Guys, it’s been one year in Switzerland!

One year ago

A little over one year ago, we changed our lives completely. We quit our jobs, sold almost all of our possessions, bought one-way tickets to Switzerland, bid farewell to our loved ones and started our new lives.

Our reason for leaving

There are many versions to this story. A dream. A simpler lifestyle. A better future for our daughter. A safer environment. An opportunity to learn more, to become more and to grow more as a family. Someone (we won’t mention any names) might even tell you that he dreamed of sending his daughter overseas to study later on in life but his wife threatened to leave him and go too and so he decided that he had no choice other than to ship the whole family abroad.

The Swiss awakening

I still remember walking off the plane and suddenly being hit by an incredible sense of self-doubt. What the f*** were we doing. Other than having an apartment to stay in for the first three months, we had nothing. No jobs. No home. No family. No friends.

We agreed to take some time off from the working world to get settled. We needed to get Jules enrolled in school, we needed to find a place to stay, we needed to furnish our apartment and there was a ton of paperwork that needed to be completed but as the weeks rolled by our anxieties grew and whilst I quietly cried myself to sleep at night, Benito sat in the lounge by himself facing his own demons. Each of us trying hard to protect the other from our overwhelming fears. In the mornings, we would go for long walks together and on one of our morning walks we eventually opened up about our evening rituals of torturing ourselves with all the “what ifs”. Benito placed his arm around my shoulders, pulled me in to the biggest bear hug and said, “I know it’s difficult now, but one day we’re going to look back on this all and laugh.”

The very next day, Benito got a call inviting him to attend an interview for a leadership role in a print company. We decided to go shopping for a new suit for the interview to give him the absolute best chance of making a good first impression however due to the fact that we were still converting our precious Rands to Swiss Francs R15 = CHF1), we decided to go to a factory outlet which was selling top brands at a fraction of the price. We carefully picked out his outfit, got his hair cut and off he went for his interview a few days later. Hours went by without any word from him and eventually he called to say that he had gotten the job! “Oh, and by the way, I know why those pants were on sale” he said. “I’m sitting on the train and just realised that the inner leg seam is completely split open.” He was right, we were going to laugh!

Becoming bilingual

One of the hardest things about moving to another country, especially one where you don’t speak the language, is the loss of identity. So much so, that the way I see myself now compared to how I remember myself is sometimes such a strain on my brain, that I just forget who I was and collapse into being a middle-aged mom without a life.  

I initially tried watching a lot of TV because everyone said I needed to watch German TV in order to learn the language. This however will only work if you actually enjoy the German TV because otherwise your mind will quickly wander and you’ll find yourself wasting hours in front of the TV, day-dreaming about nothing in particular. I then switched over to British TV and whilst [slightly] more entertaining than the German TV, I still don’t understand a ‘bloody’ word that is being said even though the Brits are speaking English!

Language is a funny thing … 90% of the people around me speak English to me, which is very difficult when you’re trying to learn another language. However, even when we are all speaking English to one another, there is still a lot of information which gets jumbled up or lost altogether because people aren’t always familiar with the nuances of the language. Benito will often ask me what someone has said and I my reply is usually “I’m not 100% sure, but I think she said …”, even though the person was speaking English to me.

Julia commented the other day that I always smile when people talk to me and I laugh when I don’t understand what’s being said. I hadn’t realised it until she pointed it out to me but I think this has become my coping mechanism. People don’t mind repeating something, trying to explain themselves or switching to your language altogether if you’re friendly to them. Just. Be. Friendly. (And smile, always smile)

I’ve been attending puppy socialising and obedience training classes with Quila which were initially given in German but are now being given in Swiss German. One of the ladies that I attend with has been kind enough to translate the Swiss German lessons into English for me and has been taking her role as my translator very seriously. Last week though, there were only two of us at the lesson, myself and ‘my translator’, and because we both spoke English, the instructor decided to give the lesson in English. This did not deter my translator one bit, she listened carefully and summarised the entire English lesson for me in English. (Smile and wave people, just smile and wave!)

Home

I know that I joke and make light of situations and then write blog posts a year later telling people that I actually cried myself to sleep but the truth of the matter is that we are happy! We absolutely love living here and whilst our hearts will always be in South Africa our home is now here nestled between the woodlands and the farmlands.

One year in photos


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