A new place? Keepin' our fingers crossed.

I think, hopefully, that we just found and won a new apartment to rent today. I mean 'won', because finding a decent apartment in Lucerne is like winning the lottery. There is much more demand than supply, and in a country where discriminating against anyone who isn't Swiss is perfectly legal, acceptable, and even expected, we are apparently very lucky indeed. We just checked out the apartment today, and I don't have any pictures of it yet, but I do have pictures of the view from its small balcony and will include those at some point in this Post. It is a two bedroom, one bath, not much bigger than our current apartment, but it does have a dishwasher (hurray!!) and a balcony, as already mentioned. The bathroom is actually smaller than the one we have now, but beggars,--- or outlanders,---can't be choosers. It is in a very nice location, not far down the road from the Casino we work at, although farther than we currently live, and a five minute walk from the lake shore and beach areas. Once the weather improves, we will be able to commute to work easily with bikes. Also, the rent will be cheaper than we pay now by about $350 a month, very cool, and we will still be close enough to town and the lake to enjoy what it has to offer without having to deal with the accompanying noise from traffic and the Church of Hells Bells. Yea for us!

I also wanted to mention that we took a four day trip to Hungary a week or so ago to hang out and visit Timi's parents. We had a good time, I played tennis with Timi's dad and he kicked my ass, and then we played billiards and I kicked his. All those years of having a pool table in our living room paid off! We also ate a lot of grubbin', and cheap, food, and I shopped for, and found, two awesome coats for half what they would have cost here. I like Budapest, it is so 'Old School Europe', the people just seem to be more 'real', and the city is filled with thousands of old, grand, Baroque-style buildings, some renewed, but most in various states of decay, a tattered hearkening back to an age of elegance, refinement, formality, tasteful opulence and grace. Sure, Budapest is grittier, dirtier, more ragged, with more crime and poverty than Switzerland, but Switzerland has never endured 40 plus years of a corrupt, fatally flawed political and economic system, and previously brutalized and/or invaded by one bully country after another. The Hungarian people, even with all their disadvantages, seem to be more creative, and enjoy life more than 'super serious Switzerland' does. Switzerland is without a doubt more prosperous, cleaner, shinier, and safer, with incredible natural resources, and that is nice and admirable; we like it here in many ways. But, at the same time, it's culture seems to lack a certain something in the personality category, maybe as a result of a lack of any real adversity for the last 500 years? I will get to my thoughts on this in a later post. That's all for now, I'm going to eat some store bought pizza(made in Austria), that Timi is sprucing up for us, then get ready for work! See ya. Check out the pics below of scenes around town. You can click on them to expand.

Is it a Gym, or a Library?

Thanks, Anthony, for your comments, and to everyone else, please post any comments, thoughts, or questions you might have, no matter how bad. I really appreciate them, and they encourage me to write more. And doesn't everyone want to read more of my rants on Switzerland?! I do.

Just got back from a gym workout, Timi's at the hairstylist, so I thought I would write a little more. I've mentioned it before, but I'll mention it again, gyms in Switzerland are not like gyms in America. I walked into the cardio area today for my warm up, and what was on the TV's, you might ask? The Welsh Open Snooker tournament. And what music was playing over the loudspeakers(or maybe I should say quietspeakers)? 'Ebony and Ivory' by Paul McCartney. Now I know what you're thinking, 'Oh my God, Marty, don't you know that the combination of Snooker playing Welshmen and the song 'Ebony and Ivory' can be deadly!? That it can elevate your pulse rate and adrenal levels so quickly that your head could explode!? Well, don't worry, I quickly put my Ipod earphones on, and averted my eyes from the rousing game of Welsh Snooker on the television. Anyway, you really had to focus your ears to hear the music. If it's much above conscious sound-awareness levels, the Swiss will quickly raise issue. Gym atmosphere here is required to be more suitable to a library than a place of physical fitness, or it is deemed inappropriate.

