Happy Easter 2018

The SWISS feeling of home

When your friend celebrates a big birthday there are no excuses not to party, no matter how far away she lives. Friendship is a precious gift and life is worth celebrating.

With that in mind I travelled to Lugano from Paris for a weekend and treated myself to flying straight to Ticino with SWISS rather than the usual easyjet to Milano Malpensa and then having to trek up from Italy. And what a treat it was...

Taking Switzerland with me from now on...

A little treat from the Lugano tourist office... a traditional Easter "colomba" nicely wrapped up in a mini-suitcase! Ready for take-off!

A spectacular bird's view onto Lugano

Silserli und Süessmost... the chocolate was eaten before taking off.

Sunset over Lago Ceresio bordering with Italy. 

A U-turn and we are traversing the snowy peaks of the Swiss Alps.

Thank you SWISS for making me feel at home all the way to Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Easter muffin recipe

Seek and you shall find ... these muffins conceal a surprise inside. Taste the unexpectedly fresh, fruity and harmonious blend of vanilla and apricot. Decorate the finished muffins with green-colored butter cream and sugar Easter eggs - the perfect Easter Surprise muffins for your kids!

Ingredients: (makes 12 muffins)
125gr butter
125gr sugar
2 eggs
125g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling:
Apricot jam with large pieces of fruit

Lemon Butter Cream:
250g icing sugar
125g butter
juice of 1/3 lemon

Preparation:
1.) Mix all ingredients (except apricot jam) together.
2.) Place 2 tsp of the mixture into each muffin mold.
3.) Dollop 1 tsp of apricot jam (preferably with large pieces of fruit) onto half filled muffin mold.
4.) Cover molds with remaining muffin mix.
5.) Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 180 ° C in a preheated oven.
Immediately transfer muffins to cool on a grid.

6.) Lemon butter cream: mix sugar, butter and lemon juice together and colour with green food colouring.

7.) Decorating: spread butter cream with dessert fork onto the cooled muffins. and decorate with colored sugar eggs and marizpan carrots.

Your kids will love them!

Easter in Lugano 2018

Join the festive atmosphere of Easter in the City and explore the numerous intriguing and entertaining activities for everyone.

Every year Easter draws a myriad of vacationers and travelers to Lugano. In order to add some zest to the picturesque city center, the City of Lugano and the Ente Turistico del Luganese have organized an event called "Pasqua in Città" (Easter in Town), which will take place from Friday through Monday.

Every day from 11:00 to 18:00 "Pasqua in Città" will transform the center of Lugano into a cheerful stage with the main squares ready to welcome a fun entertainment programme. You will have the opportunity to taste and buy local products and browse along hundreds of stalls in Piazza della Riforma, via Nassa, Piazza Dante, via Pessina and via Soave. Various street animations and typical musical groups will be animating the heart of the city.

Locals know that at Easter Lugano turns into a big outdoor party to welcome the spring. The famous "Tana Rabbit" in Piazza Riforma offers various activities for children such as egg decorating, face painting, tattoos. Three giant rabbits offer sweets and chocolate.

Venue: Pasqua in Città
Date: March 30th to April 2nd, 2018
Time: 11.00 until 18:00 every day
For more info click here: pasqua-in-citta
Programme: Pasqua2018.pdf

International Happiness Day

Today is International Day of Happiness. Let's celebrate with a big smile! Join the movement for a happier world. Take part in the International Day of Happiness 2018. This year's theme is "Share Happiness" focusing on the importance of relationships, kindness and helping each other.

DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY:
Smile, share, eat healthily, exercise, be grateful, give back, think positively, spend some time with friends and family, spend some time alone, be mindful, dream, listen to music, say thank you and mean it, compete, be charitable, say “all the more” instead of “nonetheless” – you get it. Do what makes you happy.

