I have finally fallen into the patterns of life here, which is not to say that they already feel normal to me, which is not to say they are not yet enjoyable to me....ya know?
I do not really want to update about the family, because the dad is a huge lurk- or at least a computer programmer with the necessary know-how - but I do get along with them all pretty well. The one year old, Olivier regards me as a part of the family now. It is precious. And Anais,4,is adorable all all all the time. I can entertain her most easily, too, because her favorite things are flowers, princesses and Hello Kitty.
As for all the Swiss outside the family, they are hard to figure out. I have the sneaking suspicion that they just sort of boring, although I try often to find those who are exceptions. This country is all about work; that is why their economy has done so well for so long (Although the conversion rate between the CHF and the dollar are close, everything costs A LOT here. Starbucks talls are about 6 USD and cheapest McDonalds hamburgers about 3! Affordable for the Swiss...)
Everything here is already beautiful and efficient, yet they never stop improving. Improvement upon transportation, environmental standards, education, governmental operations....blah blah....it doesn`t matter....my point is that the focus on being better makes them so very serious, or at least as compared to complacent Americans.
However, I will say that the young people are not really too boring, provided they are young enough. I think this will be the case worldwide.
For now, I will say that the Swiss are not the French, or the Germans, or the Italians, although they are surrounded by and speak the languages of these countries. They adopt things from all 3 countries and -of course- improve upon them. However, these are essentially and perhaps even uniquely "Suisse" things: open shutters, farming on nearly vertical slopes, and obvz, high quality chocolate.
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