What a wonderful life

I can't help but live with a thankful heart...this was yet another weekend of wonderful experiences and blessings! The weekend started with a visit to the Montreux Christmas market which met all my expectations. It was so festive with the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas. We enjoyed some vin chaud (hot wine) and some fondue in a temporary chalet. A perfect way to have the first fondue of the winter season. Saturday afternoon was a South African afternoon - I baked malva pudding and made milk-tart while listening to the Lion King soundtrack... I definitely still have the spirit of Africa in my heart! I spent Saturday evening with friends from church enjoying an Indonesian meal that was incredibly tasty followed by a "make your own sundae" dessert. The night was characterized by lots of laughter and good conversation. This event was also the start of my early birthday celebrations in Switzerland, which continued into today. After church, a friend and I headed to the Lausanne Palace to have lunch which was definitely a treat for both of us. The service, food, atmosphere and most importantly the company made for a special outing. This afternoon I had some friends over for tea and to sample some South African desserts. We enjoyed such a happy afternoon and I felt so loved and blessed. This weekend has left me with a full heart and a deep appreciation for my friends in Switzerland - they make this experience so much sweeter.

And in other news, my suitcase is packed... I am ready to go home in 6 sleeps!

21km Done!

Today I ran the Lausanne half-marathon (21km) from Tour de Peliz back to Lausanne... in temperatures around zero degrees, with snow the whole way and icy strong wind - but WE did it!! What an amazing experience... adrenaline and excitement without a doubt kept me going and warm!

Before the run, with a "united Mzansi" buff!

As the weather deteriorated over the weekend, I became progressively more nervous... but was determined to run the race -  months of training, 5:45am runs, training in the rain and many bootcamp sessions - I knew I had to do this run. I was happy with my time of 2h7minutes - not bad considering the conditions and that it was my first half-marathon.

I ran with Hayley, and she was a trooper! This event was definitely made all that sweeter because of all the support from everyone - friends who braved the cold to come and cheer us on and take our warm things to the end for us; instructions, encouragement and training from our boot-camp instructor and months of training with my two running buddies who sadly didn't run today - definitely grateful for each person's contribution!

Proud to be done!

The warm layers came on quite quickly once we were done!

We did it!!

Autumn Days

Autumn is arriving in Switzerland and it is just beautiful... sunny days (that at the moment are still warm!) with a slight chill in the air and autumn colours everywhere! Today was a gorgeous day, so I decided to make the most of it. I headed into the forest with my running buddies for a long run - 1h40 minutes of absolute enjoyment :) After this morning burst of energy and freshness, I met some friends at a restaurant in Les Avants for a delicious meal - soup, salad, lamb chops with roesti and dessert all for 27CHF - an absolute bargain! Then we decided to walk back down to Montreaux (about a 2 hour walk) through the forest along the gorge... an absolute delight! Sunshine, fresh forest air, autumn colours and crunchy leaves. A perfect Saturday!

The French Life

This weekend was just what I needed - a weekend of rest and friendship. The last couple of weeks have been a little tough so I am so grateful to have had a couple of days of rest! 

I have been in Toulouse, France visiting some good friends and they have made the weekend so wonderful. They have been incredibly hospitable, generous and warm hosts who have taken such good care of me. It has been such a blessing to have so many wonderful meals made for me, especially after feeling a little low these last couple of days. There is something special about enjoying community with dear friends who understand the expat life! 

Toulouse is in the southwest of France, and is the 4th biggest city in France. Toulouse is the home of the aerospace industry in Europe, and the Toulouse Space Centre is the largest space centre in Europe (I didn't visit it this time - I now have a reason to go back!). Toulouse has also one of the oldest places dedicated to the photography in the world (Galerie du Château d'eau), the most ancient literary institution of the western world (Académie des Jeux floraux). Toulouse also has part of the 240km Canal du Midi running through it.

I decided to take Friday and Monday off to make the most of the weekend. On Friday afternoon Kate and I decided to get some groceries before making dinner and heading out to watch Andy play the first volleyball game of the season, which they won! 

