Autumnal Reflections

This weekend has been the first free weekend I've had in a while, giving me the chance to reflect on the past two months in Zurich. Autumn is well and truly under way in Zurich, turning the city which is usually so green in Summer, in to rather nice shades of gold and red.

The University of Zurich seen from Rämistrasse.

University is going well and I still find I have quite a bit of free time after taking into consideration all the reading that has to be done. Coursework has begun to be handed out now that the semester has entered its second half. Essay writing in German takes some getting used to, although luckily the assignments are usually quite short. Russian is also going surprisingly well, despite the rather extreme pace. Learning Russian at university is not normally possible in Aberdeen, so I'll have to keep my notes when I return. Of course, a holiday.. ahem – I mean an 'educational' trip to Russia at some point is a must!

After two months in Switzerland I'm finding myself getting used to various things and developing Swiss habits. For example I have probably eaten more Swiss cheese and chocolate than I would've ever imagined. Well, who can blame me when they taste so good?

Swiss Francs look pretty cool, but they take some getting used to.

One thing I haven't yet got used to is using Swiss Francs. The notes are pretty cool but differentiating the coins from one another is quite a challenge. They're all round and silver (except the coins of less than 10 Rappen – or cents) which when compared to Sterling is striking, as British coins are all of various shapes, sizes and colours. Euros too have a little more variety. For example the ½ Frank coin is the same size as the 10 Rappen coin, and smaller than the 20 Rappen coin – which is of course worth less. Coins are often considered as small change and are quite undesirable as they take up a lot of wallet space. Therefore I found it strange that there should be a 5 Franc coin, which is a rather unwieldy chunk of metal. Although when reflecting upon Swiss prices, perhaps the 5 Franc coin is right to be considered as Kleingeld...