What it's like living in Zurich

---

I recently finished up living in Zurich for 2+ years. It's past time that I share some of my thoughts and observations on life in Zurich. I think that most of the cultural observations would extend to urban German-speaking Switzerland, but certainly not to all of Switzerland, as the French and Italian parts have a lot of cultural overlap with France and Italy, respectively.

A lot of the stereotypes of Zurich are well-deserved. Scheduled events (trains, appointments, races) are generally punctual. The city has a reputation of being driven by the finance and insurance industries, with their high-paid workers constituting a large portion of Zurich's wealthy elite. However, this often overshadows the fact that the poorest people in Zurich (at least those who have full-time jobs), are much better off and higher paid than those in anyplace that I've ever visited before, or am aware of.

The simplest analysis of the culture of Zurich should recognize the divide between the traditional Swiss, and the immigrant communities. The second generation immigrants may stick closer to their cultural roots or adopt more of the Swiss culture, depending on where they are from. I noticed in particular a large second generation contingent from the Balkans and Turkey that seemed to stick together socially (probably in sub-groups) and didn't particularly mesh into traditional Swiss culture. This post is largely about the culture of the traditional Swiss Germans, in particular, Zurchers.

Social conventions and conservatism

Zurich is pretty socially conservative in a lot of, but not all, ways. The culture is most definitely not an outgoing one, and people generally keep to themselves, if alone, or to their groups. Without a bridging contact, there's little interaction across groups in social venues. Strangers sometimes start conversations with you, but in my experience, only if they are >70, or you are dressed for the mountains. It's possible to start casual conversations with the Swiss, but it's more likely to be an uphill effort than almost anywhere else I've traveled to. Unfortunately, the situation in bars is only marginally better. I found meetup.com (particularly the expat groups) helpful for putting a social life together here.

Fashion conformity here was a bit stifling for me. I often wear sandals as long as I can bear it, but this attracted many stares out-of-season. My Californian dressing habits (i.e. shorts, Ts, hoodies, etc) were waaaay too informal here, and I think I shot myself in the foot socially on more than one occasion by being under dressed. There is a noticeable counter-culture to this oppressive conformity, however. In particular, tattoos have become very popular, although perhaps not in the banking/finance class.

Standards of sexual propriety were surprising to me. Some saunas are coed, with nakedness encouraged. There are areas along the river where naked sunbathing is OK. Yet you are expected to have a shirt on if you go for a jog through the city - even in summer in the hot sun. I generally ignored this, and received a lot of stares for it. There are no American scruples about female janitors cleaning up the men's bathroom (I'm not sure about vice versa). Prostitution is legal, relatively open, and readily available in certain parts of the city. It's not unusual to find (non-obvious) freelancing girls in some of the trendier nightclubs, especially the ones that wealthy financiers frequent.

Living

The vast majority of Zurchers < 40 speak very good English. For this reason, and the fact that Swiss German is practically another language from high (standard) German, I never bothered with learning any German while living here. A word to the wise: Avoid renting from Swiss landlords, especially when they live next-door. They will use any and all opportunities to peek into your place, and if you aren't keeping cleanliness and organization up to Swiss standards (you won't be, unless you are OCD), then you will hear about it, subtly or not so subtly.

Physically and logistically, Zurich is an incredible city. Public transportation gets you everywhere, usually pretty quickly. Nature is never far away, with a lake and rivers that are great for swimming in the summertime. Small mountains for hiking are just on the outskirts of the city, and a nice selection of serious mountains for skiing is a mere 60-90 min train ride. Zurich has parallels with Denver and Salt Lake city in this way.

