Merry Swissmas!!!!!

Merry Swissmas everyone!!!!



Timi thought that one up, cute, huh? Just a short Post today. We had to work last night till 4:30 am, then went to a little get-together with our fellow workers to the lake shore, which is just out in front of the casino, and had hot mulled wine and Christmas cakes. I met one of the dealers last night who just works part time. I hadn't met him before, and we got to talking. Apparently he is quite the Vegasphile, I think he knows more about Vegas than I do! He goes there every year and stays for a month or more. He actually went to dealer school there, thought never actually dealt in a casino before he got the job here in Lucerne! He deals all the games, including Craps, which is unusual for Europeans. We talked for quite a while, and it turns out he has been thru every State in America except for Alaska, and has been in over 500 casinos! He once spent 9 months traveling around the States, going from one casino to another, and of course probably seeing other sites along the way. How he had the money to do that I don't know, but it appears that many Swiss take these epic vacation journeys frequently. Perhaps Europeans have a little too much time off to indulge their interests? Many seem to take off months every year and travel all over the world. It's interesting the fascination that many Europeans have with America, particularly with Vegas, at least in our social circles, which may be a little biased.Anyway, we only got up about 2:00 pm, got ready, opened our presents while listening to Christmas music and drinking homemade eggnog(courtesy of Timi), cleaned up our mess, and now have just been sitting around relaxing and talking on the phone to friends and family. We unfortunately have to go back to work tonight at 8:30. That's all for now, cause I have some phone calls to make, and Timi is cooking Christmas dinner. Here's a few pictures of our tree, and around town. Also, the link at the bottom is to an interesting article in the Economist magazine about living in other countries. Hope the link works. See ya!

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108690

Finished third week of work, slowing acclimatizing

Wheeeeeewwwww! I just finished my third week of work on Saturday, or I should say, I survived another week of work ending on Saturday. It is really tough here, this is definitely, without a doubt, my hardest dealing job ever. Some days I think that I am doing better and I gain confidence, and then the next day I screw up so many times that I almost collapse in despair, or just go running out of the casino, yelling and with my arms swinging in the air above my head. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the mind-boggling variety and amount of procedures, rules, and regulations here would stymy Einstein. I just can't imagine why the Swiss like to be so Sadomasochistic when it comes to rules and procedures. Rules have become their religion! They just love to make rules, and then refine those rules until they have become as precise as humanly possible. I don't mind rules, rules can be good and necessary for the happy running of society; but rules simply for the sake of rules, rules that have no basis in necessity or reason, safety or security or efficiency, are a waste of time and resources, and, in my humble opinion, can only lead to stagnation, lack of flexibility, inefficiency, and intractability. The Swiss can be endearingly proper in some ways, but I'll say this again, too; they need to chill out. Their search for safety and security in rules and propreity may be a sign of an aging society in slow, genteel decline, who's youthful days of growth, innovation, and dynamism are behind them. Maybe thats not all bad, but it's not all good either. All in all, though, I am slowly but surely getting the hang of things, and understanding more and more. I will survive. I hope. Maybe.

The town of Lucerne is becoming more and more festive as Christmas approaches. The Swiss really like to decorate for the holidays, they really enjoy it. There are lights and huge Christmas trees up all over town, costumed religious processions walking around holding candles and singing, and festival booths set everywhere, selling roasted chestnuts, pastries, coffee drinks, hot-mulled wine(Gluwine in Swiss), bratwurst, you name it, they are selling it. Some of the stores are even staying open later than usual for holiday shopping-- some as late as 9 o'clock! Heavens to Betsy! The weather has also gotten decidedly colder and snowier. We got several inches yesterday and last night, so Timi and I went for two separate walks, one along the lake shore and then around Old Town, and another one about two in the morning, when the town was covered in undisturbed snowfall, all along the old city wall and again down into Old Town. It was very cool, and very beautiful.

