Job Hunting

As my holiday progressively deteriorates into long term unemployment I thought I would post this quick photo post to explain my situation in a more humorous light

The term trailing spouse(or in my case GF) may not be familiar to most of you but it usually refers to a significant other who follows their loved one to their current location.
So while the job Architecture job situation here in Zurich is actually pretty good(a friend of mine practically got offered a job with out sending 1 single portfolio-he spoke the local language and studied here though) there are some things you should keep in mind before heading over.
These are the things I have struggled with on the job hunt.

• German speakers will get preference(not nessisarily Germans though)
• They generally use ArchiCAD
• Mac's are very popular here
• Internships are generally reserved for people on their year out as you get paid per completed semester.
• Everyone and their granny speaks really good English so it's not that much of a "plus" here.

I'm sure I could write an epic paragraph or two to try and justify why I'm still jobless, but for now I think this will do. Also I might use this time for actually sending applications.

Cheap Bars and Clubs in Paris

So recently a few friends of mine have been passing through Paris, and as I am now hibernating in Zurich I have decided to provide a few helpful tips for people who want to go there on the cheap.

Since I don't feel like writing a long email every time some ones looking for tips I would far prefer to just send them a link and be done with it. No offence, just this allows me to build and improve the list rather than trying to remember in each email (as well as shameless self promotion of my blog of course).

These tips are based on my experience of Paris and as I'm sure you will notice there is an underlying preference for the Chatlet area as well as an anglophone trend. Why you ask, well apart from central location, good atmosphere and cheap beers, I used work in the area and still know people working at the majority of these bars. Hi folks if you're reading.

This is my no nonsense guide:

Frozen Fountains of Zurich

In case you are unaware, things have have been very cold here; not just better put on a pair of gloves cold, but toes falling off ears stinging cold and that is with every possible bodily surface covered at least twice (well bar my eyes as I still need to see). Things are starting to thaw out though.
But just to prove this point I've decided to do a little photo post of some frozen fountains.

Fountain 1 at the Hauptbahnhof- frozen solid

Fountain 1, the water seemed to have literally stopped mid flow

Fountain 2, still running but the frozen splash had made a bell shape

Fountain 2 "bell" close up

Fountain 3, like a macaron of solid ice

Fountain 3; I tried smashing it with my elbow. No luck

Fountain 4, frozen solid and smashed before I could do it

Fountain 4, smashed close up

Fountain 5, solid with no water flowing

Fountain 6, interesting sculpture with interesting ice

You may have been thinking that many of my recent posts are weather related, well you are right. Well you know what I don't really care because when the temperatures drop into the minus double digits I currently sympathise with Badgers and hedgehogs and have gone into hibernation!

Languages and Emigration

Pouletbrustgeschnetzeltes = Diced chicken breast

It's not often I post about very personal topics, but I have been giving this a lot more thought recently.

As a not so recent immigrant in Paris I had the benefit of speaking the language, and not just speaking but being able to make jokes and just feel within my comfort zone. However now the situation is reversed and the very comfortable French shoe is now on the other German foot.
These language skills however did not the result of diligent hard work in school, but rather a diverse family background.

Struggling with languages is something most people will go through in their life, the brave will stick it out and struggle though different tenses, vocab and genders in an attempt to integrate, the weak however will only give a basic holiday attempt at other languages for ordering beer, before reverting back to the traditional Anglophone approach of just repeating the English version of the word louder  until something happens.

However as the mass exodus of Ireland continues it becomes more and more clear that having a second European language is possibly the greatest asset that you could hope for. The appeal of a second language is however completely over looked by the school system and more importantly the students them selves who often don't make a genuine effort to learn. Well let me assure you; paying a minimum of 500€ a month for the classes you got for free in school is indeed a shocking learning incentive.

As the job situation in London hits saturation point what will become of the immigrant who refuse to leave their comfort zone of the English language? Already horror stories are coming to the fore of former school mates working in America on long expired holiday visas who are trapped; unable to return for Christmas, birthdays or funerals.

Long gone are the days where Irish people could simply think that "I'm sure someone will speak English", as we now live in a society where minimum of 3 international languages is the norm, and these people are also applying for the same jobs as you.

