Monday, October 3, 2011

...and the days are filled with...

It's been a busy few weeks for my boys here in La Suisse. Not quite as busy for me, and I find myself sitting around twiddling my thumbs quite a bit. Or pulling out weeds in the garden. Or frantically cleaning windows. None of which is bringing me much joy, truth be told.

My work has really slowed down, suffering from the atrocious US economic situation. Something that wouldn't necessarily have been a problem, had I been able to fill my time with something else.

But being a lady of leisure is only fun if you can be leisurely with someone. And my family has been too busy to hang with me.

My baby B, whose popularity levels at school are 'blasting up the charts' (his quote), went away for his first ever team building exercise with the year group at school. Despite a few nervous moments in the days before the trip, he came home with a massive smile on his face, not to mention a 'School Councillor' badge on his sweater, having run and been elected for a seat on the school's student advisory board. Oh my bursting heart, so proud.

My not-so-baby C has signed up to do the International Award, also called the Duke of Edinburgh's award (http://www.intaward.org/), and started this past weekend by doing a 20 km hike the Alps with friends from school. They hiked using a map to a destination where they put up tents, cooked their dinner over bunsen burners and proceeded to sleep as little as possible, before they hiked back down again the next day. Needless to say, the boys were fairly beat up when they came home, while the parents were ecstatic that they had been out in the beautiful fall weather, and not spent the weekend in front of the computers. For my boy, the primary lessson derived from this exercise was that new hiking boots need to be broken in before extensive use. Ouch, and good luck with your climbing class today.

My Dearly Beloved continues to hop around Europe. Paris, Rome, Barcelona. You name it, he's either been there or is going there in the next week or so. From the outside looking in, it sounds very glamorous, but I am sure it is not all caviar and ballgowns, as every Friday evening, he is happy and relieved to be home, lounging on the couch, trying not to lift a finger...

...which, of course, I cannot let him get away with. Not when there are STILL naked light bulbs staring down at me from almost every room in this house of ours. Though progress is being made, as my parents dropped off two light fixtures a couple of weeks ago, which prompty went up in our bedroom. Two light fixtures have also been installed in the basement. In total, we are up to 7 light fixtures. Only 40 or so to go. At this rate....we may be done by Christmas 2012.

So...in all this male activity, I am feeling a little lost. My days are not as exciting as I would like them to be. I do need to restart my French lessons, but the class I want to take doesn't start until January. I am also thinking about signing up for a yoga class.

What I really want is to find some energetic people to hang around with. That's proving rather difficult here. There's not a lot of lightheartedness here, I find. Life is tres serieux, and not very FUN. I am having a tough time dealing with that aspect of Switzerland. School mothers are for the most part friendly enough, but, again, not particularly exciting. Yes, I am generalizing grossly here, but that is my impression. They are either very uptight or suffer from serious anxiety issues. Neither one of these options being particularly palatable.

But I shall persevere....the boys being settled was always my biggest concern, and that goal seems to have been attained. So it is time to focus on what I want to do in Switzerland, an undeniably gorgeous place to live. Me thinks this should not be too difficult a task, if I put my mind to it. And I shall. Watch this space.