Today we went to our second movie since I've been here. We saw 'Avatar', which we both thought was awesome. An epic movie, almost three hours long but didn't seem it, and one of those that I would seriously consider buying when it comes out on DVD. I very rarely buy DVD's, so this is quite a testament. The visual effects and computer graphics were stunning, this will be the movie to compare all such movies to in the future. And yes, it is anti-war, anti-imperialism, pro-environment, and a little racist towards white people, particularly Americans. If you have a problem with that, get over it, and then get off my blog.

A movie experience here in Switzerland is a bit different than in the States. For one, they're more expensive! Normally $17 dollars a ticket, but only $12 on Mondays, which is why we try to go on Mondays. Two, when you buy your tickets, you are assigned a seat, as if it were a concert or Broadway show. You can always move once the movie starts into any empty seats, but sometimes that is not possible. Going to the movies is a bit more popular here as well, the theatres tend to be fuller. I guess Europeans are just less likely to own big screen TV's and home theatre systems, and I think that they are just more socially inclined than Americans have become over the years. Another reason probably is that it is just more densely populated here in Europe than America, and there are fewer movie theatres to go to. Very few huge, 10, 12, or 16 screen complexes here. Three, they actually have intermissions in the middle of the movie! Did we used to have intermissions when we were kids? I can't remember for sure, but I think we might have, at least on some movies. They still have them here, and on all movies. Half-way through, the lights come up, the movie stops, and a message flashes on the movie screen, 'Let's get some ice cream!', and you know what?--everyone gets up and goes and gets some ice cream. The Swiss like to be directed. They are all, in some ways, like good little schoolchildren; give them a rule or command, and they will follow it! And Four, theatres here are often smaller than in the States, but also much cleaner. One big pet peeve of mine back in America was going to a movie, and when it was over, watching everyone just leave or dump their trash right on the floor in front of them, or in their seat, leaving a virtual garbage dump for the hapless theatre workers to clean up. I always imagine physically forcing each and every perpetrator of this disgusting habit to eat their trash bite by bite, or to stick it where the 'sun don't shine'. I hate how this cultural tendency has somehow evolved in my home country. Not in Switzerland, though. Almost to a person, everyone picks up any trash they have produced and puts it in the closest trash bin, and any recyclables are put in recycling containers, which are everywhere. A simple, but very admirable, action.

In other things, we have discovered that the Swiss aren't quite so religious about getting home at a reasonable hour and going to bed. Many Swiss people, especially the younger ones, do stay up fairly late, at least on the weekends, and party a little. We have gone on several late night walks and witnessed groups of drunk Swiss youth stumbling somewhat noisily around the streets. They don't do it with nearly the rambunctiousness, obnoxiousness, egotism, and sometimes menace that American youth do it with, but they do still do it. And some Lucerne bars stay open pretty late, they're just well hidden and sound-protected usually. Also discovering more ethnic restaurants around town, just haven't tried any yet because we don't want to spend the money! There are lots of Thai restaurants, Turkish, Chinese, even saw a Cuban and a Korean one the other night on the walk home from the movies, with Salsa dancing going on(in the Cuban one of course, it would be odd to see Salsa dancing going on in a Korean restaurant). Lucerne is a bit more cosmopolitan than many Swiss towns and cities, probably because it has a larger foreign population. For those who didn't know, Lucerne only has a 57,000 population, not including all the bedroom communities around it, but you just can't compare this to American towns of the same size or bigger. The social, cultural, and shopping offerings here blow away most towns ten times as big in the States. I'm not sure why this is, but it is. Part of it may be Lucerne's focus on tourism, part of it may be that people are just better educated here and so have an increased awareness of, and interest in, and ability to create, cultural options, and part of it may be simply the much deeper and older human history that exists here. On that note, I'm signing off. See ya all later!

