Partial integration in a Swiss border town

I would have to say, broadly speaking, that most expats living here follow two steps to integrate; trying to follow the ‘rules’ and trying to learn the local language. If you have lived in Switzerland you’ll quickly realise there are rules and laws governing almost every aspect of daily life. When you move into a new apartment you will having several rules to follow, failure to comply will result in quick denunciation by your (Swiss) neighbours to your landlord, the local polizei or perhaps even border control. No noise after 10pm, no laundry after 9pm, you must tie your paper recycling in a stack with a piece of paper-based string, glass needs to be sorted by colour before being recycled, no playing musical instruments during lunch time and in the case of our building no satellite dishes, flower pots or any other items may be placed in eyesight from the outside i.e. the aesthetic integrity of the original architects design of our plain white building must be kept intact.

In terms of language acquisition, most expats try to learn German ( hochdeutsch) while they are here. Ironically, the Swiss speak a dialect of German and they too need classes to learn hochdeutsch. According to a German friend, the Swiss German of Basel is like ancient German spoken very slowly with a few French words thrown in. Funnily enough, hochdeutsch is used in newspapers, books and on TV. I just find it amazing that this purely oral dialect could survive so well when dialects in other countries like France are dying out.

Heißen Sie willkommen zu Mainz

Mainz as a city dates back to antiquity (it was the Roman political capital of Upper Germania) and was also a department of France till Napoleon’s fall. After quickly consulting the Mainz tourist information website and looking through their recommend walking tours I picked out some sights of interest and made up my own. Armed with a map of the area that only highlighted parking spots I was determined to do everything on my list. It took me a whole 5 minutes to get lost. Maybe it was all the people whizzing by in bicycles that distracted me. I took the wrong street somewhere and ended up in the commercial end of town with all the shops. This wasn’t the best place for me to be as a compulsive sale-o-holic but I enjoyed wandering around the pedestrian precinct for a while, enjoying the sun and the small squares (platz) with their water features and bright flowers.

Here are some of the highlights of my first day sightseeing:

Dom cathedral: Romanesque church first consecrated in the year 1009.

Rhine River and Fort Malakoff: nice tree lined walking path along the bank of the Rhine River starting from the red stone Malakoff Fort which dates back to the 17th century and now has grass growing on its roof.

Old town: cobble stone streets, small vine bars and speciality stores below restored half-timbered houses.

Old city tower: I love things like this. You could just imagine Rapunzel tossing her hair down out of one of the turret windows. Straight out of a fairy tale, except for the huge parking lot next to it and the kebab shop across the street. I wonder if the people that live here appreciate what they have.

St Ignaz: Really beautiful sunlit church built around 1763, adorned with frescos on the ceilings, light stained glass windows and dazzling gold everywhere.


Citadel: dating from 1660, was once used to protect the city but now appears to be home to municipal offices and a sports complex of sorts. At the far end are the ruins of the Drusus Stone, erected over 2000 years ago by the troops of General Drusus, the founder of the Roman military encampment at the Rhine, following his death. Kinda freaky to be honest.

St Stephen: started in 990 AD, destroyed many times over the centuries including during WW II only to be restored once again and still standing today. In an act of Christian – Jewish unity, the Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall designed the stained glass windows in this Gothic church.

After a great dinner of maultaschen and sangria, IH and I headed over to the Rhine and walked down to the Mainz Port. Behind a series of rundown looking warehouses was one of the most random bar/cafes I’ve ever been to. The Hafengarten ( literally translated as Harbour Garden) is entirely outdoors, with several tables and some deck chairs on a floor of pebbles. A huge crane hangs over a stage area made up what looked like green hay blocks. It was really laid back and there were people of all ages and even some families. I’d recommend this place to anyone. It’s a great spot to watch the sun set over tons of freight containers after a hard day of sight seeing!

Momentan in Deutschland

Inga is one of my best friends from my exchange year in Paris. It has been 18 months since I last saw her and after many failed attempts at trying to meet up in different places we have finally decided to meet in Mainz, Germany during the last week of her internship there. I left Basel expecting to be in Mainz in 3 hours. Fate had other plans as I accidentally boarded the wrong train during my change in Mannheim, ending up in Stuttgart (totally the wrong direction). The ticket controller looked at me seriously and said, ‘This time look at what train you are getting on.’ I felt stupid for about 2 minutes and then realised at least I’ll get to see more of the German country side and advance a bit further in Anna Karenina. From Stuttgart I had to backtrack past Mannheim again, get a train to Frankfurt and from there change trains for Mainz. I arrived in Mainz 3 hours later than expected. I noticed that all of the German trains I took, unlike the Swiss trains, were running at least 5-15 minutes late. This is supposedly quite normal, but seems oddly in contrast with that stereotype of Germans always being on time.

Je suis de retour!

After a long hiatus I’m back blogging. Here’s a fill in of the last few months. May started with my arrival back home in Sydney with my family. Staying in a more than comfortable 46th floor apartment in the city centre with amazing panoramic views accompanied by unseasonably warm temperatures made me decide to stay on a bit longer after my graduation ceremony. After 6 days my family went back home and I moved in with my friend S.B in a great split level older style apartment above the local TAB and across the road from a lively Arabic restaurant. The Concord/Burwood area has a great mixed Anglo- Italian- Lebanese-Chinese/Korean- Indian population that makes all the restaurants, cafes, shops and overheard multilingual conversations on the bus very interesting. Funnily enough it turned out my good friends from my salsa class M &F lived down the street from me. We got to hang out heaps and split cabs home so it was fun and really handy.

