Christmas Time!

I was a little bit anxious about spending my first Christmas without my family, and of course I thought about them a lot and missed them, but thanks to the kindness of wonderful friends here, I had the most wonderful Christmas.

The festivities started a few weeks ago with two connect group Christmas celebrations. The first was a joint celebration of two of the English speaking groups - a bring and share Christmas lunch one Sunday after church - which was a tasty and happy occasion. The second was a full roast dinner for the Monday night connect group I attend which was a wonderful celebration of the friendship we have shared this year! And then of course there have been a few trips to Christmas markets to eat fondue and crepes, and drink hot wine :)

The festivities started with dinner at the parents-in-law of a good friend - we had Chinese fondue and gifts were exchanged. I spent most of the evening happily chatting away in French and kept having to remind myself that I was indeed spending Christmas Eve with a dear family in a small Swiss village - unreal! I was exceptionally grateful to this family for opening their home to me.

I slept over at my friend's house and we started Christmas morning with pancakes before letting her boys open and delight in their gifts! We spent the morning preparing our Christmas meal and mid-afternoon some other friends joined us for a very delicious meal of turkey, roast potatoes, garlic carrots, green beans, peas and broccoli with chocolate cake and Christmas cookies for dessert. We spent the rest of the day playing lego and once the boys went to sleep we watched a movie together. Overall, it was the perfect Christmas day - relaxed and joyous with happy hearts and full tummies!

My hosts kindly invited me to stay the night again, and on the morning of the 26th we woke up to a Winter Wonderland and the snow continued to fall all day - what a treat! Some friends came from brunch, so we indulged in more pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausages and happy fellowship for a few hours before playing more lego, playing games and reading books together. We then bundled up and went for a walk in the snow :)

I took the day off on the 27th to finish the Christmas week off in the mountains for a perfect day of skiing!

Overall, it was a happy, blessed and peaceful Christmas, and I am so grateful for the kindness and generosity of my friends - they welcomed me into their home with such warmth and love and I was so happy to be a part of their family for a few days!

Family Time

I have really come to appreciate my family in new ways since I have lived in Lausanne - growing up, not being at home anymore, and experiencing more of life have all shown me time and time again how wonderful my family is. I am so grateful for each one of them and the completely unique relationships we all have with each other. Spending time together over November was food for my soul!

The marriage of my gorgeous sister to her prince was the reason we all came together, and it gave us a perfect opportunity to celebrate family. It was an honour to be a bridesmaid for my sister and witness her union.  I met my two brand new nieces - they are both completely delightful. (Little darlings with sweet smiles, sleeping peacefully in my arms, snuggling up to me - nothing else mattered in those moments).  I spent time with my precious and gentle nephews and it was such a gift to see their sweet characters developing, they really are little people now :) (Bed time stories and songs, preparing food for little people, playing trains, spontaneous laughter, cuddles and games in the garden - what more could I want?)  I savored time spent with my siblings and their spouses and children (who are completely part of the family!) and my parents - what a fantastic group of people (Each one is fantastic, gifted and wise in unique ways). We are now an immediate family of 19 and the love I have for each one of them runs deep.

Every day was full - between babysitting, wedding preparations, food preparation, hosting events and social activities with friends - my arms and heart were full! It was an abundant and blessed time and I soaked up every minute of it.  I continuously had two scriptures running through my mind that captured everything perfectly...

..."My cup runneth over"... 

..."A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap"... 

Life Lately

It has been a while since I last posted something, so I thought it was time for an update! I have been back in Lausanne for two weeks now after a wonderful 3 weeks in South Africa (post to follow about my trip) and I am back to my full and lovely life here:

