Going into Switzerland, I tried not to have assumptions and expectations as my peers who have gone abroad advised me. They told me to keep an open mind and open heart, and that’s what I tried to do. Even with minimal expectations and assumptions, I was completely blown away by how amazing the experience was. I feel so blessed and thankful to have this opportunity, and even looking back, I still think of it as a dream. So much of the experience just seemed unreal because I had such an amazing time learning and traveling and enjoying myself in Switzerland. 

Although I had not many expectations going into Switzerland, while I was there, I had heard that the Swiss were hard to get close to. People have attributed that to how isolated Switzerland is, geographically and politically since it is surrounded by mountains, and the country is actively neutral in all international conflicts. However, that was anything but the case during my time there. Everyone was so polite and so kind. Perhaps because I worked in a lab that was majority international that I did not have trouble fitting in. The Swiss in the lab were incredibly nice too though. Everyone was more than willing to help, and I think a lot of the social events we had as a lab and department helped everyone get closer to each other. I had envisioned myself fitting in with my lab and getting to know everyone, and that is just what happened during my summer in Switzerland. 

Enjoying the view in Lausanne, Switzerland

I was surprised by how clean everything is in Switzerland. I never really saw trash in any of the streets or on the trams or trains or buses. People really follow rules to the dot in Switzerland. People don’t really jay-walk, and people always follow traffic signals as well. Switzerland also has 6 bins of recycling, even separating green glass bottles form brown glass bottles. Recycling in the country is a huge deal, and I love that. Every Saturday, there are many flea markets in Zurich where people set up stalls and sell anything and everything from antiques to old clothes to furniture and art. One of the graduate students I spoke to in the lab spoke about Switzerland’s waste incineration system and how environmentally friendly it was. They even import trash from other countries! 

I spoke before about how my experience here felt like a dream, and I think that it is because how clean and proper and nearly perfect the country is run. Everything is run so efficiently, and the people are so kind. I definitely want to return to this country!

The word apprentice is very common in Switzerland when describing the Swiss education system. Only about 20% of the Swiss population goes to university. Most of the population receives vocational training and takes apprenticeships or goes to 2-year college. At first, this surprised me. The Swiss have a very strong education system. Why do only 20% of the population go to university? 

Talking to Swiss nationals and people who went to school in Switzerland, I found out why. Education is very difficult and children are held to high standards from the start. Usually by the time children are in middle school, they make a decision about their future education and career. Students take an entrance exam to get into a university-track high school called a gymnasium. Many others go to a high school with not as rigorous academics and perhaps a shorter timeline before applying for an apprenticeship. I remember reading about apprenticeships in a European history textbook, and I had imagined an outdated system of young adults working with a blacksmith or cloth-maker. The idea was very foreign to me. I had always thought that the goal of high school was the next step in academics which would be college. The closest thing in America I could think about would be a technical college or community college. 

In America, however, there is a stigma against students who go to technical college or community college when they apply for jobs in the workforce. In Switzerland, the system is different. After vocational training, these apprentices often go for an internship and become well-versed in the field before taking a job. The jobs in Switzerland also pay well. Due to this system, Switzerland’s unemployment rate is very low. 

Lab photo during hike

Perhaps due to not many people going to university,  ¾ of the graduate students working in Switzerland are from other countries. The Swiss are proud of how open and international their country is. Even in the lab, members are from multiple different countries including the U.S., Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, India, etc. The language of the lab is English, which is a language everyone here speaks. It’s not only the nationalities of the lab that are diverse; the educational backgrounds of the lab members are also diverse. The head of the lab teaches in the department of microbiology, but there are people of different educational backgrounds working in the lab. There are people with physics backgrounds, evolutionary biology background, immunology background, etc. Working in this lab has been incredibly interesting in that people approach ideas and questions differently based on their backgrounds.

“Ready for lunch?” 

Every day at 11:45 AM, this is what I would hear while working in the lab. This lab and many other labs in Switzerland have a culture of eating lunch together. I was surprised by this because in the other labs that I have worked in, everyone ate their meals at their computer or alone. Here, the norm is to eat together. My colleagues would wait by the elevator after walking by all the lab offices with people in the Ackermann group asking if they want to join for lunch. Almost every day when I had time and chose to eat with the group, there was quite a group of us who would go down to the cafeteria. We would always sit together as well and have good conversation too. It was always very light-hearted and there was always talk of science at some point too. It wasn’t just my specific lab. Talking to other American students working in Swiss labs around the country, I found out that they also found this surprising. Furthermore, the head of the lab and the secretary also often joined us for lunch when they weren’t out of town or on the other campus. 