Beautiful Gym

Timi and I went to the gym today, it's good to be getting back into a working-out routine. We've got a pretty sweet gym. It's very close to our apartment here in downtown Lucerne, only about a five minute walk, really just across the street from the National Hotel and the Grand Casino, where we work. It's called Fitness Park National and it's in a six-story building that I think used to be a hotel or an apartment building. The gym occupies the top four floors, so you have to take an elevator to get to the entrance and front-desk area. The membership fees are $1100 a year per person!, but it is far and away the best gym in the area, and we each also get $200 back in discounts from our health insurance providers. So, $1800 a year for the two of us is pretty steep, but like I said, this gym is pretty sweet. The cardio and strength-training facilities are just decent, nothing special, plenty of clean, modern, well-maintained equipment to get a good workout with, but it simply doesn't stack up to my precious Las Vegas Athletic Club. The areas where it does excel is in the pool, spas, and saunas. These are on the top two floors of the gym. There is a beautiful, large, heated indoor pool with several built-in lounging and aqua-massaging areas for different parts of the body; there is a huge spa with "stations" that you rotate through that massage your body from the ankles and feet all the way up to the top of your head; there is an Oriental sauna with aroma, sound, and light therapy; there is a super-heated outdoor pool that you can access from the inside, so you can use it year-round(it's that warm), and it is situated on a big outdoor deck that overlooks the city and lake; there is a "Salt Lounge" that is a mandatory quiet room with cedar wood floors, glass walls, lounge chairs, light therapy lasers, and vaporized salt that is blown into the room(supposed to be healthy); and there are male and female sauna rooms that consist of a huge circular chamber with three dry saunas of ascending temperatures in the middle, a huge circulating tub of ice-cold water and a super cold dousing bucket shower in the middle of a tiled "pond" around the perimeter, and a steam sauna off to one side. This is all great to experience, and makes the price of membership, in my opinion, worth it. We love it.

Easing into work

Just completed my second week of work, and I'm getting a little bit more comfortable and confident, at least I think so! I'm remembering and performing more of the procedures correctly, and, more importantly, I'm starting to understand more and more of the Swiss German spoken by the players. I don't think I've said much about Swiss German, but it is almost an entirely different language than the High German that I have been learning, which does not bode well. Many words are pronounced completely differently, much of it appears to be slurred, and there is different slang used. This is like having to learn two distantly similar languages simultaneously, while also having to learn a new job, in a new culture, and a new way of life. And did I mention that there are multiple dialects of Swiss German? And that they often mix in bits of French and Italian, just to keep things fresh? How can one tiny little country, one-sixth the size of Oregon, have multiple dialects of multiple languages? A very interesting history. Sometimes I am wondering if I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. It can all be overwhelming, and I'm not a yungin' anymore!

The absurd level of detail they apply to work procedures here is mysterious. This is such a small casino, with such small limits, I would think that they just wouldn't care about most things, but I'm beginning to realize that the Swiss simply really like to be anal. This has it's benefits, of course, in an obviously clean, orderly, and safe country, which I like very much. It also has it's drawbacks, in a neurotic attention to detail, rules, procedures, and bureaucracy, much of which is senseless and counterproductive. I am mystified that an entire country can exhibit symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD). I call it PanCultural OCD, or PCOCD for short. It seems that the Swiss penchant for precision engineering has permeated most aspects of their society, or perhaps it was that aspect of their society that led to their knack in this area, who knows?. What I do know is that the Swiss are very preoccupied with the "proper" way in which to do things, and this can lead to the appearance of them taking themselves waaa-a-a-a-aaaaaay too seriously. I'm not saying that the Swiss do not know how to have fun, or that there isn't any fun in the particular way in which they choose to view, and participate, in life. I'm just saying that perhaps they need to chill out a bit.

Back to work. This week was just four days. It looks as if most work weeks will be four days in length, with every fourth week or so being a five day week. However, a normal work shift is 8 1/2 to 9 hours long, so we still average quite a few hours a week, and we still just get two days off, which means that our days off change week to week. Not a really big issue for us since we don't have children yet, and we have no particular need for weekends off. In fact, just the opposite. Weekends tend to be very crowded in the shopping areas, stores, streets, gyms, museums, attractions, and so on, so it's not much fun being out and about on Saturday and Sunday anyway. Parking sucks at most of the stores when they are crowded because none of them build enough parking spaces for their customers. If they are going to let so many people own and drive cars, then they really should pay a little more attention to parking availability!

