Newsflash

They say you learn something new everyday. Well, that blew right past me until I moved here. There are so many Swiss laws that I find quirky coming from a US background. Example: no going out in public without shoes. Okay I guess that's just common sense but who made that a law? It is a law to recycle. It's standard among bathroom stalls to have a sink in it. Oh--story!!!
  So I went to the bathroom at the airport in Zurich when we landed. I had never seen this before and wasn't paying as close attention as I should've been. There was what appeared to be hand sanitizer in each stall, along with a personal sink. So I took some. I told a friend I had made on the flight over. While we were both still in the stalls, she yelled out to me that what I thought I took was hand sanitizer, was in fact toilet seat sanitizer. While no one else spoke english in the ladies room, I can garuntee they understood by the silence that followed. Go figure...haha
   There are also national quiet hours. Most businesses and grocery stores close no later than 1900. While you're allowed to be a bit roudy in pubs in the wee hours, most of the country is in bed. Once you leave that pub you are expected to whisper while walking, as many people sleep with their windows open.
Tip: the Swiss invest a lot in their dogs (think of them as the 100,000 horses you see at CFD), especially on training. You do not pet someones dog unless you ask first (and you better ask in Italian around these parts). You might mess with the training by showing affection. Fair enough, I'm not a big animal person anyway.
   What a spectacle Blues to Bop was! Tonight was its premier night. It was a fairly quick walk because of my superawesome dorm location. I didn't stay more than two hours but there were crepe stands, vegetarian eateries, and tons on beer stations. I'm not a beer person and the red wine in this area is through the roof so I decided to just hold off.
   First purchase in Europe was a bag de Noisettes (dried hazelnuts) for 4.50CHF (Swiss Francs) at the bp across the street. I find that I can speak Spanish whereever I go and be a sucessful communicator. Thanks mom for getting me up to speed with that!!
   This place looks so Italian it's easy to forget I'm in Switzerland.
There aren't too many challenges so far since I can communicate well with locals. I know what is and isn't a rip off when dealing with CHF. Ah, the hill I hike to class is my biggest obstacle so far. jeje
  But I'm just excited to be here! This is just the change of pace I need and I can't wait to register for classes and actually start college on monday!