Posts Tagged ‘Switzerland’

By Chantal Panozzo

While living in Switzerland, I have devoured many books about the living abroad lifestyle. Books about a British woman involved with too many French men. Books about an American man trying to buy something as simple as a bay leaf in France to disastrous results. And books about an Australian journalist who can’t help but run out in her sweat pants to buy a baguette to the horror of her chic Parisian neighbors.

Below I’ve listed some of my favorites—and as you’ll see, I have an affinity for books taking place in France. Am I a traitor? I don’t think so. Because right now, I can’t seem to find any memoirs about living in Switzerland, even though the country has a foreign population of 20%. But no matter. Because the experience of living abroad and reinventing one’s self is a universal theme no matter the location. And because most of the books below have reinvention abroad as a major theme, I can relate to them all—and I think maybe you will too.

Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson is a memoir about life in Paris with a modern, digital twist. What happens when your blog messes with your love life and gets you fired from your job? This British author and expat has the answer.

I’ll Never Be French by Mark Greenside is a hilarious account of what happens when an American man buys a house in Brittany. It’s fun and lighthearted and makes me want to move to France.

A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke is an international bestseller, “almost memoir”, about a British businessman who takes a job in Paris. It’s an entertaining and humorous book that deals with the realities of life and work abroad.

GenXPat by Margaret Malewski and A Moveable Marriage by Robin Pascoe are both excellent informational and practical guidebooks books on living abroad.

Almost French by Sarah Turnbull is a bestseller in Turnbull’s native Australia and deals with a young woman trying to discover a new identity abroad.

But enough about what I like. What are your favorite books about life abroad?

Chantal Panozzo is a writer in Switzerland who has written for a variety of publications on two continents. She’s the author of One Big Yodel, a blog about life in Switzerland and moving abroad, and also discusses living abroad as a freelancer at Writer Abroad.

by Chantal Panozzo

Probably a lot of you are like me: A former DINK (Double-Income-No-Kids) who wants to continue her career while living abroad. But if you’re an accompanying spouse, this can be a challenge depending on the laws surrounding work permits. Luckily, the international trend is to loosen these laws and some countries have already acted on them.

For example, in France, an accompanying spouse no longer has to apply for a separate work permit if they are spouses of people working at multinationals. According to the International Herald Tribune, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Argentina, Singapore and the United States have also loosened restrictions. Unfortunately, Switzerland is not among them. And while it can be fairly easy to find a job in Switzerland as an EU National, when you’re a non-EU the task gets harder.

But it’s not impossible. As a non-EU, I was successfully able to find work in Switzerland. Every situation is different.

Some interesting facts about trailing spouses, courtesy of Yvonne McNulty, a trailing spouse researcher include:

84% of us have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher (see, we were not meant to be Hausfraus or Hausmanns!)

64% of us left careers to join our partners abroad

55% of us couldn’t continue working because of visa/work-permit restrictions

The important thing to do in any situation is to take control. If you can’t work where you’re living, or you later become laid off like moi, get creative. What else could you do? In a 2008 New York Times article, McNulty said, “What I found in my research is that almost all spouses face an identity crisis, but only about 10 to 15 percent did something about it, by becoming authors, getting an MBA or starting businesses,” she said. Most “felt they were victims, with no control.”

So instead of mourning my loss of my job idenitity, I constantly try to create new opportunities doing the things I love. In between searching for a “real job”, I’m currently writing a memoir, working as a freelancer for a Swiss magazine, and writing for U.S. publications.

If you’re a trailing spouse abroad, how have you approached continuing your career?

Chantal Panozzo is a writer and blogger in Zurich, Switzerland. She’s the author of One Big Yodel, a blog about life in Switzerland, and Writer Abroad. She also blogs for Affordable Calling Cards, a new expat community blog. This blog offers affordable calling cards in Switzerland as well as information about living abroad in Switzerland and in many other countries.

