The thinnest women in Europe

I have been looking at the women here and marvelling at how thin they all look. Then Markus read an article in the paper that confirmed my observations: women in Switzerland are the least overweight in Europe with only 23% being overweight at all. Pretty impressive. And the men are within the top 5 thinnest in Europe, after places like Romania and Bulgaria. And they look it: it is very rare here to see anyone with a potbelly or chubby legs. I remember seeing a book in the Santa Clara library about a French diet (which of course I browsed through) that said that European women are so thin because they don't snack. Might be true here too. I have to say that there seems to be a lot less snackable food available here than I remember in Germany (where women are apparently fatter). There are many fewer bakeries here to entice passers-by with delicious smells than in either Germany or France. Most food is still purchased in one of the two grocery chains here, even bread it seems. At least in the city, there seems to be few small bakeries. People do snack in the take-away windows of the grocery stores, but it is not the same kind of selection you get elsewhere: mostly just sandwiches and loaves of bread rather than small cakes and crusty rolls. They just seem less prone to finger food here. Maybe it has to do with tidiness (clearly a thing here). Maybe they don't really want people dropping crumbs from baked goods all over.

Or maybe, women are thinner because food is so expensive here. I have more or less adjusted to the cost of shopping for groceries, but eating out is a major shock every time we do it. Why, I am not so sure, since I look at the prices as I order, but by the time the bill comes I am surprised the lunch for two and a cup of coffee comes to $50. It is spring here and every restaurant and cafe seems to have tables out on the sidewalk here. And Zuricher are busy sitting at the tables. But what I have noticed is that although people are sitting at these tables all the time, very few people are eating. Mostly people are just having a coffee or beer. My new theory about this is that it costs too much to actually eat a meal (and there are not so many snacks you can order in a restaurant here) so people satisfy their social going-out urge by having a leisurely drink in the sun. But then they probably go home for dinner.

Of course, maybe Swiss women are just thinner because they have better impulse control than me. It wouldn't take to much. I cannot seem to leave the cheese alone. Even 5 flights of stairs isn't making a noticeable impact on my reserves. And of course, my mother is here with news that "they" are now saying belly fat in your 40s is a harbinger for illness later in life. The good news never ends!

Yes, my mother and Bob are here. They arrived yesterday and are just getting settled in. So far they have been on a tour of the old town and a bit of the neighborhood. But after Timo's nap today, Nicolas is going to show them some of his favorite modes of public transportation. We know how to maximize the all-day public transportation pass! The European soccer cup starts here in a week, so we need to get out and see Zurich before the 1.5 million expected soccer fans arrive. We unwittingly chose an apartment only 2 tram stops from the main soccer stadium, so we are expecting to see a lot of fans soon. We only hope these same fans are not interested in the same sights as us (soccer--mountain tops...doesn't seem like the same crowd!)

I have one last, unrelated (or at least I don't have any official statistics on their relation...) story to tell. I have mentioned our funky neighborhood in other blogs, but it has gotten even funkier... Downstairs from our apartment in the same block is a small woodworking shop. It is a very small shop that sells the hand-made wood projects of a woman who looks to be, maybe 60 years old. For weeks her window has had a large Beaver (perhaps 3 feet high) hand carved out of a single log looking out onto the street. But the other day, the display changed. On our first pass by the exhibit, Markus commented that the things in the window looked pretty phallic. Indeed, there are about thirty variations on penises of all different wood and all different interpretation in the window. The next time we passed by, small embroidered bags had been added to the window that said "love toys". So it looks like our neighborhood artisan has extended her range (and probably marketability) from beavers to dildos. I have attached a picture for the non-believers. Never let me say that the Swiss are uptight...just thin.

Heidi and the Sound of Music rolled together

Yesterday, my dad and Peggy offered to watch the kids for the whole day so that Markus and I could go away. Naturally we seized this chance and were off on the 7:30am train to Appenzell (home of great cheese) and to the Alps beyond. We had a wonderful day and went to several places that were just beautiful but would be really difficult with two small kids along. I am including some pictures to accompany the story of our outing.

