hey YouTube welcome back to my channel my name is Leah and this is my story
about why I came to Switzerland so if you are one of the many people that have
asked me what am I doing here why did I move to Switzerland what made me picks
insulin etc etc I'm about to answer that question right now
so just before we start if you have not subscribed to my channel please
subscribe thumbs up this video and watch my most recent video or hearing me speak
so German for the very first time on camera I will post the link right here
so why did I move to Switzerland what am I doing here okay so we are going to
start at the very very very beginning so at birth I was adopted so my parents
happened to be Swiss both of them so my parents were born and raised in
Switzerland and then they moved to America settled in for a while had my
older brother naturally or biologically and then adopted me and my younger
brother so yes not only was I adopted
interracially I was adopted internationally but also you know I was
adopted from a different culture so that was very interesting and yeah it was
difficult definitely difficult yet interesting childhood that I had you
know cuz my parents were not only white but they were also Swiss you know
they're from a completely different country a different kind culture so it
was different for me so if you know anything about adoption then you know
that it is it's difficult to grow up being adopted because it's like you're
constantly searching for your identity because you know unlike other people in
a normal family you can look at your father your mother you can see
similarities you know physically or even you know parsec part of your
personality you could see because of genetics genetic does pass down you know
personality traits so you know that has always been difficult growing up in an
adopted family but then on top of that my parents you know we're from this
different culture that you know I didn't see in America so it's not like you know
I think it would have been easier growing up here in Switzerland because
although my parents were different I can walk outside and it wouldn't be a
different world so but growing up with my parents
it was difficult because you know we would my parents you know immersed us in
a lot of Swiss culture still we celebrated Swiss holidays you know my
parents spoke sister Minh to us our whole lives even until today so you know
at home I was you know in this completely different environment with a
completely different culture but then I'd step outside and go to school and I
would be emerged in this you know American culture that did not you know
reflect what I was experiencing at home so there was always that like disconnect
it was foreign almost you know just as an example so my mom for Christmas she
wouldn't make typical American Christmas cookies which you know what in America
we do a lot of good sugar cookies and snickerdoodles she would actually make
you know Swiss holiday cookies so that was also always something that I never
you know there was no connection for me with that but here in Switzerland I
remember the first time around the holiday season I went in to the grocery
store and I saw all of the Christmas cookies all the cookies that I grew up
around it was it was such a powerful moment because for once I recognized all
these Christmas cookies and it felt like home to me you know like I walked in
there and I was like oh my gosh my mom used to make these cookies all the time
I know what these are called I know what they taste like it was such a powerful
connection and that has happened to me this whole time that I've been in
Switzerland you know all the things that my parents talked
about and the things that my parents do as far as their personality their
behavior it makes so much sense like when I'm here in Switzerland there's
that connection because that's what I grew up around so taking it back to the
question what am I doing here in Switzerland so because you know I never
felt that connection in America I wanted to move here to Switzerland to kind of
in a sense help me find my identity because I'm so it's like a confusion for
me between like the Swiss and American culture it's always been like this foggy
area that I didn't know which one I felt most comfortable in so I decided to move
here for that I wanted to also learn more about my parents you know there was
not there's no other Swiss people in America so I couldn't like learn more
about Swiss culture in America all I knew was from my parents so now that I'm
here I'm learning more about their culture how they grew up and you know
learning more about why they are the way they are I also moved here because I
wanted to get to know my family better so I mean in America all I had was my
mom my dad and my two brothers that's it we just had our our family no extended
family lives in America they all live here in Switzerland so that was always
hard growing up you know only having your immediate family with you is
difficult so I wanted to come here to be closer to my extended family because a
lot of them I've never met before or I've only met once the first time I came
to Switzerland I think I was 2 years old so I mean they've met me but I never
remembered them my grandmother both of my grandmother's on my mom's side and my
dad's side would come to America when we were younger but you can imagine how
expensive that is and it's it was hard to keep up so and the third reason why I
moved to Switzerland is because I have always dreamt about
moving abroad as an adult once I graduated I knew that goal of mine was
once I graduated I got my degree that I would go to a foreign country and teach
English that has always been a dream of mine and I didn't pursue it for other
reasons I was held back for other reasons I made excuses but now I finally
had the opportunity to live out and fulfill this dream Switzerland was not
my first choice my first choice I actually really wanted to move to Paris
but the whole visa situation in Paris and the language you know it made so
it's only made more sense I have the citizenship I know
somewhat the language I I under you know some of the culture so it would be more
comfortable here for me to come to Switzerland so that's why I'm in
Switzerland so that is the reason why I am in Switzerland that's why I moved
here that's why I let randomly landed here I was adopted at birth and both my
parents happen to be Swiss but yeah I am so so happy that I did this because I
did I have you know accomplished my goal number one of moving abroad number two
of learning more about my parents and this Swiss culture that was foreign to
me growing up it's making more sense now you know like I can give you so many
examples that would be such a long video but I mean like recycling my mom was so
big on recycling like she literally had like ten different things like one bin
for aluminum foil one bin for plastic one bin for cardboard so much and I was
like what is she doing like this is crazy why are you trying to recycle this
much you know nobody in America I mean the majority of America does not recycle
they don't care about that and if they do recycle it's not that extensive here
in Switzerland recycling is like so serious so serious
everybody everybody has separate bins for every different type of recyclable
item there's um stations every like block there's a drop-off station where
you could take your recycle recyclables and put them in like a bin for the mass
pickup everywhere this is everywhere here in this
apartment we have all these bags of things to be recycled
here I will show you actually see this is cardboard plastic glass cans so this
is really serious and everybody in Switzerland does this so that's just
again one of those examples of something that felt foreign to me growing up with
my parents in America that now is not so foreign it's and I understand now why my
mom was so serious about recycling recycling it's cuz she's list this is
what's most people day-to-day recycle like crazy but anyways I hope that I
answered your question about why I moved to Switzerland what I'm doing here how I
ended up here how did a black woman end up in Switzerland so if you have any
questions please comment below and I'll answer them
I do actually read the comments and I do respond to you guys I really try to
respond to everybody so yeah feel free to post your questions q again of course
for all this love and support with this channel yay we reached 3k subscribers
thank you so much I couldn't have done this without you never thought like my
channel would be anything I thought I would have stopped a long time ago but
you guys have motivated me to keep going but anyways I will come back with
another video soon I have some exciting videos coming up very very soon thank
you guys so much I love you for the bottom of my heart and I'll see you in
the next one you