As I wrap up the finishing weeks until our winter recess, I wanted to once again reflect on the overall semester and live actually sit down and process everything that I went through. These past 13 weeks have been all very new, stressful, enjoyable experiences and I feel like I am slowly but surely become more adult like. Being financially and physichally responsible for myself has been something I have overlooked for far too long because I never really was outside of my comfort zone. However moving to Europe has heightened a lot of responsibilities that I take for granted in the US but like previously mentioned they were all great lessons in the end. In this post I will highlight some of the unfortunate and fortunate events in chronological order that I have faced throughout my time in Switzerland/Europe and I hope you enjoy my first return blog.
Attacked in Paris
Before school even began, I took a small vacation to Paris as it was very close in proximity which is one of my favorite aspects of Europe. However for those who don’t know, Paris itself is very much a tourist trap anywhere you go and is one of the most chaotic destinations in Europe. This was my third time in Paris at this point and even with my third stay, there was so much to experience as a tourist and thats what I set out to do in this trip. During this vacation I checked out the Catacoumbs of Paris, the Eiffel Tower (again), Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral, the Louvre, and other popular destinations. For those who do not know Paris is one of my favorite cities in the world and everything went well until my last day right before leaving back to Switzerland. So I was at Parvis des Libertes et des Droits de l’Homme (long name) which is a popular viewpoint to watch a panoramic view of the Eiffel tower and right as I was about to head towards the metro, two strange men approached me. A man proceeded to burn his cigarette on my forearm which was a way to distract me so he could rip my chain that I wore regularly. After this abrupt attack my whole body was in shock and I initially did not even notice that he had stolen my chain. After noticing that it was gone, it was a little disheartening as I got that chain as a gift from my friend Alex and now I had an open burn wound. In fact to this day the wound healed improperly and you can see a mark that is engraved in my skin. While very disappointing overall, it was a lesson to be more aware about my surroundings and to never really bring or show valuables whenever I am on vacation. While this seems rather intense and concerning, I want to reassure that I am okay and that all I can do is learn from this experience.
Combatting Homelessness
I have alluded to this topic across many of my other blog posts because it was a big issue upon my arrival to Europe. Housing was never really something I had to worry about in America because I was always close to home. Therefore when I arrived in Europe, I did not have many places to go if things did not work out and there was no guarantee that my landlord spoke English. So when I first arrived I was lucky to be able to stay in a hotel, then moved to a family friends house for 10 days, got scammed a couple thousand dollars out of a fake “apartment”, then just went airbnb hopping until I arrived in Evian-les-bains, France where I have currently been residing (2 different airbnbs during my stay here). But why exactly is it so hard to find housing as an international student?
The first issue was the currency exchange which at the time was significant (and still is). Swiss Francs which are the local currency are worth more than US dollars and while a 1$ = 0.95 chf conversion doesn’t seem like much, when these numbers are scaled to the 1000, rent could be almost 50$ plus a currency exchange fee. So if I found an apartment for 1000chf, I would have to do some mental math and expect to actually be paying roughly 1050$ a month in addition to an currency exchange fee. However Switzerland is known as the most expensive country in the world which I did not know of prior to my arrival so apartments in Lausanne ranged from anywhere between 1200 chf to 2500 chf. This obviously was an issue for me as I was financially supporting myself. What multiplied the complexity of the situation was the whole bank siutation. Paying rent in Switzerland requires you to make a special type of bank account where the landlord and tenant share and the tenant is only allowed to deposit money and the landlord is only allowed to withdraw money. However the US and Swiss government sometime in 2018 signed an agreement which made it especially hard for Americans to make bank accounts in Switzerland. Therefore though its not impossible to open up an account, 95% of banks would turn me away as soon as they realized that I was American.
