Germany!

Park in Donaueschingen

My first trip to Germany was exciting because I got to speak German with people and it actually worked! I needed to buy a pair of tights and not only were they so cheap compared to what I was used to in Basel, but I even had a conversation with the saleslady asking her opinion on which size was better and never had to switch into English. I ordered food in restaurants and the waitress didn't blink an eye. This is a much rarer occurrence in Switzerland. Most times if I try to buy clothes in Switzerland, they'll ask me if I want a bag in Swiss German, which is a totally different language, and I'll just stare at them with blank face, quickly running through what they could possibly be asking me about (credit card signature, identification, selling me something else?) and before I get to "bag" they have usually sighed and said, "English?"

Unterwegs nach Deutschland

Swiss German is scary to me because they call it "German" yet I studied German and when I hear people speaking Swiss German all I hear is a lilting string of consonants and umlauts and cute sounds (they like to end words in -li a lot). Strange, though, when I worked with a flute class which was in Swiss German, I could understand a lot, I assume because the teacher is American so her accent made at least the words that are shared with hoch Deutsch decipherable. 

It seems that native Swiss people have varying reactions to a native English speaker when they try to speak high German with them, since it's not really their language (although all their printed material and signage are in high German. I still don't understand the reasoning behind this). A couple I've experienced are:

Appreciation/sympathy: They notice that at least we are doing the best we can and trying to meet them halfway. Sometimes they will still switch to English intending to be nice/make it easier for us, but some will respect our efforts and allow us to practice the foreign language which is a nice confidence booster.

Annoyance: This usually happens to me with people who have an anti-foreigner attitude, and these people will switch into English even if their English is poor, seemingly to underline that our German is so bad that it's just wasting everyone's time to try to continue.

This guy was really nice. He gave us a
snow globe and a porcelain Santa Claus.

Incomprehension: We went to a small sports bar once to try to catch a football game and these people had zero English and little to no hoch Deutsch. I tried to order a hard cider and ended up with a fizzy nonalcoholic apple soda, then ordered a wheat beer and ended up with a small local beer (like Budweiser) which I'm not very fond of, then somehow received a large of the same local beer, and finally, through lots of pointing and nodding (luckily the guy next to me had exactly what it was I wanted), got my drink. I only intended to have one drink, but since I didn't know what to say to get the bartender's attention, he would only come back if my glass was empty. So I downed them all.

We didn't buy these fish sticks because they
cost around CHF 8. Looks like they might've
been worth it, though. 

Another advantage of Germany is it is much cheaper. Groceries are so expensive in Switzerland, I know folks who have become vegetarian or mostly vegetarian because of it. It is legitimately possible to do all your grocery shopping in Germany if you live in Basel. We take the 8 tram line to Kleinhuningen and then it's about a 15 minute walk to Weil am Rhein. Added bonus is that you don't have to pay taxes on German groceries if you don't live there. There is a green paper you ask for at the checkout that you then sign and take to some people at the border who stamp it so when you come back you can get a little bit of cash toward your next purchase. It's easy to figure out the process because hordes of Baslers shop this way--you can tell them from their wheelie grocery bag suitcase thingies and the green paper stampede they form at the border. Someone told me there is a limit on how much meat you can bring back over the border (only 100g per person!?). However, it seems this rule is never or hardly ever enforced by the authorities, especially if you're coming by foot.

Tea in Kleinbasel: CHF 4.90