[Music] w [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi guys I want to share with you today some of the differences between Switzerland and America that I think you guys are going to find um interesting and maybe funny as well so um we've been here for a while so some of these things don't shock us as much but I remember when we first got here the first year we kept saying oh this is different and this is different and this is different and and there are so many like major drastic differences so um I hope you enjoy the
video and and comment below and let us know um what you think so so the first thing is is when you're in America you're used to shopping like any day of the week almost any hour of the day well when you come to Switzerland everything closes after 6:30 so you can be like sure maybe till 7:00 now some are open till 700 7:30 um but basically everything is closed so if if you want to get let's say bread because you need bread for the morning or whatever you can forget about it everything's closed you can
find little grocery stores at train stations sometimes or um gas stations and and maybe get a loaf of bread but if not like forget about doing your groceries uh after after anytime after 7ish um then the other thing is on Sundays every single thing's closed which is awesome for families so imagine like all the moms and dads they're all off everyone's kind of having a family day uh everyone's kind of UN and doing stuff at the lake and whatever and it's just awesome but um good luck if you needed something or anything like that you
kind of just plan differently but when you're used to having uh Sundays that everything's open it's just kind of like oh my gosh what am I going to do I can't go shopping I can't do anything so it just is really like a rest and relaxation day which is what was it was intended for so um it's kind of nice but it is it is one of the biggest differences so the other thing is if you go out for any kind of meal here in all of Europe pretty much you can expect that it will
take a long time and nothing is rushed so you're not going to have someone coming up to you every 2 seconds asking like how's the meal or how's it going or uh do you guys want dessert or do you want the check or this or that it's just kind of like everything takes a long time you have to ask for the bill and then expect that to even take a long time so don't be in a rush just like get in the mode and enjoy your meal basically cuz that's what they do in here in
Europe they just take their time um there's no refills on your drink so guys if you order a drink expect it to be like super small it's not like a big ginormous drink that you're going to get it's going to be small and there's no refills so don't even like think to ask for that it's just non-existent um the other thing they don't usually do especially here in sand is they don't give you ice so I don't know what it is with us North Americans but we're always used to having ice in our drinks and
we like our drinks cold um but they just don't do that here so you don't get ice cubes in your drinks and when you ask sometimes they're kind of like like looking at you like as if you're strange or something so just to be expected um oh one of the things that's um I'm not I'm going through kind of points so I'm at Point like four right now so one of the things is like take away meals or take away drinks so if you're from anywhere in North America you're used to eating in your car
well Europeans they just don't do that I mean it's just it's like taboo you don't you don't eat in your car and you know drink in your car and uh the first time I went to go get a coffee to go is like what you want it to go like she called it takeway so they call it a little different and I'm like yeah you know like to go take away and she's like no and then she gave me a glass with my coffee in it and I'm like no no in a to go cup
and she's like just take the glass and leave kind of thing like I was like seriously like so I left with their glass and never to be returned so I thought that was really funny I kind of learned my lesson like she was kind of like you you know probably American Canadian whatever they just assume we're all Americans but she's probably why can't you just sit and enjoy your coffee like everyone else and take the time but we're always in a rush right so um the other thing is kind of funny is you know we
still take our to- Go cups sometimes with us whether it's a smoothie or a coffee and people see us on the street and they're like you guys are such Americans and they'll say that to us so we just think it's funny and uh we still eat in the car we take our food and off we go so we still kind of have that in US ingrained in us and um hard to get out of uh mentality when when you've lived in America for so many years so um let's see number six I wrote down is
that it's like everywhere you go expect to have these like super narrow streets and lots of roundabouts which is awesome because there's no waiting at stoplights when you're going through a village or a city you just don't have to like stop every you know two seconds for a stoplight you just kind of flows the traffic flows so in the beginning like people like beep at you or like you know tell you off because sometimes you don't do it correctly or whatever so learn that before you come in case uh you need to learn how it
works and good luck if you go to Ireland cuz everything's on the other side of the street and it's even more confusing with their roundabouts so yeah the streets are super narrow so like you have to get used to driving like really tightly close to cars and like just like expect that so at the beginning you're always like H like kind of like scared but um you'll get used to it really fast so that was one of the things um oh yeah Point number seven the passing Lane on a highway is really for passing in
so if you're driving on the highway and you're kind of like just kind of hanging out in the passing Lane like we do in America that doesn't happen here you'll quickly have somebody coming right up to your like right up on you flashing lights telling you to move over so like the passing Lane is really meant for passing and you just kind of go and come in and that's just how it goes here they still like keep those rules right uh Point number eight is expect to get a speeding ticket with a radar so in
