Why I've moved to Switzerland and why I'm not yet bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

So I've moved with my partner to Geneva, Switzerland as a coincidence. We never dreamed about moving there. We have never been to Switzerland. My knowledge about Switzerland was: cows, chocolate, cheese and weird people, who gave women federal laws in the 70's and voting rights just in the 90s! We have talked about trying living and working abroad for years now, but never made that move. It always stayed in the realm of dreams, but never to be actually possible. For both of us, as IT workers, last year turned out to be a possibility to change something in our lives. Due to world wide pandemic home-office, an unreachable luxury earlier, became not only possible, but also a standard. So there we were, working from home, not able to do anything else (one lock down after another), stress eating and getting more and more frustrated. Why we were frustrated - that's completely another topic, so maybe another time we might discuss this.

So we had our job, but we were getting fat and unhappy. I believe both of us are strongly into problem solving types. So it didn’t take us long to discuss whether we can actually improve something. Oh yes, we could. So instead of going on therapy, limiting our calories, or simply doing some cardio just to improve our health, we agreed to change the most frustrating thing - the country we lived in. We know that we are able to change everything else that can improve our lives. We did this in the past with success, but staying in Poland on our mind wasn't enough. We were simply disappointed. So we had a strong urge not to be disappointed while living in another country.

We have done some research, because we are completely different personalities and have blatantly different assumptions about what we need to know, do and prepare before moving out. We definitely didn’t want to work abroad and have a life in another place in the word. At least not yet.

After that research we had a very long list of possible choices. So next step was to downsize it by picking companies best fitted in our work field, which are based in countries we chose. It definitely shortened the list, but let's be real, we are not some kind of spies to have problems working in most of those countries. We are It guys. We deleted two countries. Still, the choice was too big, so we thought: what's wrong with the place we already live in? Let's find an alternative for our frustration. This was the longest research. But our choice was Switzerland.

It shocked me to be honest. I really thought we were going to move somewhere more obvious, like Germany or the States. I imagined Switzerland is going to be something between Austria and south France. But richer. Like Scrooge McDuck rich. Then my partner got a job in Geneva. I was still convinced that we will move to Germany. Then we went to Geneva for a week. Just to acclimate and check is it doable. Do we like it? Are we comfortable there? If French is not a problem? Can we make our living a little bit less stable and back again renting a flat? Aren’t we too old for such change? Are we going to be ok away from everything and everyone we know and love?

I instantly loved it. Definitely not a large city by the lake, surrounded with mountains. It looked just like the marketing fairyland that is often shown on the Internet. In need of going on a luxury boat party on turquoise lake? Or maybe a train trip through some mountain slopes with amazing views. How about skiing on a glacier? Well. Here you go, welcome to Geneva. Have a sip of free of charge glacier water on every corner, rest under trees in multiple parks and maybe just chill and have a picnic nearby a music concert. Is it me or that thing doesn’t happen to ordinary people or just in Poland?

To answer my second question from the title: why I'm not yet bright-eyed and bushy-tailed? Well I think it just hit me. I understood it's not only changing my address, as I was saying to everyone so far. We flipped our lives upside down and changed everything. Most days I’m alone. Pandemic unlearned us of being all alone. I’m still dealing with many things that I simply don’t understand how they work in Switzerland. And I’m impatient so waiting for every document I am supposed to send by post office makes me nearly fainting. But you know what? I’m learning to be by myself again. I have time and space to learn French, to get to know Switzerland a little bit more and I just feel grateful to have this possibility. So far we were rather lucky with all the arrangements, but still waiting for permanent stay permission. Taking all this into account, especially the lack of a residence and work permit, we decided to move to France in a few days. I suppose it will be less of a culture shock. Plus: little savings on expenses, even with commuting. So definitely moving abroad is a process, not a one week thing. It takes time. So maybe I shouldn’t say I’ve already moved?