travel

zurich

it was nice. the zurich kids were really cool too. they were much more gamer/game-developer than the rest of the company here. which is good. we had 3 days of meetings, the first day not so useful, but the next two were good. we all hung out (3 other st louis kids and at least 2 of the zurich kids) all day everyday, from 9am until 11pm. everything was all good and nobody wanted to kill anyone.

so a funny thing. those crazy swiss people sure don't like going against peer pressure. for instance. you ask for water at a restaurant. they go.. gas or no-gas. you go, just some water. which is fine since everyone there speaks perfect english. when they come back they start filling your glass with bottled water. so the next time you get smarter and ask for tap water. the waiter is fine and everything is well, but your swiss friends are not so happy. what you did was terribly embarrasing. that's right. you are a cheap bastard if you just want some non-bottled water with your dinner. considering that the bottled-water cost the same a beer, that's a lot. another example. they have this tram system. it works on the honor system. you buy a ticket and get on. in theory a dude might randomly check it, if you don't have one, that's a 80 CHF fine. which is cool, but it would never work in america. it cost 7.20 CHF for a day pass and they rarely check. rarely as in.. the swiss guys had only seen it happen a few times and they ride the tram everyday. the swiss even have a word for people that would abuse the system like that.. schwitzfadder (or something)

the crap part was that it was very expensive. i guess the dollar being shit did not help much. 3.80 CHF for a sprite seems a bit excessive. especially when the exchange rate is near 1:1 right now.

oh yah. so the swiss people have a cool law that would go over really well here. every citizen up to like 70 or so is required to go to the shooting range and shoot a rifle to record their marksmanship once a year. awesome.