Expat's View From Paradise

Interlaken
Originally uploaded by thnkfst

I’ve been tagged again by Renny and of course flattered. I have returned the tagging favor since it supports the theme of this blog about Switzerland and photography and my expat life.

I couldn't figure out how to do a snap shot view on my Mac (It's just different to save.), so I figured a photo of my
‘My Desk Top Free View’ was the next best thing.

So here I have grab captured my desktop and I would say it fits the theme quite well.

I took this photo while on Vacation in Switzerland in August 2005. The photo is overlooking the entire Interlaken area and lake below. That tiny spot is a gigantic bee flying straight in front of us.

We had been hiking all morning long and were so happy to have been dragged along to experience such culture, views and knowledge from a local friend who lives in the area.

Talk about Paradise - and so yes that is my Desk Top View too..

If anyone would like to share what their desktop view is, please feel free to let me know you have participated in the comments.

Expat Meme

Here’s a meme I stole from Canadian-Swiss because I liked it and I'm having a rough week already with this time change, early morning workouts and the job search...

5) Name five things you love in your new country:
· Polite and Friendliness of people
· The beauty around me
· The closeness of everything to where I live
· Having the mountains and ocean and views out my front door
· Quality of health care and skiing close by

4) Name four things that you miss from your native country:
· My family and friends
· Food: cheap restaurants with more varieties of foods
· Cheaper clothing
· Cheaper taxes

3) Name three things that annoy you a bit (or much) in your new country:
· Canadians can be very unreliable or unable to set a time to meet up.
· High taxes in BC and how long it takes to immigrate here!
· Expensive gas which doesn't correlate to other areas of Canada

2)Name two things that surprise you (or have surprised you in the beginning) in your new country:
· The sayings Canadians have - You do this and "Bob's your uncle".. What? Bob's not my uncle.
· Lack of reliability with people. Really it's not that much different than the US but I guess it's also funny that people down in the states think Canada is not modern at all....

1) Name one thing that you would terribly miss in your new country, if you had to leave it.
· Closeness of ocean and mountains and greenery.

Really for me, since I'm still on the West Coast living in Vancouver isn't much different than when I grew up. Yes people are more polite but actually I enjoyed living in Switzerland much more than here. It's just me and my experiences I guess that I miss the most. I think this would have been more interesting if I spoke about Switzerland though!