Serbia in Switzerland

I've been here for a couple of months already. I'm one of them now. I am a gastarbeiter. In countries where German language is spoken, this term stands for "alien at work". In Serbian language it signifies much more than that. It stands for success, freedom, money, joy and happiness for the proud owner of the title, as well as unfulfilled dream and envy for the rest. It doesn't entirely work this way in reality, but it sells.

How? Here, one beer costs 8CHF, in Serbia 1-2CHF. For anything else, the ratio is similar, ~5 times more expensive here. Basically, showing off is peace of cake, and if you lack manners, people will see it, and eventually buy it. But it's not only lakes and mountains here. It's hard work as well. And not so much showing off.

I've heard a joke from a colleague. I made him say it, even though he was a bit uncomfortable in the beginning. "If you see a dead man on the street, how do you know he's from Yugoslavia? No traces of breaking." No matter how brutal this is, one should realize that there's no fire without a spark. And if you've got the fire burning, some winds will spread the fire all over, some winds will cool it down.

* By walking through Lausanne, we ran into a musical event - Balkan Gypsy Music. Several bands were playing, mostly Serbian, Bosnian, etc. music, the evergreen songs. There were people out there, watching, dancing, singing, not so many maybe 50-100 ppl, but it was very nice, and I really enjoyed. It was even multicultural, so an elderly Scot joined and danced his own way to our songs.

* By walking through Geneva, we ran 3 times into different groups who were doing three shell game. Needless to say, it's basically organized robbery and if you are in Serbia, you have probably learnt to stay away from such groups. I don't think that Swiss and foreign tourists are used to that. You could see 100CHF bills all over the place. So guess where these guys came from? I even heard one of them swearing "Mrš u pičku materinu".

Austria, Switzerland and Germany are synonyms for heaven to many. To me, gastarbeiters were mostly synonyms for the worst Serbian music, often low manners and political opinions that are more radical than of those who live in Serbia. Tables are turning I think, as many educated people immigrated in 90's and after. I never imagined myself in a German spoken environment, but here I am. I don't complain, I work for an amazing company in a very beautiful city in a very beautiful country. I hope to be, as the time goes by, one of many people, one of those small particles, that will together help puting out the fire that sheds some light to a better image of Serbia.