As I am off for the next 10 days to celebrate my sister’s marriage to a full blooded American Man (he may or not have voted for Bush), I thought I would pay tribute to those Swiss Men I have meet over the past year…I present to you, Swiss Men and the Army
"All able-bodied Swiss males aged between 19 and 31 must serve in the Swiss Army, and although entry to recruit school may be delayed due to senior secondary school, it is no longer possible to postpone it for university studies. About one third is excluded for various reasons…Famously, members of the armed forces keep their rifles and uniforms in their homes for immediate mobilisation, as well as 50 rounds of ammunition" (Wikipedia).
In my time here, I have had a chance to hang out with a few Swiss Men, all of whom have very different stories. Since being in the army and/or owning a gun in the US has completely different status, I wanted to share.
Swiss Man 1 (SM 1) – A true blooded Swiss, (including a house on Lake Zurich’s Gold Coast), SM 1 chose to serve his time in the Swiss Army as a paratrooper. After passing a three week course and subsequent test, SM 1 was admitted into the Swiss Paratrooper class, which began with 75 individuals and graduated a mere 7. As a result of this honor, he was given two parachutes (one army issued and one for competition), he is allowed access to private jump zones and travels to Arizona every year for training. His weapon of choice is a hand gun, which he keeps in his house.
Swiss Man 2 (SM 2) – Half Swiss and Half Brazilian SM 2, was still required to serve in the army. He found the time bearable, but definitely listed it as his least favorite job. That is of course, excluding the time he spent in Swiss Army prison. SM2 had a bad habit of leaving base at night to head into the city for the nightlife and dancing. Unfortunately, on one of these occasions he ended up staying out too late. However, that in itself, was not the reason why he was sent to "army prison". The night in question just happened to be the night before he was on duty for dawn patrol and he ended up sleeping through the time to wake up the entire camp. So as his punishment, he was sent to army prison where he was able to sleep in as late as he wanted. His weapon of choice is a machine gun.
Swiss Man 3 (SM 3) – Another full blooded Swiss, SM 3 chose the third option. He pleaded mental instability and was relived of his duties. His weapon of choice is pharmaceuticals.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Pounds vs Kilos
Math is not my strongest subject (yes, I am an accountant, but that is beside the point), so converting things, whether foreign currency, Celsius to Fahrenheit or kilos to pounds, I always have some difficulties. The problem is even more of an issue when I don’t know what system (empirical vs. metric) I am dealing with.
The other day, I was discussing metric vs. empirical system with some friends, mentioning that I am finally getting used to the metric system, but it is nice that the produce in grocery stores are in pounds. Note Confusion Point Number 1: For some reason, this entire time I have been in Europe, I have been automatically been converting things to pounds when buying produce. And when I say “converting”, I just thought the price listed for bananas was the price per pound, not kilo. I know, ridiculous. So when this tiny little bubble burst for me, I automatically did the conversion to kilos and concluded that produce was WAY more expensive than I had previously thought, and therefore Zurich was way more expensive. Yes, in my “conversion” I multiplied the price per kilo by 2.2 to get the price per pound.
But wait, “isn’t it the other way around you ask?”. Why yes, I finally came to the conclusion that my math was wrong and the price should be divided. However, this didn’t seem right either, because then Zurich produce is even LESS than I thought, which didn’t agree with anything else I had experienced. Note Confusion Point Number 2: I lost all trust in my ability to convert kilos to pounds and vice versa.
Jump forward one week where I had to make potato salad for a fourth of July BBQ. At this point, I have: no confidence in my converting skills, a 2.5 kilogram bag of potatoes and a recipe that calls for only 3 lbs. Being ever resourceful, I decide to use the bathroom scale. So I took the bag of potatoes into the bathroom and put it on the scale. Unfortunately the scale apparently doesn’t register anything that light, so I came up with another ingenious plan. I weighed myself without the bag of potatoes, then again with the bag and subtracted the two to get the total weight of the potatoes. Just pause and imagine this scene for a moment.
It turns out that 2.5kilos is approximately 6 lbs, if you are ever in a similar bind.
The other day, I was discussing metric vs. empirical system with some friends, mentioning that I am finally getting used to the metric system, but it is nice that the produce in grocery stores are in pounds. Note Confusion Point Number 1: For some reason, this entire time I have been in Europe, I have been automatically been converting things to pounds when buying produce. And when I say “converting”, I just thought the price listed for bananas was the price per pound, not kilo. I know, ridiculous. So when this tiny little bubble burst for me, I automatically did the conversion to kilos and concluded that produce was WAY more expensive than I had previously thought, and therefore Zurich was way more expensive. Yes, in my “conversion” I multiplied the price per kilo by 2.2 to get the price per pound.