So maybe someone could enlighten me as to what is up with black socks here? Timi has tried in the past, but I still don't understand. I do understand that one should wear black socks in combination with black, or probably any other dark color, of pants, but here they wear black socks with everything! Light-colored pants? Black socks. All types of jeans? Black socks. Dress or casual shorts? Black socks. Athletic pants or shorts? Black socks. White shoes? Black socks! And they are usually calf-high socks pulled up as far as they can be. Are Europeans aware that there are other colors of socks? They must be, so what is up with this? I should mention here that the concept of 'Nerd' does not exist in Europe. This is because almost everyone here would be classified as one if the term did exist. Unfortunately, here Nerds rarely grow up to be highly creative and innovative CEO's of their own technology companies. I would also like to mention here that the stereotypical arrogant, conceited, full of themselves American Lawyer/Businessman/Doctor/StockBroker/Succesfull Professional of any kind does not really have it's Swiss counterpart. It's hard to be full of yourself when you 're driving around in a car the size of a bathtub and when it accelerates sounds like a bee on speed, or have to shlep downstairs to do your laundry in the basement bomb shelter. The supreme confidence and sometimes arrogance exhibited by many American men doesn't really exist here. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad one. Maybe a little of both. Enough for now, signing off, Bye!

"The Land of Smoking's Past", and Food

I don't know where to start. I have so many things that I want to write about, but I'm not sure how I should start! Should I just focus on one or two topics each post, or should I just go more free flow and stop when I'm ready to? I guess this is a form of writers block, too much stuff to say and not knowing where to begin.

I think I'm just going to go free flow. I've been discovering other blogs of expats living and traveling in Switzerland lately, and through reading some of these I've been discovering that many of the things that I have been experiencing are many of the same things that other people experience, who would have thunk? I also have discovered that other people are better writers than I am. This is maybe another reason I haven't been blogging much lately, I feel inadequate. But here I am anyway, and I'm going to keep blogging, not because I want to be a good writer, but for my own future reference, to solidify and analyze my own thoughts and experiences, and for the enjoyment of my family and friends. So there.

Let's talk about smoking, shall we? The Swiss smoke like no culture I have ever witnessed before. Sometimes I imagine that America, perhaps in places like Alabama or Idaho, must have been like this in the Fifties. They smoke here with an intensity and frequency that is normally exhibited only by religious zealots. They inhale the smoke with every fiber of their beings, sucking in their cheeks and squinting their eyes, pursing their lips to create a perfect vacuum around the cigarette in their mouths so as not to allow any smoke to escape it's intended destination. Then they most often light their next coffin nail with the smoldering embers of the previous fag. And those are just the kids! Ha Ha, seriously though, here there is none of the 'Smokers Etiquette' that exists in other places. The Swiss will smoke everywhere that it is legal to do so, at all times, and are so oblivious to the status of those around them that they do not give one thought that the billowing clouds of smoke that are being exhaled into your face just might be offensive and sickening to you. These cigarettes are not the namby pamby 'Ultra Ultra lights' that exist elsewhere in the world, but hardcore, no nonsense French ciggies, made from old truck tires and leftover industrial sludge. There is virtually nowhere that one can go in public to get away from the smell of cigarette smoke. It is everywhere, on the street, in shopping malls, grocery stores, even the gym. Yes, I frequently pass by people at the gym that reek of smoke so badly that I almost lose my lunch, and I have often seen people leaving the gym building with an unlit cigarette and lighter in their hands, eagerly anticipating the step onto the sidewalk where they can immediately light up their next smoke. They are smoking terrorists. Switzerland is the "Land of Smoking's Past", where none of the knowledge and statistics on smoking's negative health effects seems to have been noticed or discovered by anyone, perhaps because they have their heads buried so deep in the dirt that they don't notice anything outside the borders of their little 'country that time forgot'. You might be thinking that smoking here is mostly practiced by the older generations, but no, teenagers and younger adults are the worse perpetrators. It honestly seems that smoking frequency is on the rise here in Switzerland, even though 'official' statistics say otherwise. Yes, these are harsh statements, but harsh observations sometimes call for them.

Did I say in my last Post that I would continue to write about more good stuff here? I think so, so now I will. The quality of the food to be found in the grocery stores here, any grocery store, far surpasses what can be found in most stores in America, especially the meat products. There exists here no corn-fed, genetically modified, crap beef and poultry force fed to an oblivious population by ruthless, amoral, unethical, greedy, employee-abusing corporations whose sole focus is on the bottom line and who couldn't care less about the unhealthy shite that they are foisting off onto an ignorant public. I wouldn't say that you can't find healthy, organic food in America, but you have to really look for it, and then pay quite a premium for it, basically about what you have to pay for it here in Switzerland, but here it is everywhere. Most of the meat to be found at stores here is free range, grain fed organic. Most of the fruits and vegetables are naturally fertilized, pesticide free, and organic. Just about everything one can eat, or make into something to eat, from a grocery store tastes better here. Which naturally leads me to wonder why Swiss restaurants make such mediocre food!? How can they take such great ingredients and turn them into such bland, uninspiring dishes? It should be a crime. What is Switzerland's signature food dish? Fondue. Bits of bread dipped into bowls of melted cheese. This is what 500 years of uninterrupted prosperity has produced?! A country with more time on its hands than most couldn't do any better than this?! I do like fondue, but come oooooooooooon! Even restaurants that cook food from other countries cook it bland here. We went to a Thai place a couple of weeks ago, paid twice what we would have in America, and liked what we ate half as much. There is no reason whatsoever to go to a restaurant in Switzerland unless you're on the road and are forced to.

