Another week, another trip. It has gotten to the point where if I don’t leave the country at least once a month, I start to feel restless, and yet I can vaguely remember a time when I would go for a month without going to the East Side, much less venturing outside of Manhattan. There were entire seasons when I didn’t leave the state. On the other hand, living in Manhattan, I had Ethiopian food, Barnes and Noble delivery, sushi, the New York Public Library, Central Park, tapas, Fresh Direct, and True Religion jeans right in my neighborhood, so there were fewer reasons to be restless.
The Swiss aversion to noise is so deeply ingrained that they will go to great lengths to avoid any unnecessary sounds, no matter how trivial. On several flights, I have noticed that flight attendants, when making their final check of the cabin before takeoff, will carefully lift the latches on the overhead bins when closing them, so that they don’t make the characteristic clicking noise when closing. While this does eliminate that tiny bit of noise, it also makes me a bit wary, since the click is always what signals to me that the bin above my head is indeed closed, and that the luggage inside won’t come tumbling out onto my head. But better to have falling suitcases than unnecessary noise, right?
In the Zurich airport, they still have a few of those electric carts for passengers who aren’t very mobile, but otherwise, airport employees get between distant gates on airport bicycles. It makes sense: bikes use less energy, take less space, and (my secret theory is that this is the most important reason) make less noise. But it’s still rather disorienting to be indoors at an airport, and to see airport personnel careening through the terminal on bicycles.
Anyways. I recently went to see the new Harry Potter movie here in Zurich. I was prepared for some Swiss oddities, like assigned seats and intermission, but was not expecting to see two cigarette commercials, a beer commercial, and a very sexual jewelry ad before the previews came on. The ads are fairly standard for the movie theaters here, but it just seemed a bit incongruous to air adult ads for a theater full of grade school kids, unless they’re just trying to get them hooked early.
Another movie theater foible that confused me recently was the phenomenon of reverse stadium seating. We’re all familiar with stadium seating, where every row is higher than the row in front of it, so that everyone has a clear view of the screen. Well, in this theater, every row was lower than the row in front of it, so unless you were seated behind a midget, their head was right in your line of vision. Who had that brilliant idea when designing the theater, and who approved the brilliant idea when building the theater?
Zurich is a very international city, and most movies are shown in their original language, with German and French subtitles. This usually works out wonderfully for English-speaking expats, except when the movie was originally in, say Japanese or Spanish. Watching a movie in English can be frustrating, as well, although for different reasons. Because most of the people in the audience are reading the German subtitles and only half-listening to the English dialogue, they tend to react to jokes or dramatic statements before they are actually said, meaning that if you are listening to the movie, rather than reading it, you may miss the punch line or dramatic moment, since the audience laughs or groans too early, and the sound is not turned up very high (since it’s a Swiss theater, and we wouldn’t want the movie to be loud, now, would we?) As much as I like my peace and quiet, there are certain times when I wish life were a bit louder here.
The Swiss aversion to noise is so deeply ingrained that they will go to great lengths to avoid any unnecessary sounds, no matter how trivial. On several flights, I have noticed that flight attendants, when making their final check of the cabin before takeoff, will carefully lift the latches on the overhead bins when closing them, so that they don’t make the characteristic clicking noise when closing. While this does eliminate that tiny bit of noise, it also makes me a bit wary, since the click is always what signals to me that the bin above my head is indeed closed, and that the luggage inside won’t come tumbling out onto my head. But better to have falling suitcases than unnecessary noise, right?
In the Zurich airport, they still have a few of those electric carts for passengers who aren’t very mobile, but otherwise, airport employees get between distant gates on airport bicycles. It makes sense: bikes use less energy, take less space, and (my secret theory is that this is the most important reason) make less noise. But it’s still rather disorienting to be indoors at an airport, and to see airport personnel careening through the terminal on bicycles.
Anyways. I recently went to see the new Harry Potter movie here in Zurich. I was prepared for some Swiss oddities, like assigned seats and intermission, but was not expecting to see two cigarette commercials, a beer commercial, and a very sexual jewelry ad before the previews came on. The ads are fairly standard for the movie theaters here, but it just seemed a bit incongruous to air adult ads for a theater full of grade school kids, unless they’re just trying to get them hooked early.
Another movie theater foible that confused me recently was the phenomenon of reverse stadium seating. We’re all familiar with stadium seating, where every row is higher than the row in front of it, so that everyone has a clear view of the screen. Well, in this theater, every row was lower than the row in front of it, so unless you were seated behind a midget, their head was right in your line of vision. Who had that brilliant idea when designing the theater, and who approved the brilliant idea when building the theater?
Zurich is a very international city, and most movies are shown in their original language, with German and French subtitles. This usually works out wonderfully for English-speaking expats, except when the movie was originally in, say Japanese or Spanish. Watching a movie in English can be frustrating, as well, although for different reasons. Because most of the people in the audience are reading the German subtitles and only half-listening to the English dialogue, they tend to react to jokes or dramatic statements before they are actually said, meaning that if you are listening to the movie, rather than reading it, you may miss the punch line or dramatic moment, since the audience laughs or groans too early, and the sound is not turned up very high (since it’s a Swiss theater, and we wouldn’t want the movie to be loud, now, would we?) As much as I like my peace and quiet, there are certain times when I wish life were a bit louder here.
No comments:
Post a Comment