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May 26th 2008

Published: May 27th 2008

Today has been a hard day for me. I've been crying on and off half the day. In the past week, I've been hearing about changes back home. Marco had a job interview in Atlanta the other day and they've offered him the job. I got an e-mail from Meg letting me know that Marco is definitely taking the job and will fly out there to start working in 3 weeks. Meg is staying in Seattle until a few days after Mia's birthday (July 12th). Marco will come back for Mia's birthday and then move all their stuff in a moving truck with a friend. I'll be driving with Meg and the kids to AZ and hopefully drive the rest of the way to Altanta with them too. The fact that Meg is leaving within a few days after Mia's birthday is 1 reason today was really hard... the talk in the past week has been that Meg would try to stay until Hazel's birthday (August 11th) and I was getting ok with that... 5 weeks with them was ok. But now it's been cut down to barely 2 weeks + however long it takes to drive to Atlanta and whether I stick around for a few day to help them move in and settle before going back home. But fortunately, it a good job that will pay well enough that Meg and the kids will be able to visit often and stay for weeks at a time. It's going to really suck that they're going to be all the way across the country and I'm going to miss them more than I can express.

So with that news, It looks like 3 moves will be happening in my life in the next 1 1/2 years.

1. Meg, Marco, Max, and Mia moving.

2. With Meg and Marco moving out, I'll be moving into the basement apartment. Anyone want to be my roommate? I need a roommate to be able to pay rent while still saving up for travels. Rent isn't much and it's a good living space. There's one bedroom, one living room that can act as a bedroom, a walk-in closet, a good-sized full bathroom with a closet that has plenty of shelf space, and a very good kitchen with walk-in pantry... and when it's finished, the little foyer/entry room will double as an eating nook. I have 2 requirements from a roommate that I can think of right now... 1. Must be a non-smoker and that includes the other stuff too. Sorry, I can't live with someone who will be bringing those kinds of smells into my living space and 2. As messy and cluttered as I am in my room upstairs, I plan on trying to keep the basement as clean and tidy as I can so I need someone who can do the same.

3. I'm seriously thinking of moving to Australia for up to a year when I go at the end of next year. I don't know if I'll stay a whole year, but the Visa allows me to stay a year. By the way, I still need at least 1 person to go to New Zealand with me. You have just under a year and a half to save up for 4-7 weeks of road tripping around both islands. Either that, or someone can join me for the first 3 weeks and then someone else for the 2nd 3 weeks. Either way, I still need someone to go with me. After New Zealand is done, I'll head to Australia to move and work there for a bit.

As for Switzerland, everything is crazy expensive. The Swiss Frank is almost equal to the US dollar, but their salaries are higher so everything else is priced higher. An average meal costs between $12 and $20... $9 is cheap (a nugget meal at McD's is $10!) but sometimes you can find a decent microwave meal for $6. The hostel I stayed at turned out to be a party hostel with happy hour, biergarten, and a bar/club thing in the basement that goes until 2:30am. They were packed 1 of the nights I was there. I overheard one of the employees telling a friend that they have 190 people the previous night and then 270 that night. I'm so thankful for earplugs. It just sucks that I got sick in Interlaken. I hardly did anything and there was so much more that I wanted to do. I wanted to take a train through the Alps, I wanted to see Jungfroujoch, I wanted to ride a bike to one of the lakes, I wanted to take a hike, I wanted to bungee jump or skydive or go canyoning. I wanted to do stuff. But 2 out of 3 days I had a mild fever for a few hours of each day, a sinus headache, and needed a tissue nearby at all times. Bah. On my 3rd day (Sunday), I felt better and finally got to do something. I went hang gliding :D It was fantastic. I flew with a Swiss guy named Didu and finished off the flight with some tricks. I had a great view over the town and the lakes. At the same time of my flight, there was a paragliding competition going on so there were a lot of paragliders in the air too (not close to us, but in the near distance). I paid for pictures to be taken and he turned on the video setting for while we did the tricks and the landing. I have a CD of them and I'll post the pics and maybe try posting the video when I get around to it. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to do it. I left Interlaken 2 hours early to get to Zurich, where my overnight train to Vienna was leaving from, so that I could check out Zurich a bit. When I got there, I wished I had used those 2 hours back in Interlaken renting a bike and finding the the closest lake. I walked around Zurich for maybe 30 minutes, and given it was a Sunday evening, something about it felt sketchy to me and I spent the rest of the time in the train station waiting for my over night train. I got a 6 bed couchette for the overnight train so that I could sleep. I had to myself for about an hour before I picked up more people in another city. I ended up with 3 Swiss high school boys and 2 girls that I'm sure were under 20 also. The boys got drunk and were in and out of the cabin. I managed to get a little bit of sleep between 2 and 4:30. They came back into the cabin at 4:40, got into their bunks and were talking. My arm got splashed by something and in my tiredness and impatience with them keeping me awake, I snapped at them to go to bed. And they finally did settle down and go to sleep a few minutes later. We were woken at 7am for breakfast. I missed out on 1 of 2 day that I gave myself in Vienna because I was napping at the hostel. Now I have to go to bed so that I don't miss out on tomorrow too.

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