to be sharing with you some things i did not know  existed on this earth until i moved to switzerland

so i recently found a youtuber called stefan  tyrone i think is his name it's also the name  

of his channel and he's an american living in  sweden and he had a video like this and i thought  

that the video was so interesting and funny and  i thought i could definitely come up with some  

things that i also didn't know existed until i  moved to switzerland so let's keep this intro  

short i've got eight things to talk about let's  jump into it the first thing that i did not know  

existed was fast knocked and gooken music so fast  knocked is basically carnival carnival um here in  

switzerland so i had heard about carnival growing  up but i always thought it was something that  

only takes place in brazil and i thought  that it's like similar to mardi gras  

mardi gras where it's like a wild party and that's  honestly all i had ever thought about carnival  

carnival in my entire life and then i moved to  lucerne and in lucerne fastnacht is such a big  

thing so i honestly cannot really compare it to  anything in the united states some people try to  

compare it to halloween but i don't really think  that that's very accurate so fasnacht is basically  

a big party in lucerne it's this four day party  it's actually going on like right about now it's  

usually like in february march and it's outdoors  and there's all sorts of i don't know i'm not  

an expert in this because i'm honestly not a  big fan of fossnock it's not really my thing  

but it's like there's um all sorts of parties in  the street and everywhere and in bars everything  

is decked out all colorful there's a lot of loud  music which is this um gookin music so they have  

like trombones and trumpets and drums and i'll  put in a little clip of this music right now

so yeah this is a genre of music that i didn't  even know existed but it is a big part of fosnox  

and just the whole culture around it so i'm  honestly not super educated as to the whole um  

story behind the party behind the event that you  see happening in the streets but i believe it has  

something to do with bad energy bad spirits and  winter and kind of getting those out of the town  

um to yeah something like that people that are  in these fossnot groups make these crazy outfits  

a lot of the times they make them like from  scratch by hand they make these crazy humongous  

masks and outfits and it is just a big thing that  i did not even know existed and i don't think it's  

just in switzerland i think it's also in parts of  austria parts of germany and i was actually just  

watching um john venus a youtuber who lives in  norway and he was saying that in norway they have  

fossnock right now so i don't really know where it  takes place but it's definitely a big thing here  

second thing that i didn't know existed  was panache so panache is a drink that  

is half beer and half sprite so you usually get  like a tall glass in switzerland it's usually  

like three deciliters and it's about half sprite  and half beer i just didn't know that people  

mix um beer with sprite i had never seen that in  the united states maybe it exists let me know i  

was uh i was 17 when i left the united states so  i don't really know if that is a thing that they  

sell in bars over there so definitely let me  know but panache is pretty popular here a lot  

of the times people just want to have um like a  drink but maybe they're not in the mood to like  

get too much of a buzz so just get like a ponish  it's something nice that you can sip that doesn't  

have a ton of alcohol and i know in germany they  mix um sometimes beer with coke which they don't  

do in switzerland um but yeah here uh beer and  sprite very popular third thing i didn't know  

existed until i moved to switzerland was instant  coffee so if you don't know what instant coffee is  

it's basically you buy it in the grocery store and  it comes in these glass jars all sorts of brands  

make it like nespresso and there's all sorts of  different versions and all you do is get some hot  

water or some boiling water and you put it into  um you take a scoop of the coffee and you put it  

into the water and there's your coffee you don't  have to brew it or wait or anything it's just  

instant but that doesn't mean that that's what  swiss people normally drink i would say that swiss  

people generally drink very high quality coffee  a lot of people have nespresso machines at home  

that's very very popular here people drink express  espresso espresso it's not expresso it's espresso  

um so a lot of people drink espresso and other  high quality coffee but some people have like  

instant coffee and their cabinet um or a lot of  times you use it to make like alcoholic beverages  

like a coffee schnapps which you might find at  carnival um so yeah growing up i was only really  

ever familiar with like drip coffee uh also  when i worked in restaurants and just at my  

home with my parents that's all that i saw so  you have the machine and you put the grinds on  

top like a lot of coffee grinds and then it  pours through and you make your coffee like  

that and it takes a very long time um and my swiss  husband thinks that that coffee is like disgusting  

and watery and you don't find that in switzerland  maybe somebody has a drip coffee machine but i  

have never seen one so if you're from switzerland  let me know fourth thing i did not know existed  

was revela so rebella is i think like the  unofficial swiss national drink it is this  

kind of weird soft drink i'm not gonna lie i have  never tasted it so i cannot give my opinion on it  

and i'm actually vegan now so i cannot um drink  it or i choose not to drink it and you're probably  

like why can't you drink a soda if you're vegan  and it's actually because it's made with some  

sort of milk product so it's this soft drink made  with milk whey and there's all sorts of different  

flavors it comes in this dark brown bottle i'll  put in a picture here i know people really really  

like this drink i know my husband used to drink  a lot of it until we changed our diet um but yeah  

never had it it seems very strange to me a soft  drink made with any sort of milk byproduct kind  

of bizarre the fifth thing that i did not know  existed and i'm not gonna lie this one annoys me  

it annoys me a little bit it is a compulsory tv  and radio licensing fee i think in switzerland  

it's called the blog so we actually got this bill  a few weeks ago and i was really surprised and  

confused as to what it was so basically we are  required to pay 365 swiss francs per year they  

send the bill twice a year so they divide it in  half but we're required to pay this and every  

single household in switzerland is required to  pay this and they use this money to subsidize the  

swiss broadcasting corporation and as well as some  local regional tv and radio stations which i mean  

i just feel like this is very very outdated  i remember when we lived in germany we had  

the exact same thing and i i don't own a tv i  don't own a radio i'm like most people my age  

