It's BIZARRO WORLD! Everything's upside down!

Where is home you ask? Home is a lovely 5-story apartment in southern section of Geneva, right by the heart of the commercial shopping areas. We're on the 4th floor, in a fantastic, two bedroom (1 actual bedroom, and 1 living-room converted into a bedroom), 1 bathroom, and 1 kitchen apartment.


By far the strangest, but perhaps practical "room" in the entire apartment, is the so-called "toilet-room". Yep, it's exactly what it is. It's just a room...or rather a closet, with a toilet in there. So yes, you have to go to another room to wash your hands after making lemonade and fudge. A tad on the claustrophobic side, but at least you can take a shower while people take care of business.


When I first arrived, I also found out that our apartment is on a street called "Rue de Pré-Jérôme". What I also found out was that on account of the previous tenants' misinterpretation of the pronounciation of the street, the apartment has also been been aptly nicknamed, "The Pleasure Dome". Catchy, isn't it?


But the view from my room is fantastic. There's a true European flavour whenever you look at the buildings in the neighbourhood. Different, but much better looking than the ugly drab buildings back at home.


Anyway, on Saturday, as the apartment was being professionally cleaned, Albert, Jean-Louis, and I, all went out for lunch. And of all the choices that were available to us for dining, naturally, we opted for Chinese food. (does that really surprise you?) As much as I would've liked to have sampled their Dim-Sum cuisine, I wasn't exactly in the mood to drop around 25 Fr for about 1/6 of the amount I would usually eat at that price. So Szechuan Pork and rice it was. And at 12 Fr, it was probably the closest thing to a decent meal at as cheap a price as possible. (* I should probably take this time to note that 1 Fr is equivalent to $1 CAD)

Based on that lunch, I quickly discovered just how expensive it is to eat in Switzerland. And I don't just mean, "eat-out", I mean, simply "eat". Just buying groceries to cook at home isn't cheap either. Most things are usually about double the price back in Canada. (ie. Yogurt-0.60 Fr; Cereal-7 Fr; 1/2 pint of tomato sauce-2.00 Fr; 1 bag of soup - 2.50 Fr; etc) But when you're here, you really can't make comparisons, cuz if you do, you'll probably starve.

Aside from the cost of living, I will make note of the differences in food that I've noticed so far:

Milk doesn't come any lower than 1.8% fat. And in fact, the fat content goes up to 5-8%. On top of that, the milk also has a sweet taste to it as well. So we're talking about a thicker and sweeter milk than you're probably used to. It's almost like drinking condensed milk! YUM! But the strangest thing about the milk, is that it's stored at room temperature! From what I've been told, the milk in Switzerland is pasturized at a higher temperature, so it can withstand spoilage from warm weather.


Ribena is back! OMG, I think I had mini-seizure when I saw my beloved children's drink syrup back on the shelf! Did I buy a bottle? You betcha! 2 bottles in fact! And to think, I have to fly half-way around the world just to find artificial black current syrup drink!

Although I don't think it surprises me TOO much, but there was a discount meat bin in the grocery store. Now when I say "discount" we're talking like the odds and ends and leftovers of the meats that haven't gotten around to being sold. Not exactly appetizing, but I was surprised to see such a thing in a big city grocery store.

Chinese grocery stores are CLEAN! Yeah, you heard me! They're CLEAN! How is this possible? Those Swiss-folk must be really influential if you can convince Asian store owners to keep a clean establishment! I was expecting to be walking through a pile of scattered chicken entrails and have my body reek of fish and that old musty chinese smell (you know, the kind of smell that old people have). Instead I find a clean white tiled floor! With carefully arranged bottles, boxes of Pocky, and neatly piled bags of rice! I am STUNNED! To top that all off, you know those little instant noodle bowls, where you just add hot water to fill your belly with good ol' MSG and egg noodles? In Canada, you can get an entire box for like $0.75, right? In Geneva, they sell each bowl for 2.50 Fr. Man, I had better not start missing any home cookin' or else I'm gonna starve real fast!

No canned soup. Sounds weird, doesn't it? Believe it or not, I have yet to see a can of soup in Geneva. Powdered soup is packaged in packets, and liquid soup is packaged in plastic pouches. I guess that cuts down on recycling? And that's a good thing?


Cheap chocolate. Yep, I'm in the land of chocolate. Yeah, just think of the Simpsons tune when Homer's imagination takes him to the Land of Chocolate. Okay, not quite the same, considering that building foundations could not possibly be constructed of chocolate, but you get the idea. This place has chocolate. Lots and lots of it. And it's cheap too. And I'm not talking about chocolate bars, like your run of the mill, "Mars", "Twix", or "Crispy Crunch". I'm talking solid chocolate bars. I think I'll shut up now and let the bar speak for itself.