Saturday morning we slept in, and then went to visit the market in Toulouse. I'm telling you, the markets may be one of my favorite things about European living! We went for a walk through the town and had some pastries (when in France!) and then sat and people-watched for a while! We decided to visit the Basilica of St. Sernin and arrived during organ and choir practice. What a treat! We stayed and listened for a while - mesmerized in this old building. This Basilica is the largest romanesque church in Europe,  built between 1080 and 1120 and is a UNESCO world heritage site.  This was followed by a visit to Capitole de Toulouse (the old town square) for a cup of coffee in the sun! 

Photo by Kate Hein

Photo by Andy Hein

Wild mushrooms!

Vibrant berries

Would a trip to France be complete without a visit to a patissier?

The Basilica

Capitol

Andy had practice in the afternoon, so Kate and I took Harry (their dog) and lay in the sun in the park for hours reading. Saturday night involved Mexican food, wine, pistachio Magnums and a movie - need I say more! 

Sunday brought more relaxation - breakfast made my Andy, a visit to the Toulouse International Church, pizza for lunch, a run in the rain, and an afternoon of chilling out! We ended the day with delicious dinner with pancakes and Nutella for dessert - Yum!! 

Thanks Kate and Andy for a superb weekend - Hotel Hein gets 5 stars!

On the topic of work

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I was in Germany the last few days for a conference – one of the advantages of the academic world is being able to travel to attend conferences. We were not in the most glamorous destination – Mannheim is not exactly a tourist hot-spot – but I am grateful to have the opportunity to travel and visit another place, and I was with fun people, which always makes a big difference. I really am blessed to be able to work with people who have also become my friends.

It turned out to be quite  a fancy upmarket conference and is on the topic of career guidance for social justice, prosperity and sustainable employment. Career guidance is not my field, but the conference has been quite interesting. When attending these types of events, I am reminded how privileged I am to have access to such resources, and feel a renewed sense of responsibility to be a good steward of all the knowledge I have access too. It is amazing how well funded research in Europe is  and the prestigious place it is awarded in society.

Recent weeks have been quite full on the work front – but it has been productive. I have managed to submit to two separate conferences for next year, as well as sending one article off to a journal and almost finishing another. All these 4 pieces are separate pieces of work, so it has been a bit of a challenge to keep them all in my mind at the same time! It has also been busy with half-marathon training – only 3 more weeks to go!

We have also moved offices – our old building was off campus, a 20 minute walk from the University – so now we are in a newly renovated building on the campus. It is pretty nice – very modern and trendy. There are definitely some perks to this move – having a student cafeteria, being closer to a lot of friends, closer proximity to the rest of my team and having easier access to things like the library and sport centre. We are going to have to work quite hard to create a new community in the building, the way it is designed is not so condusive to collaboration and passing each other in the passage or coffee-room, but we will figure it out! For me it is also quite a big change,  I got placed in a office with someone I don’t know – so I need to make a new friend and figure out a office routine with her. But, this means I will be speaking French with her every day, which I know will mean my French will significantly improve in the coming months.

But over the move things have been quite disruptive and now with the conference, my routine is all out of sync! People who know me well know that I like my routine, and like things to be predictable, so recent weeks have definitely been more draining than I would like. On the whole, I am much for flexible individual than I used to be, but when I have long periods of things not going according to plan, I definitely start to feel tired. With winter setting in here, and starting off in my new office for the first time next week, I am looking forward to settling into a new routine and finding my rhythm again. Need to make the most of the 7 weeks until I am home for a wedding, Christmas and a nice family holiday!

