[quote author="evalseraphim"]I heard that about you, Eff. You went from a place with a very high cost of living to a place with an even higher cost of living, if not the highest. The only question is, are the girls hotter, and are you liking the change? Are you a popsicle yet?[/quote]
Interestingly, strength in the Euro may have rendered Switzerland not such an expensive place to live compared to surrounding countries. It really all depends on one's lifestyle. I will say that almost nothing here is cheaper than in the US. Beer, fresh-baked bread, peanut and olive oil are the only things I can think of at the moment. Beef prices here will encourage you to cut it out of your diet. Gasoline is $5.94 per gallon at today's exchange rate. This is actually cheaper than in France and Germany. Not too many fatass 6000lb SUV's on the road here regardless.
The weather has been mild. Light freeze 2-3 times so far but no snow in the western part (except for up in the mtns).
The girls are 20 kinds of hot. I wouldn't even know where to start when describing them. Unfortunately there's a language barrier here that's far worse than in many other European countries. Pretty much everyone in major cities in Austria, Germany, and Belgium can speak good English. In the Netherlands almost everyone can speak English, even the farmers. Not so here. The 2nd language for the Swiss-French tends to be German, and vice-versa for the Swiss Germans. English is a distant 3rd spoken mainly by those who have attended higher education.
I still haven't been able to start learning French. My work travel will be complete soon (Paris tomorrow, then Milan and Prague in January) then I'm going to jump on that as soon as I can. I'm contemplating taking two weeks off work to do a two-week total immersion program in France.