Me at Buerkliplatz :) at Easter

Welcome Zurich

I now live in Zurich. Sounds strange, as I normally spend the weekends here and now I live here permanently. Temporarly at my boyfriend's place, which feels still strange or just like a weekend stay. I just unpacked a few things, some clothes and cosmetics; I don't feel like unpacking everything, making myself comfortable and then having to pack soon again, when I found my own place to live in Zurich.

I commute now to Bern everyday until the end of June. So 2 hours on the train per hour. Also a bit weird, in Austria I would never do that. The longest I commuted there was 30min one way.

So.. welcome Zurich! Now you have me, totally! And I just feel so happy everytime I see the Grossmünster and the view from the tram over the river assuming the lake a bit further away.


View over Zurich

Moved out!

Finally we moved out of the flat in Bern. It took us two days to move the furniture and clean the whole flat. Thanks to all the helpers! Without you we would not have managed to carry and move the furniture. I never cleaned that much in my life. And actually it is disgusting how much dust and dirt can aggregate in a flat you live in and clean more or less regularly.
My muscles where sore afterwards from running up and down the stairs from the third floor and carring boxes.

However, if also feels good afterwards. You feel you done something!

Mission accomplieshed - flat clean :)

Italy in Bern

Eating at Altes Tramdepot on the Terasse... with skirt, no-sleve shirt and shoes without socs... having an amazing view on Bern, the old town and the Münster.

Walking back to the city center, people everywhere, outside, nice noises of the chatting crowed.. a mild summer brise... some palm trees.

Sitting down in sunbathing chairs outside at 10pm and enjoying the atmosphere around me with a glass of refreshing ice tea.

Kids running through the water fountaines at Bundesplatz to get some refreshment.

Just like Italy... but in the middle of Bern.

inefficiency.routine.anticipation.restrictions.boredom

inefficiency -

[something that does not accomplish an intended purpose; incompetency; incapability]


well another inefficient day.. but hey I was efficient in booking youth hostels, calling to spain to arrange an apartment, comparing car prices.. but just not with the work I am supposed to do.

Although my to do list gets shorter and shorter and a lot is all

routine -

[an unvarying or habitual method of procedure
occurring at fixed times or predictable intervals; "made her routine trip to the store" ]

But the work just does not appeal to me at the momen to be done... too many new challenges are waiting out there for me - my new work place, visiting flats tomorrow, my holidays and trip to Spain, moving flat to Zurich on the weekend, weddings coming up (well not mine)

anticipation -

[The act of anticipating. An expectation. Foreknowledge, intuition, and presentiment.]

The old chapter needs to close to open the new one. For me this can rather be today then tomorrow. However, sometimes you cannot decide yourself. There are some external

(re·stric·tion) (re-strik¢sh[schwa]n) -

[anything that limits; also, a limitation]

"Good-bye. I am leaving because I am bored."
George Saunders, last words

hopefully not mine

what to do with those pigeons?

In the MC office my desk is just in front of the windows to the balcony and in the last days there where always two pigeons sitting there, looking around and finally bringing some tree branches here.
Well we found out, they built a nest, a nest in a big empty flower pot... I kind of did not dare to destroy it because they birds put so much effort into building it..

Today there was always one bird sitting in the pot, I had a look and voila there is an egg now...

So we have to think do we want to keep the pigeons or should the new MC team decide ;)

If you have any thoughts on it.. we could not decide by now...

;)

Spain I soon be yours :)

Today I booked my flight to Spain! My holiday is becoming more real. Me and my twin sister are renting a car and driving through Andalusia for 12 days, then my younger sisters comes and we spent a week on the beach at the Costa Sur...

As this as a package is nothing an Austrian travel agency can offer - no flights apparently left (well we found cheap ones with airberlin and still tons of places left...), no brochures about youth hostels in Spain - ok we look on the web, and not a single catalogue about apartments or hotels at the Costa Sur... well on the Internet there are a lot available...
so.. we just book everything ourselves.. the flight, the car, the youth hostels and the apartment..

cool 3 weeks of Sun, a bit of culture and sightseeing and the beach :)

24th July - 12th August..

Looking forward too it, especially if I look at the rain coming down at 7 degrees in Bern :)

there it was... my dream flat

Today I have visited it... my dream flat in Zurich. It was 2pm, Fabian drove me over... and I ended up standing in front of a kind of old really beautiful house freshly renovated, rang the bell and entered it.. the flat I always dreamt of living in... two rooms, high rooms, white, light, totally modern, nice nearly a bit posh bathroom with a nice bath tube and a modern in-built kitchen and a big living room. It is in district close to the lake and to the Botanische Garden and Hegibachplatz. Not on the main street so no trams passing by, but still tram just a short walk away and shops etc all in a nice distance and I guess in 15min walk you are at the lake or 10 min tram...

The best thing as well, it has a terrasse a romantic one, kind of a pergula where at one part some plants grow over it. I applied on the spot for that flat...well such as the 25 people visiting the flat before me ;)

The application questionnaire was the stortest one I have seen so far.. no questions about what you earn etc. Just your name, birthdate, profession and contact details and a signature.. and well you add your Betreibungsauszug as usual...

I guess in total about 50 people will apply for that flat and I have no clue what the guy or girl who has to decide bases his/her decision on...

Decision should be due next week...

The chance is really small.. but there is still a chance .. let's keep fingers crossed

what a day

I am not a lot of times in a bad mood.. but today is one of this days.. nothing tramatic happened, nothing I could not solve somehow... but it I am still very annoyed by everyting and everybody today...

