à la Suisse

I’ve been in Lausanne for three days now. Three and a half. I think I wrote in one of my blog posts about how it probably won’t hit me that I’m going away until I’m on the plane (though this doesn’t mean I shouldn’t pack and all). Well, I was not totally right about that. Actually it’s only now just hitting me that I’m in Lausanne, an exciting, and somewhat mysterious-tingling type feeling. The past few days have been a blur of admin-type things. Going around, getting my residence permit, getting my health insurance, trying to get free WiFi without a phone number (which as it turns out is basically impossible here because you need to enter a phone number and code sent with the free WiFi password), getting bus passes and such and such. It’s been confusing to say the least..

But what’s helped me get on my feet really (aside from large cups of tea) is being here. The people I’m surrounded by and the city I’m in. Together they’ve turned moments of confusion on their heads over and over and moved me from something like this:

12-02-16 Lausanne city center today. Gloomy skies, and snow falling but not sticking

To this:

11-02-16 View of Lake Geneva from Chemin des Pêcheurs

When my passport photos turned out to be too small, I bonded with an adorable older couple over the lack of instruction in the nearby photo-booth. When I couldn’t figure out how to unlock my SIM card, a few swift movements of the hand at the Salt store got my phone back to working condition. When I thought of my home in Vancouver, I saw the towering snow-capped mountains and within an unfamiliar yet open and welcoming new sense of the word.

The snow’s still falling, but now the view from my window looks like a winter wonderland. I think it’s began to stick. And I think so am I, in like a more metaphoric sense of the word.

à bientôt:-)

Later in the day, 12-02-16