With our upcoming trip back to the U.S. next month Ryan and I got to thinking about all the things we miss about the U.S. While we love living in Switzerland, it was pretty easy for us to come up with an extended list and it was funny how many of the items were about food! Other themes were the conveniences, customer service, and ease of doing things in the US. Our list below(excepting family and friends, which is a given!)
Favorite Foods:We are really missing Mexican food which was always the meal we craved when we returned from vacation (or if hungover!). We have been to two Mexican restaurants here and paid what you might expect to pay for a dinner at Hudson's on the Bend for fajitas and margaritas! Close second has to be bar-b-que-Rudy's brisket was always a fave. Both are great with a lite beer-which we can't find anywhere here! There are also baking products you just can't get here and we have to bring back from the U.S.-brown sugar, chocolate chips..(surprising as Nestle is based here)
Individually packaged snacks: These are wonderful when packing snacks and lunches but they are practically non-existent here! You have to buy bigger bags and individually package them yourself. Also those great peeled baby carrots? We don't have them-have to buy big regular ones, peel, cut, etc. We don't tend to have a lot of variety in the snack area either-Switzerland is very restrictive in their product selection favoring their own products to imports.
Drive Thru Restaurants: The closest one is 20 minutes away and the only one we have is McDonalds. I cannot wait to have a Chik-Fil-A sandwich!
Longer store hours: Talk about an adjustment to how you shop for the week! Stores close between 5 and 6 every day and are closed on Sundays. There is no getting something at night if you forgot something for school the next day(how I miss Target!!!) The exception is that there are small convenience stores at some train stations. The Sunday closing has been tough to adjust to but they take the day of rest pretty seriously-no mowing the lawn on Sundays, and no recycling either due to the noise. On that note...
One-stream recycling: I really miss the days of throwing all of my mixed recycling into one giant container! While Switzerland takes recycling seriously similar to a lot of other policies the burden of the effort is put on the individual. They come to pick up paper recycling on Tuesdays, and trash on Fridays, but to recycle glass, plastic bottles, cans, and batteries, you must take them to a designated Ecopoint to drop them off in separate containers. You are not required to recycle but you pay for your trash by the bag, so it is your benefit to recycle!
Customer-focused service: Those of you who have been to Europe know about the notoriously bad service in restaurants compared to the U.S. As waiters don't have tips as part of their salary the service tends to be slower and without a smile. While we have adjusted to this and don't take it personally as we now know the slower service is because they expect you to linger, with small kids sometimes you just want to get in and out of a restaurant quickly! Same with grocery stores-having the HEB packers put my groceries away instead of packing them myself while the checker watches me is definitely better!
Lack of construction: Living in suburbia it was very quiet with little construction. We live closer to a city center and though it is small it is amazing how much construction is going on. My parents commented on the amount of cranes they saw here when they visited and it is true! They do not hesitate regularly block lanes to rip up the road and start reconstruction on another building. This is the view from our back window, though we don't notice the crane as much as we used to:
English!
Definitely something we took for granted before-being in a country where you speak the language! It is so much easier to do well, everything, when you are fluent in the language. We are taking French lessons but I still have to psyche myself up to make phone calls to make appointments, I use Google Translate constantly, and I can never eavesdrop on other people's conversations! Most food packages have 2 to 3 languages on them:-German, French, and sometimes Italian. At least I don't buy the wrong kind of food as much as I used to!
I'm sure we could come up with more items but I didn't want this to turn into a rant! We are very happy and have adjusted to the differences of living here-many of which are more positive than negative! But that's another post...
.....Not necessarily related but as usual wanted to include some family shots! They recently got a lot of snow at Les Pleaides, a ski/sledding area close to us. There is a cool sled pull that you attach your sled that pulls you up the hill, which is a real benefit to us not having to drag the kids up ourselves!
Savannah has finished her ski lessons and has made some progress though for her it really is just about getting used to the equipment. Travis is continuing with some private lessons with the ski teacher from his school-he really prefers the one-on-one to a class.
Ryan had his 41st birthday on February 28! We made him a nice dinner and this is a key lime cheesecake with a very large sparkler candle in it!
