An Okay Thanksgiving

If I couldn’t have a turkey dinner, I decided to go to the Café du Soleil for fondue. My gluttony would take a Swiss form. As usual I had my open arms welcome from Olivier, the manager. He seated me in the little room in the back, with its fieldstone walls and wooden and beamed ceilings. The restaurant building is close to 300 years old.

Eavesdropping – there were ten people at the table next to me, all speaking English. They were all IT workers from different organizations. One was a Swiss German who spoke American English – the give away was that he used the term “you guys”. I could tell they were from both non-governmental organizations and the private sector. Somehow they got onto the Americans, not the war, not Bush, but how all of them had problems with the American companies and the American NGOs that they worked with honouring their commitments. Some were owed money. Others were owed products. Some found promised services didn’t arrive. “You just can’t trust them,” they agreed. Scary.

A former French boyfriend who had negotiate with a lot of American companies had observed the same things. But in Switzerland your word is considered the same as signed contract. Anthropologists have a term for societies that rely on spoken vs. written agreements. It isn't a value judgement, but necessary to understand the differences.

Least you think it was only a dump-on-America, the Swiss German, when the conversation turned to casual Fridays commented how one of his clients was a bank with a strict dress code. There was flood in the IT room. The technician removed his tie, jacket, rolled up his sleeves and was kneeling in water trying to retrieve some cable. The CEO came down to determine why the system had been shut down. His first question wasn’t about the system. “Where is your tie?” he asked the man. The Swiss German didn’t say what the answer was and I thought it would look I was eavesdropping if I asked.

After my fondue I decided to have profiteroles. This is Thanksgiving right? It ain’t pumpkin pie, but they will do for a substitute.

As far as Thankgivings go, it wasn’t one of the best, but it certainly wasn’t one of the worst.