Huh? I found the exact opposite to be true ...

Many of the Swiss I have dealt with are quite incapable of admitting that they are wrong even when it's obious.

Nice sense of humor, but I know you are just kidding.

I must agree with you on that, my experience is; do not argue with the Swiss, they are ALWAYS RIGHT!, It is a waste of time. With all their respect, I find that they are not open to new ideas and different opinions.

Why in the world are you moving here? It sounds like you don't like the place very much.

Is that opinion based on the same sample of Swiss knowledge from which you derive hot air dryer sound bytes?

That is indeed true but see what happens once they actually are proven wrong. You'll be surprised! :-)

Well, the behavior I encountered on such an occassion was hostile and aggressive. In a U.S. company, it would have resulted in a conversation with HR. Here, it's accepted, along the lines of "put up or shut up."

Edit: Your mileage may vary. (YMMV)

You haven't even got here yet ! We lurve it here , and if I felt so bad I wouldn't even come.

dave

It's so silly having a timetable with slots. In Aargau we all do the washing and drying together.

Complaining about a few things that many people complain about does not mean I do not like Switzerland. I lived there for a long time, know the culture, speak perfect Swiss, been married to a Swiss forever, so do not get me wrong. There are many things I missed about CH, the mountains, the green grass, the "smelly" cheese, the "gruetzi mittenant" from everyone you pass on your Sunday afternoon walk, the smell of manure, (the stuff they spray on the fields-that is something no one forgets easily), but most of all the feeling of security, feeling safe to walk alone, unlike my home country SA.
But I will still buy my own washer and dryer, to make life less complicated.

Priceless.

I think someone handed you a "Stereotyping the Swiss" book. I'm a mum that works full time, my apartment block isn't that special or unusual and I can wash and dry clothes whenever I like.

The biggest thing preventing me from washing when I need to is ME. I'm a lazy arse at the best of times.

No-one has turned their nose up at my lifestyle or, for that matter, even gives a flying fandango that I am a working mum, or that the flat's a mess, or I forget to chink glasses with dinner guests.

The Swiss are outstandingly normal and average. Come here with an open heart and bear in mind that people always report the extremes of behaviour, no-one ever jumps up and types paragraphs about how average everything is.

Except me...

I can't imagine all the work. At least washable nappies are better than disposable diapers, for baby and the environment.

OK, I understand the environment angle but working 100% does not permit me to use washable nappies (I just don't have the time). Friends of ours in the UK have gone down that route but had to buy loads of them because they take forever to dry on the line and if you have a few rainy days you're in deep doo-doo (literally)!

My ultimate goal is to get the little fella onto a potty as early as possible so that will be my compromise with the environment.

I thought one of the latest surveys done in the UK said they broke about even, given the amount of electric and water used to clean terry towels. Add in the reduction of nappy rash...
Also, it was mentioned that disposable nappies, taking a long time to break down, actually makes a good foundation in landfill sites when they build on them later.

I have to correct myself on the "perfect swiss" it was certainly an overstatement. Maybe to my standards my swiss-german is not too bad, but I have to work on it more to achieve Swiss standards, but I am working on it. Luckily the pronunciation comes very easy to me, since I speak Afrikaans from SA (similar to Dutch).

Obviously I don't actually know what survey you are talking about, but aren't the studies that come up with these results almost always criticised for assuming that you wash the washable ones at ludicrously high temperatures, tumble dry and iron them (which people usually don't do)?

That's the funny thing, no one goes to church in Switzerland. Everything that you can't do on a Sunday is predicated on Sunday is the day of rest. I wouldn't mind if everyone were at church and then they came home and rested, but it's so hypocritical. The US is just as hypocritical though, as so many people attend church and then run out to the malls. Ah well......I live with my Swiss husband in the States (Massachusetts) and we had all sorts of "blue laws" and were one of the last states to have stores open on Sunday. We thought the world would end and of course it didn't. I did like it when they were open only from 12-4, at least there was one part of one day when people weren't screeching around, but in the States everything is about the buck. However, when we returned from Switzerland after visiting for the holidays, I was elated to arrive home in the evening, and be able to do a quick bit of shopping and fill the refrigerator. Switzerland is definitely like living back in the 1930s, but the problem is that it is not like that anymore. People work and need to have a little more leeway as to when they can shop and do things. And, if you look at the supermarkets on a Saturday, it's a madhouse. And yet, the stores can't stay open a little later on weeknights -- heaven forbid!

was in the COOP saturday and saw a mini washing maching that can go on a counter top (if haven't the room under any cupboards).

Anyone got one or know if they are any good?

I seriously thinking its worth buying one so I can once more be a free man and not an allocation on a wash list!

We've just arrived and spent a month finding somewhere to live permanently (and have, thankfully). I'd say about half of the apartments we looked at had shared laundry facilities, although most of them also had fairly relaxed schedules. With that said, however, we considered it to be a pretty big turnoff and were culling any apartments with a shared laundry unless they had some other very attractive feature.

Note also that quite frequently even places to do have "individual" washing machines, have them in separate rooms in the basement (or somewhere else in the building), that are technically "common areas" (ie: anyone in the building can get into them if they want to).

I have to agree with you as well - we find the relatively scarcity of individual washing/drying machines and restrictions on using them (along with no light fittings in rentals) to fall well and truly into the "different and worse" category. It's somewhat understandable with (very) old apartment buildings that may have been built when washing machines, etc, were relatively expensive and uncommon. But for anything remotely modern, I just don't understand why they're not there (and we saw a lot of quite new places that only had shared laundries).