And Before I Knew It, Exchange Was Over

I landed back in Detroit last Tuesday evening, after almost 24 hours of travel. It is incredible to believe that almost a year ago, I received my letter from the International Business department saying that I would be spending my spring semester at the University of St Gallen. And now that semester is over. After all the planning, all the packing, I went to Switzerland, traveled Europe, and am now home. 

Before going to Switzerland back in February, I had never been out of the United States. Not even to Canada, which is just across the Detroit River from me. The US and American culture was all I really knew. So imagine just how bizarre it was to me when I could pick out who was American and who was European on my flight to Chicago just by how they were dressed and how they behaved. 

During my four months, I visited a total of 8 countries and 12 cities. I met people from all over the world, from my roommate from Vancouver to a guy from South Korea who was traveling by himself throughout Europe for six months. It was difficult saying good bye to all my friends, knowing that for some, I don't know when I'll see them again. Everyone who lived in my building really became a family, all of us thrown together in an unfamiliar country, and it was hard knowing that, after living together for four months, we'll probably never all be together again. 

But enough of the sappiness; I kept it together saying my goodbyes in St Gallen and I am going to keep it together now as well. So I'm going to address a few of the questions I've been getting since I got home.

What did you like most about Switzerland?

Definitely the Swiss efficiency. I could immediately tell once I landed in the Chicago airport that I certainly wasn't in Switzerland anymore just by the lack of efficiency I saw. For example, in Switzerland, it is very unusual for public transportation to be late. A lot of things are automated as well. When I flew out of Zurich last Tuesday, I checked in at the airport at a kiosk. This kiosk printed my boarding tickets as well as the tag for my checked bag. I selected my seats for all my flights here too. I then went up to the counter and just gave them my bag. This was an extremely quick process, much faster than checking in at any other airport I've been to. In Chicago, I had to wait for the train between terminals. Not only did I have to wait more than 5 minutes for it, but there also was not screen saying when the next train was coming.

What did you like least about Switzerland?

The fact that everything closed at 7pm on Mondays-Fridays. And at 5pm on Saturdays. And nothing was open on Sundays. I'm used to running errands (and by running errands, I mean going to the grocery store) on Sundays. Since most of my classes ended after the grocery store had already closed, I had to make sure I got there in the morning if I wanted food to eat the next day.

What was your favorite place you went?

This is a hard question to answer. Everywhere I traveled was cool for a different reason. Munich was unlike anything I could have imagined. London reminded me of the US. It was surreal seeing the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I could talk to everyone in Madrid because of my Spanish minor. I ate my way through Rome, and Easter at the Vatican was a once in a lifetime experience. However, I think my favorite place was Lugano, Switzerland. Lugano is a small town in Switzerland right by the Italian border. It's like being in Italy (the food was, again, delicious) while still being in Switzerland and having the Swiss efficiency. Part of the reason why it was my favorite place could have been due to the fact that it had been raining and cold in St Gallen for about ten days before we went to Lugano, and it was 72 and sunny in Lugano. 

What do you wish you had known before you went?

It seems like everywhere else in the world, other than the United States, puts chips in their credit cards. My bank (which I had issues with anyway while I was abroad) conveniently forgot to mention this fact. I was unable to use my credit/debit cards in quite a few places because I didn't have a chip in my card. I wasn't planning on using my cards a lot, since I got an international charge on every purchase, and it was more common to pay in cash there anyway, but it would have been nice to have the option to use my cards at places other than the ATM. 

I truly believe that the University of St Gallen is USC's best partner school, simply due to its rankings. Here is a link to the rankings listed on the university website: HSG Rankings. According to a study conducted by the New York Times, HSG is ranked #18 among schools in 20 countries based on the employability of graduates (New York Times Study). And if these rankings don't make you want to spend an exchange semester at HSG, maybe these pictures of Switzerland will: Switzerland Pictures. I will definitely miss seeing this view everyday from school! 

