Another Writer Visiting Switzerland (December 10, 2005)

I just found a great list by Terry Fong titled Surprising Things about Switzerland. Almost everything is dead on with my experience, as far as I know. I'll try out his trick of shopping at gas stations!

Ah, well, there are a few differences. Specifically:

• None of my friends seem to think the US has a low cost of living. I and the other American in my lab frequently mention that things are 50%-100% higher here and no one differs.
• I have never seen anyone buy a bus ticket from the driver, and that includes Lausanne, Geneva, and Berne. Instead, every bus stop has an automated coin machine... and I've seen these machines decline to give change back.
• My apartment does not seem to have permanent assigned laundry; instead, you have to ask again each week.
• He's right about cashiers at most places that handle serious money. Not only are they behind thick glasses, but you exchange things with them by putting them on this rotating dais that they control. An exception, I'm happy to say, is the BCV bank. They actually have that local-bank feeling, just like in TV commercials, and part of that is that you do not have a wall of plexiglass between you.
• The mosquitoes are not dumb -- they are dead. It's cold here!
• EPFL students perfectly well want to get rich, at least comparing EPFL grad students versus Georgia Tech grad students. Surely, though, this depends on what kind of people you hang out with.
• I've stayed at two hotels in Lausanne and never been asked to leave my passport. The closest thing to this is that for buying a cell phone plan, even a passport is not enough, but you have to present a Swiss ID card!

As for "here here!"'s :

• Yeah, not only do restaurants serve in glasses marked in sizes, but they are always marked in deciliters or centiliters. Swiss children must get really good intuition about volume sizes!
• I didn't know about the bomb shelter restriction. I was wondering why it is so ubiquitous to have storage in a bomb-shelter-like basement. Terry says they are actually bomb shelters!
• Yeah, it was really weird going to a Mexican restaurant and getting really shi shi food! On the other hand, the Dynasty in Lausanne has cheap (by Swiss standards) Asian food.
• Recycling is not big among the people I hang out with. It seems no bigger here than in the States.

Lex Spoon