Things we’ve done in our first week
Sunday: Not a very exciting day. We slept in, we went to the grocery store to pick up some things we needed, and we went to eat a late lunch at the Brasserie Federal. I ate my first Rösti and had my first Apfelschorle (my new favorite drink). Cass figured out how to do the city bike rental and tried out the e-bikes. Then we got the TV set up so I could watch the final game of the Starkville baseball regional.
Monday: We made an appointment to go register at the Kreisbüro 6, which is the city government office in the district where we are staying. If you’re staying in the country longer than 90 days, then you have to go register at the closest Kreisbüro. Then if you move from one district to another, you have to go register at that district’s Kreisbüro. I could make a joke about the Swiss loving paperwork here, but let’s be honest - the United States is the same way. Our appointment was at 3pm and we got there early (the Swiss way!). However, the agent asked us for the work contract, and we hadn’t been told we’d need it, so we walked away with no registration permit and another appointment for Wednesday morning. Our relocation agent was incredulous that it was requested (apparently non-Europeans have already presented this document to get the visa so it’s not needed at registration). She booked us for an 11am appointment on Tuesday at Kreisbüro 1, because they are more flexible she says. Technically, Cass couldn’t work until we are registered, so it was quite urgent for her.
We decided to go get pizza at Flying Pizza, but didn’t get to finish it as it started raining, but at least Cass got me to try out an e-bike.
Tuesday: We went down to the city center to find Kreisbüro 1. When we got there, a wedding had just finished in the Stadthaus, and the friends of the couple were holding out golf clubs for them to run out underneath. I had to stop and take a photo. The Stadthaus is right next door to Fraumünster Church, so we walked around it. There was also an. open plaza with seating for a few cafés, and some of my favorite stores. We walked through the courtyard of the church, and I read that there were some stained glass windows done by Chagall so I took a terrible photo of one of them from the outside. Sometime we are going to go back and see them from the inside.
More paperwork in the Stadthaus, but now we are registered in Zürich and Cass can officially work here. We will have to go have our Biometrics done (no idea what that means) next week.
Wednesday: This is the day that we opened our Swiss bank account. Our agent made the appointment for us, and she said that it would take an hour and a half or MORE to open a joint account. Wow. And she wasn’t kidding. Our appointment was at 11am, and we didn’t leave there until nearly 1pm. I felt a little bit like the Clampetts in there, as everything was beautiful and fancy and the other clients were all dressed much nicer than we were. There was an older lady who reminded me of Charlotte’s mother-in-law Bunny on Sex and the City, but this lady was dressed head to toe in Christian Dior instead of Chanel. I had on no makeup and was wearing Birkenstocks, and Cass was wearing his brewery t-shirt. It didn’t matter though, our bank rep was very nice and got us all signed up. In the end there was a technical glitch and all the paperwork came up in German, so she had to explain most everything as we were signing it. I was glad that I know a bit of German, so I could sort of have an idea what was going on. Now we can apply for a lease for a place to live when we find it.
Afterwards, we found a restaurant nearby and I had more Rösti mit Schinken und Käse (this time covered in ham and cheese) and Cass had Wienerschnitzel.
Thursday: Right after we got up for the day, we nearly had a bird fly into our open window - so that was an exciting start! I went out for exercise and walked to a neighborhood where our agent reeeeeeally wants us to look at a flat. I wasn’t real crazy about the area, there wasn’t much there and even though it was mostly residential it was very boring to me. Today is the first sunny day since we got here, so there were plenty of people out enjoying the sunshine along the river.
Cass is obsessed with bikes. After scouring a resale site for a bit, he found out that one of his co-workers has a bike that we can borrow for a bit to try out. We went to a bike shop to pick up a lock for it, and we’re meeting her later to pick it up. He also wants to look into buying an e-bike.
Friday: Technically we haven’t been here a week yet because tomorrow is Friday, but I’m posting this early anyway. Tomorrow, we have our first appointment to view a flat. It’s nice and new, but it’s probably too far from work for our taste.