I’m fortunate that most of my classes are group project based. This makes it really easy for me to meet people from the area as we have to work together. Classes are in general the nicest way for me to meet people because all my classes are in English so it means that the students speak English.
There are also language programs called tandem which pairs students looking to learn new languages. Students sign up and tell the program what language they know and what they want to learn and the program pairs them up with someone who is the opposite so they can teach each other. Unfortunately, my tandem pairing fell through, so I never met my partner; however, I’ve met my flatmates partners.
My most interesting purchase since getting here has probably been my Swiss army knife. Zürich is one of the most expensive cities in the world and the Swiss franc is really strong right now, making living here expensive, so I don’t make a lot of purchases. The only real purchase I’ve made is that of my Swiss army knife which I use as a keychain. Not many people carry Swiss army knives here as they are mainly for tourists; however, I’ve found mine to be super useful. It’s not a super complicated or featured one, but it does have 2 knives, a bottle opener, a corkscrew, tweezers, a toothpick and scissors. For me this makes it pocket sized and light, which is great for carrying around.
Because the currency is so strong, I haven’t really purchased anything else other than travel and practical things such as shampoo and food. The pocket knife was even a little practical because I needed something to attach my key to as well as a knife and scissors. In my previous blog post I gave an example of the price of McDonalds to compare Zürich prices to Boston. In Boston a big mac meal would run about $3-5 whereas here it runs about ~20CH. Because the franc is almost 1:1 with the US dollar, it is really easy to see how expensive everything is. My general philosophy has been spend as little as possible without missing out on experiences so that I can travel more. In general, I cook at home and don’t go to coffee shops or things like that. I do buy cheese and chocolate and other things that I wouldn’t want to miss out on while I’m here and can’t get in the states; however, I pass on things like Starbucks. In terms of being in Zürich overall, I’ve found that as long as I’m frugal, the cost of living in Zürich is manageable; however, without working it is hard to stomach the prices sometimes.
