Pet Peeves

I know that this may be a little premature, considering I've only been here a few months (seems like a lifetime already), but here's a few things that make it real hard to love the Switzerland and locals.

 1) Texting while walking - Talk about taking "Pieton is King" a little too seriously. What's with the walking with your head down while texting, and not even bothering to look while crossing the street? You're just hoping there's nothing wrong with my brakes dude.

2) Customer Service folks telling you what they won't do - This appears to be a national sport that the Swiss take a lot of pride in. True story - I walk into the post office to pay my bills - I have about six or seven of them. The cranky old lady at the counter a) Speaks only French b) Tells me that I should have torn the versements out before presenting the bills for payment c) Stares at me blankly when I ask her what the total is, after grudgingly deigning to stamp all of them. You are expected to now the total, she tells me with a sigh, as she puts the bills through the machine. Really... I think she would have been better off at home with the cats.

3) Shut Down Sundays - I never thought I'd ever be in a situation where I'd hate Sundays - and this is after living in the Middle East, where Sunday is the first working day of the week! Sundays in Switzerland make me feel like I'm in a riot affected country that has just called in a curfew. About the only thing that you can do is catch a movie. Last weekend, the entire population of Geneva - I'm not kidding here - was at Balexert, a local movie theatre. It was so bad, that we had to actually watch the film sitting on the stairs! And if you're unfortunate enough to not want to ski every weekend in winter, well, I guess you don't deserve to be here!

I know this is just the first of many rants about Switzerland, but then, people tell me its because I'm getting into phase two of settling in. Hmmm...... I hope they're right.