I've already been in Switzerland for like 1 month now, & boy, time really flies ! I won't start school till 25th April, so till then I am kinda free -- technically speaking. But of course that doesn't mean that I don't work on my German lah.
Today, I just thought of writing what I thought about the way people lived in Switzerland, the weather, I guess anything I can think of, I'll write. I guess it is pretty interesting to know how their lifestyle & culture is. What I write now is entirely based on what I have seen & known throughout my stay here for the 1st month & it may change in the future. Till then, please do take note that what I write is all based in general & doesn't represent the WHOLE culture of Swiss people here, coz there are exceptions too. I may repeat some stuff that I've written in my old blog, so I hope you guys don't mind. But if you do, you can just close this window & wait for some time till I update my blog again. =P. Here are 20 things I thought about :
1. People here smoke a lot. I don't know whether the cigarettes here are cheap or what, they just smoke. Sometimes I wonder issit the cold weather makes them wanna smoke to keep warm, but my friend just told me it's a lousy excuse to smoke. People smoke everywhere & anywhere.
2. Bread is like rice we have back home. People here take bread everyday. Throughout my 4 week Deustch lessons in Zurich, I've had bread / sandwich every single day. Not that I don't like it(btw, the sandwich here is really tasty), but u know.....hehe... No wonder I always look forward to having dinner =) Besides that, some bread can be really hard. Once, my friend brought her sandwich to Deustchkurs & she threw it to another friend to show her how hard it was. There was actually a sound when you knock the bread. & when the friend threw it back, the bread hit a girl & it actually hurts!
3. Cheese, joghurt & chocolates. The Swiss Meal. As I enjoy eating joghurt & chocolates -- alot, I've got no complaints ! In fact I like how my family take their meals. Everyday there's salad, something which I've grown to love . Not with mayonaise though (coz I'll never eat salad with mayonaise everyday coz that is just TOO SINFUL ! ), but with vineger, olive oil, & some other stuff. It's really tasty & not to mention healthy too.
4. So far, I've tried 3 typical Swiss meals. However, it doesn't include fondue coz I haven't tried it yet. I've tried 'raclett' , a typical Swiss meal where you melt special raclett cheese on a hot plate & pour it on potatoes, corn & pickles. As I like cheese, I enjoyed it too. Next it 'rhusti' (dunno how to spell it, sounds like that lah) . It's grated potatoes (one of my favourite food) & you pour sauce on it. It's really good. I also loved it. Ah ha, here is one which I can say is familiar to me coz I do take this at home. Here, it's Bar Herr Muesli (again, I don't know the spelling, the food here are just entirely based on how it sounds, except for 'raclett' . That is the correct spelling) It's muesli, with milk, bananas, apples, raisins, joghurt, raspberries, other berries, kiwis. It's really,really good. The name of this muesli is named after this Swiss doctor, Bar Herr who invented this healthy meal. & they have it for either breakfast or dinner. It's really filling.
5. The weather here is soooooooo nice. For someone like me who prefers to stay in the shades, it's like THE perfect weather. Actually not too hot, not too cold. I just need a cardigan / coat when I go out. That's all. It's nice also to walk in the afternoon, at night. I can't imagine myself walking under the hot sun 3pm back home in Malaysia. That is just sick! People here LOVE the sun. They can just sit under the sun, basking in the warmth of it in the afternoon, listening to music or reading a book. Not me. I'm staying in the shades. I've enough of sun for the like, erm past 17 years, & I 'll be having it in the future. So for the time being, I don't need more.
6. People here are more 'enviromental friendly' compared to people in Malaysia, except for the smoking part lah. Like for instance, when people here go for grocery shopping, they would usually bring their own basket or bag to put the stuff they bought in it. This way, they cut down on the use of plastic bags. As for biodegradable stuff like apple skins & stuff, those are used in the garden as fertilisers. Oh ya, I almost forgot to mention that there's a 'smell of spring' here --smell of animal manure used in the meadows for planting stuff after the winter. Organic fertiliser, but Mami said the word 'fertiliser' is too clean a word to describe for the ' manure fertiliser'. Apart from that, people also wouldn't, not wouldn't but not often lah, use plastic bags if they bought small items & sometimes not even small items. Once I went shopping, the lady in front of me bought a couple of tops, & she didn't want a plastic bag as the was still space in her other shopping bags. Do you think that you can see that back in Malaysia?
7. Trains are play a really important role here & it's THE most important transport in Switzerland.They are very efficient too. Trains leave right on the dot, unless there's some technical errors, but that doesn't happen often. Once, I was on my way to Zurich as usual for my Deustchkurs. However on the way, the train stopped. The operator announced something in Deustch & I didn't understand what was it. I asked one of the passengers & she told me that an accident happen. Apparently, someone tried to cross the railway & the whole train had to stop. In the end, all passengers of that train had to leave the train & board another train to Zurich. We just had to go to another platform, & a few minutes later, another train came (for our sake, passengers to Zurich)& we took that train to Zurich. How efficient is that? We didn't even have to wait for 10 minutes.
