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Eight Years In Switzerland

2 August 2025

Photo of a sunset taken from the Wildspitz Berggasthaus in Switzerland. The sun is reddish orange and has nicely illuminated clouds near the horizon. A lake appears silver and pine trees form silhouettes in the foreground. Beyond the lakes are indistinct hills.

Eight years ago today we moved to Switzerland. Once again it's time to take stock and reflect on the previous year.

(Previous posts after one, three, four, five, six, and seven years in Switzerland.)


The Past Year


Work

I continue to enjoy working remotely for PassiveLogic. I've transitioned from working on iOS to writing cross-platform (non-UI) frameworks in Swift. I've traveled once to Salt Lake City, Utah and twice to Amsterdam to visit the offices there.


Learning German

Honestly I've not made much progress with my German. I participated in a discussion class last Fall, but so far in 2025 I've not formally studied. However, for the Fall I've signed up for two in-person classes and an online test prep course, and I've already registered for Goethe B2 Listening and Speaking tests in November. I will need the B2 tests in order to be eligible to apply for Swiss citizenship.


Integration

I've made some progress this year. I continue to meet up in Zürich roughly monthly to play D&D with a group of Swiss friends (and I continue to run an online D&D campaign for a mostly different set of Swiss friends). Swiss RPG holds monthly get-togethers in Zürich, and I make an effort to attend those. Last month I even attended the first ever Zug get-together and met some folks closer to home (I hope to start playing more locally). I've run D&D games at Zürich PopCon and FaBa

Last August I particpated in a local lake cleanup, which was good fun. The group of about 20 volunteers spent four hours removing trash from Lake Ägeri, and then we had a sunset cookout by the lake.

In February I was invited to a fondue dinner / board game evening, which was amazing.

Outside of the RPG group though, I struggle to make connections.


Travel

Apart from three business trips, I traveled to the UK to visit Cambridge with my son and domestically I've made a couple trips to Graubunden.


Nature / Outdoors

I continue to hike year-round, snowshoe in the winter, and standup paddle in the summer.

I've been much more active in 2025 than I was in the previous year. In the first six months of 2025, I've already exercised outdoors more days and hiked farther than I did in all of 2024.

I spent two nights up at the Berggasthaus Wildspitz (and have another night booked in two weeks). I hiked the first four stages of the Via Engiadina six weeks ago, and today I head out to hike the remaining eight stages.


Last Year's Goals

How did I do on last year's goals?


Hits


Indeterminate


Misses


Goals for our ninth year in Switzerland


The Future

Our son starts university in the UK in September. I'm not ready to be an empty-nester!

That said, my plan is to stay right where we're at and eventually apply for my Swiss citizenship.