Museums are cool

Considering the small size of Lausanne, there a lot of museums here - about 23 I think! Once a year on nuits des musées (night of the museums) most of the Lausanne museums are open till 2am and entrance to all the museums is only 10 francs - a bargain! A group of us decided it would be a fun way to spend an evening, and we weren't disappointed! We visited the Lausanne Historical Museum (the best thing here was a big model of Lausanne), mudac (Museum of design and contemporary applied arts - here there was a touch display with all sorts of materials that you could touch!), Collection de l'Art Brut (one of my favourite things from the night was here - some amazing art by Paul Amar - google him! You won't be disappointed!), and the Cantonal Museums of Fine Art, Geology, and Archeology.

A sample of the art by Paul Amar (source)

Summer is slowly leaving Switzerland - mornings and evenings are chilly and the days are getting shorter... but that it is OK - we have snow to look forward to! It is just getting a little more tricky to train for the half-marathon as the hours of day light are decreasing, but we are still managing to get some good runs in! This time in 5 weeks I will be done with my first half-marathon!

Heading East

This past Monday was a public holiday for Lausanne - "Lundi du Jeûne Fédéral" - commemorating a period in 1619 when the Protestant churches decided on a common day of fasting (fun fact:  different public holidays are celebrated in the different Cantons of Switzerland)  - so of course a friend and I decided to make the most of the long weekend and take a little holiday!

Early Saturday morning we took the train to St Gallen - the Eastern most part of Switzerland - bordered by Germany and Austria. We spent the morning wandering around the old town of St Gallen and exploring the Abbey Library which is the oldest library in Switzerland and also one of the most important monastic libraries in the world housing manuscripts dating back to the 8th century. We then enjoyed some Swiss hot chocolate before checking-in at our hotel. We tried to find the botanical gardens and a wildlife park, but instead we found the St Gallen firestation - apparently our map reading skills need some refining! Naturally we had bratwurst for lunch - yummy! This was followed by a finicular ride up to the Drei Weieren (3 artificial water basins built above the city) for a pleasant afternoon stroll. We then continued with some more exploration in the town, followed by a drink before exploring some restaurants for dinner. We decided on a cosy restaurant serving all things Swiss-German and enjoyed some Spätzle (a type of egg noodle) for dinner.

Sunday was a full day - we visited 4 cities in 3 countries! We started off taking a train to Rorschach which is on the southern side of Lake Constance, and although the lake promenade was nice, it was Sunday, and Switzerland is a very quiet place on a Sunday, so there was not much happening! We had originally planned to go to Appenzelle ( a historical region of Switzerland) for a tour of a cheese factory, but then realised that the tour was in German only, so we quickly changed plans. We decided to take a boat to Lindau - a small Bavarian Island (but still connected to the mainland)  in Lake Constance, but in the German part. This may have been one of the best decisions we made all weekend. Lindau was alive and bustling and we so enjoyed discovering this quaint town with old buildings, cute cafés and stunning views. Of course we had some apple strudel and enjoyed the sunshine! And there was even a South African flag in the flag collection at the entrance to the port. The next train we wanted to catch went through the town of Bregenz in Austria - so we decided to stop here too - this way we would have seen Lake Constance from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The town itself wasn't anything too special, but walking along the lake in the sunshine is always hard to beat. Here we sampled some pineapple flavoured drinking yoghurt which was yummy and then caught our train the Lucerne (and we may or may not have bought the wrong ticket and totally misread the train timetable).

Now, Lucerne is a wonderful place - totally Swiss in many ways, but absolutely gorgeous and just a fun place to visit. We had the rest of Sunday night and the whole of Monday to explore Lucerne. On arrival we headed to our hotel and then decided to talk a walk and find some dinner. Lucerne is definitely a tourist hot spot, so many of the restaurants were over-priced, but we managed to find a spot and have some more bratwurst and roesti. Our hotel had its own pub, so on returning we decided to have a drink and listen to the live music - a band from America. This pub (Mr Pitwicks Pub) is clearly the spot for all the international people in Lucerne, so we felt right at home. Monday morning started with the most delicious pastries and coffee and a walk along the old city wall before snaking our way through the old town and visiting two churches - gorgeous! We then decided to head out of Lucerne for a bit and walked through the country side to visit a castle We then decided to take a boat to Waggis and Vitznau (definitely holiday destinations for the rich), but not before we had some more bratwurst overlooking the lake. I love taking the boat - fresh air, sunshine, peaceful waters and stunning scenerary - so I was quite content. After our excursions in Waggis and Vitznau we returned to Lucerne, had the necessary ice-cream, bought some burger king for the train, and headed back to Lausanne. All in all - a very successful trip.

