Switzerland...is...interesting. Temple, Cars, Drunk Teens, and Raclette

The past few days has brought a lot of interesting observations of how things are in Switzerland.

I was able to visit the LDS temple in Bern.  This site brings together a lot of different people from different countries and culture.  While there I met a man from Italy and also another from the UK.  Both had been to Utah.  The dominant language in Bern is German giving it completely different feel from Leysin.  The people and the environment made me feel as if I had entered a new country.  While in Bern we visited Einstein's apartment and also saw the bears which make it famous.

While on the train I ask one man if he spoke English so I could ask him questions.  He did not, but he did speak Portuguese and one of the other Huntsman Scholars with me spoke Portuguese, so I used him as a translator.  He was born in Portugal but moved to Switzerland when he was young.  He also spoke Spanish, French, German, and some English.  It was amazing! 

On Saturday I went to Interlaken.  This city is full of high-adventure activities.  Hang-gliding, para-gliding, mountain biking, rock climbing, etc.  Four of the scholars went para-gliding and loved it.  While in the city I visited a cemetery to see if I could find anyone with the last name "Hirschi" which is my mother's maiden name.  I did!  It was exciting.  It made me want to walk around the rest of the day asking people if their last name was Hirschi, but I refrained.  There was also a car show in one part of the town.  Mostly European cars, but a few American favorites including the Chevrolet Corvette.  My favorite though was the 1968 Lincoln Mark III!  I have a 1978 Lincoln Mark IV, so it was neat.

It was around 8pm when we got on the train that headed up the mountain to Leysin.  On it was a group of teenagers drinking alcohol, dressed in 80's style clothes, on their way to a 80's themed party I presume.  They were loud and obnoxious, but the interesting thing was that when the train stopped and someone got on the train that was joining the group the young person would shake hands with all the people they knew.  It was such a bizarre action to me.  I could never see Americans stopping to greet each person individually when they joined a bunch of friends.  It showed me that even though they were out looking for a good time, they still take time to show respect.

I was also able to enjoy some of the world famous Swiss Raclette cheese!  This wonderful tradition involves eating a special kind of cheese in melted form.  It is eaten with a potato and thinly slice meat.  It was gooooooood.  As I write about it my mouth waters.  Dominique, our hotel manager and chef, was so pleased to share the tradition with us.  He smiled the whole night.

All of Switzerland seems very socially responsible.  They are environmentally and energy conscience.  They are way ahead of the US.  Everywhere I go I see things that are"fair trade" and I see wind turbines and such.  I like it.  Maybe I should come here and work with an energy efficiency consulting company and then take the knowledge back to the US.  I really like that they make some concerted effort to take care of the earth.