Today is a bit of a recovery day. I went for a bike ride yesterday with my two new TikTok friends. I did close to 80 kilometers, but as part of the ride there were a couple of really hard climbs. My legs still felt a little weak this morning; so I took it easy and just did some walking and stretching! I am really thankful my new friends took me on this ride, because now I have a good route to really practice some longer climbs without having to take a train to the mountains! The last climb took us up high enough that there was still some snow on the ground. The last climb was about 350 meters and you could really tell the difference when we hit 1000 meters above sea level. That was when we started seeing some snow still on the ground. The ride really showed I have a lot of work to do before my big mountain ride in September. I really have to start doing some work on the hills.
Easter Week
If you have followed me very long on this blog, you know that Julie and I do not go to church very often over here. Part of the reason is the nearest english speaking church is on the other side of Zurich. The other reason is financial. If you belong to one of the major religions you are taxed for belonging to the church. It is not as bad as it sounds, it does go back to when the church was also the government. In this case the money the government collects goes back to the church. From what I can tell, this is also another issue with being a US citizen. We get a 1:1 credit on our US taxes for every dollar we pay in Swiss taxes. However, the church tax does not count. Making it even worse, the US does not consider it a charitable donation, so we cannot write it off our US taxes that way. So we have not joined a church here. I say this because one of the Easter traditions in Zurich is to decorate some of the more well known fountains with roses for Easter.
We found this out by mistake last year, but this year we were really looking forward to touring the city and seeing the fountains. It is really a pretty site. I really wish they would do more, but I guess roses are pretty expensive.
The picture above is our favorite. For sure it is the biggest one, but the way the water hits the basin right in the center adds a lot to this display. The roses are in the fountains from the Saturday before Palm Sunday through Easter Monday. We went and did the tour Monday after Julie got off work. It was so nice, because last year we did it the day before Easter and there were BIG crowds at all the fountains. The churches publish a map so that you can easily find which fountains have been decorated.
Employment Update
Back in 2021, I decided I was going to try and find a job. Since then, for a couple of reasons, I have learned that it would take some kind of miracle for me to find employment here. In other posts I have talked about some of the reasons, but it boils down to 1) I have not worked as hard as I should in becoming fluent in German and 2) Being over the age of 50 makes it harder to find employment.
Number one is solely on me. I realize, that if I absolutely HAD to find work I would have worked harder at learning German. Number two, however, is really more to do with how the Swiss version of Social Security works. I also think that age discrimination is something that is pretty universal. In the US, for example, the statistics of what happens to someone over 50 that loses their job are pretty shocking. ProPublica did a study a few years ago that found: only 10 percent of people over the age of 50 ever earn as much as they did before they lost their job. For years after the job loss the household incomes of these people are substantially lower for the families that experience job loss after the age of 50. From what I read online, this same phenomena happens in Switzerland.
For years job seekers in the US market have come across companies that treat them like dirt during the interview process. Companies never call back, never give updates as to how the process is going, and some companies are even asking for prospective employees to provide free labor by working on “case studies” that are actual problems the company is trying to solve, and still the person is not hired. This same thing happens over here. I have been following this one thread a man started about six months ago. He was asking about salary ranges for positions with financial institutions here in Zurich. Six months later, the company finally got around to offering him a job. When he got the job offer, he found the company was offering the same wages they were offering almost 10 years ago. When he turned down the offer, he described being berated for “wasting” the company’s time. What about his time? I mean how many of us would ever wait around six months on a job offer? Then when you found out they were offering the same pay as they gave out 10 years ago, would you take the job? I admit not having any first hand knowledge I may not have the full picture.
That being said from what I read and hear about the one real difference in employers here vs the US is the length of time it takes to hire someone. This process seems to be even more broken here than back in North America. So anyway, I have made a future employment decision.
I applied for a couple of different Masters programs in Cyber Security. I was accepted by Indiana University and will be spending my remaining time in Switzerland as an online student. :). I figure this will help cover up the HUGE gap in employment when we head back to the US and Julie and I switch roles as Homemaker. So if anyone has any hints about being an online student, I welcome them. I have looked over the courses, and I have to say the Nerd in me is very excited. The IU program was appealing to me because it mixes courses from the Business School, the Law School, and the School of Informatics. The degree requires 6 hours from each of the schools. I have to admit I am kind of looking forward to taking a class called “Information Privacy.” I am equally intrigued in taking a class called “Topics in Artificial Intelligence.” The one thing I am not looking forward to is that there are a couple of the classes that are not 100% compatible with living on another continent. There will be a couple of semesters where I have class at 02 or 0300. That will make it rough to wake up and walk Julie down to the train the next morning!
So that is about it for updates. Nothing to exciting is coming up other than heading back to the US in a couple of weeks. Julie is smack in the middle of quarter close, so hopefully we will get some day trips in after Easter, but the next big trip will be when young George comes over. Since he studied in Milan for a semester he is going to take us back and show us around. This will also get another bucket list item checked off, because I have bought tickets to get in and see “The Last Supper.” I figure not seeing that painting would be the same as going to Paris and not seeing the Mona Lisa. There are only a handful of paintings so famous that everyone knows them; so if you get the chance to see it “live” you have to take it.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. They are from my bike ride, and the fountains around. Zurich.
Awesome! Grad school is the best!