Switzerland they have like hidden Radars everywhere and I'm telling you if you even go over like the last ticket I got was in June so not too long ago and I was going 4 km over the speed limit and I got a 40 Buck ticket so they don't laugh they uh they don't laugh around or they don't mess around with it and it's I guess they don't really have many tool roads you pay 45 Franks for the whole year to use all the roads in Switzerland which is amazing um so that's a way of making
money I guess right um number nine is they don't have AC so in Switzerland it's very rare to have AC see as you can see now I'm probably like really like hot and look a little sweaty well that's cuz I am hot and sweaty it's 30° out and it's like humid and hot and they just don't have AC and so the benefit of that is for any of you who live in Florida you know that you don't leave home without a sweater I mean when we were in Florida living there you just had to always
carry a sweater and people would be like if they were visiting why are you bringing a sweater and you're like oh you'll see cuz you go into any Target or any supermarket and you freeze your butt off any shopping while you're just Frozen movies Frozen everything here it's different because they don't have AC so you just you just enjoy it and if they do they don't crank it so cold that you're you know Frozen right so that's kind of nice and not nice when it gets really hot um number 10 this is a cashless or
not a cashless sorry a cash Society so everywhere you go you can expect to pay pretty much in cash I mean a lot of places take cards nowadays but still if you're buying a coffee or ice cream or whatever have some cash on you cuz they take cash and even in tourist areas we were up on going up in the tower one day and we wanted ice cream and a coffee and whatever and it didn't come to 20 Franks or it was just under 20 Franks and they're like sorry it's not 20 Franks you can't
pay with the card and I'm like all right so you're going to say bye to 19 Franks and they're like yep so it's just the way it is so you know bring cash always with you and um they pay with $100 or 100 Frank bills 200 Frank bills no one will like think you're strange or weird they they use big bills and they carry cash so that's the way it is um what else oh the traffic lights here are kind of different too so that's interesting if you're a traffic light yeah a lot of cars
will first of all turn their cars off they do that a lot at the traffic lights and it goes from like red or sorry yellow then red and then it goes back to yellow and then green so you can actually start going when it's yellow to Green which is kind of different never seen that other than here um everything is kind of use at your own risk that's why I have for Point number 12 because everywhere you go there's no like um you know kind of like at Disney where it's like keep your arms and
hands inside the ride at all times that doesn't exist here it's like use that your own risk if you're an idiot and you like touch something that's hot well that's your fault right and so the first time we experienced that was when we first arrived they had candle making for kids and I'm telling you they had these like big pots of hot wax and the kids were allowed to just go dip their candles in the hot wax and I remember thinking like oh my gosh like our daughter was five at the time and she was
like dipping in and it was like this guy with like this rased guy with like big dreads and he's like hey guys it's all cool you know dip your candles and stuff like that and it was just like it was our first experience we're like wo this is weird and then we went all the way up to the top of the mountain and the kids can literally like walk off a cliff there was no barriers there was no signs there was no nothing it's all like you know if you're going to be on the cliff
then you know be smart enough not to fall off and so that's I guess why they have people that die when they go on Hikes here in Switzerland because you can fall off cliffs and and it could be fatal so um so there you go that was kind of different for us um Point number 13 um expect to see young kids and and people with alcohol because they are allowed to drink on the streets you see people in the in the train stations or on the train um drinking beer the the legal age I think
is 16 for for beer and hard liquor is like probably 18 or something like that so it's kind of like more of a social thing so it's not like people uh drink to like get you know drunk like they might do in America it's more of a just relax and part of the culture so that's to be expected um Point number 14 they do not provide shopping bags when you go shopping so make sure you always have your bags like we never leave home without a bag I even have a portable bag inside my bag
because you always tend to need it you know you go to a store and uh they don't pack your bags for you so when you are going through the cash you just expect to um bag your own bags and bring your own um reusable bags which is awesome because there's no waste of plastic so and this has been like this for gosh probably like 30 years here already so hey America we are way behind except for Whole Foods who does a great job in other stores that are starting to catch on which is good um
number let's see what number am I at 15 oh this is funny so when you go up to a cash register and or somebody in a store you must say hello first and then ask them for help if not you're considered extremely rude so my first time doing that I was like at a cash and I was putting my stuff on and the lady wasn't like putting it through she was just like looking at me like waiting and then I'm like looking and she goes hello and I'm like oh hello and then she started right
and so like they'll wait to say hello another time I went up to somebody and you know sometimes you're just like uh excuse me can I have a blah blah blah or do you know where this is and the guy looked at me he's like well you could say hello first and I was like oh hello so it's just like their culture it's like first you say hello then you do this then you do that so it's just you know respect right so that was that um let's see what else do I have written down