I really needed a break, and this weekend has left me feeling re-energized and refreshed for the coming busy weeks. Traveling often makes me realize again how blessed I am to be living in Europe and how much Lausanne has become home for me - and this weekend was no exception.

Courage

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are"

E.E. Cummings

I saw this quote on a facebook friend's wall, and it really made me think this weekend. Growing up is one thing - already a challenging task as it is  - but growing up into "who you really are" is a different story entirely. This takes courage - courage to leave expectations behind, courage to make decisions and take risks, courage to sometimes walk a lonely path,  courage to figure out what you believe and why you believe it, courage to ask hard questions, courage to have difficult conversations, and courage to walk with conviction. And with that, may you have the courage you need to walk your path this week...

Rest

Today the weather in Switzerland looks like this...

...which means it is perfect for a day of a rest at home...

“Sometimes the most urgent thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest”

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time”

 I thrive when my life is busy and full of challenge and activity. I love knowing each day is used to accomplish something useful or do something exciting. I love this about myself, I love knowing that I can get things done and make things happen. But there is also a danger to this kind of mindset - I sometimes don't know when enough is enough. I often don't stop myself until I am over-tired. Thankfully, in recent months I have come to understand this pattern in myself and "catch" myself sooner, to decide to stop and rest before I find myself too tired. So this weekend is one for rest. For being content, good music and cups of tea. And right now, these 2 days of rest are exactly what I need and is the best possible way I could spend my time. It has been 3 tiring and challenging weeks of french class every day along with a very demanding work schedule. The coming weeks are going to be just as busy. So for now, rest is my priority!

A Giant Fork in the Lake

Where in the world would you find a giant fork in the lake? Well in Switzerland of course! The fork in the lake is part of the Aliemntarium (a food museum in Vevey), which we stumbled across yesterday during an outing to Vevey. I was with my lovely friend Hayley and we had decided to go to and see the "festival des artistes de rue de Vevey" a collection of street performances in the old city of Vevey. Vevey is about 15 minutes away from Lausanne on the train and is also on the lake. It is a great town - old and cute! Vevey is where the world headquarters of Nestle are, and Milk Chocolate was invented in Vevey in 1875. Hayley and I enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon enjoying the sunshine, street art, sangria and waffles! I have signed up for the half-marathon at the end of October and I am getting into my training routine now. Along with my early morning forest runs with some great friends, I have also been able to fit in some long runs at the lake. Not only are these runs beautiful, but they are flat! I am also two thirds of the way through a french intensive course (french every morning for 3 weeks), so my days have been full and busy!

1 Year Ago

This quote has been my e-mail signature for a long long time, but it was never more true for me than it was this weekend one year ago.

Yesterday, one year ago, I first heard about the opportunity to come to Switzerland. I remember so clearly receiving a text message from my Master's thesis supervisor saying something like, "I know this is crazy, but I just applied for you for a PhD position in Lausanne, Switzerland"... And although I had always considered doing a PhD, and although this professor had always encouraged me to consider doing one, at that time I wasn't looking for a PhD position, hadn't applied anywhere, and definitely wasn't considering moving overseas!

And so that text message began a week of exhilaration,  Skype interviews, overwhelming emotions, trying to weigh up the pro's and con's and finally deciding to accept the position and move to Switzerland. Pretty crazy. I thought I was totally nuts at the time - I knew no one in Lausanne, didn't speak the language, and wasn't even sure I wanted to do a PhD - and yet at the same time, I just knew I had  to take this opportunity. I knew I would regret it if I didn't. I knew I would always wonder "what if" if I hadn't made that decision to pack my bags and go. And so began an incredible journey.