Enough griping. I'm sure everyone is getting the impression that I hate it here, and I really don't. I simply want to analyze and explain everything that I am experiencing here, and the thoughts that go through my head when I experience them. Europe is a very different place than America in many ways, for many reasons(all of which I eventually hope to get to), and I am seeing those differences through an American's perceptual "eyes". I really think that there are so many great things about Europe, but I don't think that anyone who has experienced life here can honestly say that day-to-day life here is easier than in America. America has by far the easiest, most convenient, luxurious lifestyle possibilities on the planet. It could also be argued that Americans use up far more of the planet's resources per capita in order to enable this lifestyle, and that would be a fair argument that should be addressed. But, man, life is easier in America!! The USA is a country full of moronic consumers where most of the men live to watch football, and most of the women live to shop, but it's so easy! Big cars, big houses, garages, 24-hour shopping and entertainment, cheap goods and services, plenty of parking, great gyms, the list goes on, all at your fingertips.

Could it get any better? Yes, it could, like less crime, less homelessness, better health care and primary education, cleaner cities, less work and more vacation, less war, and so on, but for the average American yokel, life is as easy as pie compared to the rest of the world, including Europe. So, in conclusion, I'm just an American oaf experiencing Europe my way, and writing my thoughts down in a Blog. I didn't come here for an easier life, just a different one for a while. That's all, Folks!

All about Work

Greetings to my legions of followers. I now have six, a doubling from my last post!

I haven't been putting as much time in lately at the old blogspot, and that's because I am now working, which unfortunately takes up a lot of my free time. I can't say that I like it. Not working is right up my alley, I now understand my brother's motivations all these years a little bit better.

I have completed my first full week at my new casino, and there is a lot to talk about. I made it through the crucible of European-style roulette, but just barely. I wrote a little about my first shifts experiences in my last post, but I will now elaborate a bit more. Probably only other dealers will understand some of what follows, but this is for my own future reference and recollection as well. Let's start off with the "Change Block". There is a movable, stepped-up block of wood, about 6" by 6" and 1-2 inches high on each roulette table, and it is there to make chip change on. I sh#* you not. Apparently there had been problems sometime in the past with chips falling into the wheel while the ball was spinning, so they devised this method, in its oh so Swiss ingenuity, to avoid that possibility. Very clever, and very difficult to get used to, and a hassle to always have to move to access the chips. As for the chips themselves, the denominations are completely different. Instead of Fives, Twenty-fives, and Hundreds, there are .50 cents, Twos, Fives, Tens, Twenties, Fifties, and, finally, Hundreds. It is much more difficult than you might imagine to overcome years of familiarity with specific denominations of chips, and then have to adapt to completely different values and have to count them, add them together, and total them. It hurts my head. On top of that, roulette players can play multiple denominations simultaneously, and the dealer must total all per player winning bets together and pay inclusively. Try to imagine that! And that's not all, there's more! There is no limit on how many players can play same denomination cash chips at the same time, on multiple wheels. I might have four players all playing $5 cash chips on the inside at any one time. There are multiple disputes every night. However, they are usually very polite, subdued disputes. Finally, the wheels are also electronically attached to touch-bet roulette machines spaced around the casino, so even when there are no players, which is extremely rare, the dealer still has to spin the ball regularly. What fun!

A little bit more about the Swiss mindset. They are anal compulsive to a fault. Yes, I know those of you who know me may find those words coming out of my mouth odd, but it is true. The Swiss are too compulsive. The extent to which they have detailed their dealing procedures would have made Howard Hughes proud. There is no leeway in the method, or location, or posture, or order that you make change, or cut down chips, or re-stack chips, or take in chips, or pass off chips, or pay out money, or take in losing bets, or place money for change, or open games, or close games. I hope I haven't left anything out. They are very nice in telling me how I am doing everything wrong, but also very firm. I sometimes feel as I have never really dealt before now. That Caesars was just a warm up to this. Let me remind you that the games are $10 and $20 minimums with $400 and $800 maximums. Their maximums end at about what Caesar's minimums started at. On the positive side, there are adjustable stools for the dealers to sit or lean on at every table that can be used at any time. Pretty nice.

