Apartment Hunting

This week we have been busy apartment hunting.  Darren's work provides us with a relocation agent and after our experience this week, I am so thankful they do.  We are looking for places close to his office in Enge (another district/neighborhood in Zurich), but Enge, of course, is the most expensive and most hip and cool district.  Where else would a company like his be located?  So we are looking in that district and places right around it, but also some "suburbs" south of his office along Zürichsee (Lake Zurich).  When I say suburbs, I mean they are only 10 minutes away by train, but they are cute little villages.

Seeing as how Zurich is the tenth most expensive city in the world (according to Bloomberg), prices are very high here.  You might think, well then it's like New York, right?  New York only falls at #29 on that list.  From what we looked at this week, the average price for a 750 sq. ft. older apartment in Zurich is $2600.

But the price isn't the most difficult part about housing here.  It's being able to just get into a place.  We went to a public viewing of an apartment in Enge and even though we arrived 15 minutes early, there were already five other people there.  Within five minutes of the start of the viewing, 20 people had already arrived.  One apartment I saw listed online had 900 page views and was rented within two days of being listed.  It isn't just enough to be the first to apply or have a good salary to pay for the apartment.  Our relocation agent has to convince the property management why we would be the best candidates to live in their apartment.  We have to make ourselves attractive renters, whereas property managers do not have to make any effort to get people into their apartments.

So after a week of looking, we have applied for two apartments in Enge, but we have no idea if we are actually going to get them.  We have also looked at an apartment a fellow employee will be vacating, but not until January, so we would have to find another temporary place if we went with that.  But that's why I said I'm thankful we have a relocation agent to get us through all of this.  I'm sure we'll get something soon.

On Sunday, we will be heading up to Stuttgart, Germany for a quick trip to get our visas.  We won't have time to see much, but I'll snap some pictures and report back.

First Weekend in Zurich

We spent our first weekend here getting acquainted with our surroundings.  Darren taught me how to use the public transportation system (he had been here several times already before we moved) and introduced me to the downtown area.  Zurich has an excellent public transportation system with many above-ground trams and buses.  They all have new computer screens that indicate what stops are next and how long it will take to get there.  Not like in Boston where you have no idea where you are going or what the next stop is unless you've memorized it.

A picture of the trams

 We took the tram from our apartment (we are living in the Wiedikon district, if you want to Google Map it) to the Hauptbahnhof, or the main train station.  We then walked down the Bahnhofstrasse, which literally means train station street.  This is a huge shopping street and is sometimes referred to as one of the most expensive shopping areas in the world.  We passed by all the usuals: Cartier, Louis Vitton, Dior, and Armani.  But this is also the headquarters of two major Swiss banks, so there's a lot of money being exchanged around there.  I didn't think the street was particularly special-looking, so I didn't take a picture.  I think they dress it up for Christmas, so I'll show a picture then.  One place we did stop at was the famous Swiss confection store called Sprüngli.  It originated right here in Zurich on the Bahnhofstrasse.

Me in front of Sprüngli

They sell all kinds of treats including chocolate, but they are famous for their Luxemburgerli, which are mini-macaroons.  You can see some in the picture below.  The whole bottom shelf has the mini-macaroons.  The place was pretty packed, so we didn't feel like waiting a long time to get some, so I probably will go back some other time when it's less crowded to try them.

 We then crossed over the Münster bridge and just took a walk along the Limmat river that runs right through the old part of town.  We didn't stop to look at everything since we will be here for a while and I was just trying to get a feel for the city.  It's still unreal that we live here.

Proof that we are actually here in Zurich!

We also went out to some other areas we are interested in living to see what they were like.  Even though it was cloudy most of the day, it thankfully did not start raining until we got home.  The weather here is much like Seattle, so we should expect many cloudy days.  I think it will be a little chillier and maybe a little more snow, but we'll see.

