Summer in Zurich
Summer arrived in Zurich while I was away in the U.S. The spring tulips are gone, replaced by summer wildflowers, the heat and humidity bear down, and all the sheep across the street from my apartment sit under the trees the whole day long. People are swimming in the lake, jogging in tank tops, and riding the train to summer destinations. I could use a rail trip.
I realized recently that I haven’t written a lot about living in Zurich. In fact, my posts have mostly been about every country other than Switzerland. Earlier this year, I actually hadn’t been spending a lot of time in Switzerland. If I get my leave, this trend will continue, but for now, let me tell you a little bit about Zurich.
I live on the third floor of a 4-unit apartment building in Wollishofen, a suburb of Zurich. While my apartment is technically the third floor, Europeans consider this the second floor, since the first floor is counted as floor zero. (Computer programmers, anyone?) I don’t share any walls with my neighbors, just the downstairs and upstairs, which makes for a spectacular apartment with windows in every room, and two balconies, one extending from the kitchen and one from the living room.
The Swiss advertise apartments in terms of number of rooms. We sort of do this in the U.S. too, the difference being that every room in a Swiss apartment is counted, whereas in the U.S. only the bedrooms are counted. Thus, a four room apartment could have four rooms that are identical to one another, and it’s left to your imagination what room might make a suitable bedroom. This also means that if you wanted, you could have four bedrooms and no living or dining room, which is exactly what some people do here since rents are so high.
The vacancy rate in Zurich hovers around 1%, making it next to impossible to procure an apartment if you aren’t Swiss or don’t have an awesome relocation agent and/or awesome Swiss German speaking friends. There’s a bit of xenophobia in this little city, as landlords are somewhat convinced that foreigners will run off without paying their rent, so in order to apply for an apartment, you have to submit a letter from your employer stating your income, a copy of your work permit, and in some cases that I’ve heard of, copies of your diplomas or proof that you’re a PhD or MD, because landlords love to put these titles on the name plaque next to the doorbell of your apartment.
As for utilities, the internet is either DSL or cable, as in the States, and the local cable company that provides high-speed internet here seems to have about as good a reputation as Comcast back home. You have a choice of the type of electricity used in your home, that is, you can choose whether you want to only use naturally generated electricity (wind/water), regular electricity (I guess this is like the low octane gasoline?), or a mix of both. Interestingly, it costs more per KwH for the “naturally” generated electricity. I brought the form into work to ask a German speaking coworker what the selections were. “Why would you ever choose the natural electricity if it costs more?” I asked. Apparently this was a very American question to ask, as he raised his eyebrow at me and replied, “Because you will have a good feeling knowing that you are helping the environment.”
You have to buy special garbage bags for your trash. These are called “Züri-Sacke” and are only sold at the grocery store, behind the counter. The bags come in two sizes, 35 and 60 liter, but in my opinion unless you have a huge family that’s throwing out trash constantly, it only makes sense to buy the smaller size, as you are technically paying per bag for your garbage (about CHF 2 per bag, by my calculations, which right now is the same as $2). Since you can only put Züri-Sacke in the dumpsters you find yourself never wanting a trash compacter as much as you did here in Zurich. The trouble starts with things like chicken bones, vegetable trimmings, and other food items that have that nasty habit of rotting in the trash bags and stinking up your whole house. I still haven’t found a good way to get rid of this kind of thing, as garbage disposals are unheard of and they don’t make a small Züri-Sack. I’ve taken to not eating or cooking at home, which is pretty much what I did in the U.S. anyway.
I suppose you’re wondering how the hell anyone would know who it was that threw a non Züri-Sack in the dumpster. I’ve been thinking about this myself for some time, but then I became aware that eventually your neighbors would tell on you, which is what they’re notorious for around here. Kiwi insists that there is some kind of “garbage police” that go around looking in everyone’s bags to see who threw what out, but I’m still not sure I believe him.
You’re also not supposed to make any noise after 10 p.m. This means you can’t run the washer, dryer, or dishwasher after 10 either. I think enforcement of this varies from burb to burb, as I’ve had no trouble washing my clothes after 10, but I will admit I tread as if a baby was sleeping on every step of my apartment building when I’m doing so. By the way, if you don’t have a washer and dryer in your own apartment, there’s a schedule for using them usually down in the laundry room. That’s right, you have to pencil in when you’re going to need the washer next so you can reserve your spot. Again, this isn’t as big a problem in my little apartment building, but it still baffles me that anyone could know weeks in advance when they’re going to need to do their laundry. And so, if you think you are an organized person, try living in Switzerland and seeing what you’re really made of.
There are advantages to anality, which I bet you didn’t know. The same behavior that makes the Swiss insist you don’t flush the toilet after 10 p.m. and put your trash in special bags makes their public transit the most reliable system in the entire world. It’s also clean, quiet, and pretty much just pure luxury to ride. This isn’t to say that I don’t think that riding in someone’s Beemer or Mercedes or Ferrari (a common second car here) wouldn’t be luxury, except that I haven’t yet found my Swiss sugar daddie yet so it’s going to have to be the train. Public transit within the city goes nearly everywhere, and I haven’t owned a car since I left the U.S. Payment is on the honor system, which simply means that if you’re caught without a ticket you’re fined CHF 80, and they write down their name so they can increase the fine the second time. Kiwi and I did estimate, however, that based on how often they actually check (not often) and how much it costs to ride the tram or bus (anywhere from CHF 2 to CHF 6, and that’s with the Halbtax card that you pay CHF 150 for to reduce all your transit fares), that it might be cheaper just risking it and never buying a ticket. In fact, this is what the Spanish UI designer in our office does all the time. Still, I’m a bit of a chickenshit and I mostly pay unless I don’t have any change.
In April there was a uniquely Swiss holiday called “Sechseleuten” in which the guild members of the city (yes, this actually still exists) gallop around on horseback down by Bellevue tram station and everyone parades about in traditional Swiss garb. The highlight of this event is the burning of the Böögg, this giant paper snowman on a huge pyre in the center of the festivities. The burning snowman represents an end to winter, and once the pyre is set ablaze, the amount of time it takes for it to reach the top and blow up the snowman’s unfortunate fireworks-filled head is supposed to be an indicator of the upcoming summer. The less time it takes the head to explode the better the summer will be, hotter and longer and the kind of summer we all long for in grade school. The whole thing is sort of the Swiss version of Groundhog Day. You can see the burning snowman progression here.
This year it took the snowman’s head ages to explode, which was partly due to a very rainy (even haily) Sechseleuten day. I don’t really know how to evaluate the accuracy of this prediction. When I returned from the U.S. the inside of my apartment was as hot as a paper snowman’s exploding head, and since air conditioning is illegal in Switzerland due to environmental reasons, our office wasn’t faring any better. It’s two days later, however, and it’s cooled down significantly, enough so that my officemates declared it too cold to go swimming in the lake at lunch today. Life is hard here, you know.
On a good day, you can actually see the Alps from the top floor of our office. I know, pretty unbelievable.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I would love to see photos of your apt!