Thursday, May 27, 2010

Iris Jardin


Last week Jen and I ventured out to find an iris garden in the small town of Vullierens. As always her little guy, Ben, had to tag along with us. We never know what to expect on these mini-adventures. Often times we get lost as Jen’s sense of direction is as good as mine. I wonder what Ben thinks as he watches us navigate in the front seat with the help of their GPS, who has been fondly nicknamed Eunice. As Jen’s family is in the process of moving home to the US next month, I realize how much I’m going to miss these outings that she so willingly goes on with me.

I know Matt is probably thinking ‘enough with the flower blogs’ but I want to share how pretty the gardens are here in Switzerland.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Road Trip to Austria

Two weekends ago Matt, Millie and I took a road trip to Austria. We decided to be adventurous and drive somewhere. We decided on a little town called Zirl, which is located just outside of Innsbruck, Austria. It was a 5 ½ hour drive. A few people, mostly Europeans, thought we were a little crazy to be driving ‘so far’ when we told them about our plans. We found this interesting as we drive from our home in Minnesota to my parents’ home in Wisconsin for a weekend and it takes us the same amount of time. Five and ½ hours in the car must mean something a little different to folks around here. This was also Millie’s first trip across the Swiss border. She had her passport all ready to go in case we were stopped, but we were waved through both times.

We enjoyed the town of Zirl and our hotel was nice and cozy. I think we would have had a nice view of the Alps from our room but they never came out – it was gray and rainy all three days. Although the weather didn’t cooperate, we were able to do some nice hikes. We had plenty of hiking trails around us – they were literally out the hotel’s front door. We also spent a day taking in the sights around Innsbruck.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

La Fête de la Tulipe

Here are a few pictures from the annual Tulip Festival in Morges. This year marked the 40th anniversary with more than 200,000 tulips in the Parc de l’Indépendance. On my daily walks through the park, I watched as the workers planted the bulbs last fall. I then monitored the tulips’ progress as they started to grow this spring. And now, voilà!



Thursday, May 6, 2010

Swiss Book Club

I enjoy being involved in clubs. Back home in Minnesota I belonged to several; some with very original names. One of my favorites was Thirsty Thursday, which consisted of several college friends getting together once a month to go out for a drink. We didn’t always meet on a Thursday, so I recall several times getting odd looks from people when they’d ask what my plans were that evening and I responded, ‘Thirsty Thursday’ when it was a Monday or other day of the week. Another of my favorites was FWOT MC, which stood for First Wednesday of the Month Club. This club consisted of me and my two dear friends, Allison and Jemma. We invented this club so that we would have a scheduled time to get together once we were no longer roommates. I’ve offered to host FWOT MC here in Switzerland; however, they haven’t been able to get away for an evening yet. The club that is most precious to me is my book club. This is a group that I have been a part of for a decade. Not only do these friends share reading as a common interest with me, they have been a constant source of support in my life.

My need for a group followed me to Switzerland. Last year I joined a women’s club for expats in Lausanne, but I haven’t done much with it. They offer a lot of different activities, but the times don’t often match my schedule now that I’m working. Although the women that I’ve met have been nice, the club tends to attract older women, so it hasn’t been a perfect fit. That’s why I am so excited that a few of my neighbors started a book club here in our town. We’ve only had a few meetings but already it is something I look forward to each month. Although it’s an English speaking group, we have quite a range of life experiences. Each month we meet at a cozy, little bar that is within walking distance for most of us. The highlight for me so far was when we invited the translator of the book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, to our meeting and she came! She happened to live a few villages away from us. It was so interesting to hear her thoughts on the book, to learn the differences between French and American literature styles and also how the translating process works.

I think my Swiss book club is just what I needed to make Switzerland feel more like home.