• It is definitely winter - it is cold and and the day is short. The sun is rising at 08:00, and setting by about 16:30/17:00. Thankfully we have had some sunny days! Personally I love the combination of winter sun, blue skies and crisp fresh air.
• It is time to find some snow and do some skiing! I took my skies to be serviced and I bought some ski passes already, so it is time to go :) 
• Lausanne is an especially magical city at Christmas time - I am enjoying the festive atmosphere and the beautiful Christmas lights that are everywhere. And as a major bonus - it is Christmas market time.
• This is such a social time of year and we have done some fun things lately - Christmas parties, dinners, drinks with friends and a super fun clothes swop which has to be the best way to clean out your closet, get some "new" clothes and enjoy an evening with the ladies. 
• I signed up for another half-marathon in February, the Romeo and Juliet half-marathon in Verona :)  Recently I have enjoyed a lot of swimming, so I need to fit in some more runs.
• Salsa dancing still has to be one of the best ways to de-stress and have a lot of fun. 
• Next year is going to be a full year with some extra commitments at work and at church - I am excited and trying not to have too much "anticipatory stress". 
• I had an absolutely wonderful 27th birthday here - my friends and colleagues did an exceptional job of making the day special, and I felt so loved and appreciated. 
• I am still taking French lessons every week, but I am making good progress and feeling more and more comfortable with the language. 
• Although it would be lovely to spend Christmas at home, I am really looking forward to spending Christmas here celebrating with good friends, enjoying the festive atmosphere and having a few days of rest. 
• My gratitude grows each day - I am abundantly blessed in every area of my life and I am grateful. 

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. (Melody Beattie)

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. (Denis Waitley)

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/gratitude.html#8Aj22zx1o537ugrp.99

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/gratitude.html#8Aj22zx1o537ugrp.99

The city that has it all!

Since moving to Switzerland, a trip to Barcelona has been high on my list of "things to do".  I had high expectations and people constantly told me how much they love Barcelona. Needless to say I was excited!

First things first, Barcelona is in Catalonia which means they speak Catalan and Spanish. Thankfully for me, I was travelling with my wonderful friend Tiina who is incredibly gifted when it comes to languages, so she did all the talking in Spanish :) Not only did she do all the talking, she also did all the planning, navigating and map-reading - thank you Tiina! I loved your company and so appreciate your sweet friendship!

Although we were in Barcelona at the end of September, it was gloriously warm and sunny! Our summer dresses and bikin's made some last appearances before being packed away for the winter. I arrived on a Thursday afternoon and took the bus into the city to meet Tiina. On walking through the old city to our hotel, I was already in love with the city. In the early evening we headed out to a place called La Champañerîa - a tiny little hole in the wall place packed full of people that serves champagne for 1 Euro and an amazing selection of hot sandwiches and plates of sausage. It was completely crazy, but entirely wonderful all at the same time! We loved it so much, we went back a second time :) Dinner that night (at about 10:30) consisted of the most amazing tapas - we had a salad with orange, nuts, cheese and dry ham; very thinly sliced eggplant fried and drizzled with honey served with goats cheese (I may remember this for a looooong time); the most amazing steak sandwich; and then foei gras on a baguette with Roquefort cheese and creme brulée for dinner. We then ventured out to try the salsa scene in Barcelona and were thoroughly impressed - amazing music, great people and talented dancers. 

Friday started off with crossiants and coffee for breakfast (and even this was memorable), followed by a trip to Park Güell, one of the incredible places designed by Gaudi. I don't think there is anything like Gaudi architecture anywhere else in the world - it is completely unique. Naturally it was time to eat again - this time a three course meal and wine for 10 Euro! I had a cold tomato soup, fish tempura, and a yoghurt and fruit dessert. We then went to visit Palau Güelle, a mansion designed by Gaudi for
Catalan industrial tycoon Eusebi Güell. Friday night we headed back to La Champañerîa with friends for some more champagne and sandwiches (so yum - who knew that ham, pickles and roquefort could be *that* good?) before heading out for some drinks and dancing!

Of course Saturday started off with more food - this time the most delicious eggplant sandwich and pancakes. We also walked through this incredible market where I had the best strawberry and lemon juice I have ever had in my life. We then walked through the old city, stopping at sites along the way but finishing at the Barcelona Cathedral. After a coffee break we walked through Parc de la Ciutadella, had some delicious ice-cream and found ourselves on the beach for a swim in the sea.

Sunday after breakfast we headed to Hospital de Sant Pau and La Sagrada Familia - two of the famous sites in Barcelona. Building for the La Sagrada Familia, another Gaudi masterpiece, started in 1882, but at his death in 1926, only about one quarter of this Roman Catholic church was finished. Construction has been continued, at is estimated to be finished in 2026. I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like this in my whole life, and I don't think I will ever see anything that comes close to this place - it is completely unique and gorgeous. After being good tourists, we hopped on the train to Sitges, a seaside town 30km from Barcelona. Here we ate yet another delicious meal - cold gazpacho, followed by fish with a lemon and mint sauce and more yoghurt and fruit for dessert. We made ourselves comfy on the beach, enjoyed the sun, indulged in more ice-cream and swam in the sea again! 

