Stories & Experience from when I lived in Switzerland

I lived in Switzerland from 2011 – 2012. So, I moved there when I was 11 and left when I was 12. The reason we moved there was because my Dad’s company opened a branch there and he was given the opportunity to work at the new branch (in Lausanne, Switzerland).

I have many opinions about when I lived there and many funny stories. Some sad too.

Mainly though, I look back now at how I really felt when I was living there and i don’t really remember how I felt. I just remember I got in trouble a fair bit, was lonely, and was also a class clown. I distinctly remember that my school was an hour away. I had to take a bus and two trains to get there. So during lunchtime, which was two hours long, everybody else got to go home because they lived close by. But since I lived an hour away, if I went home for lunch, I basically could only stay for five minutes before having to go back to school (the trip to go home and back to school would take two hours).

So I vividly remember that I was forced to stay at school during lunch. I remember I sat on this ledge in the courtyard under a window, and would literally just talk to myself. I’d pretend I was talking into a microphone recording life stories to upload to YouTube. I’d talk about how my classmates bullied me, and how I was so lonely, and about other opinions I had on things.

Things weren’t all bad though at lunchtime. I remember my classmates sometimes would invite me to lunch at their house. Or we’d just roam around Lausanne.

That was one of the amazing things about that time. There was public transportation everywhere and it was normalized, even looked at as cool. So at lunchtime, me and my classmates, all of us being like 12 years old, were able to go on voyages anytime we wanted. This is in contrast to living in America, where it’s not so normalized. I mean, in major cities like New York City, yeah. But in my suburban area, not so much. In my area, taking the bus is kind of considered ghetto and lower class. Even the train too. Driving around and getting Ubers is more normalized.

So yeah, Switzerland was really cool in that regard. Feeling bored? Just go with some friends on a bus or train anywhere you want. We all had metro passes so all bus and train rides were covered by it. We’d go to friends’ house or we’d go to the main popular hang out area called ‘Ouchy’ or ‘Lausanne-Flon’. With all that, like I said, you could just go after school and take a train or bus to a friends’ house. Unlimited freedom. Not like in America where people would rather just go home immediately after school then scroll their phone on TikTok or play video games in their room. I mean, I guess atleast america has going that a lot of people do school and other after school activities.

So yeah, what were some funny stories from there? The funniest one was probably in music class. I only remember the main bits though. I remember one day in the music class, we were all supposed to playing the xylophone. We were all following the teacher and playing what she asked. Then in the middle of the class, some of the kids decided to goof off. Particularly, I remember a Portuguese classmate named Joao. In the middle of the class playing the right notes and following the right rythmn, Joao would decide to play a completely random absurd and funny sounding note. Then everyone would do that. And the funny stuff was how random the timing was.

We’d all be playing the right notes on rhythm and then one or more of the other guys in the class would just play something really random. This would happen over and over and I could not stop laughing whenever this was happening. And I think my laughter gave a good reaction to the boys to make them continue doing this lol. I also participated with the random notes too. And then the girls in the class were laughing a bit but they played the right notes.

It got so bad for the teacher that she brought in the dean or something to reprimand us. Then the teacher wrote in all of our agendas (our main mini school notebook) that we acted out and we had to show the message to our parents and have them sign. At the time my parents were heavy alcoholics so when I showed them it didn’t really register that I did anything bad and they signed and never punished me.

Then there was the time it was me and this Portuguese riding the train. She noticed I had a golden tooth cap in my mouth (like rappers have) and she stuck her fingers in my mouth to touch it. For some reason I look back on this that this girl liked me and that’s why she did that, and I regret not asking her out or something, since i’ve had very few opportunities in life where women have liked me like that.

Then there was the time with my classmate Patrik. This guy really liked me as a friend even though he’d bully me and fight me like my other classmates. It was lunchtime and we were, as kids do, going around trying to find the most crazy exciting stuff to do. So we’re in the school courtyard, which is like four stories up, and we see this french friendgroup hanging out walking around. Me and Patrik both decide to yell insults and slurs at them! Then they look up at us and say how they’re coming to beat our asses. We perpetuate things by saying how we weren’t scared and kept swearing at them and not caring.

Then they start running up the stairs to the courtyard we’re at. So we bolt it into the lunchroom. Then we’re in the lunchroom and the guys catch up to us. They were gonna beat us up but now they couldn’t since we’re in public. I remember one of the chefs in the lunch room told them to beat it and he protected us. After that i’m pretty sure we never got beat up by those guys and they forgot about us.

