Swiss bills

One of the more interesting cultural differences for us is the Swiss approach to paying bills.

Checks don't exist. Bills are paid in cash or through a bank transfer. If you don't have access to your bank account online, you can use bill payment machines at your bank, or just take a wad of cash to the post office and they'll handle the payments for you. I use online banking at home, so it didn't seem strange to me until I had to pay another parent for the down payment on our ski lessons. She didn't provide her bank routing information -- just a home address. I called to ask, "Do people really just put $300 in an envelope and drop it in the mail, trusting that it will get to you?" Apparently, they do.

Saving is a given. You're actually expected to be responsible with your money, save for your bills and pay them. Case in point -- we haven't received any household service bills. We were worried that they didn't get transferred properly, so we called our landlord. She said not to worry -- we'd get the water bill at the end of the year, the electricity bill would come every 2 or 3 months but be adjusted for actual usage once a year, and the oil bill would be whenever we filled the tank (every 1 to 2 years).

There is also no pressure about getting paid in a timely manner or before a product is delivered. I've placed an online order, and I just check the box "send invoice with product." Can you imagine an online retailer in the U.S. just including the invoice with your order? I think half the people would never pay. At least the online retailer has your name and address. I stopped at a local farm to get a pumpkin for Halloween. They had a price sticker on the pumpkin and a cash box to leave the money. You figure out how much you owe, and drop the money into a cash box. My biggest stress? Having the exact change. ATMs dispense your money in 100 CHF bills, so coming up with 22 CHF required digging through my change purse. As another example, we ordered a freezer, and I asked what form of payment they accepted. The salesperson explained that they would just send me an invoice in the mail -- a week after the product was delivered. I was there, I could have paid, but it was just as easy for them to send an invoice. Even in sports, this system works. The boys have been playing hockey for a few weeks now and I just today paid their team fees. One person told me to hold off paying until I was sure they liked the team/sport. They've been playing with no payment, and I hadn't even signed anything -- including a liability waiver. But, that's a topic for another post.

Freedom + Walking

Life is different over here. Today provided an excellent example. C.J. attended a soccer tournament that was hosted by his school, but at a local school's gym. The school was located halfway between his school and the town center (Dorfplatz). When C.J. called to ask whether I was picking him up or if he had to walk back to school to catch the late bus, I told him to just walk home -- about a 20 minute walk. C.J. said he wasn't sure how to find the Dorfplatz from his current location. I told him to just look for the church steeple and he'd figure it out. Sure enough, after about 20 minutes, C.J. knocked at the back door. He said he walked down the street, saw a sign that pointed to the Dorfplatz, and followed it. He knows his way home from the Dorfplatz -- we walk the route often.

In the States, he never would have just been "released" after the tournament without the coach seeing a responsible adult. I would be considered a bad parent for making my 11-year old child walk 20 minutes, part of it in the dark. People would be worried that he'd get lost. Here, people wonder why my kids take the school bus when they can walk to school in 30 minutes. He had a cell phone; he couldn't get too lost. Trust me, our town isn't that big. In exchange, he felt responsible and independent. And now he knows that if he is ever at that gym, it's just as easy to walk home as it is to walk back to school and wait for the bus to bring him home.

Turnip Carving

Abbie is celebrating different celebrations in school this year. Apparently, pumpkin carving (hosted by the American parents) last week was too easy. This week, the teacher assigned homework for all the kids to carve a turnip, making it into a lantern. Let me tell you, turnips aren't quite as easy to scoop as pumpkin guts. I'm not sure exactly what part of this assignment was supposed to belong to the 6 year old! The idea is to make the walls thin enough so that when you peel/carve the skin of the turnip into designs, the light shines through. You don't cut all the way through as you would for a jack-o-lantern. The local children then walk around the streets one night in a parade with their lanterns. The tradition dates back to farmer's wives using these lanterns to guide their way home at night. My advice: stick to pumpkins.

Oh, and please ignore the outfit. A certain someone is quite attached to her Hannah Montana Halloween costume!

Jungfrau

During Craig and Ginny's visit, we took a weekend trip to Jungfrau which is the highest railway station in Europe. There is a cog railway that takes you through the mountain on a 7km ride to the top. It's an amazing design and has the added advantage of keeping the view of the mountains pristine and free of roads! In addition to enjoying the panoramic views of the Swiss Alps and the glacier at the top of the mountain, we toured an ice castle. The kids had fun slipping and sliding along the walkways. Even the adults decreed the castle, "much better than expected." We stayed overnight in the town of Lauterbrunnen. Its claim to fame is having 72 waterfalls. They were gorgeous, and we can only imagine what they look like in the Spring during the heavy snow melt. We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of cowbells -- a Swiss farmer was taking his cows for a walk down the street. We told the kids that's how the milk and cheese is so good in this country -- the cows get regular exercise. (I'm sure the walk had nothing to do with changing pastures.) One interesting aspect of the trip is that many of the businesses were closed for a month's holiday. Hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. were all closed with notices that they would re-open at the end of November. I guess even hotel owners need a holiday!