A Humorous Guide to Switzerland

Are you going to be in Switzerland for the holiday season and want to make the most of your Swiss Christmas experience? Swiss Christmas traditions are certainly fun and you shouldn't hesitate to join the celebration! 10 Fun Swiss Christmas Activities Here are a few suggestions for fun things to do in Switzerland during the Christmas season: Cookie baking afternoon: enjoy an afternoon of baking with your friends. Try yourself at some traditional Swiss cookies like Brunsli, Zimststern , Chräbbeli or Spitzbuben. Grittibänz baking: create your own Grittibänz - a traditional man-shaped roll (you can find a recipe here .) Ice skating: there are ice skating rinks in almost every larger town in Switzerland. Have a glass of hot punch and skate a few rounds with friends. Visit a Christmas market : plenty of smaller and bigger Christmas markets will captivate you. Choose one that is close to you from this list . Glühwein : make your own batch of hot Glühwein and enjoy a nice eve...

Birthday Cake - Helene Souza  / pixelio.de My son and I recently attended a birthday party here in Cocachimba , Peru. It was the birthday of one of the kids in the village and since it's such a small place, almost everyone is invited. To be honest, I don't like going to children's birthday parties - or grown up's birthday parties - because there is usually too much noise and fuss and chaos. My husband usually takes it on himself to accompany our son to these birthdays but this time he was away so I had to step in. If you've never been to a Peruvian birthday party, let me tell you one thing: it's loud and crowded! There is dancing and food and once in a while people are trying to say something above the deafening noise of the music. I guess, if you grew up with this it's probably normal and enjoyable but for me it was way too much noise. I could see all the children's ear go deaf in my minds eyes. Argh. Probably one of those cultural differences you...

Swiss Alps - berggeist007  / pixelio.de I've been living abroad for several years now. While I'm happy with my life here in the beautiful north of Peru (you can read more about it here:  Las Cabañitas de Gocta ), there are moments when I really miss life in Switzerland. I miss the great variety of cheese and bread, I miss the punctuality of people and busses and I miss hearing and speaking Swiss German and being able to converse without thinking about which word to use. A while ago I wrote about the  10 Things You'll Miss About Switzerland  and it still pretty much hits the spot. 10 Things to Do When You're Missing Switzerland Today, however, I won't write about what I miss about Switzerland. Instead I'll share 10 Ideas on how to deal with missing Switzerland in your life. Music: Put on your favorite Swiss music, preferably with Swiss German lyrics. Personally, I like Patent Ochsner but the song that I lately tend to put on when missing Switzerland ...

It finally arrived! When the Big Swiss Coloring Book came out last year I knew I wanted to have it! Drawing has always been a great way for me to relax and focus on something entirely different for a while but lately I haven't had the time to start a project of my own (except for drawing animals for my son). A coloring book seemed like a great alternative, especially a coloring book full of drawings from my home country Switzerland that after all I do miss sometimes here in Peru. When my mother booked flight tickets to come visit here, I just had to add this book to her shopping list and so it arrived here in Cocachimba , in the north of Peru, last week. The variety of drawings in it is even greater than what I've thought. Despite not having much free time these days I reserved some time to start coloring - just to see how it goes. I started with the very first picture, the hot air balloons . Other Swiss inspired drawings are also available on the web (e.g....

A few weeks ago, my husband bought a simple puzzle for our son here in Peru . It's a fairly easy 20 piece wooden puzzle that features the numbers 1 to 10, drawings of animals, fruit or other things to illustrate the amount the number represents, the actual word representing the number (e.g. NINE) and a pair of hands showing the number with fingers . the puzzle Looking at the hands and fingers, I was reminded of how I always thought it strange to observe how my American friends used their fingers to count. The way they counted simply didn't come natural to me.  After all, they didn't use their thumb to signal TWO and neither for THREE! How the Americans and Swiss Count with Their Hands Being once again confronted with finger counting, I took the opportunity to compare the English/American way of using the fingers to my own (Swiss) way. We start with the thumb and then simply add one finger after the other until we reach the pinkie with a full five fingers. The Engli...

Swiss German is a strange language. It is probably more than just another dialect of German although there is some dispute about this . How else could you explain the many sub-dialects of Swiss German? Every region has it's own version of Swiss German: Berndütsch (Bernese German), Züridütsch (Zurich German) or Bündnerdütsch (Grisons German) are just a few well known examples of Swiss German dialects . Of course, there are also similarities between the dialects and many times a dialect is perfectly understandable for someone from outside the region, as is the case for Aargauerdütsch (Aargau German) for example. How to say 'Apple Core' in different Swiss German dialects The diversity of dialects of Swiss German is best shown with a good example. I recently found this map with Swiss German words for " apple core " and was surprised to learn that many people in Switzerland don't use my own familiar "Bütschgi". In fact, there are 30 different way...

Dreirosenbrücke in Basel - Jari Villoria  / pixelio.de  Basel is not only one of Switzerland's largest cities but also one of it's most international ones. This is partly due to its location in the corner of three neighboring countries: Switzerland, France and Germany. There are quite a lot of people living in either France or Germany who are working in Basel and profiting from the high Swiss salaries. We call them "Grenzgänger" which means frontier-goers. However, Basel is not only very international but also known for being a cultural city . Museums, galleries and a very well maintained old city make this the perfect stop for any art lover. There are plenty of other things to do and see in Basel of course which is why I'm sharing this  list of 10 Fun Things to do in Basel with you! 10 Fun Things to do in Basel Park im Grünen : Although not technically located in Basel but in Münchenstein, this park is easily reached in 10 minutes by tram from Basel...