Lab lunch in Lenk, Switzerland

After bringing this habit up with the head of the lab, Dr. Ackermann, he replied that it is very much a part of the Swiss culture to take their meals together so that they may get to know each other better and form a friendly, collaborative environment. Thinking about it that way made sense to me. Friendly relationships with your colleagues could lead to easier working relationship and increased willingness to collaborate in science. Dr. Ackermann also told me that it was important for him to engage with his lab members as well and socialize with them so that he knows what’s going on in people lives. So, whatever is going on, he can best support his lab members. I felt very inspired by his reasoning and amazed at the lab culture and how sustainable it was. 

The Swiss are very hard-working and care about the quality about their work a lot. We also had a discussion about the sustainability of work culture in Switzerland. When I was told that the people here have a “required” 5 weeks of vacation, I was very surprised. I would think to myself, “How do people get anything done around here if everyone takes 5 weeks of vacation?” Of course, there was a reason for the vacation that lended well to the reasonable and logical work-life balance here. Literature has often looked at burnout especially in the science discovery fields where more experiments fail than succeed. The 5 weeks of vacation given by the department are thus a way to combat and prevent that burnout. People who do not take vacation time usually have to talk to the department head and give good reason. This is because with constant working and thinking of one’s work, quality and productivity decline. And the Swiss love their efficiency. During work hours, they are always very focused on their work, but during breaks they really take a break and go off-line with a hike in the mountains or a walk by the lake. Another interesting point is that almost everything is closed on Sundays as this is a day to let people recuperate and spend time with their families. This rest and switching refuels their creativity and motivation to do this scientific work. 

This mindset is very different from what we think and do in America. Americans work hard and we always have a “go, go, go” attitude. Although I haven’t read comparative literature, my guess is that burnout rate is higher in America. Americans have their work/life balance or imbalance, and the Swiss have their own balance as well. However, during my time here, I have thoroughly enjoyed the Swiss work/life balance. I feel less stress constantly even though expectations for quality work are very high and have given myself time to enjoy the culture, environment, and people around me.

There is a lot that I want to accomplish in a short amount of time. So, laying my goals out and how I could accomplish will be beneficial in achieving those goals.

Going abroad, one of the biggest personal goals for me is to become more independent. I feel a mixture of excitement and being incredibly terrified. I don’t really know the people I will be working with, and they don’t know me well either outside of a CV and a couple of Skype interviews. So, I want to meet new people and develop relationships with them that will last longer than the nine weeks that I will be in Switzerland. I want to be travel-savvy and learn how to be a little more street smart. I grew up in a very safe and sheltered neighborhood. Even at Rice University, we are protected by the tall hedges. Going abroad would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn how to live independently and alone.

There are a few methodologies that I hope to learn to understand virulence gene expression under dynamic, physiologically-relevant conditions. One of these methodologies is microscopic analysis fluorescent reporters on microfluidic devices. I hope to learn single cell analysis because there is phenotypic variation in virulence gene expression. I will learn microscopy, microfluidic, and image analysis techniques to complete this project. Another professional goal is to learn how to work with people of diverse backgrounds. Switzerland is actually a very diverse country. Due to its peaceful nature and intellectual pursuits, many academics come to Switzerland from around Europe and even around the world to do research here. Besides just working with people of different nationalities, I hope to also work with and communicate with people of different training backgrounds as well. The laboratory I will be in not only has biochemists and biologists but scholars with different training backgrounds as well. Working with people of different cultural and training backgrounds will be incredibly beneficial for me in the future as science and research is becoming increasingly globalized.

One of the biggest challenges living abroad will be communication. Switzerland has four national languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansh. Unfortunately, at most, I can say “hello” and “goodbye” in two of these languages. Zürich is located in one of the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. Language barriers will not be too much of an issue within the laboratory because English is the common language that the lab members speak because it is such an international lab. Outside of the laboratory, there may be more difficulties communicating with people.

