When school let out, I went on a little European vacation with Mr. Noland. This was my first trip outside of the country so I was super excited to explore and see what other cultures are like. We switched our US dollars for Euros and Swiss Francs. I was well equipped and ready for the changes I know were ahead.
Our first stop was Switzerland. Getting off the flight, the first big change I noticed was the time difference. Traveling over night, we lost some hours of sleep. Poor Mr. Noland did not sleep a wink on the flight (this left him quite cranky). Switzerland is in the Central European time zone which meant they are six hours ahead of our time. It took a little getting used to. We had to reset our internal clocks to this change.
As soon as we got in we wanted to take a nap. The flight wiped us out. As I laid down for my nap, I heard a bell ringing quite loudly outside my room. I learned that the church bells ring every fifteen minutes in Switzerland. At this point, I was VERY thankful for the ear plugs we packed.
When we got up from our nap, I wanted to check in with my family to let them know we got there safe and sound. We could no longer use our phones because we only had US plans. I decided to hop on the computer to send an e-mail. I started typing away and realized I was making a lot of errors. As you know, Mrs. Noland is a very fast typer and does not look at her keyboard as she types. I know my homerow inside and out. I looked down at the keyboard and was blown away. WHERE IS MY HOME ROW???
I guess I never thought about it before. Our keyboard is designed to put the most commonly used letters in the home row. This makes it easy for us when we type. Well, in this part of Switzerland they speak Swiss German. The language is totally different from English. Their keys are changed to match the letters that are common to their language. This made for a very slow typed out e-mail to my family. It was like I had to learn the keys all over again. My mind was blown. Luckily the changes were only minor here.
Our first stop was Switzerland. Getting off the flight, the first big change I noticed was the time difference. Traveling over night, we lost some hours of sleep. Poor Mr. Noland did not sleep a wink on the flight (this left him quite cranky). Switzerland is in the Central European time zone which meant they are six hours ahead of our time. It took a little getting used to. We had to reset our internal clocks to this change.
As soon as we got in we wanted to take a nap. The flight wiped us out. As I laid down for my nap, I heard a bell ringing quite loudly outside my room. I learned that the church bells ring every fifteen minutes in Switzerland. At this point, I was VERY thankful for the ear plugs we packed.
When we got up from our nap, I wanted to check in with my family to let them know we got there safe and sound. We could no longer use our phones because we only had US plans. I decided to hop on the computer to send an e-mail. I started typing away and realized I was making a lot of errors. As you know, Mrs. Noland is a very fast typer and does not look at her keyboard as she types. I know my homerow inside and out. I looked down at the keyboard and was blown away. WHERE IS MY HOME ROW???
I guess I never thought about it before. Our keyboard is designed to put the most commonly used letters in the home row. This makes it easy for us when we type. Well, in this part of Switzerland they speak Swiss German. The language is totally different from English. Their keys are changed to match the letters that are common to their language. This made for a very slow typed out e-mail to my family. It was like I had to learn the keys all over again. My mind was blown. Luckily the changes were only minor here.
We continued our travels and found Switzerland to be very beautiful. We also learned that the time zone was not the only difference, but the hours during the day were different as well. We were chatting away during our first day and I asked Mr. Noland, "What time is it?" His response was, "10:00." I thought, "10:00! How can it be 10:00??? The sun is still up!" Switzerland is closer to the sun. The Earth tilts on an axis (imagine a big pole stuck straight through the North and South poles of the Earth). Switzerland is tilted towards the sun during the Summer so they get more daylight. In fact the sun did not set until 10:30! Try going to bed at 10:00 with the sun still up and bells chiming. This is not an easy task.
We continued our journeys to Paris by train. Luckily, they had the same time zone as Switzerland. This made for an easier transition. We were able to see the beautiful monuments and museums. I was able to practice a little bit of my French. They use the Euro here for currency. Our hotel room had electric shutters that came down when you press a button. This was fantastic to help us with the sun issue.
We had show reservations that we needed to make on the computer. I sent Mr. Noland down to the hotel lobby to print them out. After 20 minutes, he still was not done. I went down to the lobby to see what was taking him so long. He's a tech-savvy guy. This should be an easy task for him. I went downstairs and saw quite a bit of frustration on his face. He turned to me and said, "WHERE'S MY HOME ROW???" He too had a battle with the keyboard. I looked down and saw that the French keyboard was even worse than the Swiss keyboard. Poor Mr. Noland had so much trouble typing in the information we needed for the show.
We continued our journeys to Paris by train. Luckily, they had the same time zone as Switzerland. This made for an easier transition. We were able to see the beautiful monuments and museums. I was able to practice a little bit of my French. They use the Euro here for currency. Our hotel room had electric shutters that came down when you press a button. This was fantastic to help us with the sun issue.
We had show reservations that we needed to make on the computer. I sent Mr. Noland down to the hotel lobby to print them out. After 20 minutes, he still was not done. I went down to the lobby to see what was taking him so long. He's a tech-savvy guy. This should be an easy task for him. I went downstairs and saw quite a bit of frustration on his face. He turned to me and said, "WHERE'S MY HOME ROW???" He too had a battle with the keyboard. I looked down and saw that the French keyboard was even worse than the Swiss keyboard. Poor Mr. Noland had so much trouble typing in the information we needed for the show.
Our travels through Europe were amazing and we learned so much about the culture. I never expected that the biggest surprise of all was going to be the different keyboards. Silly me thought the language was going to be our biggest obstacle, but boy was I surprised. If you have the chance to travel and explore, do it. It was the most amazing experience and we created memories to last a lifetime. As prepared as we were, you never know what might pop up along the way, but the surprises added to the adventures we created.