Since I can't share our new journey in life with everyone yet, I decided the second best thing would be to write all my thoughts in this blog so that whenever this does become "official" I can post all of my entries for you to read so that you can get an idea of the process we went through in making living in Switzerland a reality. I plan to also continue to update this blog so that you can follow our adventures overseas!
Where to begin - we have been interested in living abroad for awhile. It has always been a desire of mine since I never got the opportunity to do it in college and Ryan has always wanted a repeat performance of his study abroad semester in college in Italy -- one of the perks being that he wants to grow his hair out long again like it was in Italy :) I'm really lucky to have such an adventurous soon-to-be husband that will take risks and jump on opportunities like this. My company has always had a lot of opportunities for doing "secondments" abroad, as they are called because it is such a large company with offices in almost every country. After a few phone conversations to confirm whether this opportunity would be a good professional fit, Ryan and I had quite a few serious heart to heart convos on whether this was something we really wanted to pursue. Obviously as you can see, we decided to proceed forward and we decided to visit to ensure that we were interested in moving here. Ryan and I decided that he needed to come visit as well to check out the local job market and make the decision with me as to whether he would like to move too.
So, as I write this, I'm sitting in row 36D of Air Canada flight 2030 en route to Geneva from Montreal and what a travel adventure it has been so far! I left work at 4PM on Friday and headed straight to the airport, my flight to Montreal was pretty uneventful but then the fun started when Air Canada cancelled my overnight flight to Geneva last night. So instead of arriving to Geneva on time and spending Saturday exploring the city with Ryan and attending dinner with a colleague, Air Canada put the whole flight up in a hotel last night and scheduled a new flight this morning. Apparently Air Canada pilots were on some sort of "unofficial" strike and the pilot called in "sick" as a form of striking. Thanks a lot buddy! In the meantime, Ryan was also travelling - except to Zurich and then via a train to Geneva (since he can fly for free on US Airways and US Airways only flies to Zurich). So poor Ryan got to the hotel thinking I would be there waiting to explore the city with him for the day - instead the receptionist had to give him the bad news that I was still stuck in Montreal. So now we are about an hour or so from landing in Geneva at 10PM Saturday instead of the originally planned 10AM Saturday.
All bad travel chronicles aside, I'm extremely excited for this trip, but also a bit nervous. For those of you that know me well, taking risks and making big changes is NOT my specialty - in fact, I'm probably the world's worst risk taker. In the spirit of full disclosure, below are the considerations that are currently the most worrisome to me that we are trying to work through and evaluate before I sign any contracts:
1. Being terribly homesick for several years (are we really okay with living SO far away from our family and friends?)
2. Living in the world's most expensive country - we don't want to lose all of our savings upon moving (as an example, a Big Mac costs around $10 in Switzerland!)
3. Ryan finding a job, getting a work permit, going to grad school, or finding something else to do that will further his career as well and keep him happy (the Swiss government is EXTREMELY strict on who they give work permits out to, without a valid work permit - you are not allowed to be employed).
Despite these potential "scary" points, we have to keep convincing ourselves that nothing good will come without taking a risk in some shape or form. From everything I have heard, the Geneva/Lausanne area is exactly the type of place that we would enjoy settling down in for a few years. Here are a couple of initial quick tid bits on the area that we found in our beginning research that raised our interest in looking into living here:
1. Switzerland and the Geneva area in particular have consistently been rated as having the highest quality of life in the world;
2. The French border is only 6 miles away from Geneva and Italy is only an hour away (read: numerous, easy weekend trips, holler!);
3. The local language of the Lake Geneva area is French and Swiss French is very similar to "French French"; therefore, the fact that I learned French for 7 years means that I have a slight advantage in the language which is a definite plus (and my company will provide local language classes);
4. Geneva is a very international city and consists of around 50% expats, which means there are LOTS of people who are willing and interested in making new friends;
5. Geneva is a relatively small city (of around 200,000) which makes us happy because we don't want to live in a huge city like NYC or Singapore and at the same time, we don't want to live in the European version of the boonies;
6. The area seems GORGEOUS! If you watched The Bachelor this season you can attest to this - Switzerland has some of the world's most beautiful mountains, lakes, and towns - and I cannot wait to see the beauty first hand;
7. The perks of moving abroad for a company are great - they provide a lock of packing, moving, and "home leave" assistance. So, essentially we could move abroad with (relatively) minimal hassle and expense.
8. This opportunity is also a great way for me to grow professionally (as well as for Ryan when/if he finds the right job/grad school fit here). International experience in the business world is always viewed positively because it is a test of flexibility and resilience.
So there you have it, this is essentially a recap what we've been thinking about over the past few months and where we stand today - at the crossroads of a potentially amazing journey for the next few years!
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