Switzerland is not the USA

Hi there. According to the ticker, I've been in Switzerland 27 days--almost an entire month. Crazy. But things are really settling into a groove. Hazel has been going to Kindergarten for two weeks now, and tomorrow Jethro will start at his German-as-a-second-language school, which he'll go to for about 3 months and then start back at the regular school.

So, since I've been here I've kept a little list of some of the things that are different. It's not exhaustive, but it's some of the things that I've noticed. And bear in mind that I haven't been to Europe before, so maybe these aren't all that novel for some of you, and also bear in mind that I haven't experienced a very wide range of Switzerland yet, so I may have to come back and amend some of my opinions but here they are for now while things are still fresh.

1. Mostly everything is smaller. Cars are mostly very small, and you hardly see ANY trucks. When I was in Vernal right before we left, I mentioned to Brett on our drive to church that to live in Vernal you apparently have to have two trucks in your driveway. He drove for a little while and said, "You're right." And here we decided that we should do a punch-buggy or slug-bug thing for trucks. Also, the roads are very narrow. I shall be scared to drive I think when we get a car.
Refrigerators are tiny. Here is a picture with Jethro and Hazel standing in front of our fridge for scale (although they are standing on their toes.) And here is a picture of Talmage in front of the fridge just because he's so darn cute.Also, food portions are very small- such as sour cream or things like that. And milk! My goodness --you can only buy it in 1 liter bottles! 1 liter is something like an eye-dropper full of milk. I can drink that in two seconds, and my family could drink probably 3 at a meal. That and the small fridge means I go to the store more often, but it's okay. However, the prices for these food items are NOT smaller. Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in the world. When we get a car, people have told us it would probably be worth it to drive to Germany every once in a while to stock up on some groceries.

I have noticed, on the other hand, that there are a ton of words that are NOT small. They can be huge--much longer than English words it seems like. For example, a note sent home from Hazel's school had the word "schulbereitschaftselternabend." Anyway, weird to me.

2. You flush the toilet by pushing a large square sort-of-like-a-button thing. And the light switches are usually square buttonish thingees too. And the doors don't go all the way into the doorframe. And the locks are almost always keys--not just push the lock button thing, or push in and twist.

3. The school system is soooo different. When we were staying with Kathrin and Beat's (Beat is pronounced BAY-ott) family for a few days Kathrin drew a very detailed diagram for me, showing me all the different options. I should take a picture of it and post it, just so you can see how complex it is. Anyhow, to make it very simplified, after 6th grade you're placed into one of three tracks. One track, for those with the best grades, is the slickest way to university, the next track you go to a different school and get an apprenticeship, and the next track is kindof harder for you to get a good apprenticeship. And kindergarten--what Hazel is in right now--is more like playschool. They don't really start getting into reading and "curriculum" stuff until first grade. So on Hazel's first day of school when I picked her up she said, "There were NO reading groups!!"

4. Swiss people speak many languages. The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Rumantsch. But Swiss people don't speak High German like in Germany or Austria--they speak Swiss German, which is a dialect but is so different from High German that other Germans don't understand them. So, Hazel's schoolmates all speak in Swiss German but when they start going to first grade they'll be taught in High German and learn to write in High German. So basically they know two langauges. And then there are different phrases from canton to canton.

And so many people know English. And they all say "My English is very bad," and then speak what sounds to me like amazingly good English.

5. It's not exactly set up in city-then-suburb type layout like places I've lived in the States. There's the city, but then there's just little villages here and there spread out that are small, but fairly self-contained. At least, that's what I've seen around here. The smallest little town, Brett says, has its own little government organization.

6. They have roundabouts ALL OVER. I knew this before we moved here because Brett would always say how superior roundabouts are to stoplights or stop signs because it's so much slicker, etc. But he wasn't exaggerating-they really are everywhere.

7. There are no bedroom closets. This is something that I think is ridiculous. Then you have to buy wardrobes and more dressers and whatnot. Also microwaves don't seem to be the thing. I am very American in that I find a microwave to be a necessity. I was saying that to a Swiss lady at church, and she said, "Oh I agree--I like microwaves too. When we built our house I had them put in a microwave above the stove, but when I came and saw after they had installed it, it was a teeny tiny Swiss microwave--I had been thinking American size, so now I have to cut things in half to defrost them."

8. You have to buy your bags at the grocery store. And you are required to recycle. And you pay for garbage collection when you buy your garbage bags--so they're really expensive. And at the grocery store you weigh your own produce and a sticker comes out for you to stick on your bag.

9. Clocks are on the 24-hour cycle, and of course the other measurement stuff is different--like my oven is in Celsius. Good thing Brett bought me a handy-dandy cell phone of my very own (I feel so proud to be entering the modern era) and it has a converter option that will tell me what 350 degrees Fahr. is in Cels.

10. Lots more people use public transportation here. There are buses, trams, and trains that are used all the time. We go to church on the bus and then a tram. I'm still very American in that I can't WAIT to get our own vehicle. It is such an enormous operation just getting to a place that by the time we're there the kids (at least the littler ones) are usually tired out and cold and ready to go home again. Let me tell you that once Talmage has decided he's through, he's THROUGH. And there's nothing you can do to keep him from screaming from that point until you get home. Not fun. At least if he was screaming in your own vehicle not everyone around could hear him and stare at you. And your vehicle can hold a lot more groceries than your bookbag or even your stroller with big old bags stuck in between children.

11. They don't use titles as much here. At least according to a friend from church. When I was staying at his house, I called him Brother Burri, which is something I would commonly say in the States to anyone in church that was older than me. And he turned around and answered my question and then he said, "Why did you call me that?" And I was a little confused, and he said that no one here really ever calls each other that, they just say first names always. Even the children to the adults. And he went on to say that you don't call doctors 'Dr. So-and-so,' you just call them Mr. like anyone else. And he said even the equivalent of the President of Switzerland, they just say Mr.

And this is unrelated, but I'll just stick it in here that our church ward or congregation is very much smaller than we've been used to. We don't have our own church building, just a rented space in a building in the city. And there are only about 5 kids in the primary-so our kids coming pretty much doubled it. The first Sunday of church Hazel whispered to me, "It's NEVER this quiet at church in Utah." Yeah, you do get quite a bit of noise when you have a million babies and kids in a ward.

12. So this is something I'm not really sure about, but I read somewhere before we came that people here are more ready to let kids be out in all types of weather, and let kids be more rough-and-tumble at recess and the like. All I know is that Hazel's kindergarten class went sledding one day, and I'm pretty sure that not a whole lot of kindergarten classes in the States would do that. Also, there was a little pamphlet sent home on safety in walking to school (made by the police) and one of the points reads "Travelling by car creates dangers and will not allow your child the experience of going to school on foot." Quite the different mindset from Jethro's school teacher in Indiana who was a little bit paranoid I think.

Here is Ethne and Jethro and some friends from the ward ready to go and sled. The kids were so so nice to Ethne.

13. You can marry your first cousin in Switzerland. You have to be sure that people farther back in your family haven't intermarried, but otherwise you're good. Just FYI.