Accomplishing Big Things Over Here

Ok I'm only being kind of sarcastic. But I think my biggest accomplishment while being here is being able to convince the locals that I speak Swiss-German. And by the locals, I mean the cashiers at stores or in the school cafeteria. Fake it 'til you make it, right?

I went to Migros (the local Swiss grocery store) on Thursday to pick up a few things with Sim. The cashiers always ask the same thing, so it's gotten pretty easy to pretend to understand what they're saying. (On the other hand, I had to get garbage bags last week, which are behind the register, meaning I had to go back to English and try to get the cashier to understand me.) Here's my typical conversation with a cashier:

Cashier: Grüezi (hello)

Me: Grüezi (hello)

Cashier: (finishes scanning my items) Cumulus? (this is some sort of rewards program)

Me: Nein (no)

Cashier: (says the total in Swiss German which I totally don't understand so I just read the number off the screen next to her)

Me: (hand over the money and quickly do the math in my head while she counts out my change-again, in Swiss German) Danke!

Cashier: Tschüss! (bye)

Me: Tschüss! (bye)

Look at me go! If I'm at a store, they'll also ask me if I need a bag. Which I couldn't tell you how to say. I typically respond "nein" (no) whenever anyone asks me something. Which could be bad, but it's always worked out. 

Today, I went to City Hall to deregister as a resident of St Gallen (so sad). Typically in these sorts of instances (also when I buy train tickets at the train station), I'll say hello in Swiss-German and then automatically go to English, since they all understand it there (not so much in the grocery store or shops). So I go to City Hall, say grüezi to the woman helping me, and pass her my form to deregister, saying "I have this...?" Apparently she doesn't hear my mumbled English because she takes my form, looks up my name in the system, and says my local address to me in Swiss-German (to confirm that she found the right Kristi Sutherland in the system). Luckily I understood her saying my street name (Ruhsitzstrasse-try saying that five times fast), and have picked up enough numbers to realize she said 22 (our house number) as well. So I respond "ja," she stamps the form, and passes it back to me with a bright "alvederzein!" To which I say "alvederzein" right back and continue on my way, with her none the wiser that I understand hardly any German. 

In other adventures, Marina, Giovanna, Sim, and I have been going to Pilates classes at the school gym since they're free to students. The classes are in German though so that's fun...this is how I really started learning my numbers. As you're holding a stretch, sweating, praying it to be over quickly, you quickly learn to realize when the instructor is counting down "five...four...three...two...one..."

My friend Salim, who is from New Zealand, actually speaks Swiss-German. We joke that the only reason we're friends with him is so he can be our translator. I told him at the beginning of the semester that I tried learning a little Swiss-German before coming to St Gallen. He seems to think I understand more than I actually do (not quite sure why). A bunch of us were walking around town Wednesday when Salim made a comment about how I could speak a bit of Swiss-German. So of course I whip out one of the few phrases I know: "A bit, but I don't understand Swiss-German well." It was pretty funny to watch some of my other friends' jaws drop as they heard me easily say the phrase. 

Time to Get Down to Business

Finals are coming. Thankfully, I only have three finals, all three of which count for 100% of my grade in my classes. So lately I've been studying. A lot.

Last Saturday, after our trip to Prague didn't happen, Marina, Giovanna, Sim, and I decided to go to Lugano for the day. Lugano is a small town in the Italian part of Switzerland about fours hours away from St Gallen by train. I had actually gone through Lugano on my way to Rome a few weeks ago. 

Lugano is by far my favorite place in Switzerland. Part of that could be due to the fact that it had been raining for over a week in St Gallen, and it was 72 and sunny in Lugano. It is very obvious that Lugano is Italian-the architecture, the food, the people, all seem very Italian.  Like in Geneva, the #1 spot in Lugano on TripAdvisor is the lake. Which was gorgeous. 

