Town & Country

I'm exhausted. We just got back from a week long excursion to Switzerland to try to find a place to live. Over the course of two days Frau Hildigard took us everywhere. We looked at over 10 properties and then had the remainder of the week to ponder our decision.

Luckily we took photos and video of every property. This meant just about every evening we were watching the videos 'one more time' to try to make a decision. The decision boils down to this...Town or Country? Urban or Rural? Center of the city, or out in the sticks with the cows.

When I say out in the sticks of course I"m talking 3 kilometers (about a mile and a half). I know that is not far, not far at all for Americans in there cars. However it seems that in europe three kilomters is a bus ride away. A whopping 12 minutes from society, truely in the hills. This is a very different mentality than what I am used too.

As an expatriot I think more of the concern is do we want to live in a small farming community where people stay to themselves and the streets are always quiet or do we want to be at the center of the action where everything is going on. Do we want a 3 room apartment or do we want a 1500 square foot house? Do I want to relax on my back deck and watch the cows munch the grass in the fields or do I want to people watch in the town square?

Oh and I can't forget to mention the bomb shelters. Yes, every swiss house is mandated by law to have a bomb shelter. In each bomb shelter you are required to have cots for everyone in the house and a portable toilet. What I found amusing is that the real estate agents show off the bomb shelter like an appliance. "Here is your washing machine, dryer, and I shouldn't forget, bunker."

This was very strange considering that Switzerland is a neutral country.

Well back to pondering, tractors or buses? This will be tough.

Goodbye Bronx

Today we had to give up our dog.

I cried.

The Hunt

We received a list of appartments from Frau Hildegard over the weekend. We have been pouring over the websites she sent us trying to determine from 3 or 4 pictures per appartment which appartments we will visit and which we won't.

I just don't think a few pictures on a website really do real estate justice. Yeah, the bathroom looks okay, I'm really glad they posted a close-up picture of the toilet, after all I do plan to spend a lot of time there. Or how about that great shot of the sink. Thank God the kitchen sink has two handles! I guess I don't really know what I expect when it comes to these photos but something a little more representative of the space and not necessarily the fixtures would be a start.

Another thing I've discovered this weekend is the power of goolge language tools. What a great idea! Take a website in German, transalte it, and then show it just like the original website but now in english. Amazing! How do they do that.

Here is an example:

• Original Page In German
• Google Translated Page

I guess I could tell people I can read German (If I have a computer with me)

tchuss!

Can You Spare a Toaster Oven?

I arrived home yesterday to see a for sale sign in our front yard. That really made me feel funny. The first publicly visible notice to my neighbors that yes in fact I am moving. Since this was our first house I was a little sad when the reality of selling the house settled in my stomach.

So with the sign in the yard we now feel motivated to step up our cleaning efforts and get the house cleaned up and staged for selling. Some friends of ours stopped by this morning with their truck to help me take a whole payload to junk over to the salvation army for donation. What they wouldn't take joined us on the second leg of the mornings journey to the junk yard. Surprisingly the only thing the didn't take was an old love seat that looked as if it had been around since 1972. I was actually quite satisfied to throw that ugly thing into the pile of junk at the transfer station.

After returning home from the dump I saw a young couple standing across the street from our house with a child and stroller. I didn't think much of it until I noticed that the husband was on his cell phone and looking at our place. I was sure he was calling our agent to get more information. I felt like telling them, hey, get off the phone, this is my house and you can't buy it. But then I realized that I should actually probably walk over and cheer them on. "Go, Call, Buy My House! Yeah Team."

Why Switzerland?

Today I had a meeting with Wilhelm. Wilhelm is a mid level manager that I had worked on a project for over the past 2 years. We were supposed to be meeting with a new team member that will be taking over some of my previous responsibilities but pending a few emergencies things didn't quite come together for our meeting.

Instead of talking business I engaged Wilhelm in a conversation about my upcoming move knowing that he is a Swiss citizen that moved to the U.S. in 1989. "Why would you want to move to Switzerland?" he proclaimed in a heavy authoritarian tone. I didn't quite know if this was an honest question, or a sarcastic joke. Wilhelm is not know for his humor.