However it does not end there. Even if I was able to find housing in Switzerland, there were still many issues that would have came. For example whenever you rent a home in a different Canton (a segregated portion of a city), you would be required to register at that Canton and have to pay a registration fee which typically costs more for foreigners. Once registered you also have to enroll in mandatory health insurance which is a poor service overall while costing a grand amount of money. Though Switzerland is known to have great health insurance overall, this is only the case if you are willing to pay for their great services. Hearing all this gave me daily headaches so I ultimatley decided to resort to Airbnb and live in a country with much more lax regulations. So while commuting to school from another country was a pain having to sacrafice a minimum of three hours out of my day, it helped a lot logistically.
Quick side note. While living in this country seems like a pain, the main advantage that will not be discussed in future sections is that the school tuition fee is less than 500 USD and that at EPFL students can enroll and take any classes they want to as a form of granting educational freedom.
Living in France & Commuting to School from a Different Country
This topic once again came up various times and all I have to say is that I now see it as therapeutic. School in Switzerland is far different than school in the US. While this seems obvious, it wasn’t until I made local Switzerland friends to figure out why this was. After speaking with a few, it appears that Europeans view America as miles ahead in terms of work, innovation and ideas. Therefore in their schooling, most educators tell their students that if you want to keep up with America, you have to work much harder. This is most definitely propoganda and its a little sad culturally to see. I have noticed that Europe as a whole is very work-oriented or work-minded from university students and everyone beyond. There appears to be zero work to life balance and everyone studys hard not because they want to but because they want to be apart of this working environment. Therefore a lot of local students don’t really do much extracurriculars and its primarily just studying for them.
Anyway now that I’m back from the tangent, school is really intense. I have more than doubled the workload I was used to in the US while learning more in depth for each subject because I was based in a semester system. So the boat ride to Switzerland from France was therapeutic because it was my break for the day. It allowed me to recharge my brain and ctlr + alt + delete everything during the 35 minute commute. So while it was painful in the beginning, it became one of the best parts to my day as it was good more my mental health.
In terms of living in Evian-les-bains, France, I also really enjoyed my stay there. Groceries were much cheaper, the regulations were much more lax, and overall it was a quirky city if you will. Evian water is based in Evian (duh), and it is primarily known to be a gambling town. This was no Las Vegas by any means but the city itself had a vibrant atmosphere which was nice. And one of the biggest perks was that the city was by the lake so when the weather was good, you got a nice view of Switzerland and Lac Leman.
Bit in the eye by a Mosquito & COVID-19
After I had just wrapped up about how nice it was to live by the lake, it also was quite frustrating in the sense that it attracted a lot of mosquitos. And for whatever reason in Europe nets do not exist so when you open the window, virtually anything could enter your home. In the summer/fall it got particularly humid so I liked to keep my windows open to get some fresh air. However one night I went to bed with the windows open and woke up unable to open one of my eyes. At first I thought I had cried in my sleep or something because my eye was really swollen. So when I went to go take a shower I looked at the mirror and saw that my eye was really badly swollen. Therefore for a week I actually missed school because I was too embarassed to leave my apartment like this.
Another frustrating moment(s) about living here is the lackadasical view that Europeans have towards COVID-19. Out of exhaustion or some other unknown reason, the continent of Europe has declared an end to Covid-19. What this meant was that no one wore masks (which wasn’t the biggest issue) but also when people were sick they wouldn’t be mindful of others. Throughout the whole semester, atleast one person had a mysterious cough or sneeze and regardless of if you wore a mask or not, you likely would contract some sickness which I believe was Covid. On top of that, Covid testing virtually is nonexistent here an it is very hard to track overall. I had the belief that I had contracted Covid when I had lost my scent which was a common side effect of Covid. And after I had realized my scent was gone, it was a very frustrating process to not be able to smell anything for over a week. I had never realized how much chaos could be casued when you lose one of your main senses.
