It’s hard to understand the emotions during big life changes even if they are somewhat temporary. Yesterday I was in a kind of uncomfortable funk, even though I could not say it was a bad day. Yes, many little things went wrong, but then many good things went right dealing with those things. Today pretty much went right at least up to this 4pm writing.
After some financial work in the morning I took the tram into town with my February U-Abo pass (now I feel like a local) and met Sarah, Silvian, and Akane and her friend for lunch. We ate at an Indian pizza place and had among us Italian pizza, Greek salad, and mango lassi. I thought America was cosmopolitan! It was a nice time and afterward Sarah spent some time helping me make sure I had all those technical details worked out and showed me how to take care of a few. She was so helpful and sweet and offered to do anything to help me settle in. It made me feel so welcome and at peace! She even said she would teach me harp and help me buy one! Maybe it’s time to call the National Bank of Dad up . . .
Indian pizza place
Sarah, Akane, Silvian, and Akane's friend
I stopped by the Schola sekriteriat and had a guest ID made. This will let me use the library, get into concerts, and do generally what other students can do. Oh cool is that? I had to go to the library to get a bar code and I walked in the wrong entrance! The librarian was very nice about it and explained the system to me in great English. I must say I ran into some very friendly, helpful Swiss today (not that I can assume everyone working at the Schola is Swiss, but chances are I met some at least).
I then stopped by inlingua to give them my passport size photos which I finally got after 18 Francs and headaches (Sarah helped me fix that problem too). My inlingua ID will be ready tomorrow, but my Schola ID is cooler and it will probably get me into more places. I’ve yet to see what student discounts I qualify for.
With all these official papers getting to my brain I decided to stop by the train station and looking into the Halbtax. After discussing options with a very friendly Swiss lady who also had great English I decided to buy. Almost unconsciously I asked if they took credit cards in German and she responded in kind. We then led much of the transaction in German until she said something I couldn’t understand. How sweet! I also saw the first sign that someone was pleased I was trying to speak something close to her language. Now with my Halbtax I can travel anywhere in Switzerland for half price (trains, busses, ships) and 25% off in Germany and Austria. I hope to pay off the 150 CHF soon with lots of interesting weekend trips.
As if that weren’t enough of official stuff I normally don’t like to do, I stopped by the information office to get specific information about the English walking tours of Basel. They have an acted walking tour in German that I’d love to go to when my German is a bit better! I think I failed to mention that the day I flew to Switzerland I got an email from Inlingua saying they’d pushed my course back a week. Thus I haven’t had class this week and will start Monday. That’s turned out to be quite nice since I’ve been able to deal with all kinds of other details and still sleep! Maybe I did mention it . . . I trust the brain comes back after a week or two of immersion in a new situation.
Love you all!
