Day 10: Turns out there IS an 'I' in team.

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I knew it all along....

Day 5 - Ridiculous

Today's pictures are brought to you from my first trip to Lausanne, the big city closest to my little home in Bournens (pronounced Bor-no).  Every Saturday, the farmers come to the city and sell fresh produce, flowers, and spices on the city streets until noon.  My Swiss family is a huge fan of all things fresh (yay!) so we went to the market.  What a beautiful, pleasant day.

Yesterday's post got me thinking about expectations. I was expecting Lausanne to be beautiful, I am expecting to enjoy my time here, and I am expecting there to be uncomfortable moments. But I'm glad for the unexpected - the things that are popping up that I was not prepared for. These are the times when I'm learning the most and sometimes having the most fun.

Today was full of unexpected silliness. For example, I was not at all prepared for a headless, bodiless mannequin to appear in my path only wearing a pair of jeans. The picture is made perfect by the woman framed by the pants, walking away in the distance wearing only leggings, as though she up and left her jeans in the street. And there they stand all by themselves, as if to say "so what? I don't need a person to look like great jeans. whatever, it's fine."

I was also not expecting to look up and see this pompous orange tabby glaring down at me from her balcony. "Hey, you in the scarf. Yeah, you hanging out with the Swiss family.  Nobody's fooled, you are totally American. Go home and eat a cheeseburger. This is MY city."

Do I have mental conversations with cats? Yes, all the time.  And we're moving on.

My favorite unexpected moment was the dinner I had with the father of my Swiss family. The mother went out for the evening so after the children were in bed, it was just him and I and some excellent Thai food. I was a little nervous because he only speaks a little English and I speak even less French and I have this unbecoming tendency to chatter to fill awkward silences.  Well, I needn't have worried. He speaks English far better than he gives himself credit for and he tells the most interesting stories. Before I knew it, an hour had passed and I was falling over laughing about the time he went to California with a friend and they dyed their hair blonde to pass as American surfers so they could surf on a pros-only beach.

Ah. Hipster and intellectual tendencies aside, anyone who has talked to me for five minutes knows I'm quite silly. I can take a rather stupid joke and make it last for way longer than necessary.  The moral of the story here is that though Mensa is rejecting my application as we speak, I'm glad that my grand European adventure is not affecting my love of the ridiculous.

Day 4 - Reality Check

This is from the banks of Lac Leman (again, Lake Geneva for all you non-Swiss). So peaceful and so calm, the Alps in the distance shrouded in haze. Today was a beautiful warm day and we went to a small local park in Bournens (the village where I live) this morning and then to the lake shore in the afternoon in Lausanne.  My eyes could not get enough of this sight.

It was nice to sit and stare into the water.  I haven't been here long but in this short time, I'm reevaluating the year set before me.  I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.  This is not bad, I am simply coming to terms with the situation.  I've been telling people for months that this was my plan but somewhere along the line, I stopped thinking about the implications.

I guess I forgot how new everything would be.

For all of my 22 years, I have never been without familiarity. Even when I went away to college, that wasn't very far from home and I was surrounded by things similar.  Here, it is all different. The food, the landscape, the people, the language (big, big difference), everything.  I packed three suitcases full of America but it is not the same.  Even my familiar clothes look different hanging in my new closet. Also, I feel very oddly dressed and out of place, but that's another story entirely. One that potentially ends in me rushing out to the stores for a new wardrobe....

Of course it could be worse. It's not like I'm in the African bush country, drinking goats milk out of an elephant tusk and fighting off lions. But let's get real. I'm a college grad from the Midwest who goes to Chicago for a weekend calls that a grand adventure. I'm totally out of my element here.

But then I sit by the lake and remember that I am not here to feel comfortable, to fit in.  I'm here to try things like ham and sage pork fillet and I might even like it. Which I totally do...pretty much changed the way I view meat. And gâteau a la creme... Ok that is also another story, one that definitely ends in me rushing out for new clothes...
Note to future Swiss travelers: the food = très très BIEN. Also très très rich. I've had a stomach ache for 3 days now....


Anyway, I'm glad for the quiet moments, glad to remember why I'm here. So even though this jet lag seems to never end and even though I will continue to wake up in a cold sweat because I've had a nightmare that I've forgotten all my French AND English and EVEN THOUGH I miss my family like crazy, I will keep on.  There are many more beautiful moments ahead like the one today and I can't wait to experience that.

So bring on the awkward, poorly worded, and uncomfortable situations. It will make for some entertaining stories anyway.

On the plus side, I'm signed up for a French course at the local university. Did you hear that? Yeah, that was the collective sound of Bournen's 250 residents breathing a sigh of relief.

Day 3 - Morning

This is what I woke up to:

(well, many hours ago, but it is morning for all you back at home)

A rooster crow, children's laughter, and somewhere there's a bell that clangs out the hour. Oh, and this view. That break in the horizon beyond the houses, yeah that's where Lac Leman is (Lake Geneva, as it is incorrectly called by us Americans).

Pain au chocolat: Nutella on bread. This better not become a habit or I will have to buy two seats for the plane ride home.

A pleasing array of thé (tea)

Aside from the continuing jet lag, yes Mom, I'm doing just fine. :)

Day 2 - In...somnia

Sunrise over Amsterdam

My seatmate raised the window shade an hour prior to touchdown this morning in Amsterdam and this is what we saw:

As we sunk into the clouds, the sun was beginning to illuminate the northern coast of Holland.

And then we got below the clouds.  The city looked so young and fresh bathed in morning gold.

What a beautiful end to a sleepless night. 

I have arrived safe in Switzerland. I adore it and I haven't even been here for 24 hours. The family, the house, the surroundings, all lovely. I'm beginning to think I've bitten off more than I can chew with the language barrier but I have a patient and understanding translator. 

And jet lag is hitting me like a ton of bricks. Thanks for all the well wishes/thoughts/prayers. More later...