By Chantal Panozzo

Last night I was walking to a movie theater in Zurich when I heard a group of three Americans talking loudly. Ok, loud wasn’t a surprise, but American English was. I’m always amazed how many languages I hear in Switzerland that aren’t even one of the four “official” ones. But when you’ve got a foreign population of around 20%, I guess it’s only natural to hear non-official tongues.

Sometimes I wonder why Switzerland has such a high percentage of foreigners and I’ve come up with the following conclusions:

-Good Pay. Compared to neighboring countries like France, Italy, and Germany, Swiss salaries are higher. Of course, the cost of living in Switzerland is also higher, but nevertheless, it pays to live in Switzerland.

-No Need for a Car. While public transportation is sufficient in most European cities, in Switzerland, it’s good enough even for villages. The Swiss transportation network covers the entire country, from the mountain restaurant in the middle of nowhere to the farm village twenty miles from the nearest city.

-Work/Life Balance. At least compared to the way people work in the United States, there is a much better work/life balance in Switzerland. Family time is respected and valued, and stores and businesses all close down on Sundays and for a week over Christmas.

-Accessibility of Nature. In the U.S., I had to drive to get to the closest hiking trail. But in Switzerland, there are hundreds of paths right outside my door. The Swiss know how to build cities around nature, and so the nearest outdoor adventure is always just a walk away.

-Many Neighbors. Switzerland is bordered by five countries: Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and Lichtenstein. All of these countries share an official language with Switzerland, making it easier for people speaking French, German, or Italian to work and live in Switzerland.

Why do you think there are so many foreigners in Switzerland?

Chantal Panozzo is a writer and blogger in Zurich, Switzerland. She’s the author of One Big Yodel, a blog about life in Switzerland, and Writer Abroad. She also blogs for Affordable Calling Cards, a new expat community blog. This blog offers affordable calling cards in Switzerland as well as information about living abroad in Switzerland and in many other countries.

by Chantal Panozzo

If you’re an expat living in Switzerland, you won’t want to miss the upcoming Balloon Festival in Chateau-d’Oex. Not only is it included in the book, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, but the event is just magical. I went last year and I highly recommend it (even if you have to stay in neighboring Bulle to save money). Below are five reasons to check it out:

1. If you’re an American, it’s another thing you can check off that you’ve seen. Another one down, 999 to go. Don’t all of us Americans love lists?

2. Western Spirit may be back. “Western Spirit” was an American balloon featured at the festival last year (See above photo). It’s owned by John Seay, and is notable for its cowboy decorations, furthering to engrain the Swiss stereotype that all Americans are cowboys.  But the best part is listening to the French announcers pronounce “Western Spirit.”

3. Swiss children will hand you a grilled sausage with their bare hands–even if what you thought you ordered was a barbecue sandwich. Either way, it’s all very, uh, quaint.

4. You can stare at people because they won’t notice—their eyes will be glued to the sky. So not only can you get great photos of balloons, you can get great photos of people looking at them.

5. You will redefine what you think of when you think hot air balloon. At this festival, there’s a special event featuring unusual balloons in the shape of everything from bagpipe players to chicks popping out of eggs.

What: Balloon Festival

Where: Chateau-d’Oex

When: January 23-31, 2010

Cost: You must buy a festival pass at the “door”. About CHF 10 ($10)

Tips: To save money, stay in a neighboring town like Bulle, just far away enough not to be affected by the ballooning prices.

Chantal Panozzo is an American writer living in Switzerland. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, One Big Yodel. She also blogs about the international writing life over at Writer Abroad.

