I will start my postdoc at PSI in April, so I will be moving to Switzerland soon. I am from Croatia, and I am living at Zagreb (the capital). This will be my first leaving abroad experience, so I'm not quite sure what to expect.
At the beginning of my stay I will live at temporally accommodation on PSI, but I would like to find an apartment, in Baden area, as soon as possible, because my wife will join me in May.
Unfortunately I don't speak German. I have started to learn it form a textbook, but I would like to take courses of Swiss German when I arrive because I think that it would be most useful.
That all from me for now. I have already learned a lot by reading answers to other people questions on this forum, so I will start posing my own questions soon.
I think there are very few of us who know what to expect when they move. Sounds like you will be staying at the PSI guesthouse. Most of the people I know who have stayed there are quite anxious to find a place of their own, particularly if they are married. Temporary housing is very hard to find so you are lucky you have something.
There are many nice villages to live in the Baden/Brugg area.
My husband works at PSI too and I have been fortunate to meet the most wonderful group of ladies at PSI whose husbands all work there. It's a great social network and support group for trailing spouses. We meet for coffee every other Wednesday morning at the restaurant in PSI and there are different family activities every month. It's also a great resource for information about housing, children, school and living in Switzerland.
If your wife is interested, PM me and I can give her more information.
You obviously have the best intentions, I can't fault that. But perhaps you could explain then why so many of the people that I know that have come here to work with PSI and who have had to fend for themselves when looking for accomodation (PSI itself offers very little support) end up living in dumps and wanting to move after they have figured out that they live in a dump?
The women support group at PSI is NOT an official part of PSI. It's a social network and some people choose to join it and be active members, some do not. As in any social network, how much and what you derive from it depends on how much effort you want to put into the network.
I've made many wonderful friends from this women group and they have helped me a lot in settling down in Switzerland. It's not a relocation agency or group and not connected to PSI officially. Basically, they are helpful people in the network who will provide help and information if you ask.
I realise that and I am certainly not taking YOU to task. It actually says a lot about the organisation that they expect newcomers to turn to the women's group or fend for themselves. Given that PSI is a federal institution that is hardly the kind of attitude that one could expect. I guess a women's group is a great idea for those who are married and where women get together. I could hardly imagine myself, if I were single and relocating, turning to a women's group for assistance. But kudos for making the effort anyway...
The accomodation situation in the Baden/Brugg area is dire and I know several people at PSI who have ended up in less than average living accomodation. In some cases with the assistance of "friends" who they probably would have done better without.