Have any of you overcome any apparently insurmountable obstacles during your time as a foreigner in Switzerland?

If so, please feel free to share them with us. I'm sure we could all do with some inspiration!

After a apprenticeship in German bureaucracy, Danish laid back, Austrian boneheads and Mexican, oh what the heck, CH is a piece of cake.

Yes, folks, Dougal's Breakfast is the next Oprah. You heard it here first...

(oh well, better that than the next Jeremy Kyle, I suppose)


Well, I've learned to read and deal with my own mail in German. I remember the day when that seemed like a pretty insurmountable obstacle.

Do I get a car now?

Self-employment as a freelancer as a non-EU citizen? Yeah! It took a few months of phone calls and a few years of paperwork, but... Yeah!

No, none; so far, it's been remarkably smooth, even though I am a non-EU person. I'm happy to say that things work, and it's much easier being a working foreigner here than in some other corners of the globe.

Same for me, it has been an easy road. Not much of a language barrier, nor culture shock. I got the best health care ever and got rid of many unresolve health problems. Going around have been easy.

Maybe even too easy for what I was used to. I came from a country completely opposite in every single way of Switzerland and I guess this is what was the most difficult part for me, to ajust to an easier way of living. Really!

I gave birth here, wow, still pretty impressed about being able to give birth somewhere where I don't know pretty much anyone and where I don't speak the language. Moving from the end of the world into civilization. Getting child care, dealing with health system.

Finding an interesting job after 2 days of looking, and not speaking the lingo, and actually sticking around, even though it is really a difficult one. Getting more jobs. Publishing articles about local edu system and lecturing at conferences about this, yo, makes me feel like an expert though I am still far from one.

Finding cheap retailers, thrift stores, ways to save. Finding local friends. Contributing to the community. Supporting our family in multilingual efforts. Not becoming hater nor more local than locals. Still loving my old home.

I don't know what else... I like brag threads, mhahaha, we live such hectic life one never looks back, so this is nice.

Just need that band together again, find a proper symphonic choir and other stuff, mycological society, hiking. Refine my redneck French.

__________________
"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

Managed to tie my shoelaces without any help

Fixed that for you

Well.. I got to the end of this thread..

Now you have me Floored But thats OK with me

I gave birth in Swiss German..
.... and it's my home
The Deutschschweizer didn't know what on earth a girlie from Romandie was doing there !

oh and my Züridütsch was terrible too.. I remember popping into the pharmacy with the telltale signs of morningsickness and instead of asking them for a pregnancy test, I asked them for a test on how to get pregnant
I made their day.. in laughter

Today I removed the system tool virus from my computer .... if you knew just how pants I am at anything to do with computers, you would truly understand the extent of insurmountableness I just overcame

What? No mention of brown sugar, self-rasing flower or surviving on less than 120 k (or is it 135 k now)?

It's Switzerland. You don't need one.

And there may be a Fragenzuschlag just for asking...

So when you next see him, grab a chair...

Funny you say that... I just finished fixing my partners computer from a virus that I was responsible for.... not only is his OS windows 7 - which I don't know that well... but it's in French too... so 9 hours later - no virus, registry fixed, new antivirus installed ba-boom! Good as new and feeling pretty happy!

Don't forget I came here from Istanbul not Canada. I left Canada 7 years ago already, if I was leaving Canada to come here, it would have been a piece of cake!


135 k is the new 120 k.

I came back here without a job or place to live on a tourist permit (non-EU) a few months after completing a degree in St. Gallen. I found a place to live (well, series of WGs), found a temporary low-paying job that got me an L permit, then found a permanent and much better paying position and settled in for the long haul.

I guess that's not very inspirationally written, but I haven't had my morning coffee yet.

Well, when we've worked out how to get someone else to pay for a 7000chf tax bill for incorrectly calculated Quellensteuer, I'll add it to the thread