Unfortunately Monday follows Sunday, which means it was time for us to leave the city that has it all. No doubt I will be back again!

Estonia and Stockholm

After making a new friend from Estonia over the course of the last year, some friends and I from Lausanne decided to take a trip to Estonia!

The view of Tallinn

Our medieval feast!

We left Geneva on a Friday and took the plane to Helsinki, via Copenhagen. Then we took the Ferry from Helsinki to arrive in Tallin, Estonia. We stayed in an apartment in the old town, and spent Saturday exploring Tallin - we went on a guided tour of the old town in the morning, ate lunch at a local eatery, explored the city some more, stopped for coffee, went to the beach (yes, the beach!) and then ate dinner at a place called Old Hansa. Old Hansa is a medieval restaurant through and through - from the food, to the setting (no electricity), to the music, to the staff appropriately attired in medieval clothing, this was a completely unique experience! We ate a medieval feast - starters of oven roasted cheese, fresh bread, onion jam, berries, pickles, chicken pâté (and probably some other things I am forgetting), a main course of salmon in a nut sauce, barley, turnips, game sausages, roast beef in a fig sauce, and lentils, and then dessert of baked apples with pastry and a honey and nut sauce. We indulged and it was delicious.

Olde Hansa medieval restaurant!

Tallinn's old town square on a sunny day!

On Sunday morning we drove two hours to Tartu to attend church with our Estonian friend Lena and to have lunch with her family and meet some of her friends. It was great to be able to meet them all and we had a special afternoon together. In the afternoon we explored the city of Tartu which is known for being a student town with a University with a good reputation.

The cutest little café

On Monday, we drove back to Tallin to bid farewell to two of our travelling companions, and the rest of us enjoyed some more good food for lunch before I made myself comfortable in a cave-like coffee shop with a good book and a cup of tea and chocolate cake. I was quite happy :)

 In the early evening we caught the overnight cruise liner to Stockholm, the Baltic Queen and I had my first taste of the cruise liner experience! We enjoyed the view from the windy deck of the boat before finding some dinner and planning our agenda for our next day in Stockholm. By the time we were ready to sleep I could feel that we were on a boat, the sensation of the motion was quite strange actually. But we all slept well thankfully!

We arrived in Stockholm on Tuesday morning and spent some time exploring the old city, which coincided with the opening of Parliament, so we saw the Swedish Royal family which was an unexpected bonus! After a tasty lunch, we went to the Vasa Museum, which has an old boat that was recovered from the ocean floor after 333 years of being submerged. She sunk in the 1600's on her maiden voyage due to a design fault. The boat was salvaged and has been restored and is more than 90% original. It was amazing to see something historical. After this we stopped for coffee and cake and I had a marshmellow chocolate brownie which was out of this world! And then it was time for dinner, sleep, and to catch the plane home!

The royal residence in Stockholm

Triple Trouble - Team Triathlon

At the end of August, my friend Hayley and I, and another friend from our bootcamp exercise class Sandra,  decided to compete in the Lausanne Triathlon as a team! Our team name was Triple Trouble, and thankfully there was no trouble on the day (except for some threatening rain and chilly temperatures) and we were triumphant over the triathlon!

For all of us, competing in a triathlon was a new experience, and although the distances were short, the transitions required some skill. We had a great experience, and each member of our team gave it their all and did really well. We finished 6th out of 11 teams in our sections, which I don't think is bad considering it was our first time and none of us are professional athletes! Maybe we will do it again next year, and maybe one day I will do a triathlon by myself.

Sunday to Sunday

These days, I really appreciate the variety I have in my life! To give you an idea, these are some the activities from the last 7 days...

