really, Switzerland? a rant on a variety of topics.

Dear reader,

I apologize: I promised you Barcelona, and instead you get my angry ramblings about things that set me off today. Barcelona is next, this I promise. But first: rantings!

1) I woke up with a lovely little tune in my head this morning, and I should have written it down because now it's gone. Argh.

2) AHHHHHH, it is so bloody cold in this country! Anything that stands still long enough is more than likely to freeze, because our temperatures haven't been over freezing in almost THREE WEEKS. This is not fun for me. I am now being forced to exercise in doors, which is trickier here than it was in Denver because A, we have no space for an elliptical trainer here (oh, how I miss my elliptical machine!!), and B, see no. 3 below.

2a) Also, I was so cold outside today, as I was waiting three minutes for a tram, that I was compelled to spend FIVE FRANCS on glühwein, on which I promptly burned my tongue. Ugh.

2b) And also, in yet another drawback to winter, for some reason, the trams rumbling past our apartment are much louder in the cold weather. Science geeks, discuss.

3) And finally. Really, Switzerland, why with the maintaining of your hallowed, heavily (one might even say, militantly) guarded neutrality? I realize there exists the perception that this is somehow a great commodity for you, and in this day and age of the flailing Euro, I get it, at least from a financial perspective. But on other fronts? It ain't the 1800s (or the 1910s, or the 1940s, or any other major European wartime decade) anymore, kids. Also, I fully appreciate the benefits of the Schengen (or as I like to call it, the Schinken) Agreement, but seriously: WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST BE MAIL-ORDER AND ONLINE-SHOPPING FRIENDS? WHY IS IT SO HARD, AND SO EXPENSIVE, TO ORDER ITEMS OF A PERFECTLY INNOCENT AND BENEFICIAL NATURE FROM OUTSIDE OF THIS COUNTRY? Even the various Amazon websites and their associated merchants around Europe (of course, there's no Amazon.ch...!) largely refuse to ship here. It's not like I want to import illegal drugs or murderers or inferior dairy products: I just want a Bosu ball and some acai supplements. And maybe some contact juice for my husband, because IN SWITZERLAND IT COSTS 5 TIMES WHAT IT COSTS IN THE U.S. And because you keep your import duties and tariffs and taxes so ridiculously high, it's hard to find a vendor of anything who is willing to ship here. And when I can, the cost of whatever I'm ordering is usually, at minimum, doubled due to said duties/tariffs/taxes and the sheer amount of paperwork and bureaucratic crap said vendor has to wade through in order to ship here. Sometimes I'd be happy to spend extra amounts of money to shop within Switzerland, but generally, I'M TRYING TO BUY THESE THINGS FROM AN EXTERNAL VENDOR BECAUSE WHATEVER I'M LOOKING FOR DOESN'T EXIST HERE, or is completely impossible to find. Maybe the Swiss are just completely contented with the safe, prosperous, meh food, beautiful-countryside lives that it's possible to live here, but honestly, there really are awesome things (like Bosu balls! and Asian food!) that come from places that aren't Switzerland. Reach out and touch someone, Switzerland, and make some new neighboring-European-countries'-post-office friends, or at least act like you're located on the  European continent (SMACK...IN...THE...MIDDLE, as a matter of fact) and surrender the weird, inwardly-focused, isolationist, lone-wolf tendencies. At least as pertains to shipping and shopping. That is all.

In conclusion, because my knees and core workouts need it, I will most likely eventually end up spending 230 francs ($250!!) for a stupid Bosu ball (which, if you did not click on the link above, costs around $110 in the bloody U.S.). Which I will have to order online from the single and only Swiss vendor I could find selling these things. Ugh, again.


(Excuse me, miss, but I think your frustration is showing.)