Hi there everyone,

I'm going to have use the old cliche "long time reader, first time poster" - my wife and I have been in Zurich for two years and have found heaps of helpful tips on the English Forum since one of our friends put us onto it, and thought it was about time we took the leap and joined up properly.

We're from Perth, Australia with no kids and I'm currently working in the machinery industry here - a bit of a change from the oil and gas engineering work back in Perth.

The reasons for moving over are fairly standard - the chance to travel around Europe and see so many different cultures in such a small area was too good an opportunity to pass up when it came our way.

Looking forward to getting more involved on the site.

G'day fellow sandgropers. Tad cold wouldn't you say ??? Welcome to the forum and here's to the Eagles gettin of the bottom this year.....

Ahhh, someone after my own heart - let's hope the Eagles have a much improved 2011

G'day, and welcome to the EF! You should get into the Social Events, if you haven't already ... great way to meet other English-speakers and really relax!

Hi fellow Aussies,

I will relocating to Lausanne around end March, and am just wondering how you have found the transition from Australian lifestyle to that once living in Switzerland?

Any tips are certainly most welcome.
I will be looking for accomodation and international schooling in late Feb, when I head over for a couple of weeks and am hoping it to be a fruitful visit.

BTW, How difficult is it to get ANY footy vision in Switzerland ?

Cheers

For me, living in Switzerland (Zurich region) is like being in Sydney about twenty years ago - ie, relaxed, kids have a lot of freedom to get about independently, no big "stranger danger!" scares, and few if any giant tanks being driven around by housewives who have no idea of the size of their killer vehicles ... oh, and the public transport works too.
You'll have to ask somebody who lives in Lausanne for more relevant details on your new home.

Thanks for taking the time araqyl. Appreciate your insights from a Zurich perspective.

I live in Zurich (3 years) but my favourite city here is Lausanne. Its awesome there. The people are easy, it has an edgy street culture like skateboarding etc and the mountains are real close. As a pose to here you also have French in the background instead of Swiss German. I love the sound of French. The lake there is great and the best thing about Lausanne is I find there are heaps of little nooks n crannies, little places hidden around ideal for a picnic or a read or something. My wife and I love it there and plan to move there some time in the distant future...

As for the footy. To be honest I have been so long out of the loop now. And I played AFL for many years. You can get games here in some pubs. Otherwise you could through optus watch live games on the net. I think it was about 70 bucks a month when I looked into it....

Well safe travels and best of luck with everything...

Oh, on footy ... I can't recall where I found it now, but I 'watched' the GF online. Not with real video footage, but rather with a little screen that showed the field, and all ball touches. So there'd be a spot for player A, then a line to player B (with a pop-up flag of details, whether it was a hand-pass or kick, distance, mark taken ...). Was not the best way to watch the Grand Final, but better than nothing ... now I just have to see if I can ever find it again ...

If you can get Eursosport 2, which is available on Cablecom in Zurich and probably Bluewin as well, you will get one game a week with German commentary plus a weekly highlights package.

If you can get Sky UK via satellite, you can get three games a week if you also subscribe to ESPN.

Or you can get individual games from Omnisport.tv at $6 per game.

Or you can sniff around for a free stream but the AFL have become very efficient at clamping down on these.

Whilst not the same as live TV you can go to afl.comau website and listen to the live commentary via radio.

Or you can come to my place and you can see all Eagles or Dockers (my wife's a supporter....i knoooooow ) via torrents (albeit a few days later - possibly monday/tuesday nights). Meat pies and beers could be involved if we get a regular thing going. My old man sends some games over on flash drives sometimes too.

Really keen to get a few aussies around to talk footy this year. Even though we did just live through a pies premiership and eagles wooden spoon

I couldn't last until Monday or Tuesday without knowing the result but the beer and pies sound good.

Gday,

My better half and I are always up for some AFL viewing. We are living in Baden - got here in August last year - but I think this is my first EF post since arriving.

Occasionally Pickwicks in Baden and/or Zurich show AFL games. The drawn grandy last year was damn good fun at Pickwicks (Oliver Twist) in Zurich. First beers of the day never tasted so good at 6am!
Normally but I just pay $6 and stream games live from Omnisport.com

While I'm not tipping the mighty West Coast for the flag this year we should be able to avoid the spoon again......I hope

You can count me in Jimmy. I'll even bring my masterfoods chilli sauce with...

Ahh the banter, good old aussie banter.

Carn the Roos!

Question guys...

What do you miss from Aus., that you would pack more of if you had the chance?

The beach, just wont fit in the suitcase.

Seriously though, my music collection, all of my music is stuck in storage.

Meat pies. I was craving them at one point. I was back in December and they were sooooo damn good.

But on the AFL viewing: I'll create an event for the first weekend of the season (if I'm not travelling in europe at the time) and we can hopefully make it a regular thing. I hope to have a large place by then too

Could rotate throughout the country if there is interest (might be difficult for people outside of Zurich)

I second meat pies..a six pack of pies (or pasties) and Master Choc milk .