Well, I just practically jumped out of my skin! Why? Well, you know, its the Swiss's National bomb and water siren testing day that NO ONE told me about. So at about 1:30pm this afternoon the bomb siren started to sound and I felt my heart jump out of my skin. Have you ever heard a bomb siren? They're REALLY loud and very ominous. I didn't know what to do as I was home alone and wasn't sure what was going on yet. After pacing back in forth in our apartment with my shoes and coat on ready for anything, I noticed no one was running for our bomb shelter in the basement or looking frantic at all. In fact, no one was acting abnormal in any way. So I calmed myself down and decided to google "Switzerland Siren" and up came many pages explaining that this is a normal thing and to "NOT PANIC." This would have been nice to know before I had a mini heart attack. Now I laugh and think I'm sure many Swiss would have found it hilarious to see me in such a panic!

According to ZURICH4YOU.ch:

"Every year, on the first Wednesday of February, all sirens across Switzerland are tested. The aim is to ascertain the operational readiness of both the "General Alarm" and the "Water Alarm" sirens. The general public is not required to adopt a particular behavior or take protective measures."

At least I'm not the only one who panicked! I found Diccon Bewes' experience off of his website dicconbewes.com:

"Today is the first Wednesday in February. In Switzerland that means only one thing: annual siren test day. At preciely 13:30 all of the sirens across the whole country are tested, and it still scares the living daylights out of me. As a newcomer, no-one warns you that on a quiet day in February the Swiss practice the end of the world. The first time I heard the sirens, I contemplated running to my nuclear shelter (we all have access to one), but then noticed that everyone else was acting normally. So clam in a crisis, I thought. IN fact it was just the Swiss making sure that in the event of being attacked, their sirens will be in good working order. Now you might wonder who exactly is planning to attack the Swiss. After all the last invader was Napoleon in 1798."

The sirens have stopped now and I can relax. I hope you enjoyed this little interesting fact as I surely won't forget as Diccon Bewes puts it, "The day the Swiss practice the end of the world." Ha!

PS. Sorry for the hard to read text on the blog posts. For some reason I can't change anything about my blog, but will keep trying. :)