- Eating out
In America you could get a taco or a slice of pizza or a hot dog for only $1, but here one of those probably costs like $4 or more. The first time we ate at a restaurant we got burgers and each burger was like 20 Swiss Francs (basically $20 US)! After about three restaurants and spending at around $80 — $100 each time, we started eating at home like 6 out of 7 days a week. Even McDonalds is expensive. A Big Mac meal is 10 Francs! We’ve only gone there like four times since we’ve been in Zurich whereas in America Daddy would go at least once a week.
2. Wide selection of groceries
In Switzerland we can only find some ingredients from Asia and the ones we do find are super expensive also. A small bottle of soy sauce is $4. When Daddy made teriyaki chicken (a Japanese dish) he had to make his own teriyaki sauce because there wasn’t any good ones here. But, in America you could get a giant bottle of teriyaki sauce from Costco that would last us for like six months. When we first got to Switzerland we brought two containers of furikake (a Japanese rice seasoning) because we thought it would be hard to find. We did find it at only one place in Italy but it was like double the price and didn’t even taste exactly the same.
3. Refills and free condiments
So, apparently free refills is an American thing, but since I had lived in America for my whole life I was used to free refills. Also, you have to pay 20 cents for one ketchup packet here at fast food restaurants, so we’d end up buying only one packet each meal if even that. Once, we were in France and in a mall there was a Five Guys (an American fast food burger chain). At that time we were really craving an American burger so we bought one burger to share plus a drink. The drink machine they had was exactly the kind you would see in America so Daddy assumed it also had free refills. He first got us a little bit of Sprite in his cup, but when he went to refill his cup with Coke Zero, nothing came out of the machine. It turned out that they put a sticker under the cup so you could only fill it once. So he had to explain it to the worker and they let him fill his cup with Coke Zero (but just once).
4. Ice / free water
In America, whenever we went to a restaurant they would always give us free water and maybe with ice. Here, they almost never give you water for free, and they never give you ice. The water is usually the same price as soda. Mommy isn’t even a person who really liked ice but even she misses it sometimes. But, the water thing is really weird because, you can drink the tap water and there are fountains all around Zurich with free water spitting out 24/7. You just can’t get free water in restaurants. Also, here the freezers are small and the fridge has no ice machine so we have to use trays and it takes forever.
5. Amazon
So, first of all you can get stuff in Zurich via Amazon but you have to pay duty. The way you do that is actually using Amazon.de (Germany) and that is why you have to pay duty (because there is no Amazon in Switzerland). In America you wouldn’t even have to get out of the house to get a gift. All you had to do was order something from Amazon and it would show up at your house in 2 days.
6. The library in English
The reason I miss the library being in English is, that here they have no books in English. So I can only read the books I have or read limited books on Kindle unlimited. Like at one visit we would check out like 15 books and read them at home. Also, here you have to pay to set a book on hold but not in America.
7. Communicating in a language I can speak
In America I could communicate with tons of people because everyone spoke English. Now I can’t really talk to my friends that only speak German and another language so I can’t really talk to them that much. For example, sometimes I want to explain something like a game but I don’t know the words to describe it.
8. Friends and Family
One of the reasons I miss my friends and family is. Since on Sunday most things are closed I think we would hang out together often, and we wouldn’t just stay at home for like a quarter of the day. Also, I really want to tell them all about the things that we learned here.
9. Stuff being open on Sunday
This idea completely blew my mind! How come almost everything is closed on Sunday? The only places open are a couple of restaurants and everything in the main station. Imagine how much money they are missing out on by not opening on Sunday. The first Sunday was like our fourth day and we got caught by surprise because it makes no sense. In America Sunday and Saturday would both be days to get things done and have some fun. But, here you have to get all the ingredients ready on Saturday, and do all your errands because you can’t do it on Sunday.
10. Netflix
There is Netflix in Switzerland, but their selection is way less. For example: They only have some of the Marvel movies unlike in America where you could watch most of them. Another example is that in America they have three seasons of Garfield on Netflix, but here they only have one season.
