Swiss XVII

Today was a bit of an anticlimax. I had the interview, hopefully leading up to me being a real Swissie.

I have been studying pretty hard. That broschure I got before the interview has been read a number of times, and many of my friends have been questioning me, helping me to prepare for the interview.

Ok, some of the information I knew but now I also know everything about the political parties, the various "Rat" on the three different levels (Bund, Kanton, Gemeinde) and how many members they all have. As well as learning the names of the three females on the top level, the four men I chose to forget. And that wasn't even in the broschure.

I know the history of Zürich and of Switzerland, I know how many sports organizations there are in Zürich (500), I know the rights and the obligations (mainly to pay tax :) a Swiss citizen has, I know about the various political rights.

I even know that Zürich in the 400 BC was called Turicum and that Ulrich Zwingli (who I at first thought was mostly known for having a bus stop called up after him) in the 1600's was a reformer who welcomed refugees to the city.

Anyway, this time I was greeted by a younger man, and he was very friendly and open, as supposed to the first time when I visited the City council house to get the application form. I immediately felt at ease.

He first took the documents I had brought on request, and reviewed them for a few minutes. Then I was invited to join, and he explained the procedure. First I have to get approved by the city, which I got the impression wasn't gonna be a problem. And if approved, I get my name printed in a newspaper (gotta start reading The Tagblatt!). Then the application is sent to the cantonal level and at last to the country level. Every level issues a charge (no surprise there!).

Then we talked about my financial situation (of course they wanna make sure that I'm not gonna cost them anything), and finally...drumroll...he asked if I had read the broschure. I responded vividly that "all" my friends have been involved and that I've been studying really hard, which btw is true, and he just said "ok, so then you know". What??? Not even one question I got.

So there you go. But I don't feel that I studied for nothing, it was all interesting and now I know. Well, I'll know for sure in about eight months. This is the estimated time it'll take for them to process my application. So my plan of having a party, celebrating, in september was probably a bit optimistic.

Slow but steady, that's ze Swiss for you!