More about the Swiss

I promised you more little anecdotes about my new Swiss life. Well here are a few:

Handicap Parking

Okay so I know Switzerland is small. And I appreciate that handicap access is important. But the handicap parking spots are on the sidewalk!! All over town. So you can just be walking along and suddenly there is a car coming at you on the sidewalk to park right were you are walking. How this hasn’t resulted in an increased in the number of people REQUIRING the handicap parking spaces is beyond me!

Art

St. Gallen is COVERED in fountains. They are everywhere. And coming from drought-stricken Texas and all the extreme water conservation measures we are under, it was a little shocking. But this particular installation really caught Josh and I off guard. There is construction happening in the area. So we see this mini-barrel with water pouring out of it and freak out! Why are you WASTING the water?!!?!? [long-term droughts really mess with your mind] It was only when we got closer that we noticed that it was a sculpture. Neither of us could muster much appreciation for it though!

“My” American Bar...

Most of you know that one of the things I was most excited about is there being a bar in my building. It is called “Monti’s American Bar” and is known for featuring over 1000 cocktails.

So....naturally Josh and I went there while he was here.

And, yes, there were really 1000 cocktails. And we were very intrigued by many of them. But we decided to order the margaritas, for a taste of home.

As you can imagine, we were a little surprised when we were served this!

It tasted like a margarita, but it did not look like one. We were both weirded out, but overall we liked it.

 

We didn’t really like how much we had to pay for it, but considering how strong it was and how much everything here costs, we weren’t that surprised.

What we did LOVE was that they put the recipe on the receipt. How cool is that!! Wouldn’t it be AWESOME if all restaurants/bars did this. Like Trudy’s with the Mex Mart. Then Speej and I wouldn’t have to volunteer to help Josh out as he perfects his version by trying EVERY recipe on the internet....yeah, maybe it wasn’t the worst afternoon!

Keyboard

This is the Swiss keyboard. And I get it, they had to fit THREE languages worth of characters on. But why the hell did they have to switch the Z and the Y. Think about how often you use the “y” key. Now imagine every time you did so, a z showed up. Yeah, its obnoxious. Also the ! key is nowhere near where it should be. And to get the @ sign, there is a 3 key series you have to go through. While this is only a problem when I use the computers at school [which I have to do anytime I want to print something], its still already gotten on my last nerve!

Trash

There are a lot of stereotypes and generalizations about the Swiss, and one is that they are a clean people in a very clean country. And it is very clean. But that is also a pain in the ass if you live here.

When checking in to get my apartment key, I also got this handy little information sheet.

 Let me just tell you about the best part of all this. There is only ONE type of bag you can put your garbage in. One. And when you go to the store, you don't pick it up off the shelf. You have to ask the check-out clerk for one, like a pack of cigarettes. You can't use an old shopping bag or anything like that. You will get fined. Its intense.

So that's all for now, but I promise more still.