Swiss family dinner

Yesterday I was in Zürich to attend a family dinner for the second of advent. The aunt of my father organise a dinner on this date each year, and we were invited, as usual. It took place in a very old inn of the 17th century, in a village not far from Zürich, were all the richest people of Switzerland, and some very well known stars live (for instance Tina Turner). I don't really like this kind of place because everything looks perfect, you don't have a dead leaf on the ground, everything is perfectly lined up, everything is too clean to be a place where there is some human activity.

We seated around a big table, and were around 15 people. Among them were my part of the family (my father, my step mother, and my sister), speaking french, a guy that looked asian but whose family, descendant from the Huns, settled in Switzerland after an invasion, most probably around the 7th century, and other peoples coming from all around Switzerland, some of them coming from Engiadina, a part of the country were they speak a unique language, wich is a mix between latin and german languages.

One of my cousin, that was seated next to me, and with whom I was speaking in German, said to me "I think that around this table, we have a complete view of the problem". By problem, he meant the incredible and unique situation of our little country. Can you imagine, in a country smaller than a small single state of the USA, that in a family that has been living in Switzerland for centuries, the members must speak three different languages to understand each other? and it's crazy to see the cultural differences between people, it's as if we were each coming of a different country, whereas we are all swiss and live only 200km far from each other. That's crazy! :)

We had a great meal, but it was rather silent for a moment, untill my father, already a bit inhebriated started to tell some stories of the "good old times", and put some old family stuff on the table. I didn't understand what it was about exactly, because he was speaking in his dialect [I don't even understand my father :)] but I understood that it was something awkward, and that it was about some family secrets. It was really a bizarre ambiance, my father was completely drunk, speaking of theses things, some were trying to shut his mouth, and us, the youngs, couldn't understand anything because we had absolutely no idea of what they were making reference... He then started to get really emotional, started to cry, and everyone was "he's totally drunk, he's crazy" and his aunt was trying to do something for the situation not to deteriorate, and people started to speak of totally random things, and started to smile politely at each others to save the appearances.

I was going to sleep at my cousin, and it was the uncle of my father that drove us to the train station, and he said "that was a nice evening, wasn't it" and his wife answered "yes, the roast was perfect". That's was will stay in peoples mind, for the official version to be written in the photo albums.

Strange weekend... at least I get my envelope and 500$, that's what I came for.