Conversations with a Swiss-American

Last night I went out with Nicole to an electronic dance party at the Ruediger house. It didn't start until about 1 and we stayed until 4 or so. It was pretty cool. Good music and lots of people. I spent most of the time talking with Nicole, who comes from Philadelphia but has dual US-Swiss citizenship.

Our conversation turned to a common topic; differences between the USA and Switzerland. I still can't figure out Switzerland. I really like it but it's strange. Nicole says a lot of her American colleagues at work think the Swiss are stuck up or rude. I don't agree, and neither does Nicole. She explained it to me that the Swiss are proud to be Swiss and they like to help out other Swiss. The concept of individuality and "me versus everyone else" that the USA promotes doesn't really exist here. The Swiss seem to recognize that if they all work together it will make their country better. They are willing to give up some person liberties that Americans might have, but in return they are creating a safer, more comfortable, and prosperous society.

I think it's much more complicated than this short explanation but it does being to describe the Swiss culture. For me, I realized a big difference between the USA and Switzerland that probably has a significant effect (subconsciously) on my sense of fitting in here. This difference is that no matter what I do, or no matter how long I live in Switzerland, I will never be Swiss. In America, anyone can become an American and, although there are social and racial prejudices, opportunities are available to everyone. I think this is huge.

changing bus drivers

Sometimes, when I take a later bus to work, the drivers change at Rosengarten Strasse. Today was one of those days. I was sitting towards the front of the bus so I heard the exchange. When the new bus driver boarded he said "Gruetzi" to everyone and everyone responded "Gruetzi". It was like school children say good morning to their teacher as she enters the room and starts the lesson. I thought it was amusing.

intending to write more

I had a bunch of things I wanted to write but then I forgot most of them. I remembered some of them but now they don't seem interesting enough for me to write about. Instead, I will try to make a list (although it will be incomplete due to the memory problem).

1) Problems with Patrick, i.e. noise at the apartment compounded with racial issues in Switzerland prevent me from complaining to the landlord.
2) The ETH Science City looks ok.
3) Humm....maybe my list will be shorter than I thought.
4) Oh yeah, that jerk from the chemical pharmacy school. Sure, the USA isn't great but he can back off a bit when he's only met someone from the USA.

I might go to Budapest in April with Paul and Roger from the Gay Zurich Swimming group. That could be lots of fun!

lots to say

Well, after the past weekend I could write pages on all the funny shit I did or saw in Zurich.

I'll start with last Thursday night when I went to an art opening. I had been chatting the guy Urs on line and he told me about an art opening happening on Thursday at the "White Space". He didn't tell me what it would be but I went anyway. The opening was pretty mellow with 30 something's standing around chatting. The art piece was a collection of stories and painted photographs of victims of crime in Zurich. I suppose the purpose was to illustrate that crime does exist in Zurich, regardless of what the Swiss Tourist authority might say!

The man responsible for the art was a 40 or 50 year old messy looking French or Swiss-French guy. He was accompanied by his early 20 year old fashion punk boy friend and their three pound lap dog. Both guys were nice but I only spoke to the older artist briefly.


The high point of the night was when a young Swiss man from the east sang "Dada" music, accompanied by his guitar. It was great. He was a pretty good singer and guitar player. His songs included a Beetles cover, something in Spanish (I think) and then a few other pieces unknown to me. What made him a Dada singer will never be known to me. It was amusing. He didn't always sing or play with a standard rhythm or technique but I don't know why one would call this Dada.


Also started swimming with the Zurich Gay on Monday. They practice twice a week; Monday and Friday. After Friday's practice I went out with Paul, an Austrailian who's lived here for 3.5 years. We had Thai food for dinner then had drinks at Liquid. I like Paul. He's funny and nice too.

On Saturday, Paul invited me to dinner at his house with Roger and Joquim(?)- all swimmers from the gay Zurich team. We had a great time laughing and drining wine. Paul made good Thai food for dinner. After dinner we watched the best scenes from "Murial's Wedding" and listened to Kylie Minogue before going out dancing.

I talked the girls into going to this psuedo-underground party called unart. They wanted to go to T&M (or T&A as I call it) but I told them the crowd would be younger and more fun at this party. It turned out to be the case. We got there at 12 and I got home after 4:30am. It's a totally different experience going out with friends rather than alone. Those guys were hilarious. Unfortunately, Paul drank a little too much and left some of his dinner on the dance floor before stumbling home.

The crowd at the party was mid-20 year olds. I talked with lots of guys and had more fun than I have for months. I just wish Colin was with me.

Yesterday, I went running for the first time since I ran with Colin in June 2003. Today I hurt!

snow

I just wanted to create a quick entry because I had another revelation. I realized that I like the snow! While living in California I always proclaimed that I would hate to live in the cold. I could never understand why people lived in the North East where it snows a lot. However, my only experience with the winter was from living in New Mexcio.

