Outdoors in Switzerland: Slideshow

Pictured Above: a trail over the town of Ennetbürgen

There's no doubt about it--Switzerland is best enjoyed outdoors. Thousands of hiking trails, hundreds of vineyard strolls, and tens of lake boats await. Unfortunately, some places in Switzerland, like Zurich, get more rain than London, but when the weather cooperates, there's no more beautiful place on earth.

If you need proof or just need help deciding where in Switzerland to go on a beautiful day like today, have a look at my slideshow: Outdoors in Switzerland. It was published yesterday on National Geographic's glimpse.org.

Won't You Be My Neighbor (And Tell Me Your First Name?!)

Even though we share a wall, it took me over a year to learn my Swiss neighbor's first name, not to mention get to know her. But the struggle was worth it. Three years later, we're great friends. We go flower picking together. We complain about noise together. We even drink together (like we're going to do tonight). But in Switzerland, making friends is a long process. Maybe some of you have stories about making Swiss friends. If so, I'd love to hear them.

Anyhow, I wanted to share my story about making friends in Switzerland, "A Raging Party Turned by 73-year-old Neighbor Into My Friend" . It's up on glimpse.org and is the featured story.

(photo above by Brian Opyd)

How to Speak "Swiss"

No matter how good my German gets, I'll always be labeled a foreigner in Switzerland. Last week, I was at an "Information Day" for residents of my town, when the woman giving the presentation asked if anyone would prefer she speak in high German as opposed to Swiss German. No one said anything after a second, but finally, just as I got brave enough to say, "Ja", another woman joined me. Immediately, the entire room of people turned to stare at who the two "foreigners" were. I tried to look innocent.

Despite the stigma attached to wanting high German spoken, I was glad I went through the pain since I could understand about 80-85% of the presentation that way. If it had been given in Swiss German, I probably would have been at about 20% comprehension--the languages are that different.

How to speak "Swiss" is a complicated question, but one I've tried to answer in a fun way in the piece "How to speak Swiss" for National Geographic's glimpse.org. Check it out. I'd be happy to know what you think. And thanks again to all of my linguistically talented translators for your help with this piece.

Spat and Spew the Swine Flu

Swine flu is confirmed in Switzerland now--in my little town, no less. But this isn't stopping anyone from going about their usual germ spewing habits on public transportation...click here to read my rant about the Swiss germ spewers on the National Geographic Glimpse website.

And for anyone interested in writing or doing photography for National Geographic Glimpse, they are accepting applications for their Correspondents Program now for the fall. You must be a U.S. citizen, between 18-30 (at time of application), and living abroad for at least 10 weeks in the same location. Give me a shout if you'd like more info, or visit here to find out how to apply.

Drunk Guy Roams Swiss Public Transport

To read my latest on the Raclette Rant, please visit glimpse.org

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Unexpected Switzerland

Short break from Barcelona for the moment.

As some of you know, I am serving as a National Geographic Glimpse Correspondent for this spring. One of my assignments is to create a photo slideshow of Switzerland. For this, I am thinking of showing the side of Switzerland unknown to tourists. One good example is the graffiti art wall in Neuenhof, featured recently by Twissted Swisster. I’m also looking for modern architecture, palm trees, things (or people)that are not the usual mountain/cow /chalet in the snow/skier scenes of Switzerland.

I’d love any ideas you may have from wherever you live or know of in Switzerland that's on the other side of ordinary. If you are Swiss and do something unique and would be interested in having yourself photographed, please let me know as well. Thanks in advance. I'm looking forward to showing off a new side of Switzerland.

New Blog, The Raclette Rant, on glimpse.org

Don’t worry, One Big Yodel isn’t going anywhere. But for those of you who need more ways to waste time reading my pointless musings about Switzerland, you can check out a new blog of mine, The Raclette Rant over on National Geographic’s glimpse.org.

This spring I am serving as one of eight National Geographic Glimpse Correspondents and will be posting to The Raclette Rant regularly as part of this program. For any of you that are U.S. citizens living abroad, between the ages of 18-30, and interested in writing or photography, you can also also apply to be a Correspondent. Applications for Fall 2009 are due June 1.

Being a Correspondent comes with a little pay, a lot of honor, and a great experience reporting on your country of residence--at least I think that's what I got myself into. You can read more about the program by visiting glimpse.org and clicking on the Correspondents Program.