• A 1.7km swim
• Numerous social activities - lunch with friends, dinner at an outdoor market, a fondue, a BBQ...
• Two connect groups
• Multiple runs
• A few skype dates
• Taken part in a team triathlon (separate post to follow!)
• Two dancing classes
• Been to a night of salsa dancing
• Lots of French
• Work
• Finished the data cleaning and finalised all the documentation - the end of a 6 week task
• Edited and finalised our team's annual report
• Done preliminary work, and had two meetings,  for a new article project
• Met with a collegue about another "work-in-progress" article
• Met with a collegue to discuss some teaching I will most likely do in the autumn semester
• Edited, formatted and prepared a manuscript for publication for the journal I work for.

 I am so grateful for this wonderful life...

Not an ordinary day

Two years ago today my journey to Switzerland began. On the 19th of August 2011, I first heard about the opportunity to come to Switzerland, and less than 1 week later I had decided to accept the position. It was the beginning of a remarkable journey that continues today.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

Ernest Hemingway

I don't know what the end of this journey will be, but I sure am enjoying the journey! 

From the Countryside to London!

So after 1 week of statistics and maths, my brain was ready for a holiday! I took the train to London and met up with Hayley for some quick shopping in Primark (yeah!) and then we took the train together to meet her fiancé Dan South of London. Dan lives on a farm, so on the Friday and Saturday nights, Hayley and I camped in this very nice tent with comfortable beds and everything (thanks Dan!) and Dan slept on his renovated bus (so cool)! On Saturday we went into Tenterdon and wandered around the shops before stopping for tea and scones – delicious! In the afternoon we went to the seaside town of Hastings – we took the furnicular up a little hill and enjoyed a beautiful sunny view of the town and the seaside, before heading back down to the promenade to play in the arcade, race go-karts and eat fish ‘n chips out of paper in a bus shelter whilst taking cover form the slight drizzle – a truly English experience!

On Saturday night we watched movies in the bus and on Sunday we rented a boat and rowed down a river before having Sunday roast lunch at the pub! I thoroughly enjoyed my roast – it has been a while since I had roast potatoes and they were yummy. We then rowed back down the river, before I took the train back to Essex. But let me say, clearly I missed some important coordination lessons growing up, because I cannot row. We spent more time trying to get away from the bank, going in a zig zag or round in circles, or in fits of hysterics than we did actually moving anywhere sensible when I was rowing. Lets just say it was a really good thing that we were all in the same boat and that thankfully the other 3 people I was with actually knew how to row, otherwise we would have never gone anywhere! All in all it was a wonderful weekend spent with dear friends – thank you Hayley and Dan for your generosity and for many wonderful special memories! 

London Bound

At the end of summer school, I went to London for a few days to visit a good friend who I know from South Africa.  I met her close to her work in Canary Wharf (a business district buzzing with people – it was fun to people watch here!) and we had some drinks in the sun before heading out to dinner. We went to one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurant’s – Barbecoa – which has a fantastic view of St Paul’s Cathedral. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love Jamie Oliver, and so eating at one of his restaurants was a special treat for me! We had steak and it was delicious. On Saturday we went for a run in Richmond park, followed by some baking and then afternoon tea at the National Portrait Gallery. Afternoon tea may be one of my favourite “meals” and so I savoured the treats whilst overlooking the roofs of London.  Sunday bought a trip to Spitalfields market, another delicious meal and church at Hillsong London which is always a cool experience. Chantal and I spent hours talking and catching up – there is definitely something special about life-long friends. All in all it was a wonderful weekend of rest, fun and friendship – thank you Chantal for being such a gracious host and planning so many special things!

Summer School!

I recently returned from a two-week trip to the University of Essex to take a statistics course in multi-level modeling. Here are a few impressions from my trip!

·      Arriving in a “heat wave” in England – “please travel with a bottle of water” “don’t board the train if you feel unwell”… um, it is not that hot? Temperature is relative apparently.

·      Feeling nervous about navigating all the trains and the tube… and then remembering that I have done this multiple times over in countries where I don’t speak the language.

·      Making friends at the Colchester train station with other Essex summer school participants – the first guy I meet is from Denmark, finishing a PhD in Oxford, is living in Cape Town and married to a lady from Mozambique. Wow, this is going to be an interesting two weeks.

·      Make another friend – a guy who kindly offers to show all of us where the summer school registration office is– I don’t realize I grateful I am for this help until I realize just how complicated the Essex campus is…

·      … There are squares, directions, levels, and doors… very many doors. You can’t access all levels from all squares, and squares all have multiple directions. And you enter a building on the “ground floor”, but it is actually the “third floor”.

