Interview Transcript with Agnes Papkie

Name: Agnes Papkie Country of Origin: Switzerland Marital Status: Married to Willie Papkie (originally from Germany) Language: German/ French/ English Children: 3 daughters What is Switzerland like, compared to America? -Switzerland, in my mind is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is a lot easier to get around there because there are way more opportunities with trasportation. There are a lot of festivals and beer gardens and everyone is very social. The outdoors is of great importance and most people enjoy it. Switzerland is just a magical place and I was very fortunate to have grown up there. Do you still have family over there? -Yes, most of my family is back there. Why did you decide to come to America? -You know, over there it is very important to be fluent in several launguages. I mainly wanted to come to America to learn English and have that experience and just kind of ended up staying. I had no intention of staying when I left Switzerland. How did you make the decision to stay? -I was working as a secretary and met my husband Willie, who is from Germany and he came to America with his family to get away from the war (WWII). He was an engineer. We fell in love, got married, and did well with money and ended up staying in America. Do you celebrate any holidays from Switzerland? -We mostly celebrate the same holidays, however, Christmas was a lot different. We celebrated Santa Claus on December 6th and then celebrated Jesus on December 25th, which makes a lot more sense to me. Christmas was always extra special and there was a huge importance placed on the Christmas tree. New Years was also different, two minutes before midnight and two minutes after, church bells from every town were rung to symbolize moving on to the next year. It was simply beautiful. What were some challenges of moving to another country? -Mostly the communication barrier, which was why I came to America in the first place, to learn English. There weren't too many other significant problems. We were very fortunate. Do you ever miss Switzerland? -Of course, but Willie and I go to Germany and Switzerland several times a year, so we are happy with that.