October Activities

October is almost over and it has been a very full month! I just wanted to highlight some of the cool activities that have gone over the past couple of weeks.

First off, it's Fall! (Or Autumn) and the leaves have finally changed! 

My apartment building

Looking at some trees on campus.

Our October iCafé was an Australian themed night. We had a lot of fun eating some Australian goodies, trying out our Aussie accents and completing an Aussie trivia quiz in teams. 

All ready and decorated!

Are you brave enough to try Vegemite?

chatting at the tables

Translating Aussie expressions into English

Trying to speak Australian

Then there have been some more gatherings including movie nights and corporate dinners.

Watching a movie in my apartment.

Czech potato soup, so good!

We've also ventured further abroad including a Saturday outing to the mountains an hour away from Lausanne for a mini-hike in the Alps. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, weather-wise, and the views were stunning.

driving on a Swiss mountain road

The view!

Where we parked the car

Going up!

Gorgeous mountains

Lovely ladies

Smiling against a stunning backdrop

Switzerland smells nice

An old farmhouse

Going on the cabin deck even if we're not allowed.

Then, there was a visit to Geneva. Highlights included the Jet d'eau (which is basically a giant fountain), the Reformation Wall (Geneva is an important city in the history of the church) the cathedral, and the United Nations building. 

The Jet d'eau

Our group with the Jet in the background

The Reformation Wall (one of them is Calvin)

inside St Peter's Cathedral

Stained glass window

Geneva is also an important city for watch-making.

The United Nations building

This giant chair is in front of the UN building

Finally, I also did a project to decorate my apartment and remind me of all my friends and family!

Hallway of faces

Expressions of greeting

Perhaps it is still a bit early for a post on language but there are several things worth noting about some interesting French expressions of greeting. For instance, it is normal and courteous here to say hello and have a good day to all and sundry. This is also true for good evening and have a good evening. In English this is a bit cumbersome but the French language has cunningly solved this problem with the proper use of gender, something with which every French speaker is already well acquainted. So, to say hello you use the masculine Bonjour! And to say have a good day you use the feminine Bonne journée! It's the exact same two words but the gender is different and the gender (in this case) changes the meaning. Same thing for bonsoir and bonne soirée. And in two words you have wished someone a pleasant day or evening and fulfilled the requirements of civility. It's practically the most important French phrases to seem like a competent human being. If you learn nothing else, be sure you know how to say this!

A way to say hello amongst friends is coucou, like the Von Trapp children singing goodnight on the stairs in The Sound of Music. I'm not exactly sure where this comes from, other than the cuckoo bird, or why it is used, as it is rather like saying peekaboo! Goodbye amongst friends is ciao, or ciao ciao which is quite liberally stolen from Italian and frequently used twice in a farewell as if to say: so nice you have to say it twice! Anyways the number of ciaos can get quite overwhelmingly when you're with a group of people!

In Switzerland, or at least in the French-speaking part, it is customary to greet people with three kisses. (Boys don't really kiss boys, but girls kiss girls and boys kiss girls.) The problem is  that when you're a foreigner sometimes they aren't sure whether or not to kiss you, and you never know when to kiss them which leads to awkward hand shakes or more awkward kisses where your heads collide. Anyways if you manage to be welcomed with kisses it is important that cheeks touch and you make kissy noises even if you don't actually smack their cheek. If you become advanced you may even be able to break up your greeting with some well placed smooches. How kiss are kiss you kiss? There also seem to be some unwritten rules for when to not uses kisses. For instance, they are not always used at university. And one kiss denotes a closer familiarity than three. But if you run into someone on campus who you know, as you approach each other you may wish to raise your fingers in the air in a Hunger Games-esque salute to indicate the number of kisses you anticipate giving or receiving. Also for some unknown reason, always go left first.

A Regular Day

Often when I read blogs of people far away I wonder to myself what a normal day consists of for them. It seems that we are only really motivated to do a blog update when something unusual or different happens. However, I am going to try and give you a little insight into what a "normal" day looks like here for me. Normal is hard to define since I am still trying to figure out what that looks like here, but I will try my best to give you a general idea!

On a normal day, I have classes at the university. I have to go there by bus and then by metro and this usually takes anywhere between 30-45 minutes. All of my classes are in the same building which is nice and convenient! However, the building is under construction this semester (year?) and the classrooms change randomly throughout the semester which is just a little confusing. I have a year long pass for the public transportation in Lausanne which allows me to hop on and off buses, metros, and trains within a specific zone. I travel by public transport to get everywhere: university, shops, church, team meetings, events, and more! There are some times (morning and evening) when it can be a little squishy but it goes pretty quickly and is also very punctual so it's not usually a problem.

My classes are all in French and they aren't just language classes, but courses in linguistics, literature, and culture as well. I also have a class on translation specifically for English speakers, this is quite an interesting class as well as incredibly practical! It is sometimes quite exhausting to focus in another language but everyone else in the courses with me is also an international. French is no one's first language, but it is the language we have to use to communicate with each other! It's a little bit different than taking French classes in the US!

I usually eat lunch on campus which means I have to pack lunch every day. There is a cafeteria for students but it costs money so I don't plan on buying food there very often. After classes I come back to my apartment and make dinner and do homework and get ready for the next day, unless there is some kind of activity going on in the evening!

So, there you go, a normal typical regular day (at least for now!)

Firsts and Lasts

Inevitably, when you are leaving there are lots of lasts. Last fourth of July celebration, last birthday in America for awhile, last trip to the OBX, last time seeing this friend or that friend, and finally last Sunday at church, last dinner with family, then last moments at the airport, last hug goodbye, and last glances.

Then, when you are arriving there are lots of firsts. First meeting a bazillion and one new people, first time riding on the train, first time riding on the metro, first time riding on the bus, first shopping in a Swiss supermarket, first French class, first impressions, first language success, first cave-in to familiar (like Burger King), first night alone, first attempt at cooking with an unfamiliar oven and kitchen, first time exploring Lausanne, first church service and SO many more firsts. In fact, you are quite inundated with NEW and DIFFERENT.

I was riding the metro this week and had a little realization. This is not the first time I have ridden the Lausanne metro, line 2, in the direction of Croisettes. Nor will this be the last time that I ride the metro in Lausanne. It is, in fact, somewhere in the middle! Not a first, not a last, but a happy, regular, routine-like middle! Then I started to think about how many other things in Lausanne I have done more than once in my almost 4 weeks of living here. I have gone to class more than once, I have gone to the grocery store, I have ridden the train, the bus, the metro; I have gone to church, I have made food, I have gone to meetings, I have seen this person before and will most likely see them again.

There is something incredibly soothing about middles. They may not be incredibly significant in the every hum-drum run of life, but they are part of adjusting from firsts to lasts. They help me feel more comfortable, familiar, and confident. It's nice not to have to spend a significant amount of time or emotional energy on them, and in some ways it is nice to feel a little more settled, like letting out a big breath I didn't even realize I was holding and begin to breathe normally again.

My regular bus

Metro to school 

 Train Platform at Lausanne Gare

Dinner! Roast potatoes and chicken and zucchini

Shopping aisle in a local supermarket

Deviled eggs that I made for a church potluck.