My life in the US was definitely a lot more glamorous in the materialistic sense - out every weekend, huge circle of artist and musician friends, living on a high hill in San Francisco with unbelievable views. Basically non-stop arts, culture, wining, and dining........but when I think back to my party days, it really was just the people that were meaningful rather than all the other fluff.

The people are what I miss most from my glamour days. Of course my friends back home think I have the most amazing life here but they truly don't understand the pain I feel in missing them everyday. No offense EFers but so many of us on here are transient and won't be around for too long.

I'd have to share with Louix, I'm not sharing mah KAY EF CEE, y'all!

Your posts brings back memories of the smoky clubs and cafes where I'd sit for hours, the intellectual ferment, bookclubs, all the workshops which I attended religiously... All that bohemian glam. I want it back!

Ah yes.....I must have spent half my time writing, painting, and performing at the famous Caffe Trieste where the Beat movement writers met up. Okay, I miss places like that too!

Alas, that's become my life HERE!

(not to mention lawyers)

Tom

Lets face it, a lot of us are on the swiss gravey chain and saying you work in Switzerland does have a certain ring to it and it makes it sound as if you have "Made It" in life. Now that I have explained some of the realities to my familly, I think they actually feel sorry for me.

I think it becomes more glamourous as you force yourself to get out more and meet new people and find a good group of people to plan and do things with. So it looks like I better force myself to head to Zurich and go to the Glamourous Saturday Night Drinks meetup!

I do not know where to start, but the short answer is no. How? I moved from NYC over 3yrs ago. Leaving in Manhattan. Dry cleaning, cleaning services, car service, taxi, food delivery, shopping delivery and an apartment with doorman.

It depends of the definition of glamorous from your own point of view. However, it seems that the majority of us had to get a pay cut in glamorous things, if we believed we had them.
No parties (only ‘hot cheese and bread parties’ … not fun of fondue….), no shopping for a fully outfit, no ‘last minute’ w-end away and many more ‘no you should not do it’.

So, what does keep us here? The fact that it cost that much to relocate back, the fear of giving up and not having a job or all together plus have to start all over again and not being able to reach where we left? I guess that would be for another thread.
Have you become so happy or dependable that scares you? (also for another thread….)

Amusing that a thread about life being more glamorous in CH is hijacked by KFC.

When I first read the topic, my first reaction was why ask the obvious?? Why make us all nostalgic for our old glamorous life. The old life where we are all skinnier, had more money and rub elbows with the A listers in the smokey bars. The past where we are all in our 20's and could have never predicted we would be living in glamorous CH.

Well somehow I think that most of us have a idea of our past being perfect and much better than now. Either that or I been here to long that I'm starting to believe the lies I tell myself that leaving in CH is just as good if not better than California.

If I could barf on this thread, I would.

Before Switzerland I had many friends, now I have youtube and a lot of regret.

This thread doesn't make that much sense to me, having read it twice to see if I'm missing something.

What is this glamour of which you all speak so wistfully? What is it, exactly? The examples mentioned are having a dry cleaning service, being able to drink in bars, hanging out with friends, meeting artists, being able to take weekend breaks.

If you moved from a big city to a small Swiss village and took an effective pay cut, yes, you probably feel your life has lost its "glamour", or lost something. But, dear gods, if you moved from a well-paid job in London to a poorly paid job in Torquay it would have been the same.

Maybe it's just my perspective, but if I stood in a Geneva city street and threw a random brick, it would most likely hit a dry cleaner, a bar, or an artist.

I've read all the anecdotes, now I'd like someone to explain to me what this thread is really about. Please.

How have you explained it to them?

Even with the euro crisis so hot and heavy in the news, I can't seem to make it clear enough for my family that Switzerland is not an island immune to the ills of the global economy and just how much it really isn't all cowbells and chocolate fondue here.

who has a dry cleaning service???? WTF?!? Whoever has that does have a glamourous life and I'm completely jealous!

It's funny, that after reading this thread, I actually thought about my life in the last week.

I am on holiday this week, normally that should mean "whooppee", but I am in the middle of a house renovation, dust, dirt and chasing contractors. I have visited all the DIY stores in the area, and get excited over something if I find it 5 euros cheaper than in another store. I also prefer flicking through the bundles of leaflets pushed into my letterbox than the pages Marie Claire or Cosmo these days to see what bargains I can get! Car boot sales well don't get me started on those.

My little daughter sat on my lap two days ago and poked at my belly and said "what's that Mummy?, are you having a baby?"

I wear comfortable shoes and drive a Renault Scenic. My car is full of biscuit crumbs, wet wipes and colouring books and I am turning into my mother.......arrrrrghhhhh!

It's a far cry from my days as a long haul flight attendant, New York, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, San Francisco, Hong Kong, week long trips to Antigua......parties, bright lights and shopping, shopping just for me and no one else......

