From GA to Switzerland and finally England!! :-)

Hello everyone!  Just found this forum and thought I'd pop in for a quick hello.  I'm currently living in Switzerhell, err sorry, Switzerland, and will be moving to the Cheshire area by the end of August.  I CAN'T WAIT!!!  Ready to surround myself with English even if they talk a little funny. 

Anyway, been doing a lot of searching online and from what I can tell, I really going to like it there.    Anyone else on here in the area?  Would love to meet some new people.  It's been really hard meeting people here in Switzerland, especially since I don't speak the language, and am looking forward to making some new, local friends.



Oh I almost forgot to tell you a bit about myself.    I'm a 37 year old female, married with two little girls.  Ages 8 and 3.  Moved to Switzerland from Atlanta GA a year ago and have hated it from the word go.  Looking forward to this next faze in our lives.

I live in Congleton, and love it. Quite a bit older than you (65 and retired), but there are others on the forum with whom you would likely have more in common.

I've done a lot of work in GA, so am quite familiar with Atlanta & environs. Cheshire will still be a LOT different, but personally I think it's a great place to be.

Hi there! My husband and I live in Staffordshire and have a 4 year old little girl. I've been here for about 2.5 years and just was granted my ILR. I too an new to the forum. I have found settling in England to be quite easy really, however I do miss my American friends dearly. I've mainly come onto the forum in the hopes of meeting other American's in the general area. Possibly other parents as well. I'm 34, live in Newcastle-Under-Lyme/Stoke-on-Trent. I was born and raised in CA, San Francisco Bay Area. Lived in Seattle WA for 10 years prior to relocating to the UK with my husband and daughter. Welcome to England!! ;-)

Welcome! Do you mind if I ask where in Switzerland you are and why you hate it? It's a place my husband and I are considering as a future place to live and this is the first negative statement I've seen from someone living there as an expat.

Do you mind if I ask where in Switzerland you are and why you hate it? It's a place my husband and I are considering as a future place to live and this is the first negative statement I've seen from someone living there as an expat.

I am curious as well....

Welcome! Do you mind if I ask where in Switzerland you are and why you hate it? It's a place my husband and I are considering as a future place to live and this is the first negative statement I've seen from someone living there as an expat.

Oh my, where do I even begin?  First off, I'll start with personal reasons and then go from there.

1. I am currently living in the Schaffhausen area, near the German border.  While it is a beautiful country to visit, it isn't someplace that I have enjoyed living. 

2. Not being able to speak the language (Swiss German) nor having much of a desire to learn High German, hasn't helped with liking things here either to be honest.

3. Coming from the US, the south in particular, the weather has been atrocious.  I HATE the cold and since we moved here at the end of August, the warmth quickly left. There are very few if any sunny days in the winter.  Mostly grey skies and fog.  I understand that the weather in the UK isn't really any better but if it were ONLY the weather, meh, I could deal with it.

4.  Life proceeds at a very slow pace.  I'm used to things being open 24/7 and went into a bit of a shock coming here.  Most stores typically close around 8pm M-Thur, around 9pm on Fridays and close at 6pm on Saturday. 

5. The Swiss aren't the most friendly people around either.  Again, not knowing the local language doesn't help.

6.  It is EXTREMELY expensive here!!!  To give you an idea, when we visited London for the first time after moving here, I found myself making comments as to how cheap things were.    I know, crazy right?!

7.  Since I can't speak the language, the joy of shopping has been sucked right out of me.  I used to love just wandering around and window shopping but that's not so much fun when you are reduced to looking at pictures.

8.  The stores are small and lack variety. 

So, those are just some of the personal reasons that I don't like it here.  Now to get to the restrictions if you will.

They only give out a limited amount of B Visa's to non EU residents and since we didn't arrive until the end of August, we received an L Visa (Limited Visa).  This means I was not allowed to get a cell phone (had to have my husbands company get one for me), I'm not allowed to purchase a car (luckily we brought mine over from the States).  Nor are we allowed to get our VAT back when shopping in Germany.    We have to jump through hoops every year to renew our Visas and pay outrageous fees.  Again, this is just a sample of the crap we have had to deal with.  I'm sure there are others who have come over and would disagree but I can only tell you about my experiences here. 

