More Swiss moments
1. On the morning's train commute the other day... One young man (circa age 18) was chatting up a girl. I didn't pay much mind expect that they were talking in High German, and the girl was talking rather loudly with poor pronounciation (I suspect she was partially deaf. Also - she committed the apparent fashion faux pas of white socks and black shoes). In any event, I couldn't help listening in, as I use these morning commutes to learn new words, expressions, and a bit of common Swiss German to boot.
Their conversation took a turn into the unfortunate when he asked is she was Swiss (she answered in the affirmative). He then went on to talk about a very common Swiss complaint at the moment. At his school, there are apparently only about 0.25 Swiss, another quarter are "Turks" and another are "Bosnian/Croats" - who apparently fight all the time. Oddly, he followed that up with a statement that "Swiss girls are the best" and that he wants to have "Swiss babies." At one level, I think he needs to sharpen up his chat up line, on another: gah! that racism! Could be worse I suppose, and insular societies progress soooo slowly.
2. After that morning's conversation, it put me in a speculative mood. So it should come as no surprise that I began to wonder about the future of the villages I was traveling through in Fricktal/Frick Valley. Those many pretty villages with their ironic mix of signs pleading voters vote for the proposed anti-asylum seeker legislation, and "Herzliche Wilkommen/Heartful Welcome" seem to be undergoing quite a transition. All of them are in a fine balance at the moment, with commuting workers, families, youths, and children that could more or less secure the future of these communities. Likewise, there is a comfortable mix of farming, services, industry, and mining. BUT ... the primary schools aren't nearly as full as the older-age schools, all roadside buildings and strips of land feature a whole lot of "For Sale" signs, whilst large detached house construction is underway on hills and hidden areas away from the road. One Swiss-Bulgarian classmate works (at only a fraction of his potential, of course) in one of these villages.
I can't help wondering if this part of Aargau, located as it is between Zurich and Basel, will become more of a commuters' in-fill, perhaps echoing the sort of development seen between Glasgow-Edinburgh.
3. Come afternoon, I ended up with one of the awesomest bus drivers EVAH! Besides fulfilling the role of common thread through the weave of village life (he greeted and recognised many en route), he had a totally cool deep Jazz-DJ voice on the microphone. As we pulled up to Frick, he knew the train schedule by heart, and announced which platform one needed for which train going to which destination at what time.
4. Switzerland has some odd concepts of efficiency.
Example 1 - Even though the Migros Clubschule programme is bleeding resources, and my own language cluster may have difficulty continuing for lack of enough students, Migros continues to maintain their Clubschules and language programmes in both Aarau and Olten. Nevermind that Basel is also relatively easy to get to, but is programmatically disconnected due to Cantonal borders. It seems no one wants to implement one obvious economy of centralising particular programmes in accessible areas, at least until demand increases in new nodes. (Mind you, these Clubschules are something of community centres and offer a wide variety of services besides language training, including yoga and health programmes)
Example 2 - The late train to Basel. By 8pm, SBB reduced the train length to 8 cars (from a norm of 10-12, including double-decked cars - eliminated in evening), which was populated by less than 12 passengers. I think I counted 8 in the passing train, actually. One would think they would cut the numbers of cars even further down to more closely match actual demand (say 1 car or 2) and pocket the savings in wear & tear to running stock. But as Larissa pointed out, in a small country like CH, the warehousing of unused rolling stock may actually be higher than running more of the cars empty.
... maybe I just don't understand the train business. I figure with a fully electrified system as CH has, the costs are relatively flat for the operator.
Their conversation took a turn into the unfortunate when he asked is she was Swiss (she answered in the affirmative). He then went on to talk about a very common Swiss complaint at the moment. At his school, there are apparently only about 0.25 Swiss, another quarter are "Turks" and another are "Bosnian/Croats" - who apparently fight all the time. Oddly, he followed that up with a statement that "Swiss girls are the best" and that he wants to have "Swiss babies." At one level, I think he needs to sharpen up his chat up line, on another: gah! that racism! Could be worse I suppose, and insular societies progress soooo slowly.
2. After that morning's conversation, it put me in a speculative mood. So it should come as no surprise that I began to wonder about the future of the villages I was traveling through in Fricktal/Frick Valley. Those many pretty villages with their ironic mix of signs pleading voters vote for the proposed anti-asylum seeker legislation, and "Herzliche Wilkommen/Heartful Welcome" seem to be undergoing quite a transition. All of them are in a fine balance at the moment, with commuting workers, families, youths, and children that could more or less secure the future of these communities. Likewise, there is a comfortable mix of farming, services, industry, and mining. BUT ... the primary schools aren't nearly as full as the older-age schools, all roadside buildings and strips of land feature a whole lot of "For Sale" signs, whilst large detached house construction is underway on hills and hidden areas away from the road. One Swiss-Bulgarian classmate works (at only a fraction of his potential, of course) in one of these villages.
I can't help wondering if this part of Aargau, located as it is between Zurich and Basel, will become more of a commuters' in-fill, perhaps echoing the sort of development seen between Glasgow-Edinburgh.
3. Come afternoon, I ended up with one of the awesomest bus drivers EVAH! Besides fulfilling the role of common thread through the weave of village life (he greeted and recognised many en route), he had a totally cool deep Jazz-DJ voice on the microphone. As we pulled up to Frick, he knew the train schedule by heart, and announced which platform one needed for which train going to which destination at what time.
4. Switzerland has some odd concepts of efficiency.
Example 1 - Even though the Migros Clubschule programme is bleeding resources, and my own language cluster may have difficulty continuing for lack of enough students, Migros continues to maintain their Clubschules and language programmes in both Aarau and Olten. Nevermind that Basel is also relatively easy to get to, but is programmatically disconnected due to Cantonal borders. It seems no one wants to implement one obvious economy of centralising particular programmes in accessible areas, at least until demand increases in new nodes. (Mind you, these Clubschules are something of community centres and offer a wide variety of services besides language training, including yoga and health programmes)
Example 2 - The late train to Basel. By 8pm, SBB reduced the train length to 8 cars (from a norm of 10-12, including double-decked cars - eliminated in evening), which was populated by less than 12 passengers. I think I counted 8 in the passing train, actually. One would think they would cut the numbers of cars even further down to more closely match actual demand (say 1 car or 2) and pocket the savings in wear & tear to running stock. But as Larissa pointed out, in a small country like CH, the warehousing of unused rolling stock may actually be higher than running more of the cars empty.
... maybe I just don't understand the train business. I figure with a fully electrified system as CH has, the costs are relatively flat for the operator.