Ok….upon request of the sehr geehrte Bill, I will write some about the contrast between the work situation here and the ones I’ve experienced in the U.S. I will speak to this to the best of my ability as I have never worked in a Dermatology department of this size before in the States and have only been able to shadow dermatologists in small private practices. I did however work at Munson Hospital in Traverse City, MI and can speak to the differences in hospital goings-ons. The thing I was most struck by initially was that nurses, doctors, and everyone is allowed to wear open toed shoes! This was surprising to me considering that at Munson even Crocs were banned. My Reefs have been getting quite the work out on the research floor which makes both them and me quite happy. The dress is also significantly more casual not to mention fashionable. I have not seen my boss in a suit once since I’ve been here, though he utilizes the sport coat and sneaker (fashionable leather sneakers of course not those white American atrocities) quite well. The only one to wear a tie and jacket on a regular basis is French the department head. Jeans are common among doctors and researchers, though med students and nurses have a uniform that they wear (all white scrubs head to toe) and the docs and researchers can also wear this. Another ting I was struck by is how doctors refer to nurses as colleagues when talking to the patients something along the lines of “…and now my colleague will change your bandages” something like that. I like this very much and I think that American docs could take a few pages out of these guys’ books. If I heard an American doc refer to a nurse with that level of equality and respect, as a colleague, I think I would pass out from shock…not to say that there isn’t the doc vs. nurse dynamic here…there definitely is; somethings are the same everywhere. More marked however is the doc or researcher vs. tech dynamic. Because the techs are government assigned and pretty much guaranteed a job, they can pretty much do as they please and not have to fear consequences. This often frustrates the researchers a great deal and involves a lot of tech breaks and coffee drinking and leaving of samples in centrifuges etc. I haven’t had a great deal (read any) research experience in the sates but I have definitely heard of techs being fired after a week; this funny business wouldn’t fly back home is capitalism land. Was noch…oh I do the kissy-kissy with everyone (bosses included)…which is awesome right cheek, left cheek, right cheek. I’m still learning the rules though, when one when three und so weiter. I don’t think I’ve ever hugged (American equivalent of the kissy-kissy) any of my bosses back home….maybe I have but I hug like it’s my job. I would say that most people don’t hug their bosses on a regular basis in the U.S. There is also a very social aspect of the workplace here. Last night I was out with my boss, another of the head docs, and 5 residents, just hanging out like we’d been doing it for years. And the research department hangs out and has dinner every Friday. I don’t know if this is a normal occurrence back home in med schools w/ attendings and residents; Grey’s Anatomy would lead us to think yes, but reality may prove otherwise. Additionally, the entire department goes on a ski trip together every winter and every summer they have summer fest where they rent out the zoo and play tennis and soccer and other euro spots, then take tango lessons from a professional tango instructor, then have a lovely catered dinner and then have a “disco party” into the night, as my boss put it.
As for my command of German it has improved greatly since I’ve been here, but before I came I was fortunate enough to take German from Janet and Karein in the RC and so I felt very prepared when I came here. I get compliments on my speaking all of the time and people don’t believe how short of a time I’ve been speaking. I am able to follow conversations and participate and even a bit of swiss german, though it is certainly more challenging. Fortunately many of my coworkers are German and the Mittagsvisite every day is carried out in hoch Deutsch and most Swiss (read all Swiss) speak hoch Deutsch with me. What I really find funny though is Barysch. When I met my Münchner friends in München they would speak Barysch to me every now and again and I had absolutely no idea what was goin on. I love the Barysch accent though. My boss is originally from Bayern and whenever I hear him or any of my other Barysch friends speak English it sounds just like Konan the Barbarian and it brings me great joy.
