Pre- Switzerland

Lets go back two months. I was in excrusiating pain I couldn't walk. My pain was caused by an L5/S1 herniated disk. After weeks of suffering I decided to get a cortison injection. This injection slowly started working and a week after the injection I could walk a bit again. After four weeks I decided I felt good enough to make the trip to Switzerland to start a new chapter in life. I've been here for almost three weeks now and I'd like to share my experiences as a Lowlander in Switzerland. 

People

Hardly anyone speaks English here. These people stay in their valleys, stick to their traditions. No need for other languages. I started French class last week. My teacher is Dutch and she described it nicely. The Netherlands is a flat country. People come and go easily, swiftly as the wind. The language is changing all the time. Here we are surrounded by mountains, thing change slowly. And learning is French ain’t easy btw.

Work

Swiss people work hard. They make long days. Starting at 08:00 and finishing at 17:30 is pretty normal. They usually earn double of what you would earn in the Netherlands, but the costs of living are really high too. A health insurance would be around €250 a month with an excess of €2500.

Food

I'm back on the meat. Still not a lot and only local meat, but its in the culture and I can't really escape it. And it tastes good and it feels oke to incorporate a bit into my diet anyway. These are mountain people, farmers. Their diet consists of bread, cheese, butter and meat. So yeah thats basically what I've been eating. The cheese is amazing. Different than Dutch cheese for sure, but good. A toasted slice of bread with butter and honey in the morning, amazing too. A warm meal is usually consumed at lunch. For dinner there is some more cheese and meet, but often not a big meal. If you take to the mountains on a hike, you take some bread, meat, cheese and chocolate. And usually alcohol of course.

What I find really nice about buying fruits and veggies is that they are marked with a Swiss flag when they come from Switzerland. Its important for the Swiss to buy local products, it’s in their genes. It does mean though that I have to adapt my lifestyle, which I think is a good thing. I’m seeing now how spoiled I was living in the Netherlands and how many products I was buying that come from the other side of the world. There are a lot of good fruits that are grown in Switzerland and me and Julie have started a garden too, growing different kinds of veggies. We have also been picking wild herbs to make syrups and to use as a tea.

The weather

Since living here, I realise how well I know the Dutch weather and how well I can read it. Easterly wind in summer: warm and dry. Northwesterly wind in Spring, cold and wet. I know when its going to rain and I know when it won't. I know when the waves are good and I know when they won't. I know what to wear when I wake up, because I know how warm its going to be.

But here, I don't have a lot of local knowledge and I’m struggling to read the weather signs. Today, some rain came in at 12:00 and it was supposed to stop around 18:00 according to the weather app. But its 22:00 now and its still poring.

I do know that the wind from the north is called the Bise and its cold. The one from the south is the Föhn and its warm. The rest I have to figure out.

Habits

Here are some other habits and observations I’ve found while being here.

• Fondue is always stirred clockwise

• Making a stop while hiking to look at flowers is a good excuse to open a bottle of wine

• Drinking wine at 11:30 as a teacher in front of a group of kids; totally acceptable

• Flying down the mountain with 80 km/h on a winding road; standard

• Weekends are for spending time with the cows. And consuming more alcohol of course

• Why learn English if you never leave the canton anyways

• Always bring a rain jacket when hiking

• €25 for a pizza is fair

• Helicopters are the most useful means of transport in the mountains

• Taking walking sticks on a hike as a middle aged person; socially accepted

• It’s pretty common to own something like 6/2105 part of a chalet, inherited through family

• If the roof of a building collapses, it’s considered a ruin and you can’t rebuild it

• Trading services and goods is common. Julie traded meat of her family’s cows for cherries

• You can buy a bread in the next village from ours by entering a room, taking a bread from the shelve and putting money in a bucket

• Cash money still rules

• The way it’s done in Valais is the only right way

Well there you have it. More updates on the Swiss life will undoubtedly follow.

Love,

Tomas