We started out with the train toward Appenzell, which is east of Zurich about 2 hours away. We wandered around the quaint town of Appenzell for a hour, gathering things to lunch on at the bakery and glancing at the tourist shops. This is a place that must get loads of tourists in the summertime...all of the shops sell Swiss paraphernalia (you won't wonder that I am not buying any souvenirs here from among the stuffed animal st. Bernard dogs, red t-shirts with white crosses and all sorts of cutesy figurines! Plus the going price for a post card here is $1.20 with an additional $1.80 in stamps!) and the streets are lined by outdoor cafes. Not so many tourists there at this time, however, even though the weather was great.

We then continued on the small railroad up the hill until we got to Wasseraun. There is a gondola that carries you up another 2,000 feet to near the top of the Ebenalp mountain. This gondola was quite a ride, much of it at a steep angle against the shear rock face (those of you that know I hate heights will be surprised to hear that I actually could look out and down and wasn't scared at all!) The gondola left us at 5,300 feet, with great views to much higher mountains all around. We hiked there for several hours, on one side looking up to snowy peaks (Mt. Santis) and on the other side looking into a beautiful valley full of cows whose bells we could hear even at the top of the mountain. I eat Appenzell cheese most days for lunch and it was fun to up close to those cows :) Of course, the final song from Sound of Music (climb every mountain) got playing in my head as we hiked along the ridge looking down into the green valleys...

Along the hike we lunched near a small guesthouse built into a crevice of rock under the peak, and then traveled through a cave to get back to the side of the mountain where we could catch the gondola back down. Then we hiked along the valley floor past several villages and through lots of cow fields to a train stop. This "wandering" in Switzerland is crazy: there are little yellow signs that guide you, but there is almost no train, just some beaten down grass through fields and along the streams. Part of the trail joins up with people's driveways, and you often walk right past their front door, through the side yard and out into the fields again. No one seems to mind, not even the cows. The fields are generally divided by electric fences with makeshift gates for wanderers to cross. We seem to have come at peak dandelion season and they are as thick as grass in the fields. Just beautiful! The cows are moving up to the higher levels as the weather gets warmer (bells distinguish the different herds) and I had flashbacks to reading Heidi as a child.

After rejoining the train we travelled to the southern tip of Lake Zurich (Rapperswil) and looked around. Then took a local train up the lake and back to the city. We still had time on our clock and decided to have dinner in Zurich before resuming our parental duties, so we went to a hip restaurant called Tibits. It is in a posh part of town and serves an eclectic assortment of food to an upscale clientele. This is the Sweet Tomatoes for the rich and adventurous: probably 35 mixed salads and hot dishes, all vegetarian on the buffet. Stuff that you don't see elsewhere here, like curried corn salad, thai style tofu salad, onion rings, jalapeno poppers, samosas, tabbouli with peppermint, curried fennel and apple salad, etc. Yum! We loaded our plates up moderately, and shared a mango lassi. The total was $50 for two, but given our limited time to eat out, worth it! Not a child friendly bite in the place. :)

Of course, the kids had a wonderful time with their grandparents and were finishing off their hamburger dinner with ice cream when we got home. They had been out with our map of playgrounds and had discovered not only a new great playground, but a new (to us) cogwheel railroad in the city. So everyone had a great day. Sadly, the grandparents left today, but as the weather has shifted again to rain they have probably gotten the best Zurich has to offer.

Diversity and Insularity

I haven't been blogging of late because my parents have been here for several days. They are off on a field trip (one I hope to take as well one of these days) to Appenzell (small cheese-making place in the alps) so I have a bit of free time today. We have been having a great time visiting all of our favorite places around the city, riding buses, trains, boats... a classic tour of the Scherer-Morlang haunts. They have also been busy with the boys so I have had some time off, and someone else to plan meals and supervise playground visits! Yeah!

