Case Switzerland

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Second week

As for a second week in the Switzerland, there was much less action compared to the first week. I started to look for apartments seriously, and as it was seen, there were not that much reasonable apartments availabe as I have thought. I started to look for apartments near the stations to where was a direct train connection from Bubikon, so that I wouldn't have to change train when going to work. I tried to find apartments with 2 or 3 rooms, with about 50-60 square meters. As it was, also other people wanted apartments near the stations, so finding a good one was not going to be an easy task.

One of the apartments in the internet search page Homegate did seem very promising, but when I called the company which was mentioned in the page, they told me that the apartment was already rented. I called few others and asked about information and if they could be visited. I went to see one which was reasonably priced, quite close from a station and with 70 square meters. As I arrived to the scene, one man arrived to show me the apartment. He lead me to a larger apartment, with rent also bigger than in the adverticement. After repeadetly asking him if there were smaller apartment in the same building, and he replying that there wasn't, I returned to search some more.

I did call some more and asked if they could be seen. One of those which I called was being advertised by the same company as the apartment which I had visited. I told the guy that there was mistake in the internet page, that the apartment size and price did not match. He told that there were 2 apartments availabe in that building, and I had visited the larger one. He gave me a telephone number which to call for the person responsible for that aparment.

Scene near the Zürich main station (HBF)

There was also one slightly unusual adverticement, which I e-mailed and the person did call me back to make an appointment. The apartment was used as his office, and he lived in other address. He arrived to his office mostly during normal office hours, so most of the time I would be there alone, as I would be at work during office hours too. Also 2 rooms there would be totally private, so I could have some level of privacy when needed even though I stayed there during work days. But, as his office things were there, he wanted to get to know the tenant personally, so he could trust the person enough to leave his stuff in there without fear of them getting smuggled.

I went there for some time, mostly just to chat with him, and both occasionally asking also things concerning the apartment. There were few problems, one of them that I did have contract now for only 6 months, so he might need to find a new tenant after 6 months. Also for my side, the current residental person was going to leave in 2 months, so I couldn't move in before that. However, there was one extra room mostly empty, which I might be able to vacate for that 2 month period and then move to the two rooms which were designed for the renter.

Actually, his business idea was just genius, just that it needed the correct contacts to work. He worked for free for companies. His work was to find cheaper methods of doing something, mostly purchasing stuff, I guess. If he found some method of cutting costs, with for example finding cheaper provider for certain component, he did receive half of the benefit for a duration of one year. If he didn't succeed, then he gained nothing. So there was absolutely no risk for any company to hire him, just mutual benefit to gain if he succeeded. Pure genius idea for working, but certainly you would need enough contacts for this to work out.

We agreed to call next week to see what he had decided about different applicants, and also if I were interested in such arrangement. The price for the apartment was really low, and the location was very close to one station, so it was very tempting. I'm still giving it serious consideration, as I'm looking for other apartments the same time. I went see one apartment which was not close but also not far from a station, and for which the price was more than for that office apartment. The place was a real dump. So it seemed that good apartments really weren't that easy to find.

Scene from a hill in the Zürich downtown

So far, I had been mainly looking for apartments which were to Zürich's direction from Bubikon. At this point, I decided that I should also look for the other direction, however I knew that especially those apartments near Rapperswill which had a view to the Lake Zürich would cost more that those which I had been visiting. There were some apartments which might be good enough, so I thought I should go to look for them. However, the week was nearing it's end, so I would have to make those visits next week.

On saturday, my brother arrived from Münich to drop me some furniture. As I had not yet aquired an apartment, the furniture was dropped off at my colleges garage. There was also a television, which was hauled to my apartment. Now I can see 2 channels, SF1 and SF2. As I'm still waiting for the internet connection to arrive, the television at least gives me some entertainment, although both channels are almost totally german-speaking.

As I told last week that it begun to rain quite heavily, it really did, even more than I had thought. There were major floods around Middle-Europe, and it seems that this time they were more severe than for ages. There was no flooding in this area, as it seems to be higher ground. I'm not yet that familiar with the surroundings, but I was told so. It's actually quite difficult to estimate height differences, as there are up and downhills everywhere. Also watcing news today, both from the television and from CNN's website, the hurricane Katrina was nearing New Orleans, and the mayor had ordered an evacuation for the city. 1.4 million people were being evacuated, during one day if I understood correctly. Regarding the CNN news, the wind speed reached near 175 mph speed, and that the storm did rise the water level with 28 feet, so that the water might cover about 70% of the city area. It's estimated that the hurricane will hit the coast next morning US time, so next week we now better how bad it really hit, but for now, the prediction doesn't sound good. Again regarding to the CNN news, only three hurricanes with the same category has ever hit the US landfall since record has been kept, where the last one caused over 26 billion US dollar worth of damage.

Actually, there's non-dubbed comedy series now playing in the SF1 channel, called Little Britain. I guess I'm going to watch it a little, maybe read few lines of the latest Harry Potter (which is quite good, I'm almost in the end now), and then hit the bed. A quote from the Little Britain: "When people in Britain want to buy a pet, they go to a pet shop. If they want to buy a pet shop, they go to a pet shop shop. If they want to buy a pet shop shop, well, they're just being silly. "