Goodbye Lindt

Es kann ich nicht verstehen/ Je ne peux pas comprendre

Lindt & Sprungli launched a new range of chocolates in the past week, and there were a few things I noticed when I walked into my local Coop and was smashed in the face by the marketing campaign. The new chocolates are called Hello, and they are somewhat of a departure from what you'd expect from Lindt. On their Swiss website, the company claims that they are known worldwide for their leadership in the premium chocolate segment, which I found interesting, because I thought they were known for making an advert that is acknowledged to be cheesier than the Ferrero Rocher advert. But taking Lindt at their word, and assuming they are the leading premium chocolate maker in the world, the new line of Hello chocolates do not seem to reflect this positioning.

Holy Cow, Burgers! And the Oddity of the Swiss-French Dialect

Awesome Burgers; good linguists!

The old quatre-vingt vs. huitant debate caught me out in the Holy Cow burger bar yesterday.  The place is completely and udderly brilliant, its yummy burgers are done up with imaginative and various toppings, service is speedy and its outside tables on the Rue de Carouge in Plainpalais are always packed at lunch.

I chose the Elvis Blue Cheese burger yesterday. At CHF13.90 perhaps it sounds a little dear, especially if you go for a meal option and spend closer to CHF20, but then they are super quality burgers and it is fair to say you don't actually need fries if you aren't looking for a blow-out meal. Compared to Ronald and his golden arches, which are said to be the most expensive in the world here in Switzerland, it is a no-brainer. Holy Cow every time, I highly recommend a trip there.

Deja Vu: Undiplomatic Community

Once again we find people with CD plates don't really care about other people - it makes you wonder how they are able to do their job, or perhaps why they even bothered to apply for it in the first place.  Our undiplomatic community raised its head again. Bizarrely the person leaning on their horn this time was the replacement for the woman who leant on the horn last time, same country, same apartment. Perhaps that's how you bagsy a parking space in their home country.

I noticed in my last post on this subject that I suggested the rule of law had managed with some competency for the last 500 years, and I marvel at my credulity to believe that the law actually did anything in this town. Whilst it may have been competent for much of the last 500 years, in the past year, it hasn't been that great. Since my last post on this subject I've witnessed three of my friends get mugged and the cops declare they didn't care; my neighbours flat get broken into and the police refuse to send someone out; and a police force decide to work to rule. That could be a whole other post.

Breakfast with the Swiss Ambassador to the UN

I had breakfast with the Swiss Ambassador to the UN, Dante Martinelli, on Friday. Mr Martinelli was talking about Switzerland's role as a host of the UN. The picture he painted made it clear just what hosting the UN means to the Swiss economy. The organisation works as a magnet for all kinds of UN agencies, international organisations, NGOs and ultimately commercial companies. Core to the UN in Geneva are, apparently, organisations such as WHO and UNAIDS.

Learning French in Geneva

I've been here a year and my ability to speak French has only recently begun to move forwards. I have had hardly any lessons in the language in my life.  Like many Anglophone I gave up learning French when I was only 13. My class had two teachers, one who was utterly useless and the other who assumed the other was doing her job and so credited the class with more understanding than I had, I was completely lost and lost interest. However, I studied German all through school and at university, so when we arrived in Geneva my I thought somehow my experience of learning a foreign language would help me to pick up French.

My new Swiss Driving Licence

We are arriving at the end of our first year in Switzerland, which meant today we had a choice of either handing in our UK driving licences in exchange for a Swiss one or paying a fine and having to take a driving test. The driving licence was one of those small things we needed to get round to, but some how never had. It is the standard way of an expat. I laugh at myself because before I moved to Switzerland I knew plenty of expats in the UK who had to panic when the grace period on their driving licences came to an end.

Things not to be done at your convenience in Geneva

This is a list of things that are annoyingly restricted in Geneva, things that you wouldn't really expect to be. Sometimes it's simply that the facility doesn't exist, sometimes it's because the time to do things doesn't fit in with a lifestyle that demands a hectic work / life balance and for others it's just a flat out culture clash.

Geneva welcomes you! Does it?

On Friday I took part in a debate asking does Geneva do enough for anglophone expats in the city. I was part of the panel at the 5th birthday of an online directory for English speakers in Geneva: Angloinfo. The debate was based on an article that appeared in the Economist in March, about an investment banker who had to move his business back to London because his employees weren't happy and basically couldn't find entertainment in the city. I was defending the motion that Geneva does not do enough, which in the end, in front of an audience of expats of many years standing,  who were proof for the arguments against the motion, we lost emphatically. The debate however, was good fun.