Читать книгу Westward. Encounters with Swiss American Women онлайн

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“I don’t have any great dreams anymore. All is well as it is. Strange, isn’t it? Many people say ‘If only I had… but I couldn’t.’ The last time I was in Switzerland five years ago I thought that I would have become a mediocre woman, a Bünzli woman if I had spent my life there. Perhaps my life would have revolved around food and vacations. And perhaps I would have died of my illness much sooner. I feel that in Switzerland I would not have had all the opportunities I had here in America.

“Would I have married with my heart problems? I am sure I would not have dared to have children. And I would never have gotten into the circles I did if I had not studied. Thanks to my emigration I experienced a second birth.

“Here in America people deal with life in simpler, more easy going ways. For me Switzerland was traditional and predictable way back then. Today it may be different. But in my time – everything had its fixed routine.

“When I talk about Switzerland I always say ‘at home.’ Even today I like to make Rösti [sort of hash browns] and Birchermüesli. My daughter Hester says that I am still very much connected to Switzerland even though I have lived in foreign countries for 60 years.