All,
Just wanted to drop a quick line and say how much fun I've had reading these forums over the last 6 months or so. I'm an American living in NYC via Atlanta, GA. Married, no kids, 2 cats, wife speaks French fluently. I'm in the IT Security field, having both worked for ISPs and the financial sector. I'm not a huge outdoors-y person, but everytime I go in the woods, I love it.

I came to CH last year for a vacation (Zürich, Bern and Geneva) and had a wonderful time! I also have a couple/three Swiss friends, so I (sort of) felt at home when I was there last time, even though I stayed in a hotel. I found the Swiss to be actually VERy helpful (Some old lady went out of her way to help me with the trams one day!)

I'm looking to potentially relocate over to the EU this year. I'm having a hard time deciding between CH (Zürich), FR (Anywhere) or DE (Berlin, Hamburg or Munich). I know there are pluses and minuses of each city, which is making this super-hard! I have jobs that I'm campaigning for in each city, so that will ultimately decide on where to go, but if I got hits for all countries, it would be both a blessing and a curse. (I'm *very* lucky in that I even have companies talking to me about gigs over there, this much I know.)

I speak German (B1: Kenntnisse/Mittelstufeniveau), French (B2: Avancé) and English is my mother tongue.

Looking forward to meeting new people!

Welcome to the forum! That's great that you speak both French and German. It'll definitely make your move over here easier. Good luck with your job hunt.

Thanks, nlee! I'm nervous about the language barrier as Schwiitzertütsch (Or however it's spelled) is quite daunting. I do adore the accent, though, it's very sing-songy to me and I smile when I hear it (For some reason, it sounds less "harsh" to me than hochdeutsch.) I was told at some point when I spoke German to a realtor here in NY that I had a vaguely Swiss accent, which I thought was comical as I had not been to CH yet..

...although at the Klee Museum, I did have the woman at the desk ask if I was living in Switzerland, so I guess that's a good sign!

Don't be nervous! If you moved here, you'd pick up Swiss German in 6 months... or so I'm told. I've only been learning high German for a few months and the word placement in the sentence gets me every time. No wonder Mark Twain wrote lengthy essays about his frustration with German!

From the big apple to the big cheese! Welcome

Hi there!

I think NY is a great place btw. Depends on what you like.
If you need more of the bustle and multi-cultural feel of NYC you're best off in Berlin or Geneva. Note: Nothing can compare to NYC though - it's just massive.
If you're looking for a change of pace I think Zürich or Munich's pretty good.

Best,
ZB

Thanks, ZB! I've been applying to jobs like a madman in pretty much all those cities trying to get something to stick. It's a tough nut to crack, indeed, what with the Visa requirements and all. Switzerland and France have been the hardest (For Visa and Diploma reasons, respectively), but at least if nothing pans out for a job in CH, the people have been pleasant enough to at least respond and decline.

I know nothing compares to NY and I do have another thread going on about places that are "sort of" like Brooklyn in Zürich, but I do love the city; last time I was there, I had an absolute blast!

I know the pace of life there is a lot more relaxed than here, that's sort of the draw of it. Here, I go into Manhattan to work and come back home to BK to chill out and relax, so I'm fine with laid-back places.