Differencies

In the last few blogs I listed some of the positive aspects of living here in California. But of course there are a lot of things I miss about Switzerland, one of them being the public transport system. You really need a car to get anywhere, leading to a more extreme air pollution. There are buses and boats but they follow a very inconvenient schedule, are always late and to even get to a station you need a car. Our host siblings can already drive, but they have homework to do or don’t want to do the exact same things you might have planned. Even though the food here is great, there are things I miss like fresh salad, our milk (here it’s so watery) and of course rivella J. 

Honestly I don’t like the hot weather here, I’d much rather have Swiss fall weather. Yes I know you might be wondering how can someone possibly like rainy cold weather better than high summer California weather. I guess it’s in my genetics and the origin of this DNA part is pretty easy to follow if you know my dad. 

But I think what I miss most besides the public transport system is the safety we have even in a city like Zurich. I can walk around the city at 3’o’clock in the morning and don’t have to worry about getting attacked or anything. I was scared walking through San Francisco at 2’o’clock in the afternoon. While searching for a guitar shop I was witness of a drug deal, got insulted twice and thus was out of this neighborhood as fast as possible.

Now usually when I talk to students here, after five minutes of introduction the conversation’s about us being able to buy alcohol and go clubbing. Now I don’t want to say that I miss the alcohol, because I can thankfully survive 3 weeks without a beer but the parties and clubs are still very different here and to be honest a little more fun in Switzerland. Even though the teenagers can drive here it still seems like they’re more controlled by their parents and teachers. For example there was a school party for Halloween and the party was from 8 till 10 (that’s when our parties usually start), there was water to drink and the teachers stood next to the dance floor to see if there are boys and girls dancing together, which was to my astonishment prohibited. It was still very amusing and of course there’s no need for alcohol for a party to be fun, but I’m still excited to show our American host siblings what it means to party when they come to Zurich. (SB)