0 - Prelude

 Friday, February 21 2025

It's been a ways in the making but it appears it's actually happening: I'm headed to Switzerland for 2 months for work!  The idea had first been floated years ago but started to be kicked about more seriously last year.  The approval and budgeting process took a fair amount of time but I've got a work permit good through mid-April and a Schengen visa burning a hole in my passport.  But for all the planning and coordination that's happened, the actual time-frame of this start is kinda laughable: the visa arrived on Tuesday and I booked a flight for Friday 😆 Such is life.

A piece of art at the Swiss consulate titled "An American Tourist" 😂

I've visited Geneva for work before, for like 2 days in 2017 and a week in 2019, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with the place.  Still, the idea of going for long enough to overcome jetlag has me forming more ambitious plans than prior visits.

Honestly, this long work-trip feels like I'm coming back to an exercise I took a long break from.  I was galivanting around France for most of the first half of 2024 and I'd like to think I got pretty good at managing the wanderer's life, but since then I've been keeping busy with life at home.  So, I feel as if I'm using a muscle group that was once strong but is now rusty.  I'm not worried, I know I'll have a blast this trip: I speak one of the languages much better than last year's trip start, I will be working with a team of people I've socialized with before, and this project shouldn't be as demanding nor open-ended as the one in France.  

I'll be staying in Geneva, where my company has a similar site to my own.  Well, similar in that it's the same kind of industry but it'll be a whole different ball game compared to home.  Same with the cuisine and weekend activities... Anyhow, I invite you to follow along in this Study of Neutrality, there'll be plenty of cheese and chocolate to share.

Je suis arrivé / Ich bin hier!


For some reason, Switzerland's reputation as a neutral country has fallen to the back of my mind, but what is it that makes a place neutral?



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