James5

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I’ve been in Switzerland for the past 4 or so days getting ready to start Institutions in International Law in Geneva. It’s been an interesting and fun time during which I’ve noticed some differences between Australia and Switzerland.

First, the high density, renting approaching to accommodation is totally different to the urban sprawl, half acre blocks we are used to in Melbourne. My friend said most people are happy to rent an apartment in either an apartment block or a multi-storey house. It was especially interesting when travelling from Zurich to Geneva through the country side, seeing every so often a small block of apartments in what seemed to be typical farms and fields.

Second, the high density approach to living also means that bikes and public transport are awesome. I saw all sorts of people using bikes to get around, and hardly any cars. I was in a town called Winterthur and was sorely jealous of how easy it was to not own a car.

Third, the naturalness of knowing more than one language is such an advantage over the terrible culture against second languages that I grew up in. That is, you have to drag kids kicking and screaming when I was in high school to learn a language. In Switzerland, as in Europe generally, everyone knows at least two languages. Switzerland has, I think, four official languages and the country is divided geographically into linguistic groups. So landing in Zurich as I surrounded by German, much to my dismay, but in Geneva it’s French all the way. It was funny on the trip between Zurich and Geneva noticing when the train announcements switched from German-French-English to French-German-English, obviously due to the dominance of French after a certain point in the journey.

Finally, on a more light-hearted note, none of the power points I’ve seen have had on/off switches. It’s all just been ‘plug and play’. Not sure what the deal with that is.

By the way I’m having a great time over here, finally over my jet lag and ready to start the week tomorrow. Will post more as time permits.

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