Switzerland already has twint and I don't see them switching to a new system. Maybe that's where it will lead to: multiple regional services. Not great, but also not a giant corporation.
What we really need are alternatives to US credit card systems.
A lot of clothes in specialized web shops like avocadostore.de are produced in the EU.
Came here to say that Switzerland somehow managed to introduce a competitor to Paypal that works flawlessly and EVERYBODY uses it. Twint is the first app I was told to install.
That's a pretty bleak outlook. It took me about four months to find a job without any contacts. And I live here now. Granted I do speak German, but I don't speak Swiss-German and I have made friends with other expats and swiss people alike. There's a job market that is also open for foreigners. I was expecting much more push back from the people around me but they have been very welcoming.
A B permit was easy to get. You need a job and that's pretty much it. After 5 years you can apply for a C permit. You can try to become a citizen after ten years but that's a different beast. I have nine years and three months to go. I played a game of DND with a Swiss, a Russian and an Argentinian(?) here. My kid goes to school with someone whose parents are brazilian and dutch who met in Australia. So, it's definitely possible.
Left Germany for Switzerland and while I never really felt unsafe in Germany, it's so much more relaxed here. And I start to really appreciate direct democracy.
You would need to buy the chicken from somewhere. You would only buy the female chicken, because you want the eggs. There would still be male chickens that no one wants, except for reproduction. That would at least be my logic so I'd say no.
My first winter in Berlin was one of the hardest times in my life. That city is brutal in winter.
Ich lebe in Bern wo ein L wie ein U ausgesprochen wird. Aus "Angestellte" wird "Agsteuti". Hoffe ich. Ist hart zu lernen.
Oh yeah, I remember the good ol' "Our whole business Logic is within this 30 tables spread sheet, that only one person can read, and don't you dare restarting that computer" times.
One person. Sitting in front of three monitors. In front of a spreadsheet that maxed out every resource of that computer. It was glorious.
I'd say: do the opposite! Don't plan anything, stay no more than two nights at the same place, jump on a train and see where you end up. Then, if you don't like, just take the next train somewhere else.
I did this twice in my early twenties and it was amazing. I mean, it was absolutely horrible. I slept on bark benches, in Cafés, in train stations, before train stations (until they turned on the sprinklers)... I was picked up by the police because we got lost in a field and more than once I was convinced I'd die. But it was absolutely worth it and both trips became core memories / PTSD trigger.
But seriously, don't follow this advice if you have a kid and are not an immortal twenty-something.
TIL that https://steelseries.com/ is danish? If you are a Gamer, they make decent gaming keyboards.