Besucher (Visitors)

We are in between visits. Frank’s brother and his family were here last week from Germany, and this morning my mom arrives from the Good Old US of A. The flight between Hamburg, Germany, and Zurich is about an hour and we can drive there from here in 8-10 hours, so that means we tend to see Frank’s family more often than we see my family in America. We get to America about once a year if we are lucky. This is probably the worst part about living abroad–how far away my family is and how difficult visiting can be. It’s expensive to fly our whole family there (more expensive than an all-inclusive vacation!), and it’s expensive for my family to come here. Not to mention the fact that Americans just don’t have enough vacation days to spend much more than a week over here, making it not worth the expense.

So anyway, it is all very exciting to see family we don’t see often. My daughter is thrilled, as is, I think, her American Grandma.

But the second most exciting this about these visits is the things these Auslanders can bring to us in our little economic island of Switzerland. I’ve mentioned before how expensive things are here. Switzerland has a fairly protected economy, meaning that cheaper, non-Swiss products are not widely imported. This means not only is the price of things high (so that Swiss wages can support the cost of living here), but the range of products is more limited than in, for instance, Germany and the rest of Europe, and much, much more limited than in America. Switzerland is not a part of the European Union, and is generally much more conservative than the rest of Europe. What this means for us is that when we have visitors from Germany or the US, we do a lot if research online comparing prices of things, taking into account current exchange rates between the US dollar, the Euro and the Swiss Franc, and making lists of things we can’t get here or things that are insanely cheaper (like clothes in America).

After living abroad for six years, I’ve learned how to substitute most American products with things available here. (This is a big issue with cooking, although it also means I luckily also have ready access to some great quality ingredients like mascarpone and vanilla beans–and Swiss dairy products really are unparallelled.) So I’ve made my orders from Old Navy and will have some new clothes soon :). And a supply of the one ingredient it still makes some sense to bring from America:

Baking soda. I’ve found it here at Christmas-time when all the baking products are out, but it comes in expensive little packets that can’t beat a $1 box of Arm and Hammer, especially if I want to use it for non-baking applications like cleaning (being the good Hausfrau that I am). And since the Christmas baking season has ended, I haven’t seen it at all.

So, yes, it is very exciting to have visitors!

St. Joseph’s Day, or, I should have bought more milk on Saturday

St. Joseph, image from the Kloster Einsiedeln website

The abbreviation for Switzerland is CH, which stands for the Latin Confoederatio Helvetica, meaning the Swiss Confederacy, as Switzerland is a federal country composed of 26 Cantons, much like the U.S. is a federal country composed of 50 states. The Cantons vary quite a bit, linguistically, culturally and geographically. In Switzerland, French, German, Italian, and Romansch are all spoken, depending on where you are. Some Cantons are Protestant (notably, Canton Zurich), while others are Catholic. This variability is explained in part because Switzerland was formed by smaller culturally distinct regions coming together, and by the mountainous Alpine geography that makes up most of Switzerland, which made travel from one part to another in earlier times difficult.

We live in Canton Schwyz, a Catholic, German-speaking Canton. Here, religious holidays are often also government holidays. My daughter’s school events often take place in our village’s Catholic church. For instance, before Christmas we all had to go to the Advent Mass (Adventsdienst), where the children sang Christmas songs. Now that it is Lent, I’m sure we’ll be called back to the church to hear the children sing Easter songs. For being in such a tiny village, the church is quite ornate–I’ll post some pictures in future posts. The neighboring (and larger) village of Einsiedeln also has a Catholic Abbey, called the Kloster Einsiedeln. I’ll post about this in the future, too, as it is a pretty amazing place.

Kloster Einsiedeln, image from myswitzerland.com

This lengthy introduction is all background for explaining that, as you might know if you’re a good Catholic, today is St. Joseph’s Day, celebrating St. Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin Mary.

