Last week, I was all zen about accepting the Swiss schooling system as it is.

But now that school has actually started, I’m back to ranting and complaining. (more…)

It was my birthday last week. To honour the occasion, I baked cookies and got to thinking about an old colleague from California who transferred to our Zurich office not long before his first birthday in Switzerland.

“Don’t forget to bring a cake to the office,” I warned in advance.

“A cake?”

“Or some other treat. It is your birthday; you have to host the occasion.” (more…)

I have spent the last four and a half years learning how to do something extremely hard for an American: nothing.

At first, Sundays in Switzerland were painful. No one did anything and stores weren’t open and this made me feel extremely nervous. (more…)

How would it feel to be rejected for a job just because you don’t speak the right kind of German?

I didn’t think it possible, but apparently it happens in “real Switzerland“.

(more…)

Across the river from where we live, the city of Bern is building a new flood prevention barrier - and has been for over a year.

It seems the work will go on forever. (more…)

Switzerland gives the impression of being very quiet at night, but with international companies all around, there is actually a lot going on behind closed doors in the wee hours. A German manager who lives and works here told me she sometimes gets up at 2 am to read e-mail from China (where it is already 8 am), add her comments and forward the mail to the USA, where it is 8 pm the previous evening. That is really working against the clock.

Sometimes it’s a bit more than just an e-mail. A Canadian international project leader told me that she has regular telephone conferences at 1 am in Switzerland so that she can discuss issues with her colleagues in the USA and Japan at the same time. (more…)