Hi everyone,

I moved to Winterthur from Texas just under a month ago. My husband's company has offices both in Texas and in Switzerland, and when he got offered a year-long assignment, we jumped at the opportunity to experience living as an expat. There is a slim possibility that his assignment will end up being a bit longer.

I was really sad to have to leave our dogs behind (one is staying with my parents, and the other with a good friend), but we brought our four month old son instead.

I work the owners of three small chef companies, and the original plan was for me to continue to work for them via the internet. It was perfectly feasible, but at the last minute they changed their minds, leaving us short an income, and turning me into a stay-at-home-mom (something I thought might be ideal for my child, but has turned out to be far bigger a challenge than I could have dreamed of).

So, it has been a bit of an adjustment for me on several levels. New mom, not working for the first time, well, possibly ever, and first time living anywhere but the US.

For the past few weeks I've been keeping myself busy with my son, setting up house in our wee flat, learning where all the stores are in our area, trying to figure out how to cook without certain essentials that I'm used to, etc. Most weekends my husband and I have been out and about. But things are starting to settle down. I'm very desperate to learn German as soon as possible, but it is taking forever to get that set up. Using my high school French, I've been able to stumble through grocery shopping. I'm tired of fumbling through the dozen or so German phrases that I know, and feeling frustrated and embarrassed that I can't communicate.

I'm also a bit lonely. We've had a few dinners with some of my husband's coworkers. But I hope I can find some local groups to integrate with on my own soon. I'm not as outgoing as my husband is - he is far more bold than I am.

My husband's company is really great, but they've not really relocated an employee for this length of time before, so while they assisted with setting up our flat, and shipping some of our personal items, we still haven't had any language classes or cultural integration seminars or anything like that.

I'm hoping that these forums can help with accessing resources that I'm having trouble locating on my own and perhaps make a few friends as well.

Whew! I wrote way more than I intended!

Thanks everyone!

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

If you fancy having a train ride then you can come over to my place, we could go to the pool together, or i could arrange a few more friends to get together and we could all have coffee together, and have a talk and a laugh

Hi
Welcome to Switzerland and also this EF site.

One word of caution: switzerland's culture shock is as hard as one can get. Many things are different here, compared to back home in Texas.
Many a times, people have been challenged with the seemingly insane actions by the local people.

Remember one thing: we are guests in their country. We must always tolerate first, question later.

Best of luck with your new life here, and enjoy the baby while you can.

HAT

hi kooky
my heart goes out to you. to adapt to a child is difficult, doing it in a foreign country is really scary...sorry about the job, really irritating! especially because it would have been something to ground you here...
please read this thread on what other people do when more or less in your position Tips for Trailing Spouses
i have a 4 year old son and have been here since march, things are slowly normalising. and i'm enjoying myself. we're from south africa, i also grin every time i walk past the 'exotic' sweet potato section because we could buy it year round, i miss pumpkin the most, can't wait for october!
good luck...
sd

Welcome to the Forum.
Delighted that you took sandeleen's advice and found a soul-mate in meloncollie. It must help to know that your present feelings are not unusual and that even if the stony path of 'living in Switzerland' goes uphill at first, the stones do look smaller in time.
Can you get hold of a decent German/English phrase book? The modern ones have quite a range of useful things in, even if they are really intended for holiday-makers rather than residents. Don't be too embarrassed if you make mistakes. It happens to us all - and take comfort in the fact that the Swiss cannot understand each other either. It was a born and bred Swiss who asked for a carrier bag in Zürich and got a chicken!
You'll be able to make contacts through the Forum. You have certainly come to the right place.

hello,

I don't have any children but at the moment i am not working and i speak German so i would be happy to meet up and give you a hand with some German. Hoch deutsch though not swiss -sorry! People also have meet ups on various days so i guess keep a look out!

Now how's that for an offer of friendship. The lady is going to come over from Liverpool to meet up with you!
Janice - are you really in Liverpool or have you just not updated your profile?

Hee sorry I am in Zurich just have yet to update, In fact will do it now.