8. A continuation to the train accident story above. It was actually suicide. Apparently, it is very common thing to happen here & very common too to commite suicide by jumping on to rail ways--that's what the people here told me. According to survey, suicides in Switz, I dunno is the 2nd or something highest in the world(told by a friend of mine, dunno true or not) .It is thought to be the 'fastest & efficient ' way to die, coz it's a sure thing. +/ I mean, if wanna die, dun ' lui gai fong' lah. Just becoz they wanna die then cause so many disruptions. It causes phychological scars for the train driver & people who saw the person die, people in charge have to clean up the scene & remove the body coz it ' zho zhu tiu lou' , trains gotta change way, passengers gotta change plans because of delay. In here, one train delay of less than 10 minutes can cause someone to miss his other train & that person gotta wait for another half an hour to catch the next train. Every timetable is timed in such passengers can switch from this train to another to get to their destination. The time interval between is about 5-8 minutes. Not all, but mostly.
9. People can be ironic, of course not only here lah, but everywhere lah. But I've got 1 example, so it's here lor =P It's about smoking. One of my friend's host dad works as an enviromental officer or something like that to promote enviromental stuff like ' recycle' or 'no smoking' . However, his wife & 16 year old daughter smokes. See what I mean?
10. Smoking marijuana is kinda common, if I wanna use that word. In fact, we thought that it was legal coz people smoke it around, even in the train! The truth is that it is NOT legal, but the laws are yet to be enforced.
11. People here are sporty. Almost everyone plays a sport. Golf(Papi's favourite sport), tennis(everyone in my host family), swimming, etc.
12. Music. Almost everyone has to learn music. In fact, all kids till 16 have at least 20 minutes of music lessons in a week, regardless whether it's the violin or piano. The 20 minute lesson is fully sponsored by the Swiss government. Therefore, practically almost every kid knows music here.
13. Pedestrain crossings. Drivers here are more courteus. They actually slow down & stop to let people cross the road. NOT speed up & not let people cross, unlike some country.....=P Of course there are some exceptions lah. Once when Papi overtook this car coz it was moving as fast as a turtle, the driver started honking like a maniac & showed the 3rd finger. Like I said in the beginning, there are always exceptions.
14. The 3 kisses. It is common to give people ' the 3 kisses' on their cheek, reagardless guy or girl. It's left, right, left. It's not totally kiss, but you place your cheek on the other person's cheek & make something like a kissing sound. If it's less formal, it's just 1. It depends. Like when my sisters introduce her friends to me, we also do the '3 kisses'. We also do it among friends, especially when we say hello, goodbye or both.
15. People here wear shoes in the house. Coz it's cold. Nothing special about it.
16. Almost everyone here can ski. As I said b4, it is THE Swiss sport. They learn in when they are still young which is easier to do so.
17. The scenery here is as beautiful as it is on postcards & books. No lies about it. Just beautiful & breathtaking. Especially the mountain view.
18. Zurich is like the ' fake capital of Switzerland' as the people here put it. Almost everything happening happens in Zurich, not Bern. Bern is 'slow' according to some people here. There is also like a 'feud' between people from Zurich & people from Bern. Haha. I wonder that means. Zurich actually has no skyscrapers. In my opinion, Kuala Lumpur looks more cosmopoliton compared to Zurich. Zurich is more of like old big & long buildings, not to mention short too. It's a different scene from Kuala Lumpur.
19. Most shops are closed on Sundays & earlier on Saturdays. No point making shopping plans with friends coz the shops are closed. Na dah. Closed.
20. The school system here is different. Students finish public school at age 16. From then on , they can choose whether to continue studying, take a year off to travel, do an apprenticeship(like what Laura,my sis is doing) or work. If the student wants to continue studying, his or her grades must meet the criteria of the ' Alte Kantonschule ' . The Kantonschule is a mixture of high school & college coz the students there are usually from 16 till 20. That is the school which I will be going to on the 25th. Like what Laura is doing is an apprenticeship. She works 4 days a week & goes to school for 1 day. What she studies has to do with what her job is. Therefore, students get hands-on practise on what they study. One thing here is for sure. Students here are definitely NOT the 'paper chase' students. It's not like after finishing school at 16, they MUST continue studying. Like one of the camp leaders I met, he told me that some of his friends took a year off to travel a bit & to think what they really want, & then came back after 1 year & continued their studies. End result, they enjoyed studying more than those who weren't sure what they wanted but continued studying anyway. I'm not saying that everyone must take a vacation off to know what they want in life, but wouldn't it be better to just calm down & think about what they want & need?
Ok lah, 20 things liao. Actually, the list can go on, but I'm tired liao & maybe some of u guys are also tired oso. So time to go now. Come back again to check out how my trip went in Bern as I will be going to Bern tomorrow. Till then, tschuss!
