Category Archives: Cultural Differences

A Tree like Rockefeller

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Post by Gabe
That’s right….Gabe

Hello all and Merry Christmas. I am breaking my silence this week to give you a glimpse into our first Christmas tree as a married couple. This tree sets the tone for all future trees so I have been laying the ground work with Lauren for quite a while. It would be 6 to 8 feet tall, very very full, symmetrical from all angles and have an intoxicating pine aroma. Regardless of the time required to find this magical gem it wouldn’t matter. Hours, days, weeks, whatever it takes….the time couldn’t be used more wisely. Had I not done this ground work…Lauren would have picked up the cheapest thing should could find. We probably would have ended up with a fake fern from Ikea. And that obviously wouldn’t cut it for our first tree.

As usual, I may have missed one small, very tiny, detail during my tree brain storming.

…we don’t live in the US.

In the US I would have proposed we buy a permit and head into the mountains to fell our own Christmas tree. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way in Geneva. At least not that we are aware of. So instead, we did what every other Genevese (person in Geneva) does. We headed to the local grocery store to pick one up. And these babies are carry out….literally.

Take a look at our beautiful 3 feet 6 inch tree in its full grandure.

As usual, everything in Geneva is expensive so we opted for the smaller set of lights. Unfortunately that strand was so short they only made it around the tree twice. We had one ornament in Geneva to add to the tree thanks to Lauren’s Aunt J but we obviously needed more than that. So we spent two Saturdays ago making our own ornaments also. It may not be 6-8 feet tall, very very full, symmetrical from all angles and a bouquet of pine but I think it is a beauty. I am very proud of our first tree and think it is the perfect start to the many tree’s to come.

(check out the ornament Lauren made…I think it is cool)

Happy Holidays to you all!

Maybe we got Halloween all wrong

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Post by Lauren

This weekend is a big weekend in Geneva history, L’Escalade. I knew there would be historical celebrations in store. What I didn’t count on was hundreds of teenagers, in costume, throwing eggs and flour at each other in downtown Geneva. In fact, I was almost caught in the cross fire coming home from Globo Gym Friday.

No one seemed alarmed at all. See all the passerbyers just checking their blackberries, smoking their cigarettes, in all black, of course. I consulted wikipedia, and yes, it quotes, “Teenagers tend to throw eggs and flour at each other as part of the celebration”.

Good that we cleared that up. Here are a few photos from this mornings wait for the bus:

Glad I made it safely home instead of being made into a cake.

Alternative coffee culture

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Post by Lauren

During our three week visit to the US, I consumed more pumpkin spiced lattes that most people consume in a lifetime.

If you have never had a PSL, I feel sorry for you. It is a little gulp of heaven.

There are really three reasons why I decided to overindulge in way more than my fair share of PSLs while in the States.

I love you, PSL!!!

Reason #1 – In Switzerland, there are Starbucks, but NO FLAVORED SYRUPs. This should be a crime. It’s like the movie theaters there that don’t serve popcorn.

All Fall, l had to endure the agony of people posting about PSLs on Facebook. This should also be a crime.

Reason #2 – I can’t afford Starbucks. Its like 10 US dollars for a latte. Since I am not currently working, I have to pass on going. Even when everyone else gets it. But its okay. Because there are no syrups its not as appealing as it would be in the US.

Reason #3 – Switzerland coffee culture. It is definitely a “NO-to-go” country. There are three Starbucks in Geneva and they are the ONLY place I know of that would give you a cup of coffee to go. Even still, you have to special order it that way, or else it comes in a mug. I am pretty sure it also comes with a dirty look.

The Swiss like to casually sit in a cafe and have a teaspoon sized baby espresso cup. It takes them like a half hour to drink it. While I am loving the slower pace, I simply cannot get used to this cultural difference. I like to have mine in a thermos and drink it continually.

How the Swiss do it.

Even when I bring a thermos with me on the tram in the morning, people stare at me. Just imagine the most confused look ever. That is what I get when I carry a coffee thermos. I thought it was because of the no-to-go, but S & S pointed out it also has a lot to do with size. Not that my thermos is large – its normal sized, but it is bigger than a thimble.

A few weeks ago, I saw another person with a thermos. Its the first time I had ever seen it so I decided to capture it as I surely will never see it again. I gave her lots of smiles on the tram as I wanted to show my support.

Concluding this coffee post, I am happy to report that we imported a 750 ml bottle of Pumpkin Pie syrup. No clue if it is anything like Starbucks, but one can hope. There is already an army of fellow ex-pat PSL fan friends in Geneva ready to try it out.

