another neighbor issue thread

[hoppo]

	Quote:	doropfiz
	I understand that about the masks and I think most of us loathe them by now. Even so, if I were in your postion, I would (and of course, that's just me, and you know what it is that you are facing) go out to the library anyway, try to read there for a while, and to learn to notice the point before I feel like I can't breathe (maybe that's after 30 minutes, for example) and then go for a walk around the building, without a mask, and come back and do another half-an-hour. For me (but maybe not for you) this would be far, far preferable than staying at home listening to noisy neighbours. Hoppo, this is a serious question: What do you think would help your situation? I ask because it sounds like you can't seem to find any way to feel better, although many ideas have been presented to you. You say you've already tried them all out, so you had either ticked all those potential solutions off your list before you started the thread, or else you must have been phenomenally busy during the past month. Did the activity itself, and constructing things with your hands, help at all? I'd be quite surprised, and worried, if nothing, really nothing, seemed to bring about any improvement at all. Given that you can't ever change anyone else, your remaining options are really only change yourself, or move. I hope you can manage one or the other. I hope you can find a way to turn these last months in Zurich around, to make them work for you, to try to enjoy what Zurich has to offer. What do you really enjoy? Can you find some of it, here? Can we perhaps help you to do so? By the way, the Kunsthaus (the collection, not the exhibition) offers free entry on Wednesdays. One has to wear a mask there, too, but it really can be deeply moving to stand right up close to the works of master artists. Since it's free, it's fine to go for just 20 minutes, and then out again. In general, one does not have to wear a mask while in a café, seated at the table, and in many places you could buy one cup of coffee and install yourself and stay for an hour or three, (as long, of course, as you are not blocking the space for more paying customers, which wouldn't be fair on the café) and study. The old-fashioned cafés, frequented mainly by non-students, tend to be quieter. If I were in your position (and again, this is just my own feeling), I would jump at the chance to move away from where you live now. I would certainly ask the agency to let you view all the current rooms they have available, even those in shared accommodation. There, I would ask to be allowed to walk inside the room and close the door, bit by bit, while someone is talking, clapping, and playing music right outside, and then open it again. That way, you'll be able to assess whether the general way noise travels is better in a differently made building. I hope something works out for you.

I also would like to find a solution. What I need at home is silence. I don't want to hear the lady talk from 17 to 23 nonstop. I had some cartoons from the sofa that I folded and taped to the wall, but no effect. I don't think acoustic panels or anything else works as the wall is like a paper. My kitchen is on the opposite side, so I study there, but I can still hear her voice and banging cups and plates in their kitchen. She cannot hear well, so she shouts all the time. She is also quite sociable and she has guests every day and guess where they sit? Kitchen of course.

[speakeron]

	Quote:	mmartins
	Welcome to the real Switzerland! On paper you live in a 1st world country with high living standards etc. etc.

Switzerland, as neither a member of the Western alliance nor the Warsaw Pact, is a Third World country (and proud of it).

[doropfiz]

	Quote:	hoppo
	I also would like to find a solution. What I need at home is silence.

I feel for you, as the amount of noise you describe would drive me crazy!

I don't mean to be harsh when I say that it would help you to let go of any expectation that the neighbours will change. My advice is to try not to put any further energy into thinking about how much they should change. You cannot control what they do and they seem very, very likely to carry on just the same as they do now. You also already know that the landlord and agent are unlikely to intervene to tell them to be quiet.

Since you've tried some of the techniques to try to reduce the effect of your neighbour's noise, and found them ineffective, and since you are not going to be staying in Switzerland long-term, for the rest of your time here (I can't recall exactly; I think you said it is one, max. two more years) the remaining options for you are:

1. spend as much time outside your flat as possible (for example, some or all of the following: go for a walk, visit several different libraries, sit in a café, try the foyers of municipal offices and a range of hotels even if you have to wear a mask there, if any of the rooms at the university where you study are still open, see if you can use one of them, officially or unofficially, see if you can form a "bubble" with a friend/study-partner who lives somewhere quieter)
2. get other types of ear-protection gear that works really well
3. move home, even if the options available are not ideal (for example, to another flat offered by your agent, even if it is into shared accommodation, or further out of the city so that you can still afford it).

As annoying and draining as it must be to have to try to deal with this alone - you are likely to feel better if you can manage to shift your focus away from what they do (which you cannot change) and instead, focus on the power you really do have, and on what you can do to better deal with the situation.

You have zero power over their behaviour but you do have the power to change how you face and approach the situation, and how you work on solutions which are independent of your neighbours' behaviour. With regard to your own behaviour, you are - and this is the encouraging part - largely in control.

[doropfiz]

Over here, https://www.englishforum.ch/daily-li...rk-zurich.html, in a new thread, there is now a long list of various places in Zurich where one can sit and read, study or work, some for free, some for a low membership fee, and others more classy and more expensive.

Re Corona/Covid:
For most situations, now, during Corona, I wouldn't recommend going out to libraries or cafés, etc. However, I feel for those, like you hoppo, who can't face being cooped up at home for one more day, and just need to get out of their space, to stay sane and even healthy. Although Just Stay At Home is a good policy, sometimes home is untenable, and then one has to strike a balance between being epidemiologically sensible, and one's mental health.

I hope you find somewhere, or better still a range of options.