Now that I have my life back in order, by which I mean having a working computer, I can now share with you some events from the past couple of months. Non-chronologically, let’s start with Christmas! I was very excited to have a traditional family Christmas, unlike the last two, spent on vacation in and around Southeast Asia, with little resemblance to a Danner family Christmas except via Skype. After a flight that luckily managed to be unaffected by the terrible weather, and serendipitously running into an old friend from NY/Japan on the same flight, I was on my way to Cape Cod Christmas.
Among the things I brought back was the stuff for fondue!
Stockings hung by the fire…
Otto with the Christmas tree
Christmas morning…Natalie with her new Freitag bag
Mom opening some presents and wearing her new scarf
In Chatham for the usual visit to the beach, candy store and Chatham Squire
Chatham beach
Christmas lights at the Danner residence
Very exciting! The newly finished master suite. We had just put up the gold screen above the bed, with only minimal injuries
Claude in the new master suite bathroom (glass enclosure for shower forthcoming), designed by Claude
Mom and I decided to combine our trip to Providence to pick up Natalie from the train station with seeing Wicked. We had dinner in a lovely restaurant downtown, where I made more friends on line for the bathroom then I probably have my entire time in Switzerland, and then headed to the sold-out theater. The performance was great, although it highlighted my apparent need for glasses, as I could only recognize Glinda vs. Elphaba as pink area vs. green area. I also was reminded of the joys of commerce open at crazy hours when we killed time at Borders and Old Navy while we waited for Natalie’s 3-hour late arrival. Thank you Providence Place, for your glorious late-night hours.
Anyway, Natalie and I returned to NY together, where I was glad to spend some time with friends and enjoy being, inspired by Liz Lemon, “a lady of leisure” with days filed with manicures, haircuts, shopping, movies, and dining out, though only for a short time. (truthfully I don’t think I could survive being a full-time lady of leisure). Margaret and I traveled down to Philadelphia via the wonderful Bolt Bus, where we met up with Jesse for some fun times. Accidentally, we had arrived during the Mummers Parade, though no Philadelphian seemed to be able to explain to us what a Mummer was, but we had a great night out and the next day went to the Mutter Museum of medical oddities (recommended).
Me and Margaret on NYE in NYC
Rockefeller Center, classic
Margaret and Jesse in Philly
And now let’s go back in time…to when Edel visited me back in early December! We had a fun weekend which included various Christmas markets, my school’s holiday party, and a water park!
Edel and I at the holiday party, good food and good dancing!
The singing Christmas tree in Zurich!
Edel and I enjoying the carols
Pretty star lights in the trees
Grittibanz
At the Christmas market in Einsiedeln
I really must say that the Alpamare water park was superb, easily the most fun I’ve had in Switzerland so far. The combination of the terrifying waterslides, and kiddie-free onsen-like outdoor pool with lovely view, and all the other fun stuff it has to offer really made it a great day out.
Hmm..what else? Shortly before I left for the holidays I went into Zurich one night to see Lichterschwimmen, where floating candles are let to float down the Limmat, on my way to a Regina Spektor concert. I was pretty excited for the concert, thinking she couldn’t possibly be that popular here, so it would be easy for me to get a good spot in the standing-room-only venue, and I was excited to be around other superfans. As it turns out the concert was sold out, but seemingly to people who had no interest in her music. Well, perhaps that’s a bit harsh. Anyway, I was standing next to a couple of girls who were quite into it, dancing around a bit and singing along, and another (older) girl in front of them, turned around and told them TO BE QUIET!! At a concert!!! And they obeyed her!!! I was horrified. I also seemed to be in a sea of girls who had dragged along their way-too-tall boyfriends to the show, all of them looking bored and resentful and blocking my view! So, anyway, for reasons that had nothing to do with the performance (which was excellent, especially the amazing set during the encore) I was pretty disappointed with the concert. Regina told some story of how when she was just starting out and playing only at “really terrible” venues in NY, some Swiss dudes flew her out to play a show here and she felt it was like her first real professional gig. She then went on to say how “America loves Switzerland” which got some backlash from the Americans in the crowd (in light of the recent minaret situation). Anyway, here’s some pictures of Lichterschwimmen in Zurich.
Holiday lights in the old town
Floating candles on the Limmat
The candles were inserted into pieces of strofoam to keep them afloat
And finally I’d like to address something I’ve been struggling with here, which is the relative “coldness” of Swiss people, something I was not really aware of before I came here, but has been slowly but surely getting to me over the months. Actually it’s hard to make the generalization because for example the neighbors in my building are actually relatively friendly, as are the Swiss people I work with. But there’s something about that not smiling…that gets to me. Here, one wouldn’t smile at a passer-by, nor necessarily at a clerk in the grocery store, let alone make some friendly small talk. Of course there are exceptions, but I have to wonder, surely a world where people’s default is to be friendly and smile at strangers, rather than be cold and frown, would be a better one? I have heard that in general Swiss people are perhaps less open than what I’m used to, and that it takes a very long time to build friendships where for example you would be invited to someone’s home.
Another thing, perhaps linked to the coldness, is, as a colleague who has lived here for many years said, “Inside every Swiss person is a policeman waiting to get out”. It seems ingrained to tell others exactly what they are doing wrong, as needed (no matter how petty, it seems), which makes for an especially difficult situation for a person like myself, who once said in a performance review for a job (alright, it was when I was just a youngin, still in college, but I don’t think I’ve matured much beyond it) that I require all constructive criticism to be sugar-coated. Another friend’s most vivid memory of visiting Switzerland the first time is of being told off by a Swiss lady for playing around a public fountain. Yet another friend described the phenomenom as a great willingness to go out of your way to explain to another person when they have behaved inappropriately. Of course, this makes trying to adjust to a new culture difficult, though perhaps some people would say it makes it easier to be told when you’re inevitably doing something wrong, to learn the “right” way, unlike in, say, Japan, where you’re probably not going to be told to sit seiza during your boss’s speech, nor to return every gift with a gift of lesser value. Not going lie, it’s gotten to me though, despite being previously described as having a rock-like facade, more than once here I’ve cried over a delivery person yelling at me for some scheduling mix-up or other such mis-hap. It’s embarrasing to admit, but admit it I will. I am trying to get used to and accept it though, and not take it personally, but I’m not quite there yet, nor do I think I’ll ever be to the point of having policing-tendencies myself.
Another friend has ventured to say that perhaps this policeman phenomenom is due to the fact that the country is so financially stable, with little to no crime – without having things like money and violence to worry about, people worry about things like what time their neighbors do their laundry. Of course, it’s the policeman effect that keeps crime so low etc. The other tough part of living here so far, is the difficulty in making friends. It’s been a far cry from my Japan experience, where I essentially landed with insta-best friends and with gaijin-ness came semi-celebrity in a rural rice field town. Here, though my job is super-social, where I meet plenty of very nice and friendly people, it’s been a bit of a struggle to get things going on outside of work, or meet people my age with similar interests. But I will keep on trying! And I will say that these things have not diminished my appreciation of being back in a place that values things like good bread, dairy products, heating and insulation, wine and coffee, and at a challenging job that requires more brainpower than willingness to be the “dancing bear”. I’ll leave you with a link to the next mountain I’m going to try skiing at, and a song dedicated to all the non-smilers in this country, and the world.
