I've done a lot of vistis to the United States during the last few years and I just love it over there. Now, back in Switzerland again, I miss the nice, friendly and lovely people from the United States and unfortunately I don't know any Americans over here.
I would really like to change that and I would be very happy to get to know some Americans living near Zurich.
Hey! I'm an au pair living about half an hour away from Zurich. I too am an American and I am 19 years old. I regularly get together with several other au pairs on the weekends. In fact i am meeting one of my friends (and some new people too) on New Years eve in the Zurich HB under the clock if you would like to join us. Just send me a private message if you want more info I miss knowing Americans, so it would be great to meet up sometime.
Great to know not everyone will hate me over there for being American But anyway, I'm a 21 year old American girl (from South Carolina) and will be staying around the Zurich area from February until July...I'd love to meet up with some people, American or Swiss or even if you're from Antarctica...particularly if you're into concerts or going to bars
hahaha... this is cute, i was on the phone with a company in the u.s the other day and was so happy and missing the niceness and warmth that we do i ended up staying on the line with the customer rep for twenty minutes just chatting after our business was finished!
While in the US, we felt like we were coming from a third world country because of the choices, availability and kindness of people! The service we got there was so great and refreshing! And no biggies when we brang back something to exchange! We were treated like human! I am not telling you how many chicken wings I ate in two weeks!
That's weird, 'cause when I'm in the USA I feel like I'm in a third-world country because all of the sidewalks are broken, and the trains barely work. Maybe I've gone native.
Or maybe we just don't have the same priorities? I don't care how the sidewalk are but I do care how people interact between each other. For me human relations are much more important that how a street look like.
I just don't get it maybe. For me the "warmth" in the US feels fake. The chic at TGI fridays or whatever is just nice to us 'cause she wants a tip. And that niceness does not extend to helping me construct something like a vegetarian meal from their menu even though we're obviously stranded in an ice storm on the side of the interstate, nor does it extend to tolerating breast-feeding in the last, most hidden booth in the place even though there are like 3 other customers.
Or maybe your talking about the way a bouncer treats you when they fail to understand that a US passport is a valid Federal ID. That's lots and lots of fun.
We don't have the same experiences. I am Canadian, we are like that too, we like to chat, like to help and we smiles a lot!
I never had a bad experience in the US probably because I understand the culture and the mentality.
It isn't all pink, I got my lots of idiots like anywhere else. My husband got the nice treatment based on the racial profile made by our nice TSA friends at Philadelphia airport. But the guy was being very cool even with is intrusive questions... someone got to do the job!
For the breastfeeding part, I believe things are changing 'cause I saw many family restaurants with a little poster saying that breastfeeding was welcome there. For the bar's bouncers, I have no idea, I didn't go in a bar since a long time and I never had a problem to enter somewhere.
I find americans to be polite and respecful. They wait in a line, they apologise if they cut your way, bump into you, or if YOU bump into them. The very low paid guy will smile at you much better than the very rich one and most of the time, you don't see who is rich and who isn't, and the best part, it doesn't matter. You don't get a better treatment from it.