·      Go shopping at Tesco – oh goodness, culture shock all over again – there is so much choice! (but the shops are open on a Sunday!) And I find Cadbury’s chocolate and Terry’s orange chocolate – both of these make me very happy.

·      Go to the welcome reception, make friends, eat free food. I am impressed at the introductions given by each professor – these people are good researchers and teachers – that doesn’t happen in academia too often.  Laugh at jokes: English humour is definitely different.  

·      Go to class 1 – maths without numbers. This should be fun. Meet another interesting person – A Canadian, studying in Zurich, who did her field work in Durban. Since moving to Europe – she is one of the few people who guess my South African accent.

·      Go to class 2 – this is going to be interesting and I know I am going to learn a lot. I like the professor’s teaching style.

·      Work, sleep, eat, run and do french (in no particular order) – it is peaceful here. I like it.

·      Go to class 1: “this is a problem we can’t solve, so we turn it into a problem we can solve” – I am sure there is some life wisdom in this.

·      Evacuate the building at 5:30 am when the fire alarm goes off. Stand in the rain in our pyjamas. Make more friends… we are all perhaps a little more familiar with each other than we would like at this point. Go back to the building – no fire thankfully.

·      More maths without numbers… I am sure I should have paid more attention in high-school math class…

·      Continue this for two weeks – I am definitely tired at the end, but this was a good and useful experience.

So what exactly do you do?

After 18 months of being a PhD student, I thought it was time for an update! When I first heard my contract was for three years (which has subsequently been extended to four years if I want the fourth year), I remember thinking that that seemed like a long time for a PhD. I don't think that anymore. The time is passing so quickly! Overall, I am really happy in my current position; I work as part of a great time with people who are very willing to share their knowledge and experience and give me exciting and challenging opportunities; I like the research we are doing and find it interesting; I feel challenged in a stimulating and healthy way; I enjoy the independence but also the team-work; I work in a nice environment and have great colleagues who are also friends! 

This is a long post - so if you want to know more about what I do... then read on! If not, I understand :)

So what does an average day look like for me? Well, it may consist of any of the following things:

