A champagne glass with my name on it

Sunday morning. Almost a week has passed since my last post. Only a week, but it already feels like a lot longer.
The week started with my first day at work with Baumschlager-Eberle. I was immediately taken in well by my colleagues. They all greeted me with big smiles and hellos and welcomes. My spot was ready, my computer completely set for my user, my name is on the website (Baumschlager-Eberle), and the funniest thing is that there was a champagne glass ready on my desk, with my name on it. I kid you not. Imagine someone would dare steal my prosecco! Soon I'd learn that prosecco-moments aren't rare in the office ... But work first, of course.
The main thing I have been doing this week is just learning the drawing program and the structure in the office etc. This interspersed with a lot of laughter with my colleagues - and you all know, I love laughing :-) - so I had a pretty good start. The biggest change though, is getting up again every morning at a set hour, getting ready, driving to work (which I have never even done before, so that is completely new!) and staying put for a few hours at a time. It's been a long time since there was so much structure in my life. I am very tired every night, so I think my body has to adapt to the new rhythm as well :-).

Apart from work, there was my guest post on Hopscotch The Globe which I felt so proud about - and still do. (for those who missed it, here is the link once more (it doesn't hurt to boast about my own writings a bit, does it? :-) http://hopscotchtheglobe.com/2012/01/16/guest-post-new-zealand-the-land-of-the-long-white-cloud/). I want to get my writing more out there, so this is a great step forward. I was also proud to see that people have been twittering about me - I don't even twitter myself and I am still out there! Social media are amazing, I am astonished by it time after time.

My 15 minutes of fame on the world wide web

I also got to meet a few people already in Chur. Last week, I went out with my roommate Claudia, to her own goodbye party - Claudia has accepted a job in Luzern and will only be in Chur during the weekends. That is a shame, because we are actually having a lot of fun together!
Anyway, I went out with her so got to know some of her friends. They are all girls, and all architects, so it is a good bunch of like-minded chicas. This week we did the same: drinks and chats and laughter in a place called Werkstatt in the old city of Chur. Everybody is in the same position here. We are almost all from different countries like Italy, Portugal, Germany, and very rarely from Switzerland. We all arrived in Chur to work and live, so now we are all seeking each other's company. Works fine for me!
This weekend I was supposed to go snowboarding, but the weather forecast was too bad - it has been snowing badly all weekend - I actually mean 'good', snow is good! - but I prefer it to snow badly now, and me going up on a sunny day AFTER the snowfall :-). Win-win situation!
Not going snowboarding doesn't mean there is nothing to do though. Close by my apartment there is the Obere Au, which is a big swimming pool with outside pool and gym and so on, so that might become my Sunday spot - I did it last week and will do it later today, so I've started off well. Somewhere this week I might also go bouldering with a few of the girls, and there appears to be a nice running track not far from the apartment, along the river.
As I said - Sunday, a week has passed - but it already feels like a lot longer!