This morning I went to my second Spooglers meeting. This is the group that has formed in Zurich of spouses of googlers. It is about 50 people strong now I think. They have coffee every thursday morning, and this weekend they are hosting their annual spring brunch (at google, but believe it or not it is potluck!) It is a very congenial, international group of so far all women. There are several americans, but also women from Finland, Holland, Sweden, France, Viet Nam, India, China, Germany, Australia, etc. It is a good indication for me of what Zurich google is all about: talent from all over the world. Many of them are moms and I have already made several play-date arrangments. Coffee is a challenge with Timo along, but I am hoping to find a babysitter so that I can have these mornings free.

Google here is very impressive. The interior is wild, with lots of playful decoration and games-rooms. And the food is great. The kids also appreciate that there is a train that runs right in front of the cafeteria...keeps them busy. Markus had a funny story of Zooglers the other day. They have a fresh-squeeze orange juice machine in the cafe (but it is only available at lunch time). They originally got oranges from Italy, but it turns out to be so popular that they go through several tons of oranges per week and apparently have drunk Italy dry. So now the oranges come from Argentina. One more account of decadence at google!

Zurich seems like a good home for a multi-cultural (orange-juice drinking) google. At the playgrounds there are always people from all over. And I find this true of those people I interact with. The teacher of Nic's playgroup is from Uruguay (married to a Swiss); Our landlady is originally from Spain; and so forth. Talking to spooglers from all over people are finding their niches here without much problem. In this way it is kind of like a European bay area--accepting of diversity. Oddly, the politics and systems don't seem to reflect this as well as the day-to-day living. Poltics and institutions here are very conservative. Everyone from outside complains that the school system is very rigid in that it is hard to get into, and the curriculum is old fashioned. Children in the 6th grade must "decide" whether to attend gymnasium and afterwards university and it is very hard to reverse this decision in either way later (and deciding really means have you got the aptitude). Not a good place for late bloomers. It would be interesting to see if girls do particularly well in this system, as they tend to be more mature in an academic setting at a younger age....

Politics in this area are also quite conservative. The Swiss People's party, a very conservative party simliar in many ways to the populist/anti-immigrant parties seen elsewhere on the European right, is the dominant party here in Zurich and is central to national level government as well. My father asked me the other day why Switzerland is not a member of the EU. In California I would have given an answer about Swiss neutrality and its financial and trade interests related to that. Now my answer would be more about politics and government style. The extreme federalism of the system here means that there is much less national level government than you find in other euroepan goverments (even other federal systems like Germany). Here, local and canton governments dominate. This means that there is a large amount of legal diversity across regions and cities in Switzerland. If this country were to join the EU, it would necessarily give much greater weight to the national level government over the local governments because of the way decsions are made in the EU (most important ones happen at conferences of national heads-of-state or government ministers). I can imagine that the SWiss, in an effort to preserve not only national independence but sub-national independence would see the EU as an unacceptable reduction of soveriegnty. In truth, the benefits of the EU, like greater trade (cheaper prices and more variety) or monetary stabilty don't appeal to the Swiss because they rather buy their own products and make their own deals.

Ok, as you can see, I am missing the world of political science a bit. But overall, I am enjoying just looking around and hanging out!

Cheese please

We are back from visiting Germany; again a great time was had by all. This time we spent a day with friends of ours from San Jose who have moved back to southern Germany. They have two boys so Nicolas and Timo had a great time with old friends. Best of all, the weather has changed here, and it is beautiful: days in the low 70s and very sunny. Perfect for strolling along the lake or going to the playground.

Today we took a tram to the other side of Zurich and then rode a funicular (kind of a cable car for 10 people that goes up a steep incline). Needless to say, the boys were in train heaven! The view was beautiful: the city below, the lake shimmering in the sun and the alps like white ghosts in the background. Then we were home for cheese sandwiches and naps (sadly not for me!)

