Considering moving to Switzerland

grahamor

Hi,

I have been going out with a Swiss girl (long distance) for nearly a year. Although we get to see each other every 2 months or so we decided that in the long run long distance relationships suck !

In the heat of the moment i said i would move over to her next year. I have even been doing German lessons.

I hear the Swiss are very conservative (some would say boring) and i am wondering does anyone live there who is Irish, and if so what do they think of it.

Lately i have been having doubts about the whole moving thing, worries like finding a job, not knowing anyone except her, and are the locals a good laugh.

Does anyone have any advice for me ?

Thanks !

pogcica

Hi, I moved to Denmark for the same reasons visited a lot then decided to move over,I had a decent job so giving that up was a worry,although i was a bit sick of working there after many years.Girlfriend has her own apartment so i had somewhere to live.I got a job after 5 months but i didnt look to hard until my savings ran out as i wanted to have a good look at what the country was like and could i enjoy living here.I am here 16months or so now and really glad i made the move,Learning a new language is difficult and so is finding work,I have long days of danish school in the morning and working an evening shift after.Its a great challenge and a great buzz and sure if its not for you then you can always go back home

Best of luck

pogcica

smoke.me.a.kipper

grahamor wrote:

not knowing anyone except her

thats one of the best starts. a contact, even if it is your gf. i went to germany with nothing and that was quite difficult. at least your making an attempt at learning the language before you go out. you will pick it up quite quickly but to go out there with nothing, like i did probably wasnt the best idea.

grahamor

Thanks for the replys guys, they are a great help

I figure why not do something a bit crazy while i am young !! ( i would probably regret it if i didnt do it)

Thanks again

Ry

I'm in the same position moving to Finland. I've nothing but a girl over there but I wont be moving in with her so really I'm going with nothing and I've the exact same fears plus the fear of having no where to live. No job no money no food aagh I'm thinking of starting a finnish course which does seem to be very advisable according to the people I've talked to.

I'm afraid of the just going with nothing factor though

Ry

KTRIC

Same position myself. Living here with German girl freind for 4 years. She wants to go home, I'd like to leave Ireland. I'm a bit worried about what to do when we get there.

thesteve

I was in your position nearly a year ago. The missus got a job in Germany so I went with. Not a word of German, no job, and she was on intern wages for the 1st 6 months... It took me 4 months to find a job (in an English speaking company) but I'm now on double the salary I was on when I left Dublin

davidconf

Where exactly do you want to move in Switzerland?

grahamor

its a town called Lucern (Luzern in german) its about 100k south of Zurich.

Its a really nice area, population only 70k, close to mountains for Skiing and Lakes for Swimming.

This might sound stupid but i think i would really miss the Sea and the Beach if i didnt live close to it !

esperanza

thesteve wrote:

I was in your position nearly a year ago. The missus got a job in Germany so I went with. Not a word of German, no job, and she was on intern wages for the 1st 6 months... It took me 4 months to find a job (in an English speaking company) but I'm now on double the salary I was on when I left Dublin

4 months wasn't bad! Don't you need any German for your job at all?

savoyard

There is one major problem with moving to Switzerland and that is the work permit situation. If you are an EU national, you need a work permit - normally this is organised by the company that wants to hire you. Depending on the type of job you want, this could be a major headache as obviously employers will give the job to those with a permit unless you have unique skills. The situation is changing in 2007 as far as i know, but you should check this out before you make the move. We're so used to being able to wander around Europe than it comes as a shock when you discover Switzerland is very different!

I live near Geneva so it is quite different to the Swiss-German speaking part, but the Swiss Germans do have the reputation of being a bit dour and conservative. I have a US friend going out with a guy from Lucerne and she says it is very difficult to get into the swing of things. It's a conservative, closed society and difficult to make friends outside the family circle (according to her). But they also say that while they're slow to make new friends, they are very good at keeping the ones they have. Obviously this is a wild generalisation but in short, don't expect the kind of social life you have in Ireland. I've found people in French speaking Switzerland much much quieter than anglophones, but very genuine (although they do have a weird habit of wearing earplugs to rock concerts :eek: ).

I thought I'd miss the sea too, but swimming in swiss lakes is much nicer than the murky Irish ones and they use their nature much better than we do in Ireland. And the air coming off the mountains is pretty fresh!

thesteve

4 months wasn't bad! Don't you need any German for your job at all?

It was 4 months of hell though, unemployment sucks... No I don't need a word of German either, it's great, it's a software development company with major offices here, Nice, Madrid, Miami, Sydney... Using english as a working language is the easiest method I suppose...

Cork Lad

Am currently in the same position, 1yr here with her and she moved to swiss did the travel thing once a month and now am thinking in moving over.have already enrolled in german course and doing another course to better my chances of a job in IT over there. how did you get on grahamor????