My name is Frank and i am from Fresno, Ca USA. I am 24 years old and have been in Switzerland for about two years now, but only here as a permanent resident for two months. I have been using this forum for about a month now and would like to introduce myself to you all!
A little background info on how i came to be here:
In California i completed high school and completed two years of college receiving my AS In science. I had the intentions to become a radiologist before i came to Switzerland. My whole purpose in coming to Switzerland was to "find myself". At this point in my life i had lost all direction and needed a new perspective, thus this is where the martial arts and spiritual contemplation came into my life.
I came to Switzerland in late 2008 with the intentions of staying for only three months as an Uchi-Deshi (live in student) and a Martial Arts Aikido dojo in Montreux, CH and possibly traveling for some time after. During these three months i met a woman and decided to extend my stay. Well to make a long story short i stayed for nearly a year and a half in the dojo in Montreux while supporting our semi-long distance relationship (she lived near Zurich at the time). I received my belt in Aikido in June 2010 and decided to get married shortly thereafter!
We made the decision to get married in the USA since it its "easier" financially and politically. We took a month long trip to Hawaii had an amazing trip and a beautiful ceremony, only to find out switzerland would not allow my return for 3 months until the visa paperwork went through and i recieved my Visa. *Great way to top off the honeymoon ha ha* So after spending some time apart i now reside with my beautiful wife here in Uster, Zh and couldn't be happier.
Currently i am working/training in Aikido Unlimited Uster as an assistant instructor. Since i lived in Montreux for some time i now have a basic understanding of French, but now that i have moved to the Swiss-German side its a whole new ballgame. German is completely foreign to me and i am doing my best to learn the language. Starting out with high German and hopefully one day the Swiss German will find its way in
Im currently on a job hunt as well, I must say it is extremely difficult to get a job here in Switzerland without knowledge of the local language and specialized degrees, as many of you already know. Some skills that i do have though are:
Aikido/Yoga/Meditation- First degree black belt from well known teacher. Excessive experience teaching Children, Adolescents, and Adults Aikido. Carpentry: 6 years internship (specialized in fine woodworking) and all aspects of building a house form the ground up. (Framing, Tile, Electrical, Trim, Crown molding, Cabinets) Typing and computer skills: Worked as a Medical Transcriptionist for a Neurologist for two years. Type 100+WPM with good knowledge of medical terminology. excessive experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, 10 key, Adobe Photo shop. Warehouse work: Import and export of all inventory of supermarket. So perhaps if any of these skills qualify me for a job of any type here in Switzerland i would greatly appreciate it if any one could give me any information or even point me in a direction to look.
I have found this forum to be a blessing, i wish i had known about it before my visa issues, it would have really helped out a lot. But that aside the information that is provided on here is great, very well thought out and all the members seem to be very mature and also supportive of fellow english speakers here in CH. I would like to thank you all for your support and knowledge and hopefully i can provide some of my own!
Sincerely - Frank