 

Swiss movie-going

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Post by Lauren

Sunday was a low key day for us after the big Halloween shindig. In the afternoon, our big event was going to see the Ides of March.

We usually go to the Pathé brand of theaters here in Geneva, but this time, I had spotted that the cinema super close-by actually had the film in version original with subtitles. Usually their films are always French so we hadn’t had an opportunity to go.

We took the short walk down to the theatre and bought our tickets. They were only 33 francs, $40 USD, a steal for Geneva movie-going. We were pleased. However, our love affair with this theatre quickly wore off when Gabe realized that the teeny snack stand only sold candy bars and coke. No popcorn. He’d been looking forward to it all afternoon.

To make matters worse, the traditional ads they have at the theatre continued to play with the big sodas and popping corn, taunting us.

While the movie was excellent, the temptation was rather cruel.

Girls just wanna have fun

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Post by Lauren

I was gleeful when I ran into a group of singing French girls on my way home from the gym Saturday morning. They carried a huge basket of candy. I immediately associated it with Halloween and trick-or-treating.

But, alas, no. They were a bachelorette party making their way through the streets of Geneva. They approached all men for cash and would give them a piece of candy in return. Not sure if the cash was for the bachelorette festivities or the wedding fun.

Anyhow it brought a smile to my face as the boarded the pink tram (decorated for Breast Cancer Awareness month).

Notice the person in the foreground looking aghast at the horror of it all.

The American

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Post by Lauren

Since Gabe’s company has headquarters in the US, they encouraged all the employees to dress up Friday. Here is Gabe dressed as Magnum PI. It was relatively easy to pull off since he had a Hawaiian shirt and cap and S & S had given us a bunch of mustaches (you’ll see why for tomorrow’s post). Anyhow, comparing the two, I think he did quite well for a costume pulled together in ten minutes, morning of.

Since only about 5% of his office is from the US, he knew that people may not know Magnum PI. However, he figured he would get equal education in their characters….maybe some politicians, movie stars, etc. However, people only dressed up like witches and goblins.

We now know the European definition of Halloween is to dress up like a scary thing, not characters, historical references, or pop culture icons like we do in the US.

Lesson learned.

At the end of the day, they circulated an email featuring everyone who participated. People had subtitles of Goblin, Witch under their photos.

Gabe’s simply said, “The American”.

The Price Is Right – France vs. Switzerland

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Post by Lauren

Do you remember the Grocery Game on the show The Price Is Right? I used to love watching this show when I was a kid. So for the spirit of fun, we are going to play the game on this blog with the prices of goods in France vs. Switzerland.

Good luck guessing. A little more challenging than Bob Barker’s version.

The prices are equalized by currency, and I took it a step further to actualize it into American dollars. So, euros x 1.4 and Swiss Francs x 1. 2.

Be a sport. Scroll til you see the product and no more before you guess the prices.

Roll of Pizza Dough:

Switzerland:

$ 6.48 (5.40 CHF)

France:

$ 2.80 (1.37 euros)

500 Grams of Spinach

Switzerland:

$ 7.08 (5.90 CHF for 300 g)

France:

$ 3.50 (2.50 euros for 500 g)

Kronenbourg Beer 10 pack

Switzerland:

$ 10.68 (8.90 CHF)

France:

$ 5.72 (4.09 euros)

 


Guacamole, jarred*
I know, its gross, but beggars can’t be choosers

Switzerland:

$ 6.60 (5.50 CHF)

France:

$ 3.02 (2.16 euros)

Canned green beans

Switzerland:

$ 8.22 (6.85 CHF)

France:

$ 1.33 (0.95 euro)

Coke 4 pack, 1 liter each

Switzerland:

$ 9.12 (7.60 CHF)

France:

$ 6.72 (4.80 euro)

 

So how did you do? I hope you were a winner.

Me, I’m depressed after putting together this game.

Measuring. Never the same.

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Post by Lauren

Aside from the language barrier, another barrier for those living in foreign countries is measurement.

 

No more inches, feet, yards, pounds, miles.

Everything is by the meter, the gram, the kilo.

And after 4 months, I still haven’t adjusted to grocery shopping in terms of measurements. I shy away from the meat and cheese counters as I am not sure I’ll know exactly how much to order. In the US if something like that happened, I’d just suck it up and buy whatever I ordered. Here, if I make a mistake in meat, my two steaks could cost the equivalent of $100 USD. No kidding.

And here are some more examples of how the quirks of measurement affect our lives:

Paper. Printer paper is not the same size. It’s about halfway between the US size and a legal size. I had to chop off the bottoms of my French assignments to get them to fit into my notebook.

Printing Photos. Here are the options for printing photos on my nearest photo lab machine. If I don’t happen to carry my tape measurer with me, I am screwed.

