Hi all, my husband has just started a new job in Zurich this week and I will hopefully be following him over in the next few weeks. We have no kiddies yet and I am currently out of work so we don't expect the move to be too stressful. We are both excited and I guess slightly nervous about the move but generally looking forward to the new experience.

I have been trawling through tonnes of posts over the last few weeks and have learned an incredible amount about all aspects of life in Switzerland thanks to you guys. We had never even considered a move to Zurich before this opportunity came up (it's all happened super fast!) and knew very little about life as an expat there, so this site has been invaluable.

Anyway, I have started feeling like a voyeur of late spying on you all, not to mention a freeloader , so I decided it was about time I said hello and showed some appreciation.

Welcome to Switzerland. I am also a Newbie and hope your start here enjoyable

Hi Nastarana and welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the great introduction!

You time will come, when your experience will be called upon to tell the then- newbies about what life is like on this land-locked island.

Until then, there are a lot of ways to save money for those on one income if you're interested:

The train has a "halbtax" card,- public transport here is fantastic.

The major grocery stores, Coop & Migros have "point collection" cards, which can save you a little bit of money every month. Just ask at the shops, how to get one.

And if you are looking for some type of job to fill your time, even though there are a number of expat-meet-up groups, check out www.jobs.ch, or even this website.

German classes are everywhere. Possibly start at your local Migros Klubschule (google) as they have a great variety, and you can meet lots of interesting people regularly, and make new friends.

Rangi

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11. Knowing deep down that you gave your dreams a fair chance. – Most of the time the only difference between a dream that came true and one that didn’t, is a person who wouldn’t give up and one who did.

Hey Rangi, I'm only seeing your post now. (Not sure how we get advised of replies to posts, perhaps via email?) Anyway, apologies for late response and many thanks for all the handy info. I have some health issues at the moment so I'm not looking for work just yet but hopefully i'll be fighting fit in a few months and really can't wait to get back to work (not the job hunting part mind you!).

I have started learning a bit of deutsch myself with the help of some beginners cds and books. I am still between Dublin and Zurich at the moment but hope to get more settled in after Christmas when I plan on doing proper classes.

We've just found an apartment in Baar and will be moving in in November, which I'm really looking forward to as I'm getting cabin fever in our small temporary accommodation in Schindellegi, which, by the way, is beautiful place but not much to do really, especially when my health isn't up to much energy intensive activities such as cycling, hiking etc.

My impressions of Switzerland so far are mainly positive so fingers crossed all goes well.

Thanks again for your helpful post.

:-)

Thanks Swiss Kiwi (like your profile name), apologies for the late reply. As explained above I'm only seeing these replies now. I hope you're settling in well yourself and not missing home too much.

Be well. :-)

Hi there,

We are relocating from Ireland too, although we are hoping to move to France as my husband is from Paris. Looking to work in Switzerland though. We have 2 kids (3 & 2) to consider also.

Glad the move-ish (between Dublin/Zurich) is going well. There are a good few Irish people there already if you ever wanted to meet up. German is grand to learn, I did it for 7 years in school. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had done French!

Hi Nastrana. I have also just moved to Zurich from Dublin. My husband started work here in July and I joined him in mid September. I have started German glasses at Alemania which are great and good value compared to the other classes around town - www.alemania.ch. I am looking for work but I have been assured this will take time so have plenty of free time on my hands. Would you be interested in meeting up for a coffee or a drink? I would be delighted for the company! I am new to the forum but I think you can private message me to arrange something if it suits. Hope you are settling in well.

We did it too but malahide to basel. Best of luck and I am sure you'll have a good time. They (the swiss) are about as far from the Irish as you can imagine but its a great place to be.

Best of luck

Hey FabrizioM, I am making the move from Portmarnock to Fribourg! Think we will miss the beach!!

