Is this for real?

Every once in a while I have these surreal moments where my life in Switzerland doesn't feel real - it is as if everything is happening to someone else and I am just a bystander. Sometimes it all feels too good to be true, and have moments of being astonished again by just how much has happened in these 2years and 4 months that I have lived here. This last week was full of a few of these moments.

From Wednesday night until Friday night I was away for work with a group of PhD students from our institute for a workshop. We went to a hotel and conference centre in the village of Jongny (about 40minutes away from Lausanne) where we spent two days working together in a beautiful setting. I couldn't believe that there I was, thriving on intellectual discussion and debate, whilst enjoying good food and wine and much laughter with colleagues who are friends. Just how exactly did I end up here? And the really crazy part was that all of this was in French - all the presentations, all the discussions, all the exercises and all the social discussions. I still made some contributions in English, but the fact that I understood everything and felt like a contributing member of the group amazed me. When did that happen? During these two days, I also had a meeting with my thesis director, and there we were discussing an article I recently wrote, also in French. Again, another strange, "wait, is this really happening?" moment...

And the moments continued into the weekend - on Friday night some of us from the workshop decided to go out to celebrate a colleague's birthday and we were joined by some others, and again, it was more laughter and chatter in French. And Saturday night was the same - another social night, all in French. All of these experiences made me so grateful again - grateful for this incredible experience, for work I love, for amazing colleagues who are friends, for new experiences and for lessons learnt. It also made me think back on my language learning journey - from not knowing a single word, to being able to manage predictable and rehearsed conversations with one person, to having simple but spontaneous conversations in limited contexts, to following a conversation amongst a group, to work meetings in French, to being able to understand and make jokes in French, to being a contributing member to fast flowing social conversations in noisy places, to 2 day workshops in French, to being able to arrive in new situations, with people I don't know, and spend the whole evening feeling comfortable and integrated - hard work and perseverance do really make a difference as do very patient friends, colleagues and teachers who have supported me along the way. I am excited for the next, "wait is this real?" moments!