Newsflash: Snowball Survives Hell!

Chill the Pommery and warm the Vacherin! Today, our six-week anniversary of living in Switzerland, we signed the rental contract on our new Zürich apartment! And we're considering ourselves EXTRAORDINARILY fortunate with the result--the timing, the location and the apartment itself. Although I'm certain the emotion is artificially inflated on both sides, we've rollercoastered from despair to elation in a week's time. We've known for perhaps a week that the deal should close but I've avoided any mention, since jinx avoidance was routinely preached in both my undergraduate engineering and advanced business curriculum.

We knew our fortunes could change quickly but of course never thought they would. Blog followers may remember a recent post regarding our depression-averting assault on gastronomic hub Globus preceded by:

"Steph exited work slightly early on Friday afternoon to join Mr. Mssrli and me for another lovely, large (but expensive!) apartment viewing in a perfect central Zürich location called Kreuzplatz; we're unlikely candidates so I'll spare the details."

Well, for whatever reason (we've stopped asking why), they accepted us! As evidence of the senselessness of the process, we ultimately beat out the applications of TWO sets of fund managers (presumably without 40kg pets) reportedly upset by their rejection. Yeah, well, we know the feeling!

Unbelievably, the location is probably nearly the best of the dozen places I visited, with a neighborhoody feel yet great proximity to transportation including a tram AND train station (really helpful without a car) as well as the lake. And as we discovered that Friday evening, it's an easy walk to bustling Bellevueplatz and the Old Town.

The apartment is large by Zürich standards at 1,400 square feet (134m2) having what the Swiss term 4.5 rooms, which for us means 2 bedrooms, an office and a living room, plus the ".5" which is a large lofted space upstairs. In general the floor plan sizes here exceeded our expectations, so we'll need to purchase furniture to replace some stuff sold in Chicago. Whatever. There are 1-1/2 bathrooms, in-unit laundry (a "luxury" in Zürich) and a good-sized kitchen, always a priority.

The unexpected (and frankly, unrequested) bonus is the view. Ours is the top, sixth-floor unit with a large private patio with views east to the forested hillsides above the city and south over the city itself. As with the apartment, the patio also accepts dogs so we expect Hobbes to excuse himself and stay outside all winter (if he ever chooses to descend, never fear as a building elevator exists, although it's so tiny the entire family might not fit simultaneously). As the top unit, the entire apartment conveys a lofted, slanted Alpine cottage feel, bright and inviting but perhaps presenting some decorating challenges.

The only downside (if you can call it that) is the price; it's the most expensive apartment for which we applied, at the very top of our budget. But we wouldn't have viewed it if we couldn't afford it, and given the astounding event that one's application is accepted for such a property, one does not answer, "Gee, I don't know, can I think about it while fifteen more fund managers look?" Also comforting is the knowledge from viewing a dozen other apartments that, while expensive, its location and size justify the price.

So we're on Cloud Nine. We move in just before Christmas, the best present possible (apologies to Tickle Me Elmo Extreme). Our container-sized pile of belongings arrived last week, temporarily in a Swiss warehouse somewhere, and should deliver on time. Hobbes and I will miss Kloten terribly, of course--we know every square inch; Steph not quite as much. I won't elaborate on our prior despair, as our persistently sour moods threatened to spoil our entire Swiss experience--we had literally decided that the "unattainable" Kreuzplatz property was our last city-exclusive viewing before changing plans to look outside the city in December and January, a completely disheartening concession. But never mind that junk now.

We owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to relocation agent Mr. Mssrli, who worked every angle and represented us beautifully at every showing. Yesterday after guiding us through the German-written rental contract (lots of rules, those Swiss) and the mostly Swiss-German contract signing procedure downtown, Mr. Mssrli dropped Steph and me at the Hauptbahnhof to catch the train back to work and home, respectively. To be honest, we already consumed our celebratory Champagne and oozy cheese last week after we heard our application was accepted. But never one to miss a celebration sequel, I opted for a gigantic can of Löwenbräu at the Kloten train station and drank it on the bus ride home. As Mr. Mssrli would say, "How civilized!"