The No-Ped Diaries: Up and Running

Although students have been here for 2 weeks, classes officially started this past week, and my college counseling classes will start tomorrow. Unfortunately I'm unable to coach or sponsor any outdoor activities here because my college counseling classes take place after school Monday - Thursday which is the same time as team practices and other activities. This will be a change for me as I've always coached a school sport, but I have to do my job and that includes these after school classes with groups of about 15 students each day. Thus far I've enjoyed the other people in the college counseling department. We get along well and laugh quite a bit.

This weekend was a good one. I ventured down the mountain to Lausanne in hopes of meeting some people outside of school. Lausanne has a large expat population with many people around my age. I went down there Friday night with two other coworkers and it ended up being quite fun. I managed to meet some people from England, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Germany. Hopefully I'll have to chance to connect with these folks next time I head to Lausanne. Saturday was spent on my bicycle. A group of 6 of us (3 staff, 3 students) had planned on riding around Lake Geneva, which is a 110 mile ride. About 25 miles into the ride we encountered some construction near Evian, France, so our plan to go all around the lake was foiled. But we caught the ferry to a different point on the lake and started riding again from there. It was a picture-perfect day for riding and we ended up riding the northern part of Lake Geneva twice and logged 125 miles. I'm tired today.

I'm still adjusting to the smallness of the community in which I live and work. Swiss business hours are awful if you're trying to go to the bank or buy groceries. Most shops close at 6pm, even vending machines...and that makes no sense whatsoever. Also, business hours change unexpectedly. If you visit a shop on Monday at 4pm, there's no guarantee that if you visit it again at that day and time that it will be open. Business owners do whatever they want, which is great for them, but at times can be frustrating for others.

The beauty here continues to amaze me. I hope it never gets old!