25 More Facts About SwitzerlandPatti - 14. November 2017

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Hello! I took a little break from the blog (thank you morning sickness), but here is this week's post about life in Switzerland: the next installment of Swiss facts! Enjoy :)

*The picture is of Seealpsee frozen over last winter.

1. In a club or a church, you shake hands with everybody and greet them by name any time you say hello or goodbye.
2. Children are taught to greet everyone politely, and do so even when their parents are not present.
3. Most people walking past you on the sidewalk will say hello if you make eye contact. Young people tend to have earbuds in place and ignore everyone.
4. Adults and children alike ride scooters to work and school. Bikes are more popular for adults, but some still use scooters (not the electric kind either). Oh, and they’re called Kickboards.
5. Children are taught to cross streets and walk to school alone by the age of 6 or 7.
6. “Family style” meals means one person (usually Mom or Dad) serves everyone. If you want more, you ask for more rather than just taking it.
7. When pouring yourself a glass of water, you offer it to everybody else around you first.
8. Quiet times are lunch time and after 10 pm; some areas also have a quiet time from 2-4 in the afternoon. Your neighbors will complain if they hear you during those times. But work often starts at 7 am, so don’t count on quiet mornings.
9. Medieval festivals are so much cooler when they take place in an actual medieval town with an actual castle.
10. When you grill Wurst (not really the same as American bratwurst), you have to slice each side three times or you’re not doing it right.
11. Birdhouses are for the winter. If you put up a birdhouse in the spring, the birds will get “spoiled”.
12. Pretty much every job is respected. The education system is designed so that anybody can have a profession and while some professions obviously take more intelligence than others, nobody looks at a grocer and thinks that they are just working there while they wait for something better. Most Swiss people choose their job, and know it very well. Job changing happens infrequently.
13. Everything in Switzerland is only a couple of hours away, but nobody travels much further than 40 minutes unless on vacation.
14. It is easier to have a baby than own a dog. And if you want a pet that is considered a social animal, you have to buy at least two of them (horses, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, etc.).
15. Ballots are mailed to you and you mail them back; you don’t even have to pay for postage. Voting used to be mandatory in some areas, and those places still record voting participation at 80% or more.
16. There’s English everywhere, but it’s often comically taken out of context.
17. Everybody has to learn crafts in school (knitting, crocheting sewing, etc.), but few people actually continue doing it, and finding craft supplies can be very challenging and expensive.
18. Leaving your stroller in front of a grocery store unchained is perfectly fine and normal, but you would never leave your bike without a lock. The idea is that typically young men steal things, and they probably wouldn’t steal a baby stroller.
19. 18 years old is plenty old enough to be starting a career, but 24 years old is considered too young to be getting married, much less having children.
20. The bathroom door always stays shut. You must lock the door while using the bathroom or someone may walk in on you!
21. You need a coin to get a cart at most grocery stores, not just Aldi (yes we have Aldi!).
22. Jobs are measured by percent (not full-time/part-time, but rather 100%, 40%, etc.)
23. Minimum wage is roughly $20/hour. The average yearly salary is >$70,000
24. Insurance is required by law, and even basic insurance costs about $300/month. But it covers almost everything medical, including all the expenses of having a baby.
25. Many Swiss people believe in buying locally and will gladly pay more for the all-Swiss food products. Foreigners tend to buy the cheapest products or even go to Germany to do their grocery shopping. There are laws about how much meat and dairy products you can bring in from another country though, so that the Swiss farmers aren’t threatened.

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