A lot of German-speaking Swiss hold resentment towards the fact that a lot of German expats have invaded their country. I asked one why, and she said "because they are similar to us in many ways, but aren't us." Umm. . .fair enough :P. The Bavarians can also be a bit loud boisterous, which doesn't mesh with Swiss standards of proper conduct. However, the Swiss do celebrate Oktoberfest around Zurich, albeit in a bit more moderate fashion than in Munich 😉

Money

Everyone has a lot of it. OK, maybe not everyone, but if you have a job you are probably doing alright. Checkout people in markets here make >$25 /hr. But on the flip side, health insurance isn't included in that, and Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Everything bears its proper price here. Public bathrooms generally cost a franc to use. I almost laughed out loud when an elderly landlord who had let me store my things in his basement while I was away for a summer offered to help me move them. . .for 30 francs (a franc is just a bit more than $1). Eating out is so expensive here that I didn't do it all that often. There are virtually NO options to eat at a sit-down restaurant for <25 francs. If you want to eat for less, you need to go for kebab, Bratwurst, or a few slices of pizza from a quickie place. On the other hand, prices include tax, and the expected tip is very small. They are also generally fine with settling a bar/restaurant bill person-by-person, cash or credit, which is handy. I didn't find drinks to be more expensive than in the expensive American cities (NYC, SF, DC).

No one shies away from accepting 100 franc notes here. I've used one at a gas station to buy a pack of gum, and the teller didn't bat an eyelid. A rental agency requested that my flatmates and I submit our 6000 franc deposit in cash, so we obliged, using 1000 franc notes, the largest denomination value-wise in the world. You would think that such a financialized city would be on the forefront of bitcoin adoption, but to my disappointment, merely a handful of businesses were accepting it by the time of my departure (Dec 2013), and none of those were bars or restaurants.

Rules

The Swiss Germans take rules rather more seriously than most peoples of the world. But it's (usually) not to the point of absurdity. I never once found a store to be closed during their posted open hours. I must say that I really enjoyed that the convention of standing only on the right side of an escalator is well-respected here. I was flabbergasted in my first couple of weeks here when I'd arrive at a crosswalk and seemingly 90% of the people would wait until it gave a walk signal to cross, even at night with no cars in sight! However, I noticed that when I break file and walk, then others often follow. Deep-down, they obviously want to break free of this oppressive rule-following 😉

The locals (especially elderly) aren't shy about letting any rule-violators know it. If you are violating a mere social convention, then you might escape with just a penetrating I-see-you stare, but if it's something more major, then you will hear about it.

The respect for rules and order in Switzerland allow certain systems to function that I couldn't imagine working in the US. For example, I was surprised to find that I completed an order online, and they never asked for my credit card information. I thought perhaps I had made a mistake, but the item was shipped to me with a bill to pay inside. I suspect that this can work out OK partially because the city has records on where all of its inhabitants live at all times (you must register in this way upon arrival and every time you move). Self-checkout was successfully rolled out in a lot of the grocery stores in the city, with little to no oversight/inspection of the process. In most cities in the US, I suspect that the losses to theft would be too high to allow for this.

And breaking them Once I was transporting a bed on the train (already a faux-pas of sorts) from just outside the city-zone, and didn't have the proper ticket. The controller let it slide, believing, I think, that I was a new foreigner, not familiar with the ways of the city. Don't bet on getting away with things like this though. I once didn't update the stamp on my ID card in time for the new semester. This is what they check to see if they will let you into the gym or not. Fortunately, I had the receipt showing I had paid already, and they did let me in, but reluctantly, and only after a “you should know better” lecture :P. Often, breaking the rules merely costs you a bit of dough. When I was a bit late with registration stuff in Zurich, they just fined me some money, and then it was all fine. In Paris, a similar incident caused a major bureaucratic headache, forcing me to go all over the city to see different fonctionaires.

Work

To broadly generalize, Zurich is a great place work-wise, which is the sole reason that many of the expats are there. Your coworkers will likely be on-point, reliable, intelligent, and hardworking (by European standards). Work-life balance is generally well-respected, with multiweek vacations in the summer being the norm, and generally reasonable working hours. The overall vacation time is great compared to the US, but probably doesn't equal France's. Salaries are some of the best in the world, and I think this holds up when measured in purchasing power, despite Zurich's expense.