A4 is a apparently a common size in Europe to print photos for display. I needed to submit a display photo for the women’s club exhibition. After 2 hours of attempts to get my printer to do it and taking it on memory stick to printshop twice and not being able to find the right size, eventually, I had to ask someone else to do it. Talk about feeling incompetent.

Frames. Not the same. I am learning this with art. US canvases don’t fit Swiss frames. US frames don’t fit Swiss canvases. This was surprising to me that standards would be different in this area. I spent an hour in the art store and the frame store trying to figure out which ones would match each other for my upcoming art booth.

Weights. At the gym, all the weights are in kilos, not pounds. I feel really weak here.

Distances. Of course, everything is in km. We have tricked our GPS to talk in miles so we have a better concept of when a turn is coming up since we haven’t master the kilometer. Roughly, its 3.2 miles for 5 kilos, so I sort of just divide in half. The good news is that when you see a high number, it feels much faster when you reach your destination.

Outdoor temperature. I still remember someone at the women’s club exclaiming it would be high thirties in Spain that weekend. Everyone gasped and I just looked confused and tried to calculate it. I keep my weather updates in Fahrenheit on my iPhone & laptop because even though I know the math behind it, I have am not able to quickly do the conversion enough to make a judgement in what to wear.

Cooking temperature. Our oven of course is in Celsius degrees. I just tend to double what I think it should be in Fahrenheit. Truly, the math is to multiply by 1.8 and add 32, but doubling is just simpler to me. This might be why I burn a lot of things in our oven.

Furniture. They don’t have the same bed sizes here. A coworker of Gabe’s brought their mattress and sheets and planned to buy a bed frame in Switzerland upon arrival. They couldn’t find one to match so they ended up shipping a new US double bed frame to our house before our move so we could bring it with us.

Knowing this, I ended up bringing extra sheets since it would be impossible to get them here.

A page from the Swiss Rule Book: The Draft

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Post by Lauren

People here are wicked afraid of drafts. Not like the military. They don’t mind that and every Swiss man serves each year, and keeps a gun in his home to protect the motherland. What I am talking about is the kind from wind.

Just as a preface to my story, in case you haven’t noticed from earlier posts, air conditioning doesn’t exist here.

I noticed this extreme fear of the draft when my French tutor, on a sweltering day, refused to sit in the cross winds of the dining room, where I had ingeniously created a nice flow of air from kitchen to living room. “Pas dans le vent!” she exclaimed. She made me close one of the doors.

I was confused by it.

The next instance was at the women’s club when again, a sweltering day, and 60 of us were jammed in the lovely clubrooms for a luncheon. Could we open the windows? Let a little air in? Nope.

Sitting next to friend, M, I commented they must love being hot.

She told me she’d read something about the fear of draft and loaned me her book.

Here is an excerpt.

 

Courtesy of Culture Smart: Switzerland

Maybe I should follow suit. They have the longest life span of any people.

Aside from superstition about germs, the one dislike I have of the draft is the noise it can make when it will randomly slam a window or door. It truly is the worst sound I know since it is always unexpected. Gabe knows if he is the culprit of leaving a door open without a prop and it slams, I am going to give an evil eye.

So, I could possibly figure one could get a headache from the draft based on the door slams. But, until AC comes along, its going to be hard to adopt this tradition myself.

Curry if you care

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Post by Lauren

Have you ever used curry to promote peace and tolerance? After this weekend, I can say YES!

This summer, tens of thousands of Singaporeans united against intolerances by pledging to cook a pot of curry on August 21. The effort was designed so that all could appreciate and embrace multiculturalism. Check out the link to Reuters from Lady J’s musings here that can provide more background.

While so many of us were traveling late summer, our friend, Lady J, who happens to be the best cook / pastry chef I know, decided to treat us to a rain check….a Cook A Pot of Curry evening in Geneva. Gabe and I are always up for promoting multiculturalism. Plus, did I mention how awesome her cooking is? 🙂

Lady J and her husband J, and traveling guest KT were such excellent hosts. We had the pleasure of tasting Gado-Gado, Chicken Satay served with Ketupat, Curry Chicken, Prata and Kaya Puffs. My favorite were the incredible sauces. They are so delicious and spicy.

Because I didn’t pull out my camera until the end, Lady J’s Musings and KT ‘s blog provide much better recaps of the fun we had that night. However, here are a few shots I captured later in the evening of the great people we’ve met in Geneva:

The only thing that I am sad about is now I have a constant craving for Singaporean food and its really hard to secure the goods here in Switzerland to make such a meal. Guess its time to plan a trip to SIngapore!