Take these quizzes to prove you know stuff!

Several online quizzes have caught my eye recently:

• The BBC English Quiz (found via chrisdellavedova.com) I kicked ass on this one - surprisingly, even on the spelling section.
  

• The German Citizenship Test (in German). Could you become a German? (found via AmiExpat)... really? You want me to know the flag colors of Nordrhein-Westfalen to become a German citizen? I don't even know what colors are on New York's state flag... at any rate, with 24 out of 33, I passed! Woo hoo! Where's my passport?
  

• The Sueddeutsche Zeitung's US Presidential Candidate Quiz (in German). Example question:

What is Barack Obama's middle name?
a) Saddam
b) Hussein
c) Mahmud

Someone must have been thinking about the Hezbollah fist bump while writing that one (at the end of the video, but well worth the entertaining wait)...

Milk strike!

German milk producers are preparing to go on strike. Moo.

I move to Munich, it becomes Germany's Hot Spot

Coincidence? I think not.

Munich Redux: Germany’s Hot Spot of the Moment

Thank you to the many, many folks who brought this article to my attention. I'd like to also point out that I've already reviewed Saf, the restaurant from the NY Times article, too.

A little to the left

• Germany's Merkel suffers blow ahead of 2009 vote
• Elections in Germany confirm leftward shift

Obviously mainstream conservatives in Germany are very different than those in the US, but still I tend to forget which party Merkel is from. Both the fact that she is a woman and that she grew up in the East make me want to love her a little. And the fact that she won't take a shoulder massage from Bush makes me like her even more. This is confusing for me, because I can't remember the last time a conservative in the US left a positive impression on me in any way, shape, or form.

As seen on Marienplatz today: angry Serbs

I won't claim to know enough about the issue to have an opinion I'd wish to post here, but I do want to share some photos of the anti-Kosovo-secession rally that took place at Marienplatz (the main square in the center of Munich) today. We decided to swing by and check out the rally after seeing this thread on Toytown Germany (an oddly-named website that caters to the English-speaking community in Germany). I do not recommend trying to read the thread (although there are a couple points when it made me laugh out loud).



There was a stage and speakers and a decent-sized crowd, many of who were holding signs and Serbian flags. We didn't see any counter-protesters to speak of, but I've heard there was a pro-Kosovo-independence rally last weekend.

Links - 8 Oct 2007

• The New York Times picks up the Swiss Black Sheep story (obviously inspired by me). Also, violence erupted at a protest in Bern over the weekend.

• Check out the latest edition of the Carnival of Cities.

• Looking for a fabulous night out in Zurich? I highly recommend this exciting art opening coming up on November 2nd. :)

What you can learn from a Swiss newspaper

Do the Swiss more resemble each other or their respective language groups? Despite speaking German, French, Italian, and Romansh, surely the Swiss have some common thread that binds them to each other culturally? Their fondness for yodeling and cuckoo clocks? Their love of melted cheese, perhaps? These are questions that keep me up at night. OK, that was a lie, but I did have a blast noting certain differences on a recent trip across the Röstigraben.

Now I don’t want to brag, but for someone who has never purposely attempted to acquire any knowledge of the French language, my fake French is pretty damn good. I can hold entire conversations in the language (as long as my half of the conversation primarily involves saying ‘oui’ and giggling uncomfortably). And thanks to my knowledge of Italian, English, and Pepe le Pew cartoons, I can read certain French texts with a shocking level of comprehension (and by ‘certain texts’, I mean menus and tabloid newspapers that contain lots of pictures).

Which brings me to my profound observations of the day: the results of a meticulous study of Switzerland’s two largest language groups, as represented by their free morning commuter newspapers (20 Minuten and 20 Minutes). Note: all translations are sloppy and approximate, but I swear I am not making this stuff up. OK, maybe I made a little of it up.

