Over the last 3 weeks, I think Tony and I have done a pretty good job of becoming familiar with some of the differences between Zurich and home. None of it is bad, but moving somewhere new, there are bound to be things you encounter that make you feel slightly childish and ignorant.
But I am getting off topic, like I tend to do. So Zurich is different from Chicago because…
You have to measure your own fruit and veggies at the grocery store. It’s very easy to do but I am just not used to it. Every produce item has a number, so let’s say you want 3 tomaten (that’s tomatoes in German). They will have the number 15 assigned to them – so you take them to the scale, type in 15, the word “tomaten” will show up on the screen to make sure it’s not actually zwiebeln (onions), and then you receive a sticker with a bar code to put on your bag. I used to collect stickers, so I actually like this practice. It also amazes me, the honor system they have here. They don’t trust people like that at the Jewel. I could easily go back and put 3 more tomatens in my plastic bag…but I don’t. That wouldn’t be very neighborly of me, although the tomaten here are amazing.
You can only throw away your garbage in Zurich approved garbage bags (that are very expensive). This is an interesting one. There are special bags called “Zuri-sacks” that you are supposed to throw your garbage away in, you can’t use a regular Hefty bag. Now this is both good and bad I think. It’s good because it really does force you to be diligent about what you are using and throwing away. We were never forced to care or pay attention at home, so I do appreciate that our consumption is always in the back of my mind. It’s basically 2 francs per bag (at least for the 35 L ones) and that’s a lot of money if you think about it. The bad part is, if you don’t use one of these bags, the garbage police (?) will rummage through your non-Zuri-sack to see if you were dumb enough to throw out mail with your address on it and they will come after you with a fine. This is just what we’ve heard. We don’t want to be those jerk Americans so we got our sacks. So yes, this is an original photo – if you wish for a copy, please send a check of 10 Swiss Francs to…just kidding.
When renting a home, the ceiling light fixtures are not considered part of the apartment. During our apartment hunt, we saw many lovely places, but all of them had little wires sticking out of the ceilings in each room. After some investigating, we learned that light fixtures are not actually part of the rent. You have to go buy and install your own, and when you move out, you’re supposed to take the light fixtures with you. What? Does that mean everyone in Zurich is also a registered electrician and owns an electric drill? This one is so weird to me – how are we supposed to move in when we don’t even have any lights yet? Do we pray it’s all complete before the sun sets? I am just in the dark on this….haha, get it?
A McDonald’s Burger is upwards of 12 francs. We’ve already expressed our disdain for this one. Tony is still upset.
The power plug is very different, but not just from the USA. Duh, when you travel abroad, not everyone has the same power plug as in the US. That’s fine, and I know that.
I also know that the UK has a different plug from the rest of the EU, which is dumb. I thought I was already on top of the game when we were prepping for our move – I owned an EU plugged hair dryer and hair straightener. Score for me! But after researching, I realized that, even though Switzerland is smack dab in the middle of EU countries, being neutral means having a different outlet. Really?? What a pain. It almost looks like they tried to keep all 3 prongs in the same line to prove neutrality….
Tram tickets are run on the honor system, just like the fruit and veggie measurement. In Chicago, the CTA doesn’t trust ANYBODY. Even on NYE when it’s penny rides, they are just like “F it all” and they open the gates for everyone to walk on through. It’s like not even worth it to them to try to collect the pennies. In Chicago you swipe your CTA card at the turn style in order to get through. In Zurich, you do nothing. You either purchase a day pass from one of the machines at the stop, or, in my case, you buy a yearly or monthly pass and just always carry it with you. The system is monitored by people occasionally boarding the trams/trains and asking you to show your ticket. If you don’t have it, you get fined pretty heftily, but I mean, you don’t have to show or swipe anything to get on.
The words have way too many consonants in them. Now this is not necessarily a Zurich thing, but a German vs. English thing. Swiss German is the dialect here, and high German is what is written down. Every language is beautiful in it’s own way, but I still can’t help but giggle at what I feel are just an unnecessary amount of letters in a word. For example, the tram stop we are currently living near is called Englischviertelstrasse. Let’s see, that’s a total of 22 letters, with a vowel/consonant ratio of 7/15. So basically there are twice as many consonants as vowels in that word. Good grief!
As we discover more differences, I will post another blog. It sure has been fun learning thus far!
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