I'm Gary, and I've applied for a job at ETH-Zurich and am hungrily devouring as much information as I can about living/working in Zurich so I can make an educated decision if I get an offer.

I'm on the Expats-in-Zurich and Families-in-Zurich Yahoo lists, and while they've been good so far (a bit much traffic at this point) I'd like to get more perspectives on what CH is really like.

After spending a few weeks reading, and reading, and reading some more (I've read through most of Hampshire's book and have a few more coming) I've decided that with my family (wife and 3 small children) relocating to Zurich isn't very likely, because the typical salary ranges at ETHZ are nowhere near what it would take for me to support my family. I've been to homegate.ch many times, even online shopped at Migros, and I must say that CH is one incredibly expensive place to try to live. We're doing fine on my US salary (house, two cars, savings, etc., etc.) so "starting over" in CH isn't as appealing as it was a few weeks ago.

Anyway, since I don't know what the real salary would be (even assuming I get an offer), I'm guessing that there's about a 1 in 5 chance we'd "go for it" and relocate. Still, the more I can learn, the better.

I'm glad to be here and get the real scoop!