Hi,
My name is Anna Smith and I ́m moving with my family from Sweden to Hombrechtikon in the beginning of August. My husband Dave is British and we have two young boys. The oldest is starting school in August.
I ́m a science teacher, but I ́ve taken one year of unpaid leave of absence. I ́ll see what happens after that. I ́ll will try to find a job as a teacher for next autumn. Dave got a job at a biotech company in Hombi after working in Sweden for 12 years.
I ́ll spend my first year with the kids, but hopefully I ́ll get to know a whole lot of people during that time. I might also give private science lessons to keep my brain fully alert .
Hi Anna, welcome to the EF!
Hopefully you'll settle in swiftly, and begin to enjoy life here in Switzerland. Also, good luck with finding work - at the moment this is difficult, and I recall reading various newspaper reports over the last six months or so of many people switching to teaching as the availability of other jobs has been reducing ...
Also, good luck with your son starting school - there are several factors to consider when deciding between the cantonal public school and some form of private schooling, so look in the appropriate section of the forum to see what other people have considered and then what they've found ...
Again, welcome, and enjoy your time in Switzerland and on the EF! Get into the Social Events, a good way to stave of mind-numbing boredom ...
Hi Anna and welcome to this forum, a place where nice and funny people meet.
Finally a Swedish - so we can share a common joke: An American is being asked by a Swiss: "Do you know Switzerland?" Says the American: "Sure, I just recently have been in Stockholm"
On a similar note, somebody I was talking to in the middle of last year (over here) was talking about somebody "back home" asking about their neighbours in Switzerland, "So, are the Swedish chicks hot?". The answer was something like, "Yes, there is one Swedish lady who lives in our neighbourhood, and she looks very nice ...".
Just don't ask an Austrian to point out the kangaroos or koalas ...
Yeah, Stockholm (the capital of Scandinavia) also has those polars bears that really disturb the traffic...
...and what a very tactful answer that was
Hi Anna,
Welcome to the EF forum and good luck with your move. We also live in Hombrechtikon and I have two children. My daughter is starting at the primary school in the first class in August. We are both english and have been in switzerland for almost three years now. If you would like to chat more about moving here then please send me a message.
Hi, my name is Rani.
Just moved to the Geneva area from Stockholm!
Crazy to leave Sweden in the summer !
I am origionally English and also have 2 children.
Where exactly are you moving to?
Anna, I wish you good luck with the move! We lived in Zürich area some years ago and we all liked it a lot. I do not think you will regret the move.
Swedish summer is not always nice...
I had to laugh at the joke!
We recently had our honeymoon, and visited Stockholm, Oslo and had a road/hiking trip through Norway. We're also moving to Zurich from Chicago (husband is British) in January.
I cannot believe I've heard:
My cousin asking me: What's Oslo? (Seriously?)
Various friends saying, "Oh, I've been to Stockholm. Is Zurich near there? Do you think you'll have trouble learning Swedish?"
"What are the beaches like in Switzerland? Is there lots of surfing?"
(I'd like to see it on Zurichsee - ha!)
It's both funny and very, very sad.
Agree with that!
Slightly off topic but in a way from the same category:
What is a person called that speaks three languages? Trilingual
What is a person called that speaks two languages? Bilingual
What is a person called that speaks only one language? This must be an American
What does this teach you? Try at least to learn/speak one of our four local languages.
Hi there
I am from London and married to a Swiss man and have a little boy of 10 months, we are currently in the process of buying a house in Hombi but I am a little worried about not having contact with English speakers, good to know that I won't be the only non-Swiss! I have been living in the centre of Zurich for nearly four years now and we've decided to buy something outside since we have a child.
As the final contract for the house has not been signed, the house is not yet ours. As soon as we know it's 'in the bag' I'd be very happy to join/start a small English speaking community in Hombi!
Good luck with the move and perhaps we'll meet for a coffee some time soon.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8173308.stm A Swedish couple in search of the isle of Capri drove to Carpi, an industrial town in northern Italy, because they misspelt the name in their car's GPS.A Swedish couple in search of the isle of Capri drove to Carpi, an industrial town in northern Italy, because they misspelt the name in their car's GPS.
Hi again Anna, looks like you're settling in to the forum ... at least, your thread is attracting a lot of people!
Here's a similar (old) story of an event which seems to happen every year or two ... but this appears to have been the first ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2172858.stm