Hopp Schwiiz

Chocolate beats Paella!! I still can’t believe it!

This morning I left the house, all dressed in red and white. The first match of Switzerland in the World Cup 2010 was coming up. I intended to go to Baden with a friend of mine and watch the match in a public viewing place.

Switzerland wasn’t very enthusiastic about this game. No wonder, we had to play against the European champion and in 19 games dating back 85 years we had never before won against Spain. Nobody expected a wonder, nobody expected a victory, maybe, maybe some of us were hoping for a drawn: 0-0, or perhaps, if it went really well a 1-1.

I was sitting in a bar, watching the match with a friend of mine and a couple of other Swiss supporters. It was very quiet, the match not very exciting. I had the feeling that Spain was quite poor, not as dangerous as I had expected them to be. I don’t know much about football (or soccer, as the Americans would say), I am only watching it, when there is a European or World Cup. Of course I am supporting Switzerland, my country. And of course I am supporting it very loudly. When I am watching a game at home, I have to close all the windows, so that I am not disturbing my neighbours…

The 0-0 after 45 minutes was ok with me, actually, it was much more than I had expected! And then, after 70 minutes suddenly the world changed: It wasn’t Spain that scored, no, it was Switzerland! Can you believe that? The bar became a madhouse, everybody was screaming! I got very excited, the last 20 minutes were unbearable to watch. I was beating my friend out of nervousness… But then it was finally over. The Swiss held on for the historic win and gave themselves hope of progressing to the second round!

Switzerland’s dramatic 1-0 victory over tournament favourite Spain brought up some good headlines in the news:

Yahoo Sports: “It was the most monumental of shocks and lit up what had been a sleepy World Cup.”

Fifa news: “Switzerland basked in a maiden victory over FIFA World Cup™ favourites Spain.”

France24: “World Cup favourites Spain crashed to a shock 1-0 defeat to unfancied Switzerland in their opening game of the tournament”

Goal.com: “Gelson Fernandes Goal Shocks La Furia Roja”

Last but not least, Ottmar Hitzfeld: “I am fully aware we made history!”

One of my English friends, who supported nobody else but the English team, sent me a text: “Unbelievable victory for the Swiss. I am officially supporting your nation from this moment on. Well done Switzerland.”

And that was the moment, when the city of Baden collapsed! All roads were blocked by celebrating Swiss. It was like we had won the finals, not only just the first game of a long World Cup to follow. The Swiss were fancied by few to progress out of group G when the World Cup began.  But an upset of Spain has put Switzerland in an extremely advantageous position. Even if we lose to a tough Chilean side, our final fixture will be against Honduras, who will already be eliminated in all likelihood.

There is only one thing left to say: HOPP SCHWIIZ!!

Subway in Baden

It was a shock when I heard the news: “Subway opens in Baden”. And with “Subway” I am not talking about public transportation. I am talking about American fast food. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against American fast food. Whenever I am in China, I am on McDonalds diet… But for years now I am waiting for a Starbucks to open in Baden. And what do we get? Subway!

Switzerland is the country with the best bread worldwide! People from a lot of different countries confirmed this to me. And I know it from my own experience: Whenever I travelled, what I missed most was Swiss bread. Whenever I came back home, first thing I ate was yummy Swiss bread. Now I am wondering, how can anybody seriously prefer the soft American style bread over the crispy Swiss bread?? No wonder they failed with their first Subway branches in Switzerland in the 90ies. Why would they give it another try 15 years later?

Subway in Baden – I give it a year, at the most! And then, please: We want a Starbucks in Baden!

Autumn Fair in Basel

As soon as it is getting colder and the leave colours are changing, the autumn fair in Basel starts, the oldest and biggest fair in Switzerland. I used to go there every year with a friend of mine, mainly to enjoy the amusement park and spend all my money on the different roller coasters. But when I got older I realized, that the amusement park isn’t as good for me as it used to be – suddenly I felt sick after only one trip on a roller coaster. I stopped going to the amusement park and rather spent my time (and money…) on the beautiful “Chacheli”-Market (or “Hääfeli”-Market, as it is also known) at Petersplatz. The name of the market comes from all the different pottery that is sold, originally because of all the potteries that used to be in the neighbourhood of Petersplatz. The annual autumn fair used to be their main season the sell their products. Nowadays there are only a few stands that sell pottery. But a lot of stands with everything else you can wish for: jewellery, pillows, herbs, hats, shoes, kitchen wear, toys and of course food, lots of food: Fondue, Raclette, Chäschüechli, Steaks, Kartoffelpuffer (I wonder how this speciality from the Northern part of Germany made it to Basel?!), Oepfelchüechli and not to forget tons of sweets. Whenever I go to a market I have to buy fried and sugared almonds. I love almonds and I can’t stop eating them until I feel sick…