By Chantal Panozzo

As an expat in Switzerland, you know when it’s Christmastime. You can smell it. The aroma of roasted chestnusts (Marroni) fills the air. Glüwein (mulled wine) is sold just about anywhere there’s a sidewalk. And somewhere, there’s an expat like me bringing their Christmas tree home on a bus. Listed below are a few things to enjoy this Christmas in Switzerland:

1. Grill a sausage. I don’t know about your town, but Baden has the annual “grill your own sausage” fire pit. You pay CHF 2 for an uncooked sausage and a long stick, and cook it to your heart’s content in the fire pit. When you’re done, you return the stick, take a piece of bread in one hand and your sausage in another and eat your grilled masterpiece. (If you don’t like sausage, another option is to bring your own marshmallows–but be forewarned. People will stare.)

2. Eat some marroni. These roasted chestnut stands are everywhere. And trust me, the taste will grow on you. I didn’t like the nuts at first, but now I’m a marroni regular. The 80-year-old marroni seller in Baden comes to our town from his native Ticino every year from October through February specifically to sell marroni. It’s big business in Switzerland. 

3. Go to a Christmas Market. On my blog, One Big Yodel, I have a run down of some of my favorite Christmas markets. In my opinion, the biggest and best holiday market in Switzerland is the Basel Christmas Market. 

4. Eat turkey. If you’re an American and missed out over Thanksgiving, now is your chance to actually find whole turkeys for sale at the local Coop. I saw entire birds for sale today for around CHF 50. That’s a deal considering what you have to spend a month earlier for a proper Thanksgiving. 

5. Try an Italian Christmas Bread. Popular ones sold in grocery stores include Pandoro (from Verona) and Pannettone (from Milan). For an even more specific run-down on the differences between these various Italian breads, visit my post on Swisstory Blog later this week.

What Christmas traditions do you enjoy in Switzerland? For idea for gifts from Switzerland, visit Expatica.com.

By Chantal Panozzo

When you first arrive in a new country, it can be stressful for many reasons: language, bureaucracy, finding your way around. But it can also be stressful because it’s hard to judge costs. Yes, things are typically more expensive in Switzerland, but how much so in relation to your salary? Will you be able to save? How will you budget?

The average Swiss salary is about CHF 68,000 (or about CHF 5,600 a month). Full-time salaries under CHF 35,000 are considered poverty level for a family of four. But if you’re a highly qualified professional like many expats in Switzerland, you can expect salaries to be double the national average, sometimes even more. Salaries also vary from canton to canton and industry to industry.

Below is a run-down of what you can expect things to cost: (all figures in CHF)

2-bedroom apartment: 2000-4000/month (depending on canton/location)

Additional apartment costs (Nebenkosten—like heating the building, etc): 5000/year

Parking spot at apartment: 180/month

Health insurance (you typically must buy this independent of an employer): 300/month (with a 2500 deductible)

Apartment insurance: 500/year

Loaf of Bread: 2

2-liters Milk: 2

10 eggs: 4

Bag of Chips: 5

Yearly Resident Permit costs: 100

Liter of Gas: 1.65

Yearly Train Pass (GA, second class): 3000

Full-price ticket for a 15-minute train ride: 10

High-speed Internet: 45/month

Phone line: 20/month

Cell phone: 25-50 cents a minute (pre-pay)

Lunch at restaurant: 20

Dinner at restaurant: 40

Beer at restaurant: 5

Water at restaurant: 6

Movie ticket: 18

Value-meal at McDonalds: 10

Starbucks drink (small): 7

Language lessons: (3 weeks, intensive) 750

Daycare: 2000-5000/month

Tuition at an international school: 30,000/year

Anyone else have anything to add about the cost of living in Switzerland?

For more on living in Switzerland, visit One Big Yodel, a blog about expat life in Switzerland.

by Chantal Panozzo

1. It’s expensive.  Prepare to spend CHF 16-30 for a lunch entrée and CHF 25-40 for a dinner entrée.

2. You usually will not be seated. To look less like a deer in headlights, walk into a restaurant like you own the place and sit wherever you want.

3. Most places are still not smoke-free. If you hate smoke, eat in cantons like Geneva, where smoking is now banned in restaurants.

4. You might have to share a table. Don’t be surprised if someone asks if the seat next to you is “frei.” (And it is “frei”. Unless someone is really sitting there.)

