Tag: switzerland
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Hygge: How Danes beat the winter blues
Winter isn’t my favorite season. I may ski, drink vin chaud and wear the heck out of a shearling jacket, but I’m a California girl at heart. Since moving to Switzerland I’ve tried to change my perspective, because winter is truly something to behold here. Writing this article last year helped me look forward to the…
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Would you try an app to find friends?
It should come as no surprise that the hardest part of being an expat is living far away from friends and family–even in the age of FaceTime, WhatsApp and email. You can invest a lot of time in keeping in touch with your stateside group, but eventually you will crave some real face time. And about…
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Jet lag cure: It has little to do with zzzs
I’ve been back in the Swiss time zone for one week and only this morning was I able to drag myself out of bed before 9 am. I know that moving across time zones can be brutal on the body’s circadian rhythms, but I’ve never had an issue with jet lag before. I tried to…
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Miss me? This week I am…
…decorating my stark apartment. The inspiration. …reading this book. …pouring over these sweet watercolors from this up-and-coming artist. …planning a trip. …shocked over this love story gone wrong. Let it be a lesson to all journalists. …touching all the things. …picking up French lessons again. Twelve bizarre phrases en français.
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This week I am…
…dreaming of Swiss ski chalets. …being irresistible. …watching Home Alone! How the booby-trapped home was filmed. …preparing for holiday travel. …and learning to sleep on a plane (I’m terrible at it!). …reading up on the real American Thanksgiving. …drinking wine–apparently these are the new wine rules.
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Apartment hunting in Switzerland
You may have noticed over the past two months how many times I’ve mentioned that we are looking for a new apartment in Geneva…and yet, those few mentions are just the tip of the iceberg. It has been an all-consuming, ongoing, exhaustive process that has challenged me on so many levels. Linguistically, physically and emotionally.…
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On Swiss life
As we near one year of living in Switzerland and one year on our apartment lease, I’ve been looking for a new (more affordable) apartment in Geneva. The job is tedious and all-consuming. Long French phone calls. Stacks of paperwork. Back-to-back meetings. Fees. Dead ends. And then I came across this story. A 22-year-old New Zealand…
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Happy Swiss National Day
This Saturday is Switzerland’s National Holiday, so I’ve rounded up my favorite photos from the past ten months of living in this beautiful country. (Spoiler: Switzerland looks good from every angle.) I may only have a visa, but I’m a proud Swiss resident and feel fortunate to experience what makes this part of the world…
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Travel wanderlust: Where do you dream of going?
Here in Switzerland we’re still experiencing a sticky, triple-digit, AC-free heat wave that can only be cured by daily dips in glacial Lake Geneva. When I visualized my life in the Alps it did not include as much time spent on a beach towel slathering on sunscreen, but more of a Sound of Music compilation video. Which…
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Wine tasting in Switzerland: Caves Ouvertes
About two months ago we tried to go wine tasting down the road from where we live–in the gorgeous vineyard towns of Dardagny, Satigny and Russin. But as we knocked on doors of cellars and peeked in windows of shops, we found no one home. Finally, we found someone working at one of the vineyards…
Paige Langton 