I do want to clarify a few things here. The Swiss do know how to make pretty good pastries and cakes and such, and almost everytime my wife and I are out walking around town, we can't resist buying some different goody to munch on. And sausages. Bratwurst, or roasted sausage, is usually awesome here. There are little stands and stores around most Swiss towns where you can buy different kinds of Bratwurst, and it is usually very good. And chocolate. The Swiss, and Germans, can make some damn good chocolate. If some makes it into our apartment, it doesn't last long, especially white chocolate, which I guess technically isn't chocolate at all, but I love it. That's all for now, gotta go.
The pictures above are of me enjoying myself in a Swiss Conditerai(Bakery Cafe), of Timi hanging out on the shore of Lake Lucerne, and of Timi at the World Snow Festival at Grindelwald.

Time for some good stuff

I've got the feeling that I have been unduly-----or perhaps duly---- harsh on Switzerland in my last few posts, and I don't want everyone who reads this blog to think that we hate it here and that we feel everything about Switzerland sucks, because we don't. Yes, I have some strong feelings regarding the Swiss culture and it's strengths and weaknesses, and it's seeming strengths that might actually be weaknesses, and I will continue to express my honest opinions and analyses in future posts, but there are actually many things about Swiss living and culture that are very good. So, let's talk about the environment!

For starters, the average Swiss person has a much smaller negative impact on the environment than in most other modern countries. The Swiss have really put some thought and action into protecting the environment and minimizing their impact, from the big to the small. For example, there are recycling containers for cardboard, cans, plastic and glass bottles, magazines, newspapers, batteries, light bulbs, junk mail, and paper of all sorts everywhere, in plazas, on street corners, in grocery stores, you name it. They don't have garbage bills here, because there is only one type of government-sanctioned garbage bag, that comes in three sizes, and the cost of garbage service is factored into the cost of the bag. For the size that we normally use, it costs $1.70 per bag. The garbage men will not pick up your garbage unless it is in one of these bags. Because we recycle much more, we produce much less garbage. Most people live in apartments here, and water and sewer is included in rent and only billed to the building, so no separate bills there. The power bill is only mailed out quarterly, not monthly, and only includes lights and stove/oven. Consider the savings in paper from these differences on a countrywide basis alone. Heating is separate and included in rent, so our power bills are very small, usually only about $50-$75 a quarter. This means that the managers of the apartment building are in charge of heating, and regulate it on a building-wide basis, so there are fewer abuses. This is not an issue because almost all buildings in Switzerland utilize radiant heat built into the floors or ceilings. It is extremely efficient and cost-effective, with no cooler and warmer 'zones', and we are never cold. In fact , we usually leave the kitchen window open to keep it from getting too warm, and oftentimes other windows as well. Switzerland gets 40% of its electricity needs from 5 nuclear generating plants, and the rest comes from hydro and geothermal resources. No coal or natural gas-powered plants in Switzerland. In addition to most living spaces in Europe being smaller than the United States, their appliances are also smaller, and therefore all use less power. Fewer people have dishwashers as well, and many share washers and dryers with the rest of the people in their apartment building, so less resources are utilized there as well.

We only get paid once a month, which realizes another huge savings in paper and human resources, and as a side benefit, it forces you to budget your money more closely. You have to have enough money to last for the next four weeks! The medical insurance cards here also contain a lot of personal data and patient history, which one can imagine cuts down a lot on paper work and patient record keeping.