"I left because I coudn't even get a pot of paint mixed on Sunday," he continued. I was just amuzed that something that seemed so foreign and exciting to me was so nerve racking to a Swiss National.

I'm sure the fact that all the stores are closed most of Saturday and all of Sunday will be a little inconvinient but we'll just have to get used to it. That is the way of life. As for the costs for clothing and furniture? "Travel to Waldhut to do your shopping," he said "Prices are much cheaper in Germany." I guess if the Waldhut is only 15 kilometers away it probably makes sense. And the best part, if I import items from Germany I can get a refund for the sales taxes that I paid in Germany.

Frau Hildegard

So over the course of the last two days I've been e-mailing back and forth with Frau Hildegard in Baden. She is our relocation expert that will help us find a place to live.

I have heard many good things about Frau Hildegard. A colleague of mine also used Frau Hildegard when he relocated to Switzerland from the U.S. and he highly recommeded her services. She will help us navigate the bizarre world of European real estate which seems to be more about who you know rather than if you have access to something like a multiple listing service. Reading leases in German? Forget it! That is where Frau Hildegard will help.

My wife has been searching the Swiss real estate listing for several weeks now. As she has taken more initiative than I it only made sense that I consulted her before I sent Frau Hildegard our list of housing requirements. My wife sends me an e-mail saying "If we can't get a house, then a masionette will do. And make sure to ask for a chimney." I stratched my head and thought, what the hell is a masionette. And don't most houses come with a chimeny!?! I come to find out this is the elusive "British" or "Business" english that I've been hearing about. My friends told me the would start laughing when I would write them that I could wait to get back to the states to see a game at the MCI Centre (Yes that's Centre.) But now I have a better understanding of what they are talking about.

Apparently a Masionette is a townhouse, and a chimney is a fireplace buy Amercian standards. I obviously have alot to learn. I bet my American friends will probably think I'm living in high style when I tell them I'm living in my very own Swiss Masionette. Maybe this British english thing isn't so bad after all.

The Inventory

I remember the last time I had to do "inventory" was when I was in high school working at a sporting good store. It was a large store so they would bring in outside help on on Sunday evening. The store would close a few hours early and everyone would start counting stuff until everything had been checked and double checked often into the wee hours of the morning.

I hated it.

Thank good I'm moving, because now I get to return to inventory hell! The moving company has asked us to inventory everything in our house. And when I say everything, I mean everything. They need a complete list partially for customs, and also for insurance purposes. What this means is that I get to return briefly to the thankless task of counting and recouting everything I own.

I'm sure when it is all done it will be quite interesting to see everything I've got on paper. Even more interesting is that for insurance purposes I have to declare a replacement value for everything I've got. But it isn't as easy as declaring the cost of the item. I have to declare the replacement cost of the item if I were to buy it in Switzerland. Well, I honestly have no idea how much value to place on a souviner NASCAR T-Shirt if I were to try to replace it in Switzerland. This will be very daughnting.

Back to work. Hmmm. Thats one keyboard, one mouse...

The Swiss Embassy

So this week I got news that the Swiss Embassy in Washington D.C. has my visa. This as you can understand is quite an important document, not so much because you need it to live and work in Switzerland but more importantly because I can't sign a lease for a place to live without it. If my current plans hold true I'll be in Switzerland the week of May 22nd to try to find a place to live.

I tried to call the Embassy to find out if I need to make an appointment or if I can just show up and ask for my documents. I'm already sensing this is going to be more of a challenge than I had bargined for. At first I found the Swiss Embassy website and called their phone number. I started listenting to a recorded message in a heavy Swiss German accent and as you can imagine begain to zone out because nothing in the menu options seemed to apply to me. Next thing you know I was wondering why I couldn't understand anything the woman was saying. Only then did I realize that she had swtiched to speaking Swiss German.

So, since the messages on the phone weren't very helpful I turned back to the website to discover taht the Embassy is only open for public visits from 9:00am until 12:00pm. Looks like I might have to try back early next week.

I'm aready getting a sense that there is going to be quite a bit of paperwork and running around to get everything in order. I'm sure this will give me a new perspective on what people that come to the US to work and live have to go through. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.