278 Winter Wonderland #1 People

Multi-languages, cosmopolitans and immigrants are not unusual in Europe at all. But in Zurich I really met several different people and languages. On the flight to Zurich I had friendly conversation with an ex-trader working in USA, California, who moved to Zurich with his wife. He said he wished peace and quiet life in beautiful nature. Then I met a Japanese lady who was on way to home with her baby. I helped her carrying the baby and baggage at the airport. She kindly told me that she should have invited me to her home if only my stay in the city would be much longer. I thanked her and her husband and said goodbye. 

At Basel station I was looking for the way to a museum and went to the tourist information office. It was busy. A woman was handling 5-6 tourists and she switched the language respectively. German, French, Italian and English (Judging from the national-flag-badges she wore on her name plate, she could speak more than 5 languages). It seems nothing special, but impressive.

70% of Zurich people are working in service-sector. 10% of the citizens are somehow connected to the Zurich university. I'm not sure how these figures appeal to readers, but from my impression people in Zurich seldom shows plain friendliness or passionate expression, but they are friendly and talkative.  And they seemed to be professional citizen with highly developed quality-of-life and morals, living in highly-efficient and cultured city.

On my way back flight, I was sitting next to an old gentleman. For the first time I had difficulty in communicating with foreign people because he could only speak French, Italian and Spanish. My poor French and his limited English barely made sense. He was a Roman Catholic priest. As we were unable to talk a lot, I watched the latest Die Hard movie and wondered if it would be a disrespect to see Hollywood action film next to priest. But he didn't care at all and kept reading his Bible.

One of those who I met during my stay is unforgettable. In Basel a decent German taxi driver and I enjoyed talking for a while. He said he had retired and just got started his second job as a taxi driver on that day (not for money, but for enjoying driving and meeting people, he said.) I happened to be his first passenger!