I can tell I'm not in Switzerland anymore

I think I've written before about how I used to go through a bit of cultural disorientation whenever I went from Switzerland to the U.S. or vice versa. I got over that pretty quickly, and now I don't think much about it and I don't need to go through much in the way of adjustments as I travel back and forth, but I had a couple of experiences today that made me think of some of the small differences.

First: As I was sitting in the dentist's chair today, I had a lovely view of the parking lot through the window. I could see my rental car sitting there parked in the lot. As I was waiting for the dentist to tell me, as usual, that my teeth were perfect and that I had no cavities, I had time to contemplate again just how darned much room there is to park for free in this country.

In Europe, when you drive somewhere, you have to think about three things: 1) will there be any place to park; 2) if there is a place to park, what will it cost; and 3) will the parking spaces be big enough for me to be able to pull in and out and to open my door at least four inches (probably not). You have to go through this process whenever you take the car anywhere. In the U.S., you know there will be about ten times as many spots as there will be cars, that the parking will be free, and that there will be plenty of room to pull your car in and out of the parking spot. (Of course, if we could ever get decent public transportation here in the Twin Cities, the parking wouldn't matter so much, which is often the case in Europe.)

Second: My luxury penthouse at the Country Inn and Suites in Eagan was getting a little warm tonight. (We've got someone living in the house again, so I stay in cheap motels when I'm in Minnesota because the cost is coming out of my own pocket.) I didn't want to turn on the air conditioning, so I thought I'd check to see if I could open the window. Turns out that I could. Before doing so, I did a mental calculation of the date to try to guess if the mosquitoes had yet hatched in Minnesota. I didn't want to get a room full of mosquitoes. I decided that it was probably early enough in the spring that the mosquitoes wouldn't yet be out in full force, so I risked opening the window.

I had a moment of shock when I slid open the window and discovered that someone had cleverly placed some sort of metal mesh contraption over the window to keep the bugs out. It slowly dawned on me that this device was called a "screen." I hadn't seen one of those for several years. You see, in much the same way that they don't believe in ice cubes or cold drinks, the Europeans also don't believe in screens. They just don't exist over there. If you open the windows to cool down your apartment (because the Europeans also don't generally believe in air conditioning), you have to accept that you're inviting a whole bunch of God's creatures to join you in your apartment. That's just how it is. We all got a decent number of mosquito bites last fall in Venice because I left a window open all night to cool down our hotel room.

Other minor differences: I've been a little surprised to have people pass me on the right on the freeway. That's a big no-no in Europe. You don't pass on the right. It works out okay, though, because the Europeans are also very good about staying over to the right and letting the faster cars pass on the left. That's not the case here.

And, of course, there's the gas that's only $4 per gallon. In Switzerland right now, it's about $8 per gallon. That's actually cheap for Europe. Switzerland and Austria tend to have the cheapest gas in Europe.