Zurich - Arrival

Moving Home - New Zealand Style

As explained, I arrived back from The Big Holiday two days later than planned due to various flights being delayed. This meant I then had two days fewer in which to say my goodbyes and prepare for my move to Zurich.

Sahl Hasheesh did its best to make me not want to leave. The weather was absolutely perfect; hot by day and warm by night, but not so hot that you can’t sleep. The sea was warm. A new foul and falafel place opened in a pretty courtyard.

Unfortunately, I had a cold and was frustrated at not having the energy to swim until the very last day. I could have wept!

It’s a lovely life; quite a few people were around, so socially I was also busy. I couldn’t have wanted for more, other than additional time.

But I’d signed the contract on the flat, signed the contract for the job; there was no going back.

However, whereas anything to do with Egypt has been associated with throwing up as many difficulties as possible, my move to Zurich has been so spookily smooth that if feels positively unnatural.

Even before I actually moved, it felt as if the gods were smiling on me with this move. It had just been a matter of chance that Willem let me know about the job just when I was feelingt that maybe it would be a good thing to do. Unlike other job applications, it all went quickly and smoothly. I found a flat where the person was looking for someone to take their flat for precisely the same 12 months that I needed it. Moreover, the flat was just 13 minutes’ walk away from my work and close to an outdoor pool. My C work permit for Switzerland was still valid, but only up to the end of December, so I was returning just in time. It even turned out well that I didn’t go to Japan straight away since my late return to Egypt would have made it very difficult for me to start work a week earlier. As I said, it was all spookily smooth.

The same trend continued, I’m a bit scared to report.

I bought a new suitcase in Spinneys, got housekeeping to do my ironing for me, packed my clothes. Nicole gave me a lift to the airport. There was a large queue at check-in, but the guy at Germania airlines (new airline to me) offered to check the Swiss airlines customers in as well. Everyone hesitated, not really believing he could do it, but I went over and skipped the queue.

There was another long queue at passport control (wrongly called “Immigration” at the airport), but an official pointed at me and asked me to come out of the queue and go over to him. I did as I was bidden, he checked my passport and let me go through. I have no idea why, but I didn’t have the long wait as a result.

On getting my third stamp on my two-occasion exit visa, the finality of my decision to move to Zurich was imprinted on me. My year’s visa was now invalidated because I didn’t have the re-entry visa for the third trip (although, another piece of good fortune, my year’s visa was up in May anyway, so all very good timing).

The flight was smooth; when I arrived I dashed to the toilet before collecting my luggage and my new case appeared on the conveyor belt just as I returned. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

The only problem I had was when I tried to buy my yearly train pass on arrival. They wouldn’t accept my Egyptian passport-sized photo as it wasn’t big enough. Typical Egypt! Only then do things go wrong.

The weather was beautiful, which is far from given in Switzerland. It was just as well, since I was wearing only a light jacket as I arrived, but the sun was shining and it wasn’t a problem, but it could easily have been cold and rainy. My luck was in.

I arrived early at my flat, so the woman whose flat it was hadn’t got there yet. I went into the supermarkets nearby to buy cereal and milk for the next morning and couldn’t resist buying a half-price chocolate Easter bunny (I’ve formed an addiction to buying these – I have bought four additional ones in my first week; they only cost 1 CHF now and I can’t resist). As you can imagine, I was pretty happy and it was surprisingly nice to be back in a Swiss supermarket.

The woman handing the flat over to me was exceedingly kind. She’d bought a new mattress, gave me a present of slippers, left me two packets of coffee capsules for the coffee machine so that I could try them out for free before buying my own, she said I could drink all the spirits in her drinks cupboard.

I felt a bit embarrassed when she kept on talking about the KZ (kah zay), which seemed very important to her, so I had to ask what KZ stood for, and it turned out that she was saying “Katze” (cat), but I couldn’t grasp what it was with the Swiss accent.

I felt a little bit cold in the evening and was a bit worried when I looked at the duvet, which seemed quite thin, but actually it was fine and I had one of my best night’s sleep in a long time. I have memories of Switzerland being the only place where I’ve lived (Egypt has now been added) where I’ve had the occasional sleeping difficulty, but that’s not been the case so far. The duvet was warm, the bed was comfortable; I couldn’t want for more. A sense of unreality reigned.