Parting Shots

We leave Tuesday after another tour-of-duty in Lausanne, saying our good-byes to All Saints, Pepperdine, Michael & Jack's school families, Debby & Udo, et al.

These Swiss families welcomed Carolyn and the boys into their world, socializing after school at the park across the street, breaking out cheese, bread, chocolate - adding wine on Fridays.
In a way, Switzerland gave us an urban version of Mayberry RFD, an experience common among expats in Europe. The bucolic nature of many European cities undoubtedly owed to zoning codes, it seems that urban density - apartment living, public transport, routinized life - enables a schedule full of community possibilities.

There is something about American life that propels everything outward - driven by endless choice; struggling to keep things intact, while breaking our lives apart.

Granted, the fact we've been able to live here - twice now - is linked to that spinning, dizzying force that flung us to Switzerland in the first place.

Anyway, we went for a last fondue at Chalet des Enfants, a charming chalet in woods - Chanel apparently liked hiking here - just 15 min north of the city, through which we hiked - in pouring rain - to the northernmost metro stop & back. A beautiful hike of bridges, passing fisheries lining the path, wild strawberries, and drenched children.

Looking back our boys had excellent teachers; Mr. Decoudre inspired Jack, who told us some point this year, "I want to be a teacher," while Mme Reichen gave 150% daily.

The formal nature of social norms seemed to afford a more casual approach in other areas, say, in spoken address; the children called teachers by their first names. Not a slippery slope, the practice seemed to add a convention - warmth, familiar - to existing codes of authority. Back home, we worked doubly hard to instill respect, and titles held considerable symbolic value. Here, redundant.

 

Fading images: Michael took this photo of the train at night,along with the blurry shot of the full moon; one of the last views of a magnificent landscape.

The boys are having a sleepover - extremely rare here - with Pierre & Marie, then one last Aquasplash trip - a waterpark - giving us time to pack and rare use of the balcony.

See you soon! Good-bye!