I am a little worried about transportation. Since English is not an official language of Switzerland, I don’t know if train/bus/other transportation information will be in English or not. It will be important for me to do a lot of research beforehand on the transportation system in Switzerland and settle into my routine as quickly as possible.

Food is also something I’m worried about. I don’t know where the nearest grocery store is. I will also be living in a shared apartment complex of scholars doing research in Zürich. I have never cooked abroad before, but I also can’t eat out every day. It’s important to me to eat nutritious meals every day. I think for these issues, I will have to talk to the people who have been living there for a while and ask what their experiences have been traveling around and getting food. I also hope to get close to my lab members so that I don’t have to travel alone around Europe if I choose to do that.

Even though getting to know the new people around me is important, it is also essential for me to connect with people back at home. Being in a foreign country alone can be lonely, and I believe that it would be helpful for my emotional and mental well-being to continue that connection with people back at home who know me and know what my limits are and know what my capabilities are.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Recently, I read “The Mindful Traveler” by Richard Slimbach, an article that describes the positive and negative impacts of international travel and what I as a student-traveler can do to minimize the negative and maximize the positive.

“St. Augustine of Hippo once wrote, ‘The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page (75).’” Traveling to a different country can open one’s mind to the many wonders of the world and learn about and from the people native to that area.

Slimbach explains that the world is becoming increasingly intertwined. Thus, another benefit for the international traveler is to embrace the fact that we are all connected. It generates fresh insights and unforgettable memories. International travel can help preserve the cultural and natural heritage of sites, increased understanding for travelers, and building relationships with the people there. To truly understand the world and all the connections we have, international travel can be the platform from which we learn.

This summer, I will be traveling to Zürich, Switzerland for nine weeks to do research in Dr. Martin Ackermann’s laboratory at ETH Zürich on the genetic virulence of Salmonella enterica. As excited I am to step forward and dive into research, I need to also be mindful of and reflect on what my presence and actions as a non-national can have on the people around me and the environment.

To be mindful is to consider the “why, how, and with effect with everything we do (74).”

Although the article mainly draws the negative impacts of international travels from the framework of a privileged American visiting a developing country, the article is still very informative and there are a lot of take-aways that I can implement in my own understanding of international travel.

A negative of international travel is that it confirms the elite or privileged and is sometimes used as a break from the mundane of life. Travel can mean something completely different depending on the place that is visited; it can depend on how affluent the natives are and their accessibility to travel. The thought that many travelers have that escaping the developed world for an “authentic” and “simple” experience can offend the natives living there. There is an arrogance in assuming that those in developing countries chose that lifestyle instead of their situation being a reflection of international dynamics. The privileged could also be the only ones taking and gaining from trips abroad. For example, service trips could be considered a type of consumerism in which the volunteer takes a collection of service experiences as a commodity. Being unaware of our privilege can lead to arrogance and assumptions that could be insulting to our own attempt to understand and learn about the world. Even though my trip to Switzerland, a developed country in Europe, may be termed as educational travel, I need to still consider what my expectations are and what my consumption practices are.

Cross-cultural travel negative impacts may not be completely erased, but the negative impacts can be minimized and the positive impacts can be emphasized. An important part of my international travel is to manage my expectations. I should not have romanticized views of what Switzerland would be like based on popular media and based on what I read in history textbooks. I can manage my expectations by learning about the area’s political history, current events, religions, and customs. It is important for me to remind myself to make the trip about the environment I’m in and the people I’m with rather than about myself. I should set myself up in the framework that I am working with people there who have different backgrounds as me and always be thankful for the opportunity I have to learn from them. I should understand that I may be helpful and hopefully contribute to the research done, but I also have limitations as a learner. By being socially mindful, I could acknowledge what privileges I have to travel so far from my home. I realize that Americans are generally more wasteful than the citizens of other countries around the world. I hope to be ecologically mindful by being aware of my carbon footprint in a different country and to retain what eco-sense I learned traveling to Switzerland.

Reflecting upon how I can be mindful of my presence and learning process in a foreign country, I realize that I have so much to learn. I hope that throughout this learning process, I can continue to be mindful and enthusiastic about my trip and education.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Richard Slimbach, “The Mindful Traveler,” Becoming World Wise: The Guide to Global Learning (Stylus 2010): 71-96.