I particularly had a great experience working as a postdoctoral researcher in mathematics at ETH Zurich, one of Switzerland's two technology institutes. The working conditions were better than any job at my level that I am aware of in the world. On the downside, the relationship of faculty to students was far too formal for my taste. The students were typically petrified to say anything in class, for fear of saying something incorrect. Once a student wrote to me "Dear Mister Professor Doctor Strong." To be fair, this wouldn't be so strange by German standards, but that just underscores my point about the degree of formality and hierarchy within the work culture. Relations within my department were casual and friendly, but many events involving students or broader communities seemed to result in an aristocratic air around the faculty.

Privacy

The Swiss are legendary for their high standards of personal privacy. I found this to be quite irritating, and a huge barrier for befriending the locals. It's a major reason why I wouldn't want to move back here. Zurich is probably one of the safest cities in the world, yet the locals seem frightened of, or at least averse to, the most casual social interaction with strangers. One funny story along these lines was when I approached a cute girl at a bar to chat.

Me: “Did you just come from shopping?”

Her: “No, I don't live in Zurich, but am here for the evening for dinner with a friend” .

Me: “Oh, where do you live then?”

Her: "I don't see any reason I should tell you that."

Me: “Well. . .at least I know you're Swiss!”

After a rather large number of similar experiences with Swiss girls, I gave up on them. My supervisor here for 2+ years is Swiss. I still know almost nothing about his personal life. This is typical for boss-worker relations in Zurich, and I think is just part of their standards of professionalism. However, for me it contributes to the workplace being an unnecessarily cold and formal environment. Fortunately, I worked with lots of expats too.

Freedom

The US rhetoric of "land of the free" and the like seems increasingly delusional to me the more time I spend abroad. The US has a LOT of restrictions on personal liberties.

Alcohol Some of the most glaring are restrictions on alcohol (e.g. open container laws). You can drink openly on the streets in many places in Europe. In Zurich, it's even permissible to drink on the trams (my American visitors required multiple assurances that it was OK to do so :D ). Alcohol can be sold w/o time, or concentration restrictions.

Drugs - Amounts for individual use are mostly decriminalized. Fines certainly exist, but drug problems are treated appropriately as addictions requiring treatment, not as offenses requiring lockup.

Topless women sunbathing - Legal in designated areas. Do we really mind this?!

Prostitution - Legal in many countries in Europe, including Switzerland.

Safety and liability - It's quite obvious that liability laws in Switzerland are not as crazy as they are in the US. Many not-entirely safe behaviors are not only tolerated, but can even be sponsored by the city, like this 10m platform they installed in the lake in the summer to jump off of. Imagine that in the US (yeah right). My local pool at home decided to remove their 2m springboard because the liability insurance on it was too high.

Corporate contrast Most of what I mentioned above are personal liberties (what the US rhetorically prides itself on). However, when you get into the category of corporate liberties, then things look quite a bit different: Almost all stores are actually forced to be closed in Switzerland (and a lot of Europe) on Sundays, and at certain times in the evenings. There are very few permitted to be open 24hrs a day (e.g. one emergency pharmacy in all of Zurich). Companies must comply with minimum vacation times for their workers.

Random tidbits

My TV debut was in Switzerland, where I made it on SFR (roughly their equivalent of PBS/NPR in the US). There were also a few print stories featuring me.

---

Photos

Why not?
ETH seems to pride itself on placing increasingly elaborate exhibits in its lobby.

Smoking kills
Despite more graphic labeling on the damage caused by smoking, Zurich still has more smoke than I care for.

Lakeside summertime
Zurich is at its best in the summer

Condoms and syringes
Now that's what I call pragmatism

10m platform
Installed by the city!

Zurich Polyterasse 1
The views from ETHs polyterasse are truely epic, and never the same

Polynap
ETH is equipped with a pretty awesome nap room.

Occupy Paradaplatz
Proud of Zurich for mustering an occupation. Although things aren't going that badly for Zurich's 99%