This last week we’ve been busy searching for apartments. We looked at five apartments, each with lines out the door of people waiting for the showings. For three of these we sent in applications. The process reminds me of job seeking out of college. I’m not sure if I’m filling everything out correctly, I’m not sure if there are better methods to search than just the internet, and I’m just going to send out a bunch of applications and hope to hear back. Once I figure everything out it probably won’t matter that I know the best way, because we’ll already have an apartment.
The apartment applications all seem to have the same long list of required items:
- A cover letter
- The rental company’s two page application form
- A letter of recommendation from Melissa’s boss
- Melissa’s work contract
- Melissa’s last pay stub
- An extrait de l’office des poursuites for both of us (its a form from the Swiss government that shows any criminal history, or debts)
- Certificates for both of us that we registered with the immigration service
- Copies of both our passports
- A quote we received for renter’s and liability insurance
To top it off all the applications have a line on the bottom that says if we are chosen to rent the apartment, but decline to sign the lease, we have to pay a fee of between 100 and 200 francs for the rental company’s trouble. We’re not too afraid of the fee because we’ve heard it takes a lot of applications to get accepted, but we do hope it deters other people from applying.
Other than the apartment stuff, this week I’ve still been checking the mailbox everyday for a residence permit, and each day returning disappointed. We were, however, able to get new Swiss phone numbers through Orange mobile, even without the permits. I’m not sure we’ll save any money, but it should be easier to call Swiss people now and we have 4G again!
Thursday we took a break from apartment viewings and played laser tag with Melissa’s group. Melissa and I were on opposite teams. My team scored more points, but Melissa scored more points than me, so we both came away with something to brag about. Afterward we stopped at a bar and shared a big five liter tower of beer as a group.
Melissa will be starting French lessons next week, and I felt like I wasn’t studying as regularly without a structured program, so I decided to bite the bullet and bought Rosetta Stone this week. It’s probably the most popular method to use, and I hadn’t tried it just because of the price tag, but now we’ll see how it goes.
It finally felt a little like winter this week. It snowed twice with big fluffy flakes, but both times most of it melted when it hit the ground and the inch or two that stuck until the next morning melted by the end of the day.