Arrival in Lausanne

I arrived in our new, temporary home of Lausanne on Monday, June 22. Of course I missed one of my connecting flights and my baggage was lost (thankfully delivered two days later). Below are some pictures of the center of Lausanne. I do not actually begin working until July 1st, so this time period I am using to find an apartment, do all of the other moving stuff, and get to know the city. I will be sure to get some better pictures of the waterfront, which is where my hotel is, since this is the single greatest feature of the city. I am waiting for the clouds to clear over the mountains on the other side.

When we were comparing the cities of Geneva and Lausanne to determine where to live, the factors in favor of Lausanne were:

Lower cost of living
Easier to find an apartment
Swiss guide books all said it more lively and a better city to visit
Geographic location on the lake provides better views

All of these have proven true. However, what we failed to account for is the fact that Lausanne is 100% French speaking. Geneva is the headquarters of several large and well known international organizations and most of the people in the city can switch to English with relative ease. However, Lausanne is completely French, to the point that some of the hotel front desk, waiters, train station employees (and McDonalds`s employees), can`t even understand me. I suppose this is a good thing, in a way. Complete immersion. I will have to learn enough to function.

I was told to prepare for sticker shock. In looking for an apartment, the prices are higher, but they aren`t outrageous to me. However, the restaurant prices are. $15 for a Big Mac meal? McDonald`s is the cheapest place to eat in town. I gave in an went to McDonald`s because I didn`t feel like paying CHF 30 for an individual pizza again. And a pizza is the cheapest thing on any restaurant menu. Thankfully the grocery stores are somewhat reasonable. I think we will save our money in this area and use it to travel more.

All in all, no complaints. In one week, I have noticed there are things they do here that I wonder why we don`t do back home. And then there are things that I don`t understand and think the US way is better. The city is absolutely everything that I think we wanted. It`s fairly large, but there isn`t anywhere that isn`t walkable. It is called the San Fransico of Europe because it is very hilly. Ashley doesn`t arrive until the beginning of August, but I`m sure she will love it, too. We definitely picked the best country to move to, and I think we picked the right city for us.

Probably the one that will be the biggest long term pain is that the apartments do not have a washer or dryer in each unit, or even room to hook up your own. In the basement of each apartment is one washer and one dryer (every aparment is required to have a large basement to use as a bomb shelter; it goes back to that whole self-defense thing). Even though they have enough space to put in 10 washers and 10 dryers, they only put in ONE of each. Each tenet gets exclusive use of the machines one 1 day a week and cannot use it on any other day. That`s in a good building. Some of the apartments is once in 15 days! Since I go running on at least an every other day basis, I will be re-using my runnig shorts. I think my laundry basket will shortly assume permanent position on the balcony.

Old Town Lausanne: