I've made plans to move back home and I'm afraid I'm not gonna recognize anything there. I've been gone for almost 5 years and I never looked back during that time.

Do tell, what has changed and will my homeland welcome me the same as coming back from a vacation?

What part of Switzerland are you coming back to?

"Dunno" depends how happy your homeland was to see you go!

Just a bit outside of Zurich. I left right after school for educational purposes and had some life changing experiences here in the US, but now I need some time to rearrange some things and the best way is to do that back home.

So, what did I miss? =/

The place is chock full of Johnny Foreigner these days, y'know...

You mean that there are more there than before?

Much, much more can you speak high German? Don't worry if you can't, you'll get by in English

Yep.

You'll have to drop those silly American ways too if you want to fit in again. Nobody outside the US has "life changing experiences"...

Swiss German is my mother language but I've been speaking and thinking in English for so long, it now feels like my first language.

AbFab? What do you mean "drop the silly American..."? Are American things/attitudes, etc. unacceptable to Swiss people? Is it looked down or frowned upon? Do we have to adapt to Swiss ways? I speak very choppy German and I understand more than I can converse. How bad is it going to be?.... I'm getting so unglued!!!!!

"Patsy"'s just pulling your leg, I think.

I feel for you, I have been in switzerland almost ten years now and have also like you never looked back to my home the UK. It's a big hill to climb going back to your homeland and would make me feel very nervous as well. I have only ever been back to the UK maybe four times in the last ten years, yet when I am there despite all the changes that have happened since I left it's like being around an old friend that you haven't seen for a while. It's a bit awkward at first but you'll soon fall back into it. The worst is getting off the plane at the airport and it hits you, damm I'm back, do I want to be here ? quick turn around and get back on the plane before someome sees me . I remember just such a feeling after coming back from Australia after nearly 18 mths there. My advice is to put your best foot forward and go with the flow and give it time.

Good Luck.

P.S I know what you mean about feeling like a foreigner in your own country but it will pass only you feel like that. Your fellow country men won't see you as such.

That's what my family keeps telling me. The thing that kind of makes me nervous is that I have no idea what's going on over there. Living in the US makes you feel isolated and disconnected from the world. It's great to live here but once you step outside the borders you feel like a complete stranger to the world.

Who's in the charts? What's the latest trend? Questions I keep wondering about before I get there and look like a dear in headlights when someone drops a name or a term.

Hoi,

You may want to read some online newspapers,

NZZ Online (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)

www.zeitung.ch - Zeitungen Schweiz - mit Volltextsuche - Tageszeitungen

to know the latest political / economic trends.


I must say that whole world is undergoing tremendous change. You have changed, the U.S and Switzerland has also changed.


Nothing much to worry, come here and in few months you will feel warm and settled. I wish you the best for the so-called "Transition".

you're really worrying about the wrong things. It's only 7 hours on a plane away - not a different planet.

In the news: BJ Bobo, Roger Federer and the Swiss football team have all had it. Otherwise nothing's changed in the last 5 years.

On a TV show here they just recently had a discussion on how the American media hardly reports about international affairs, they distract us with Anna-Nicole's baby, Paris Hilton's jail sentence and other useless crap nobody should care about.

It's good to be different and not always fit in. I've been living in a Kaff < correct spelling ? ) in Toggenburg for the last four years and about to move to Winti thank god. I've been about as different as can be with my wife being the high flying executive and me being the houseman surrounded by punzlich swiss hausfrauen lol. Those other things like who's in the charts don't really matter do they to be honest. I'm sure the people surrounding you will be more interested in what you have been upto, nevermind what tiny things you have missed during the last few years.

my moto is

Things are never as bad as they seem and something always turns up.

So keep your chin up and be glad you have done something and been somewhere in your life. Unlike a few of my neighbours.

Aaaaah, how I've been missing all those Swiss words. This forum is bringing back so many memories and I'm so glad I'm not the only one with a screwed up misch-masch language.

I don't really follow the media and all (here it makes you want to shoot someone) but it's good to know at least some major events that happened withing the last couple of years.

I bet I'd be able to catch up quickly, it's just that it still feels strange having been away for so long.

Ah good, you've not been away too long then...

Sweetie darling, those broads are everywhere. You just can't escape their boozing and smoking.

Well, what has changed? The SVP took a CVP seat in the federal council, the after-midnight train connections have greatly improved on weekends, and we have a "Miss Pregnant" contest now. Welcome back to the mothership.