In a way, I'm glad that we came here first though.  Things like the weather and different food won't bother me as much as I'm sure it would've had we gone straight to England from the US.  Which btw, is where I wanted to go in the first place.  NEVER wanted to move to Switzerland, which again, doesn't help with me not liking it here.

You won't find the pace of life or the size and variety of the stores any better in Cheshire, I expect.  If anything, shops will close earlier.  My town is shut up tight by 5.30.  Earlier on Sundays.  But I've ranted about that on UKY before, so I'll spare you all .

Having taught many a student from Schaffhausen, though, I completely sympathise with you.  The Swiss Germans, in my experience, are lovely individually but a nightmare in groups, and by far the most smugly complacent people on the planet.  They believe Switzerland is the best place in the world, and have no interest in anywhere else.  That alone would put me off living in Switzerland.  But to each her own DrSuperL!  You might love it there. 

Well the language here helps tremendously (obviously).

I hear different things - some say, "oh you pick it up quickly", but  I have a friend who lives in Italy and he says that while you do pick up the basics of like asking where the milk is, it is a looong time (even with study) before you can really express yourself. He said it was three full years before he could stand around in a group and not feel like 70% of what was being said wasn't flying over his head.

Hehe, fair enough. Having lived in small town rural Fife for 10 years, none of those things bother me in the least, and we plan on moving to the Francophone part if we go (I do speak that language), so that's ok too, but I can understand that it would be frustrating if those things do bother you. As historyenne said though, I hope you're not expecting 24/7 life, large varied shops and hot weather in Cheshire or you'll continue to be very disappointed!

You won't find the pace of life or the size and variety of the stores any better in Cheshire, I expect.  If anything, shops will close earlier.  My town is shut up tight by 5.30.  Earlier on Sundays.  

I've been doing some searching online and from what I can tell, stores like Asda and the grocery stores are at least open late.  Hell, just the fact that things are open on Sunday's is going to be a plus.  As for the variety, again I've only searched online, but it looks like there is definitely more.  As well as more foods that I'm familiar with back home.  The American food isle at Tesco has a sh*t ton of stuff too.   

I plan on spending a bit of time in the Altrincham area and Manchester which I believe has a lot to do.  

The fam and I are planning on coming to town some time next week to look at houses and check out the area so I'll be able to get a better idea.  I'm pretty sure though that I'll like it MUCH better there irregardless than I do here.  Comparing things to Switzerland and not the US will help a ton too.   

Oh and the fact that I'll be able to get back into a house and not a flat is awesome!!  AND they have American style refrigerators!!  WOO HOO!!  Bu-bye dorm style freezers and dinky little ovens!!   

I'll let you guys know what I think after next week.

Sunday hours in the UK are regulated by law, with larger stores only allowed to open for 6 hours, which typically means from 10am-4pm. There's some Sunday hours exception for convenience store like the Tesco Express, but haven't bothered to even research what it is, as we've never really needed anything during the 'out of hours' time.

During the rest of the week, the Tesco up the road from me is open 24 hours; Morrison's is 8 am-8mp and Aldi 8am-9pm. Larger chains tend to have longer hours. My local Tesco does NOT have an American aisle, but does stock a lot of American brands mixed in with the regular products.

Cheshire is considered  fairly wealthy county, as it's home to a lot of footballers, TV personalities etc. I'm more familiar with the Cheshire East council area (there's also Cheshire West & Chester), which is basically centered on the A34 & A534 There's a lot of boutique type shops in smaller places like Alderley Edge, Wilmslow and Prestbury; Manchester is a city - with the variety you would expect.

House prices vary a lot  - in our area, generally the closer to Manchester, the higher the price, but there are exceptions to that. Proximity to the M6 also affects price.

Bottom line - it won't be the USA, but it's a great place to be.

it's home to a lot of footballers, TV personalities etc.

Well aside from that it sounds nice....

/kidding

Bottom line - it won't be the USA, but it's a great place to be.

I understand.  Not comparing the UK to the US, just to Switzerland.    Which is much better IMO.  

Oh and thanks for all the other info.  Greatly appreciated. :-)

Welcome, Max76. My partner's family lives in Altrincham so I know that area--it's nice. And expensive, but like you said, you'll be comparing to Switzerland!

Welcome, Max76. My partner's family lives in Altrincham so I know that area--it's nice. And expensive, but like you said, you'll be comparing to Switzerland!

Compared to Switzerland things are much cheaper there. :-)