The view of the cloudy, rainy weather from our balcony

On Sunday, we went to one of the local Mormon congregations that meets in Zurich, which we will be attending while we are here.  The church rents space in an office building, which is pretty common for places where there aren't a lot of members or the church hasn't been able to get land to build their own building yet.  I have been lucky to always attend a ward that meets in a regular building, so this was a first for me.  The church was on the second and third floor (the ground floor is 0, not 1).

The building directory showing that the Kirche Jesu Christi is on the second floor :)

There were about 80 people that crowded into a small chapel for sacrament meeting.  All the meetings were in German, but half of the ward members are expats (Americans living outside of the US), so they had an English translation.  They have wireless headsets that you can wear and listen to someone who sits in the back, speaks into a microphone, and translates in real-time.  Those people are amazing.  Darren and I chose not to wear the headsets because we are trying to practice our German.  However, I could only pick out some words since I'm a beginner, but Darren said he was surprised he was able to understand a lot even though he hasn't studied the language in a few years.  Go Darren!

We met some great people and are looking forward to getting involved with the ward.  I am really excited because some of the things I loved about living Boston are here, too.  I love public transportation and walking everywhere.  I feel very empowered when I can just walk out the door and go anywhere I want without worrying about where I'm going to park the car if I want to stop.  I like smaller wards where you can meet people more easily and you are more dependent on each other.  I love that there is so much history around every corner and so much worth exploring.

After some cloudy days, we had a great sunset here tonight that I thought I would share.  Ich liebe Zurich!

First day in Zurich

We made it to Zurich!  In fact, everything went so smoothly, it might have been the easiest move ever.  Our flights were non-eventful, and even the ten-hour flight to Paris from the US didn't feel that long.  Thanks to Darren's German skills, our cab ride to our new place was also a breeze.  For November, we will be living in temporary housing.

Our building that we are living in right now

Most of the buildings are quite old, but the units sometimes have been renovated.  Therefore, the outside of the building isn't a good indication of the condition of apartments inside.  But this building we are in looks newer than most on the block.  I am a fan of the orange because it is bright and happy.  So the cab dropped us off and they already had Darren's name on the buzzer!  The Swiss are so efficient and orderly, I am going to love it here.

So we each had two large suitcases, a backpack, and we had a duffel bag, which had not been a big problem until we arrived at our place to find out that our apartment was on the fifth floor and the building did not have an elevator...

Our gaggle of suitcases

So Darren and I (yes, I did help, thank you) huffed and puffed our way up five flights of stairs with bags weighing around 60 pounds.  Needless to say, I don't think we will worrying about exercising since it will be a workout just to get to our apartment everyday and we will be walking everywhere.  I am actually super excited about this.  This is what I loved about Boston.  I think life is much more pleasant when you are getting exercise as part of your daily routine, instead of having to set aside time to get your heart going.

All the stairs we climbed

Our front door, I'm lazy and not going to rotate the picture

So this is our temporary apartment.  It's nice, but smaller than we are used to.  This first picture is of the bedroom.  The beds are a little different than we are used to.  They put two separate "twin" (I'm not actually sure of the size) mattresses together in one frame and give you two separate sets of bedding.  I have no idea why the beds are like this, but I refuse to let this discourage me from sleeping in the middle to get some cuddle time in.

The bedroom

The view from the balcony in the bedroom

The living room

The kitchen complete with mini fridge and mini dishwasher

The view from the other balcony off of the kitchen

We also went over to Darren's work yesterday to check it out.  We live just two minutes away from it.  The Zurich office has around 500 people.

Even though the experience has been a bit overwhelming at the moment, I'm definitely glad we are here.  I have been studying German, but I suddenly can't remember any of it when people are talking to me, so there's a lot of room for improvement. Plus, I'm pretty jet-lagged right now.  But the scenery is lovely.  Look how beautiful it is!  At first I was hoping we could get here earlier to enjoy some warm weather, but fall here is beautiful!

The view from the top floor of Darren's building

The Alps in the background, holy cow

The first month or two will be an adjustment period with having to go pick up our visas, finding a more permanent place, and figuring out what I'm doing with my time here, but it will all work out.  So our expat adventure begins!