Hi - I recently moved from England ( having got a better job here than I can get in England atm. ), a little over a month ago, and my other half is still in England... after about 3 weeks I was going to chuck it up and return to England, but I'm glad I haven't because it's starting to settle down a bit now... usual things, new job, different culture... there's so many GOOD things here, they definately outweigh the bad things. Yes, food and accomodation are very expensive here, but salaries are relatively high too... I've just discovered that if I shop in Germany at the weekend I can save a fortune. I have a nice house in England that I couldn't afford here, so I'm subletting a room in someone's flat... and it's great. No garden to keep in trim... and it's quiet at night... I think the law forbids noise after 10pm., my other half is looking after the house ( she DOES have a job in England at the moment although it barely pays for the house )... so we are just taking it a day (or a month) at a time now... if it really works out over the next few months then we may sell up in England and move out long term....
.... I'm just trying to say that it seemed a big upheaval and lots to do in the first month... not understanding the language, having to register at the
town hall, purchasing (compulsory) medical insurance, starting a new job, being away from loved ones... and so on.... but I'm now in month 2 and
its getting easier... I'm even getting used to a 42.5 hour working week.. the excellent transport links mean I'm actually getting more time at home than commuting in England...
... Also the food ( despite being expensive) is very good compared to what is common in England and you can always border hop to Germany for groceries, and the lack of pollution, generally polite and un-threatening people, and beautiful environment is a refreshing change.
... So good luck.

Fàilte! I made the move myself twelve years ago this month. Take it one day at a time, and be ready for a new perspective. Socially it's going to be very different to Ireland, but EF can help

Go n-eirigh an bothar libh!

Relocating is not easy, and in my experience, when one partner is back home, it is particularly stressful, for both of you. However, often this is a good solution, it takes time to see if the new situation is working, and having a safety net never hurts. I am glad you are finding it is getting easier.

As for shopping in Germany, there are definite savings, not having a car does make it a bit of a challenge. Maybe you could initiate an event here, "shopping trip to Germany". You just need someone with a car, maybe use a train station as a meeting point, and share the cost of gas. Just an idea.

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How's it going so far? Do you like Switzerland?

Hi all, once again I am only seeing these replies. I must get on to finding out how to monitor threads I've posted in - i presume there's an easy way and before some wise a*@ big brother type tells me passive aggressively to use the search engine that's exactly what I'm about to do!

Can't get over all the Irish over here/there (I'm back in Ireland at the moment). Actually scrap that, of course I can, is there a place in the world not populated by its fair share of us?

Anyway, many thanks for all your replies.

wedjul05 - Good luck with your own move, my husband is also a native french speaker and I speak a bit of french and would have loved the opportunity to develop my fluency but not this time around. Let me know if you move to Zurich and we can meet up.

ZurichSeptember2011
Hey, thanks for the german classes tip. Yes I would love to meet up. I should be heading back over mid Nov but will only be back for a couple of weeks before coming back home and then won't be back until after Christmas so it probably won't be until the New Year but I'll keep you posted. We should definitely get a few of us together.

FabrizioM
ah I love Malahide, I'm actually staying with my mam in Howth at the moment not too far away. I'm sure you miss the beaches as kilns says but plenty of beautiful lakes and gob smacking mountains to make up for them.

CoderMark
Hi Mark, yeah i must say i've been pretty shocked by the difference in the cost of living here. I heard it was a lot more expensive but it's only when you get here you really realise how big the disparity is. I'm trying to get out of the habit of converting everything into euro, comparing prices and getting heart flutters at the price of avocados! I'm not working either which obviously doesn't help and as we rented out our house (fully furnished) back home so we have to buy everything from scratch here and i must admit despite our research we just didn't quite anticipate the initial set up costs, but still overall we're both really optimistic about the move.

magyir
Go raibh maith agat for the heads up. Yes I expect it will be very different from home but I have friends and family from just about every cultural background so I'm not too worried about the move from that point of view and the expat community seems very lively so looking forward to getting to know a few on here as well.

BettinaB
Hi Bettina, well I can't comment just yet as I've only spent a couple of weeks in Schindellegi so far which was beautiful but not very exciting. Husband is getting on well enough but has been incredibly busy but so far so good.

Thanks all for the time you took to respond to my post. Much appreciated.

Be well

OP - click on your name at the top of the page, then click on the Statistics tab on the page which comes up. You'll see an option to see all your threads you started to make it easy to track responses

Not passive aggressive at all i hope

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Alternative (lazy) way of seeing replies in threads you've posted to is to go to your Control Panel, choose Settings and Options > Edit Options from the left-hand menu, and change your Default Thread Subscription Mode to one of the email options.

Hey caviarchips, thanks for the tip. I actually did know that already but with my goldfish memory i tend to forget to check it regularly so thanks. and no, I couldn't sense any alterior undertones just good oul fashioned advice.

Many thanks.

DONE - thanks planetali, that should help me keep up to speed. No excuses for my tardy replies going forward.

Muchas gracias

You're welcome - and welcome to Switzerland, have fun!

Cheers planetali, I will!