Observations about Switzerland thus far

Seeing as I am living in another country 4,500 miles away from Cleveland, I figured I would run into a number of new and different things. Looks like I was right. I have made a number of observations about things while in Switzerland for the last 2 1/2 weeks, some more significant than others, but they are all taking some time to get used to. Here's a few of them.

- The Swiss have crazy light switches. They are actually rectangular buttons, instead of switches, and they can usually be found in some random place on the wall somewhere around your knees. This was one of the most difficult things that get used to here. When you are in a room with other people and need to go to the bathroom at 4 in the morning, it can be very tricky to locate a light button. It may involve crouching down and groping the wall wildly for a few minutes, or you may try crawling, so you can actually be at face level with the button. It's rough.

- The Swiss also have weird toilets. Instead of having a lever to pull, like we do in the States, there is usually a large box that looks like a toilet seat cover holder somewhere on the wall above the toilet, and you are supposed to push the bottom of the box in to flush, or push the top of the box in to stop the flush. If you don't find one of these, it gets even trickier. Outside of Geneva, most of the toilets have a button that you have to push hidden somewhere in the lid of the tank of the back of the toilet. Women may consider taking their makeup kit into the bathroom, as some power and a brush might come in handy - you can look for the fingerprints of people who have gone before you.

- The bathrooms in the Knox Centre, like the rooms as a whole, are tiny and kind of suck. We were told they are "American style" bathrooms, but I have no idea what that means. They are no different than the ones at our hotel in Montbovon. The showers are built into the corner in a wedge shape and are extremely small. If I stand flush to one wall, I can reach the other wall with my elbow. They are elevated off the ground about a foot, which is interesting, because the ceiling is only about 7'6" anyway, so I'm not sure how anyone above 6'6" could possibly fit. We have hand-held shower heads that come with adjustable arms so that you can shower hands-free, but the arms do not work well. If you put the shower into the holder, odds are it is going to fall out a few seconds later. In addition, every time you turn the shower on or off, the pressure or cessation of pressure from the water causes it to fall out of the holder and hit you in the back of the head.

- Side streets here (particularly in Grand-Saconnex) are small, and sidewalks are sporatic at best. You will often find yourself walking on the side of the street with two cars coming from opposite directions that can't see you or each other until they are almost on top of you.

- There are a lot of car brands here that I have never heard of and a lot more which I have never seen. The former category includes Opel and Citroen. The latter includes Pegueot, Alfa Romeo, Mazzarati, and FIAT. It also seems as if people here only own two types of cars - small, fuel-efficient compacts (like Hondas, Opels, and Smart Cars), or grandiose luxury cards (Ferraris, Jaguars, BMWs, Audis).

- The Swiss have a lot of dogs, but they are also one of two extremes: big dogs like Bernese Mountain Dogs, Labradors, Rottweilers, and German Sheperds; or tiny little toy dogs that they dress in sweaters and carry under their arms. Also, apparently not all Swiss are as concerned about cleanliness as they claim, because it is not uncommon to see dog shit sitting on the side of the road or sidewalk. There are also almost as many stray cats here as there are in Cleveland. Some of them are very friendly, while others are totally feral and are quite aggressive.

- Geneva is a very international city, with people of all races, ethnicities, and nationalities. But don't believe it if someone tells you everyone here speaks English; they don't. The people who need to speak English - IGO & NGO employees, tour guides, bank tellers, people at the airport and train station - speak excellent English. Pretty much everyone else speaks French and possibly German, but little if any English. Ashley & I went to the main post office in Geneva, which is huge, and no one there spoke English. There are four people who work in the kitchen at the Knox Centre. They speak a plethora of languages, including French, Spanish, German, Portugese, Italian, and Morrocan, but not one of them speaks English.
* an addendum to this: If you don't know French but try to order or start a conversation in it, be prepared - the person will respond in French, and it helps to have a translator with you. Also, if you ask some one "parle vous anglais," and he/she respond with "a little," that person probably speaks better English than you do.

- I knew this coming in, but it was still a bit of culture shock the first time that I encountered it head-on: Europeans are way more comfortable with sensuality, nudity, and sex than Americans. I have seen multiple couples making on the on street or the bus. I have also seen female nudity on the covers of magazines and books and even in an advertisement in the window of a pharmacy.

