Some thoughts on integration

In all fairness, this post probably should have been called something like "the trouble with being friends with a bunch of other expats and moving largely in expat circles" rather than the trouble with living abroad. I know people who are friends with a lot more locals than I am; there's nothing about the expat experience that inherently makes you have to be friends with other expats. That's just the way my personal experience is working out so far. To be honest, on the whole I find the Swiss to be a tough nut to crack (and I have a Swiss husband!). The Swiss I know are friendly and polite, but for the most part I find them fairly reserved. Breaking into their social circle can take some time - combine that with my own shy tendencies and you have the makings of a social disaster. For example, I've been attending the same yoga course with many of the same women for over two years (with the exception of the past six month baby break), and have yet to get past the friendly small talk before and after class stage with any of them. Again, in all fairness, I'm not the most outgoing person in the world, but "integration" has been more difficult than I would have expected.

And yet, in many ways I consider myself well integrated. I speak and read German more or less fluently, and I understand (most of the time) the local Dialekt although I do not attempt to speak it. (I have taken Dialket courses, however.) At any rate, for most ordinary interactions I no longer have to ask people to speak high German, please. (I continue to request high German when dealing with health and medical issues, especially concerning the Small Boy - that's really not the time you want to wonder if you really understood what somebody just said!) I follow Swiss news and politics, read the local paper, cheer for Swiss athletes, and read Swiss authors. It never occurred to me to seek out an English-language yoga class - I did what all good Swiss do and signed up with a course at the Klubschule. I also took my pregnancy gymnastics course in Dialket and my childbirth preparation classes in German. If we were to leave Switzerland, I would continue reading this, and possibly this. I like it here, and I feel attached to here.

But I hardly have any Swiss friends. So am I integrated, or not?