While we were walking through Basel I realized a lot of things I hadn’t seen before, although I had been to Basel many times. For example Spalentor, it is one of the most famous towers in Basel and right next to the Chacheli-Market. But somehow it never caught my attention.

Or the language; people in Basel have quite a different dialect from anybody else in Switzerland. It was not new to me at all, when I went to school my teacher for 4 years was from Basel. But today I heard a word that I hadn’t heard for a long time. I was in a shop, waiting in line, when a lady in front of me had been asked “Wänd Sie no e Gugge?”. I had to smile. I knew immediately that she was asked, if she would need a bag. But nobody outside of Basel would ever use the word “Gugge”. We would simply use the word “Sack”.

Close to the train station I suddenly saw a street sign that said “Wallstrasse”. Did you know that there is a “Wall Street” in Basel?? I certainly did not and I thought it was really funny. Zurich always claims to be the financial capital of Switzerland and there is a “Wall Street” right in the middle of Basel, the chemical capitol of Switzerland! I wonder how many people of Zurich know about this…

 

PS: While writing this blog I ate 100 g of fried and sugared almonds – now I am feeling sick…

Dear Expats in Switzerland

After starting my own blog I got kind of addicted to reading other blogs. I realised I was mainly interested in reading blogs of expats in Switzerland. What do they think about my country, our way of life, our food? Can I learn something from their experiences?

I was not disappointed, I learned a lot! I learned about events I have never heard of before (balloon festival – thank you, Chantal!), I learned of cities I knew, but never realized how pretty they really were (Chur – I wonder if any Swiss thought it was worth stopping there on their way to Arosa or Lenzerheide…). I learned of restaurants I hadn’t known before. I learned of food I hadn’t tried before (Dim Sum in Zurich).

But I also read things I could not understand: Without any exception every expat mentions more than once how expensive Switzerland is. But they never mention that they usually live here with a Swiss salary or that they live here with an employer supporting them (e.g. paying their house rents or at least part of their rents). Switzerland is expensive, everybody knows that. But is only Switzerland expensive? No! Did you ever drink alcohol in a Scandinavian country? Did you ever go looking for a nice hotel room in London? Did you ever go to Germany getting gas for your car? Did you ever go to an American supermarket and buy healthy (!) food? Did you ever buy some ordinary black tea in a supermarket in Hawaii? 20 tea bags for US$ 5.90!! And don’t tell me Hawaii is an island – Switzerland is an island, too… in Europe…

Something else that bothered me were complaints about the Swiss language. How can somebody go to a foreign country and be upset not to understand a single word, if he/she doesn’t speak that language? Dear expats, this is Switzerland, we are speaking French in the French part of Switzerland, we are speaking Italian in the Italian part of Switzerland, we are speaking Roman in the tiny Roman part of Switzerland and we are speaking SWISSgerman in the German part of Switzerland. We do our best to adapt to foreigners by speaking high German or English with them. But these are also foreign languages to us! So don’t feel offended or – even worse – blame the Swiss, if some of them (no, I am not one of them, I am just trying to explain how we “tick”…) don’t really like speaking those languages with you. – If I go to living and working in another country, first thing I am going to do is taking language lessons in that countries language, no matter how difficult that is. I don’t expect anybody to speak German (or even SWISSgerman) in a country outside of Switzerland (apart from Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein) either.

I hope I did not step on anybodies toe with expressing my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I travelled the world (and I still do), I love getting in touch with other cultures and meeting new people. But I don’t like people coming to Switzerland and expecting everything to be the same like home. We have different prices, different food, different furniture and different personalities. Be open for it and appreciate the chance you have to live here and to get to know us Swiss people. Accept us (and our prices and our furniture) the way we are and you will discover an interesting country and interesting people, some of them (like me) more open to expats than others.