• Conference and travel admin - this takes a long time! This year I will have attended four conferences and a summer school which represents a lot of time given to travel arrangements and making applications for funding. 
• Attending seminars / discussions / presentations - being part of a University community means that there are plenty of presentations to attend on a variety of topics.  And now, I can attend the French ones too :) I try to choose a mix - some that are directly useful for my research, and others that are just interesting to me! 
• Attending team meetings - every two weeks my thesis director has a meeting with his team at which everyone gives an update of the work they are doing. This meeting is always in French, and I now participate in French too, with the option to ask for a translation if I don't understand something.
• Meeting with the post-doc on our project - we will talk about work we are currently doing  (we have written some articles together, a book chapter and prepared some conference presentations together) or other aspects of our project like the data collection and preparation, writing reports, or preparing newsletters. 
• Preparing presentations for conferences - this takes longer than you might think! 
• Data cleaning - we receive our data from the polling institute we collaborate with, but then I need to rename variables, decide what to do about missing values and check that there are no mistakes in the data, especially with our complicated filter and classification system. This takes ages. 
• Attending workshops - this year I have attended several workshops or short courses, which have mostly been about statistics (techniques and software), but also some others like preparing academic CVs. 
• Coordinate the DOPE sessions - DOPE is a monthly Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Exchange session that I organize (I didn't start it, but took over from one of my colleagues a few months ago). It is an informal information exchange session between researchers in social sciences. With the participation of some other colleagues, I organize a monthly session on a relevant topic such as academic writing, conferences and summer schools, giving and receiving feedback, publishing, post-PhD options... 
• Work as an editorial assistant for the LIVES working paper series - this is a publication of our research institute LIVES, and I help with editing and formatting research papers for publication. 
• Assist colleagues with editing English documents - As a native English speaker, my language skills are in demand! 
• Attend meetings or do work associated with ECP 17 - I am an assistant on the organizing committee for the 17th European Congress on Personality which will be held in June 2014 at the University of Lausanne (http://www3.unil.ch/wpmu/ecp17/) - up until now I have been involved in fundraising and also plan to organize an event solely for PhD's at this conference. 
• Collaborating on articles with other colleagues - along with my own research, I also write papers with my colleagues as a contributing author - this means that I don't take full responsibility for the article (like I would if I was the first author), but rather just contribute to sections of the article.
• And last but not least, my own research! This includes looking for articles and doing reading, data analysis (which often includes learning new techniques and software), and writing articles. So far, all the articles I have written as a first author have been in collaboration with other researchers. Writing an article is challenging enough and includes conception, reading, writing, data collection, analysis (which is never finished the first time), more writing and reading, editing, more writing, more revisions, coordinating the contributions of co-authors, and yet more writing and revising! Once an article is ready for publication we prepare it for submission exactly according to the journal requirements and then take a chance and submit! Journals can then respond with a few types of answers; 1) desk reject - this means that you article was not sent for review and the editor decided it is not suitable for publication in that specific journal (for any number of reasons), 2) Revise and re-submit - the editor didn't send the article for review, but is requesting some modifications before deciding to send the article to be reviewed, 3) Accepted for publication with either minor / major modifications - this means that the manuscript will be published but only after changes have been made. This can take some time, especially because as an author you need to respond in detail to each and every single comment of the reviewer(s), or 4) Accepted for publication - this is the news any author wants to receive! Once an article has been accepted for publication and the necessary revisions made, it will still be sent back to you as the author during the copy-editing stage. Here it is my responsibility to check the article once more after it has been formatted for a particular journal. Only after all of this, which can take months, the article will be published. And of course, it is very likely that the first journal you submit an article to will not respond positively - I submitted my most recent publication to 6 journals before it was accepted.
• I have made the decision to try and do my PhD by article (as opposed to writing a more traditional thesis) - this means I need a minimum of 2 articles written as a first-author, plus at least 2 others as a co-author. These articles should be independent pieces of work, but should fit together as a coherent piece of work. When it comes to submit, I will take the articles I have written and combine them with an introduction and conclusion and submit all the work together. This will of course mean that although the articles will be finished, changes will need to be made with reference to how the work is presented. It is quite a challenge to balance the independence and cohesiveness aspects of preparing a thesis in this way. The articles need to be published, in press, or accepted for publication with minor revisions - this means that there is definitely pressure to be productive quickly! The final stages will be my private thesis defense, revisions, and then a public thesis defense. And then I will have my PhD!

Weekend scenes

This weekend felt like a holiday! It started on Friday night with a BBQ under the evening sky on the roof of a friend's apartment complex with the most gorgeous view of the lake. 

Our view on Friday night

Saturday morning I went for a swim followed by a bite to eat at one of my favorite cafés before heading into town and having some time at home. 

Saturday late afternoon a group of us went to Montreux for the Jazz Festival. We found ourselves a sunny spot on the grass at music in the park and enjoyed a relaxing few hours before enjoying some other music and drinks together.

The gorgeous drive to Montreux

At Music in the Park

 And on Sunday we spent the whole afternoon and early evening having a BBQ at the lake with friends - a day of eating, resting, laughing and swimming was followed by ice-cream in the evening sun.

18 months

The 1st of July marked 18 months of life in Switzerland. Somehow 18 months feels like a significant amount of time - long enough to really settle in and be past the "honeymoon" phase. As I reflect back over the last 18 months, my most prominent feeling is one of gratitude. I sometimes can't believe all the experiences I have had, all the places I have seen, all the people I have met, all I have learnt and all I have come to discover about myself and the world. It has been a stimulating, happy, challenging and satisfying time and I can't help but be thankful.

Summer has arrived in Switzerland, and I am doing my best to enjoy it in between a full work schedule! Running, swimming, drinks with friends on the terraces of numerous cafés, picnics, barbecues, long lazy days by the lake and refreshing swims in the cold lake are part of my weekly routine. A couple of hours at the lake always leaves me feeling like I have had a mini-vacation, and in the absence of a real holiday right now, I am grateful for the times of rejuvenation.  Switzerland comes alive in the summer months with many events organized that are a lot of fun to attend and experience. This past weekend we were at the Montreux Jazz Festival - on a salsa boat on the lake for the afternoon which was idyllic. This coming week we have plans to attend the Jazz Festival again, and maybe also  the Lausanne Festival de la cité - a collection of  free music, dance and theatrical acts in the streets of the old city of Lausanne. There is also a new Thursday night food market where restaurants offer dishes from their menus - I have visited once and plan to go again!

