Basel, Switzerland BLOG
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Oh those wacky Swiss...
At the end of the Boney M song, Rasputin, there is a line "Oh those Russians", well let me tell you something, I don't think the Russians have anything on the Swiss when it comes to being a tad wacky. Don't believe me? Well let me tell you some interesting facts...
Let' start with the fact that in spite of being surrounded by EU countries, Switzerland refused to join, preferring to stay an island in the sea of Europe, perhaps allowing them to better control their economy, who knows... an interesting thing is their managing to stay neutral and more importantly un-occupied during WW2, given the fact that everywhere around them was occupied or surrendered. One reason for this accoring to Wikipedia is "The massive mobilisation of Swiss armed forces under the leadership of General Henri Guisan is often cited as a decisive factor that the German invasion was never initiated. Modern historical findings, such as the research done by the Bergier commission, indicate that another major factor was the continued trade by Swiss banks with Nazi Germany."
I think I agree with the latter rationale, as opposed to the massive mobilisation of troops scaring the Germans off, I mean, this is a country that tried to invade Russia? I don't think a country that would have to defend multiple fronts would really put them off, but not having a place to store your war booty, now that is a different story... :)
Enough politics, it's history anyway, but it does lend some insights into Swiss people. They tend to keep themselves to themselves, but if you are seen doing something you shouldn't, they won't hesitate to do their civic duty and inform the authorities. The first 2 weeks I lived in my flat each night and morning I could see the same eldery lady, leaning out from her balcony to check me out.. I think she finally decided I was ok.
House rules are another interesting thing here. The block of flats I am in has 2 laundry rooms, but you are only allowed to use the one on your side of the building, and only when you have booked in the schedule sitting on top of the dryer. And it's only open Monday - Saturday from 9-9, so if you work during the day, it's tough to get your laundry done... A funny laundry story... there are meters where you need to feed in 20 rappens (a rappen is like a cent or pence), to get juice to run the washer or dryer. OK, that is simple enough, so I collect 20 rappens in a small cup by my front door. Then you need to make sure you have turned the water tap on, as the last person will have ceratinly turned it off, and if not them, the Haus Frau will have, heaven forfend you would leave it on! So the first load of laundry I did was sans water... I then realised after 3 visits that I had been putting the detergent cubes in the wrong drawer, so the clothes had been rinsed at least... not a Swiss thing, just a dumb Canadian thing. :) I have it all worked out now, though, and even managed to find the short cycle setting, since I can only get the room from 7-9 on a weeknight...
Here is another curiosity, the Swiss seem to love church bells. Unlike the regular calls to prayer from the Minarets of a mosque, the bells seem to ring when the church warden feels like it. The only constant is that they go off each morning without fail at 0700h, what a treat when you live 100m from a church and want to sleep in on the weekend. :)
There is a saying 'Cleaniness is said to be next to Godliness', well if that is true, God is Swiss. Rubbish collection is twice a week, not including regular paper, metal, furniture and other assorted pickups. Street cleaners are everywhere, and someone told me that after a big football match, it's fun to go down see the mess of paper, bottles, etc, and then go back 3 hours later as it will all be spic and span, the Swiss seem to have cornered the market on OCD. :) It's a shame the same cleanliness doesn't seem to extend to the air or water, but that may be unique to Basel as it's had chemical companies running for over 150 years, and at the moment seems to have every major pharmaceutical and chemical company in it's borders, and I don't care what anyone says about safety standards and cleaner production, you don't have 150 years of chemical production without ending up with a chemically laced environment. It may explain why I seem to have a permanent runny nose here in Basel, although perhaps that is down to staying up till 130am working on this Blog.. :)
Finally on my list of Swiss wackiness, is their Auslanderausweis permits. As I mentioned they are not in the EU, so to work here you need a permit. Which permit you ask? Well now, you may have to get a B, C, L, Q, R, or another letter they decide to make up. Where do you get one you ask? Well just head into the Auslander office in the centre of your Canon (county), but go to the right one, and have the right photos and papers with you, and take a number. Then go into another room and wait... oh did I mention that sometimes the numbering system doesn't quite work? As I found out having number 101 assigned, and when it reached 120, I started to wonder what was up. A lady coming out to shuffle brochures just shrugged and said, 'Oh just get a new one, sometimes it just skips numbers'. So much for running like a Swiss watch...
All that aside, the people are really quite pleasant, and living and working here has been quite an interesting experience and I would recommend it to anyone.
I am not too sure what to write on Page 5, but keep checking, because I am sure something will come to me sooner than later.