First of all, I'm no expat, I'm a born Swiss. But since I'm an open person and always interested to broaden my world, I would love to get in touch with some of you.

I'm 32, female and have lots of interest. I also lived and worked abroad for almost a year, but that experience wasn't the best of my life - let's put it this way. I like to be with friends, going out (cinema, bar, concert, musical), eating out (I especially love the Italian, Asian and Mexican kitchen), listening to music, reading, travelling, cooking, having a barbeque, skiing and lots of other fun things.

Well, I don't know if any of you might be interested in getting in touch with me or maybe prefer to stay among you expats. However, I hope to make some new, interesting contacts here.

Hi Samira

welcome to the Forum, don't worry about being Swiss, there's quite a few already here and we all get along just fine ..... Whereabouts did you live abroad?

Thanks for welcoming me! I'm interested in other people and countries and very much in the English language. So I guess, I'm right here.

I lived in Belgium in 2006/2007. I never felt at home there. Not sure if it was because of the country itself or if I can't live abroad... My relationship (the reason I went to Belgium) broke under these adapting problems (but there were other difficulities too).

Hi Samira

I also live in Kanton Solothurn. Like Grumpygrapefruit says, there are also other Swiss members here and it's always useful to get their perspective on things as well.

If you want to meet up with any forum members then I suggest you click on the "calendar" link at the top of this page and you'll see which events are coming up.

There's also a British breakfast coming up soon in Aarau. You can find details of it here

Welcome aboard

Thanks, Flashman! You live quite close to me. I live in Trimbach. Where are you from or are you a native?

I'm originally from the UK but have hardly lived there. I've been in Switzerland since 1995 and I love it here

I often flit to and through Olten. Technically I live in Fulenbach, though I work in Zurich during the week.

How long have you been in Switzerland? Have you made many Swiss friends?

I arrived June 2006 from NZ. All of the people I have regular contact with are Swiss or Austrian.

I'm very interested if you expats think it's easy or difficult to get in touch with Swiss people. How do you feel about integration?

Hi Samira, interesting question.
In my humble experience/opinion going on 9 yrs here: it's a mix. I socialise more with fellow expats and half swiss/half soemthing else-ers.

However Swiss contacts usually require more of a Stamm-something/regular contact like hikingbuddies, work buddies etc. I guess maybe I go out more as an expat whereas if I lived in my town in Ireland I'd have more family social opportunities like local Swiss.

Finally of course there's the romantic route which is probably the most successful "integration" route.

I think magyir's right.
My father's swiss and I live with my relatives who don't speak any english. When I arrived I received an intensive crash-course on being swiss. If I wouldn't have had any conatacts in Switzerland I would have had a much harder time.

My experience with Swiss (particularly Zurich) people is that you need to have some common ground or ties to get to know them, else you might get ignored. Of course, it's not true for everyone, and people tend to be closed-minded in big cities.

Thanks for your thoughts. The romantic route might work out, but it did not for me. Integration was very hard when I was in Belgium. I worked full-time and had an hour to and from work. Besides I went to a language course in Dutch on two evenings a week. Beside all this, there was almost no time to socialise. It was exhausting. What made everything even harder was the fact that my workplace was quite far away. In the end I broke down from homesickness... and the relationship broke with it.

I'm Swiss and even I have sometimes problems getting to know people. I agree with you: You need to have some common ground mostly. I'm not the most extrovert person in the world, but also not all closed-up and stuff and it's still quite hard to make new friends. It's a bit the Swiss mentality... with enough exceptions as well.

Well if you can announce yourself on a public forum you're doing okay in my book.

Sometimes I wish people here were a bit more open towards others. That's all.

Meh... it's no rose garden back home either. People will always be people, wherever you go.

Do a search on this forum Samira and you'll find lots of contrasting opinions regarding the openness (or lack of it) in making Swiss friends. I personally have found it extremely difficult.

If anyone is interested in meeting new people. Here I am!

How far do you live from Basel? I think you will be the first Swiss I will meet besides the one who work with me.