The casino management also just recently instituted a "Happy Hour" promotion. Now, for those who work in casinos or F&B, you know that happy hour promotions are to bring in customer traffic during slow periods, and usually involve reduced prices on drinks and games. This is what the casino did, except that it did it on Fridays and Saturdays from 8pm to Midnight, the absolutely busiest hours of the week! I sh#* you not. They took the busiest times of the busiest nights of the week, and they lowered the limits on the black jack tables and the prices of drinks. Ingenious. I wish I had thought of that. In addition, they rarely play any music, and when they do, it is usually something like Stevie Wonder, played at a very low volume. High volume music might lead to irrational behavior. Perhaps someone would lose control and let a little fun out. The Swiss, they know how to partay.

As for the customers, they are, to put it mildly, inexperienced and naive. But not really in a bad way. They are very earnest and polite and nice, at the same time being the worst gamblers the world has ever known. I sh#* you not. They do every wrong move in the book, and they do it every hand. The blackjack hold percentages here are 34%!! For those of you not in the "know", the blackjack hold percentages in Las Vegas are around 14%. The only games that have hold percentages that high in Vegas are Let it Ride, and Caribbean Stud Poker, and the odds are designed into those games and cater only to the hillbilly rubes who wonder in the doors. In gambling, the Swiss are so earnestly ignorant it makes you maudlin. And even here, the players say "Winner, winner, chicken dinner", except that they say it like "Veena, veena, cheeckan deena" -- Jawohl!

Working in high-limit at Caesars Palace for years would naturally lead one to believe that he or she is more than adequate at dealing, but one would be wrong. I was extremely spoiled at Caesars, I knew it when I was there, and I really know it now. I will never have a job that easy and well-paying again. I must accept this and move on.

In the end, I hope no one reading this Blog gets the impression that I hate it here. I really don't. This is an awesome experience and I'm sure it will continue to be one. There is so much to experience and see here, some things better and some things worse than in America, but everything is new and interesting and exciting, if for no other reason than that is so different than everything that has come before it. But I will continue to blog about it in as interesting a way as I am able, because I enjoy it. Check out the pics of our apartment. Bye for now!

I survived my first day of work!

Wonderful news! My blog has three followers! I am honored, and I will endeavor to fill my posts with nothing short of elegant prose, inspired descriptions, insightful insights, and cutting-edge analyses for the continued edification of my loyal readers. You know who you are.

Moving forward; I have completed my first day of work and have survived to tell the tale. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. It seems that everyone that I work with is very nice and decent, at least the ones I have met so far. I spent most of the day just learning the ropes so to speak, procedures, where everything is, how to do everything that I will need to do, etc, etc. I should have had Timi take some pics of me in my spiffy dealers uniform, and of the back of the house casino operations, but those will be forthcoming. I did actually do a bit of dealing, blackjack that is, to some real live Swiss-people customers, and I think I performed well. No real mistakes. I wasn't even all that nervous. I guess I have just been doing this so long now that even in a foreign country and language I was able to perform. Tomorrow will be a bigger test because I will have to deal roulette, with all of its far more intricate bet possibilities than those that I am used to, and a far bigger German vocabulary knowledge requirement. There are Finali bets, Paroli, Chaval, and Carre' bets, one, two, and three neighbor bets, eight-nine, five-eight, three-six, and six-nine combo bets, french bets, and the list goes on. And tomorrow night is Friday night, so it will be busy. Trial by fire. Hope I survive.

The church in the above picture is the one that is about a block from where we live, and the one that keeps ringing its bells every thirty minutes or so. It was built on the foundations of a Benedictine monastery that had been there since the early 8th century, that was in fact the first settlement here since the fall of the Roman empire. "Old" has a little different meaning in Europe than it does in America.

I also joined the library the other day. It's only about a block from our apartment. Does it seem that almost everything is only about a block from our apartment? That's cause they are. Anyway, it's quite nice and it has hundreds of English books as well as tons of DVD's for rent. Both books and DVD's cost a dollar to check out for up to three weeks, not free but still a pretty good deal. To buy an English-word paperback novel here costs $15-$20 or more, so I'm not complaining. I am also thankful I have my Kindle, where most books cost $9.99 or less, and are downloaded instantly after purchase!