Recently I have started using the Rosetta Stone language learning programme which is supplementing 1 months intensive German classes at a school. To what avail? Well the hope is that by seriously investing in the language I will make myself a more appealing candidate to potential employers.

The main downside of learning German in Switzerland though is that no one here really speaks "high" German, opting instead for the local dialect of Swiss German. This  frustratingly means that you never hear any of the words or phrases you learn and even when you speak German you will be speaking a "foreign" language.

For those of you who arrive to a Country and can't speak the local language I would encourage taking classes as soon as you arrive. Not only does it help improve your confidence but it also gives you a new group of new people, who are usually also new to the country and eager to make friends.

Woeful Winter Weather

Ahh yes the complete 180, I certainly am feeling like God must  have read my previous post and sent freezing cold temperatures to spite me.

So after just reporting the lovely weather I had been enjoying, now it is very much different.
The freezing snow has arrived, and en force.

While I do still suffer slightly from the "aww cool snow" aspect of coming from a country with only rain, these pictures clearly demonstrate the difference between perceived winter cycling and the actual experience

a snowy winter wonderland (photo without flash)

VS
snow being whipped into your face while you try and find the route with the least dangerous snow coating

 White hell (with flash)

The "craic" an Irish response to the weather

thanks to Monica for the pics

"What's the craic" is my favourite way of greeting people, but this usually recieves a few raised eyebrows from those forigners unfamiliar with the traditional Irish phrase.

After coming home to Ireland for the holidays I have come to the conclusion that the reason Irish people are all slightly insane and drink so much is because it is the only way that we can deal with the weather.

Seriously this is not the first time I have discussed the Irish weather, and a friend recently informed me about how a guide book to Ireland outlines the Irish mentality. The book describes the Irish as having 3 parts to their brain, one part deals with Logic, the second part deals with Emotion and finally the third part deals purely with this uniquely Irish element called the Craic.

Johhny forigner will often not be familiar with the craic as it is a only previlant in the Irish culture and usually reaches its climax during drinking sessions. Personal examples include "who can steal the best thing from a bar", "dancing to the river dance", "smashing glasses for no reason" and "swimming in the rain". Essentially it is doing things with no emotional or logical reason other than the result might be worth a few laughs.

Taxi in Zurich? - some warnings

After previously praising Zurich's treatment of traffic and cyclists, it is with unfortunate irony that on this same day I received some rather rude treatment on my bike in Zurich, and got beeped at twice by Taxi drivers.

From what I have personally experienced and been advised taxi drivers here are:

Cycling – not quite a bus, pedestrian, motorbike or car. Not going to let that stop me.

Every ones approach to cycling is different, some people are rigid rule followers, waiting patiently at the lights while wearing a florescent yellow vest and some are speed demons with a reckless opinion of life weaving in an out of oncoming traffic on a one way street. I usually try to find a happy medium.

My least favourite though are probably the ones who just don't know any better, this is usually the panicky tourist velib’ user who is wandering around like a priest in a lingerie department (feeling very uncomfortable and not sure what to do but still enjoying the view).

Sometimes the best approach to cycling through a city is just to go at it tooth and nails, and the best thing about being on bicycle is you get to cheat at a lot of the rules cars and pedestrians have to follow. 

Now I'm not saying that cyclists don’t have to follow the law- we do, but I’m just saying that it doesn't always happen that way.......

While cycling everyone bends or breaks the rules, following some research I found this website particularly helpful in realistically identifying common types of accidents, some named:

• The Door Prize
• The Right Cross
• The Cross walk slam

and my favourite

• The Red Light of Death!

and giving you practical advice on how to avoid them. With diagram's!

Don't be scared is one of the most important things to remember. You are also a road user and have the same rights as the cars, by this justification though you should also follow the same rules as the cars and this especially means stopping at traffic lights, signalling when turning and getting into the correct lanes. Cars can't avoid you if they don't know what your doing.

So here are some simple tips on how to stay safe for the realistic cyclist:

• Don't be scared
• Stop at lights
• Signal with your hands
• Get in lane
• Don’t listen to music
• Have and use your bell
• Be visible at night
• Try not to mount the footpath
• Dismount your bicycle when on a busy footpath
• Be patient
• Feel free to take up the entire lane- lane control position
• Pull right in front of cars at traffic lights- avoid their blind spots
• Assert your rights as a road user, but
• Don't be arrogant of your rights, bend the rules within the reason of safety and never expect a car to slow down for you.