Tuesday, 21 August 2007

Front page headline

• German: Swiss alarmed about products from China
• French: Passive smoking is bad for you, so let’s all smoke first hand instead

Front page photo

• German: a satellite photo of Hurricane Dean
• French: a tiny little dog dressed up in a sparkly dress participating in a dog fashion show

‘People’ section

• German: Oliver Stone will be coming to Zurich to discuss his very serious, depressing movies; Tom Cruise’s bad luck continues as people are hurt on the set of his film, which he probably caused because he’s in that freaky cult and all.
• French: Mena Suvari may have shaved her head, but at least she still looks hot in a string bikini (with photo); Paris Hilton offered lots of money to appear on Big Brother (with photo)

Wednesday, 22 August 2007

Front page

• German: after years of angry complaints from citizens, the menace that was the ugly Bahnhofstrasse Christmas lights has almost been eradicated, although they will make their last appearance this year (haven't the people of Zurich suffered enough?)
• French: Ohlala! John Travolta dressed like a woman! He's a man, but he's wearing women's clothing! Tee hee! Tralalalala!
  

‘Tendances’ section

• French: new high-tech sex toy for men (with photos and lots of details)
• German: um… no such section

‘People’ section

• German: Important blurb about K-Fed’s up-and-coming acting career.
• French: Important blurb about K-Fed’s up-and-coming acting career.

So the two sides do have something in common after all.

While we did head to the Swiss Alps this weekend...

...unfortunately we completely missed this event (so you can stop searching for us in the pictures already).

Zurich Public Transport: 0, Mariachis: 2

For those of you following the Zurich trams vs. mariachis story with baited breath, here's your long-awaited update. According to this morning's 20 Minuten (which, in addition to The Daily Show, is the source of all my daily news intake), the VBZ has finally relented and pulled the commercial featuring mariachis busking on a tram. The capitulation occurred after complaints from the Mexican embassy. How often do foreign embassies in your country have to complain to the local public transportation authorities?

***

In other news (also brought to us, naturally, by 20 Minuten), a local woman was kicked out of a Zurich restaurant for breastfeeding. And here I was thinking that this sort of thing only happened in boobie-fearing America. Alas, even the Swiss are now getting offended by mothers feeding their children.

If you take away one message from today's post, please make it this: breasts cannot hurt you. Even when they're in your extended visual field, the chances of you catching cooties from them is virtually zero. (OK, so I don't have any scientific studies to back this claim up. Any scienticians out there looking for a new research study topic?)

Zurich plagued by underwear-clad teens

The headline on the front page of 20 Minuten this morning announced Zurich's latest crisis - Public baths: trouble due to underwear trend. Naturally I snatched up a paper and began reading furiously, hoping to learn more about this disturbing story. Here is a summary of what I learned.

Apparently, it has become fashionable among teenage boys to wear boxer shorts underneath their shorts-style bathing suits while swimming at the city's numerous badi (public beaches and pools). "Why is this a problem?" you ask? Simply put, "Das ist unhygenisch," at least according to several of the city's bademeister (pool attendants). One bademeister went on to explain, "You never know when those underwear were last in the washing machine." The same boys' ability to keep their bathing suits (or their bodies) clean, however, was not called into question.

Basel is far ahead of Zurich in fighting this hazard, having already instigated a poster campaign against swimming in the boxers + bathing suit combo. The Zurich officials are just not cooperating, laments one local bademeister, who has decided to take the law into his own hands and eject offenders from his pool on the spot (he also makes use of his "good eye" to distinguish today's modern bathing suit styles from actual shorts - not an easy task for the untrained, apparently). Until he has succeeded in eradicating all the offenders, though, I can only beg you, dear readers, to inform yourself of the risks before swimming in the badi of Zurich. Or better yet, head to Basel. It's safer there.

Trams vs. Mariachis, round two

This commercial has started playing before movies in theaters around Zurich:



A little background, for those who are not up-to-date on the Zurich Public Transport (VBZ) vs. Mariachis saga: Back in early 2006, Zurich officially banned mariachis from trams with this sign. After numerous protests from individuals and the Mexican consulate, the signs were replaced a few months later. VBZ was out a little money, and had looked a little foolish. And it appeared that the issue was dead.

