’s a pretty nice 1 bedroom apartment. I especially like that it has laundry inside the apartment.
I unpacked my stuff and then went out to get cash, a bus pass to commute to work, and some groceries. The ATM asked me whether I wanted 100 or 200 CHF (1 CHF is about $1), so I said “200”. I got one 200-CHF bill. Crap. What the heck am I going to do with a 200 CHF bill when the most I have to pay at any one time is 30? I crossed my fingers and hoped that the grocery store would take it for a 30 CHF purchase. They did, thank god (especially because it was the ATM in their store that gave it to me). At least I noticed the reusable grocery bags for purchase before going through the line and realizing that there no free bags! Then the rail station where I have to buy the bus pass closed right as I got there.
I had dinner at this pizza place – a neopolitan-style pizza (if you’ve ever had Punch Pizza in Minneapolis, kind of like that), then went back to the apartment to get the wireless working and see if there was anything on TV. Unfortunately, the only English channels are CNN and CNBC. Right now, a French-dubbed version of “Die Hard” is on. ;-)
It’s about 9:30pm, about time for bed. Hopefully I won’t wake up at 3am, but I’m not holding my breath ...