Then there was the time when I slept over Patrik’s house. He was Czechoslovakian. I remember he lived in a little apartment with his Slovakian mother. He showed me his laptop where he played CS 1.6. Crazy how that was the first time I saw Counter Strike firsthand and how he was cool enough to play it.

Oh yeah, and all of us went around on scooters around Lausanne and went on fun voyages with them all of the time. We could even go to places like McDonald’s or sandwich shops all on our own through using buses and metros. These days in the place I live in America, at a young age like that, it’s unheard of. You either get a ride from your parents or walk there. It’s uncommon to ride a scooter or bicycle that far to McDonald’s or whatever. Nowadays even kids use electronic scooters for that stuff lol, not public transportation like buses or trains.

Then there was the time where at lunch I was sad because I missed America and had to stay at school for two hours at lunch instead of being able to go home like the others. Then apparently some older girls who were like 16 or 17, talked to me and asked what was wrong. I told them I was sad there and that I got bullied a lot. They comforted me and the hot blonde girl kissed me on the cheek. All my classmates were baffled that I got a kiss and asked how I did it.

Then there were the native swiss french teenagers who went to school there. At lunch or in breakfast time, they’d go to me and call me fat in french and it’d sometimes escalate to them punching me. Even my classmates would punch me too. I remember sometimes it was cause I insulted them joking around, or it was genuinely because they were cruel and liked hitting and picking on me.

Then there was the time Patrik invited me to downtown Lausanne and she bought McDonald’s for all of us. I remember the McDonald’s in Lausanne was so expensive. But it tasted fresher and looked like more care was put into making it. It just looked better and put together better. Plus, the average wage in switzerland is minimum wage there which is like 22 CHF or $23 an hour. Here where I live in the U.S., McDonald’s pays like 16 an hour.

Then I remember a time where Patrik’s family invited me to some recreational facility with a playground and indoor activities like chess and checkers.

Then there was the time where my class went on a 7 day trip to this huge mountain on a hill. There was skiing and outdoor activities and this weird bougie lunch area. I remember we all slept in the same room and one day someone stole like $700 (converted from the swiss currency CHF) from my teacher.

I also remember we all went to shower one time at the place and one of the Portuguese classmates named Joao just whipped out his p*nis and it was like 6 inches soft which is strange for a 12 year old.

Then there was the time when I went to swiss alps on a field trip to ski and snowboard. Or the times when i’d skateboard and do scooter tricks with my neighbor Bennet. Or we’d player soccer in the field across from our house. Or how everyday, me, my brother and Bennett would play Skate 3 all day. Then there was the time I play MW2 all day with people who lived in America, so I had horrible connection. That was also the time I made Call Of Duty Video edits alone in my room for YouTube.

There was also the time I stayed up till 4am talking to random gamers on Skype I met from Call of Duty clans.

There was also the time when me and Patrik were walking to our woodshop class and this notorious big bully was sitting down talking to people in front of the building. Patrik literally walked up to the guy and insulted him then the dude flat out punched him. Then Patrik looked at me for help but I didn’t know what to do. I did not know why Patrik insulted the dude and how he didn’t expect to get beat up.. so I sort of just did nothing and moved on.

Then there were the million times that my classmates would bully me. It’d either be ‘playfighting’ according to them or that I provoked them with my joking insults or they’d legitimately bully me because they were cruel sometimes. I remember this guy named Tim had an umbrella and all us guy classmates were walking up the hill to school and a fight broke out and I broke his umbrella and fought them. Then in school we all got written up and my parents found out.

Then there was the time in my english class there that I was goofing off especially a lot. She threatened to call me parents so I forced myself to cry and she forgived me and let me off the hook.

Or the time when I went to my teacher and asked how to stop getting bullied. She told me that when I was being bullied, to look at my bully, put my hand up and face my palm to the bully and say “STOP.”.

I was the first person in my class to finish the book which was used to learn french and my teacher wrote that in my agena for my parents to see.

Then there was the time me and Patrik went on a voyage by ourselves to get to swimming class. But we arrived late and bailed. Or the time me and Patrik went to the cinema in school to watch movies. Or there was the time we all went to Joao’s house and it smells like Portuguese food and we played soccer.

Or the time we all hung out and played on a playground with this crazy rope geometric shape contraption.

I had many fun experiences in Switzerland. Thanks for reading.

-Viper