BS!My wife has all my money, and when she is happy I am happy

Extol the Swiss day?
How about raving about the bureaucracy? Theres.. so... much of it.... and everyone seems to go out of their way to help the hapless cog on its way into the machine. Seriously, after some other immigration experiences, it's been a pure pleasure to interact with polite and efficient officials.

But there's appearances to keep, I take it. I'm sure it's absolute horror in other kantons. And the food. The food!

//ata

You know, I bitch alot about the Swiss, but the OP is absolutely right. The honesty is just so damn admirable here. Admirable.

This is some of what the good Quality of Life is here. Certainly a contributor of my feelings of CH.

I think this thread needs to be seen again! I see a lot of complaints on this forum so it is nice to read the good things about Switzerland sometimes! All of the above are just a few stories of great things about Swiss people.

Last winter i had a cold and was on a bus in Basel. I couldn't stop coughing and i was slightly embarrassed about disturbing ppl. An older lady sat down next to me and started to speak in german so i apologized and said i don't speak german, then she offerred me a cough drop! It was so sweet of her!

WIshing you all a nice day and remember, a smile goes a long way!

__________________

I've got some good ones.

Seeing how frustrated I was when I thought I wasn't making any progress with German (taking High German classes but everyone around speaks Swiss German), the Swiss members of my team go out of the way to speak HG to me, slowly, and patiently repeat multiple times if necessary. They even "scold" members of other teams for switching to English from SG, and tell them that they need to speak to me in HG so I can practice. I love it and appreciate it!

When I talk to someone, anyone, and excuse myself for my bad (High) German and nonexistent SG, Swiss people smile and tell me they appreciate the effort and the fact that I at least try.

But the best one was my first day in Zurich: I was lost looking for the Kreisburo because all was "strasse" and "platz" and I couldn't remember any streets, and I asked a guy on his bike for directions, and he walked me there and in the meantime told me all kinds of cool facts and information about Zurich. Then I got to the Kreisburo to register, and as I was explaining to the employee what I was doing, where I was from, and so on, she told me with a big smile "Welcome to Zurich, I am so glad that, with all the places in the world you could have moved to, you decided to come to our city and our country. Here, all the information that you need in your mother tongue, Italian. Call us anytime if you need anything, we will be happy to answer your questions! By the way, your hometown is beautiful".

I love it. Cheers to Switzerland!

On the other hand, my wife lost her phone at the hockey or on the bus home from the hockey. It hasn't been handed in at the patinoire, or to the lost property office of the bus company. The assumption is that someone lifted her iPhone and pocketed it.
What makes me mad is that it could be a fellow Gottéron fan

So soon with the complaint???

Sorry. Had to get it off my chest.

Well thank you for your observation on the cattle dung.

I was stating this fact as most people are unaware of this rule. I agree, most people are honest and do not expect a reward, but public lost property offices enforce the 10% reward. Many people are very happy to receive their property again, and forget to say "Thank you, how much were your expenses? "

I found a new phone on the train. I called the number stored as "Mum" and she arranged for herself & her son to meet me (She made him wait 3 days), and I was given a small box of chocolates as a thank you. I was very happy for him as the teenager had saved up his pocket money for 6 months for the handy & was very pleased to get it back, not because of the chocolates.

An elderly Swiss lady who lives downstairs from us hardly evr leaves her flat. I met her for the first time yesterday and she started speaking Swiss German to me. I felt like a dumb foreigner and just smiled sheepishly. Then I answered in Hochdeutsch and she switched to it immediately and apologized A FEW TIMES and profusely for speaking dialect to me. She was so apologetic that I started to feel guilty.
I’ve generally noticed that old ladies are so nice here and most of them seem so happy and at peace. I’m looking forward to growing old in CH.

A friend of I forgot his LAPTOP in the bus. Of course we all thought he would lose it forever.

He called the bus company and they returned it to him.

I must also admit I don't know many countries where that would happen.

You'd be surprised... In England my girlfriend had some Swiss friends visiting and one of them left her handbag with wallet/passport/money in on the train from London to Manchester. She phoned the train company and got everything back after assuming it was all lost because it was England.

Guy places black briefcase next to the bench while waiting for the bus. He gets on the bus without it and then later gets off. He then realizes that the briefcase was missing so assumes that he must have left it on the bus. He gets on the bus and asks the driver for help. While driving the driver contacts base and then base radios to all the drivers if they had seen the gentleman's black briefcase. No luck so far.

The guy gives up hope and the bus approaches the stop where he had left the briefcase and then by luck his eyes fall across the street and his briefcase is still there on one of Zurich's most busy streets

I was witness to this live and it was such a brilliant ending.

You can get your stuff back in any part of the world if you get lucky. Point is that in Switzerland the chance of getting your stuff back seems to be lot higher. If you take out all the "mass immigrants" like me then allegedly you would get your stuff back each and every time

Hubby once used his wallet full of various credit, debit, membership, loyalty cards etc to prop up his video camera on top of a bin (I know!) a couple of years ago in Hergiswil and only noticed it was missing a day or so later. He then received a letter from the local Gemeinde saying it had been found by one of their cleaning guys. It was sent back complete, and of course hubby sent a letter thanking the honest man who found it.
Another time my brother-in-law left a rucksack containing camera, expensive sunglasses, waterproofs, amongst other things on the train from Basel to Zurich airport. We were told we could go onto the SBB website, fill in a form and it would be sent back to the SBB office in Baden ,where we live. A few days later there it was with none of the contents missing. He obviously had to pay a fee for the service but it was worth every Franc. I love the Swiss too!

the same happened to me. Lost my wallet in Zug at a parking lot. The next day the police called me at work (!) to tell me somebody had turned it in - credit cards, money - everything right there.

And MG's s-i-l once left a box of expensive wine at the store - sure enough it was still sitting there the next day.

in my time here in Switzerland I've noticed two briefcases left on the corner just opposite my office.. and a backpack left just outside the conference centre a little ways off.

all were seen to by the very efficient Swiss police ( and blown up.. rather impressive really )

Are all b-i-l's and s-i-l's absent minded?

So many people loosing so much stuff. I'm loosing it.

How cute. Thread needs more kitten pictures....