Settled in now

Date: Jan 20 1990

I found hamburg relish !!!! Switzerland has hamburger relish! I'm so happy...

Life is pretty good. I'm not sleeping on Mike Monagans floor now. And after he returned from New Zealand and I was out on the street, I managed to find a place to stay. For those that know anything about Switzerland, you'll know that's a miracle. It was a combination of incredible luck, my boss's German, working for ETH and our Attack Secretary who knows everybody and can do anything. Of course the hotels are full. So at the moment I'm in a nice large room on the top (5th) floor in a old house (a mansion in North American terms) and share a bathroom and kitchen with four others on my floor. All American I think. I have only met two.

You're thinking, 'A lousy scummy room and have to share conveniences!?' Well, after 2 weeks here, I've started thinking Swiss, and I was ecstatic when I got the room. And I love it. It's the Landlady's son's room. He's in America for a half year or so. I think normally she wouldn't rent it out but saying you work for ETH around here is like being the right hand man of God. So my new address which should be good till around summer is :

It's 83 stairs up to my room and it has a huge balcony that overlooks the city. It's about 200 feet from my work. Its within spitting distance of the University. Literally. Its only 550 francs. I'm willing to spend around 1,800 francs for a real apartment ($1,330 CDN)

Many people smoke here. I'm making a huge mountain of money. There is no tax on anything except wages which I think is around 15%. I haven't got my first pay check yet. There is no tipping. Except maybe cabs and stuff. The transportation system here is amazing and I don't want a car. The Federal government has given a card that gives me half price train fare anywhere in Switzerland, since I work for ETH.

I haven't done any tourist stuff yet. I've been surviving up till now. And cursing ean mail which I hear my predecessor did alot too. There are neat people here. And some stupid rules - like my userid has to be 'white' instead of 'rjwhite'. However, rjwhite@inf.ethz.ch will still work. I think I've successfully escaped ean mail as my User Agent now and I'm back to Berkeley mail. yipee. Sendmail here hands stuff to ean and stuff coming from the outside world comes from ean. blech...