Art

I've been meaning to catalog some of the "art" happening around here. The Pepperdine board of regents (and spouses) are due here for a meeting, so the hotel is getting a sprucing up. A mature taupe with bright red Audrey replaced pale yellow. This little space got two Audreys, imperial Chinese chairs, high table, and black lampshades. FYI, Audrey Hepburn lived and died near Lausanne, as did Chanel.Otherwise, it's kid art. Michael's school art decorates various doors.
BTW, I moved to a new office nextdoor to our apartment. It's got a blinding nice view - glare has been a constant them in each of my previous 3 offices, whether UPS, Malibu, or here.

Jack is quick to point out, "I drew that," referring to this sheep painting. Michael likes the pontilism approach. Hearts, sun, building, and balloons among his favorite motifs.


Then there's the painting outside.

Saillon, Sion, Sheep

Saillon, a hotsprings hotel complex in the middle of this valley, was running a special - breakfast, dinner, spa, overnight - so we went.
The Japanese take hotsprings really far (a craze begun in the immediate postwar), where you're surrounded by exquisite gardening in a stunning setting, with a pretty elaborate bathing ritual, but we really enjoyed Saillon's vineyard landscape - they called it "wine therapy."
We'd heard how beautiful it was, soaking in mountain scenery, then on to your 5 courses which, fortunately for Michael and Jack, offered tuna salad
and cantaloupe at the salad bar. BTW, that red drink is SIROP, the standard kid's drink of fruit syrup (comes in many flavors) mixed in water. The syrup actually tastes really really good - I use it on pancakes and as a base for cobbler desserts. The lime version inspired me to work on my margarita, again. Bingo! The next day, we drove to Sion, a rugged town where buildings were almost exclusively made of stone and rock, with some homes featuring roof tiles made of large, irregular slabs of slate. The church and castle are high-up on a little hill.

That evening, we took the bus to the Metropole Theater, where the Lausanne Opera was putting on a children's production, The Blue Sheep, complete with orchestra.

I think the opera responds to popular racism, symbolized by the unfortunate election poster of the People's Party, where a black sheep was kicked out by 3 white. For example, it wouldn't be unusual for some Swiss to get up and move to another table, if non-whites were seated next to them.

I also find racism perplexing because it's not always marked by biological difference, ie skin color. Koreans and Japanese, in the modern period, have hostilities, despite racial sameness; and the category of whiteness doesn't explain Jewish, Irish, or other ethnic groups caught in some kind of flux.
In the opera finale, all the sheep formed a chorus line, singing the virtues of tolerance. The almost exclusively white audience of means - who else pays 30 francs per head to see a children's opera? - probably felt confirmed in an elaborate example of preaching to the choir. We just enjoyed taking our own little sheep to see live theater downtown, by a 7 minute bus ride. They were entranced.

Get out!

We noticed that, once you have kids and a normal busy life, it's quite easy to do "nothing," which feels luxurious on a Saturday. Sunday is quite full, and now Michael has broken into the birthday party circuit - his 2nd invite! (Despite language barriers, Michael knows how to party, so he is quite comfortable in that setting.) Anyway, thinking we shouldn't give ourselves the out of down time during our remaining days here, we've picked up the pace. Last Thursday, we headed across the bridge for the library; on Saturday, we found the zoo.
Doing nothing Jack-style means picking up something off a shelf or the floor, such as his Christmas guitar. We interrupted his concentration to check out some new books.
Michael is perusing Arabic, but there were also English books. The whole world seems to be into Japanese manga (comics), as that collection was HUGE.
By the way, I was struck at how much cachet things Japanese still have here and in Paris, as evidenced by the new Palais de Tokyo, a snazzy contemporary art museum - the only one in Paris open 'til midnight. The modern discovery of Japan as an aesthetic/design utopia dates to artists, like Monet and Van Gogh, who both had huge woodblock print collections and built private gardens. VG wrote his brother about the South of France, where he had discovered "Japan." Through the world expos, American architects, like Frank Lloyd Wright and the Greene brothers, studied certain forms of Japanese residential and temple architecture. And in the 19th century, cities around the world, like DC, began landscaping their public spaces with cherry trees. While in LA, we enjoyed touring Pasadena's Gamble House, which is marked by sword, scroll, and shrine motifs. So, I guess Japan meant "cool," sort of the way Tokyo - via anime - has established a new global currency.

On to the zoo.
Jack and Michael hit the playground. Boys like hamsters.
The zoo was actually very very low key and obviously low budget. A llama here, a wolf there, turn the corner and a lion and tiger and you're ready for lunch. We were impressed at how CLOSE you can get to these creatures, only separated by chain link and a little moat. As with virtually every other experience though, the Servion Zoo maintained a decent restaurant.

Nice Sunday

Took the new students on a tour of the cathedral, then out for a fondue in a student hangout. The immediate area is quiet with narrow streets lined with craftsmen building musical instruments, antique shops, interesting art galleries...and one of my favorite restaurant/cafes in Lausanne: La Pomme de Pin.
Had a nice Sunday, going to church with Elle and Keith, then stopping high up on the vineyards for a simple picnic. The lake, boats, and trimmed grape vines are below with the Alps in the background. BTW, when bread and cold meats are this good, picnic-ing is easy.

It actually got cold, again, but these hills are somewhat protected, so if the sun is shining, it is quite pleasant to sit outside.

