Also sub-titled, biggest surprise of the year.
This just in: one of the most exciting things happened to us. It’s something we’ve been meaning to do for years, tracing our ancestries. Funny, though, that all we had to do was spit.
Into a tube… With our saliva… Science is crazy.
In a series of fortunate events, we had the opportunity to work with 23andMe, taking a trip to Scandinavia to trace our 5% and 3.2% Scandinavian heritages, respectively (Chris and Brock). Which is crazy. Crazy because we both had NO idea we were part Scandinavian.
We could be Danish. Or Swedish. Or Norwegian. And no one even thought to tell us. Rude.
So, here’s the 411: The name 23andMe comes from the fact that human DNA is organized into 23 pairs of chromosomes, creating a unique genetic makeup for every individual.
More specifically, 23andMe’s Personal Genetic Service offers a way to dive deeper into our ancestry and health, tracing regions around the world where our ancestors come from (linked by DNA) while simultaneously providing learnings surrounding how our DNA can affect facial features, hair, taste preferences, sleep quality and more.
That’s science.
So, here’s how it went for us: Like we said, we spit in a tube. One spit tube for Brock and one spit tube for Chris. Sexy! Then we registered our individual specimens through the 23andMe site, and mailed off the kits in their prepaid packages.
And so the waiting game began. Tick tock.
Now, let’s talk expectations vs. reality for a second. For Brock, the expectation was that he was largely Polish and Irish, barely anything else. Maybe a little German, but minimally. For Chris, the story was always told that he was 25% Chinese, 25% German, and 50% Irish.
We’re talking expectations vs. reality, and big surprise: reality is CRAZY.
Within a few weeks we received an email that our DNA reports were ready in our 23andMe online portals, and here’s what we found out:
BROCK’S RESULTS
CHRIS’ RESULTS
Brock is from all over Europe. And Chris. Well, Chris is from all over the entire globe.
Now, here’s the even more exciting part!
With all of this new information, we decided we’d cater our big Summer trip around somewhere surprising from our ancestry ☺︎ That landed with Scandinavia, opting to visit Copenhagen, Denmark, and Stockholm, Sweden. But, more surprises from our ancestry included Balkan heritages (for both of us), West African (for Chris), Broadly Southern European (for both), and even Ashkenazi Jewish (for both of us).
We spent a total of 3 full days in Copenhagen, staying in the city center / Latin district, and 4 days in Stockholm, staying near Gamla Stan. We saw The Little Mermaid, visited the harbor of Nyhavn, danced through The ABBA Museum, and visited Fotografiska (the Photography Museum of Stockholm). We ate Swedish meatballs four times in Stockholm and found our favorite cheeseburger in Copenhagen.
Did we tell you, we’re Scandinavian?
From here on out, we’ll be making all of our future trips relate to our ancestry in some way. Kind of a fun game, yeah? YES.
Check out 23andMe for yourself and see what surprises you about your DNA by visiting 23andMe.com/Yummertime ☺︎
<3 B+C
In partnership with our friends at 23andMe.
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