First and foremost, I am an American. This for me means I don't know really anything about my ancestry. My extended family is spread out all over the place and I honestly don't know much more then a few of their names. For several years I have wanted to remedy this to no avail, but this will be my first step because this Christmas I got some interesting news... I am Swiss!
As it turns out I am mostly Swiss! One one hand this simplifies my lack of direction when it comes to my heritage, but since Swiss means a lot of things to this American I have decided to Wikipedia Switzerland and see how I fit in with my kinsmen.
Here are 10 reasons why I am proud to be (supposedly) Swiss.
1. My country makes scientific breakthroughs in chocolate. Daniel Peter invented Milk Chocolate in 1875, but I still can't make the jump from good old fashioned dark. I am old school Swiss.
2. Switzerland has been making Pinot Noir since the Romans owned the place. This explains that place in my heart for that beautiful varietal, and all this time I thought it was Paul Giamatti in Sideways.
3. There is a traditional Swiss wrestling-like sport called Schwingen.
4. The Swiss' life expectancy is of the highest in the world: 79 for men and 84 for women. Now I know why I have always felt that live hard and die young could never apply to me.
5. The Swiss don't believe in making things "official." There is no official Religion, no official linguistic identity, and no official allegiance to any other country. Huzzah for intentional neutrality!
6. One of the most widely used sans-serif typefaces in the world, Helvetica, is totally Swiss. Take THAT Tahoma!
7. A variety of the unofficial motto of Switzerland was used in 1844 by the French writer Alexandre Dumas' in his, The Three Musketeers, "One for all, all for one."
8. Even though Switzerland is a place I have never visited. I can still agree, laugh and relate to most of the things on this list.
9. Swiss humor rules. "A line is a dot that went for a walk." -Paul Klee
10. Zürich and Geneva have respectively been ranked as having the second and third highest quality of life in the world. Psh... Mercer Consulting who conducted this study is Canadian owned, I think if the Swiss did this research it would be a bit more accurate.