where i watch everything online i don't watch  any swiss we don't watch any swiss news and i  

just find it kind of bizarre that we're required  to pay this and i was looking it up online if  

you can get out of it if you for example don't  have a television or you you know all sorts of  

ways like is there a way we can get out of  this because we don't consume tv or radio  

and there is not a way to get out of it and there  were a lot of other people on the internet i saw  

that also thought it was very outdated and needed  to go especially expats i think expats that move  

here are the ones most shocked and kind of annoyed  about that because it's like 400 a year that is a  

lot of money but of course i paid it there's no  way around it so just something to keep in mind  

because you will probably get a bill no matter  where you live you will get a bill um where you  

have to pay this they might call it differently  in different cantons or areas but yeah the sixth  

thing that i did not know existed was opero i had  never really heard of this concept or really part  

partaken i never really took part in an opero  until i moved to switzerland and swiss people  

love opero there is a big opero culture here so an  opero is basically a kind of casual but a little  

bit of formal social gathering where people say  i'll give you an example so and then a friend  

invites you uh to their house or a family member  invites you to their house when you go to their  

house you probably will have an opera i'm talking  of course like a little bit more formal like if  

you're going over for for a dinner party before  the dinner you will have an opera as part of the  

dinner party so basically people tend to stand  at an opero you stand at like i don't know high  

tables or like a like a i don't know people are  standing usually during an opera and you have like  

little finger foods this could be like um chips  or nuts or it could even be like some warm like  

uh things i don't know basically just finger foods  and typically there is prosecco or opera spritz  

or just these opero type of beverages a beer so  it's just kind of a way for everybody i suppose to  

mingle and talk so operos don't only happen at  somebody's house for example you could be at a  

work conference the whole day maybe you're  sitting through presentations and seminars  

a lot of the times at the end you're going to  have an opero so everybody kind of gets up and  

stands and mingles walks around has prosecco um  and the food is not really enough to replace a  

meal it's more just things to nibble on so for  me it was just kind of new because it is pretty  

formal coming from the united states if you go  to somebody's house you might more just kind of  

have a bowl of chips on the table and it's  more casual the host might say oh there's  

drinks in the fridge if you're thirsty of course i  mean it varies depending on how you grew up where  

you grew up in the us and i guess all that kind  of stuff but for me the very formal like have a  

prozac go and cheers with everybody and stand and  and talk and nibble was a very new concept to me i  

i had never seen anything like this and now  i love opera i think opero is the best thing  

ever and i love that it's so popular here okay  number seven i'm just gonna call this a the food  

category some foods that i didn't know existed  first food i never saw until i moved here was  

paprika chips which probably sounds funny to you  if you live in europe because paprika chips are  

probably the most popular kind of chip i would go  as far to say in switzerland it's definitely the  

most popular kind of chip so i've seen i saw  these within i don't know the first few days  

when i arrived to switzerland and usually you have  like plain chips and paprika chips at like opera  

or whatever and i instantly as a person from the  united states thought that the orange chips would  

be like cheddar um or cheese flavored because  in the u.s we have a lot of chips that are like  

cheese flavored that's very popular um but then i  bit into it and it wasn't the same flavor at all  

it was completely different and somebody told  me it's paprika and i was like what paprika  

i don't even think i've ever cooked with paprika  in the united states and now i am a huge paprika  

chip fan but i was just confused and surprised  when i first moved here never saw that before  

oh and over here they actually have paprika  pringles which are so so good another food  

i never saw before was alper macrone excuse  the pronunciation but this is like a mac and  

cheese pasta dish that you usually get like in the  mountains or in winter and it's pasta and it has  

potatoes in it and it's really creamy and i  need to learn how to make a vegan version of  

this because i used to love this dish it was like  my favorite thing in winter of course i grew up  

eating mac and cheese but this is just ten times  better i also never heard of roshti or spotsley  

so roshti is like this kind of like a massive hash  brown it's like these shredded potatoes that you  

cook in oil and it's like this big potato hash  brown pancake love it one of my favorite things  

i'm such a potato person so i love roast tea i  cook it all the time and the other thing it spotly  

are these little weird funky noodles i don't  even know how to describe them i'll just put in  

a picture last food i didn't know existed were i  guess kind of like these cold cured dried meats so  

of course i had heard of salami growing up in the  u.s which is like a cured meat that you just slice  

and eat but over here i remember when i first  moved here and i saw people with like a big brick  

of bacon and they would just cut a [ __ ] like  a slice off and it looked like a slice of bacon  

and then they would just put it on like a piece of  bread and they would eat it and they wouldn't cook  

it and i was like why are people eating raw bacon  this is really really strange to me um so yeah i'm  

not exactly sure what that's called like i don't  know i know it's cured or dried or something like  

that but yeah i'll put in some pictures all right  number eight last things i did not know existed  

have to do with um going to school so the first  thing is that people in switzerland go home for  

lunch i don't know if this is pop if this is  a thing in every single school but my husband  

for sure uh said when he was growing up and still  to this day kids go home over lunch starting from  

a really young age and i asked him how long he was  going home for lunch and he said it can be up till  

age 16. and um i didn't know that that was a thing  to me it didn't really make sense because i'm like  

how does every single kid in school have somebody  to go home to over lunch aren't the parents  

working or whatever and matthias said basically in  his school almost everybody had like a mom at home  

so they would go home and have lunch and then  go back to school for the rest of the afternoon  

which i thought was super super strange how  i grew up we never were allowed to leave you  

know the school area until school hours without  notes of course and permission so i don't know  

how this works like till this day he said that  this is still how how kids kind of do schooling  

and it just seems kind of strange to me like  does everybody have a parent at home i don't