David and I were not prepared for how hard finding an apartment here would really be, but you know.. welcome to the big city. That welcome also included a different way to go about apartment hunting. The system here doesn't work on a first come, first serve basis. Instead, you submit an application upon viewing an apartment. After a week or so, all of the applications are reviewed by the landlord and the most attractive tenant is chosen. Just like that. We learned that most people that try to move into Zurich wait months to be approved for an apartment, so our plan of finding an apartment within the week was basically unrealistic. Regardless, we decided to move ahead with the search because we thought that the sooner we started submitting applications the better.
The second apartment that we looked at just took my breath away. It was a recently renovated attic with exposed beams, hardwood floors, lots of natural light, and a roof terrace (which has always been a dream of ours), two blocks from the grocery store, five blocks from the train station, and right across the street from a beautiful park (this was important to us because you know, we have a golden muppet dog to think about). We submitted an application with heavy hearts because this apartment was incredible.. take a small chance and then divide it by 439 and that was the chance that we thought we had to be accepted as tenants. We were told that we would be notified by mail in seven business days and that was that. We went on our way to look at another five apartments (one of which had over 80 people at the viewing.. like the line was around the building; it was crazy) but none compared to the little attic apartment.
The next day, David and I were walking away from yet another government office that couldn't help us unless we had an address and I have to admit, it was becoming very hard for me to be optimistic. And that's when we got a phone call from the landlord of the little attic apartment. He said something along these lines I just reviewed your application and I've never done this before but something has led me to call and offer you the apartment that we showed you yesterday. I'm not even kidding, friends. That actually happened. We were shocked and overjoyed. Both of us may have cried.. we were that happy. The very next day, we signed the papers and that was it. The little attic apartment became our little attic apartment. And we love it. Thank you, Lord!
