One Week Down!

I helped out these 3 - Alex, Cory, & Jeff - by dropping them near the Autoroute onramp, where they would hitch their way to Paris or Interlaken or somewhere. These students are around the age I was when I first came to Switzerland and are doing things I never did - like hitchhike to Paris. I hunkered down in existential crisis mode reading philosophy and theology, but that was another time and another exchange rate.

(The autoroute, btw, isn't what it used to be. Speed limits watched, hidden cameras abound.)

We got through week one at this start-up. I took personal triumph in solving a hi-tech obstacle, since wireless in this cement behemoth isn't so reliable on the 5th floor - I got a long ethernet cable and hooked it into the port of an office next door and slid it under the 1/4" gap under our doors! Voila.

We crowded almost all of the students to our apt last Sunday evening. We plan to regularly have them over, but imagine the crowd will thin as soon as they get the travel-stuff figured out. Michael helped Carolyn make banana bread today for tomorrow's gathering, and it was a little challenging adapting measurements and ingredients. Swiss flour is more like our cake or pastry flour, so the results are pretty delicate. Brown sugar is not the coarse, dark variety either. You can generally buy a wider range of products like coarser whole wheat breads, but not the ingredients to make them. That seems unchanged. The newly emerged Asian food shelf reminds me of what you'd find at Von's or Safeway's; hoisin sauce to sushi-kits. I enjoy asking store clerks where items are (even if I know) just for French practice and Japanese is no longer the first response that comes to mind when I'm out and about.

Purchased some of the last household items today, so office and home are pretty complete now. Since we only have 42 students and I'm teaching the same two courses both terms, my classes are nice and small - around 13. My clever plan of using online course materials and email a lot will be tested this week, since getting online is challenging.
We went to this huge wooded area north of the city today. I was struck by the geometric, Mondrian-like design of this equipment. The big play equipment is similar in function to that back home, although more uniquely designed for a specific area or to realize someone's idea. The equipment we saw in Guangzhou focused on developing careful balance - lots of play where, with one wrong move, you'd come tumbling down, like an aerial performer.

We are settling into a pattern, I guess, as Carolyn sees how much she can do - how far she can walk - before picking-up Michael from school. Jack has started at a nearby preschool for a couple hours of play. The teacher speaks English, which is nice, since Jack is just verbalizing sentences and we don't want to confuse him. We do want Michael to be confused. He is comfortable at school and wanted to stay later to play with his "friends."