Being patient is also a very important part of getting around Paris, and by this I don't mean just waiting at the lights, one thing to remember is that everyone is a road user including pedestrians, and Paris is a city with a population of over 2 million people and that's not even counting the tourists and suburban dwellers(9 million-ish). 
So showing these people the same respect that you hope they would show you if you were the one crossing the road is essential, and if you do decide to mount the footpath, try and looks sheepish and apologise to any pedestrians you might nearly bump into – remember you are in the wrong.

Maybe cars might find you a little annoying when you're first discovering the best way to cycle to work, but even if they do beep at you, apart from the shock factor a beep never injured anyone, and at least that means they see you.

By that same justification a signal such as giving the beeping car in question a certain hand gesture might be an appropriate way of indicating your acknowledgement of their dissatisfaction with you bicycle skills.

Cycling by the Seine

Museum of the day was the Museum des Arts Asiatiques –Guimet, this museum is located in the 16th, just a little bit down the road from Palais de Tokyo. I took the same cycling route as the time I had visited the Musée d’Armée, down along to Bastille and across the Pont de Sully to the south side of the Seine before just following the combined bus and bike lane west.

This route while enjoyable for me, it is not for the faint hearted, it involves a combination of wonderful dedicated bike lanes along tree lined avenues and fighting tooth and nail with bumper to bumper traffic, while travelling at speed.

nice bike lanes

One tip, don’t hesitate. There are a number of on and off ramps and bridges along the south bank of the Seine and these can result in you being cut off mid cycle, if you don’t just go for it you will end up looking like a two wheeled deer caught in the headlights.

Another thing I remarked upon on my way to the museum was this:

That's right a Segway tour of Paris. Hmm before passing too much judgement on this concept I decided to look up this tours website to get a little more info, well to be honest more so the price of the tour. The result is barely any info on their website, no prices, duration, frequency or routes. Guess this is all something they do by phone. After reading some of the many, granted positive reviews of these types of trips on line and some more in depth research into price(starting from €85), I still remain largely unconvinced. Most of the people I saw on the tour seemed to be spending most of their time looking at their Segway rather than taking in the sights and to top it off the slow group were blocking up one of the nicest stretches of cycle lane I had been on. Maybe that is the main reason I have not taken to the idea. If you want to stand up and sight see, walk. 

Without continuing too much on this tangent I’ll reserve further judgement until I decide to blow the whopping €85 euro on a four hour segway tour.

After finally arriving to the Museum, I cruised in with the now usual no queue, no cost routine. 

Note ably on entry there was a large pink replica of the Taj Mahall occupying the first and principal exhibition space. I quite enjoyed the spectacle actually, as the contrasting colour was quite striking. 

As for the rest of the museum I must confess the content was not so much of interest, mainly due to the fact that I have little or no knowledge of Asian art and religions (most of the information I have gleaned through the years has been from Apu from the Simpsons). I sped through most of the exhibits, sometimes pausing to read from the hand-held info boards that were located by most of the entry points.

There were a great many statues and sculptures, mostly grey and lacking any kind of accompanying information. 

this one should work the cafe oz weekend shifts

 How every things did perk up temporarily, when I passed though into the Japanese section where there was some lovely screens and art, as well as more Ming Dynasty Crockery than you could shake a baseball bat at.

While the overall exhibition was not to my taste I would recommend going with a friend(possibly Asian) who has some knowledge and interests in these things and can help promote some enthusiasm about the history of one of the greatest civilisations in the World. 

However what I did thoroughly enjoy was the Architecture, the building was amazing with an interesting sequence of architectural spaces that circulated around the large central exhibition space and eventually leading you back to the Stairwell that would bring you to the next level of exhibits. The building also very elegantly used discrete materials that were very well detailed so as not to dominated the often grey or monotone items it exhibited.

beautiful circular bordmarked marked concrete pillars

 While the visit was enjoyable, I would recommend having an interest in either Asia or Architecture before going.