Taking care of my Health
For my last negative experience of the semester, I wanted to briefly discuss a point where I realized I had to take care of my health better. One of the downsides of Switzerland compared to California is a lack of diversity in the food department. In fact I am here to proclaim that Switzerland and European food are awful and there is no memorable food that you can eat consistently. Therefore as someone who brought lunch from home everyday which entailed of a ham and cheese sandwhich, I noticed I was no longer fitting into the jeans I wore. Sadly I had lost 22 pounds in less than 3 months and I could see myself physically changing for the worse. However at the time I did not think much of it until I randomly passed out one day when I went up to take a shower. I had realized through my apple watch that I was experiencing abnormally low blood pressure and that my diet, nutrition, and lifestyle had to change. Therefore I started to once again get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep and really change my nutrition because I did not want to physically give out during my stay here. So thanks to a care package from home, I have since prioritized my well being over any school load and have made decisions in the best interest of myself.
Easy & Quick Travel
While I have discussed many negatives to this point, I would like to make the second half about the positives of living in Switzerland. The first is the structure of Europe and its convenience to Travel. Because I was studying 24/7 during the weekdays, I took the time to refresh my head over the weekends by traveling. In the span of a semester I was able to visit the following countries/cities: Paris (France), Brussels (Belgium), Basel (Switzerland), London (United Kingdom), Prague (Czech Republic), Marrakkech (Morocco). What made the travel so great was that no flight or train ever took over 3 hours. Long plane rides are often frustrating and uncomfortable so Europes centrality is really great in accessing other parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, and even the US. During this time I went with the intentions to attend an event or to go meet with friends who were studying abroad. So I was happy to have been able to see new parts of the world and get a glimpse of their culture. One of my favorite memories of the travel was getting to rekindle with Josh Moon who was one of my friends in high school in the Czech Republic. I liked this in particular because for that weekend I felt at home and comfortable being surrounded by a fellow friend and American. Since coming to Europe it is safe to say that the language barrier has made me less outgoing but I have been able to manage.
Making an incredible network of International Friends
Part of the large reasons I decided to come to Europe was to make international friends. Coming from a summer where I had made a network of friends spanning the US, it was time to do something similar but on a global scale. I have realized quickly in my life that surrounding yourself with good people has a lot of benefits. However when I had first arrived due to the language barrier I had found it a little challenging to make friends and socialize in general. But around the midpoint of the semester I stopped recognizing who I was and sort of questioned why I was only taking the downsides of this whole European experience. Therefore from the middle of the semester I made it a larger emphasis to make friends and talk to people because there are so many interesting and global perspectives that I could only get if I interacted with others. I was therefore able to make more friends within my department and I got to share a slice of my life while also hearing about their unique expereinces. I have since been happier to have come here and it seems silly to neglect my personality of being sociable amongst strangers.
On top of that making friends with Swiss locals have given me an insiders look into the school, lifestyle, and routine of Swiss people and I was happy to have joined their social circle as well. Among them I met Helena Binkova, a girl from my department when we were doing a group project in my genetics/genetic engineering course. Thanks to her I was able to meet a lot of her friends as well and it was nice to feel a little more at ease with the people from Switzerland. And while she is only one from my sample size, I am happy to say that I have met a good amount of people coming from all over the world: Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Zurich.
Discussion
This just about wraps up this blog post and its safe to say its been an eventful semester. Its a little saddening once again to pack up my bags and move once more as this means I will have repeat some of the steps that are required when moving to a new place. However ultimately I am grateful for this dynamic lifestyle I get to live as it makes up for a lot of always new experiences and there are plenty of stories I can now tell in my young 20s. I am very much looking forward to returning to the states, this time in Boston, Massachusettes and I can’t wait to see whats next. But before then I am on way to NYC beginning December 26th, then back to Switzerland, to Hamburg Germany, Instanbul Turkey, then finally Boston. So once I am back from my last hoorah travel expedition, I will continue the blog. So happy holidays, new years, and see you in 2023. Thanks for reading this year!