Here's a new question: Tell me one positive experience that you've had with a Swiss. (Please no sexual experiences )
I was just mentioning in another thread to Madzie that in the 8 weeks that I've been here my butcher has been making a point to talk to me every time I'm in there, to make conversation. It's clear he's trying to help me.
Has anything positive happened or has anybody gone out of their way to help or be nice to you?
A few days later a call came in saying it was at Thalwil for collection
Negatives, if I HAD to find some. I miss the bountiful ethnic foods of Chicago. My favorite toothpaste and other products. My triathlon and running clubs where we all spoke the same language. And of course my friends.
Good news is, I have found solutions to many of the things I miss.
From the top of my mind, I'd say :
- Service des Autos in Lausanne - Had just arrived and needed my French driver's license converted to a Swiss one, was expecting a long and complicated process, including several trips to their office. First surprise was the very reasonable waiting time, and then after giving my papers I asked about the process, when shall I expect to receive a letter telling me to come back ... and the guy just smiled hand handed my my Swiss license, during the few seconds I was there, he had scanned my photo and produced it ! I was really impressed !
- Commune de Lutry - Same thing upon arrival was expecting long and painful registration process, was greeted by friendly personnel, given a welcome package with old issues of the town's newsletter, maps, useful infos. Since I've been living there they have always been helpful and very reactive with requests, for example the other day there was an issue with garbage collection and some spilled on the road, I gave them a ring, and about 10 min later they had someone there to clean.
- Emil Frey in Crissier - Great experience, the cars are not more or less reliable than anywhere else but the way issues are handled and quickly resolved makes a lot of difference. I especially do appreciate the way they stand behind their cars. This seems to be applicable to other garages as well, I had a quick trip to Renault for my second car and the service was also quite good there.
- My landlords - Very nice persons, didn't mind that my papers weren't really ok when I got the apartment, always responsive and friendly when needed.
... and plenty of other occasions where people where just nice, trusting and helpful. This really makes you feel welcomed and also stresses the importance of doing the same with others.
I love the weather and the mountains.
I LOVE the shopping. Great little shops. Fantastic food and supermarkets. Amazing selection.
I love the restaurants, especially Manora for a quick lunch.
I internally groaned when I saw the numberticket machine, flashing back to French Guyana where you'd get a high number (people camped out to get a low number), wait for 4 hours, then have the window close just when you were getting short. Come back next day, lather, rinse, repeat.
When you finally got to see a (mouth)breathing humanoid, they'd give you a list of what paperwork you'd have to supply because "No no, we don't give out that information on the phone, you have to appear in person". Come back with requested stuff, do the wait shtick, only to be sent off again because they failed to mention some more paperwork to be provided. Come back, do the wait shtick again, then get sent off again to another service who'd certify the copies. Alas, the info provided turns out to be wrong, the mentioned service does certification, but not for that particular document, need to go see a notary official/the consulate/yet another municipal service with a ticket machine . Long story short: registering took about a month.
Here, got seen to within 7 minutes, registration done in 5 minutes, got a fat envelope "Welcome to Zurich". Done in fifteen minutes flat! The welcome package included all the garbage/recycling options, a Gutschein for the Recyclinghof, lists of public amenities (like badis, Bibliothek etc.) with addresses and opening hours, a reminder for health insurance being obligatory with a full list of Krankenkassen (WITH PRICES ), lists of Vereine of all stripes and colours etc. Heck, a ton of stuff I wasn't even able to find on City of Zurich's labyrinthine homepage.
Moving to Wetzikon, registration was even easier: fill out a .pdf on the homepage, send in the requested copies by mail (ref. number given on online registration), got the Meldebestätigung with a bank transfer slip (20Fr.) in the mail three days later.
Bumped into a passing police car and explained the situation - they managed to contact the taxi company and I got my laptop back within the hour.
One reason I like the swiss.
They helped me with the pushchair, didn't make me open and taste (and render useless) baby milk and baby food like the idiots in Heathrow did. They held and entertained my son for me while I reassembled my pushchair and were just all-round pleasant.
Heathrow and its soul-less droids, by comparison, was a s*dding nightmare...
Off the top of my head : While walking my dog, met some great locals and have made friends with some. A couple in particular were very helpful with showing good walking places, giving info on dog stuff and just very helpful in general.
Another positive thing: in Wolishofen, opp the Coop there, there's a tiny gas station, I didn't even know whether u fill up first and pay later, where to pay, how to use the paying machine etc (duh.. i know!), and imagine my pleasant surprise when the gas st. guy filled up for me and while I sat in the car, he took payment. Of course later I find out it's one of those places that aren't self service. But the chap couldn't be nicer and friendlier, every time I go there, he has a huge smile for me and exchanges pleasantries.
I've met lots of really friendly and wonderful people here from all over and this is a good opportunity to talk of positive experiences, very often we tend to be vocal only about the negative stuff.
The people in all the local shops are lovely, friendly and helpful.
The environment is clean and safe for the children.
The people at school have (so far) been very helpful.
The transport works. And still amazes me even after a year.
While she was not able to find what I needed, she ended up giving me homeopathic medicine which she gave her own dog, and antibiotic creams to use and all the bandages I needed.
I was really touched by what she did and thanked her profusely...I have found many people in CH that have 'gone the extra mile' to help us with one thing or another.
fduvall
All I have to do is look out the window most days and see the alps. Pretty positive experience
The fire had started from a plastic container of cat food being left on the stove and me accidentally bumping into and turning on a burner as I was rushing out the door to work. Meltdown of plastic and burning cat food....
The fire department was careful to clean up as best they could as well behind them - even sweeping up most of the broken glass from the door into a pile.
The caretaker of the building said that they did this instead of breaking in through the door to save me the expense of getting a new key fitted.
The glass for the balcony door was covered by the leasing company, not a thing was charged to me.
I also thought I'd lost a cat (there's a thread on here somewhere) after the fire - the balcony doors had been left open to air the place out. Turns out he was hiding amazingly well, but even with that the neighbors were sympathetic, kind and helpful.
I can't praise everyone enough for the wonderful service (the fire department being neat, cleaning up and even the police leaving me a note in broken English on my door to see the caretaker for the key to my flat - they'd locked up with my spare key which was hanging by the door), great neighbors who don't speak a word of English who were patient and spoke nice and slow and clear for me (hm, a crisis brought out my German quite well, surprised me).
It was a horrible and scary experience, made much, much better by the reactions and behavior of the Swiss.
We saw we had a wait of over an hour and enquired in the post office if there was any other way to get there. The woman behind the counter smiled and said "Yes, I'll take you!" And she did. She was just going off duty and it wasn't too much out her way she explained...