We will miss the church. The liturgy is pure poetry and the diction high, so is quite a respite in a prosaic age. The Irish chaplain and his musical wife really guide the music well. This morning's songs were all rather medium in tempo and, while contemporary, avoided the pumped-up, cool-down dynamic you find in popular worship these days, which follows the rhythm of the 20 minute aerobic workout. Ireland is one of those places where folk music survived the industrial revolution, and Clive and Yvonne are living testimonies to that.

First day of term: tomorrow!

New Year, New Term

Some new students arrived, making things interesting, no doubt. The old students returned with such joy - it's amazing how attached they became to this spot, this routine, but mostly to each other. New term begins Monday with newly configured classrooms. The hotel transition - from a ministry to the homeless and displaced to the academic priorities of a study abroad campus (and the creature comforts of its students) - is, like many changes, marked by some melancholy. Someone's gain is someone's loss.

St Gery, the restaurant on the fashionable Rue du Bourg, where we have supper, also has new owners (may I add, better food and service!). Not the land where the customer is always right (not always in debt either), last term was a cultural adjustment tough to swallow. Very chewy.

On the other hand, since the level of training here is rather high among tradesmen and shopkeepers, the chances of being helped by someone who knows little about their own merchandise or just plain getting screwed by a home repair job - I remember our Yellow Pages ads back home: "licensed contractor!" - is very slim.

Carolyn and I spent the afternoon in the old city, visiting this great toy store where Michael could slide down from the 3rd to 2nd floor via this serpent .This is Michael on the Rhododendron ferry to Vashon the first week after coming home from China. It's interesting how marked we are physically. I'm struck at his wide, crooked mouth here...
and here in his handsome Christmas outfit. It's like having a cartoon character among us.
Jack is demonstrating the shopping cart "grip" - the wheels fit into grooves going up or down moving walkways.
A book bordered by leaves. These tiles cover the exterior entrance of Michael's school. Bookleaf? Tree of knowledge?
Michael's school goes until early July, so we are now figuring out the remaining months; where to travel, live, etc. It's amazing what things we haven't done. Time. It just escapes you.

More cliches next posting!

Christmas, New Year: 2007

Holidays are usually really great or a letdown, since both of our families are small and we've lived faraway. I'm musing why so many Christmases, Thanksgivings, etc. were spent in rented cottages, as a lead-in to Saas-Fee, a village/valley next to Zermatt (Matterhorn) - about 2 hours drive. Sufficient snow isn't a guarantee in December unless you go to places like SF, where other Europeans also converge and ski instructors speak 4 languages. The village has no cars; you park below and electric buses take you around. Not a glitzy resort, but mostly traditional Swiss 3-star hotels, where we ate half-board, breakfast and dinner.
We stayed at the Waldesruhl, the big one on the right. The kitchen was always open, so we ran a lot of mulled wine upstairs.
We really loved half-board, where you kept a table and your unfinished bottles of wine and water. Saas-Fee is Swiss-German, so it was a nice language and food switch - we returned to the land of rosti (hashed browns), which was served in many ways: mixed with veges, topped with a fried egg, cheese, etc). Breakfasts were simple but tasty; dinners were great. Christmas Eve was Roast Turkey and Christmas was a traditional fondue Chinois - a Swiss version of an Asian hotpot meal - thin slices of beef and chicken cooked in broth and dipped in sauces.

The Japanese version (nabe) would've had tofu, seafood & vegetables, without mayonaise-based sauces, but it was yummy. They served it with fries (btw, ALL french fries here are made with Yukon Gold potatoes; they're always yellow). The 5 course meals stretched Michael and Jack's limits, so I started carrying dessert to our room.
Saas-Fee is basically on a glacier surrounded by several peaks, so dress warmly! Beautiful vistas and restaurants at the very top - highest restaurant in the world, apparently.
We stayed at a fantastic family-run chalet with a great "family room" (can mean anything) with solid pine furniture with a view onto the valley. We were next door to the kid's ski school,
where Michael conquered the snowplow.

Jack had a tremendous kid's club (freshly pureed vegetables & juices, endless activities, play, cooking) THAT COULD'VE RUN ALL DAY & CAME INCLUDED. Jack loved sliding on his saucer, which he would drag up a small slope, turn, flop down, and slide away.

We had a small present opening later on the 25th, starting with stockings - chocolate reindeer.
Carolyn and I also took lessons. It was fun to go beyond the snowplow.
After 5 days, we swung by friends, Debby and Udo's, for a late Christmas.
This is from the driveway to their chalet in Gryon.
Michael & Jack made a beeline for the playroom. Michael has been cooking here for 3 years running.


New Year's Eve.
I have no pictures to post, but can only report that we celebrated the Spanish way: at midnite, we gathered downstairs back at home in Lausanne and were served a bowl of 12 grapes & a glass of champagne. With eyes fixed on the scantily clad hostess broadcasting from the main square in Madrid, we swallowed a grape with a fever-pitched, giddy sense of joyful duty, at the clanging of each bell. After all 12, we raised a glass and everyone starting exchanging hugs and kisses, calling friends and relatives on their cells. I can't imagine this having any meaning in another context.

We cooked Japanese food the next day, after having sushi the night before. Found a tremendous market - tiny but packed with every imaginable ingredient. Splurged and bought some dishes, too, because I, for one, cannot imagine eating Japanese food without decent pottery or china.

Bowl of 12 grapes + champagne = Spanish New Year.
Handpainted ceramics = Japanese New Year.

Different gear for our respective, cultural liturgies. In the end, it's about people, collective memory.