With my family, we bought a new apartment and we moved in some months ago. We are still in the “getting acquaintance” phase: with the new Gemeinde, the new neighbours, the new bus timetable, the new garbage rules, the new…habits of the neighbourhood.

We live in a complex with four buildings and some 30 families. Next to another slightly bigger but similar complex. And here I found out something which I still did not know about Switzerland: parties! Or, better said, the party “mood”…

Since when we moved in, I have already found in my mailbox three different papers announcing three different parties.

Wow, I thought, how nice and friendly new neighbours we have! They throw a party and they invite all their neighbours! How lovely of them. But after some time, going through the paper, I just realised that my expectations were (once again!) too high. Every time the papers were only announcing a party for the day after (with detailed timetable and sometimes even program), apologising in advance for the possible noise!

Wow, I thought again! Even if the new walls are better insulated than an atomic shelter and we cannot hear anything from the surrounding apartments, or even if the party was announced in the afternoon (clearly not the time of the day when someone needs absolute silence), these people spread their party “information” all over the neighbourhood! Yes, one of these information paper was even coming from the building complex next to ours. Of course decorated with all the possible nicest party drawings: coloured balloons, fatty cakes, smilies, etc.

Wow, I thought again and again. Good to know! So maybe I should take care of not making too much noise, otherwise I would be the one disturbing the party, and not the other way around.

But now I am quite troubled: I caught an annoying cold last week and I am sneezing like hell, sometimes even in the evening or at night. Shall I prepare an accurate information fact sheet about the development of my cold for all my new neighbours…?

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