Not going home to Zurich


After over a month of sleeping in my own bed (for a change), it was time to move around a little bit. So last week I hopped on a train and headed back to Zurich for a quick visit.

It’s always strange to go back to a former home city for the first time. It’s like talking to a former boyfriend you haven’t seen since the break-up. There’s so much familiarity, but you know your relationship as you knew it was over. You’re not sure how it will play out from here. Shut up, I never said I was good at metaphors.

Zurich is more familiar than Munich, but I don’t live there any more. I’m also not Swiss, and I’m not from Zurich, so what is our relationship? Do we mean anything at all to each other now? Am I just a tourist when I go there now?

Despite my best efforts to temporarily un-degrüezi-fy my vocabulary, I seemed to be tossing around “Gruβ Gott!” left and right. I’m tempted to drop all regional greetings from my vocabulary entirely and reverting to the textbook “Guten Tag” no matter where I am…

Naturally I fit in a trip to Sprüngli to pick up some Valentine’s Day truffles for my husband (hey, I’m a good wife), but the highlight of the trip was definitely seeing my Zurich-based friends. I miss them!

4 thoughts on “Not going home to Zurich”

  1. Oh wow, I hadn’t really registered that you were moving to Germany. Hope you’re settling in just fine.

    Servus goes down well in the south, but never say moin moin or the Bavarians will call you a Saupreuss. 🙂

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