Mar 5, 2012

You know you're a Swede living in Switzerland when you.....


 ...receive the Swiss tax declaration form and it makes you feel like you want to run home to mommy in tears or makes you want to leave your job just to avoid having to do it again.
...look in the fish department while grocery shopping and wonder why there are no REAL shrimps?
...jaywalk while everyone else is kindly waiting for the light to turn green and it makes you wonder if maybe you should go back to lend a hand as maybe they need help to cross?
...the only thing you find even remotely cheap in Switzerland is maybe, possibly, having a bottle of wine in a restaurant.
...go to the doctors office in a defensive mood, all armed with evidence at hand, just to realize that the doctor actually believes you are there because you are sick (wow) and hypochondria is NOT one of the diagnosis given.
...you sit for 2 hours after the dinner is over and the coffee is served, wondering when someone is going to offer you some more wine? ....as in Sweden, after dinner is when we really start to drink wine ;)) The wine for dinner is just to tease your taste buds by matching it with the food.
...realize that Mountain biking is an actual sport, not just means of transportation!
...when you go into a SPA with that joyous "Finally I'm gonna get to relax" kind of feeling but as soon as you open the door to your first sauna, you run out of there to the reception screaming in panic "There are NAKED people in there!!!!!".
...in the beginning of your Swiss living, you spend countless of evenings hungry as you struggle to understand that grocery stores really close at 18:30 (you had been thinking every time you went there at 19:00 and it's been closed, it has surely been for some kind of exception....or emergency.) and you don't have anything in your refrigerator.
...try cheese fondue for the first time and think that you finally found the explanation as to why Switzerland has an army (to protect the cheese!!! Of course! That makes complete sense now!!)! 
...get flashed quite frequently while driving and you slowly but surely realize that actually every single camera has a functioning device inside and they are e v e r y w h e r e.
...plan an evening dinner picnic or an evening BBQ and completely forget that it's NOT light until 23:00 in Switzerland....and hence, your plans to play "Kubb" after dessert completely fails.
...you go into a bar and ask for your favorite drink. The reply is that they don't have it, so you say "Ah, no problem, just mix me anything with Raspberry, Vanilla or Apple Vodka". You are now faced with a confused stare and the bartender kindly ask you to specify "Do you want a blue, green, red or a yellow Vodka?". In reply, the bartender gets the same confused stare back....
...you have to learn the hard way that Sunday in Switzerland is practically holy and things such as vacuum cleaning, disposing of your garbage or recycling from yesterday's dinner party gives you an actual fine.
...taste "Apfelschorle" for the first time, thinking "What a genius and delicious drink!!", just to find, out while googling to find its secret recipe, that it's basically just apple juice mixed with sparkling water ;)

Btw.....this is exactly how my blog's name turned into "Lost in Switzerland"! He he!
Swiss-based-Swedes.....did I miss anything? ;)


xox

4 comments:

  1. I miss you Linda! I have tagged to some questions on my blog... go check it out. :)

    http://moochinginspirations.blogspot.com/2012/03/im-back-and-im-tagged.html

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    1. Thanks Cherry!! As you may have noticed, I have honored the tag ;) x

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  2. So funny. I love these points, and many of them apply to now living in Australia! Actually, quite a few of them apply to a displaced American girl living Down Under. GREAT post!!!
    xo
    Sada
    Dressology HQ

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    1. Oh really? =)) Fun to know that it's not just the experiences of a Swede lost in Switzerland ;) Thanks a lot!!! x

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