Our Internet here at the hotel has been spotty for several days. If you’ve emailed me and I haven’t responded yet, that’s why. This is also the reason why there’s been no significant blog post since last week, though Sammy’s continued teething has also played a role.
- While one of the major supermarket chains here is fully stocked with bottom to middle-shelf wine, beer and liquour, it’s taken some effort to find higher-end booze in this town. This past week, we finally succeeded. There are two very small shops in the city centre that cater to my needs. One stocks a wide variety of quality beer (focusing on Belgian) and top-shelf whiskeys, along with a smattering of high-end wine and rum. The other is hidden inside the interior courtyard of some the blocks in the city centre, and is solely wine-focused. I am extremely happy to have discovered both. The only unfortunate aspect of this discovery is that these stores are only from 2pm-6:30pm, Tuesday through Saturday. This makes timing kind of tricky, especially when I’m working around Sammy’s erratic schedule.
- Last week, Sammy and I went on our longest and most arduous walk yet: nearly 4km up the mountain. (We’ve gone on much longer walks along the lakeshore where it’s nice and level, but this was by far our longest walk uphill.) I already uploaded some pics from this jaunt. It’s one thing to academically know that it’s a lot colder and snowier just a bit up the mountain. It’s another to walk for less than an hour and suddenly feel like you’re in a different country altogether. The only place I’ve been to which I can compare it is San Francisco, but here it is much more drastic of a shift.
- In our two weeks here thus far, we have seen all of three persons who might be construed as being homeless. Martha recently commented on this to one of her co-workers, who confirmed that there are no homeless people in Switzerland. If a Swiss citizen is out of work and destitute, then they are provided with an apartment and money to live on by the government — including additional money to feed their pets. (Martha’s co-worker noted that this leads to Swiss people on welfare having many pets.)Â When Martha asked if anyone panhandled for extra money, her co-worker did not even understand the concept and needed the basic logistics of street begging explained to her. Once she understood, Martha’s scandalized co-worker was emphatic that such things did not happen in Switzerland, for it was against the law. Martha then asked what would happen if the police found a person begging on the street. Her co-worker replied that the police would take the person back to his government-provided apartment.
So, don’t get caught panhandling in Switzerland — or else the cops will give you a ride home. Â 😉 Â This, of course, applies only to citizens. If I were to try asking for spare francs on the street, I’d be deported faster than you can say “Heidi”. - I failed in last week’s effort to get a haircut, mostly due to poor timing and my insecurity about the language. I will bone up on the critical terms (Internet permitting), and try again this week. I’m not sure when this will happen, though. Tomorrow we’re off to Bern to deal with expatriate bureaucracy, and Friday we’re being taken out by our relocation people to see apartments. This needs to happen soon. I’m getting shaggy…