I don't think I'm going to tackle any weighty socio-cultural issues in this post. I really want to write about the Swiss outlook on low environmental impact, the various methods they use, and how that has affected their society, and I want to reflect on the causes of the extremely low crime rate and homeless population here, but I think that I will save those nuggets for another day. I have to keep the suspense and anticipation at a fever pitch. I don't want to talk about all the best stuff in just my first few weeks here! Oh, and they did vote to ban minarets here in Switzerland! Who would have thunk! The Swiss are perhaps becoming a little less tolerant, and a little less neutral, at least when it comes to reacting to the rapidly increasing Muslim population in Europe. Well, well, well.

In humdrum news, we moved our car from the Casino parking garage to our apartment parking garage. Much more convenient location-wise, but much more exposed to the elements weather-wise. The Casino garage was underground, protected and very well-maintained. Our apartment garage is just on the bottom floor of the building, and our parking space is only partly under the overhang of the building. Hope it doesn't turn out to have been a bad decision.

Guess I'll go now, will write again soon. Buhbye!

On starting work soon, gyms, and babies(not ours).

Well, my vacation is over. I have to start working again tomorrow, and I can't say I really want to. This has been the longest period of time I have gone without working since I was sixteen!, and I have kind of enjoyed it. I'm also a bit nervous about the whole language thing. Haven't been practicing German as much as I should have been cause I've been enjoying my time off. Ah well, I just have to bite the bullet and do it. It will be an interesting learning experience no matter what. Jumping into new experiences and dislodging your life's train from the tracks of complacency and mundanity keeps the neurons firing! A bit of a mixed metaphor there, but you get my point. Like I always say, "You only live once!".
In other news, we joined a gym today, the nice one just down by the lake, called Fitness Park. Very nice, with indoor and heated outdoor pools of various temperatures. They even heat one of them up to 36c one day a week for "Babyschwimmin" day. That is, for baby's to come and swim, presumably with their parents, it might get out of control if it was just a bunch of babies swimming around in a pool. Funny picture! Also, a salt room. Don't know what a salt room is? I didn't either. A salt room is a room where one goes after a work out to relax in lounge chairs and breathe in air infused with a lot of salt. This is supposed to be healthy for oneself, but one shouldn't overdo it, only for twenty minutes or so. I have no idea if this is really healthy or not, or what would happen if you stayed in there too long, but its pretty popular here --- I guess I should research this. The gym also has strength training and cardio rooms, and massage areas and a cafe, the whole works. I think the building it's in used to be a big house, or a hotel, because it is like 5 stories high, and the pools are on the top floor with nice views of the lake and the city. I'll add some pics in later. There are four other gyms around town owned by the same company(Migros, one of the Swiss semi-monopolies) that we can use, so even if we move out of the downtown core someday, we shouldn't be far from one, although the one we joined is the nicest we have seen. Not cheap though, it will cost $900 a year each, and that is with our health insurance discount! Some of the gyms around town here are a like a blast from the past, I haven't seem gyms like these since I was a kid. Located in dingy, sad industrial districts, little or no parking, broken asphalted, potholed streets filled with commercial dumpsters and loading docks, almost no signage, on the top of an old converted warehouse that you have to walk up five flights of exposed-metal stairs to get to, filled with equipment left over from a communist liquidation sale, and a six-foot tall steroid-enhanced female linebacker named Olga, with two short pigtails sticking out from the side of her head, telling you she "vil break you". Geez, all I wanted was some information! That was totally an exaggeration, I got a little carried away; her name was actually Helga. But seriously, some of these gyms here really are old school.
The Swiss really seem to do a lot to encourage people to have children and interact with them in public places. I guess its all part of the cultural and governmental focus on more children. Tax incentives and such. Most European countries have shrinking populations due to a myriad of factors I will touch on in some later Post. Except the countries with a large Muslim population; the Muslims are still producing offspring like rabbits. Good news that, huh? That's all for now, 'till next Post!