But wait, “isn’t it the other way around you ask?”. Why yes, I finally came to the conclusion that my math was wrong and the price should be divided. However, this didn’t seem right either, because then Zurich produce is even LESS than I thought, which didn’t agree with anything else I had experienced. Note Confusion Point Number 2: I lost all trust in my ability to convert kilos to pounds and vice versa.
Jump forward one week where I had to make potato salad for a fourth of July BBQ. At this point, I have: no confidence in my converting skills, a 2.5 kilogram bag of potatoes and a recipe that calls for only 3 lbs. Being ever resourceful, I decide to use the bathroom scale. So I took the bag of potatoes into the bathroom and put it on the scale. Unfortunately the scale apparently doesn’t register anything that light, so I came up with another ingenious plan. I weighed myself without the bag of potatoes, then again with the bag and subtracted the two to get the total weight of the potatoes. Just pause and imagine this scene for a moment.
It turns out that 2.5kilos is approximately 6 lbs, if you are ever in a similar bind.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Perfect Day…My Anniversary
June 29th marked my one year anniversary in Switzerland and the official mid-point of my secondment. And I could not have asked for a better day.
The day officially began at 12am dancing at one of the more popular clubs in Zurich, Mascot, with a few friends. The music was surprisingly good and we were having such a great time we stayed until the lights came on, getting home at sunrise and sleeping in until noon.
At 1pm, I headed down to Lake Zurich for an hour of wakeboarding with the local wakeboarding school. Upon arrival I told them I was there to go out in the boat, but which resulted in some confusion as to who I was and if I was actually boarding (apparently they don’t get many girl wakeboarders). After everything got sorted out I asked if I could wakeboard and wakesurf. Unfortunately, due to the time available I was only able to do one. However! One of the other guys in the shop overheard me asking about wakesurfing, apparently saw the look of disappointment on my face and told me he was going out with some friends and that I was more than welcome to join up after my session was over. Meet my new friend Daniel.
Wakeboarding wasn’t the greatest since the water was incredibly rough (it appears that 1 in 10 residents of Zurich owns a boat and they were all out enjoying the weather that day). But either way it was great to get in the water. With the session completed, we headed back to the docks where I called my new best friend Daniel, who quickly came back to get me in a different boat. And for the next 5 hours (yes 3pm to 8pm) I hung out with Daniel and 5 of his friends, wakesurfing and swimming. I had seriously died and gone to heaven. BUT to make things even better (yes, if that is even possible), during my session wakesurfing, I somehow managed to pull off a 360, a trick I have been trying to figure out for two summers. And apparently I looked good doing it to, since when I got back into the boat Daniel’s remark was ”if I could cook, he would marry me”
After wakeboarding, and with Eurocup finals starting at 8:45 that night, we all said goodbye and I ran home to get changed and head out to meet up with some friends. Unfortunately by the time I got home I was so tired and most places were too crowded that I ended up staying in and watching the game. And when I say “watching” I mean I passed out after 5 minutes…I was exhausted!
It was a perfect day!
The day officially began at 12am dancing at one of the more popular clubs in Zurich, Mascot, with a few friends. The music was surprisingly good and we were having such a great time we stayed until the lights came on, getting home at sunrise and sleeping in until noon.
At 1pm, I headed down to Lake Zurich for an hour of wakeboarding with the local wakeboarding school. Upon arrival I told them I was there to go out in the boat, but which resulted in some confusion as to who I was and if I was actually boarding (apparently they don’t get many girl wakeboarders). After everything got sorted out I asked if I could wakeboard and wakesurf. Unfortunately, due to the time available I was only able to do one. However! One of the other guys in the shop overheard me asking about wakesurfing, apparently saw the look of disappointment on my face and told me he was going out with some friends and that I was more than welcome to join up after my session was over. Meet my new friend Daniel.
Wakeboarding wasn’t the greatest since the water was incredibly rough (it appears that 1 in 10 residents of Zurich owns a boat and they were all out enjoying the weather that day). But either way it was great to get in the water. With the session completed, we headed back to the docks where I called my new best friend Daniel, who quickly came back to get me in a different boat. And for the next 5 hours (yes 3pm to 8pm) I hung out with Daniel and 5 of his friends, wakesurfing and swimming. I had seriously died and gone to heaven. BUT to make things even better (yes, if that is even possible), during my session wakesurfing, I somehow managed to pull off a 360, a trick I have been trying to figure out for two summers. And apparently I looked good doing it to, since when I got back into the boat Daniel’s remark was ”if I could cook, he would marry me”
After wakeboarding, and with Eurocup finals starting at 8:45 that night, we all said goodbye and I ran home to get changed and head out to meet up with some friends. Unfortunately by the time I got home I was so tired and most places were too crowded that I ended up staying in and watching the game. And when I say “watching” I mean I passed out after 5 minutes…I was exhausted!
It was a perfect day!
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