Ag's trip to London and house hunting in Zurich

So, this past weekend was “le weekend du Paque” (aka Easter weekend!). We hope everyone had a wonderful time visiting and seeing family and friends. And in our new language, we’d like to say “Froehe Ostern” to everyone! I had the whole weekend free (from work) and Aggie and I struggled to make decisions on what to do (honestly!) since it’s been so long that we had free time together!

Anyway, before I get into that, let me tell you about the past week….

Ag traveled to and had a great time in London a few weekends ago. The whole reason for her trip was a girls weekend to celebrate our friend Laura’s birthday. Aggie decided to make it a long weekend so that she could visit with more people and stayed with our friends Matt and Brandi (see London Calling, Munich and Prague blogs from November 05 and June 06).

Aggie got in on Thursday evening (March 29th) and that night she and Brandi grabbed a late dinner at a nearby Mediterranean Restaurant. On Friday morning the girls went wedding dress shopping for Ag and found “the dress”….Of course they were both super excited (Brandi cried!) and cancelled all other boutique appointments that day. Brandi said they had to celebrate so they wondered into a pub around noon!

Later that evening, the girls and Matt went to going away party for someone at E&Y London. It was a very “cultural” party, I guess because there were people from England, India, Madrid, Argentina and the US all there. Ag said it was funny to be someplace with so many nationalities represented and where everyone was relaxed and having a good time.

The next day Aggie met up with Laura and the 12 other girls who were in town to celebrate her birthday. The “party” they went to was at a place called Cucumba…where the girls took a pole dancing class (excuse me?) and had a pamper party! Aggie’s description of the place:

"Hilarious! The group of us were herded into this room where there were 3 poles. A cute little Asian lady in 3 inch red heels led us through a series of warm-ups and then the “dancing” began! One requirement, we HAD to wear heels….Anyway, she would demonstrate a few moves and then we would take turns practicing them. There were groups of 4 girls/pole. This went on for about an hour and a half and then afterwards the girls got pedicures, manicures, facials, etc.”

I hope she took good notes (ah hem)!! Ag said she has a new respect for the pole dancers as they use lots of body strength to swing around and “do their thang”! After hearing this, I feel we should all go out and personally congratulate a stripper for the hard work and dedication they put in to their very respectful and difficult profession. (Just kidding mom!)

After the party she went back to the hostel where the girls were staying and ordered pizzas and hung out with them till about 11pm or so. Then, when the girls left to go clubbing, Aggie headed back to Matt and Brandi’s as she had an early flight the next morning.

Going to sleep wasn’t exactly in her agenda though. Matt and Brandi had a party going on at their place for Matt’s birthday….and a party it was! Long story short, the living room became dance party USA and everyone was up till the wee-hours of the morning!

Sunday Aggie arrived at Hahn and I picked her up and we went into Lux for a late lunch at one of our favorite places, Oscars. The rest of the day we just relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company.

Last week I was busy with work (imagine that!) and then we drove down to Zurich on Wednesday night. On Thursday we had our first apartment searching experience. Apparently, 90% of the people in this city rent, so finding a decent place in a good location is hard. The reason for this is that 1) most of the people in Zurich are rich (I told Ag there’s a reason why the last four letters of the name of this city are what they are), so they have a lot of disposable income, 2) housing is kept in families and passed down from generation to generation, so there’s not really a strong market for buying real estate, and 3) you have to be a resident in Zurich for 10 years before you can own a home.

On Wednesday we got in around 9pm and stayed with one of the Senior Managers from EY Zurich, who I will be working for soon. She and her husband have been awesome with giving us advice and such, so speaking with them again was very helpful. They were telling us about some of the nuances of living there, such as having to schedule when you can do laundry in your own apartment (so you don’t bother the neighbors with your noise), when the “quiet hours” are, the fact that getting an apartment in Zurich is sort of an “application” process and if the person you meet at the apartment (e.g., the landlord or his/her representative or the current tenant) doesn’t like you, you stand no chance of getting the place. They also warned us about the high rental costs. Indeed, when I looked at our program for the next day’s events, I noticed that the rents are astronomically high (between $1,800 and $2,900 in USD equivalents, per month). For a one or two bedroom apartment! What the…

On Thursday morning, our real estate lady, Renate (pron: Ren-a-ta), took us all over the city to look at places…and I mean all over!

Zurich is divided into different areas/neighborhoods, each called a ‘Kreis’, that are numbered 1-12. Some Kreis’ are close to the city, others not so much. After going in and out of the town and to different places (8 in total), we found one apartment that we unanimously decided would be “the one” if we could get it. We put our application in for it, but were unsure if we would or wouldn’t get it.

We got home Thursday night (after missing our exit in Strasbourg and driving all the way up to Heidelberg - near Frankfurt - then back over to Luxembourg…whew) and were just kind of shell shocked with all the events of the day. We spent the weekend worrying about if Ag could find a job (we can’t afford to live there comfortably on just my salary), what if we don’t get the apartment we applied for, how are we going to afford to buy furniture for the place if we do get it (hardly any apartments in Zurich are furnished), etc. In summary, we were both stressed.

On Tuesday, we heard from Renate that she hadn’t heard back about our application. Ag looked our place up online (it was listed on a Zurich apartment website all through the weekend), and noticed it was gone. So, the hunt would have to continue once we got down there.

Then, on Thursday, I got an email from Renate saying that we were the new tenants of the place we applied for! Hoo-ray! Check it out. And now let me give you the virtual tour:

It’s in an old, renovated mansion located on the western side of the lake. We are in the garden level and our apartment consists of a small foyer, a large living room, a decent sized bedroom, a long, skinny utility room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Off the living room, there’s a small patio, a garden and a yard.

Our kitchen is HUGE and everything is brand new. The bathroom is the same…large, new and even has a heated floor! The building itself looks really impressive and the main door to the place is this huge copper thing. You feel like you are walking into a castle. The halls have artwork on the walls and it really feels like a unique place.

The location is really good (after clicking the link, zoom out three times to get a feel of where we are in relation to the whole city), as we are within walking distance to the lake, about 10 minutes by tram / bus (20 walking) to the city center, close to the tram and bus stops and close to the grocery stores. Our new ‘hood is a really nice, quiet residential area. We just can’t wait to show it off to visitors!

The only bad thing is the rent. It’s more than your mortgage, Freddo! But I’ve been assured by the EY Zurich office that they will sponsor Agnes’ work permit and provide her with assistance in finding a job (e.g., a head hunter). We were also a little worried about buying furniture, but Agnes is truly her mother’s daughter and proved that her resourcefulness knows no bounds by searching second hand stores and ad listings for used stuff. Long story short, we’ll have our whole place furnished, other than a bed and sofa (which we’ll buy when we get there) with really nice stuff for a small fraction of the cost we’d pay if we bought it new. Ag took advantage of the fact that Luxembourg is a very wealthy ex-pat haven and people tend to basically give their stuff away when it’s time to move home. So, what we’ve bought so far is basically in mint condition and the movers get the honor of getting it down to Zurich for us.

We have to say, we are really excited to move to Zurich. It’s a beautiful place and situated between the slopes of the Uetliberg and the Zürichberg mountains. Zurich is split by the Limmat River which pours into Lake Zurich. The city of Zurich is then situated on the northern shore of Lake Zurich in the heart of the country.

Rumor has it that Zurich is one of the most expensive places in Europe to live (and we can’t dispute it so far)! On the flip-side, it’s one of the best places to live for “quality of life” so that is good news. Walking around the city, we both felt very much at home and comfortable in our new surroundings. Funny how time flies…we’ll be in our new castle in 2 weeks!