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

Sweden vs Switzerland: Part 3 - The Mountains and the Sea

If I was looking at designing a new country (don't worry, I have not lost my marbles and I know that's not an actual job....anyways....), I would use equal parts of the Swiss and the Swedish nature to perfect it. 


Sweden has the Sea and Switzerland has the Mountains,  both countries have them in excess and I couldn't imagine a better combination to feel great with my surroundings. Don't get me wrong!! I also love palm-treed-beaches,  rain forests etc,  but I prefer to go there for holidays! I don't need that in my everyday life......but I have such a weak spot for the Sea and I have grown incredibly fond of the Mountains here. I will allow the below pictures to speak for themselves...

Oh well.....they say you can't have it all....I'm not so sure that is true ;)

Sweden vs Switzerland 1-1
If these countries could only be combined........


xox

Sweden vs Switzerland: Part 2 - Who do you think you are??

Simple question, right? WRONG! At least if you live in Sweden...... 


You may have heard about the Law of Jante? Well, hearing or reading about it is one thing quite bad already, but experiencing it in every day life is way worse....trust me. 


To explain this "phenomena", I'd say it's a kind of normalcy rule....a rule that says you are not suppose to be better, smarter, stronger, prettier or have anything else, for that matter, more than others. This is how we (Swedes) are brought up and it's, to my great displeasure, more or less embedded in everyones DNA.


Experienced, I would describe it as a kind of small-town-jealousy-syndrome, loaded with negative energy. It triggers an anger in people that they sometimes even can't quite explain and it starts gossip and rumors sometimes even of the deliberately false kind, to bring the person, not abiding to this law, "back to earth" meaning back to the "normal".

As an example, "normal-Jante-law-driven-people" would be going on their everyday life when their neighbors suddenly buy a brand new shiny Porsche and park it outside in their driveway. This would provoke the normal people so much that they would be standing in their windows, staring at the new Porsche owners with disgust saying things like "Who do they think they are? They are no better than us just because they can buy a Porsche....and it was probably anyway bought on pure credit and NOT with their own money!". 
If you are a Swede who ever dared to step out of the "normalcy pattern", this will sound very familiar to you...especially if you grew up in a smaller town...as should it to those of you reading this who are very much having this in your DNA ;)


These behaviors are all too common and can also even trigger anger in people reading this blog right now! Especially people who do not know me so well, but know of me, for instance from an old workplace or my hometown, who would stumble upon this blog, would with a high likely hood find themselves thinking right now: "Who does she think she is, having this blog? Like anyone would ever be interested in what SHE has to say!"
Another example of Jantelagen behaviour is feeling joy when the rich, successful or good looking people fail...  I think this behavior is truly ugly and hope that time will erase it.......in the meantime, I am very happy to be away from it! 


You shouldn't have to be afraid to show openly who you are and to be the best you can be and be proud of it!

Sweden vs Switzerland 0-1
Shame on us Swedes!!! 


To be continued......
xox

Sweden vs Switzerland: Part 1 - Minding your own business

After 2 years and 9 months here in Switzerland, I must say I have grown to love this country quite deeply and needless to say, I also still have a deep love for my home country Sweden. With this in mind, I have hereby launched this new series of posts with "battles" (if you will)..... Showing the annoying and the lovable sides of each country. I promise I will try to be objective, all though it may not seem that way considering the first post. This first battle, which I will call "Minding your own business" is, undoubtedly won by Sweden and here I think Switzerland could learn from Sweden ;))
As I mentioned, I have truly grown to love Switzerland, however, there are some things that will never seize to amaze me and I think I will never ever get used to them...... I have many stories to tell here unfortunately about NOT minding your own business, but will focus on this one. The note you see on the left hand side was found a while ago on my car, parked in the nearby parking garage. When I saw this note, it took me around 1 minute to figure out why on earth someone had put this on my car as I was parked safely inside MY "parking space". After a brief walk around my car - I finally see what had annoyed this person so much that it was worth finding time, paper and a pen to write an anonymous note about it: My car was closer to the left side (I'm talking about marginally closer...really!) of the space than the right, meaning not entirely in the middle. If you don't know what the note says, allow me to translate: "This is not the way to park!". 
Dear Lord, forgive me for I have sinned...........by parking without using a foot rule.


Sweden vs Switzerland: 1-0
To be continued......


xox