(ok I am glamming up the glamour bit here, the "long haul flight attendant bit", but it had it's crap moments too, horrible passengers, trips to orlando with the average drunk british passenger whose kid vomits at the slightest turbulence, jet lag, endless airports and hotels....but I am happy not to remember that and just resort to the nostalgia element...)
C'est la vie......nuff said.

Always when I go play football here in Switzerland, people ask me:
- Where are you from?
I Answer:
- Brazil

And they say:
- Oh, wow, you must be very good, etc, etc, samba with the ball, etc, etc

When that happen, I feel like a superstar. Very proud!

Then the game start and they realize that my football skills are very far from what they expected and all my fame is over.

At least I have 3 or 4 minutes of fame before the game start.

Very sad.

Back home: expensed dinners/drinks at the newest hotspots in town, playing with the latest gadgets before anyone getting their hands on them, bossing executives around, dealing with the media, phone buzzing every other minute, trips to nearby Asian countries with great beaches at my door step, my own apartment....

Here: Cooking my own healthy food, fresh alpine air, hiking, joining the queue for the latest gadgets like the rest of the mere mortals, bossing little kids around to practice their music, taking off to another European country when possible rather than moaning how expensive Europe is...

Hmm....the grass is always greener on the other side isnt it?

__________________
Remember when someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown, BUT it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and b****-slap the mother-f***er upside the head.

My life has become...different. I don't know about glamourous, but totally different for sure.

A "typical day" of my life back in Silicon Valley: get on a conf call with my colleagues in Washington DC at 5am (8am DC time) to check in with each other, then excuse myself and go to martial arts practice at 6am in the studio around the corner from my apartment, coffee stop, home to get ready, pop in the office or at a client for a few hours, get home at around noon, homemade lunch, errands and naptime (until about 5-6pm), then perhaps some more office time, number crunching and modeling (as in financial modeling) creation, daily checking in with my lovely elderly lady and voluteer recipient from a Stanford Hospital program (bring her groceries, take her to dinner, or just a call). Then see friends for a little chat in a small coffee shop or a drink, then on the phone with clients in Asia at midnight or so, then power nap for a couple of hours if I could, otherwise get my grocery shopping done while my laundry was in the machine at 4am, then go say hi and exchange a few words in Spanish with the fresh market employees who tipped me on the cheapest/freshest produce they had that day. Then back again, more or less. Weekend either ocean, or mountains, or museums in the city, or more volunteering work - surprisingly, I very, very rarely went shopping on a weekend.

I loved it. Sustainable forever? Not sure - awesome if you are single and are not responsible for anyone's schedule but your own.

My life in Zurich: wake up, go to work (more or less from 9 to 6, plus/minus two hours), lots of theaters, movies, aperos with friends, dinners, martial arts practice when I can (not regularly), visits to my family in Italy, occasional weekend trips somewhere in Europe, time with OH, German classes, weekend shopping and/cleaning when I am in town.
I think I have become a bit less "motivated", and I feel sometimes that my life here is full of "fillers" and less "useful" than my prior one. Other times, I am just very happy to be able to pop and visit my parents on a few hours' notice if I want, and mostly that I met my awesome OH.

Glamour? The glamour is trying to be happy wherever you find yourself, and that's what I try to do. But the funny/ironic thing is, I couldn't care less about skiing

P.S. I do love mountain hiking, Rapperswil, the Bernese Oberland and Appenzell

I don't have as many friends here as I did in the UK.....in fact most of my friends here are virtual but that's a working progress BUT I certainly dont have any regrets.

Even if it doesn't work put here I will be glad of the experience and the chance to experience a different challenge.

Well, let me see.
- Waking up on a random Saturday in Winter, deciding whether or not to go skiing (conditions HAVE to be perfect), then rolling out of bed at 10.30, leave the house at 11 for half day skiing on pristine Pistes (Engelberg), back home by 18.30 to fire up the BBQ.
- Having craving for seafood, drive 40 minutes from my house into France (St. Louis, Geant center) and pick up giant prawns, crab claws and a box of oysters. Throw in a box of great French red wine and drive back
- Skipping lunch and going into Lindt and Sprungli on Pardeplatz for dark chocolate truffles (sugar rush).
- Biking from my office along the lake into Zurich for all-you-can-eat Indian buffet (Tandoori BBQ) for only 28 CHF, back in the office and no one notices I was even gone.
- Changing banks: withdrawing 80K Francs in cash, putting the envelope in my jacket pocket, walking 100 meters down the street to my new bank and depositing the money in my new account and they don't even act surprised.

Wait, you make it sound like you have a quite pleasant time in Switzerland. Glamorous lifestyle, even. (Is it actually allowed to express such views?)

And @Federica above: it sounds like your Silicon Valley life could be pretty much exactly the same, barring modifying your shopping hours. But the changes that you have made in coming here are just that, changes. the way you tell it, they are positive changes, and yet you seem to be expressing a sense of slight loss. I'm not questioning or diagnosing, just pointing out a slight cognitive disjunction.