I have added two new activities two my life - salsa dancing and private French lessons - the one being significantly more enjoyable than the other! I thing I have missed since moving to Switzerland is dancing, and although I have enjoyed the opportunity to try some different activities, I am enjoying being able to dance again! Of course I am very much a beginner, so have lots to learn, but I am having a lot of fun. The French lessons are proving to be fruitful and I feel myself growing in competence and comfort with the language. It is still tiring, and  often challenging, but I have still made good progress and I try to focus on that. I have 1.5 weeks left in Switzerland before heading to the UK for 2 weeks, and I plan on enjoying every day!

Cake for Breakfast

Italian food really is good. The days begin with perfect Italian coffee and cake for breakfast, followed by delicious biscuits and more good coffee at tea time. Lunch is a feast traditionally consisting of a pasta course followed by a meat / fish and vegetable dish and then dessert (how people eat that much for lunch and not sleep all afternoon is beyond me). Hot summer afternoons require gelato. Lazy warm evenings are welcomed with drinks shared with friends and dinner on the square lasts for hours with wine, pizza, panacotta, espresso and limoncello providing a feast. 

I spent the last few days in Padova for a conference and in amongst the work, we had plenty of time to enjoy Italian living. Good food shared with friends and family is the focus, time is not important and stress is just not worth it. It really is quite a clever way to live life. 

The conference on "life-designing: building hope and resilience" was thought-provoking, relevant and inspiring. Essentially, as the world becomes more uncertain with accompanying changes in the labour market, the notion of "career" is evolving too. It is no longer about clearly delineated paths with marked steps. People increasingly have to design their own lives and careers, with uncertainty a prominent feature, transitions numerous and the boundaries between life domains becoming increasingly blurred. Once again, I was reminded of how much I love what I do and just how blessed I am to be working where I am in the team of which I am a part. It is all quite exciting really! I did a presentation and truly experienced flow - the state of being engaged in the task facilitated by a match between the demands of the situation and my skills and resources. I'm grateful to be in the minority of people who find their jobs satisfying. 

So what are my reflections from the last few days? I think relationships and the principle of connected lives accompanied with reciprocity is going to become more and more important - where we find ourselves today is because of people and where we find ourselves tomorrow will be because of others. Kindness and generosity go a long way. I think people need to know how to make the most of current opportunities - it is becoming more and more difficult to engage in traditional career planning. Today will always be a platform for tomorrow. Skill development and transfer are important. But people also need a capacity to act that matches their capability. 

We spend a lot of time talking about how complex the world is and that this complexity is only expected to increase exponentially. But, paradoxically, I think people's needs are becoming more simple. One large research study found that across thousands of people, time and time again, people rated "a happy family" and "a good job" as their top goals. And this is exciting because there is a lot that is in our control that contributes to the fulfillment of these two desires for ourselves and others.   

 

Hope for the future needs to be nurtured, nourished and treasured. Why is it so precious? Because hope is the belief that things will be better tomorrow accompanied by a belief in myself to make it so.

Sunny Sunday!

Today was a wonderful day! We finally had some sun and warmer weather after mostly weeks of rain and grey. I didn't think that I was the type who would be affected by the weather, but after this gloomy month, I have changed my mind! The sun today was very welcome. Waking up to the sun today, I knew that it would be a wonderful day, and it didn't disappoint! I went for a run before heading to church (such a special place to be on a Sunday), and then a friend and I discovered a new place for brunch - which is probably one of my favourite meals - a cosy and cute place down by the lake. We ate like royalty - tea, orange juice, fruit, muesli, salad, eggs, bacon, bread, a croissant, and parma ham and melon... it was so delicious! And sharing this tasty meal with a sweet friend made it all the more wonderful! After this, I met another friend, and we decided to take full advantage of the weather and went to starbucks to pick up some iced caramel macchiatos before heading to a park to soak up the sun and catch up on life. Today I am grateful for sun, lake views, heart-to-heart chats, sweet friends and good food!