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.