So for the first time in over a month, I spent the weekend in Zurich. I spent no time in the airport or the train station, and was always within walking distance of my apartment. That’s not to say that the weekend was spent doing nothing, in fact, I’d say it was at least as busy as the weekends spent elsewhere.
Saturday, I realized that that once-in-a-blue-moon coincidence had happened: I was in town, awake, and not at work while the shops were open, so I set out to take care of a few things. I bought a wedding present for a friend (one year late, partly because she and I have a late-gift understanding, and partly because I’m rarely in town and free when the shops are open). I got confused wandering around downtown Zurich, and couldn't find a store I was looking for for about half an hour, because it had been so long since I’d walked around there.
I went to a pharmacy and bought the Swiss equivalent of Drano (finally). I walked into the pharmacy, since that’s the only place where it is sold, and asked the pharmacist for drain de-clogger. She asked me what I was going to use it for, and I told her I wanted to use it to de-clog my drain. Which drain? The bathtub. After assuring herself that I had no ill intentions, she retrieved a bottle from a locked cabinet, had me write down my name, address, year of birth, profession, and then sign for the bottle. In a country where most men have an assault rifle in their homes, they supervise the sale and use of Drano??
Then I met up with a friend, also American, with whom I have had several commiserating conversations regarding the difficulty of sleeping in a non-air-conditioned room in the summertime, and we went and bought air conditioners on sale. I’ve been here two summers now, and I’m finally buying an air conditioner, after twice thinking about it and not knowing how long I would be here and whether it would be worth the investment. I should have bought one right at the start, instead of suffering through two summers of hot nights. We took the air conditioners home by cab, and started setting one up. The boxes proclaim that they are “mobile” air conditioners, which seems to imply that you can easily set them up in one room, then move them to another room. They are ridiculously heavy, but they do have wheels, so I suppose they are somewhat mobile. The instructions however, in French, German, and Italian, begin with “Cut a hole in the wall,” which seems to defeat the units’ claim to being “mobile.” Sure, I guess you can move them from place to place, as long as you happen to have holes in the wall in all the places you want to move them to.
Saturday night, a friend was celebrating her birthday, so a group of us, all twenty-something American expats, met up for drinks before going dancing. The club was having an 80’s, funk, and retro night, which apparently meant Vanilla Ice, Nirvana, and other classics from junior high dances. The Swiss calmly danced to all of the songs, whereas the Americans, inspired by the prepubescent anthems, went crazy, jumping up and down, head-banging when appropriate, and screaming along to every almost-forgotten song. By the end of the evening, we were even trying to sing along to some songs that were apparently from European 80’s, as they were in Spanish or German. Nothing is funnier (sadder?) than a bunch of Americans trying to sing along with songs they have never heard before in languages that they don’t speak.
Finally, what’s with all the hurricanes? It must be karma for not signing on to the environmental treaties and pacts, although some say it’s karma for Iraq. Pretty insane stuff, and just horrible. To give the expat perspective, though, it didn’t occur to me to transfer money over to my U.S. account right after Katrina, when the dollar tanked for a few days, and it looks like it won’t tank this time around, so it looks like I won't be making a quick buck in the exchange. Tack that loss onto all the flooding and drowning and property damage ;) No, seriously, I was thinking that maybe this time around, they would evacuate everyone and then Rita would just go to town on the oil refineries, drive up the price of oil and gas, and jettison the exchange rate with minimal other property damage or loss of life. Oh, well, looks like I’ll just have to wait for Bush to do something else to mess up the economy…
Saturday, I realized that that once-in-a-blue-moon coincidence had happened: I was in town, awake, and not at work while the shops were open, so I set out to take care of a few things. I bought a wedding present for a friend (one year late, partly because she and I have a late-gift understanding, and partly because I’m rarely in town and free when the shops are open). I got confused wandering around downtown Zurich, and couldn't find a store I was looking for for about half an hour, because it had been so long since I’d walked around there.
I went to a pharmacy and bought the Swiss equivalent of Drano (finally). I walked into the pharmacy, since that’s the only place where it is sold, and asked the pharmacist for drain de-clogger. She asked me what I was going to use it for, and I told her I wanted to use it to de-clog my drain. Which drain? The bathtub. After assuring herself that I had no ill intentions, she retrieved a bottle from a locked cabinet, had me write down my name, address, year of birth, profession, and then sign for the bottle. In a country where most men have an assault rifle in their homes, they supervise the sale and use of Drano??
Then I met up with a friend, also American, with whom I have had several commiserating conversations regarding the difficulty of sleeping in a non-air-conditioned room in the summertime, and we went and bought air conditioners on sale. I’ve been here two summers now, and I’m finally buying an air conditioner, after twice thinking about it and not knowing how long I would be here and whether it would be worth the investment. I should have bought one right at the start, instead of suffering through two summers of hot nights. We took the air conditioners home by cab, and started setting one up. The boxes proclaim that they are “mobile” air conditioners, which seems to imply that you can easily set them up in one room, then move them to another room. They are ridiculously heavy, but they do have wheels, so I suppose they are somewhat mobile. The instructions however, in French, German, and Italian, begin with “Cut a hole in the wall,” which seems to defeat the units’ claim to being “mobile.” Sure, I guess you can move them from place to place, as long as you happen to have holes in the wall in all the places you want to move them to.
Saturday night, a friend was celebrating her birthday, so a group of us, all twenty-something American expats, met up for drinks before going dancing. The club was having an 80’s, funk, and retro night, which apparently meant Vanilla Ice, Nirvana, and other classics from junior high dances. The Swiss calmly danced to all of the songs, whereas the Americans, inspired by the prepubescent anthems, went crazy, jumping up and down, head-banging when appropriate, and screaming along to every almost-forgotten song. By the end of the evening, we were even trying to sing along to some songs that were apparently from European 80’s, as they were in Spanish or German. Nothing is funnier (sadder?) than a bunch of Americans trying to sing along with songs they have never heard before in languages that they don’t speak.
Finally, what’s with all the hurricanes? It must be karma for not signing on to the environmental treaties and pacts, although some say it’s karma for Iraq. Pretty insane stuff, and just horrible. To give the expat perspective, though, it didn’t occur to me to transfer money over to my U.S. account right after Katrina, when the dollar tanked for a few days, and it looks like it won’t tank this time around, so it looks like I won't be making a quick buck in the exchange. Tack that loss onto all the flooding and drowning and property damage ;) No, seriously, I was thinking that maybe this time around, they would evacuate everyone and then Rita would just go to town on the oil refineries, drive up the price of oil and gas, and jettison the exchange rate with minimal other property damage or loss of life. Oh, well, looks like I’ll just have to wait for Bush to do something else to mess up the economy…
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