I did not sleep well... sometimes if I am alone in a flat I really have nearly panical fear that someone breaks in the flat, and last night this was the case.. I was terribly afraid, locked me in the bed room and thought by every move and noise of the neighbours that somebody wants to get into the flat.. so did not contribute to a calm sleep..

so I felt shitty this morning... then the office is still soooo dirty and I just don't want to start cleaning, as I cleaned all of it alone before Kick Off and I don't feel like cleaning all alone again.... Hassle about showing people the flat we move out...
and just generally work annoys me a lot today, so many things I have done already so many times... does not really excite me a lot anymore...

but the good thing sooon the weekend is here.. tomorrow I can go to Geneva and out of office is always nice :)

Hope my salsa class in the evening rises a bit my mood level and the late evening shopping afterwards ;)

on the move again

in 2 weeks time I am moving flat again... moving from Bern to Zurich, as we terminate our shared flat as I am moving to Zurich and my flatmates move together to a new flat, this time with a living room for all.

In the last 3 years I moved a lot and never really stayed at one place more than 11 - 12 months... it all started when I moved to Dublin.. back to Austria then... after 10 months then to Geneva for my internship, back to Austria after 3 months and away from my parents place to a shared flat in Innsbruck to be closer to the uni while written my theses... after 8 months then top Bern and now again to Zurich...

so you can say I am quite used to it ;)

for the moment I will move to my boyfriend and will commute to Bern for 4 weeks, which is okay 58 minutes in the morning and another 58 minutes back... I think I have to buy some more books to read on the train then..

the strange thing is that I don't really move in but leave most stuff I guess unpacked as I am looking for my own flat in Zurich...
I visited two flats already.. one close to my boyfriend's place... nice flat but was missing the charme I am looking for... today I visited another, 1,5 room flat under the roof, also nice modern and it even had charme who it is laid out... but just 1 big room...
maybe I am spoiled, but my requirments for my first flat are quite high somehow.. the area should be nice, either around my boyfriends place or at the district around the lake... it has to be modern or Jugendstil, there has to be a lot of light and it has to have a balcony or a small garden...

and yup there are tons of people looking for flats in Zurich.. I just talked to another girl who was also visiting the flat and is searching now over a month already...

I really feel like that I want to furnish something.. well I have nearly no furniture myself... always lived in furnited rooms... and I really want to create a home for me...

being at my boyfriend's flat nice and furnished it seems so weird not wanting to move in as the flat is just perfect (except no balcony / garden)

and it makes me wonder and think again...

anyway next flats to be visited on Saturday afternoon ;)

a long journey has to start with the first step...

After months of thinking of opening a blog I finally managed to do so :) Before I start elaborating on the episodes of my life, what bothers me, makes me think and random thoughts I like to introduce a little bit myself.

My name is Gudrun and I am originally from Austria but at the moment living and working in Bern, Switzerland. I am 24 years old and I have a twin sister as well as younger sister. I grew up in Schwaz, which is a village in Tyrol Austria of about 12000 inhabitants. I did all my school years there and then started to study International Economics and Business in Innsbruck (capital of Tyrol). I was quite a grey mouse at the beginning of my studies and I always dreamt of getting a cool job, earning tons of money, driving a nice car and basically have my career... not so much having kids. To pre-empt, this view changed quite a lot .. ;)

In my third year of study I did my compulsory year abroad and spent one year in Dublin, Ireland which was one of the best years of my life and really opened my horizon and gave me the opportunity to discover myself more, learn to be on my own, start to think what I want and also enjoy a life with little obligations... Oh I had so much fun, road trips through Ireland, house parties, more parties and I developed myself further in so many ways! I became more self-confident, learned to accept myself more as I was and got more pro-active, curious and just more ME. I also joined AIESEC there (for people who don't know the organisation check out www.aiesec.org), it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

There were people who believed in me to put things into practice to drive things forward and back in Innsbruck I stayed with the organisation and finally became President of AIESEC in Innsbruck - another great year.
The summer there I spent in Geneva, doing an internship in the consumer goods industry working on hair color. I always dreamt of doing advertising for consumer goods... well the internship was great, I learnt tons of things but I realized that it will never give me the satisfaction I want to have from a job. Why? I don't see what I can change in the world or my community by selling more washing powder or spending money on advertising toilet paper ;)

So my perception of my future changed... I want to contribute to the society and make things happen and I am looking for a job, maybe not from the first one, where I have this opportunity - be it in the job or besides the job or that the job gives me the means to do so. I also want to be a mum, not now but also not too late ;)

I also have a boyfriend since over 2 year, we met at an international conference in Tunesia (yes nearly 30% of all AIESECers are coupled with each other..) and he is a jewel, I cannot imagine a better boyfriend...
After finishing my studies I moved to Switzerland as I took on a position on the national board of AIESEC in Switzerland and here I am... this is want I am doing since nearly 11 months... spuky isn't it... and soon it is over, as it is a one year position..

this year was just such an up and down and up and down, many frustrations, also highs and many things I learnt about myself, how I react etc.
I also took time to get rid of my quarter life crises... took time to reflect think about my life, my future and what I want to do next...

well the first things are 8 weeks off :) moving to Zurich and going to Spain on a holiday for three weeks.. travelling Andalusia and relaxing on the beach...
but then in Septembe a new episode starts... my first real job in a company... I start as a Analyst with Accenture and I am really really looking forward to it..

So that's me in a nutshell.. what is missing, well I like Jazz music, I like to go to the gym (I just need to go more often... neglected it a bit), I take Salsa classes, like to cook, Tai Bo, Chi Ball and I like water, long strolls around Zurich lake or Geneva lake or at the beach...

Soon more from me
Gudrun