Honestly, I am not even sure what happened between August last year and arriving in Lausanne at the end of December. All I know is that it was a frantic 4 and a bit months of working full time, trying to finish an internship, write a board exam and make sure I was fully registered in South Africa as a psychologist, sort out my life in SA, do all the admin for moving (and goodness, was there a lot of that!), sort out a visa, try and learn some French and spend as much time as possible with friends and family. It passed in a blur and stepping off the plane in Geneva was actually a relief!

And now I find myself, after almost 8 months of life in Lausanne totally content and loving every step of this journey. I love my life here - my work, my friends, the environment, the traveling, learning a new language, and all the marvelous things that come with living in a new country. I am so incredibly grateful to be here, so aware that this is such a gift.  There has never been a moment where I have regretted the decision to come. Yes I miss home, yes I miss my family, yes I think about my friends... but I am here now, and this is where I want to be.

Night and Day

Last night, a group of us took a trip to Geneva (40 minutes by train) to watch an annual and very impressive fireworks display. It marked the end of the Fête de Genève - 3 weeks of festivities and celebrations in the city. The theme was fire and water, and all the fireworks were set to music. For 55 minutes the sky was filled with vibrant colours and explosions of fire. Quite spectacular. Apparently 30 pyrotechnicians spent 7 days working on the show and on the night fireworks were set off from 30 different firing locations. Basically - I felt like such a kid!  

Today we enjoyed an idyllic day at the lake - I am definitely soaking up the warm weather and sunshine while it lasts! I had a picnic lunch with some great girls from church, followed by taking a peddle boat out onto the lake. This may be one of my favourite things to do. I love being on the lake, on the perfect blue water with the mountains in the background. But perhaps my highlight of the day was going for my first swim in a Swiss lake! While we were on the boat we jumped in the lake a few times and enjoyed the refreshing (chilly) water. Of course the afternoon was not complete until we had something yummy... which today was pancakes with nutella. At this stage, we had still not had enough sunshine, so we walked to another part of the lake, enjoyed the sun and scenery before having one more dip in the lake. Couldn't have been more wonderful :)

When in Switzerland!

Swiss National Day was celebrated on August the 1st and commemorates the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1291. It was a gorgeous day - roasting hot with clear blue skies. I ventured down to the lake to have a barbecue with some colleagues and every piece of open grass or beach was occupied with everyone barbecuing or having a picnic. I am telling you, eating by the lake is a national past time in Switzerland! For a nation that value privacy, it seems quite odd to me that on these sorts of occasions nobody seems to mind having their personal space invaded. Anyway, two things the Swiss are good at are eating and being outside... so why not combine them :) After the barbecue I went to Lutry (a nearby town on the lake) and met a friend for a walk and some ice-cream. And for the evening activity I headed to Montreaux for dinner and to watch a really impressive fireworks display! And the evening ended with us running for the train in the pouring rain... sounds like a Swiss day to me!

One of the things I missed when I was back in SA was being outdoors and being outside so often during the day. In SA, we drive everywhere and definitely do not spend enough time outside! So I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to do some hiking and be in the mountains! We went to the region of Valais, and hiked from Vernayaz to Les Marecottes. What was meant to be a "2.5 hour easy walk" (according to the guide book) turned out to be a 4 hour "not so easy" walk up and down a gorge, but it was a fantastic hike!

A trip back home

One of the great things about the academic world is the conferences that are happening all over the world... and especially great is when one of these conferences is in your home country! At the end of the July, Cape Town hosted the International Congress of Psychology, and I was able to attend... which more importantly meant I could go home for a couple of weeks! Going back to JHB was wonderful - nothing quite like seeing friends and family again! My time was full of social events, meeting up with friends and family, shopping and eating out! I also managed to fit in some runs with my sister which was great! There will always be something great about going home... and I get to do it again in December!