I am approaching the one-year mark of my arrival in Switzerland. Wow! As I think back to the times when we were FOTB (fresh off the boat), I am amazed at the changes I see in myself and in Phillip. Though I have adapted well in some areas, I am constantly reminded of how far I have to go before I even come close to ‘assimilating’ into this culture. I tried to come here with an open mind (I had no idea what to expect), but every day I am amazed at how different and difficult daily life can be in a new culture. I still have to translate every task I face into how I can accomplish it here in Switzerland. It’s really hard!
Some days my biggest challenge is to make it home before I start crying. I just… I don’t know. Being in a place where everything feels completely different is, in a word: overwhelming. Simple things take all of my brain-power and energy and make daily life feel heavy. Things are so confusing that I might as well be doing them with two broken legs and in the dark. I have had to re-learn how to cook, since: 1. I make every single meal we eat (often times completely from scratch) 2. I often cannot find “my” ingredients at grocery stores, since they carry different items (and the ingredients listed on packages are in German, French, and Italian… not so helpful). Grocery shopping and cooking were my first mountains to conquer. I am still working on these things, but certainly figuring them out. I had no choice, really. *shrug* Right now the things that are troubling me the most are learning the freaking language and communicating with the freaking people (For the record – I know it’s toolish to type out the word “freaking”). I have been receiving positive feedback from my German teacher and from the other people in both my German class and in my German conversational group. So some days I feel confident and capable… and then someone on the side of the street very casually says something to me… And it makes me want to cry again. It’s so frustrating to work and work and think and think and speak and speak and read and read until my brain feels like a dried up raisin… and then not be able to communicate casually. This is not an exaggeration: Every interaction that I experience on every day of my life is awkward. Every single one and it’s DRAINING. Besides the language, the people are just different. Though the Swiss are notoriously skeptical of outsiders and are even known to be a bit cold towards others, I have not felt this from anyone. Thank goodness for that, right? Overall I find the Swiss to be very friendly and genuinely interested in where we are from and why we are here. That being said, I often feel like a novelty. Though people are warm and welcoming to me, I am still an “other” around here. I’m still and outsider and I still speak and act differently than my neighbors. Because of this, moving past introductions is kind of difficult. This is true of being new in any place, but these cultural differences are really killing my game. And, if I’m being completely honest, I must admit that I’m not the most outgoing person anyway. Ho-hum. I miss having friends. I miss random friendly conversation with people in stores. Shoot, I even miss being surrounded by people saying things that I understand, even when I’m not listening.
Okay, now turn that frown upside-down you jerks! I also have great things to share about my experience of assimilating into a new culture. I like that I have had to re-learn how to cook. I don’t think I was ever a bad cook, but I have most definitely gotten better since coming here. Phillip and I are foodies who have to have good food to stay thin (we eat until we are satisfied, so we’d never stop eating if we were eating boring foods). Another thing that I like about living here is the importance the culture places on leisure time, rather than on workworkwork. It seems that so many Americans identify themselves with their profession (I am doctor. I am teacher. I am businesswoman), rather than by the people with whom they associate and the activities in which they participate freely. Certainly a person’s profession shapes his or her identity, but there’s got to be more to a person than what they do to earn money. For a country that is known for its timeliness, Switzerland knows how to relax. People don’t seem to work late here. School children go home for lunch (for 2 hours) every day. People don’t work on weekends. Basically everything except the train stations are closed on Sundays. And people get tons of vacation time from their work (seriously. Phillip currently has 9 weeks of vacation time to use). I also like living in a place with such an efficient public transit system. Certainly there are times when having a car would be convenient, but overall the bus/train system here is all a person would ever need. We are bound by the train schedule, and thus plan our lives around it, but there is still something so freeing about riding a train everywhere. It’s easy, you know? I like that I can focus on Asher and/or Phillip on the trains, since none of us have to pay attention to where we are going or how much time we have to get there. The trains are rarely late, so they are incredibly dependable. If I ever were to ride a train by myself, I think I would enjoy having time just to watch out the window and think, or perhaps to read or write. I guess what I’m getting at is that riding the trains makes travel time productive — be it ‘relaxing productive’ or ‘working productive.’ It’s nice.
Whew. I’m kind of tired after writing all of that. I have so much more to say about the ups and downs that I experience on a daily basis, but I will have to save them for another post. For now just know that life is different and difficult, but also very happy and exciting.
