à la Suisse

Whoa whoa whoaw. Okay. I can’t even say how lucky, how priviledged I feel to be having these experiences on exchange. Just whoa.

After our ski (and snowboard!) trip to Verbier, about an hour and a half drive south from Lausanne, I can say I’ve skiied the Swiss Alps. And watched a concert on a stage where the seating area was made out of snow. While revelling under a bright blue sky, watching paragliders under the cloudless sky.

I’ll let the photos do the talking,
.. but just .. whoa..

Canada representin’!

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Yup, that’s an onion!!! And a basil plant on the left that I got earlier today.

To put the title of this post into a bit more context I wanted to write a bit about my newly acquired onion and basil plant.

Last weekend was probably one of my favorite moments so far on my exchange experience. Though I think I say that more often than would be allowed to be considered as a “favorite moment” but ANYWAYS, point being, last weekend me and Julia and Isabel made a trip to Barcelona!!

(tip: buy your tickets and hostels a few weeks – a month in advance! Even though easyJet is a cheaper airline to fly with, it still can save you big bucks when you book in advance!)

But anyways, back to the onion story. I left some stuff in my cupboard over the weekend, and I guess the darkness and potential humidity during those four days had helped my onion spurt from the bulb. Which I didn’t actually know before could be done. I’ve left it with roots in the water the past few days and now it seems to really have grown. I’m waiting for now for it to become a more rich green color, but maybe next week I will have some home-grown green onion to add to my food!

This weekend I’m spending some time catching up on homework, readings, and maybe there will be some sun-basking as well tomorrow?? We will see!

à bientôt:-)

On my blog I have been a bit offline recently. It feels like a lot has happened in the past few weeks: starting classes, organizing assignment and test deadlines, adventures a few weekends ago snowshoeing and eating fondue (yup, life is ruff), cooking for myself (does this take up lots of evening time for anyone else? I’ve started to make food for few days in advance. So far, so good.)

The week of February 22nd marked the first week of classes. It’s been an exciting experience so far attending classes here, in part because I get to take classes in French and about French (culture, language, and some literature). It’s something that I am fascinated by but haven’t had the opportunity to really learn about because most of my studies at university so far have focused on my science classes. I’ve also been able to register in a neuroscience (!!) class at EPFL, the sister school to my university. I couldn’t stay away from science this semester.. I am really really excited to learn more about the field here.

Today I will go back to working on an assignment, but more updates will follow in the days to come!

à bientôt:-)

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

Listening to: She Belongs to Me – Bob Dylan

My semester at the University of Lausanne starts in a few weeks, and right now packing is on my mind. I’m trying to remember how I packed everything in one suitcase for this past summer I spent working in Quebec City. But then, I packed mostly light summer clothes, and now I have to try to fit winter clothes too.. oh gosh.

But somehow, it feels a bit different now. Going into this exchange I want to keep my mind open and embrace to the fullest the adventures that my time abroad have in store. I want to feel light, transportable, and focusing my time on the experiences. I wonder if then for me packing a lot is some sort of metaphor for the load you carry on your mind during your travels. Not sure.. regardless I’ve decided to go minimalist in my packing and bring a suitcase with the essentials, and carry-on 55L backpack and a camera bag.

13 DAYS UNTIL DEPARTURE!!!

à bientôt 🙂

VISA applications, Health Insurance documentations, housing and accommodations. Okay so there are quite a number of things that have had to be done in the past few months to prepare for my time in Lausanne. Sometimes it can feel like swimming in a sea of to-do lists, phone calls, and appointments, but I think I can finally say that I can see the shore coming up as things start to come together.

Reflecting on the past few months, some of the things I would encourage any future study abroad goers is to start planning and preparing early. As early as you can. Even if it seems like extremely, unnecessarily, and excessively early, just do it. You never know what issues can come up, and as they often do, it’s helpful when you have the time to work through it without a deadline coming up.

Everyone’s experience is different, but here’s what my pre-departure timeline looked like:

 
(click on image to get a readable full sized version)

It’s now December, and for the most part things have come together. My VISA confirmation came in August, and in September I went in to get the shiny sticker put in my passport. I was lucky enough to get a confirmation from my university in May. Usually though, expect to receive an email with the required instructions from your school sometime in October (if not, make sure to get in touch with the GoGlobal office!). I’ve recently received an answer from the office in Switzerland that decides Health Insurance equivalency, and I just have to send in some documents photocopied to them. I’ve contacted the FMEL housing in Lausanne and was able to get a room starting February 1^st. Whoa, that just got real. All that’s left now is plane tickets and to call Fido if I can somehow put my contract on hold. My phone is unlocked, so I’m planning on taking it with me, and getting a chip to put in from a local provider there.

So I guess the exchange is two, wait wait, not even two months away. More like one and a half. Okay, so the exchange is around a month and a half away. And to me, it still feels a bit bizarre. I’m the type of person that doesn’t realize that the exchange is actually happening until I’m on the plane, or already landed. It kinda hits me like a sudden gust of wind, or like a bright sunray after days of rain. Actually the latter would be quite nice right now. Read the rest of this entry »

“Traveling and living in a country where the common language is foreign to you is totally no problem”

– *cricket noises*

It’s mid-afternoon and my taxi car is nearing the area of Vieux Limoilou in Quebec City. The original route of a 30 minute walk and bus with baggage from the airport had been cancelled due to a torrential downpour. As it turned out, weather in Eastern Canada in the summer can be unpredictable, and these things happen.

Finally having arrived à la destination*, my roommate greeted me warmly, en français*. It was one of the first few interactions I had had in the city, and as I rummaged my head in search of various sayings, words, phrases taught to me by my French Immersion teachers I began to realize what the following few months had in store : speaking reaaaaaallllyyyyyy slowly so I have time to translate sentences and words in my head, challenges working with lab equipment using protocols in French, confusion as to what’s actually in that yellow no name brand French labelled box at the grocery store.

Well at least the cheese identification was not as challenging, but it did not make me feel like I was walking the aisles à l’épicerie* in a foreign country any less.

My take on what it’s like to face a language barrier when traveling about may or may not be what you experience. Here are some thoughts that I frequented during my time in Québec:

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