Which brings me to the topic of the day: food. We are not really eating like the Swiss; at least I imagine not, but we don't really know as we don't know any Swiss and we don't go to restaurants much (and so far these have been falafel places and McDonald's). However, from what I can see in the grocery store, most people eat a few key vegetables, a little meat and lots of cheese. I was surprised to see packaged foods pretty big here, although differently than in the US. Probably because so many people groceryshop as pedestrians (rather than loading up the car once a week they shop as they walk home from work) packaged foods are often very streamlined. For example, lots of very heavy things, like spaghetti sauce are less often found in jars here and are more often packaged as dried powder in a paper envelope. Sure we have this sort of thing in the US too, but there is much more of it here. Even things like fishsticks are packaged to be very small. Whereas American food often comes in a bag inside of a big box, foods here are very tightly packaged in shrink wrap or a small box.

Probably this also reflects the garbage scene here as well. Instead of weekly pickup for a set fee, here you must buy special city garbage bags that cost about $2 each (think 8 gallon bags) and only those can be put out for pickup. So you really pay more if you create more waste (a bit hard on us diaper uses) and discourage excessive packaging.

Same sort of principle for recycling stuff. Actually, when I read the guide for new people in Switzerland, it said that the Swiss are wild about recycling. Must be written by someone who hasn't seen the recycle process in the US! Here recycling is available, but is a big burden on the consumer. Of course, it cuts your garbage cost by reducing the number of bags you must pay for, but I can't imagine that recycling is very big here considering how hard it is. There are bins around the city that take various glass and metal types. You must bring them clean, and separate them into the different bins yourself. If you have plastic bottles like coke, you can take those back to the grocery store and put them in a bin there. Most of the packaged things here, however, are not recycled. For instance, most milk and juice comes in 1-liter tetrapack boxes (kind of plastic lined boxes) that cannot be recycled. We go through several of these a day. Then things like single serving yogurt cups, plastic from meat or cheese packaging, etc cannot be recycled at all. So basically, to be a green citizen, you need to travel to several different places to drop off your various bottles, cans and plastics. This is no small thing in a city where there are only .3 cars per person! Then there is paper recycling. This should be the easiest of all since it creates the most waste. To recycle paper here, you must collect like papers (say all office white paper the same shape, or all newspapers, or all cereal boxes) and tie it into a bundle with string and put it out on the stoop on Mondays. To me this is a system that assumes there are people in every household who don't have much else to do....but who are these people? Maybe this is what one is supposed to do with the more leisure time Europeans get? Though the Swiss seem to have less of this than elsewhere in Europe, and at least in Germany recycling is a lot easier.

So anyway, back to food. We mostly eat cheese. I have resigned myself to this luxury, in part because it is so good here, and in part because the alternatives are more difficult to deal with. Meat is available, if very expensive (we did buy hamburger the other day to make meatballs, but it cost $18/kilo and seemed pretty grisly), but looks different here than at home. Lots more sausage and processed meats. We stick mostly to ham. But the cheese here is lovely. I love strong smelling cheese so I am in cheese heaven. The kids less so. They of course don't have any of the child-friendly varieties we have in the US (no cheddar, jack, etc.) but they have all sorts of wonderful variations on Swiss cheese that you never see in the US. To offset the cheese intake, I am resolved to eat salads for dinner...one of these days. Kids eat a lot of ham, hot dogs and pasta. The mainstays like tofu that we ate in the US are hard to find here. The whole soy thing seems to have missed consumers here, as has the omega-3 frenzy (although my brother-in-law cites a study from Sweden showing kids with learning problems improve a lot with fishoil supplements.) When visiting my in-laws we revert to German style eating: meat-potatoes-salad for lunch and then bread-cheese-sausage for dinner (every day.) So I was wondering why I haven't lost any weight yet....