New Beginnings in Switzerland

  Observation #1 I have noticed one big difference between Swiss and English class. We all know what an English class looks like when there is no teacher. Fights, weapons, wars, riots, shouting. I was surprised to see that Swiss children without a teacher behaved differently. One could almost call it a boring past-time, but it is something more. They love to play with paper and pen.   They fold paper into magical things, they play battleships, noughts and crosses, and many other games, and they are very good at them. Observation #2   The official languages in Switzerland are Italian, French and German. Romansh has a special status. Secretly French, Italian and German parts don't really like each other. Officially, the government insists that these three and only these three languages guarantee a strong constitution. English is a bit of a problem. On one hand the government stopped the only English speaking radio, they translate all the English movies into French and German

  There are a lot of things that I do not understand and the love thing is one of them. I mean, there is this girl in our class. Her name is Izzy. She's nothing extraordinary. Long hair. Long legs. Big smile. Just like any other girl. Mark has been going all gooey around her. He says he's got a problem with parents, with math, and with his love life. What?   One day Mark and Izzy started to think up names for 'their children'. What? If somebody asks me I would say first they need to establish a language that they can communicate in. Izzy is Portuguese and Mark is Polish and their English is not that great. Suddenly Henry tells me that he is in love with Izzy's easy smile. What? Mark and Henry confront Izzy to see which one of them is more cute. Izzy says that they are both very cute and she points out to little Jack and says that he is also very cute. This causes a little problem. Who else does Izzy think is cute? Does Mark win or does Henry win? Why can'

  When the boys are changing for their gym or swimming lesson, the changing rooms are a riot. This is mainly because the boys are on their own, without supervision. It might have something to do with changing clothes and adrenaline before and after sport. I'm not sure. Maybe it's just the way that boys are. I am a peaceful kind of guy and riots unsettle me. I try to keep away from them and neutral like Switzerland. To say the truth, screaming, shouting and banging lockers are not my thing. But when you are changing for sports this cannot be avoided.   I've noticed today that somebody's sport shoe landed quite painfully on my shin. I thought it was a mistake. When another shoe landed in the same shin I started to feel pain and I thought that somebody maybe not aiming well. When yet another sport shoe landed on the same shin as mine i was very positive that it was not a mistake and somebody is actually aiming very well indeed. Unfortunately this is not a situation wh