Of course, with the cost of gasoline as a result of government taxes and restrictions(It's around $6.50 a gallon here), car culture has evolved very differently here. Cars are much smaller on average, much less powerful (Let's be honest, how much power do you need?), per capita there are far fewer of them, and almost no one owns a truck. Think about the lower environmental impact right there. I can use Timi and myself as a perfect example. We now walk to work, walk to the gym, often walk to the grocery store, the various shopping areas, and when we take a flight somewhere, we take the train to the airport. We now have only one car, and we use it a fraction as much as we did in the States. If we end up moving further out of town, then we will be using the bus on a regular basis. Many people don't even own cars here. The trains go everywhere, not only in Switzerland but over all of Europe, and they are clean, comfortable, quiet, smooth, and unsettlingly, mystifyingly punctual. They have special train cars for people with bikes, and speaking of bikes, the Swiss loooooove their bikes. Switzerland has the most bike-friendly cities in the world, and once you leave the cities and towns, there are bike paths beside every road, highway, and freeway in the country. Seriously. They ride bikes everywhere, at all times of the day and night, and in all types of weather. I will repeat this----all. types. of weather. You say 'It's snowing, there's three inches of ice on the road, and it's 5 degrees?' No problem, just dress a little warmer! Furthermore, trains and buses are all electric, and you can catch one going just about anywhere every five to ten minutes or so.

Cargo is transported by both train and large truck, but the trucks' trailers have canvas-covered walls so as to cut down on weight. This saves on fuel, and causes less damage to the roads. Now, this next part is important. The Swiss also really, really love tunnels. They build tunnels everywhere, under things, through things, around things, wherever they can. They just don't seem to be able to get enough of tunnels. Long tunnels, short tunnels, wide tunnels, narrow tunnels. They build tunnels sometimes where it really seems as if tunnels aren't needed, but they just felt like building a tunnel, so why not? Part of the reason for this, I think, is the weather. Tunnels are out of the weather, and possible avalanches, so no problems there. Another reason is aesthetics. Building roads over the Alps can damage their natural beauty. A third reason would be pollution. Cars, and particularly big, noisy, gas fume-belching cargo trucks would create a lot of pollution, both noise and air wise, and tunnels cut way down on this. So, therefore, the Swiss have developed a love affair with tunnels. To be honest, it is actually very cool to drive in tunnels. I have always kind of liked tunnels, and the Swiss make some very nice ones, so it's all good.

That's all for now. I'll talk about more good Swiss stuff in my next post. See ya!

Apartments, babies, friends, and the Gym

Drove and took a look at a potential rental apartment today in a suburb of Lucerne called Adligenswil, just about ten minutes or less from downtown. It was very nice, a two-bedroom, one bath, with a kitchen open to the living room, a nice size balcony on the fourth floor(third floor European), and close to 1000 square feet, which is pretty big for Europe. It also had a stacked washer and dryer, a real luxury here, and a dishwasher! I had totally forgotten how much it sucks to have to hand wash dishes every day, especially in one tiny little sink. I have gone from having every luxury known to modern man, to living like a college student in his first dorm room! In some ways simpler, in some ways much more complex. Anyway, the apartment was in a very nice little mini-town on the edge of the Lucerne metro area, surrounded by hills and views of Mt. Rigi, one of the main mountains around Lucerne, and on major bus routes into town. Lots of kids in the area and building, but we are getting used to that fact. We'll continue to look, but I think we will be putting in an application for this one on Monday. The rent is only $1,330 a month plus $50 for parking. We now pay $1,550 rent and $180 for parking for a 650 square foot one bedroom with no washing machine or dryer and no dishwasher, next to the church of Hells Bells.

It seems that there is a little baby boom going on in Switzerland now. We see more and more people, many of them women well into their thirties or older, pushing baby carriages around town, and many of them dual carriages(can you say 'fertility drugs' anyone?) I would imagine this is probably a result of government efforts in the form of tax breaks, subsidized child care, and general cajoling to get Swiss people to have more children before the Swiss DNA disappears, and it seems to be paying positive dividends. On the other hand, there are an awful lot of old people here in Lucerne as well, it sometimes feels as if we are living in a retirement community! It's no secret that most European country's birth rates are continuing to decline and have been declining for decades now, the only population groups adding to their numbers in Europe are Muslim, and they're breeding like rabbits. As I've mentioned before, I don't find this to be a good harbinger of Europe's optimistic future, but of it's possible doom. The Swiss are just a microcosm of a greater European trend, which is to have one or fewer children. All the reasons behind this I do not know, but I can posit that simply the cost of having and raising children here is one of the biggest. And when cultural mores and outlooks on life and priorities change and adapt into new channels, for whatever set of reasons, it is very hard to change them back. Young people have grown up with easy access to the sum of human knowledge and experiences via the Internet, and to the endless possibilities that life now has to offer in the modern world, and compared to that, the cost, responsibility, thanklessness, and endless toil of raising children seems to have lost some of its luster. Go figure.

