Moving from Seattle to Zurich

I decided to move to Zurich from Seattle for couple of years to travel Europe and hike in the Alps. Since I did not want to settle in US where I had a great social life, I was sure I would not want to settle in Switzerland where I had no friends and even the language was different. But I just fell in love with the way life works like a clock work here, literally! I was living in Thalwil, a smallish town, about 10km out of Zurich city. My daily routine was tied to train schedule, to the minute. The town was quiet and "dead" after 8:00p.m. But I loved it. I loved that on really quiet winter evenings when all windows were closed, I could hear the sound of silence!

When I talk to other people, this is something that bothers them. If you are not an outdoorsy person, there is not a whole lot to do here. Which in most parts is true. Since I loved the outdoor lifestyle, I was busy all the time. I was either out hiking, or planning for hike, or training for a marathon or planning a trip somewhere. I did not have much social life, but I think that was because I did not make much effort. There would be weekends when I would go whole day without speaking to a single person, and I kind of liked that quiet, though I guess only because it happened sometimes in between the adventure filled weekends.

At this point it was clear to me that if I could, I would want to settle in Switzerland and even might want to give up my Indian passport for a Swiss one. In 2017 it all changed. I decided to move back to India to give living in India a try.