I’ve been living among the Swiss for 4.5 months now. My German is steadily improving but there are times when I feel like it’s pointless. Recently, I worked two weeks on a trial basis for a construction company that specialized in old wood. Around here “old” translates to “really old” so we’re talking hundreds of years; medieval. It would have been a great job for me but I think the difficulties with communication cost me the job.
I know I’ve mentioned it before but I’m going to again because it’s super frustrating and I need to bitch about it: I’m learning German but the Swiss don’t speak German, they speak Swiss-German. I’m learning German because there are no Swiss-German courses and the closest thing is High-German. What is worse, there are many different dialects of Swiss-German in Switzerland. Appenzell, apparently, has one of the most extreme of these dialects. When they speak “Appenzellerdeutsch” I can understand a few words if I’m lucky. The Swiss learn High-German in school because Swiss-German isn’t a written language so all of their paperwork, including newspapers, is in High-German. The problem, however, is that this is a small town and many of the locals haven’t spoken High-German or any other language since school so it’s very difficult for them to switch languages just so the strange American guy can understand them. What makes it feel even more futile is that I have met people that lived here for many years and they STILL can’t speak Swiss-German. Communication isn’t the only problem, however.
I haven’t worked a “normal” job in over 4 years. I am very much a stranger to the nine-to-five lifestyle and, to be honest, I’m quite afraid of it. Over the last ten years or so, I’ve been slowly transitioning away from that lifestyle for a good reason; It made me very unhappy. The longest I have ever held a job in my entire life is about a year. I’ve had so many jobs that I can’t remember most of them. There were many factors contributing to my failure to become a working class hero but not one of them was laziness. The time-is money-attitude left me feeling like employers want nothing more than to squeeze as much money as possible out of people including their employees . The “get-in-line” and “don’t-rock-the-boat” mentalities were a stark contrast to my desire to feel significant. My inability to take criticism was definitely a problem. The constant stress of feeling inadequate. The monotony…the monotony……….tha…ma…na…ta…neeeeeeee. I struggled for years to find other options.
When I left Switzerland after my divorce, I discovered something I never expected to find; happiness. In those two years I found a peace within myself that I never dreamed was possible. Again, there were many reasons for this but one reason is very clear; I was appreciated. I didn’t work for money (except on a few occasions). I was working for food and a bed. Because of this, my hosts were very appreciative of all the work I did and I never felt guilty for taking time to think or to enjoy the nature around me. They cared about my happiness. They would try to find work that I enjoyed.  It was amazing. I was certain that I had found my way. Sure, this lifestyle didn’t lead to a safe and secure future, not even close, but I didn’t care; those are modern inventions, anyhow!  People have lived for thousands of years without 401(k)’s and retirement plans and from what I’ve seen, you can barely describe what some modern people do as “living”. I was ready to live this lifestyle until the end of my days or until something better came along. What I wasn’t prepared for was how quickly that something would come.
I knew that when I asked Kristina to join me in my new lifestyle that it was a silly question. First, that’s simply not what she wants and second, it wouldn’t be at all like traveling alone. As much as I loved my new life, I couldn’t imagine it working with a long-term relationship.  Traveling for so long also gave me a great appreciation for home and family. Reaching the decision to reenter a lifestyle that I had so many problems with was not an easy process.  At that time, Kristina was in Switzerland while I was in Sweden. We couldn’t go one hour without communicating with each other via email, messenger or Skype so it was a big deal when we stopped speaking for an entire day so that I could think hard about whether or not to attempt domestication again. It wasn’t only about work, I was also unsuccessful in marriage. I had already proven that I didn’t have what it takes to stand the perpetual grind of marriage and by this time in my travels I was reading a book called The Ethical Slut and was seriously questioning monogamy altogether! Was I really going to dive head-first back into that life?! The cons were obvious and relentless in my head but I had hope that the new skills I had learned in the past years would allow me to continue being happy no matter where I am or what I am doing. It was one of the most difficult decisions of my life.
So did I make a good choice?
After I hit “publish” on this blog post, I’m going to get up, walk into the kitchen and dance with my wonderful wife.
❤