Reading the Wikipedia page on St. Joseph just now reminded me of how, when I put my house in the U.S. up for sale to move here to Switzerland, my grandmother mailed me a small plastic St. Joseph, which she told me to bury upside-down in the yard to help the house sell more quickly. I carefully followed her instructions, but sadly, it did not help. When the house still hadn’t sold after being up for sale for five years, I ultimately let the bank have the house–along with the upside-down St. Joseph in the backyard.

Anyway, living in a Catholic Canton as we do, today is also an official holiday, meaning my kid is home from school and I’m trying to come up with something to do today to get us out of the house. It also means that nothing’s open today, and I really should have bought more milk on Saturday. You’ve really gotta plan these things in Switzerland.

Hausfrau arbeit–making it to Aldi in time to get a vacuum

I’m not sure what the reputation of Aldi is like in America these days.  Fifteen years ago (that makes me feel old), I depended on Aldi to get me through law school and still eat. I love it for helping me to do that. I always found their produce to be of good quality, and affordable for a broke law student. The company is actually German, and in Germany, it does have a reputation of carrying good quality, inexpensive items. It took some time, but these days, the general opinion there is that you’d be stupid not to shop there. Aldi is new to Switzerland though, having only entered the market a couple of years ago.

When we first moved to Switzerland almost six years ago, there were basically only two largish (by Swiss standards) grocery stores, Coop and Migros, usually 1/4 to 1/3 the size (if that) of any grocery store in the U.S. While Migros is a little less expensive than Coop, I was blown away by how expensive everything was at both.  I would go to the grocery store with a recipe in hand, planning to make something, and when I saw how much the ingredients were, I would give up.  I just couldn’t justify spending $5 on a can of [whatever].  I’d leave without buying the things I had specifically come for. Kind of demoralizing, actually.

Add to that the opening hours (or lack thereof), and shopping in Switzerland is downright inconvenient.  Most places close around six every day, nothing is open on Sunday, and some still close for a “Mittagspause” at lunch time.  You usually have to pay for parking and you need to have a 2 Franc coin with you to put in the grocery cart.  (If you’ve ever shopped at Aldi in the US, you know about this–you have to do that at every store here.)  You also have to bring your own grocery bags or buy them at the store.  I sense that is becoming more common in the US too.

Enter Aldi–where you can buy food that is reasonably priced, you don’t have to pay for parking, AND they are open until 8 p.m. during the week.  (Of course they still close at 6 on Saturday and are closed on Sunday.)  These small conveniences dramatically improved the convenience level of shopping here.  There is a new Aldi just a 15 minute drive from us.  Wow.  And now the village just across the lake from our house has a Lidl, another German store similar to Aldi, which is also open until 8 p.m. every week night.  My quality of life has seriously improved.

These places send out flyers every week of the upcoming specials, which is also very exciting.  Exciting enough for the Hausfrau to brew a cup of tea or coffee, take a little break and peruse the latest offers.  Exciting stuff.  I know I must really be making you want to move to Switzerland.

Anyway, today Aldi had vacuum cleaners on offer.  My husband was very concerned that I get to Aldi before it opened at 8 a.m. so I could get one.  This is how it is sometimes.  Think day-after-Thanksgiving shopping in America.  Well, I didn’t get there until 8:15, and as I was putting my coin into my grocery cart I noticed the other women (men don’t do the shopping–unless they are retirees accompanying their Hausfraus) sizing me up, thinking they better get in there before me, in case I was after the same product.  You can let out your breath–I was successful.  And now as I write this, I am in possession of a brand new vacuum cleaner.*  AND two new toilet seats.  Score.

*I know my German husband is just as excited about the USE of this vacuum cleaner, so I will have to at least take it out of the box today.  And when do I use it, I can happily remind myself that I am saving us $30 for every hour I clean, since that is what a cleaning lady costs here.  Which, by the way, is the same hourly rate I  made working as a lawyer on a contract basis for my former American law firm.  I mean, I guess I’d rather be lawyering than cleaning, but still . . .