Settling in...

We’ve lived in Zurich for about 11 days now and it’s already been quite the adventure.  Like Lindsey mentioned in our last blog post, we’ve experienced quite a bit of culture shock!  Probably what stands out most for me, besides how expensive everything is (ouch!), is how friendly and welcoming people have been. 

My first week of work went really well.  It was interesting going through a two-day orientation for a company I have worked at for the better part of the last 3-4 years.   Despite most of the material being nothing new to me, it was still a lot of fun to get to know all the other new-joiners from around the world. 

There were about 30 people in total starting with the firm at the same time as I was.  The majority of which were Swiss college or university graduates starting their first job with PwC.  The remainder of the group was made up of experienced hires, such as myself, from around the globe.  I met individuals from as far away as China, New Zealand, and Kazakhstan, as well as many from countries and areas much closer by, such as France, Germany and the Netherlands.  Thankfully, orientation, and all official work at PwC Switzerland, is conducted in English, so I had no problem getting along.  The real challenge comes with communicating and working with people from many different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.  For example, you might have a Swiss working on a project with someone from China, but to overcome the language barrier they must speak in only English – neither’s native tongue. 

In general, most people here have no problem speaking in English once they realize you’re struggling to put together a simple phrase or question in German.  In fact, I’m pretty sure many of the people here speak better English (as a second language) than many American’s I’ve met back home.  Sad truth.

It is a humbling experience to walk into a meeting with ten or so other people speaking German (or Swiss German), only to have them immediately and effortlessly switch over to English for my benefit.  It’s almost embarrassing to admit to only speaking the one language!

By the end of the week I had already bonded with a number of my new colleagues over lunches and the ever-popular coffee breaks (it’s important to note that “coffee” here usually means enjoying a fine espresso, cappuccino, macchiato, or latte of some kind.  The Swiss take their coffee here quite seriously – thank goodness!).  On Saturday Lindsey and I were even invited over for dinner at one of my new Swiss colleague’s home.  We enjoyed wine, fondue, and probably some of the best fruit salad I’ve ever had (fruit salad is a traditional after-dinner dessert served by the Swiss, but includes a more exotic variety of fruits that you might not find in your typical American fruit salad).  After several hours of good food and good conversation Lindsey and I headed home pleased with the fact that we’ve already managed to make some new friends here in Zurich!

Coming up over the next week or two, Lindsey and I are planning to spend more time exploring the city doing “touristy” stuff like visiting museums, going to the Zurich zoo, and hopefully seeing some more of the night life.  Since we’ve been here it has rained almost constantly, so it’s been hard to go out and do much besides look for apartments.  Additionally, we’re hoping to embark on our first ski/snowboarding adventure to the Alps next weekend!  We’ll definitely have some pictures from that posted up to our Facebook or Shutterfly account afterwards (http://theswisskeys.shutterfly.com/).  Hopefully by our next blog post we’ll have some more information on our adventures here as well as on our search for a more permanent apartment, or “flat” as they call it here.  Stay tuned!

Culture Shock

Justin and I have really enjoyed being here so far. They set us up in a temporary fully-furnished apartment that is quite possibly the tiniest studio ever. Thank goodness for the word “temporary”. We can’t complain too much though. It is clean, simple, newly renovated, has a balcony, and really has a cozy feel about it. We have unpacked all of our suitcases and eagerly are awaiting the arrival of our shipment of stuff from the U.S. It is presently somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean making its way here. We have begun the search for apartments and would like to be moving by February 1^st, but we are trying not to rush too much. The rent is about 3 times more expensive that we are used to, so we want to make the right choice.

The stressors aside, we have made sure to explore every day. We have gone to see Lake Zurich on multiple occasions, checked out the night life, celebrated New Year’s Eve at the firework show, shopped for groceries (a real adventure), gone for a run around the city, taken the tram around town, ate at a few restaurants, and just walked around to admire the beautiful architecture. Every time we go out we have a great time learning new things. One thing we KNOW is that we are not in America anymore. Here’s how we know:

Trash is only picked up if it is in special bags that are taxed.

You have to pay a TV/Radio Tax. This sucks because we only get one channel in English. CNN. Everything else is dubbed in German.

When you toast to anything you should look people in the eye when you clink glasses. They take offense to it if you don’t.

Ovens are in Celsius… not Fahrenheit. I found that out the hard way when I was mad the oven only went to 250 degrees. Let’s just say I burnt the potatoes.

Measuring is all metric. We knew this, but it takes some getting used to. No more miles, yards, teaspoons, cups, inches, or feet.

Swiss German is not a written language and is a mix of German, French, and some English.

Everything is closed on Sunday. Everything.

Most stores close around 6pm during the week.

Most places recommend you do not do laundry or take out the trash on Sundays. It is a disturbance.

They have massive recycle bins everywhere.

The water fountains constantly stream so you don’t have to touch anything when you want to have a sip.

There are special buttons on the toilet. The large one should be used to flush #2 and the small one should be used to flush #1. This saves water if you only need to do #1.

Evidently, you can drink the water from Lake Zurich.

Everything is outrageously expensive, even compared to Northern Virginia.

They charge for plastic bags at the grocery store (we accidently stole some… already criminals)

The tram (subway) is above ground and the cars drive along the same path (example: you could be driving and suddenly a huge tram is tailing you) .

The roads go in a million different directions changing constantly. Justin and I can’t find a rhyme or reason to it all.

People actually wait for the “Walk” signs to cross the street, even if no cars are coming. Very pedestrian- friendly.

Movies at the movie theatre are in English with German subtitles.

Swiss German is not a written language.

There are a lot of smokers and yet, they seem WAY healthier than the average American.

I have seen one overweight person since I’ve been here.

The tub in our apartment sits about 3 feet off the ground. Glad we are tall and young.

They are weary of foreigners and like to get to know you before trusting you.

Everybody speaks English. Justin and I will spend a few minutes trying to speak German and then finally give up and try English only to find that they speak perfect English every time.

Military time is fun to get used to. It’s weird to look at the clock and see 0:45 or 23:30.

Cars do drive on the right side of the road here. Phew! One less thing to get used to.

Church bells are SO loud and wake us up in the morning.

It’s no fun buying adapters for everything you want to plug in. Especially when they cost about 20 bucks a piece. We’ve already bought 4 and we need more.

It is ridiculously clean here. We went out to watch fireworks on New Year’s Eve and people had trashed the streets with bottles, confetti, etc. By morning it was perfect again.

They like for people to hang up their jackets in a closet when you go to restaurants. Women even leave their purses hanging. That is how safe it is here.

There is no Wal-mart or Target. Everything you need you have to find at specific stores.

The pillows are awful! They are twice the size, but have half the stuffing. It’s like having a 3 foot by 3 foot blanket. Thank goodness we had some nice ones shipped. Can’t wait until they get here.

No streaming video allowed in Zurich. That means no Hulu, NetFlix, HBO Go, etc. Lame.

No central air ever. They don’t use it for environmental reasons… which I understand, but I’m sure that will make summer fun.

Cheese: delicious. Chocolate: delicious. Bread: delicious.

Well, these are just a few of the things we have noticed since we’ve been here. Hope you all find it as interesting as we did. Love ya!

-Linds