Happy Valentine’s Day!

Bo and I were able to spend the day together as we participated in a cross cultural training which is a service offered for expatriates via our relocation company. While the course is intended to be taken during the first month or two in a new city it was still very relevant and helpful for each of us.

The course was split into different parts including a section which focused on Switzerland. While we’ve lived here for 7 months neither of us have had the opportunity or time to learn about the culture from an expert.  I thought it’d be fun to share with you all a few of the things we learned during the session!

• The Swiss people are known to be very risk adverse, perfectionists and the law is held in the highest esteem due to their true democracy versus representative democracy.
• Switzerland was founded in 1291.
• Switzerland is the only country in the world to have a square flag!
• The population of Switzerland is approximately 8 million which is 300,000 less than the 5 boroughs of New York City!
• There are 4 official languages in Switzerland – French, German, Italian and Romansh. Romansh is only spoken by .05% of the total population and is a romance language descending from Vulgar latin.
• Switzerland is divided into 26 cantons, or states. The last canton, Jura, was created in 1979!
• Geneva has been a canton since 1815
• The population of Geneva is approximately 195,000 people which makes it the 2nd largest city in Switzerland, behind Zurich.
• Switzerland does not have an official state religion however the most common religions are Catholic (39%) , Swiss Reformed Church (28%) and other Christian religions (6%). 21% of citizens claim that they are not affiliated with any religion.
• The unemployment rate of Switzerland is 2.7% versus 7.1% in the United States.
• According to the World Economic Forum Switzerland has the world’s highest life expectancy: 84.7 years for women and 80.5 for men!
• Martina Hingis and Roger Federer are both Swiss!

 

Question: If you could only take one Swiss delicacy with you on a deserted island which would you choose? Chocolate or Cheese? I would DEFINITELY choose cheese!