Suisse Moments

I had a moment yesterday.  We were driving through the alps on our way to Lucerne, Switzerland and everything was so incredibly gorgeous.  The mountains here are like none that I've seen before and everything is so clean and pretty.  I was listening to some of my favorite music and we came around a mountain and saw a gorgeous valley with mountains shooting up all around it.  I think it was the most beautiful and amazing thing that I had ever seen.  I couldn't wipe this big goofy grin off of my face.

We arrived in Lucerne yesterday afternoon and I think that it is my favorite location yet.  Despite the OUTRAGEOUS prices (a beer costs $10 a pint!!!), it is sooooo incredibly cool!  Last night, we had dinner as a group and then I studied for the rest of the night as we had our final exam in International Business Strategies this morning (it went well, by the way).  After the exam, some friends and I walked around Lucerne, enjoying dinner by Lake Luzern, and then doing a little shopping.  The big thing in Switzerland is, of course, watches.  We went to the major dealer and looked at all the things we could buy if we had real jobs (by the way... most expensive watch of the day, a diamond and crystal encrusted Omega for $165,000).

It is odd, though, being in a country whose GDP per capita is higher than the United States.  Its a new experience, for me anyway, and its kind of interesting.  Everything is really clean, organized, and people seem to be extremely happy.  In Russia, shop keepers have no concept of customer service (a result of not having to sell anything to stay in business during the planned economy phase.  One of my business profs once told me that in Soviet Russia, the shopkeepers credo was that they pretended to work, and the government pretended to pay them).  When you walked into a shop to buy something, you often felt as though you were bothering them.  Here, though, the shopkeepers are very polite and as helpful as they possibly can be.  Its kind of like walking into the Buckle, except far far far less annoying.

The next week is very promising.  We don't have class and have three really interesting corporate visits--the World Trade Organization, Credit Suisse, and Nestle Chocolate.  On Tuesday, we move to Geneva for four days, and then move to the Netherlands for about three and a half weeks.  We also have a lot of free time in the next week to explore Switzerland (Suisse!!!).