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!