Living the Swiss life

As I write this, I've almost been here for 21 months and I'm actually flabbergasted that it took me 11 months to get down to this second blog entry. Shameful indeed... So let's jump right into where we last left off and head straight into the questions I wanted to tackle.

What are the Swiss really like?

Wow. This is a real complicated question and I'm not quite sure I'm the best person to even begin to answer it but let's give it a go shall we? Here is an outside-in opinion of what are the Swiss like.

1) They value privacy and personal space

Similar to the infamous Swiss banking secrecy laws, the Swiss truly value their privacy and have utmost respect to the privacy of others. Neighbours are polite but discreet, people get on with their own lives wanting very little to interfere with that of others... until they feel something infringes on their privacy. One incident really stood out to me when I was queuing to use the ATM one day. The lady in front of me using the ATM turned around and told me to stop using my phone behind her despite me being a good  5 feet away. She says "we don't do that in Switzerland" and it "is a violation of privacy and sensitive information." So yes. Privacy.

2) Socially conscious

Switzerland is clean. So clean even when snow melts, you don't get the usual gross mushy mess on sidewalks. Yes, I know, Singapore is clean too but how much of that is cause we have a million cleaners, mostly foreign making sure we win "cleanest HDB" awards? It is very different here in Switzerland where people are truly socially conscious and very aware of how they conduct themselves in public. Despite the absence of "No eating or drinking" laws on public transportation, trams, trains and buses are almost always impeccably clean no matter when you start your journey. And yes. Of course they are a society obsessed with recycling. I used to joke that you need a PhD to recycle stuff correctly here but it is such an ingrained part of Swiss life that driving 30 minutes to a centralized recycling plant on a weekend to drop off cardboard boxes has become just a part of normal routine.

3) Proud to be Swiss but also very conscious of their place in Europe and the world
The Swiss are proud people. Proud of their country, their heritage, their neutrality and their way of life. And rightly so! But they also understand that they are a small country landlocked and squashed between major European powers. They know others envision Switzerland as a sort of Utopian vision of high standard of living and beautiful mountains but are smart enough to realize that the only way to stay this way is to keep making sharp choices (e.g. the recent rejection of a referendum of a universal base income for everyone) and keep adapting and responding proactively to the rest of the world.

4) Protectionist
This probably is one of the most homogeneous countries I've ever lived in, even in the most supposedly cosmopolitan city of Zurich, 9 of 10 people are white, Caucasians. They aren't and probably never will be overtly rude to foreigners but do not expect them to welcome you with open arms. They are fiercely protective of their "Swiss-ness" and even as a foreigner here, I ask, with all that is going on in Europe, can you actually fault them?

5) Practical and low-key
Switzerland is a rich country. Not everyone is a gazillionaire but there definitely are substantial numbers of extremely wealthy people. However, something I truly admire is this sense of practicality and the lack of desperate desire to show off their wealth. Yes, there are some amazing houses by lake Zurich, but nothing ostentatious. For sue, there are super car enthusiasts, but they don't speed down the main shopping street blasting music. Even the way they dress is a low-key affair. I work in the heart of Zurich city but I swear the number of Chanel purses and Louboutin heels pales greatly in comparison to what you'll see in a random suburb mall in Singapore. I kinda like how it is - there is no need to buy things you do not need, with money you do not have, to impress people you do not like.

Now on to the next question... do you face discrimination in Switzerland?

I have not faced overt discrimination in my almost 2 years here. Shopkeepers may not be the friendliest, customs may seem to racially profile you to check for unpaid taxes in goods at the airport but really there hasn't been any overt discrimination. And my honest, no filter reasoning behind this is because:

1) There are not a lot of East Asian faces here to give us a truly bad name yet. ;) Interpret this however you want.

2) They have other groups of people to direct their displeasure upon. Again, interpret this however you want.

So, be prepared for a higher level of nonchalance, but don't read too much into this - it maybe just a lack of familiarity with the English language, or just them being Swiss.

Hopefully it will not be another 11 months before I write another blog post - but I really want to talk about how my perspective on things has changed since moving here and how I find being back home in Singapore, even for short holidays a little overwhelming. Anyone else feels the same? Leave me a comment!