SHARE YOUR HAPPINESS WITH THE WORLD:
While you’re doing whatever it is you do that makes you happy, don’t forget to do whatever you can do to make others happy! Happiness is contagious. A simple smile can make even a stranger’s day much brighter. Spread happiness.
Use instagram and twitter hashtags #internationaldayofhappiness, #happinessday, #choosehappiness, #createhappiness, or #makeithappy to spread happiness!

TELL EVERYBODY:
There are more than 7,300,000,000 (that’s 7.3 BILLION+) people on this planet. Each one of them has the right to happiness, and not all of them know it. Tell them. Tell your friends, your family, your neighbors, your co-workers, and your boss – hold your government accountable for securing your happiness. Tell yourself, and remind yourself: happiness is a fundamental human right, and happiness for all is a fundamental human goal.

WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT
Discover how Switzerland is doing in the new 2018 World Happiness Report:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/happiness-report/2018/WHR_web.pdf

Switzerland's language facts

Switzerland has four language regions: German, French, Italian and Romansch. Multilingualism is an integral part of Switzerland's national identity, however, that does not mean every Swiss is multilingual!

It is important to know that there are three official languages in Switzerland (German, French and Italian) but there are four National languages (German, French, Italian AND Romansch). Although Romansh is spoken by only some 10,000 people in certain parts of Graubünden, it has five distinct dialects: Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Puter and Vallader.

Here are some more facts:

- German is the main language of around 64.9% of the population. However, they do not speak standard German but rather various Alemmanic dialects that are collectively known as “Schwiizerdütsch” (Swiss German).
- Swiss German is not a written language, although it is used sometimes in personal correspondence. Standard German is used for all formal, written communication.
- French is the main language of around 22.6% of the population.
- Italian is the main language of around 8.3% of the population.
- Romansch is the main language of about 0.5% of the population.
- Several cantons are multilingual: Bern (German-French), Fribourg (French-German), Valais (French-German) and Graubünden (German-Romansh-Italian).
- Swiss German is the most widely used language in the workplace (66%), followed by standard German (33%), French (29%), English (18%) and Italian (9%).
- Over 42% of the population over the age of 15 regularly use more than one language.
- Foreigners living in Switzerland also contribute to the country's linguistic diversity. English and Portuguese are the most commonly spoken foreign languages.
- Other commonly spoken foreign languages include Spanish, Serbian, Croatian and Albanian.

Young Swiss Abroad Summer Camps

Nearly 760,000 Swiss citizens are currently living in another country, either temporarily or for a longer period. The holiday camps run by the Foundation for Young Swiss Abroad (FYSA) have a long history.

The Foundation for Young Swiss Abroad:
- is a registered Swiss charity that offers Swiss children living abroad the opportunity to have a holiday in their home country, irrespective of their financial circumstances, thereby creating strong links with Switzerland.
- is an organisation that brings together Swiss children from all seven continents, allowing them to form new friendships and ties.The organisation promotes mutual understanding and support that transcends cultural and linguistic barriers.
- provides help for Swiss children living in areas affected by natural disasters and conflict

The main aim of our holiday camps is to allow Swiss children living abroad to get to know their home country for the first time or, for those who have visited Switzerland before, to get to know the country better. They will visit and look at many of Switzerland’s sights. The attractions will include cities, countryside, mountains, caves, lakes, rivers, etc. They might do some easy hikes but will also be travelling by train, bus and ship.

Each camp is led by an experienced camp leader. The camp leader is supported by an efficient kitchen team and several well qualified counsellors. In each camp at least half of the camp leaders have a federal qualification as camp leader J+S Lagersport/trekking.

As for the language, participants come from all over the world and speak a wide range of languages. The team of leaders carry out the programmes in German, French and English. So the camp language does not depend on the language spoken in the camp location.

The holiday camps will be held in simple but well-equipped houses. Children will be accommodated in rooms with three to eight beds depending on the house and will eat together with the whole camp family.

Requirements: 1.) The child or one parent must be a Swiss citizen. 2.) The child must reside abroad.