I’m happy to say going out in Sydney got a whole lot better after the total smoking ban in clubs and bars came out during my stay. The former law, allowing smoking only in part of the bar, was really inadequate, the smoke just wafted its way into the non- smoking areas and in some places it was only a table or a lounge that separated the two sections. So yea for me, no longer did I go home smelling like a cigarette. Hopefully this will help people quit smoking and avoid diseases such as these.

My friend G.S introduced me to the Landmark Forum which was another great blessing. After attending their weekend course I stopped falling asleep at 3pm when I didn’t have a coffee and I saw how I shouldn’t dwell on things from the past. It was great. It was like an inspiring sermon at church, except about common sense and here the people sitting next to you tell you about all their problems and deepest secrets between sessions. Another friend G, re-introduced me to Jeff Buckley by inviting me along to a Tribute Night held at Manning Bar at Usyd. His honest, heartfelt lyrics really touched me. I can’t believe this amazing artist had gone under my music radar for so long.

As an UNHCR monthly donor I got an invite to hear an Australian UNHCR humanitarian field worker speak about her experiences in Dafur. It was so moving. Refugees and internally displaced peoples really need some basic items for their physical survival. The UNHCR provides them with items like safe birthing kits, jerry cans for collecting water and tarpaulin for shelter. It doesn’t sound like much but it’s actually the difference between life and death. I started volunteering at the Fundraising Office of the UNHCR soon after (work was nice enough to let me have Friday afternoons off). I also went along to Villawood Detention centre with my friend L to visit some refugees that are being held there. Most of the people I spoke to had been in Australia for a while, living and working here, in some cases for a number of years. Then they had gotten caught; usually by someone close to them tipping off the authorities. A few cases must be coming up soon; I wish everyone there the best of luck and hope their new lives on the ‘outside’ can begin as soon as possible. We all deserve a chance at a better life, especially if we are willing to work hard and live in peace with others.


The past three months in Sydney were amazing. Reconnecting with my friends and my hometown, reading tons of books on my commute to work and finally earning some money were the highlights of my stay. Personal growth is priceless. But in the end there’s only a certain limit of stability a wanderer can take. So after haggling with Fitness First to get out of my year long gym contract, negotiating with dad to let me use his frequent flyer points, saying goodbye to everyone that I had just gotten back in my life not so long before and ending my temping assignment, I was back on a plane again. I did Sydney-Singapore-Frankfurt-London-Zurich in about 30 hours. Dad met me in Zurich and something much unexpected happened. The train to Basel was 10 minutes late and arrived on a different platform than usual. I realised at that point that anything can happen in life. Just as rare as a late train in Switzerland is, it did happen. So now it’s August and I’m back in Basel and almost in the exact same situation I was in back in April when I arrived here from Egypt. I say almost, because the situation may be the same but I’m not. I’m looking forward to what the future will bring and finding out what God has in store for me.

RIP Jeff Buckley...10 years on

Grace (Jeff Buckley / Gary Lucas)

There's the moon asking to stay
Long enough for the clouds to fly me away
Well it's my time coming, i'm not afraid to die
My fading voice sings of love,
But she cries to the clicking of time
Of time
Wait in the fire...
And she weeps on my arm
Walking to the bright lights in sorrow
Oh drink a bit of wine we both might go tomorrow
Oh my love
And the rain is falling and i believe
My time has come
It reminds me of the pain
I might leave
Leave behind
Wait in the fire...
And I feel them drown my name
So easy to know and forget with this kiss
I'm not afraid to go but it goes so slow


Last Goodbye (Jeff Buckley)

This is our last goodbye
I hate to feel the love between us die
But it's over
Just hear this and then i'll go
You gave me more to live for
More than you'll ever know
This is our last embrace
Must I dream and always see your face
Why can't we overcome this wall
Well, maybe it's just because i didn't know you at all
Kiss me, please kiss me
But kiss me out of desire, babe, and not consolation
You know it makes me so angry 'cause i know that in time
I'll only make you cry, this is our last goodbye
Did you say 'no, this can't happen to me,'
And did you rush to the phone to call
Was there a voice unkind in the back of your mind
Saying maybe you didn't know him at all
You didn't know him at all, oh, you didn't know
Well, the bells out in the church tower chime
Burning clues into this heart of mine
Thinking so hard on her soft eyes and the memories
Offer signs that it's over... it's over

On the Road

The thing that counts most in the pursuit of happiness is choosing the right traveling companion. - anon

No children. No future. No hope.

So stated the tag line of the 2006 movie 'Children of Men' (http://www.childrenofmen.net ). This film presented a possible future where infertility and the banning of all immigration left a world falling apart with cities in decay, where poverty, homelessness, statelessness and violence reigned. The treatment of refugees, which seemed so extreme and violent, was reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps while at the same time reflected the American treatment of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. The movie revolves around the first woman to be pregnant in however many years and how she has to get to a safe haven. It was a bit like those novels we had to read in year 9, like the 'Triffids'. Anyway, I was watching this film, thinking as I always have, that immigration is really the key. Not the problem, but the solution to falling birth rates and all the associated problems that comes with an aging population. Now the UN agrees too, according to the findings of a recent report "Migration de remplacement : est-ce une solution pour les populations en déclin et vieillissantes ?".

Pays riche et vieux cherche immigrés
LE MONDE | 28.04.07

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