Singaporean living in Switzerland

I've struggled to write this post. First, I felt I hadn't lived here in Zurich long enough to comment. Then later, I found it hard to articulate what I truly felt about being a Singaporean living in Switzerland. But it has been a good 9 months since I made the move so it's really now or never.

Little background due diligence about me

I think I'm rather typical Singaporean. My parents live in a 5 room HDB apartment, I have just one younger brother thanks to the "stop-at-two" birth control policies of the early 80s, I went to local schools right up to university, I kinda like how I can speak Singlish with ease and I complain a lot to anyone that will listen to me.

I also think I'm a rather privileged typical Singaporean. I spent 8 months on exchange in Amsterdam during university, another 2 years getting my Masters degree in London, the first 2 years of my working life travelling all over the world on the company's expense and now I'm based out of Zurich. I'd say for someone barely 30, I've traveled quite a fair bit and lived in quite a number of cities for an extended period of time.

Why did I move to Switzerland?

Singaporeans are pretty used to having someone around them moving to Australia, the UK, China, the States but I still get a surprised look and raised eyebrow when I say I now live in Switzerland. The Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs website indicates that there are probably 200 or so Singaporeans in Switzerland. That's perhaps the number of Singaporeans in 1 lane of the causeway crossing over to Malaysia on any given day. So I get it, its rare.

I moved because of love. And it was only possible because of opportunity. Long story short, my partner and I had a vision of living in Europe while we're both still fairly young. It also didn't make any sense that he was based out of Sydney and me out of Singapore. So us being crazy us, co-locating meant moving thousands of miles to Europe. He got what seemed like a brilliant opportunity then to move to Zurich and I took the plunge and followed him here.

What do I do now in Switzerland then?

I took up a rotation within the company I work for that gave me the opportunity to be based out of Zurich despite my non-existent German. This, I am eternally grateful for and on days where work annoys the hell out of me, I think about how being here was only possible cause of the opportunity I was given.

I work for a large (well large is an understatement) management consulting firm and they did everything they could to help secure my work permit. It is notoriously hard for a foreigner to get a work permit in Switzerland especially if you're non-EU and you have no local language abilities. It doesn't help that the immigration laws are only tightening by the minute so I was rather lucky that it all sorted itself out with not too much damage done.

So no. I'm not a Swiss-tai-tai, not that I'm complaining... I do make Swiss francs now.

Are you really the only Singaporean there? How about Asians?

I've met 2 other Singaporeans in my last 9 months. Granted I'm not the most sociable and I don't seek out opportunities to meet fellow Singaporeans. My company has a grand total of 3 Asians and I've only seen one other Asian in my neighborhood. So yes, there really aren't many asians, much less Singaporeans here, I must say it seems like this is really not a first choice for asian migrants at all. From what I've heard, the asians here largely comprise of spouses who married a Swiss native or are transient like myself. There really isn't much of an asian community here and Zurich is the first major city I know of that doesn't have a Chinatown!

Political poster seen everywhere in Zurich

Are things really as expensive as people describe? Are you making a lot more money?

The honest answer here is yes and yes. Which to me basically balances the scales. Moving here did see my net income increase significantly taking into consideration the strong Swiss franc and also across the board, any sort of labour is paid more than back home in Singapore. But things are also really a lot pricier than back home. You'll always find exceptions but here's a little price comparison, all in SGD:

Singapore          Zurich Movie tickets for 2 $25 $55 Mid price restaurant for 2 $80 $140 Washing detergent 1 litre $8 $16 Electrictian to put up a light $100 $420 Public transport 1 trip $3 $7 Buying a BMW                         $250,000 $90,000

Grocery shopping for the both of us a month runs about SGD$3500 or so. Getting someone to "just come and fix something" is not an easy decision when its 500 bucks and we shelved the idea of getting help to clean our apartment when we found out it's easily 75bucks an hour.

There are so many other questions I'd love to tackle but this post is getting really long, I'll continue with the top 5 questions I'm always asked in the next post. 

1. What are the Swiss really like?

2. What are some places to visit in Switzerland?

3. Do you face discrimination?

4. What is there to do in Zurich?

5. Do you plan to make Switzerland your permanent home?

Drop me a comment below if you have any others you'll like me to answer!