I read the interesting 'A day in Malaysia' by Vijay and I'd like to let you know
how life is in Switzerland. It's not so exotic, methinks, but maybe exotic enough for you?

I have no problem with you printing my e-mail address.
Bring on those conservatives! All other are welcome too ;)

Cheers, Simon
mailto:sieber@giub.unibe.ch

***

So, a typical day in the life of a working-student in the semi-exotic land of the Boring Swiss.

When the alarm clock rings at 6 o'clock, I snooze it for a while and dream a bit more.
I need this hour in the morning for waking up. That's also the time for dreaming
(I don't remember other dreams, I seem to sleep too deeply).
About 7.00 to 7.30 I get up, shower, have a coffee and feed my two cats.
The cats are brother and sister, but very different. One is male, with
red-brown tiger stripes, the other female with fine, dark, long hair.
But both have the same white patches in the face...

As I live alone I usually don't breakfast, two cups of coffee is enough
till the morning break when I get a croissant to eat. But before that I
have yet to commute to the town. I life an about 30 min. drive outside
of the town of Bern, which also serves as a capital to Switzerland.
Usually I take the car only for the 2 km ride to the bus station and get
on the postal bus to Bern Central Station. Other times I drive the 10 km
to the bottom of the valley and get on the suburban train, also to Central Station.
Only seldom I drive the whole way to the University, because there are almost
no parking spaces nearby. I'm faster with public traffic, and it's also cheaper,
because parking fees are from 10 francs upwards!

So, about 9.00 I'm at my desk at the Geographical Institute of the
University of Bern where I am writing at my thesis for the licentiate/diploma.
I do a bit of data analysis and writing, then there's sometimes a lecture or a meeting.
My working week is usually three days at the uni and two days at my job - I'm
earning my study 100% without scholarships or external funding. Sometimes my
parents give a bit of money for expensive things like dental treatments or the like.
The job is at the federal office for refugees - living near the capital has some
advantages (well paid student jobs in federal offices) - where I work as
an assistant in the statistics department.

Lunch break I'm eating outside with friends, when the weather is fine.
We buy sandwiches, pizza slices or salads and sit on public places or in parks.
The afternoon I spend the same as the morning. Depending on the work I leave
between 15.30 and 18.00 and ride home, again by public transportation.
Then it's feeding cats again, eating a bit of this or that before I leave again for downtown.
Tonight for example I meet some friends for the movies (Mondays are cheaper).
Usually I visit friends at their home, because most don't have a car and I live a bit too far away.

Then there's always the small things I do. Reading the newspaper, browsing on the 'net
(especially Bartcop :), enjoying a good book (currently the biography of Mahatma Gandhi),
messaging to my friends on the mobile phone; TV is not so important in my life, but I collect
movies on DVD; and last but not least and not so a small thing to do: my girlfriend...

Well, let me bore you a bit more with politics and society. I may say, that I like to be a Swiss.
As always there are things that are not so good in this country, too. But generally the good
sides outweigh the bad sides. Politically Switzerland is unbelievably stable. Last week the
elections in the Canton Bern (at state level) has proved this right. There were almost no changes.
Only at the level of the small parties there were shifting seats, but these were 10 seats out of 200.
The State of Bern has a conservative government (for you Americans: liberal); 5 out of 7 members
of the executive council are conservatives (Swiss People's Party 3, Free-minded Democrats 2);
and the remaining two seats are taken by Social Democrats (for you Americans: ultra leftist commies).

This political stability is here because
a) the people are contented (only 29 % even bothered to go to the election) and
b) the government is based on the participation and the consensus of the big 3 or 4 parties and
c) in all important things the sovereign (the people) has the last say anyways.

The downside of all this is that politics are boring! And changing something takes a long, long time
because of the consensus principle. If some party is not satisfied with the legislation, they can force a
popular vote - so during legislation the politicians are working out the 'pièces de résistance' and doing
away with them - unless they want to risk a popular vote which could overthrow all that hard work.

And maybe you heard (although I don't think so), that last month Switzerland has voted to join the UNO.
We were the last country alongside the Vatican City to remain outside of the UN, but finally we thought
it to be the right time to join... Remarkable is, though, that the Swiss may be the last country, but we are
the first and only country ever to hold a popular vote about joining the United Nations!

With this observation I want to close this e-mail.

E schöne*! Simon

* = have a nice day!