A Pickle
This evening, I had an appointment to view an apartment. That's how it works here in Switzerland; recent immigrants are always making appointments to view apartments. Why? First: there are no apartments. Well, practically none. According to a recent study, the percentage of apartments which are vacant in Lausanne at this moment is around 0.1%; that's 1 per 1000. Actually, this is an estimate, as the actual number is probably fewer. During the month of June, for example, only 48 people moved into new apartments (in a city of 125,000). How did I find all this information out? Did one of my many Swiss friends warn me about this before I left from the new world? Of course not. I found out about this when I bought a newspaper -- so that I could casually check out the classified ads and really "get going" about an apartment -- and saw the lead headline: "Housing Crisis Becomes Dramatic" ( La c rise du logement devient dramatique ). Once one appreciates the fact t...