5. Someone might see you eating and wish you “En Guete.” This means “Bon Appetit.” You can just answer, “Danke.” Or if the person that said it to you is also eating, return the favor by saying “En Guete.” The Swiss are kind of obsessed about their “En Guetes”, even if you’re a complete stranger. I’ve even had it said to me when eating a sandwich on a mountain trail.

6. You might have to pay for bread. If you are brought a basket of sliced bread, no worries. But if there’s a basket with rolls in it on the table, don’t be surprised if you are charged later by the number of rolls you have eaten.

7. There are no free refills. If you ask for another Coke or another coffee, you will be paying for another. And the average cost for a drink is about CHF 5.

8. Tipping is not necessary. There’s a reason the prices are high to begin with—tips and tax are already included. The local custom is to round up to the nearest Franc. Other tips are nice gestures, but not essential.

Any other dining tips you could give an expat or tourist in Switzerland?

For more on expat life, visit my Swiss expat blog One Big Yodel. Or check out other great expat blogs about life in Switzerland like Swisstory, From A to Z, Peterthals in Zurich, or TwoFools in Zurich.

By Chantal Panozzo

I’ve written about this topic before on One Big Yodel, but it seems to be a popular one, so I’m going to write two follow-up posts, this one, and another piece that will run on Swisstory blog about how I’ve managed to make a few Swiss friends in the three years I’ve lived in Switzerland.

In comparison to making Swiss friends, making friends with other expats is relatively easy. “You speak English? Me to. Let’s be friends.”  That’s about all it takes when you’re so far from home. Ages, backgrounds, interests seem to matter little at the beginning when the main thing is that you’ve found someone with whom you can actually communicate in your own language.

But then there are those Swiss. Dang, they are hard to meet. Reserved and private, many Swiss tell me they are happy with their small group of close friends that they’ve known since childhood and aren’t interested in making more. The trick is to find the people that are more open.

I didn’t think my neighbor was one of them. She was 73 years old to my 28 when I met her and didn’t speak any English. And while her first words of greeting were something along the lines of “you’re doing the laundry wrong,” what I didn’t realize at the time was that this was her Swiss way of saying a friendly hello.

To make proper friends with a Swiss neighbor, you usually have to go to them first. Knock on their door and introduce yourself, perhaps bring them some chocolates or something from your home country. Even if your German/French/Italian isn’t that good yet, you may be surprised at their happiness at your efforts.

If they make an effort to criticize everything from your gardening to your laundry like my neighbor did, take that as a strange kind of compliment. At least they’re paying attention. And most Swiss like to correct you. Give them that joy and you may make a friend.

Despite our age and language differences, my neighbor and I started hanging out. We’d set the German/English dictionary on the table and have raclette together. She’d take me to flower fields in her car so we could make our own bouquets. A year after all of this, she reintroduced herself to me with her first name. It was worth the year of calling her Frau V and being strangely formal while melting cheese together.

Are you friends with your Swiss neighbors? How did you make your Swiss friends? Or what do you find most frustrating about making Swiss friends?

Up next, How to Make Friends in Switzerland, Part 2, over on Swisstory blog.

by Chantal Panozzo

It never fails that Swiss newspapers across the country have celebrity pages. They list things like the birthday of Paris Hilton, the number of bodyguards Julia Roberts had at her latest film premiere, and the birth of Jude Law’s baby. Why do they care? Oh yeah. They don’t have their own celebrities.

Enter the Miss Switzerland pageant.

I can’t help but think the whole Miss/Mister Switzerland pageants were created precisely for the purpose of creating both a male and a female Swiss celebrity. And you have to hand it to Switzerland, it seems to have worked. Everywhere I looked the last couple weeks, there were groups of pimply-faced teenage boys ogling over the 16 Miss Switzerland candidates. 20 Minuten, a freebie newspaper distributed all over the country, had a special Friday feature and must have devoted at least 16 pages to the pageant—one for each contestant. Unfortunately, even though curiosity was killing me, I couldn’t actually get my hands on a 20 Minuten—every time I’d be about to take a copy lying around on the train, some teenage boy would beat me to it.