But apparently someone at the VBZ loves ethnic stereotypes of Mexicans sooooo much that they just couldn't resist revisiting the topic with this brand new commercial (which, despite how it may seem, is not inviting mariachis to start performing on trams. The VBZ is still firmly against buskers of all ethnicities.) The Mexican consulate is investigating.

What do you think: offensive stereotyping or good clean mariachi fun?

Maybe I will move back to the US after all...

... but only if this works out:

Addressing Climate Crisis, Bush Calls For Development Of National Air Conditioner

It's going to be environmentally friendly, too!

Switzerland: stuff that happened while I was gone

I was in the US for so long that a lot of changes happened back home in Switzerland. For one, Switzerland lowered immigration restrictions for western Europeans. The Germans are coming! Well, even more of them than there already are.

Migros started carrying a vegetarian version of Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, the local veal and mushroom sauce specialty. Finally, I get to try it, too... oh joy.

What else? Let's see... the Swiss were voted the 3rd most liked tourists in the world, behind the Japanese, and... what's this? The AMERICANS. Wow. The Swiss were liked because they are "quiet and considerate", while the Americans were liked despite their poor dress and loudness.

But the biggest news, of course, is that Zurich now has a Hooters. The Helvetiaplatz restaurant is the second Hooters in the country (Interlaken has had one for a while). Do you think the Swiss go the for wings, too?

Will the real Mr. Switzerland please stand up

It's official, there's a new Mr. Switzerland (and much to my surprise, it's not this guy). I learned this from watching the local news yesterday. It was the second story, following close on the heels of a very important piece about Paris Hilton's first trip to Basel (or Zurich, or somewhere... how am I supposed to know where she was when even she didn't? Look, the important thing is that it was definitely Switzerland, and thus worthy of the lead story on the Swiss TV news).

Anyway, back to Mr. Switzerland. I'm sure other countries have 'mister competitions', but I have never been aware of them the way I am here. Last year's Mr. Switzerland has been prominently featured in ads (for underwear and barbecue supplies) plastered all over the city ever since we moved here. There was a poll conducted by the local commuter paper last week to determine everyone's favorite candidate for this year's competition (the shocking outcome revealed that people in this part of Switzerland favored a guy who didn't even speak German). The Swiss seem to take this whole male beauty pageant thing quite seriously.

That's the thing that strikes me as so strange: men in a beauty pageant, especially in not-so-progressive-when-it-comes-to-gender-roles Switzerland (not that I'm so sure male beauty pageants would count as progressive, anyway). The news showed a clip of the end of the pageant when the winner was announced. There was no immediate hug from the runner up, no crown and sash, and no running mascara from his tears of joy. The losers eventually hoisted the winner up on to their shoulders, in a manly display that seemed like it belonged at a soccer game instead of a beauty pageant. It definitely made me wish I had seen the whole thing. Next year...

Oh, and in case you're wondering why I was watching the Swiss news at all, it's because I desperately needed to know how long it took for the Böögg's head to explode (12 minutes and 9 seconds, in case you were also wondering). I didn't actually attend Sechselauten yesterday, but I have a strong suspicion it went down a lot like last year's Sechseläuten (and not entirely different from 1948's Sechseläuten, for that matter).

me on slate.com

For the next month I will be contributing to the TravelBox Blog over at Slate.com. My posts there cover some of my favorite European travel destinations. They even did a fancy-schmancy caricature of me for the site. Can you pick me out of the three? Quick, go look now!

Zurich has the best quality of life in the world

Obviously 'availability of delicious and affordable food' was not one of the metrics for this study, but perhaps 'prostitutes per capita' was? Nonetheless, I'm proud of our teeny tiny city.