here number 16 Switzerland is like one of the safest countries in the world I mean you see people hitchhiking everywhere um you see kids walking to school at the age of six all by themselves like every the kids walk alone Everywhere You Go kids are alone on the streets they play at the parks like it's just unbelievable so it's a safe country and people are kind of like on the watch out you know people are kind of like the Swiss people are kind of like police like they always watch for their neighbors and stuff like
that so it's really nice it's very Community oriented and just super super super safe um along with that uh we had an experience last year where our kids went on a sailboat it was like a big huge sailboat and uh typically like when you enroll your kids in an activity or something it's like you have to fill out your papers you have to sign off on it you have to give them ID KIRO was like what's your first name you know Julia aie Chloe okay welcome and then they're like we'll see you guys at whatever
time and we're like what what like there's like nothing it was just like here you go have fun and we're taking your kids so it's just like totally different you know no waivers no nothing and that's just like people it's just different right and so that was we were shocked that we were like wow that's so cool so um what else part along that goes with this point is that when you go to the schools here there's no Gates like the schools don't have like these big Gates around them with like locked down and like
security you can walk on to any school the parents walk on to the school property they mingle they hang out they talk the moms talk to each other and like hey blah blah blah whatever and it's just like really really a really cool atmosphere you can walk into the school at any time it's not locked down like we have in America and it's just I don't know it's just so safe and so different that it's just like it feels like we're back like like what it should be right so that's that's really nice one of
the cool things and this isn't a point that's kind of comes in within here is like there's no homework for kids on weekends it's the law they cannot give your kids homework on the weekends which is so nice because then all the families can hang out enjoy no stress no Sunday night like oh my gosh we have to do this project whatever so that's really good I'm not sure if it applies to high school ages but definitely in the younger uh school grades it applies so that's really cool so I have what else oh number
17 no trash anywhere Switzerland is one of the the cleanest countries that you'll see um it's super clean you see street cleaners everywhere and they're just like people are conscious of it and I think it's just like I don't know it's just one of the cleanest and picturest countries as you probably see on our Instagram account but it is one of the the cleanest and prettiest countries I think in the World um number 18 I wrote expect to pay for bathrooms so when you even stop at a gas station stop or you're at the train
station or wherever you are bathrooms can cost up to one Frank and that's just to be expected so keep some pocket change because when you got to go you got to go um what else 19 I wrote the the Swiss are very quiet and they have like the quietest Transportation Systems I mean you go on a train it's like super quiet like nobody's talking talking and when you're used to coming from America you're kind of like BL like you're so loud in the beginning everyone would like staring at us and we're like why are they
looking at us and like our youngest she was five and we always joke we say like she's our American cuz she lived I think more in Florida at that time and she would just be so loud and people would actually tell her to be quiet they'd be like quiet you know like we' be like oh my gosh like okay so like now we learn now when we go places we're quiet in the Halls like you're just quiet just like and like kids like behave you know it's just like if not they're told so that was
like a huge difference for us a very funny one too um oh tying into the no quiet rule you cannot do your recycling on a Sunday because that can make noise right and Sunday is supposed to be a restful day so it's a lot you cannot recycle on a Sunday so I didn't know that one until recently which is like wao funny okay I have number 20 this is like a big one guys and and I I hope like we can change back America or do something about this but there are no diets here people
do not go on a diet like in America and there's no need to diet you see people eating like rich foods baguettes like crazy like so much bread and just healthy food but they don't have to diet they just live and in their daily lives of living they're exercising they're walking cuz you walk everywhere and it's just like there's no like Diet per se but the biggest difference is is like there's hardly any fast foods people take time to eat they make more home-cooked meals and it's just like maybe I don't know a better quality
of food because it's not the fast processed junk that you get in America and that's just like such a concern it was one of the main um determining factors of one of the reasons we left America because we were scared of our health and and um it was just it's just horrible like when you're in the United States you almost are like an alien to everything around you because unless you like pack your own lunch bring your own food you can't really live and go everywhere because everywhere you're you know every home you go to
or every family you encounter they're eating certain foods that you just can't eat if you want to live a healthy lifestyle whereas here you can live a healthy lifestyle you can go out you can eat everything and you're not like scared that you know like what are you putting in your body so anyway I hope you enjoyed the differences of uh the two different cultures and and the differences of the different countries and uh make sure you comment and let us know some of your thoughts um I know if you're a European watching this you're
kind of like yeah yeah we know all this already like this is like but for you know when you're coming from America into Europe these are like kind of like shots you're like wo it's just such a different world right so anyway thanks for watching and uh we'll see you next time bye [Music] [Music] [Applause]
