Things We've Learned So Far....

In a cozy restaurant at the top of Zurich's 'home' mountain today, I took an informal poll of my kids and Ellen to discover what we've learned so far.

Maya:
The hot chocolate tastes different than in California.
We are learning to be quiet on trains and in restaurants. Russell keeps shushing me.

Russell:
Forest Berry Tea is good.
Pop your ears when riding trains and cable cars.
I'm learning about different train lines.


Ellen:
Don't eat fondue and rosti at the same meal.
Service is slower than in America. If you don't ask for the bill, you can sit for hours at a restaurant.
Portion sizes are often measured on cups and glasses.
All drinks are from bottles, i.e. iced tea from a bottle, no one drinks tap water.


Josh: (added after returning from work)
Coffee/tea is not allowed at people's desks and only is drunk collectively in the common area, it seems. People arrive between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning and work until 9:30 when they all head downstairs to the cafeteria for a first cup. The second session happens directly after lunch with the final collective gulping occurring at about 3:30. If I drank coffee, it would only be espresso. Instead, I drink tea and put in two tea bags. My Swiss colleagues are very good English speakers and are very considerate about using English when I'm around. Occasionally, I might hear something like "blah blah blah blah Josh blah blah blah" in the background and then I know that I'll be asked to do something.


Sylvia:
For daytrips, I need to travel with a full loaf of (amazing, whole wheat) bread in my backpack in order to maintain everyone's blood sugar levels and my sanity. There are many places where you cannot get a meal between 2 and 6pm. Our lazy vacation schedule puts lunch right into this time slot.

I must look Spanish here as everyone who sees me struggle with German asks me if I speak Spanish. My very poor Spanish has served me well, as has my even sadder Yiddish. There's a sign outside our building prohibiting parking and warning that your car will get "schleppt" if left there.

Swiss hikes are dotted with playgrounds, water fountains, and guesthouses serving hearty food. It's amazingly kid-friendly. My kids walked 5km today! See the Planetwalk photo once I upload it.

More mundane matters: Recycling happens in Zurich at the neighborhood level. There are big bins out in a central location, and you schlep your recycling to it. It took me a while to figure out where 'our' location was. In the meantime, we had a nice, smelly pile of recycling in our apartment.

Dirty laundry: The lack of printed prices and documentation in English have confounded me when it comes to doing the laundry in the basement of our building. You put money into the coin box, but when you're done, some money comes back to you, but not the same amount each time. But the machine starts without any money in it. This confusing feature lead me to do several loads of laundry that apparently had soap and water applied but no actual washing. The dryer also starts without money but then stops, so we ended up hanging our laundry out on the folding drying rack that came with the apartment. It all felt so European and energy conscious until I learned that the laundry wasn't really clean. The nice building custodian and I had a conversation in Spanish/English/German about how the machines work. I still don't really understand, but now the clothes are getting cleaner and dryer. Josh is going to try doing the laundry tonight. Maybe he'll figure it out.


Josh feeding coins to the washing machine in the basement laundry room.