Fabulous news for Switzerland's glaciers

My fellow environmentalists will surely join me in celebrating this major breakthrough today: funding has been secured for extensive research into captive glacier breeding experiments. The research will take place in Alaska and will be the first of its kind. We can only hope it will lead to the glacier repopulation that is so desperately needed in this part of the world, especially if we want to keep skiing. You can read more here.

I just have one question: how do you think they tell the girl glaciers apart from the boy glaciers?

How long until the mall rats move in?

The long-awaited Sihlcity is finally open. The heralded new structure is large and contains retail shops, eateries, AND a cinema. All under one roof. How wacky is that? This article in SwissInfo gives us the inside scoop:

Zurich's tourist board has already hailed the complex as a unique entertainment concept and expects it to be a magnet for foreign visitors.

Psst... tourist board, c'mere a minute. Let me let you in on a little secret... it's called a "mall" and there are about a gazillion of them already in existence, hidden away in this little country called the USA.

"It will be a key part of Zurich tourism as it offers new depth and richness to the existing attractions of Bahnhofstrasse and the old town. It brings everything together, shopping and entertainment, in one area so people don't really have to move to enjoy it," tourist board head of operations Markus Salzmann told swissinfo.

Right, so if you haven't noticed, the lack of movement is kind of what's getting Americans in trouble. That and all those Sbarro pizza slices and giant frosted cookies. Really, not as good of an idea as it sounds.

Actually there is one aspect of Sihlcity which is definitely different from American malls - its Roman Catholic chapel. Now I'm sure Americans have come up with the chapel-in-the-mall concept, too, or are about to any day now. But the reasoning behind the placement is altogether different: "Some people may just want a quiet refuge to get away from the bustle, but others like the anonymity of a shopping centre. They can visit the chapel without being seen by people they know who may ask what they are doing here." Where I grew up, being seen was the number one reason TO go to church. Funny that people here might actually want to hide it...

Anyway, you're not going to find much privacy anywhere in Sihlcity these days, because the place is jammed packed with at least half the population of Switzerland, all crowding into stores that are basically the same as the ones on Bahnhofstrasse. I don't think I've ever seen such long lines to get on an escalator in my life. Ah, consumerism.

Have you seen this nude man?

The Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung printed a new Gucci ad last week featuring an unknown male model - so unknown that not even Gucci had heard of him. Turns out the ad was a fake, and this guy just wanted to sneak a naked picture of himself into the newspaper. This isn't even the first time the mysterious guy has tried to con his way into the limelight. Perhaps he had read the recent headlines and was simply trying to bring sexy back to Switzerland?

What I'm wondering is, how is it so hard to catch a guy in a tiny country when you know exactly what he looks like? If you're in Switzerland, keep your eyes peeled... and if you spot him, make a citizen's arrest. Or just ask for his autograph.

Looking for Valentine's Day fun in Zurich?

Dazzle your Valentine by taking him/her to the Valentine's Day Give Your Heart Out Gala which will be held at Stall 6 in central downtown Zurich. There will be live music, dancing, drinking, eating, mingling - basically everything you could ever want from a cocktail party. And, as if that weren't enough, there will also be a silent auction to benefit Girl Power, a local organization that does good things for girls.

The Gala is being thrown by Hands On Switzerland, a local non-profit organization (which I just happen to be a part of). The organization seeks to bring together volunteers and the worthy causes that they are interested in serving. It is just getting started but already looking for volunteers and new members, so if you're interested in getting involved, please contact them.

Advance tickets for the Valentine's Day Gala cost a mere CHF 20 and include a delicious array of hors d'orves huers d'urves finger foods plus a welcome glass of prosecco. This is a fantastic deal for an evening out in Zurich (I bet you can't find live music, a drink, and food for less than CHF 20 anywhere else in the city), plus the event will raise money for some excellent organizations. And you get to mingle with fascinating people like me. See the website for instructions on how to buy advance tickets (or if you happen to know me in real life, you can buy them directly from me). You can also get tickets at the door for CHF 25, if there are any left by then (so just play it safe and buy them now).