- Because their language involves a number of accent marks and other things we don't have in English, French-speakers have their own keyboards. This is extremely difficult to get used to. The z and y keys have been swapped, which makes typing fun. Every time I try to type you or your or today, it comes up as zou, zour, and todaz. Also, they have rearranged the keys to the right of the letters in order to fit the letter with accents. So you have to hit shift to find to find the front slash and the colon, and you have to look all around the keyboard for the apostrophe, the plus sign, the semicolon, the question mark, and so on. So if you try to talk to me while I am at my internship, of if I send you an email from there, keep this in mind.

- Swiss people, particularly young people, can be extremely rude. Don't be surprised if people bump into you on regular basis and don't say a word. Teenagers are the worst. We were looking at an exhibit at the Red Cross & Red Crescent Museum, at at least 6 or 7 different 13-year olds walked into me without saying a word. One girl walked directly into my arm while I was walking by, knocked the pamphlet out of my hand, and didn't so much as a say a word.

- The Swiss are pretty prompt, and the buses are on time to the minute about 90% of the time. But if you need to get to somewhere at a specific time and need to catch a specific bus (because certain lines only run every 20, 30, or 40 minutes), make sure you get there with time to spare and give yourself some breathing room. I have waited for buses that were 10 minutes late, and watched the only two buses at my stop roll by because they were each early.

- It is really easy to spot American tourists, even after just a few days abroad - particularly teenagers and young women. They are usually the ones wearing North Face coats, hats, scarves, and gloves and speaking far too loudly on the otherwise silent bus. There are a lot of high-school age American students here, so that just compounds the problem.

- Geneva is a very small, walkable city. It only takes about 15 minutes to walk from the main bus/train station north of the Rhone to the middle of Old Town. The public transportation system is also pretty good and covers most of the city fairly well. One could likely get away without every buying a ticket on the TPG, because bus and street car drivers never ask for them, and you don't have to put them into a machine to get on the bus like you do on the RTA. Despite that, it is smart to buy a ticket, because inspectors periodically ride the buses and trains, and if you are caught without a ticket, they will fine you heavily. It costs CHF 80 if you can pay upfront in cash and CHF 100 if you need to pay later.

- You will run into some interesting things in this city that take some time to get used to. You can see the mountains from downtown and are situated on a large lake, yet it hardly ever snows here. It is the middle of winter with temperatures sometimes dropping below freezing, yet most of the trees still have their leaves and are still green (not just pine trees, mind you). I have also noticed a number of interesting plants here. At the Knox Centre, don't be suprised to find 8-foot tall bamboo growing a few feet away from some type of palm tree. Don't ask me how, I just know I've seen it.

- I am missing a lot of the little luxuries here that I have at home. At the Knox Centre, our meal plan over covers a continental breakfast 7 days a week (which is the same thing everyday - bread, four types of cereal, coffee, and orange juice), lunch one day a week, and dinner Monday-Wednesday. That leave a lot of meals unaccounted for and two major hurdles to clear: food here is expensive (the average meal at a budget restaurant is CHF18-30 per person), and places are almost never open (everything closes by 7 on weekdays, by 5 on Saturday, and almost nothing is open before 6pm on Sundays). McDonald's is naturally the exception to this rule, but even that garbage is pretty expensive. Ashley & I were starving last Sunday, so we went there and got chicken nuggets and (yes) tiger shrimp, fries, and a drink, and it cost me CHF 17. Grocery stores are also pretty expensive, and as we only have access to a microwave at the Knox Centre, our options are pretty limited. Fortunately, fresh bread is cheap, so I've been eating peanut butter & nutella sandwiches about 5 times a week.

- For the most part, beer here is expensive and pretty shitty, but it is often very strong. I found a Dutch beer - the Amsterdam Maximator - in a 500 mililiter can that was 11.6% alcohol, but it tastes like shitty malt liquor. Most of the beers are really light (Kronenbourg 1664, Feldschlosse, Cardinal). Co-op has some better beers like Guinness and Sam Adams, but they are not cheap (CHF 4.40 for a 500ml can of Guinness and CHF 2.20 for a 12 oz bottle of Sam Adams). On the other hand, wine is extremely cheap. You can find a liter of wine starting at CHF 2.

Well, that's all that I feel like pointing out for now. If you would like me to clarify anything or add to the list, let me know.