Foreign exchange students are facing multiple challenges, especially in the beginning of their adventure. Some people even get major culture shocks, which luckily did not apply to me. Although there are a couple of differences, most things are pretty similar. First of all, I want to give some background information about my home country Switzerland.

Switzerland is a federal republic in Europe composed of 26 cantons, which are similar to provinces. Approximately 8.5 million people currently live (January 2022) in Switzerland. There are four languages spoken in Switzerland: German, what is mostly spoken in the northeast and the majority, French mostly in the western part, Italian in the south and an almost extinct language called Romansh in specific parts of the southeast. Today, Romansh is mainly used in one out of the 26 cantons. 

Even though some things are the same, there are a couple of differences between Swiss and American culture. One of the biggest differences for me personally is the lack of public transportation in Omaha. In Zurich, I am really used to just hop on the train whenever I wanted and to just be able to drive everywhere by train or even by bike. Sidewalks are everywhere in Switzerland and Zurich is usually always pretty packed with people.  In Downtown Omaha, there are barely people walking on foot. Everything here is made for cars. There are even drive-thru stations at pharmacies to pick up prescriptions. I have never seen this in Switzerland before. 

Also, there are restaurants literally everywhere. Hungry? Just pull over and enjoy any kind of food. There are many different options freshly prepared any time. From Chinese to Italian and French to typical American fast food, anything is available. Most of the time, there are often many different restaurant chains at the same location to just increase the competition. My favorite fast food place is Taco Bell. I always get the chicken quesadilla there. In Switzerland, we only have McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway and KFC as fast food chains. Tax added, it costs less than five dollars and is a perfect snack if you are a little hungry.  

Taxes are never included in the mentioned price and is an additional cost, depending on the product or service. In Switzerland, taxes are almost always included in the price and make 7.7% for most products. Talking about prices and the cost of living, thrift stores are much more popular here than in Switzerland. Multiple companies such as Goodwill or Thrift World sell clothes in the best conditions for fair prices. I thrifted almost my whole closet. For me it is really nice to wear vintage clothes or just clothing that would cost multiple times as much in other stores. Also, it is a very good way to help save the earth by not supporting fast fashion companies all the time, but that is a different conversation. There are recycling stations all over the place in Switzerland and every family I know recycles glass, PET, and cans from regular trash.  

Another topic I want to talk about are holidays. I started noticing in the beginning of August, grocery stores started selling Halloween decorations already. I was really surprised since in Switzerland there is not even that much decoration available unless you are actually intentionally looking for it. Some people decorate their house and put fancy little figures in their front yards, but most people have handmade decorations children made for their families and that is all.  

Talking about grocery stores in general, everything is bigger and the selection is broader than in Switzerland for most products. A Target or Walmart has everything combined at one place. You can buy food, clothes, books, decoration, stationery, lottery tickets and everything one needs to live at the same place. In Switzerland we have places like this too, but it would be a mall with multiple stores where you could go and buy your specific products you were looking for. Of course we have stores with wide varieties and different kind of goods, but they are usually in bigger or more industrial areas, not very common in rural parts of the country. The variety of fruits and vegetables are the same here and in Europe. However, one thing I’m missing is fresh, crunchy bread. In Switzerland, bread is much more common than in the US. We do have all kinds of bread with different ingredients from potato to bacon over onions and nuts and seeds, everything is possible. Also, every big train station has multiple bakeries who all sell freshly brewed coffee in recyclable cups, fresh croissants and other sweet patisseries. We do have Starbucks in every big city, but it is definitely not as common as it is here. Scooter’s does not exist at all, but I love Scooters. They have extremely good oat milk cappuccinos, I wish I could afford a lifetime supply. 

The last thing I want to talk about is people and mentality. People in the US are more friendlier than people in Switzerland. Especially here in the Midwest, people are known to be very welcoming and  over 12% of exchange students, who went with my organization EF Education First, are staying with a host family in Nebraska. That shows how hospitable people here are. Waiters and waitresses are always super friendly and start a small talk conversation with you. I have not been used to this at all, but it is getting more familiar every day. Typical Nebraskans love sports and many people are huge Huskers fans. I have been to a football game in Lincoln and it was insane, everyone just cheered and supported their team. That was definitely one of my unforgettable experiences here that I will forever remember. I am so glad to be staying here this year and am looking forward to many more fun adventures.