We went and visited our friends Csaba and Susanne yesterday up in St. Gallen, had a good time. It started snowing while we were up there, but no problems on the way back. Lucerne is quite a bit lower than St. Gallen, so it wasn't snowing or sticking nearly as much back here, but it was a cool drive. It has been a while since I have driven in the Snow! It can be very soothing, and potentially hypnotic. Anyway, I was kind of bummed that we went there yesterday, because I had wanted to watch the fireworks show on the lake here yesterday evening. But lo and behold, they postponed the show until today because of the weather, and we got to see it this evening! They had all the regular fireworks, but in addition they had some that shot out onto the lake surface and then floated there while they did their thing. Very cool.

After the firework show, Timi and I went to our gym and spa paradise. We had a little workout, then hit the pool, spa, and sauna area, which we like very much. I've mentioned and described the gym and spa before, but now that I have been there many times and have established a workout routine again, I can go into a little more observational detail. I think we all are aware that America is one of the fattest countries in the world. One can attribute this to increasing urbanization, too many cheap, fast food choices, too many work hours, too many enticements to a sedentary lifestyle, or whatever. One can also make the argument that Americans of Hispanic and African heritage, as well as those from our freezin' ass cold Midwestern center, contribute an overwhelming amount to the obesity statistics, but whatever your arguments, let's just admit that there are a lot of chubbies in America, and move on. It's also well-known to the well-traveled set that Europeans are thinner on average than Americans, and that many of those of European citizenship hold that fact as a sign of superiority over Americans. Whereas I will admit that Europeans are most definitely more slender than Americans on average and look better in their clothes for a variety of reasons, I would take issue with the claim that they are in better shape than the average American, at least the average Americans that I hang around. This view stems from the fact that I have to enter the locker and shower room before and after every workout, and my eyes are subjected to the view of many European men of all ages walking about in various states of undress. Let me say here that Europeans have none of the Puritan-influenced sexual and body taboos and repressions that exist in America. They have no problem with letting it all hang out---literally. And being naked around members of the opposite sex is no problem either. I might argue that this isn't a good thing. The average Swiss man, and this is the average Swiss man that actually attends a gym on a regular basis, looks like a sack of crap. Seriously. Soft, squishy, and bloated, mottled, hanging skin, parts protruding that shouldn't be, and other parts not protruding that should be! I have been attending gyms on a regular basis for a very long time now, about 22 years, so I have a lot of experience in gym locker rooms, and I can honestly say that men in America who regularly attend gyms look much better than Swiss men who regularly attend gyms. There is a thriving gym subculture that exists in America, at least in the West Coast region, that simply does not in Europe, a sub population of Americans that really take fitness seriously and workout religiously and sculpt their bodies with a passion that is uncommon in Europe. I am accustomed to seeing and admiring these types of bodies when I go to a gym, and so it was a rude awakening when, expecting fit Europeans, I entered the gym here and saw actual Swiss bodies traipsing around. I can't say that I liked it.

I'd also like to add here that Europeans don't seem to be nearly as fussy about body cleanliness as Americans, at least at the gym. I can be having a very nice workout, and then sit down or stand next to someone who smells worse than a New York homeless person, and I almost lose my lunch. This hasn't happened just once or twice, but many times. I'm certain the Swiss know all about soap and deodorant, but maybe in keeping in line with their other worthwhile environmental policies, they are trying to conserve them as much as possible.

I want to mention something else about the gym that caught my attention. Probably the second time I went there, I was quickly changing in the locker room, and when I look up to go, there is a woman staff member calmly and demurely sweeping the floor! In the men's locker room. Women have to clean all parts of the gym, including the men's showers while men are in them, because Swiss men will not demean themselves by performing these 'women's work' functions. Let me put this revelation into a little more perspective by mentioning that Switzerland did not begin to accord women the right to vote until 1971! That's right, 1971. And there were two Cantons(the same as States) that didn't allow it until 1990! Swiss federal law forced these Cantons to change, or they still might not be allowing it. Switzerland, in an even more extreme pattern than the rest of Europe, is in some ways permanently stuck in the nineteenth century. So, we have a situation where women are stuck with all cleaning jobs and duties, because that is their place.
How do you like that?