Don't let the geographical location of NM fool you. It's in the southern part of the USA but Albuquerque sits at 5,000 feet (1,516 meters). So, it's freezing in the winter but it's also dry; a so called a "high desert" climate. I remember seeing beautiful blue skies, clearer than anywhere in the world, but below freezing temperatures outside. No snow.

Here in Zurich, on the other hand, it snows. It's cold but it snows! It's beautiful.

second thoughts

I am realizing that my initial motivation for starting a blog was boredom and possibly loneliness. When I have things to do and people to see I don't feel as inspired to writing a new entry. Today, I was indiffernt to the fact that I hadn't created a blog for a day.

Now, I know only one day isn't much of a reason to become discouraged. I'm sure in the future I could go weeks without writing a new entry (and I'll probably forget my password some where along the way too!).

But, something inside of me says this is just a fade and it won't last long. I could be wrong.

Having said that, I decided to write a blog this evening because I read a funny article at www.sfgate.com.

There was a story about a lesbian and gay couple who tried to get marriage licences in Martinez, CA. They were denied, as expected. However, one man and one woman from the couple, who knew each other for 30 seconds, asked to be married to each other. And, since our country is so concerned about preserving the sanctity of marriage and to protect families, they were granted a license! Humm....sounds worse than the Brittany Spears 24 hour marriage.

weird (weather) day

Last night I got motivated to go out to the Boschbar. It's close to my house so I could walk there easily. I think it's an underground bar or part of the Zurich subculture scene but it's located on the top floor of a wearhouse. The music was electronic mixes that I thought were good. Not many people were there, probably because the weather was bad. I spoke with the door man for a while, first trying in German but then switching to English. Then, I tried speaking with this woman who had pink hair. She only spoke Italian and I've forgotten all my Italian. I told her that she looked like she wanted to dance since she was kind of dancing in place and looking at the dance floor. But I think she misunderstood me and thought I asked if she wanted to dance with me. It was awkward after that. I stayed until about 3 or 4 am then came home.

Now I'm kind of sleepy and thinking about all this time I can spend on the internet. Shouldn't I be practicing German or figuring out how to meet people?

The weather still sucks today. It's a mixture of rain and snow with lots of wind. Sitting in front of my window there is a huge draft making my hands and feet cool. The weather reports predicts snow for the next five days. I was going to work today but it's hard to leave the house with these conditions.

My blog is turning into a diary. I guess there is no set format to a blog. I wonder how careful I must not to write too much since it could be read by anyone. It's easy to just write any and every thing in my head without realizing that I am agreeing to post it publically for anyone to see. (But I doubt many people actually will read it anyway.)

I just proof read my blog and saw that I used "pretty" as an adverb three times in one paragraph. I deleted every instance of it! I'm still trying to figure out how to post and preview my blog without deleting it. Why doesn't the spell check work?? This is crucel for me.

Saturday

I actually spoke with my brother yesterday. It was the first time since August! It's so easy to pick up the phone and call but neither of us had done it. So we arranged for a time yesterday and I called. He seems to be doing well although very busy. Maybe I'll see him in March.

I also spoke with John, Paul, and Amanda. They sound great and crazy as ever. I will definitely see them in March. Weird how I will definitely see people who contributed to much damage of my brain but only maybe will I see my brother. Is this normal?

Today I got lazy and didn't go swimming like I wanted to. It's early and maybe I'll go in a bit but first I wanted to do my taxes. yepee!

working out the settings

I think I have figured out how to set my regional time. It should be around 4:45 pm for me in Zurich, CH. I think I'll go make a coffee.

friday

So I'm back. This seems to be an interesting experience that I'm willing to continue. Who knows if anyone will read these postings other than me, but it's kind of fun and narcissistic.

Last night I got home, and after eating dinner, I read the latest editorials in the Washington post. One article titled "Darwin and God" or "God and Darwin" spoke about the 'intelligent design' theory gaining popularity among fundamentalist Christians. It was shocking! More than 55% of Americans do not believe in any type of evolution and one third of Americans believe the bible should be read literally. Where in the Bible does it say to read it literally? It doesn't!

Furthermore, opponents of evolutionary theory want to teach 'intelligent design theory' in science classes, even though they admit it has no scientific evidence and does not follow science in anyway. What the fuck?

Maybe I shoud stay in Zurich. The USA is going backwards!

Will I stick with this?

Humm...so this is my first attempt at a blog. Just to document:

I'm sitting at my desk at work. I'm hungry and tired but still sitting at work.
But if I go home what's more exciting there besides dinner and then reading the Washington Post weekely edition, which I recive here in Zurich so I can keep up with US politics.

Hunger is winning.