Miss Switzerland is used to sell everything from wine coolers to shoes and it’s easy for the advertisers because who needs a concept when your concept is Miss Switzerland? I should know because I worked on an advertising campaign for one of these products once. I wanted to actually make an interesting idea that could work across a campaign and speak to teenage girls, but I lost. “Miss Switzerland is the idea.” I was told.

And who cares if no one except the Swiss knows who Miss Switzerland is. This Swiss are rich, so it doesn’t matter that there are only 7 million of them. Like most jobs in Switzerland, if you get to become Miss Switzerland, you can make a lot of money. Christa Rigozzi, Miss Switzerland from 2006-2007, earned 580,000 Francs ($564,000) during her year of reign and has continued to earn big bucks ever since.

For more about Swiss beauty pageants, visit One Big Yodel.

by Chantal Panozzo

If there had been an Expat Expo when I arrived in Switzerland a few years ago, I would have been in heaven to find so many English-speaking resources in one place. But since I have now been in Switzerland for over three years, I didn’t so much need information as I needed confirmation that people still really do give things away for free. (Yes, I am bitter over having to pay for ketchup packets at McDonalds).

Anyhow, the Expat Expo is a fun thing to go to whether or not you think you’re a know-it-all like me. The event was free. I got a free issue of Inside Switzerland magazine, a free issue of Swiss News, a copy of the International Herald Tribune, a cool reusable bag from Swiss Info, and a cherry Jolly Rancher. One cherry jolly rancher may not seem significant, but if you had been craving this sour candy like I had for the last month, it would have been worth the trip alone (thanks to xpatxchange for that).

And get this, I even learned about some resources I didn’t know about. Imagine that. So in this, Part Two of a two-post series, I’m going to share some great stuff about Switzerland (some that I knew about, some that I didn’t) that I think you’ll enjoy. You can find Part One on One Big Yodel. 

Web Resources

7. www.outandabout.ch This is a going-out guide to Zurich written by a group of travel writers. It includes English-language movies and events as well as recommended restaurants, bars, and clubs.

8. Mamizeit is a web magazine with a focus on international moms living in Switzerland with children of all ages. It shares information on how Swiss daily life works and tries to help foreigners make the most of their time in the country.

9. Swisster is an online English-langauge magazine for expats. It covers topics like news, people, business, education, culture, and more. Users must pay for a subscription to read most of the content, but you can try a free subscription by emailing webmaster@swisster.ch. It seems like a content-rich site, but I don’t know if I’d read it often enough to justify a price of SFr 300 a year to use, especially when there are good sites like www.swissinfo.ch that are free.

Radio Resources

10. World Radio Switzerland If you don’t live near this Geneva-based English-language station (88.4 FM), you can still go to the website and listen online and download podcasts. WRS is the only English-language radio station in Switzerland and it offers a diverse range of shows that cover everything from news to culture to how the heck to make your garden look more Swiss.

Bookstores

11. Bergli Bookshop is an English-langauge bookstore in Basel that also holds Talk Parties, book discussion groups, and other events. Bergli is also a publisher of books that focus on living in Switzerland. Some of their titles include Hoi, your Swiss German Survival Guide and Beyond Chocolate, a guide to understanding Swiss Culture. To get 10% off and free postage within Switzerland on your first internet order, write ‘EXPAT EXPO Zurich 09’ in the comments box when ordering.

More

12. For even more info on Switzerland, visit Part One of this series or stop by the next Expat Expo near you. Upcoming expos:

Geneva Sunday, October 11, 2009

Lucerne Sunday, November 15, 2009

Zug Sunday, April 18, 2010

Basel Sunday, May 30, 2010