You could rent out paddle boats to take out on the lake. We figured that with our luck, we'd end up in the lake, so we didn't rent any, but tons of people did. There were also a lot of people out sailing. From what I could tell, the majority of the boats were sunfish, which I can easily sail. So I was very jealous of everyone out on the water. 

We found an Italian restaurant for lunch, and walked through the park along the lake eating gelato. There was a small beach, filled with people sunbathing. We sat with our feet in the sand for almost an hour, just soaking up the sun we all had missed in St Gallen. 

Like I said, Lugano is easily my favorite place in Switzerland. It might even be my favorite place in Europe. It was just so pretty, none of us could get over the views. 

On Sunday, we went to an FC St Gallen game. FC St Gallen isn't very good. From what I've heard, none of the Swiss teams are very good. We played FC Basel, the best team in Switzerland. And lost 3-0. The game was definitely an experience. We were in the standing area, behind one of the goals, where all the really intense fans are. There were two guys leading cheers and chants for the crowd (well, our section), and I certainly learned a few new curse words in German.

At one point during the second half, about a dozen flares went off in our section. They're not allowed in the stadium, so the people with the flares all had masks on. The picture I got of the flares looks like I'm at a riot. The game was definitely crazier than any American football game I've gone to. 

I've spent the past week at the university studying. And I plan to spend this upcoming weekend studying too. It's crazy how fast this semester has flown by. I'm looking forward to being done with finals, but I'm not looking forward to leaving some great friends. 

Why Not to Book with Eurolines: A Case Study

A few weeks ago, two of my friends attempted to go to Prague. I say attempted because they never got to Prague. They booked an overnight bus from St Gallen to Prague, with a return on the overnight bus the following night through the company Eurolines. The bus is supposed to depart from St Gallen at 11pm. My friends waited until midnight before giving up on it. They emailed the company the following day saying the bus never showed up. Apparently it did show up--at 12:30am. They were able to get a refund though, and since they hadn't booked a hostel, they weren't out anything other than the experience. 

More recently, Giovanna, Sim, and I decided we wanted to go to Prague the first weekend in May. We looked into a variety of companies that have overnight buses, since that was our cheapest option. Unfortunately, the only company with available seats on their buses on dates that worked for us was Eurolines. So we booked the tickets, booked our hostel, packed, and met up at 10:45pm, ready to catch our bus to Prague.

And we waited. And waited. And waited. We knew from our friends' experience that the bus was probably late. It finally showed up at approximately 12:15am. We were so excited that, after waiting an hour and a half, the bus had finally come. The driver gets out, we pull out our tickets, and the driver gives us the bad news: there are no seats on the bus. Seriously?! We ask him how this could happen when we booked tickets for that bus. He got on the phone with his boss, said something to her, and handed the phone over to Giovanna, who quickly passed it off to me. The woman on the phone just kept repeating that she was sorry the bus was full, but if we called in the morning they could book us on another bus to Prague. I told her that was not an option for us, as we had a hostel booked for the following night. Due to the quickly approaching end of the semester, there are simply no other dates when we can go to Prague either. Unfortunately, she did not speak enough English for us to truly have a conversation, and apparently nobody else in the office spoke English (I asked). Since Eurolines screwed up our trip, I informed her that not only would they be refunding us the price of our bus tickets, but they would also be refunding us the price of the hostel in Prague. I eventually got off the phone with her, and the bus continued on without us.

That night, we emailed Eurolines to demand our refund. Fortunately, they will be refunding us everything; the bus tickets and the hostel. Apparently there were passengers on the bus who did not have a ticket. Which is what I simply do not understand. There is one door to get on and off the bus, and everyone has to go past the driver, who should be checking tickets. So there is no possible way that anyone should be on the bus if they do not have a ticket. It is a very simple concept. 

So I am writing this from St Gallen and not Prague, unfortunately. I have some additional time now to study for my upcoming finals, work on a paper, and go to the gym, but it was still extremely disappointing unpacking my backpack this morning in Switzerland and not in Prague.