Newbie Survival Guide

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
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1. When skiing at smaller ski lift areas, you buy your lift ticket at the little shack next to the lift. And don't expect to eat your lunch from home in the ski restaurant, picnicking isn't allowed.

2. Regularly revisit your household recycling routine several times. You will generate a lot of items that can be recycled and the efficient way to sort and store may escape you for a month or two.

3. You can get great deals on quality meat at Coop/Migros in the fall when the animals come down from their alpine pastures.

4. Buy yourself a quality, comfortable bike with at least 10 speeds before you come. Make sure it has a chain guard, splash guards and (has or will accept) a rack on the back. Waiting until you get here to buy it will cost you.

5. Have a wallet with a large change purse. The 2 and 5 chf coins are common and take up a lot of space.

6. On the bus push the red stop button nearest to you when you want to get off, even if someone else already requested the stop. If your bus has 3 doors, you want to make sure the one closest to you opens. Always make your slow-moving 5 year old get out first so when the doors close, they crush you and not him.

7. You need the following selection of boots: *Summer hiking. *Non-insulated rain for summer. *Insulated rain for fall/spring slush. *Warm snow boots with good soles for sledging. *Black leather heeled boots for some variety! *Children will need 2 pair of snow boots, 2 pair of rain pants, 2+pair of snow pants, 2+pair snow gloves (some are kept at school)

8. Driving here with strict speed limits, people crossing the street with the right of way and oblivious to any traffic, people not crossing because they have a stop light you don't know about, bikes with kid trailers riding along side you, traffic circles every 1/4 mile, and buses that pull out with one flash of their blinker can be stressful. I describe it as a real life video game, Frogger maybe? I enjoy the public trans and take my time when in the car. But not too much time, pausing too long before entering a traffic circle can cause some impatience behind you.

9. Your attitude about being here will rub off on your offspring. If they see you appreciating the differences, attempting some german or swiss german, trying new food, smiling at the cashier, getting excited about the next unusual holiday celebration, speaking to random strangers on the bus, and appreciating the beautiful scenery, they will get the positive vibes and their transition will be a lot easier.

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I ordered mine 10 days before my birthday (which is in Feb). Do you have any link to the "December 31" rule?

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When a Swiss website has an English option, don't expect that you will necessarily see the same information as you will see in the German, French, or Italian pages, and don't expect that there will be any indication that the English pages are not complete. For example, Goldenpass trains updated information about discount tickets on their French pages but not on their English pages. Our bank lists branch hours on their French pages but doesn't have branch location information in English.

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I read this sentence the day I arrived in Switzerland (3 days ago) and funny thing, next morning it already happen to me.

So, even I was disappointed with all those tickets and not knowing which one to buy, I was smiling while remembering this sentence

There is any post about train/bus tickets?

Next week I'll be going from Zuoz to Davos. The best choice is to buy a return ticket every day (of course with my half-price card) or there is a better choice? I've heard about point-to-point tickets but it looks to me that they last at least a month... Is possible that there a 6-rides ticket or I missunderstood?

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Contact RHB for a route subscription ( Strecken Abo ) or go for the BÜGA if more practical.

http://www.rhb.ch/Streckenabos.79.0.html

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and here the schedule

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/dn

and here the tariff

https://www.sbb.ch/ticketshop/b2c/ar...zViaAuswahl.do

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Thank you! Don't know how to say your posts are useful and this stuff, so I'm saying it through this message

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This is only our twelfth day in Switzerland, but in my experience so far:

The public transport system (at least in Zürich) is fantastic. Coming from a country without a functional public transport system (Australia) I'm very surprised to find that living without a car is not just tolerable (as I imagined it would be) but actually quite enjoyable and freeing.

Get one of those little pull-along trolleys for your grocery shopping. Even two bags of groceries can be surprisingly heavy, especially if you have a tired child you inadvertently need to carry home as well.

Buying a bed does not mean that you get slats as well. Now that I think about it, it's actually quite sensible, but it was quite a shock when I first started looking around.

When you rent an apartment, expect to lodge anywhere up to three months' rent as a deposit/bond. I'm not sure about elsewhere, but in Australia it's generally four weeks/one month.

Try and speak the local language as much as you can, even if it's just a Grüezi or bitte. I had to mentally shake off the feeling I had that I was being a pretentious twat by trying to speak German - it really is important. Even in the short time I've been here, I've been able to extend my German every day (it's surprising how much of my high school German has come back to me after twenty years in hibernation), and the more that I use it, the more natural it seems to be. As much as I can, I try and use German if I know it, even if it's broken, slow and grammatically questionable. It's helping!