Twissted Swisster

I did something I have never done in Switzerland before.  I went for a doctor’s appointment.  I had heard the stories of “The Desk’ and all the typing that proceeds a physical examination but I still wasn’t prepared for it.  It is so totally not like the U.S. experience that I was still thrown off by it.

First off,  I was in the waiting room when I was approached by a man in a black polo shirt and brown corduroy pants with a stethoscope wrapped around his neck.  He had the appropriate look and age to be just another T.V. personality from the latest American emergency medicine drama.   I figured him to be a nurse of some sort.  I was quickly surprised when he introduced himself as the Dr. and invited me to follow him.  When was the last time a doctor ever came into an American waiting room,  ohne white coat, and greeted a patient.  Wow, this was starting out strange.

Step 2, enter the office.  And I mean office complete with all the necessities.  Book shelves, desk, computer, desk chair and in the back corner an examining table.  We sat and spoke for a few minutes about the reason for my visit and after about 10 minutes of conversation and note taking on the computer we moved to the phase of a more traditional U.S. examination.  Siting high on the examining table, legs dangling like a 10 year old kid.

The experience was pleasant, and I felt like the Doctor spent more time with me that his U.S. counterparts.  Part of that may be the fact that he did all the things normally done by a nurse in the U.S.  like hieght and wieght and blood pressure are acutally done by the doctor.

One interesting side note, you are charged by the minute for your visit.  That just reminds me of some sort of late night T.V. ad in the U.S.

When I was moving to Switzerland I had little idea of how life would change from a world of plastic credit cards to a world of cash. When we first arrived it was difficult to use credit cards. Many resturants wouldn’t accept cards, and if they did the waiter would be hard pressed to accept the card unless you were paying more than a 30 Franc tab.

Rather quickly I moved from using plastic back to visiting the Swiss ATMs on a regular basis so that I could pay immediately, for everyting, in cash.

The thing that struck me is that so many stores were prepared to accept large bills. In the U.S. it is often hard to buy something with a bill larger than 20 USD, without the clerk having to check the bill for forgery, or without having to call a ‘manager’ over to check the bill. The assumption seems to be that Americans just don’t have those kind of bills to carry around.

In Switzerland things are different. Store clerks are happy to take your 100s, or even 200 Swiss Franc notes to pay for that 1.30 Franc loaf of bread. Not a problem.

So imagine my dismay when we went to France for a recent holiday and they seem to take it to another extreme. Traveling in France we soon discovered that French culture is similar to Swiss culture in that plastic can be shuned. However, they also seem to have a disdain for cash. Much like everything else in France, even paying seems to be ‘impossible.’

The French seem to expect exact change for everything. ‘Sorry sir, we can not accept your 10 Euro note, would you have 7 Euro 60 cent?,’ I would be told on a regular basis. I can understand a lack of change for really large bills, but to give this line repeatedly, over and over, for purchase under 20 Euros when bills were no larger than 10s or 20s seems a bit much.

If it is high tourist season, and the ice cream shops and tourist souvenir shops are expecting the hords of travelers coming from Paris to the Cote de Azur, then expect to have a bit of extra cash on hand to make some change. After all, we don’t all walk the streets with our change jars ready to pay exact for everything we purchase.