Ten years in Switzerland

On February 2 2014, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I took a flight from Gran Canaria. I was carrying two suitcases, a backpack, a six-month work contract and most of our savings. Approximately four hours later I landed in Zurich. I had moved to Switzerland.

Arrival

I had been in Zurich before for a round of interviews with the company that I was joining as iOS developer. So I more or less knew how to get around. After taking a train to the city centre and tram line 3 to Albisrieden, I knocked on the door of the apartment I was going to share with Miki, my new Spanish flatmate.

I was incredibly blessed to have found this flat. My employer had asked me two weeks before if I could start in February and it barely took me ten days to find Miki’s ad on spaniards.es. I learned later that that was incredibly fast for Zurich standards. It usually takes several months to find a flat for a reasonable rent.

My wife had stayed back in Gran Canaria. Our savings were not much and with just a six-month work contract we couldn’t afford moving together. The idea was for her to keep her job while I did all my best to turn that temporary gig into something permanent. Once I had settled down we would then plan her moving too.

Luckily I didn’t have to wait six months. My employer did an internal restructure of the company in June and offered me a permanent position. I will always be grateful to them for their trust, as well as to all the people that helped me shine during that period. I wouldn’t be here without them.

A couple of months later, in August 2014, I moved into what would become our home to this day: a flat in the Sihl valley, next to the Sihl river and a small forest, about fifteen minutes by train from the city centre.

Changes

Ten years has passed since then and I’m happy to call Switzerland home. Moving here has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Because even when we had to leave our family, friends and our beloved island behind, this nation has given us a lot in return too.

I see things now with a more nuanced perspective. I have internalised that what I had once considered the obvious way of doing certain things, can also be done differently. And that’s because context matters: what works for a society or a country doesn’t have to work for another; and vice versa.

I have learned Schweizer Hochdeutsch, theoretically the official language in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, while trying to keep up with all dialects of Schwiizerdütsch, the one that’s spoken in practice.

Understanding some basic expressions in Swiss French, Swiss Italian (or even Romansh!) has become somewhat ordinary. And in Zurich in particular, where foreigners represent about 32% of the resident population, I have gotten used to interacting with people from many different backgrounds.

I have had my fair share of xenophobia as well. Definitely not as much as other individuals from other (often stigmatised) ethnic or racial groups. But enough to realise that some Swiss have the remarkable ability of being incredibly nice and helpful, while at the same time never failing to remind you that you are not from here.

My relationship with nature has also evolved. As a good islander, I thought I would never get used to being away from the sea. And the truth is that I still miss it¹. But I found in the Alps the perfect complement. Being at the top of a big mountain and admiring the immensity around feels quite similar to being on the beach and contemplating the vastness of the ocean.

Moreover, I have somehow acquired this relatedness of many Swiss to the mountains and wanting to explore them often. Thanks to that I became fond of mountain running and hiking and learned my currently favourite sport: snowboarding.

And yes, it’s cold and it gets dark early in winter. But I have also discovered that having four perfectly distinct seasons allows me to enjoy life in different ways, each one with its own particular weather, colours, events and customs.

I don’t know to what extent this has helped, but since we moved we haven’t owned a car. And I don’t miss it at all. In fact, it bothers me now when I go back to Gran Canaria and see the city dominated by them. Here we always travel by public transport or by bicycle. When we have to buy a large piece of furniture, we simply rent a van. And when family or friends come to visit, sometimes we rent a car because it’s normally cheaper for them².

Uncertainty

Despite all the people we have met, the close friends we have made and how our lives have all in all changed for the better, we considered moving back to Spain at some point during 2020.

Not everything about living in Switzerland is a fairy tale. And six years away from our family were taking a toll at moments (and still does, actually). It was also a period of uncertainty, together with a pandemic, some personal crisis and other plans not going as expected.

So we weren’t sure if staying here for longer was the right thing to do. But precisely because we weren’t sure, we decided to take a step back and focus only on improving our well-being, both mentally and physically. So we waited a little more, and then a little more,… and here we are still.

Present and future

Now, I don’t think the Swiss people will consider me as Swiss in the sense that I wasn’t born nor raised here. Despite my best intentions to integrate and embrace the culture, and I believe I have done so, there are small gaps that will always be difficult to fill.

But to be honest I’m not too concerned because I’m happy to be Spanish as well³. Even when I don’t see myself only Spanish anymore, it’s still an integral part of who I am. And I like it.

In the end it feels as though my national identity is plain and simply a mix of the two and I got the best of both worlds. In many aspects I now think and feel like a Swiss, while in others my characteristic Canarian and Spanish personality is clearly present.

So here’s to more years in Switzerland!