For more info on 2018 Summer camps: https://sjas.ch/media/pdfs/Flyer_2018_EN.pdf
Programme & Registration: https://sjas.ch/en/camps/registration/

Pink your life

Think pink and get fit! Have you heard of the latest kid in town called Boutique Fitness Studio Pinkenergy? Well, it is all it promises to be; it will rev up your energy in a cloud of pink!

Pinkenergy's mission is to help every woman, at any stage of her life, find her own psychophysical wellbeing through personalized training programs and lessons in small groups. Pinkenergy wants to be not only a place to exercise, but a real community where women can recharge, help each other,  exchange views and regain their energy to live a healthy and peaceful life.

You can try a Pinkenergy Cardio Sculpt or even join a Wonder Women's Workout. Or how about a Pinkenergy Mum & Baby Pilates? Whatever your choice it is guaranteed to be healthy and fun. Pinkenergy's motto is: "ENERGY ALWAYS"!

Venue: Boutique Fitness Studio Pinkenergy
Where: Via Pico 29, 6900 Lugano – Cassarate
Tel: 091 970 36 92
https://www.pinkenergy.ch/boutiquefitnessstudio

Celebrating Women's Day

“The house does not rest upon the ground, but upon a woman”

Mexican Proverb... one of my favourite.

Happy Women's Day

Brexit in Switzerland

The British Embassy in Bern is holding a roadshow to discuss Brexit with British Nationals living in Switzerland. The British Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Jane Owen, cordially invites you to a series of events to discuss Brexit. There will be the chance to meet the Ambassador, ask your questions about Brexit and share your thoughts on its impact on you. The events will be after work, beginning roughly at 6pm.

Here are the dates coming up:
Wednesday 7 March 2018: Basel
Tuesday 13 March 2018: Zurich
Tuesday 20 March 2018: Lugano
Friday 23 March 2018: Vaduz

Please register by emailing the British Embassy at info.berne@fco.gov.uk with the subject “British Nationals Roadshow” including your full name and the event you would like to attend.

The deadline for registration for the events in Basel and Zurich are on Thursday 1 March 2018 but there's still time to register for Lugano. Please note that spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Similarly, if you have specific issues or questions that you want to raise or otherwise get involved, please let us know in your email.

20 answers to the infamous question: "Where do you come from?"

"Where are you from?" implies that you want to know what city or country is considered "home," assuming it's someplace other than where you are right now. This may be confusing, since where someone is "from" isn't necessarily where they live or where their parents are from.

One of my biggest dilemma's is to answer the simple question of where I come from. Soooo many times have the kids and I been asked that depending on the situation we now have the short answer, the medium elevator pitch or sometimes even the whole 9-yards story. The difficulty here is to suss out which answer is suitable for any given situation. It takes a lot of intuition and and fast assessment of the pros and cons before launching into that discussion. It also depends on the current state of mind, at times you're happy to chat, others it's just too much to face.

My accent(s!) can't be pinned to one country, I dare say I have two mother tongues. In my mind I am a Latina although I only have Nordic blood running through my veins and my heart is lost to Switzerland.

Therefore - with a pinch of sense of humour - here are some of my families' answers to the infamous question: " Where are you from?"

- It's complicated!
- Somewhere out there.
- Do you want the long version or the short version?
- Pick a country—any country!
- Are you asking where I was born, where I grew up, where my parents are from, or what kind of passport I have?
- When I find out I’ll let you know.
- Please don’t ask!
- Um, it’s kind of hard to explain…
- Do you have enough time for this?
- Technically, I’m from…but my parents are from…but I grew up…and I do/don’t speak…but I like living…but technically I’m from…
- Are you sure you want to know?
- That’s a tough question.
- You know, I wish I knew
- Um, it depends
- I don’t know
- Well, all over the world really. Where are you from?
- Outer space.
- Why do you want to know? (shifty eyes)
- Here!
- My heart is Neapolitan!