Last weekend I went to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland. Montreux is a small French-speaking town on the banks of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva though the Montreux people hate it when people call it that because it implies that Geneva owns it or something like that). The festival is the most famous in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe. Though originally exclusively a jazz festival it now includes every imaginable genre of music. Saturday morning I woke up and started heading toward the festival area around 8am or so. I stopped and asked a man if he spoke English and he said no, but he called his friend over. I insisted that it was ok and that I would be fine but he said “No! Gentlemen.” He said assertively. And as he hollered at his friend he referred to me as a “jolie mademoiselle” and even the zero French speaking I understood the compliment. He told me that I should go to Château de Chillon, so I did. It is the most visited historical monument in Switzerland. It was very beautiful and old and the nice man at the door let me in before it even opened. It’s on a little island and very, very cool. After that I had gar keine Anug what I should do so I asked the guy in the gift shop and he said well you must go to a vineyard.
Apparently the little towns on the shore of Lac Léman are quite well known for their vineyards. I proceeded to a little town a couple towns down to a vineyard that the gift-shop-man had recommended and I wine tasted there with the family. The vineyard had been in the family since 1843 and four generations of vintners were sitting there in the room hanging out with me: a half American (mom from LA) 3 year old adorable little girl, her dad, his dad, and his dad. The vineyard had beautiful view over the whole vineyard, the town, and the lake. The tasting involved white wine which the area is known for, rosé, shiraz, red blends, etc. There was yummy bread, gruyere (the only cheese according to one of the vintners), and various meats (some homemade from the butcher next door). It was a lovely afternoon. The room was filled with cow bells that one of the vintners had won in “Swiss fighting” matches. Afterwards I went back to Chillon with one of the vintners and we went swimming at the beach there. We hung out there for a while and then I headed into the festival. Surprisingly I saw a familiar face and after exchanging greetings I hung out with some of Luk’s crew for a while and listened to music in the park. After that I went to the Steely Dan, Dave Matthews Band, and Chickenfoot (w/ Sammy Hagar) concert. It was mind blowing. All of them were such excellent entertainers, I was thoroughly impressed. Afterwards I met up with the crew again and then headed back to the hostel. The hostel was great and included breakfast which was nice. Sunday I got up and headed over to Old Town and cruised around. There was a beautiful Überblick of the whole town and Lac Lèman.
I then headed back to the festival and laid in a canvas reclining beach chair for hours on end and listened to big band jazz in the park and read the Time Traveler’s Wife between acts. I took the train back to Zürich after buying mom a surprise present and went to bed. Monday after work I headed down to the river with a kilo of cherries and celebrated the cherry festival by swimming, spitting pits, and reading. Wednesday I went to the Kunsthaus (art museum) and that was nice. It would have been nicer if I was someone who understood art, but I einfach don’t so…jedenfalls. Thursday Dr. D gave a lecture at a five star hotel off Bahnhoff Strasse. It was quite lovely and they fed us cute little sex-and-the-city food and really good orange juice, afterwards we hung out in there super chic bar down stairs with Dr. D, a few residents, and an Oberarzt.
Friday after work we met at the Bqm as usual. Afterwards we headed to Nooba an Asian fusion place and ate dinner.
Saturday I got up early and took Zino to the zoo. There is a really cool "Moasaalle Halle" which is a huge green house/ rainforest with all of the animals and habitat of Madagascar: bats, monkeys, birds, etc. The monkeys would come right up to you! In the main part of the zoo we saw the lions, jaguars, elephants, hippos, rhinos, zebras, camels, a baby alpaca that had just been born and was still wet and wobbly, masked bears, snakes, fish, lizards, and every imaginable interesting animal under the sun.
In the evening I went to the VB's for Kapar's birthday party which was very very fun. Great food as always, good wine, and fun conversations and debates. I met Kaspar's mom who is so sweet and adorable. Her English is perfect and she always insisted on speaking English with me. Afterwards Luk and I headed to Corazon to meet Marjam, her friend from Germany named Clare, and Jean Marc (the mathematician friend of Keith). We hung around there for a while and talked, laughed, and told lies. All in all it was a perfect Saturday.
Sunday I did some sleeping and went to dinner at the VB's again which was lovely. Tonight I will go to Brüno with Luk and Tuesday I will go to the first soccer game of the season. "Wait!" you say, "I thought ya'll just had the championships and you were the Schwizer Meisters und so weiter...it was just the end of the season!" Well don't feel bad, I thought the same thing. But it is true it is already the beginning of the next season.
LG oxox
Lauren
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