It seems odd to me that many restaurants here are closed on Sundays. Sunday seems like it would be a prime eating-out kind of day, and yet many places are closed. It's not some sort of blanket regulation, as it is with shops, which are also closed on Sundays, because there are some restaurants that are open on Sundays. I think the owners and staff just can't imagine working on a Sunday, profits be damned. With the grocery stores and restaurants closed on Sunday, you'd better hope you have sufficient provisions at home to tide you over until Monday. Don't forget that the grocery store closes early on Saturday.
One thing that I have always done in restaurants is to have my leftovers wrapped up to take home. Sometimes I eat them later, and sometimes they sit in the fridge until they are unrecognizable, but I like having the option to eat them. The first time I went out to eat with a Swiss friend and asked the waiter to wrap up my leftovers, my friend was shocked, and said that he had never heard of anyone getting a doggie bag. Apparently, if you don’t finish your food, you just leave it. Since then, I have noticed that restaurants are not always prepared to wrap food up to take home, and in some instances, for lack of takeaway containers, I have asked to have half a plate of pasta wrapped, and gotten it back wadded up in a big piece of aluminum foil.
Also, tap water isn’t a big thing here. If you request water in a restaurant, they will bring out a bottle of mineral water unless you very specifically ask for tap water. I’m not sure why tap water is so unpopular here, as the water is very clean and tastes fine, as far as water goes. Offices even provide bottled water for their employees, so that they can keep bottled water at their desks, rather than being forced to drink tap water or huddle around a central water cooler. Thus, when we are at work, my dog only drinks Evian, since that’s what I have at my desk.
You may recall my friend whose office had a very strict plant-allocation plan; each room in her office was assigned a specific plant according to the room’s lighting conditions, and that plan was strictly enforced by the building’s professional Plant People. Her story continues. She also brings her dog to work, and at the end of the day, if there was a bit of water left in her dog’s water bowl, she would dump it in the pot of her very large potted plant, thinking that plants like water, so there was no harm done. The next time the Plant Person came in to water the plants, she started showing signs of extreme agitation and concern, saying that either the plant hadn’t been taking in enough water, or that someone had been watering it. She accused my friend of being the perpetrator of the unauthorized watering, as if it were a heinous crime, which my friend, feeling cornered and put on the spot, vigorously denied. She now dumps the extra water in the office sink, so that the Plant Person won’t think of her as a criminal.
Upon hearing this story, another expat friend chimed in with a Plant People anecdote of her own. Her office also had a plant allocation plan, whereby there were a certain number of plants per people in their shared offices. When one of her colleagues switched rooms, he took “his” plant with him into his new room across the hall. Upon discovering the change, the Plant People informed him that they were only paid to water a certain number of plants per room, and that his plant was in excess of their contract, and so they would continue watering all of the other plants in the office, but he would have to water that plant himself. When he pointed out that they had watered the plant before the move, and that there was no increase in the total number of plants, they said that they were required to water it in its old location across the hall, because it fell within the plants-per-room limits in that room, but that in its new home, it was a superfluous plant! He now waters the plant himself, as the Plant People are unwilling to acknowledge its existence in the new room.
One thing that I have always done in restaurants is to have my leftovers wrapped up to take home. Sometimes I eat them later, and sometimes they sit in the fridge until they are unrecognizable, but I like having the option to eat them. The first time I went out to eat with a Swiss friend and asked the waiter to wrap up my leftovers, my friend was shocked, and said that he had never heard of anyone getting a doggie bag. Apparently, if you don’t finish your food, you just leave it. Since then, I have noticed that restaurants are not always prepared to wrap food up to take home, and in some instances, for lack of takeaway containers, I have asked to have half a plate of pasta wrapped, and gotten it back wadded up in a big piece of aluminum foil.
Also, tap water isn’t a big thing here. If you request water in a restaurant, they will bring out a bottle of mineral water unless you very specifically ask for tap water. I’m not sure why tap water is so unpopular here, as the water is very clean and tastes fine, as far as water goes. Offices even provide bottled water for their employees, so that they can keep bottled water at their desks, rather than being forced to drink tap water or huddle around a central water cooler. Thus, when we are at work, my dog only drinks Evian, since that’s what I have at my desk.
You may recall my friend whose office had a very strict plant-allocation plan; each room in her office was assigned a specific plant according to the room’s lighting conditions, and that plan was strictly enforced by the building’s professional Plant People. Her story continues. She also brings her dog to work, and at the end of the day, if there was a bit of water left in her dog’s water bowl, she would dump it in the pot of her very large potted plant, thinking that plants like water, so there was no harm done. The next time the Plant Person came in to water the plants, she started showing signs of extreme agitation and concern, saying that either the plant hadn’t been taking in enough water, or that someone had been watering it. She accused my friend of being the perpetrator of the unauthorized watering, as if it were a heinous crime, which my friend, feeling cornered and put on the spot, vigorously denied. She now dumps the extra water in the office sink, so that the Plant Person won’t think of her as a criminal.
Upon hearing this story, another expat friend chimed in with a Plant People anecdote of her own. Her office also had a plant allocation plan, whereby there were a certain number of plants per people in their shared offices. When one of her colleagues switched rooms, he took “his” plant with him into his new room across the hall. Upon discovering the change, the Plant People informed him that they were only paid to water a certain number of plants per room, and that his plant was in excess of their contract, and so they would continue watering all of the other plants in the office, but he would have to water that plant himself. When he pointed out that they had watered the plant before the move, and that there was no increase in the total number of plants, they said that they were required to water it in its old location across the hall, because it fell within the plants-per-room limits in that room, but that in its new home, it was a superfluous plant! He now waters the plant himself, as the Plant People are unwilling to acknowledge its existence in the new room.
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