May 01

Zürich, Switzerland for the summer (housing? DebConf?)

Category: Summer of Code, debian — Obey Arthur Liu @ 7:03 pm

Zürich Google Earth

I got a summer internship at Google in Zürich, Switzerland, so I’ll be moving there this summer. Any DD working there ?

I already went to Zürich once last year and it was quite a cool place. I briefly met Cate and I know that there are other DDs there (hi Madduck!). I look forward to meeting more of you.

Now there are two issues I’d like help with, dear Züricher Lazyweb, housing and flight to DebConf.

Can I haz apartment

Looking for an apartment in Zürich seems very very very hard.. So far I only found a few apartment/hotel geared towards rich expats staying for few months (the kind like Citadines). It’s ungodly expensive (like 2200+ CHF a month for one room), but sure available and well placed..

Here’s what I need:

  • from beginning of June to end of August (I have a friend willing to let me crash in so middle of June is okay)
  • either one room (for myself) or up to 2 or 3 (I’d be flatsharing then)
  • about or less than ~1500 CHF for one room, or less than ~2000 CHF for two and ~3000 CHF for three, you got the idea
  • reasonably close transport-wise from Enge, 20-30 minutes by public transport or, even better bike, would be cool

I don’t have much more criterias, as long as I can find something. We’re about a few dozens Google interns all (desperately) looking for accomodation in Zürich. We’re all good neighbours, don’t party all night and all have very good references. Please contact me if you \<know someone who\>* know something, I’d be very grateful.

Can I haz DebConf

I’m going to DebConf this year in Spain, along with all the Google Summer of Code students who can make it. I’m going to reserve my flight in the next few days. I think I’ll only go to DebConf proper, arriving on the 23rd and leaving on the 31st of July.

  • Here’s my tentative travel plan:
    • Swissair flight 2026, 23rd July, Zürich 12:25 – Madrid 14:45
    • Renfe train, 23rd July, Madrid 16:40 – Cáceres 20:02
    • DebConf!
    • Renfe train, 31st July, Cáceres 5:08 – Madrid 9:43
  • Either:
    • Visit Madrid
    • Swissair flight 2033, 2nd August, Madrid 19:45 – Zürich 21:55
  • Or:
    • Air France flight 1301, 31st July, Madrid 12:40 – Paris 14:45
    • Visit home
    • SNCF train TGV Lyria 9217, 2nd August, Paris 17:54 – Zürich 22:26

I’m not decided yet on the last point.

So, any of you coming to DebConf from Zürich ?

9 Responses to “Zürich, Switzerland for the summer (housing? DebConf?)”

  1. Runa says:
    May 2nd, 2009 at 9:56 am

    Congrats! :)
    Any idea what you’ll be working on this summer?

  2. Obey Arthur Liu says:
    May 2nd, 2009 at 9:58 am

    Sure! It’s in the Tests team, working on NDA NDA NDA NDA! :D Sorry. Definitely very cool stuff though.

  3. Iustin Pop says:
    May 3rd, 2009 at 8:53 am

    Hi,

    I’m going with the same flight from Zurich to Madrid but I can’t find (on http://www.renfe.es/horarios/english/index.html) a train with the times you give (16:40, arrival at 20:02). Only a much later one :(

    Where did you find that train?

    thanks,
    iustin

  4. Obey Arthur Liu says:
    May 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 am

    @Iustin: I found it on bahn.de, it’s the Talgo 194. I haven’t booked yet. Maybe we should ask debconf people if they know about this “ghost train”…

  5. Iustin Pop says:
    May 3rd, 2009 at 2:53 pm

    Ah, Talgo 194. I went to renfe.es, selected Madrid, then Caceres, and I found the train. However, it says: TALGO 16:40 20:02 DIARIO del 31-03-2009 al 13-06-2009. Which, by my understanding, says the train doesn’t run during July :(

    The only other train, coming from Zurich, is the TRD 17018 but which arrives very late in Caceres (23:00)…

  6. Iustin Pop says:
    May 3rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm

    … I wanted to add that this means we’ll probably see on the spot there which is the first train.

  7. Obey Arthur Liu says:
    May 3rd, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    Yes, since later flights arrive too late anyway.

  8. Jeroen Massar says:
    May 6th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    If people tried to quote you 3k for a room in Zurich then they are nicely ripping you off. Yes, it can be expensive but not THAT expensive.

    Expect: ~800CHF for a shared-room, ~1200CHF for a single room apartment (kitchen etc included), ~1800CHF for a 2 room app, ~2200CHF for a 3 room apartment. The catch might be here that these prices are mostly unfurnished which is maybe something that might not match up with what you are looking for, but there is an IKEA closeby ;)

    Problem there is though that there is a housing shortage in Zurich as such, it will be fighting to get a place, and getting one for short-term can be hard. http://www.wg-zimmer.ch is the one to check for if you want the shared option. A ladyfriend of mine from the US took 2 months to find such a place though (and she is a cute looking girl with a working brain thus definitely somebody with an advantage in looking for places ;) thus can be harder for the guys. Depends also on luck though.

    AFAIK Google has a Housing officer, as such, ask the folks there they can probably help you get going too (though maybe that doesn’t exist for summer students, but you can ask at least ;) .

    Btw: don’t forget your whiskey bottles for Thirsty Thursdays at Google Maps SRE :)

  9. Obey Arthur Liu says:
    May 6th, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    2.2kCHF was in Enge, close to the Google offices, which might explain the price.
    I’ve found a shared apartment with a Googler in Adliswil for 800CHF. I will almost certainly take that. I will have to take a trip to IKEA though because there’s wallpaper but not much else :) .
    The housing officer is for full-timers I think. They put all of us interns on a mailing list and sent us a list of housing pointers but that was all.
    Thirsty Thursdays. Hum. Do people ever work there ? :)

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