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You may notice that you do not receive sequentially numbered annals all of
the time. The truth is that there are two mail lists: one with material
which can be freely distributed with its copyright notice and another more
private one, which is intended for the recipient only. Each annal is
clearly identified at the top whether it is distributable or not.
Zuerich & Transporation
Zuerich in the fall is quite beautiful. The weather this year has been
very mild, so I have been able to wander around without the benefit of
my bulky Canadian winterwear for most of the time. Surprising to me is
the proliferic amount of maple trees. Maple leaves bedeck the ground
almost everywhere I walk in the city, much more so than in any other
western Canadian city where I've lived. In a way it's quite comforting,
as it reminds me of home. Not having been exposed to many maple trees
before, I can't believe how large the leaves are! The people here, oddly
enough, have all heard about the famous Canadian maple syrup. I'd almost
believe there are enough maple trees here for a cottage maple syrup
industry if anyone is looking for a business opportunity in Switzerland.
Much like Vancouver, it seems that much of anywhere you want to go
is uphill, especially if you're riding a bicycle or walking. Luckily
for us mobility steadfast people, the transporation system here, if one
does not own a car, is impressive and clean-running. The Swiss, of
course, have a reputation, perhaps undeserved, for cleanliness in
general, but all of their transporation systems -- buses, trains,
and trams -- all use electrical power, generated by hydroelectric
dams and so forth. In fact, in the recent James Bond film, the scene
where someone bungee jumps off a damn is filmed in Switzerland. The
trams run from 5am until just after midnight and go almost anywhere
you'd care to in the metropolitan Zuerich area and they arrive at
most points every 7 minutes. As well, most stops, which are situated
every 200m or so along the routes, are serviced by more than one
tram line, so it's possible to get to any point by a variety of
routes. The buses, which have their own routes, also seem quite
efficient.
I had the opportunity recently to drive a car for a bit around
the city. It was a rather hair-raising experience because nothing
seems to work quite the way you expect, but it almost looks the
same. For example, there are standard traffic lights with red,
yellow, and green signals, *but* instead of going from green to
yellow to red, it changes to yellow before going to green. Also,
it's not green for all cars in the same direction simultaneously;
there seems to be much more liberal use of left and right turn
arrows. As in Canada, pedestrians have the right of way and
so do trams! The trams run in the middle of many major streets
and, in areas where the road is too small to permit two lanes
of traffic and two tram tracks, one lane of traffic has to share
the tram line! Parking for cars seems to be a problem, too, with
many cars being legally parked halfway up onto the sidewalk, to
conserve precious road space, of course.
Milk Products
While the variety of milk-based products one can buy here is
phenomenal, I've had a craving for a purely North American
concoction. You'll never believe it, but I am indeed referring
to Kraft's immortal macaroni and cheese. There is *no* macaroni
and cheese substitute here. In a desperate attempt to assuage my
feminine longings for this miraculous substance, I resorted to
attempting to make it myself. Searching, however, high and low
in the Migros, the local equivalent of the SuperStore, proved
to be fruitless, for I could not locate the most important
ingredient of all -- cheddar cheese. Yes, it's true. Switzerland,
the land of *choco* and cheese does not have cheddar cheese.
I was thus forced to try substituting Appenzeller and Emmenthal
cheese. Personally, I recommend the Appenzeller cheese; it
melts better, sort of like Velveeta.
Amazing Illegal Eingangs
The Swiss love their bureaucracy and hold it as dear to their
hearts as they do their lederhosen. Never has this been more
apparent than in my fumbling attempts to "correctly" enter the
country. Now, for most of us, entering a country is a simple
affair, right? You hop on a plane, you deplane at your destination,
you hand your passport to the friendly customs/immigration folk and
they say, "Welcome to blah, blah, blah. Have a nice time." Simple,
right? WRONG! What happens instead is that you naively follow
the instructions you're given: Fill out these forms, send them back
to the University, have a nice flight. So you fill out the forms,
send them back to the university well in advance of your departure,
and then have a nice flight.
When you arrive and innocently enter the country following the
above tried and true formula, you experience no problems. The
nice customs/immigration official blithely wishes you a pleasant
day after seeing you're Canadian and you think you're on your way
to starting your brand new Swiss life. Lo and behold, however, what
an unpleasant surprise awaits you when you arrive at the university.
"What? I don't have a work permit yet? You didn't sent the forms
to the foreign police yet, even though I gave them to you in July?!"
And thus starts the beginning of rather comic cycle.
About a month *after* I arrived, I receive a letter from the
foreign police telling me that I now have permission to receive
a visa to enter the country and I may enter the country no earlier
than November 1st, 1995. Notice any problem there for a woman who
entered the country on September 27th? Notice anything strange about
sending that letter to aforementioned woman in Switzerland and then
telling her she can't be there yet? Of course not, because we're
all extremely rational people. We also do not see anything strange
about the letter being issued from the Vancouver Swiss consulate,
meaning that those forms I sent from Canada to Switzerland went,
upon my arrival in Switzerland, all the way back to Canada, where
the Swiss in Vancouver proceeded to send a letter to me in Canada
telling me to send them my passport, $38.20, and a picture so they
could give me a visa. What does this all mean? It means I'm skulking
around the country illegally!
Erk! The other nifty things about all these letters and stuff is
that they're all in some foreign language where they never bother
to use the words you know. I mean, why use "Eingang," when you
can use the less common, for foreign speakers, "Eintritt" instead,
right? Right! So, I don't discover until a month later that I
may in fact need to leave the country, find a Swiss consulate
outside the country, receive my visa, and then officially
"enter" the country. I decided this sounded like too much of
a pain, so with the help of the "Consultancy for Foreigners," (and yes,
they need such an office!) we wrote a letter and sent it off
to the nice foreign police telling them I'm just an ignorant Canadian
and to just give me the visa without making me go out of the country
again.
Closing Remarks
And thus concludes Part II. I guess I didn't get around to
talking about mountains and I certainly haven't elaborated on
the problems of getting paid, or of having healthcare without
having a work permit. I save those, and other news, for another
installment in the ever-continuing saga of "The Annals of Michadom."
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